M 201

Side Story 3 Episode 3

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But even then, he barely held onto his sanity before the sentence starting with, “If it’s going to be like this, even now-“ popped into his head. As the young soldiers often said, he really clenched his brain and endured.

Lee Sehwa didn’t want to repeat the mistake he made with Hae-rim. Besides, the second child wasn’t born solely because Sehwa wanted it. So, he tried not to even think about such things in his mind.

“Lieutenant General… Hae, Hae-rim, cough, how is he?”

“He’s doing well. Eating well, sleeping well. You don’t have to worry about him.”

“He’s staying at your official residence now, right…?”

“Yeah. But I still take him to the academy in the morning. And he eats dinner with me.”

“I see…”

Sehwa nodded weakly, then bit his lip. When Ki Tae-jeong gently stroked it with his thumb, telling him not to, Sehwa looked up at him with tearful eyes.

“Hae-rim… must have been very surprised.”

“…It would be a lie if I said he wasn’t surprised, but Hae-rim is understanding your situation in his own way, so don’t worry too much.”

The last image the child saw of his little dad was him vomiting blood and being taken to the hospital; it would be stranger if he were fine. In times like these, it would reassure Sehwa to be honest rather than making excuses.

“Hae-rim must have been upset that he couldn’t see Apie that day…”

“It’s okay. He hasn’t even been mentioning Apie these days.”

“Really? Oh no, he must have been really shocked…”

Sehwa’s expression darkened even more, even though he had said it to mean that he didn’t need to worry. Sehwa knew Hae-rim’s deep and broad love for Apie, so the child’s bewilderment must have felt even greater.

“He said that his little dad is so sick that he needs to get shots at the hospital, but he doesn’t want to see Apie alone. He said he’ll see them together from the beginning when he gets discharged.”

“……”

“Isn’t Lee Hae-rim really cute? The idea that he wants to show his favorite thing to his little dad because he likes him so much.”

He was grateful, proud, and fond of the child’s pure heart, wanting to give his beloved father his entire little world… and also sorry. Sehwa, who couldn’t continue speaking for a moment because he was sniffling, finally nodded with a barely audible “Yes.”

“Right. So, you just focus on your health. That way, you can get discharged and see Hae-rim and Apie together.”

Ki Tae-jeong deliberately grumbled, saying that he didn’t want to see those damn dinosaurs anymore, no matter how lovely his son’s antics were, and only then did a faint smile appear on Sehwa’s face.

“I will. I want to get better soon… and go home.”

So, this was how Sehwa ended up in the hospital.

About a month ago from now.

Ki Tae-jeong and Lee Sehwa took Hae-rim to the amusement park one more time. It was originally a weekend without any special plans, but they happened to find out that the theme park decorated with Apie and friends was closing that day, so they hurriedly left the house.

‘Eeeing. Big Daddy. This, now, tight.’

Hae-rim wriggled, flapping his legs up and down, which had grown much longer in the meantime. Legally, he had to sit in a car seat, but his physique was much larger than that, so Hae-rim was very uncomfortable whenever he rode in the car these days.

‘Then let’s go buy a new car seat later.’

‘Yes! See Apie?’

‘Yeah, see Apie.’

When the name of his favorite dinosaur character came up, the child excitedly wiggled his butt, forgetting that he had been furrowing his brow due to discomfort.

‘Apie gooood. Most gooood.’

Hae-rim, who hadn’t opened his mouth until he reached the level he wanted, had become a little more lenient since making friends at the academy. Like his peers, he nonchalantly spat out all sorts of garbled pronunciations and became much more spoiled. Is this what it means to learn social skills? Well, from Ki Tae-jeong’s point of view, it wouldn’t have mattered if Hae-rim had given all his social skills or sociability to the dogs, but he still felt a sense of pride watching the child grow and change little by little.

‘That’s right, Hae-rim.’

‘Ung?’

‘Little daddy said that Tupo is coming out especially today.’

‘Tupo? Tupo went to heaven…’

‘Oh, really? That’s why he said he’s coming out especially.’

Ki Tae-jeong and Lee Sehwa’s young son was very bright, but he was still only four years old. Rather than logically explaining how to distinguish between media and reality, it was sometimes more effective to vaguely gloss over it.

‘Hae-rim must be happy that he can see Tupo today.’

‘Eung, Tupoooo…’

Sure enough, the child nodded without asking any further questions. However, perhaps his heart ached at the thought of the little dinosaur who had gone to heaven trying to save Apie, he bit his lip so hard that wrinkles like walnuts formed on his small chin. The two exchanged glances and smiled softly, finding Hae-rim’s serious face reflected in the rearview mirror, his mouth tightly shut in an S shape, too cute.

‘Lieutenant General, are we almost there?’

‘Yeah. But the traffic is a bit heavy today.’

The crowd was so huge that the autonomous driving program’s speed was slightly glitching, so it wasn’t easy to enter the parking lot. Originally, cars carrying officers could ignore signals and lanes. However, the car the three family members were riding in today had an ordinary license plate attached.

Of course, the moment Ki Tae-jeong sensed the clock, all the officials at the amusement park would have been notified of the officer’s arrival, but to others, it would just look like people who weren’t soldiers were driving a really nice car.

‘But dad, you know. When we go in?’

‘Hmm. It might take a while.’

‘Then late, if I go late, so Apie gone? Then what…?’

‘No, Apie will be there until closing time.’

The child, who had never waited this long to enter anywhere, was impatient and kept peeking out the car window. Ki Tae-jeong lowered the driver’s side window and relayed the outside scenery.

‘Look. The sun is still up, right? You can see Apie enough.’

‘Big Daddy here too, me too here this… window, lower please.’

‘It’s too dangerous today because there are too many people.’

Hae-rim, excited to see the Apie model faintly beyond the driver’s seat, stomped his feet.

‘Big Daddy, Apie. Apie there? Just go, go! Yes?’

‘Hmm… Big Daddy also wants to just go, but Grandpa gave you homework. To Hae-rim.’

‘Ah… right.’

‘There was something we decided to study this week, right?’

‘Eung, have to enter in order if line up!’

Hae-rim straightened his back dignifiedly, recalling his grandfather’s request. A few seconds later, he wiggled his butt again and stuck to the window.