“Honestly, I was very surprised when he told me that he respects your decision…in choosing me as your wife and all that…” I told him a little shyly.
“What else did he say?” Reiner prompted further as if he had anticipated that part already.
“Well…he asked me about what I wanted to do to contribute to the company because I am now part of the family. I have to say that that made me feel very happy,” I admitted gleefully.
“What did you tell him?” Reiner inquired further.
“I told him that I’m willing to do anything which is quite true. I’m not picky. I’ll do whatever job that he throws at me,” I said perhaps a little too confidently.
Reiner shot me a strange look before he shook his head in disbelief.
“You say that because you have no idea what kind of things, he can throw your way…” Reiner said before rolling his eyes at me.
Well, I guessed I hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“What else?” Reiner asked again.
This part was the hardest to tell Reiner. How should I put the ‘baby’ part of the conversation without making it sound weird?
“King asked if I wanted to have your children…” I said softly without meeting his eyes.
I wondered how Reiner felt about that. Does he want to have children? Maybe not now…but someday…
“And you said?” Reiner asked.
Apart from that, he didn’t show any other reaction to my words at all. I guess this topic didn’t come as a surprise to him either considering the many conversations that he must have had with his father about this. King seemed impatient for Reiner to get married and produce an heir and that had been obvious to me since the first day that I landed on this island.
Should I just come out and tell Reiner straight that I want to have his child? Doesn’t that just sound a little on the crazy side and very desperate. But I’m his wife now…does that make it ok for me to say it?
“I told him that I do…I want to have your children…” I replied honestly.
When I glanced over at Reiner’s face, he seemed deeper in thought that happy or surprised at my decision.
“I see. Then that shouldn’t be a problem,” he said after a brief moment of silence.
That’s it?
Although I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I had been expecting, his lack of any reaction was surely a disappointment. What does he even mean when he said that it ‘shouldn’t be a problem’?
“R…umm…do you want to have children?” I asked in a small voice.
Now that we have broached this difficult topic, I didn’t want to back down before I knew how he felt about it. Surely this was something that we should have discussed before getting married but when he proposed to me so suddenly, I didn’t exactly have the time to pause and ask him if he wanted children or not.
“No. I don’t want to have them,” he replied casually like he had always had this answer ready.
Huh?!
‘If you want children then I guess I can rest assured…you can always convince your husband, or can’t you?’
King’s words came flooding back into my mind like huge and high tsunami waves. Did he know that Reiner didn’t want children? Why did that old man not tell me anything about this?!
I see…so it’s my job to convince Reiner to make babies with me? Seriously?!
“Umm…why don’t you want to have kids?” I asked.
The first step to solving a problem is to identify and understand the root cause, right?
“I can’t really see myself as a father and I couldn’t be bothered in raising them. I don’t understand why people want to have children in the first place,” he said passively.
“I see…” I mumbled.
“Why do you want to have children?” he asked suddenly.
“Well, I just think that having a family would be nice…you know. We can spend time as a family and have fun together. I’ve always thought that it would be great to have children that resemble you…or a mix of you and me…” I replied before smiling sweetly at him.
He might not share my thoughts and feelings today but I’m sure that one day, Reiner would want to have children too. That is, if I work hard enough to convince him.
“So, you want to experiment to see how our DNAs combine to make a new human being? Just so you can see what it would look like?” Reiner asked as he stared at me in confusion.
Why does he make it sound like some unethical scientific experiment?
I was starting to get a strong sense that our journey to building a family of our own would be a long and extremely winding one. Now that I’ve married him, another challenge had presented itself. Why do I feel tired all of a sudden?
“Umm…that’s not really want I meant. Earlier, when you asked me if I wanted children and I said yes, you said that it shouldn’t be a problem. What did you mean?” I asked, clearly confused.
If he didn’t want children, then isn’t that already a problem?
“As long as you want children, we’ll have children. In fact, we can have as many as you want,” Reiner stated matter-of-factly.
“But you just said that you don’t want children…” I said, still very confused.
“It doesn’t matter what I want. We’ll have children if you’re ok with it regardless of whether or not I want them,” Reiner replied so casually that it started to hurt.
“What…?” I whispered, not quite sure if I heard him correctly just now.
What does that even mean? He’ll have children that he doesn’t even want?
“It’s as I just said. If you want to have my children, I’ll give you children. I’m fine with having children even if I don’t want to have them,” Reiner tried to explain.
“Is it because…it’s your ‘responsibility’?” I asked suspiciously.
–To be continued…