BABY 2

What on earth am I thinking? There is no way that kid is mine. He mentioned treatment or whatever, so he clearly came here because he needs money for hospital bills. Didn’t he probably forge that ID card too? All that talk about pheromone treatment must be a plausible excuse.

Exhaling a sigh mixed with irritation, Junyoung, his face clearly displaying his displeasure, opened his mouth.

“I might just sue you for extortion first. Where do you think you’re trying to pull a scam…?”

“What?”

“The ID card, huh? Where did you forge it? And the hair—wasn’t that just something stuck to my clothes? You slipped it in when I wasn’t looking, didn’t you?”

Junyoung fluttered the zipper bag containing the hair in front of Seojin’s eyes. Seojin was currently covering the child’s ears tightly with his palms, as if afraid the child might hear such harsh words.

When Seojin couldn’t manage a response and only let out gasps of disbelief, Junyoung, thinking he had successfully caught him off guard, babbled on with a smirk.

“You’ve been acting like you’re the only damn smart person since a long time ago, so how did you end up a scammer? They say you never know how a person’s life will turn out, and that’s exactly right. Yes, it is.”

“…”

“You have nothing left to say, right? Don’t ever come looking for me again. Next time, I’m really reporting you to the police first.”

Junyoung, who had bolted up from his seat, was about to turn around when he paused and looked back at the child. The eyes staring blankly up at him were incomparably innocent.

It was enough to make even his worn-out conscience prickle, so Junyoung clicked his tongue and spotted a single strand of hair resting softly on the child’s shoulder. If it was that, it would be the child’s real hair, with no possibility of manipulation.

Junyoung picked up the zipper bag he had tossed carelessly on the table, took out the hair that was inside, and put that new strand of hair in. This was because of the thought that it might actually become evidence to pin Seojin down.

“I’m warning you clearly. Don’t ever come looking for me again.”

Junyoung, threatening Seojin in a low voice, even snatched up the document envelope neatly and turned away. The gazes of the people around followed Junyoung as he straightened his shoulders confidently. Seojin also stared blankly at his retreating back before spitting out a single sentence mixed with a hollow laugh.

“That bastard really…”

Fortunately, the child, whose ears had been covered until then, did not properly hear Seojin’s anger-filled words.

Seojin, who was gently patting a small chest, gazed down quietly at the child who was fast asleep. When he carefully felt the forehead, the fever that had risen briefly had subsided, and fortunately, it felt similar to his own temperature.

Exhaling a sigh of relief, Seojin pulled the blanket up to the child’s neck to cover him well, then turned off the lamp on the desk.

As he walked out of the room, killing his footsteps as much as possible, Yeonsu who had taken a half-day off to visit Seojin, asked cautiously.

“Is Jinseo asleep?”

“Yeah.”

“The fever?”

“I think it went down.”

“That’s a relief.”

Seojin came out to the living room and sat down haphazardly on the floor. He had been fine from the time he met Junyoung until he returned home, but a slight fever started rising right after he got home, and his condition deteriorated rapidly.

Perhaps thanks to quickly giving him medicine and letting him rest, the fever subsided soon, but there was no knowing when his condition might worsen again.

As he took a long, deep breath, Yeonsu who had been looking at Seojin with worried eyes, spoke up. Before he knew it, Yeon-su’s eyes were twinkling with curiosity.

“How did it go? You said you’d go see him today. Did you meet him?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he say? Surely you didn’t just come back after hearing stuff like ‘don’t try to scam me’ or ‘does that even make sense’?”

Yeon-su thrust her face toward Seojin as if she were ready to grab him by the collar. Seojin let out a short sigh and sat on the floor, leaning his back against the sofa.

“Just like you said, he told me not to scam him. He said he’d sue me for extortion.”

“What?”

“He even asked if I forged the ID card.”

“Wow, that bastard is seriously crazy. Hey, let’s post it on the internet right now. I have something I drafted roughly before, you know? So we can expose everything if it comes to it.”

Yeonsu even more agitated than the party directly involved in the matter, flew into a rage. Yeon-su was the only college classmate who knew Seojin’s situation and his closest friend. It was only natural for her to be infuriated.

Seojin looked back at the closed room door once and patted the back of Yeon-su’s hand. Then, Yeonsu who had sucked in a breath, gave an awkward smile. Only then did she realize her voice had been too loud.

“Sorry.”

Yeonsu who gave a one-word apology and winked, picked up her cell phone. Meanwhile, Seojin raised his gaze to check the wall clock. It was already well past 6 o’clock.

Has it already been this long? Because Jinseo was moaning in pain, he didn’t even know how time had passed since returning home. Only now did he feel like he could breathe properly.

“Look at this for now. If you give me the confirmation, I’ll finish writing the rest.”

