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Jaegal Lin’s doting for his disciple was clear to everyone, and so when Cheonhee first started teething, Jaegal Lin was excited, but also sad. Since he was teething, it meant that baby Cheonhee’s gums hurt more than usual; he even had a slight fever. Seeing how his precious disciple whined and whimpered in pain, urgently trying to bite something to relieve the ache in his gums… Jaegal Lin was upset.
As he was teething, Cheonhee didn’t even bother trying to chew on Jaegal’s hair anymore. Instead, he whined and cried and tried to chew on Jaegal’s finger. Cheonhee was especially fussy during this stage, crying at every little thing and even throwing a brush at Gakyeon one time, but Jaegal knew that this was all normal.
Teething babies were known to be fussy and more irritable than usual….
Plus, seeing how swollen and red baby Cheonhee’s gums were… Jaegal felt his heart ache too.
Since Cheonhee was close to getting his first tooth, Jaegal decided that it would be a great opportunity to introduce baby Cheonhee to more-solid foods, not just milk. After ordering Yooho to search far and wide for the best baby food recipe, Jaegal settled on banana puree — a simple but tasty dish that hopefully baby Cheonhee would like.
The first time baby Cheonhee had a spoonful of banana puree, his mouth paused its movements and he looked at Jaegal Lin in confusion.
“Wat, dis?” Baby Cheonhee asked, pouting slightly.
“It’s banana puree, Hee,” Jaegal Lin said gently. “Do you not like it?”
“Hmm…”
Baby Cheonhee said nothing, moving his mouth and savoring the taste.
“Ish… o-kay,” baby Cheonhee settled on saying.
Jaegal Lin broke into a smile.
“That’s good, Hee… Do you want more?” Jaegal Lin asked.
Baby Cheonhee shook his head.
“Hee, wanna, milk!” He declared.
“Okay, okay…” Jaegal Lin nodded, quickly agreeing to his baby’s request.
In any case, he didn’t want to force his disciple to eat something he didn’t like…..
The next day, during breakfast time again, Jaegal once again tried feeding baby Cheonhee some carrot puree, a different one from yesterday’s.
This time, baby Cheonhee’s eyes lit up and he savored the spoonful of puree for a while, enjoying the taste.
“Do you want more, baby?” Jaegal Lin asked, and Cheonhee beamed.
“Yesh, pwease!”
Jaegal Lin was delighted, feeding baby Cheonhee another spoonful of puree (of course, he used a small spoon, not a regular-sized one).
Baby Cheonhee ended up eating three spoons of puree that day.
Afterwards, baby Cheonhee’s slow transition to solid foods began.
Jaegal Lin experimented with several different kinds of purees, each time making sure it was a single-ingredient puree and not too complicated — since a baby’s taste-buds weren’t used to explosive flavors.
At first, Jaegal wanted professional, well-trained chefs to be the ones who cooked the puree for baby Cheonhee.
After all, his precious treasure deserved the best of the best.
Baby Cheonhee, though, was rather picky, sometimes scrunching up his face and pouting when he didn’t like it.
In the end, Jaegal decided to try his own hand at cooking baby food, deciding to make pea puree for Cheonhee…. He worked hard, using a mortar and pestle to pound the vegetable until it was a thick, smooth consistency….
Who could’ve guessed that Cheonhee would love it so much?
“Mow! Mow! Mow!” Baby Cheonhee whined, unable to pronounce his ‘r’s and say ‘more’ properly.
Jaegal Lin found his baby utterly adorable and wiped the smear of pea puree on his disciple’s cheeks.
“You like it?” Jaegal Lin asked.
“YESH!” Baby Cheonhee’s reply was swift and loud.
Jaegal Lin, of course, was ecstatic.
(As expected, his disciple loved him the most… hahaha! Jaegal Lin even sneered at the professional chefs on the side. How could they claim to be professional chefs? Jaegal Lin scoffed. …Of course, Jaegal had no idea that those chefs simply rolled their eyes at the Master-Disciple’s display of affection. They weren’t trained to cook for a baby’s palette, okay? Much less a baby who only had eyes for his Master!!! This was an insult to their skills ah!)
Ever since that day, Jaegal decided to personally make all the meals for Cheonhee, even if it took up his time and made him even busier than usual, he would still do it. Besides, he had loyal subordinates and countless people below him… He could always hand them his jobs and have fun with his disciple!
Soon, Jaegal Lin found out that no matter what ingredient he used to make puree, baby Cheonhee would always love his cooking. It was a point of pride for him, and he watched as Cheonhee grew plumper and happier every day….
Now generally, Jaegal Lin would have baby Cheonhee take a nap during the afternoon, during which he would make the baby foods for baby Cheonhee, which would be ready for his disciple when he woke up.
