VDN Ch 198

“Should we go in together? I’ll help you.”

“What’s there to help with when going to the bathroom?”

The bathroom door slammed shut in front of him. Seo-oh paced back and forth in the small room with quick steps. Se-han had already run off to his own house to explain the situation to his father before anyone could stop him.

When he told Nam-woon that he didn’t need a child, he was sincere He really thought that he would be satisfied if he had Nam-woon by his side. However, now that they were facing this situation, he couldn’t help feeling anxious and nervous. Suddenly, he remembered when Nam-woon took the test alone without him. How lonely and anxious he must have been. As memories suddenly came back, Seo-oh found himself regretting the past over and over again.

Consumed by half anxiety and half worry, he paced back and forth. Suddenly, a dull thud sounded from inside the bathroom. Startled, Seo-oh rushed over and flung the bathroom door open.

“Hyung, what’s happened!”

“……”

Nam-woon was sitting sprawled on the bathroom floor with a bewildered expression. Judging from the round basin overturned on the floor, that seemed to be the source of the noise. Seo-oh quickly went to Nam-woon’s side and helped him up. Then, supporting the dazed Nam-woon, he barely managed to lead him into the room.

“What’s wrong, Hyung? Did you take the test?”  

Nam-woon suddenly looked up at Seo-oh. His eyes were very desperate.  

“Seo-oh… I think something’s wrong with this.”

“What? What do you mean?”  

Nam-woon held out the test with a trembling hand. Seo-oh’s mouth fell open as he looked down at it. At the same time, his eyes widened.

“…Huh?”  

“Hey, this is broken, right? Right? I, I… this can’t be, can it?”

Seo-oh looked back and forth between Nam-woon’s face and the test in his hand with an expression of disbelief. It clearly showed two lines. His face, which had been full of surprise, gradually filled with unspeakable joy.

“Hyung!”  

“…Kuh-heok.”

Nam-woon made a choking sound at the force of the tight hug. Nam-woon blankly blinked, noticing that Seo-oh’s eyes seemed to be reddening for some reason. Then, the strength drained from his legs, and he collapsed onto the floor.

“Are you okay?”

Startled, Seo-oh lowered himself to check on Nam-woon when a commotion was heard from outside, and the front door clicked open.

“Hyung! I brought Dad!”

“Seo-oh-ah. What is all this? Se-han said he had a conception dream…”

Kwon Sang-moon, who was coming into the room, stopped with his mouth open when he saw Nam-woon lying almost collapsed on the floor.

“Y-Young Master-nim! Are you okay?!”  

In his panic, he reverted to using formal language like before. Seo-oh handed the pregnancy test to Kwon Sang-moon, who had come in barefoot. A short gasp escaped Kwon Sang-moon’s lips.

“What is it, what is it…? Is Hope finally here?!”

Se-han asked with wide eyes. Then Seo-oh nodded slightly with a moved expression. Se-han, his mouth agape, shouted with a bright red face,

“Yay! I have a younger sibling! Seok Hee-mang(hope)!”

“Seok Hee-mang?”

Seo-oh asked, puzzled, and Se-han answered firmly,

“Hyung said before that he misunderstood that Hope was coming. There are only Kwons in our family, so it’s really, really boring! So I named him after Seok! Seok Hee-mang!”

Se-han emphasized the “Seok” when he pronounced it. The point was that since there was only Kwon in the family, he wanted Hope to have Nam-woon’s last name. Seo-oh smiled brightly at Se-han’s words.

“That’s a good idea, isn’t it?”

Se-han couldn’t hide his excitement and jumped up and down. In the meantime, Kwon Sang-moon muttered as if in a panic,

“Ah, no, you kids. You haven’t even had your wedding yet, what on earth is going on? Of course, it’s something to celebrate, but you clearly promised that this kind of thing would never happen when you lived separately…”

However, no one was paying attention to Kwon Sang-moon’s voice. Amidst the commotion in the room, it was Se-han who first noticed that Nam-woon’s condition was strange. The child urgently pointed at Nam-woon with his finger.

“Uh-oh, Wooni Hyung’s eyes are weird!”

At Se-han’s words, Seo-oh’s face immediately turned serious.

“Hyung, what’s wrong!”

Nam-woon’s pupils were not visible. His eyes looked like they were rolling back, as if he had been shocked by something. Seeing this, Se-han let out a shrill voice

“We need to call 119! But what’s the number for 119?”  

While they searched the room for a phone, Seo-oh gently patted Nam-woon’s cheek.  

“Hyung, Nam-woon Hyung! Wake up!”

Nam-woon was muttering to himself with his eyes half-open. What was he saying? Seo quickly pressed his ear near Nam-woon’s lips.

“Status window, status window, status window….”  

Nam-woon’s voice, as if he was about to pass out, lingered sorrowfully around them.

***

[…Surprise event… System update….]

[…Congratulations on… your second generation…! As a reward… large capacity… past data linked….]

A faint notification sound rang out from somewhere. Was it a phone alarm? Seo-oh tossed and turned in his sleep. However, he quickly fell back asleep as his dream continued.

