We rushed back to our room and Soo-yun went in to examine her. Sure enough, Jang-mi was in labor. Da-eun joined her, asking how she could help. Soo-yun sent her to get her birthing supplies in case they had to cut Jang-mi open. Hours passed and I grew frantic. I listened outside the room as Jang-mi's groans of pain gradually grew louder, then turned into screams. After I heard her screaming for the third time, I barged into the room to check on her. She was drenched in sweat, her face pale, and gasping for air.
"Out!" Soo-yun ordered.
"She is MY wife! I want to be by her side!"
Da-eun got up, grabbed my arms, and tried to pull me out of the room. "You will only be a distraction. Soo-yun and Jang-mi need to focus."
"Chan-yeol! Please, I need Chan-yeol!" Jang-mi cried.
"No, you do not, dear. You need to focus so you can have a safe delivery," Soo-yun insisted. "Men are just a distraction."
"Chan-yeol will help me focus! He is not a distraction!"
"He needs to leave!"
"NO! HE STAYS!" Jang-mi shouted with all of her strength, then she screamed in pain again, her face turning bright red from the strain. Her chest heaved as she desperately tried to catch her breath after screaming.
"Remember to breathe, Jang-mi," Da-eun said as she knelt by her side and pressed a cool cloth to her forehead.
"Da-eun, it is time. Get behind her and help sit her up so she can push," Soo-yun ordered.
"Here, let me!" I insisted. I sat behind her and carefully lifted her, resting her back on my chest. "I am here, Jang-mi. I have got you." Da-eun handed me the cloth and I blotted Jang-mi's sweat off of her face and neck. I then kissed her on the head. "We are going to do this, you and I. We are going to help our baby into the world together."
Soo-yun was visibly upset at my presence. Jang-mi did not care. She stayed true to herself. "I see you are not pleased Soo-yun," she said as she breathed heavily. "But you must understand that Chan-yeol and I are different. And Chan-yeol will tell you that if I have my mind set on something, there is no stopping me."
"That is true, Soo-yun. Jang-mi is persistent," I smiled. "It is one of the many things I love about her."
"Eh! What am I going to do with you two?" she shook her head. "Fine. Time to focus. Da-eun, help hold her legs. The next contraction is about to start."
Sure enough, within seconds the contraction started and Jang-mi started to scream again.
"Push! You must push!" Soo-yun ordered. Jang-mi used what little strength she had to try to push. Soo-yun shook her head. I could tell she was concerned. "I fear you are too weak from the bedrest. We will try two more times. If there is no progress, I will have to cut you open to take the baby out."
"I can do this! Chan-yeol is with me. I can do this."
The next contraction came and Jang-mi pushed with all her might. This time Soo-yun did not shake her head.
"There you go! A few more pushes like that, Jang-mi, and your baby will be here."
When the following contraction came, the baby was almost out.
"You are doing it, Jang-mi!" Da-eun beamed.
"No, WE are doing it. Chan-yeol and I are doing it," Jang-mi smiled.
I kissed her on the head and praised her. "This is all you, Jang-mi. I am just here to keep you company."
Another contraction hit, and Soo-yun cheered her on. "Push! Push! Push! It is almost here! I have got it!" She pulled the baby out and Da-eun helped her clean it off. We heard it start to cry. Da-eun swaddled it up in a blanket. "You have a beautiful baby boy!" Soo-yun smiled as Da-eun handed Jang-mi our son. He was so tiny but appeared to be healthy. His crying soon calmed, and he began cooing, content to be bundled up securely in a blanket. Jang-mi's beautiful smile suddenly turned into a grimace, and she started to scream in pain again.
"Take the baby, Da-eun!" I ordered. "What is wrong, Jang-mi?!"
Da-eun quickly grabbed the baby and Jang-mi grabbed my arms as she screamed again. She squeezed them so hard that she left her fingermarks on them when she finally released them from her grasp.
"What is wrong, Soo-yun?"
Soo-yun quickly examined her and felt her abdomen. "There is a reason why Jang-mi's belly got so big."
"What is it?"
"There is another baby."
"Another?!" My eyes popped out.
"Another," she nodded. "And this one is facing the wrong way. I see its feet." Within seconds another contraction came and Jang-mi instinctually pushed. "It is another boy!" Soo-yun smiled. She then instructed Da-eun to set down the baby and come help her.
"Hold the body, Da-eun. I need to help its head out. It is stuck."
I began to cry, fearing the worst. Another contraction came and Jang-mi screamed out in pain as Soo-yun worked to help the baby out. "Almost done, Jang-mi. Almost done," she assured her. "There. The baby is out."
The silence was deafening. I listened as our firstborn child cooed, but we heard nothing coming from the second.
"Soo-yun?" I looked at her. She cleaned off the baby, swaddled it, and looked up at me. She shook her head lightly.
"NOOOOOO!" Jang-mi cried. "Bring me my baby!"
Soo-yun brought the baby over to us and set it in Jang-mi's arms. It was motionless. "I am so sorry, Jang-mi."
Jang-mi rubbed its chest lightly. "Breathe, baby! Breathe!" She kissed it lightly on the lips and started to gently puff air into its mouth as she continued to rub its chest. Nothing. Our son, who was now in Da-eun's arms again, began crying.
"Jang-mi, give me the baby."
"NO!" she cried as she continued to try to revive it.
"Yes. Give me the baby. You need to hold your son. He wants you."
"THIS baby needs me!" she insisted. I reached over to take it from her, but she turned away from me and held it tighter to her chest. She was not going to let it go. I decided to give her a few more minutes with it. She needed time to realize it was gone.
