The child was quite fond of this space.
It was his first time here, so everything felt unfamiliar, but the house was as spacious and clean as a playground, and piles of brand-new toys, still in their packaging, were stacked up. When the ‘Samchon1‘ who had brought him here from school told him he could play with them as much as he wanted, he was so overjoyed that he clapped and jumped up and down like he might fly away.
At that, the uncle, looking deeply flustered, kept bowing as he turned toward the red-eyed man sitting on the sofa. The child picked up bits of conversation like, “He’s too young” and “I’m sorry, CEO-nim”, but didn’t understand that they were talking about him.
Since he was still too young to guess people’s ages by their appearance, the child called the red-eyed man ‘Ahjussi‘. That’s because, in the child’s world, anyone dressed in black like that was always a very grown-up adult. He could have called him ‘Samchon‘ like the man who had driven him here, but … somehow, that felt a bit too difficult.
In truth, even the child, who usually had a very cheerful personality, found that ahjussi a little scary. The man spoke very little, rarely responding even when the child chattered away to him, and his gaze was icy cold.
But after hearing from the samchon that all the toys had been bought by the ahjussi, the child’s wariness melted away like snow. Now that they had become a little closer, it would’ve been nice to play together, but the ahjussi left the house again right away. When the child looked a bit disappointed, Samchon gently comforted him, saying the ahjussi was a very busy person and didn’t have a choice.
Having grown used to spending time alone because his father always said he was too busy to come home, the child cheerfully replied, “It’s okay! I’m really good at waiting!”. Then he sat down in front of the living room TV and began watching his favorite hero cartoon.
[“I am Red, the Apostle of Justice! In the name of justice, I will never forgive you for trampling on the lives of innocent people!”]
As the child was wiggling his toes in excitement, engrossed in watching the hero’s intense battle with the villain, he accidentally brushed the remote, and the channel changed. A strange song started playing, and a group of handsome hyungs appeared under flashing, colorful lights.
“Wait, nooo! I didn’t mean to do that!”
At the critical moment when the hero was about to be struck back by the villain, the screen suddenly changed. The child ran to the TV, stomping his feet in frustration. Just then, a piercing scream rang out, and he saw the hyung in the center of the screen fell down. Startled, the child quickly covered his eyes with his hands. In that moment, the samchon, who had been beside him, suddenly took a call and stepped out.
“There’s something scary on TV, so I should do something else. I should do something else…….”
With his heart pounding, the child hurriedly turned off the TV and headed toward the pile of toys, trying to erase what he had just seen from his mind. He then opened a set of action figures that looked exactly like the hero from the cartoon he hadn’t finished watching earlier.
Since it was such an expensive toy set, it included every character from the cartoon. However, the child only cared about the hero. He played with the figures in a frenzy for a while, and even when he accidentally stepped on the villain, who had been tossed into a corner, with a loud crunch, he didn’t pay it any mind.
Soon afterward, he heard the front door open.
Just like always, his face lit up with joy as he jumped to his feet and ran toward the front door.
“Ahjussi!”
It wasn’t his father, but the ahjussi who had left the house earlier had really come back.
And with him was a hyung who looked just like a doll, with really white skin.
For some reason, this hyung looked a lot like the hyung he had seen on TV earlier. The only differences were that this hyung was even more handsome, had dark shadows under his eyes, and looked thinner.
Sniff, when he secretly took a whiff, he caught the scent of medicine he didn’t like.
Maybe he just came back from the hospital.
“What else could it be, Yutae-ya? He’s Kang Hyukwoo’s son.”
Hearing the name ‘Kang Hyukwoo‘ come up repeatedly in their conversation, he assumed the hyungmust be one of his dad’s friends. When he smiled brightly and asked, “Are you my dad’s friend?”, thehyung flinched and took a step back.
“What were you planning to do by bringing him here? What do you expect me to do…….”
Ah, now that his face had gone completely pale, he looked even more like the person from the TV.
As expected, they really are the same person?
While the child was tilting his head in confusion, the man reached out his hand and spoke, “…Wanna play with this Samchon? It must’ve been boring being alone, right?”
A samchon was supposed to have a round belly, a beard, and a gruff voice, so he couldn’t understand why this hyung was calling himself samchon. But even as he wondered about it, the offer to play together made him so happy that he leapt into his arms—and was met with a warm, gentle hug.
Usually, hyungs would hug awkwardly and uncomfortably, but this hyung named Yutae seemed completely used to it. Was that why he was a samchon? The thought crossed his mind, but as he was lifted up and carried toward the room full of toys, his mind quickly emptied, replaced with rising excitement.
After setting the child down in the room, the hyung let his gaze linger on the red cape he’d kept wrapped around himself. The hyung then murmured to himself, “So this is the kind of thing kids usually like.”
