Pig Government Official Side Story

-12-

The autumn sea in Sokcho was chillier than expected. Everyone said the weather was perfect with the incoming waves and the cool breeze, but it wasn’t suitable for a newborn baby to be outside for long. Junjae found Jeonggwan adorable as he ran around excited about the sea, but looking at Youngjae who was peeking his face out of the baby carrier and had a runny nose, Junjae thought they should head back to the hotel.

“Jeonggwan-!”

“Yes-?!”

“I think Youngjae might catch a cold-!”

Junjae pulled up his jacket, which he had lowered to let the baby see the sea, to cover Youngjae’s head and shield him from the sea breeze. Then he called out to Jeonggwan, who was drawing something with a wooden stick in the sand, gesturing to go inside. Jeonggwan shouted, “He can’t catch a cold-!” and ran towards Junjae.

“Does he have a runny nose?”

“Yeah. But he’ll be fine.”

After fixing Jeonggwan’s hair, which was fluttering as he ran through the wind, Junjae naturally took his hand. The hotel was less than a five-minute walk away, but with caring for the baby, creating romantic moments like this wasn’t easy, so Junjae tried to create a sweet atmosphere whenever possible.

“Oh right! I left the camera in the car. Go up to your room, hyung! I’ll be right there!”

But Jeonggwan, prioritizing photos of Youngjae over their romantic moment, shattered the atmosphere once again. Watching Jeonggwan shake off his hand and run to the parking lot, Junjae could only stare blankly at his awkwardly suspended hand and let out a brief sigh.

Upon reaching the car, Jeonggwan opened the trunk and grabbed the camera bag. Earlier, Junjae had carried the baby in front along with the diaper bag and their luggage, so Jeonggwan should have taken the camera, but he had forgotten because he was carrying hodugwaja snacks he bought at the rest stop.

The camera bag even had a name tag that read “Youngjae’s,” as if it was meant only for taking pictures of the baby. This wasn’t written by Jeonggwan, who was excessively doting on Youngjae, but by Jihoon, who had finally returned to Korea two months ago after completing his studies abroad. Jihoon had become completely smitten with Youngjae and bought the camera specifically to photograph him, attaching the name tag himself.

“What kind of name is Youngjae? Youngjae?” Jihoon had grumbled, yet still drew a small, cute dragon in the corner of the name tag. Suddenly he had decided to start a fashion business, and his drawing skills had improved tremendously.

It seemed childish to draw an actual dragon just because “yong” (dragon) was in his name, but there was meaning to it. The meaning behind the name Youngjae wasn’t as grand as one might expect. It was simply chosen because the pregnancy dream involved a dragon, so they included “yong” and used the generational character “jae.” It might seem like the name was chosen somewhat carelessly, but everyone agreed it was better than the strange way Jeonggwan would have named him.

Speaking of pregnancy dreams, there was an unforgettable story. Jeonggwan had strongly insisted on including “yong” in the name because dragons had appeared in the dreams of three different people within three days, right before Jeonggwan became pregnant with Youngjae.

It started with Jeonggwan’s mother. Years ago, she had dreamed of riding a giraffe and insisted for days that Jeonggwan should go to the hospital to check if he was pregnant, only to be disappointed when he wasn’t. A few years later, when she dreamed of a dragon, she was absolutely certain this time.

In her dream, Jeonggwan was sitting alone on a hill, looking at the sky. The scene was so beautiful that his mother tried to take a photo of him with her phone, when suddenly a blue dragon descended from the sky and approached Jeonggwan. Alarmed that the dragon might harm him, she rushed up the hill, but Jeonggwan wasn’t afraid at all. Instead, he laughed happily and embraced the dragon, and then his mother woke up.

“This is definitely a pregnancy dream!” Despite it being dawn, his mother called Jeonggwan immediately to tell him about it. That morning, Jeonggwan used a test kit Junjae had brought home, but the result was clearly negative with a single line. Jeonggwan declared, “I’m not believing in mom’s dreams anymore,” and while his embarrassed mother was still wondering what the dragon dream meant, Junjae’s father, Won Youngjae, had a dragon dream next.