A small child appeared. Was the child around six years old? He was peeking around the alley. With slightly droopy but gentle eyes and a slender face, the child’s features looked familiar. Seo-oh instantly recognized him as the child version of Nam-woon, the person he loved most.

“Hyung!”  

He called out with an excited face, but Nam-woon didn’t hear him. That’s strange. Why can’t he hear me? Moreover, the voice coming from his own body sounded very young. Seo-oh looked down with a puzzled expression. Small hands, small feet and a short body. Surprisingly, he himself was also in his childhood form.

His surprise was short-lived as Nam-woon started walking. Seo-oh immediately followed behind him.

“Hyung! Where are you going?”  

“……”

He kept talking to him as he circled around, but Nam-woon remained silent. Then, Seo-oh noticed something strange. It was Nam-woon’s clothes. Judging by the snow on the ground, it must have been the dead of winter, but Nam-woon was only wearing a thin shirt. Even that was clumsily buttoned with the buttons askew.

Did he come out while sleeping? Seo-oh tilted his head, but his expression soon hardened. It was because Nam-woon was wearing bright red shoes that looked like a girl might wear on his feet.

Nam-woon, his body hunched over, entered the house and kept rubbing his hands together, breathing warm air onto them. Strangely, Seo-oh didn’t feel cold, but judging from Nam-woon’s actions, the room was clearly freezing cold, without even a hint of heating.

“Thirsty,”

Nam-woon murmured softly. His childhood voice, which Seo-oh was hearing for the first time, was, as expected, very cute and lovely. Nam-woon straightened his small body and went to the sink, turned on the faucet, filled a cup with water, and gulped it down. Then he immediately went under the blanket and curled up. The floor was so cold that his small body could be seen shivering even under the blanket.

“Hyung, are you very cold?”

Seo-oh, running over with his short legs, lay down next to him and hugged Nam-woon tightly from behind, as he always did. But Nam-woon’s shivering showed no signs of stopping. Seo-oh diligently rubbed Nam-woon’s arms and blew warm air onto him to warm him up. He could hear young Nam-woon talking to himself in his ear.

“Hungry… I’m hungry.”

Nam-woon curled up tighter. At that moment, Seo-oh felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if being pierced by a needle.

“Dad, sob…”

Nam-woon was crying loudly while looking at a burning car. Seo-oh also wiped away tears, feeling the raw despair of the young child.

His father was a bad person who hit him, but he was his only family. What must Nam-woon have felt watching his last moments? Seo-oh couldn’t fathom the depth of that pain.

After that, Seo-oh continued to watch everything that happened to Nam-woon from the side.

“Damn, unlucky brat!”

Lowlife gangsters, spewing vulgar jokes and curses at a child who barely reached their waist.

Seo-oh rushed at them and threw a punch but couldn’t land a single blow. While he seethed with anger, his eyes red, Nam-woon silently ran errands. Then, in front of a wall where no one could see him, he shed silent tears. Seo-oh silently stood by Nam-woon’s side.

This time, it was inside a classroom.

Children in school uniforms were gathered in groups of three or five, chatting. Seo-oh, also wearing the same uniform, seemed to be a middle school student.

Hyung should be here too.

Seo-oh quickly looked around. Soon, he saw a figure in the very back seat, right in front of the back door, he saw a figure with their head buried in their arms. Although he couldn’t see the face, Seo-oh was sure it was Nam-woon. He quickly went over and sat in the empty seat next to him. Then, he rested his cheek on the desk next to Nam-woon and gazed at him endlessly.

“Seok Nam-woon.”

He quietly called his Hyung’s name and gently touched the back of his head. He was smaller than Nam-woon Seo-oh knew now. He watched Nam-woon for a long time, unable to take his eyes off him, when suddenly a girl approached and tapped on Nam-woon’s desk.

“You have to turn in your English performance evaluation.”

Nam-woon slowly lifted his head. A familiar face came into view. Although he was thinner and his features were sharper than Seo-oh remembered, he recognized him instantly as Seok Nam-woon. Of course, there was something unfamiliar too. His expression was cold.

Blinking, Nam-woon scratched the back of his neck and replied in a hoarse voice,

“I didn’t do it.”

“You didn’t turn in your performance evaluation last time either.”

The girl, whom he thought would leave right away, just stared down at Nam-woon. When Nam-woon didn’t reply, she slammed a stack of notebooks she was holding onto the desk where Seo-oh was sitting and took one out from the pile. Then she handed it to Nam-woon.

“Just copy mine. The content is all the same anyway. You just need to turn it in.”

“……”

Nam-woon paused and looked up. He hesitated for a moment, then slowly reached out to take the notebook. Just then, a group of students called out from behind.

“What are you doing, class president?” 

Then, they glanced at Nam-woon in front of her, their expressions noticeably anxious. One of them lowered their voice and whispered. Gangster, fight… Unpleasant words slipped through his teeth, even in the brief moment Seo-oh heard them.

Creak.

Nam-woon stood up. In an instant, everyone’s gaze focused on Nam-woon. Seo-oh watched Nam-woon’s retreating back as he walked out into the hallway with his hands in his pockets. Seo-oh was filled with anger at the feeling of being powerless and ashamed at the fact that there was nothing he could do.