When the child eagerly nodded and asked, “Why?”, he replied in a quiet voice, “…It’s just that, Samchon’s little brother never seemed to like this kind of stuff. He only liked reading books and being held by me.”
There was something so lonely about the hyung’s expression that the child, without even realizing it, lowered his head and pouted. For some reason, just looking at the hyung’s face made him feel like he might burst into tears like a little baby, so he tried to distract himself by tapping the floor with his tiptoes.
Noticing the child’s expression, the hyung quickly smiled and said, “No, I said something I shouldn’t have. Forget it”. Then he shook the toy box to catch the child’s attention.
“I am Red, the Apostle of Justice! In the name of justice, I will never forgive you for trampling on the lives of innocent people!”
Though he was incredibly good at giving hugs, he seemed a little clumsy when it came to playing heroes. Still, he quickly got the hang of it and played the villain’s role surprisingly well. When he collapsed onto the floor just like a villain from the cartoon, and the child came running over with teary eyes calling out to him, he would grin and pull the child into a warm hug.
Then the child would burst into giggles a moment later and wrap his arms around the man’s neck, clinging to him.
And every time the child held onto him like that, he would hug the child back tightly, time and again.
“I really, really like you, hyung!”
Every time the child was held close in that warm embrace, he felt a deep sense of happiness fill him.
Although he never expressed it, the child was always lonely.
The child’s father rarely came home, and as a result, the amount of time the child was left alone in the house without any family inevitably grew.
There was a nanny who cared for him around the clock, but how could she possibly provide all the love a child of his age rightfully deserved? That such a child would begin to crave for love after meeting someone like Seo Yutae, who offered him complete and undivided affection, was inevitable.
Seo Yutae was the warmest person the child had ever met.
Just as the child was basking in his warmth with a cheerful giggle, the collar snagged on the small hand wrapped around his neck, causing the fabric to slip and reveal the skin underneath.
His white skin had turned entirely purple, like all the life had drained from it.
“Hyung, your skin is purple. What happened here?”
Seo Yutae hesitated without answering the question.
He was searching for a believable excuse. And just as he opened his mouth to say something like “I fell”, Choi Jeokhyeon walked into the room, phone in hand. As soon as he saw him, Seo Yutae froze for a moment, then slowly set the child down on the floor.
And then he bent down a little, took the child’s hand, and gently led him toward the front door.
“Let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“We need to get you home. I called your father.”
Sensing that it was time to say goodbye, the child pouted a little in disappointment. But the thought of ‘Dad is coming‘ made him happy too, so he didn’t throw a tantrum and quietly got ready to leave. Still, perhaps feeling a bit reluctant, he tugged on the hand he was holding, making Seo Yutae bend down, then whispered softly into his ear.
“Hyung, can I take that?”
He was referring to the Red’s action figure and cape he’d been playing with all day today. Seo Yutae replied that he could take anything he wanted, but the child shook his head and packed only the two toys he had mentioned.
I’m going to brag to Dad when I see him. I’m going to tell him I had sooo much fun today.
That’s what he promised himself.
***
“Chaeyul’s father, I came to the school on time, but…….”
“…….”
“Chaeyul is missing.”
The moment he heard those words, Kang Hyukwoo felt as if the ground had suddenly given way beneath him.
‘Should I report this to the police? … No, I can’t. If word gets out that Chaeyul is my son…….’
He couldn’t even hear the nanny’s frantic excuses. His head was spinning, filled with thoughts of all the missing children he’d once seen on the news, stories he’d brushed off back then as having nothing to do with him. Now, his thoughts screamed in panic. Now, those forgotten headlines echoed like a scream in his head. Kidnapping. Disappearance. Hit-and-run. Trafficking. The possibilities were endless.
But the possibility that terrified him the most was that someone who held a grudge against him had deliberately kidnapped his child. The mere thought of his son being dragged away by strangers he didn’t even recognize, screaming and crying, made his hands and feet tremble so badly he could hardly remain standing.
He had never felt fear like this before.
‘Why did this happen?’
He had been so careful, reminding the nanny over and over to pick his son up on time according to his school schedule, all in hopes of preventing exactly this kind of situation. And yet, it had still happened. He was at a complete loss.
“…Hey, you b**ch, I’m paying you to keep an eye on one kid, and what? The kid’s missing? I don’t care what it takes, find him! F**k, I’ll kill you. If you don’t find that kid, I’ll track down your whole family and kill them right in front of you.”
In the end, after unleashing his fury and hurling a stream of curses at the nanny, Kang Hyukwoo stormed out immediately.
“Chaeyul-ah! Kim Chaeyul!”