In his dream, Jeonggwan was visiting Junjae’s family home and looking into the pond in the yard when suddenly, with a powerful voice as if drawn from deep within, he shouted, “A dragon-!” and pulled a large black dragon out of the small pond. Watching from the window inside, Won Youngjae was startled and opened the door to come out, only to see Jeonggwan holding the dragon, which had somehow shrunk to fit in his hands, smiling and shouting, “I’m keeping this!” And then Won Youngjae woke up.

He too was convinced it was a pregnancy dream as soon as he woke up and had his wife relay this information to Junjae early in the morning. Since it had been three days since the previous test, Jeonggwan and Junjae thought the result might be different and tried another test, but the line was still clearly single. “What’s with all these dragon dreams? Maybe it’s not about pregnancy but about Jeonggwan’s bakery getting a Michelin star?” Various speculations were thrown around.

Finally, Junjae had a dragon dream too.

In his dream, Junjae came home from work as usual, calling out “Jeonggwan-!” The house was filled with the sound of sizzling oil. Thinking Jeonggwan might be frying croquettes, Junjae headed straight to the kitchen, where he found Jeonggwan eagerly eating some oddly shaped fried food he’d never seen before. The snacks looked so cute and adorable that Junjae asked, “What kind of fried food is this?” Jeonggwan was incredibly surprised that Junjae didn’t know what they were.

When Junjae woke up, he told Jeonggwan about his strange dream, and Jeonggwan joked, “So even in your dreams, I’m just eating?” The next day, Junjae was shocked when they went grocery shopping at a large mart.

“Hyung, I ate these a lot when I was young. Let’s buy one pack.”

The frozen fried snack Jeonggwan wanted was exactly what Junjae had seen in his dream, and its name was “Yonggari” (dragon bites).

“This can’t possibly be a coincidence.” Combining this with his parents’ dreams, Junjae was convinced it was a pregnancy dream. After shopping, instead of going home, they went straight to Won Jaejun’s hospital. Through a blood test rather than a home test kit, they confirmed that Jeonggwan was indeed in the very early stages of pregnancy, surprising even the hospital staff who wondered how they knew so soon.

After that, Junjae, who was already known for being overly protective, became exponentially more so until the third month, as advised by the doctor, to the point where Jeonggwan actually cursed at him once. Jeonggwan understood when Junjae canceled all official events requiring the couple’s attendance, as the doctor had said to avoid stress as much as possible.

But then Junjae stopped going to work himself, insisted on driving Jeonggwan the 10-minute walking distance to the bakery in the early morning, watched him constantly for the entire two hours while he made bread, and later even suggested hiring a hotel patissier for a year because the kitchen seemed dangerous.

That wasn’t all. When Jeonggwan went out for an afternoon walk around the neighborhood, he was suddenly surrounded by bodyguards in black suits. Jeonggwan already had plainclothes bodyguards assigned to him, but these were familiar faces.

“What’s going on? Jeongwon hyung, what are you doing here?”

“Me? Guarding you…”

Indeed, they were Junjae’s company security team. Who was guarding Junjae then? Without hesitation, Junjae had sent all his experienced security team members to protect Jeonggwan and surrounded himself with rookies who were new to the security team, clueless and making constant mistakes.

“Won Junjae, this is too much.” Even when Jeonggwan called Junjae and seriously tried to send them back, Junjae, uncharacteristically firm, refused. He even went further, suggesting that Jeonggwan should be carried around outside by Jeongwon or the security team leaders, which earned him a severe scolding from Jeonggwan. Despite this, Junjae wouldn’t budge, and Jeonggwan had to be accompanied by the security team whenever he went out until the third month.

Remembering the meaning behind Youngjae’s name and recalling those memories, Jeonggwan smiled, shouldered the camera bag, closed the trunk, locked the car, and turned towards the hotel. Junjae was probably waiting anxiously, wondering why he hadn’t returned yet.

[Ring ring-. Ring ring-.]

Right on cue, Jeonggwan’s phone rang. The caller ID read “Youngjae’s Dad.” A cool, instantly recognizable name.

“Yeah-. I’m on my way up.”

[Nothing happened, right?]

“Junjae-. Junjae-. What could possibly happen to me?”

[Come quickly and carefully.]

What danger could there possibly be between here and there? Jeonggwan found it both ridiculous and amusing that Junjae was, as always, constantly anxious about his safety. Seriously, this hyung has always been obsessed with me, before and now. Geez.

While shaking his head as if Junjae was hopeless, Jeonggwan’s steps toward the hotel quickened.