Accidentally become a father-Chapter 24: The Sound of Habit
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The morning light hadn’t fully bled into the room yet.
I usually woke up before the sun actually decided to show up.
No alarms.
No extra noise.
Just habit.
But that morning—
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BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
A sharp sound sliced through the air.
I opened my eyes in a single motion.
White ceiling. Two futons. The sound came from the left.
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Yuna sat bolt upright on her futon, reaching for the small white clock beside her pillow.
She turned it off quickly.
Silence returned.
I stared at her.
She stared back.
A few seconds of silence.
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"What time is it?" I asked.
"Five thirty."
"Why?"
"So I wouldn’t oversleep."
"We aren’t going anywhere today."
She looked around the room, as if searching for a calendar she might have missed.
"Oh."
I closed my eyes again for a second.
"Do you usually wake up that early?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"So I won’t get scolded."
"I never said I’d get mad."
"Not yet."
Her answer came a little too fast.
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I opened my eyes again.
"No one here is going to get mad if you wake up at six."
She thought about it for a few seconds.
"Six is cutting it too close."
"Cutting it close for what?"
"To be a good kid."
I sat up slowly.
"You aren’t taking a test."
She held the small clock with both hands.
"I’m used to waking up early."
"Alright."
I lay back down.
"Set it for six tomorrow."
She looked hesitant.
"Five past six."
"Six."
"Five to six?"
"Six."
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She fell silent.
Then gave a small nod.
"Okay."
Silence again.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
Then—
"Are you awake, Papa?"
I opened one eye.
"I am now."
"Oh."
"Are you going back to sleep?"
She looked at her clock.
"I’m already awake."
"That’s not an answer."
She stared at her own futon.
Then lay back down.
Rigid.
Like someone unsure if they were allowed to relax.
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I stared at the ceiling.
"If there’s nothing on the schedule, you can take your time," I said.
No answer.
A few seconds later, I heard her breathing grow more even.
Not asleep. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
Just... not tense.
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The room fell quiet again.
But it wasn’t an empty quiet.
It was the quiet of two people who hadn’t fully figured out each other’s rhythms yet.
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And for the first time since we started living together,
I realized something small but distinct—
there was now another sound that could wake me up.
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