Then, shouting his child’s name at the top of his lungs, he began running around the school and the neighborhood. Every time he ran into a passerby, he would show them a photo on his phone and ask if they’d seen a child who looked like that, but he couldn’t get a single clue.
“Huff, huff … haah.”
Wiping the sweat streaming down his face with his sleeve and gasping for breath, Kang Hyukwoo finally, after a moment of hesitation, pulled out his phone.
Should he report this to the police? His child is missing right now, shouldn’t he stop worrying about the future consequences and just act?
Beep, beep.
As he chewed anxiously on the inside of his cheek, torn in conflict, his phone rang. Lee Saehwa was calling.
.
.
.
Kang Hyukwoo rushed to the address Choi Jeokhyeon had sent him and immediately spotted his son holding hands with Han Seungbeom. The moment Kang Hyukwoo laid eyes on the boy, his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground, breath catching in his throat as a rough groan escaped him.
“Daaad!”
The child ran over excitedly to hug him, but Kang Hyukwoo immediately stopped him and grabbed his arm firmly, checking to see if he was hurt anywhere. Then, he belatedly noticed the cookie crumbs around the boy’s mouth, the red action figure clutched in his hand, the cape draped over his shoulders, and the flushed cheeks from playing.
“…….”
He felt betrayed.
I’ve been searching every corner of this neighborhood, going through hell over and over again trying to find you, and all this time, you were having fun with those people I consider enemies?
The child, smiling so innocently without knowing a thing, suddenly felt unbearably infuriating.
“You … who said you could follow someone you don’t know?”
“…D-Dad?”
The child froze in shock at the sight of his father’s hardened expression—something he had never seen before. But Kang Hyukwoo didn’t stop there and, eventually, crossed a line he shouldn’t have.
“Are you out of your mind right now?!”
Kang Hyukwoo’s raised hand came down hard, striking the child’s cheek.
It was a reaction driven by the unbearable fear of losing his child, dressed up as ‘worry’ to make it feel justifiable, but in truth, it was nothing more than him offloading his own anxiety onto the child. Maybe he even believed that scaring him like this would keep him from ever following a stranger again.
The child, unable to withstand the strength of an adult man, collapsed straight to the ground. He brought a hand to his cheek, then slowly looked up at Kang Hyukwoo, as if he couldn’t believe he had just been hit.
“Ah, ahhh…….”
And then, he started to cry.
At that moment, the shock seemed to outweigh the pain.
As soon as he took in the sight, Kang Hyukwoo glanced down at his own hand, his eyes trembling.
‘What have I just done?’
It felt like he had just made an irreversible mistake.
He hurriedly reached out to the child, trying to salvage the situation, but…….
“…Chaeyul-ah, Chaeyul-ah, Dad made a mistake. I’m sorry.”
“Aaaah! No! I hate it!”
The moment the shadow of a large hand loomed over his head, the child shrieked, almost as if having a fit.
Seeing that, he was reminded of Jo Inchan’s face; how he would close his eyes in resignation every time he raised his hand. Then he remembered how those shut eyelids would open again, and how Jo Inchan’s piercing gaze, filled with resentment, would stare straight at him. The memory struck him like a bolt.
No.
He will not raise his son in that manner.
He had raised his child without ever laying a hand on him, even going so far as to read parenting books that didn’t suit him, all in an effort to maintain a healthy relationship.
This child, of all people, should not have looked at him with such eyes.
This child should have loved him completely. This child was his.
“Chaeyul-ah, please…….”
Kang Hyukwoo stared blankly at his son’s back, as the child shook off his hand and burrowed into the embrace of Seo Yutae—the very man he hated with all his heart.
‘No. My hand just moved on its own. Out of habit…….’
Becoming a good person was much harder than you might think.
Just because someone precious enters your life doesn’t mean you’ll become a better person overnight.
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Translator’s Corner:
Wow … Yutae would really make a great father …. He’s so father …. This novel’s market target definitely people with father issue…..
Ugh 14 chapters more this arc …. we all should live long enough to see it to the end … and to the side stories too…..
And I wish I’m not sick. My skin keeps getting rash, and I’m at this point where I’m not sure if it’s because of the change in environment (but I’ve been in this place since January…..) or is this what they said signs of Cancer … I still don’t have the courage to go to the Doctor asdfghjkl well. I don’t particularly want to live, but I’m just ??? scared of death ??? like what would happen after death. What if I became a wandering ghost never be able to rest. What if I got sent to hell. If afterlife doesn’t actually exist, then what would happen when you die …. omg ….. like life is really really really scary, but at least I know what’s in there … death is scarier because we don’t know anything about it……
Now that I thought about it, did anyone here ever see a ghost? Are you the type who believed they’re exist or not?
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