A baby of Cheonhee’s age needed a certain amount of puree only, not too much, and not too little, coupled with some milk. Therefore, Jaegal Lin would make Cheonhee his baby food in the afternoon, during which Cheonhee would have puree only for lunch, and let baby Cheonhee have milk and optionally a spoonful or two or puree for dinner. Baby Cheonhee’s breakfast was usually milk.
This was the routine he had created, but one day, baby Cheonhee fussed for over half an hour, tossing and turning, and still couldn’t fall asleep.
Seeing how his baby was pouting and looking at him with aggrieved eyes, Jaegal knew that Cheonhee would probably stay awake all day — he couldn’t take a nap, and forcing it would only be tiring for the two of them.
Since Cheonhee couldn’t sleep anyway….
“Hee, what do you think of helping me make your lunch?” Jaegal Lin offered.
Baby Cheonhee’s eyes lit up at the idea, and he nodded happily.
Jaegal Lin chuckled at his baby’s excited face and picked him up.
“Alright, baby… let’s go,” Jaegal Lin spoke, heading towards the kitchen.
They would have fun!
Cheonhee’s cooking session was impromptu, and Jaegal hadn’t had time to prepared a mortar and pestle that was Cheonhee’s size, so Cheonhee had to use Jaegal’s large ones.
Patiently, Jaegal Lin showed Cheonhee the ingredients for the puree this time: apples.
One of Cheonhee’s favorite purees was apple puree, and, knowing how much he liked it, Jaegal would make apple puree again and again. Cheonhee never got bored.
Jaegal first started by peeling the apple and cutting it into small pieces. During this part, though, baby Cheonhee wasn’t allowed to help. He could only babble cutely next to Jaegal Lin, commenting on Jaegal’s work every now and then.
“Ish, dat, knife?” Baby Cheonhee asked.
“Yes,” Jaegal Lin nodded, his hands moving swiftly to chop the apples into fine pieces. (He was, after all, a martial artist).
“Will, Mash-ter, hurt?” Cheonhee asked, brow furrowed in concern.
“No,” Jaegal Lin chuckled. “I’m very good with the knife, Hee.”
“Ooh,” Baby Cheonhee hummed, stretching out his arms and making slicing motions.
“So cool,” Cheonhee giggled, making Jaegal Lin smile as well.
Next, Jaegal placed the tiny apple pieces into the mortar and used the pestle to ground them. Sometimes, when Jaegal wanted to work extra quickly, he would use his internal energy (Qi) to speed up the process and break the apple pieces into a puree-like texture. Seeing Cheonhee’s interest in the mortar and pestle, though, Jaegal decided to do this the menial way.
“Hee,” Jaegal Lin said gently and brought Cheonhee’s hands towards the pestle. “Here, you can try to do this,” he said.
“O-kay!”
Baby Cheonhee smiled and held the pestle with his two hands, attempting to lift up the pestle and ground the apple like how he had seen his Master do.
…The pestle, though, didn’t move.
Baby Cheonhee frowned, clutched the pestle with both hands, and pursed his lips.
“Urrgh!”
Baby Cheonhee succeeded in lifting up the pestle—!
Nope, he lifted it about one centimeter and then dropped it.
Baby Cheonhee, stunned, turned to look pitifully at his Master.
Jaegal Lin hid his smile and patted Cheonhee’s head comfortingly.
“It’s okay, Hee,” Jaegal smiled.
Cheonhee glared at the pestle and rubbed his tiny hands, determined to try again.
How could he lose to this thing?! He was a strong baby, okay?!
Baby Cheonhee gripped the pestle with a death grip, lifted it up, and managed to pound the apples three times.
…Of course, since Cheonhee didn’t have much strength, he didn’t even pound the apple slices into a puree of any sort. In fact, the apple pieces were still the same.
“Sowwy…” Baby Cheonhee said sadly, looking at Jaegal Lin as if he had failed to rescue the world or something (not that Jaegal Lin would ever ask Cheonhee to save the world… Jaegal would much prefer if Cheonhee saved himself. After all, did he give a fuck about the world?)
“Hee,” Jaegal comforted, “It’s okay…”
Jaegal Lin covered Cheonhee’s small hands with his own, helping his disciple lift the pestle up and down to ground the apple pieces.
Together, the Master-Disciple ground the apple pieces into a proper puree.
During the whole process, baby Cheonhee was smiling and giggling, even though his arms were hurting from the constant movement and he was even yawning, Jaegal Lin could see that his disciple was having fun.
When the puree was finally finished, Jaegal Lin took Cheonhee to wash his hands.
“Did you have fun, Hee?” Jaegal Lin asked.
“Yesh!” Baby Cheonhee nodded seriously, thought for a moment, and added.
“Any-thing! Wit, Mash-ter! Ish, fun!” Cheonhee smiled brightly.
“Ah…” Jaegal Lin pursed his lips.
How could his disciple be this adorable?!
“I feel the same, Hee,” Jaegal Lin kissed the top of Cheonhee’s head.
“Every day with you is fun.”