While unbuttoning the top button of his shirt, Yeonsu who was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed, suddenly held out her phone. What Seojin encountered upon receiving it reflexively was a dense array of characters filling the white screen.

Title: Exposing the atrocities of Cha Junyoung, the youngest son of Sunwoo Group Chairman Baek Hyeonjeong

First of all, I am so, so sorry for being off-topic ㅠㅠ

I’m posting this here because they say the ‘Gyeolsichin’ section has the most influence.

I’m doing this because I’m so, so angry, so I’ll write in a casual tone.

I went to the same university as the son of the Sunwoo Group chairman.

(Diploma will be attached later)

We weren’t in the same major, but we took the same liberal arts class and did a team project together… That bastard was seriously a hopeless case even back then.

Even when we told him to meet up, he wouldn’t come, and even when we told him to get something done, he ignored it all.

When I went to find out what he was doing, he was a truly hopeless bastard who was drinking heavily with people.

I just said let’s leave his name out and do it ourselves, but my friend, who is so kind and has a strong sense of responsibility, followed him around and barely, barely got him to participate in the data research ㅠㅠ

But somehow, my friend ended up having a child.. ㅠ It’s that hopeless bastard’s child..

My friend kept it a secret, saying how could a guy who doesn’t even handle a team project responsibly act like a father…

He said he’d live without saying anything, just considering the father non-existent since they’d never meet in a lifetime anyway…….

But the child suddenly started getting sick ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

He’s a truly gentle, pretty, and kind child, but the world is so unfair ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

It’s not an incurable disease, so that’s a relief, but because it’s a problem with the pheromone gland, that hopeless bastard’s pheromones became necessary..

They say he’ll get better if he’s just continuously exposed to Alpha pheromones.

Seojin, who was looking at the content while slowly swiping up the screen with his index finger, let out a deep sigh. Yeonsu who had been quietly watching Seojin, added her words.

“It’s not finished yet. I was going to finish writing it after hearing what you had to say after meeting Cha Junyoung.”

Seojin did not show any particular reaction even after seeing the post, which contained nothing but the truth without a single lie. Instead, Yeonsu becoming anxious, tapped Seojin’s shoulder with her elbow.

“Why? Is it not good? Should I rewrite it? A bit more seriously?”

“You don’t have to post something like this. I don’t want things to get noisy for no reason.”

“Ah, why! You said Cha Junyoung talked crap about extortion and lawsuits. You should do what you can too.”

Yeonsu who had taken back her phone, frowned as if she couldn’t understand. However, Seojin shook his head.

“The reason I went to see Cha Junyoung was to resolve it quietly, but if you post something like this, it all becomes pointless.”

“That’s true, but… doesn’t it seem like he has no intention of cooperating? Shouldn’t we do this much to get a reaction from that side? We can’t just let Jinseo keep being sick.”

Yeon-su glanced toward the room where Jinseo was sleeping soundly. Seojin was the same. In order to improve the child’s symptoms as soon as possible, it might be better to use the method Yeon-su suggested, but Seojin didn’t feel like doing it at all.

If the matter grew large, articles would naturally pour out, and it would only be a matter of time before his and Jinseo’s personal information was exposed. There would also be people approaching them saying they want to hear the detailed story.

He didn’t care about himself, but he was worried about Jinseo. Since there was also a request from the doctor never to give the child stress, escalating the situation was not a very good choice.

That’s why he had intended to meet Cha Junyoung separately and resolve it amicably, but…

“But he took the hair.”

Seojin recalled one fact while carefully retracing the events of the afternoon. The fact that Junyoung had gone out of his way to take a new strand of Jinseo’s hair before leaving.

The one he had brought from the start was obviously Jinseo’s as well, but he went so far as to swap it and take it, wondering just how much he doubted him.

He had taken it with great care because he heard that a hair follicle is necessary for a paternity test, but he didn’t know if a follicle remained on the hair Junyoung took instead.

“He took it in the midst of all that? What a ridiculous guy.”

“I guess he couldn’t trust what I brought, so he took the one that fell on Jinseo’s shoulder.”

“He’s doing all sorts of nonsense.”

Yeonsu who ended up laughing as if it were absurd, shook her head and stood up from the sofa. The place she headed toward with rhythmic steps was the kitchen connected to the living room. Since she made sure to come see Jinseo at least once a week, it had been a long time since she had already known the layout of this house inside out.

Yeon-su rummaged through the black plastic bag she had placed on the dining table, then opened the refrigerator and began to organize the contents she took out.

“I bought strawberries and oranges earlier. I’ll put them in the vegetable compartment.”

“Thanks. Jinseo will love them.”

“I didn’t buy them just for Jinseo to eat. I bought them for you to eat too. You haven’t been eating well lately, have you?”