"Alright, Jang-mi." I kissed her on the head as she frantically tried to breathe life into our dead baby.
She carefully unswaddled it and started rubbing the bottoms of its limp feet with her thumb. "Come on, baby! Come on. Breathe!" she cried softly and continued to desperately puff air into its mouth. My heart ached for her. I became worried she would reject our living son, so I decided to bring him closer to her.
"Da-eun, bring me our son. I want to hold him." I smiled through my tears. I had to be strong for Jang-mi.
Suddenly, I saw the baby's tiny hands spring up into the air and it let out a huge cry. It was alive!
"See!" Jang-mi smiled. "I told you it needed me."
We were all in complete shock, especially Soo-yun. "How-how did you do it?" she asked, her jaw dropped.
"He just needed help breathing, so I helped him," Jang-mi explained. The baby continued to cry loudly at the top of its lungs. "You tell them, little one! Momma was right to believe in you. You tell them!" she smiled.
"Two sons! I have two sons!" I exclaimed.
"Two very small and delicate sons," Soo-yun reminded me. "It explains why Jang-mi was so big and went into labor early. We will have to watch them closely."
Satisfied that our second-born son no longer needed her to help him breathe, Jang-me agreed to let Da-eun help us trade babies so she could hold our firstborn and I could hold the little miracle she had brought back to life.
Jang-mi, ever into symbolism, chose names that sounded similar to English names for our sons to make it easier for her family members to say them. She named our oldest Jae-mi, which means "fun". Our little miracle she named Jae-seung, which means "reappearance". Their names were perfect for them.
Our first night as a family of four was more like a family of six. Soo-yun and Da-eun stayed in the room with us to keep a close eye on the babies and allow Jang-mi time to rest and recover. The bed rest made her legs so weak that she could barely walk the few steps from the bed to the door and back the first time she tried. Soo-yun insisted that Jang-mi was not to hold the babies unless she was sitting down for fear of her falling with a baby in her arms.
The next morning, Soo-yun started Jang-mi on a special diet she claimed would help her produce good milk for the babies. She also forced Jang-mi to get up and walk around several times to help strengthen her legs. Jang-mi's milk came in, and after a few struggles getting little Jae-seung to latch on, he finally got the hang of it. Jae-mi was an eager eater and had no difficulty at feeding time. Soo-yun and Da-eun stayed with us for several nights. I could tell Soo-yun was worried about the babies with them being so little. She was also determined to help Jang-mi regain her strength.
After two weeks, I began to grow frustrated. While Jang-mi was napping, I visited Soo-yun in the kitchen as she was cooking dinner and asked her if it would be possible for Jang-mi and me to start spending the night alone with the babies.
"After all, we will have to move back to our own house eventually, and there it will just be me, Jang-mi, and the babies."
She took one look at me and laughed. "I know exactly what you have in mind. The answer is no. It is far too soon."
"What do you mean, Soo-yun?"
"Do not act innocent with me. I know you want to resume your husbandly duties with Jang-mi. You have not been able to be intimate with her for months. Well, it is too soon. It is not safe for her yet."
"How much longer must we wait?"
"Until I say you can return to your home."
"And how long will that be?" I asked, growing impatient with her vague replies.
"She must be fully healed. It will be about two to four more weeks. Maybe more."
"Two to four more weeks! I do not know how much longer I can stand sleeping in the same room with three women!"
"You are welcome to sleep alone in the other room like most normal men would," she smugly reminded me.
"I promise I will wait until you say it is safe. Do you not trust me?"
She smirked at me. "No, I do not. And I do not trust that wife of yours, either."
"Fine. Anything for Jang-mi. But I will not sleep in another room. Customs be damned. My place is by her side."
"Since you are getting so frustrated, perhaps you should spend more of your energy helping Jung-hee. Make yourself too tired to think of anything other than eating and sleeping. Do not worry about the babies. Da-eun and I will help Jang-mi."
She was right. I resumed working full days for Jung-hee the next day. I did everything I could to wear myself out so that I would be too tired to be tempted to be with Jang-mi.
One more week passed and Jang-mi's mother arrived expecting to help Jang-mi with her final days of confinement, labor, and delivery. She was shocked to discover that not only had Jang-mi already given birth, but she had given birth to twins. And she fell in love with them on sight. She could not get enough of them. Jang-mi was so proud to show off our two boys, but I could tell she was also disappointed that her father had not come. In her letters, her mother had said that her father had come around to the idea of Jang-mi being married to me, but Jang-mi suspected it was all a lie and that her mother was just trying to protect her from the truth. She was convinced that her father had shunned her. At dinner on the first night of her visit, Jang-mi's mother tried to explain.
"Your father truly did want to come, Jang-mi. He had important work to do. He is helping to negotiate trade agreements."
"Sure. I understand."
"Jang-mi, believe me when I say he would be here if he could. Your father...you would be surprised, Jang-mi. He is a changed man."
"That is alright, Mother. You do not need to defend him. I understand. You are here and that is what matters."
Four days later, the unbelievable happened. Jang-mi's mother was in our room helping Jang-mi with the babies as Jung-hee, Da-eun, and I were just about to sit down to dinner. There was a knock at Jung-hee's front door. Soo-yun answered it and came to get us.
"There is a man here with many packages. Did you order items?"
Jung-hee had a puzzled look on his face. "No, but I guess I should go see him and find out why he is here." He got up from the table and left the kitchen to greet the man, then returned, his face filled with surprise. "Chan-yeol, you better come with me. Your father-in-law is here."