M 212

Side Story 3 Chapter 15

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“…Hae-rim.”

“Ugh, uh….”

“Hae-rim. Look at your dads, look at your Little Dad.”

“…….”

“Huh? Little Dad doesn’t hurt at all anymore.”

“…Weally?”

Every time Hae-rim rubbed his eyes with his chubby fists, beads of tears fell.

“Of course. Where would little daddy go, leaving Hae-rim and big daddy behind?”

“Pwomise…?”

Sehwa pressed his lips to the crown of the child’s head and apologized repeatedly.

“Yeah. Little Dad didn’t know Hae-rim was worrying about that all alone…. Sorry, really sorry.”

Sehwa seemed to be holding back well, but he ended up shedding tears as well.

“Little Dad lost, hic, so much weight, it would be a big problem if Hae-rim got scared… so I didn’t show you my face.”

Sorry, Hae-rim. The last apology was mixed with sobs and couldn’t be heard properly. Hae-rim, who had been wailing that his Little Dad would be taken away to heaven, became calmer when Sehwa started crying. He was still hiccuping, but he was even able to comfort him, saying, “Don’t cwy, Little Dad.”

“Honestly. You two cry the same way.”

Ki Tae-jeong lifted Sehwa, who was holding Hae-rim, and sat them both on his lap. He suppressed the ache in his heart at the sight of Sehwa’s weight, which had become as light as a feather, and teased him instead.

“Big baby, stop crying now, okay?”

“…What, what does that, hic… even mean….”

“I recall that Big Baby Lee Sehwa has some good news to tell Little Baby Lee Hae-rim.”

“Eung?”

Hae-rim perked up when his name was mentioned.

“Oooooh, what is it? What is it?”

Sehwa, who hadn’t grasped Ki Tae-jeong’s intention because he was crying, nodded a little later, “Ah.” At the same time, both Lee Sehwa and Lee Hae-rim inhaled to stop crying, and their faces were so alike that it was a shame not to be able to preserve the father and son’s current appearance as a hologram.

“Lee Hae-rim is four years old now, so he’s qualified to attend family meetings.”

Family meeting! It was as if an exclamation mark had been stamped on the top of the child’s head. The small white teeth that could be seen through his slightly open mouth were as cute as a rabbit’s.

“You know, Hae-rim.”

“Yes, yes!”

“Actually, Little Dad has a baby in his tummy.”

“Yes!”

Hae-rim, who had been shining his eyes as a proper meeting attendee, nodded wildly. He clearly didn’t understand what Sehwa had just said.

“…Hae-rim.”

“Uh-huh!”

“Hae-rim is going to have a sibling.”

“…Sibling?”

The child looked back and forth between Big Dad and Little Dad, and then his eyes lit up belatedly. He had a face as if he had a speech bubble next to him that said, “Gasp, a sibling!”

“Sibwing? Hae-rim, swib, I mean, sibling? Weally?”

“Yeah, really.”

“Oooh…!”

Hae-rim’s surprised mouth dropped open like a baby bird’s.

“Your sibling is here, inside.”

Sehwa placed Hae-rim’s small hand on his stomach. Ki Tae-jeong tried to follow suit, but Sehwa glared at him and stopped him, so he said something ridiculous like, “Hae-rim. Little Dad is bullying Big Dad.”

“Oh, oh, but. Then daddy, did the germ, no, did it become the germ-baby…?”

Of course, the excited Hae-rim couldn’t hear anything. He was breathing so hard that the clear snot dangling from the tip of his nose burst like a balloon, and he was curious about the identity of germ, who had suddenly become his sibling.

“A germ?”

Ki Tae-jeong burst out laughing at Sehwa, who didn’t understand the sudden talk about germs.

“Ah… so that’s why they say you shouldn’t even drink water carelessly in front of kids.”

He never thought that the excuse he had made up would come back like this.

“Why?”

“Later.”

With the child listening intently, he couldn’t very well say that his mean big daddy had just glossed over it because he didn’t have the confidence or the time to explain it properly back then.

“I’ll tell you if you let me touch Sunshine, too.”

He whispered as he kissed Sehwa’s ear, and Sehwa grabbed Ki Tae-jeong’s hand with a sulky look, saying, “Lieutenant General, really….” Sehwa’s stomach, Hae-rim’s hand, came into his big hand.

Ki Tae-jeong had never wondered who his birth parents were. He swore he never had in his life, and he didn’t want to find out now. He had Lee Sehwa, who had been a complete stranger and had become his family, and he had a child who looked just like him, so what else mattered?

“I love you.”

Ki Tae-jeong cherished the happiness overflowing in his arms. As if he would never let go.

“Lee Sehwa, Lee Hae-rim, and Lee Sunshine, too.”

He had never wished for anything like heaven in his life, but at this moment, with Lee Sehwa, Lee Hae-rim, and now Sunshine, Ki Tae-jeong felt like he was in heaven.

2. Ki Tae-jeong in Wonderland

Liking the familiar feel of the bedding that clung to his body, Sehwa tossed and turned for no reason. What time is it now…? It felt like it had been a long time since he had such a leisurely afternoon.

He had to be hospitalized for quite a while due to severe morning sickness, and even after returning home, he had to stay in bed to focus on recovery. And that was on the bed in the makeshift sickroom in the first-floor guest room, not the master bedroom on the second floor.

On the day of his discharge, despite having no energy, he had been simply thrilled at the thought of finally returning home, but Ki Tae-jeong and even General Oh Seon-ran all advised him to stay downstairs. They said it would be a big problem if he fell or tripped while going up and down the stairs.

Anyway, he was much more comfortable than in the hospital, Ki Tae-jeong stayed by his side, and it was nice to be close to Hae-rim’s room… but still, the mattress in the guest room was subtly annoying.

The guest room was equipped with the finest bedding because General Oh Seon-ran sometimes slept there. Ki Tae-jeong said it was the same mattress as the one they used in the master bedroom, just a different size, but he didn’t know why his body kept complaining. It felt like it wasn’t his?

For several days, he had endured his body’s silent protest, longing for that wide bed he had rolled around in every day for years, wanting to bury himself in the familiar scent of the man deeply imbued in the bedding. Sehwa was finally allowed to go up to the second floor today!

He was happy to be able to roll around as much as he wanted on the vast bed where there was plenty of space whether he lay horizontally or vertically. He took a nap, read a book, looked at various things on his phone, and then fell asleep again… Then he woke up groggily and wandered around the bathroom connected to the bedroom, chasing after the traces Ki Tae-jeong had left behind.

He wondered how he had been doing while he was hospitalized and staying on the first floor. He peeked around with a slightly excited heart, but the search ended anticlimactically. He didn’t expect things to be messy because he was always so organized, but… he didn’t expect it to feel so devoid of life.

Ah, he had joked before, saying, “I was so lonely without you that I just slept on the living room sofa.”… Surely he didn’t really do that the whole time he was in the hospital, did he?

“Nah, that can’t be….”