Chapter Text
Amidst the confusion. I stared at the child intensely, stared long enough for me to process what happened. I tried to examine the child, but before I could do anything, the boy cried.
“Huuuaaaa!!!”
‘oh god…’
This is bad. What should I do? Why is he crying? Did I do something wrong?
‘He’s so loud’
It will be bad if the neighbour knows this.
[Oh, friend, may I give you a suggestion? A classic one!]
oh, anything to make him stop.
[First, get your palm on your face.]
I followed Braun’s words. I placed my palm over my face.
[Then, open your, reveal your face and say ‘peek-a-boo’]
I opened my palm and revealed my face to the boy.
“Peek-a-boo”
“...”
“...”
“...”
The room fell into complete silence. From the corner of my eye, I can see Baek Saheon and his twitching lips. Damn it. It’s embarrassing.
[It is okay, friend, we did embarrassing things from time to time.
‘Oh my god.’
Said the one who made me do it.
“Hey.”
I turned my head, glared at Baek Saheon, showing an insane smile and placed my hand on his shoulder to intimidate him. He can’t see me embarrass myself or else, he’ll start to take advantage of me.
“Not going to help?”
He shuddered looking at me like I’m a mad man. I tightened my grip on his shoulder. He almost squeals.
“Y-yes, Sir.”
Suddenly the child started giggling.
‘Oh my god, this child is insane. He laughed at this?’
I don’t know if the child was laughing because of Baek Saheon's reaction or because he had threatened someone. Well, both of them sounded so wrong either way.
I alter my gaze to the newcomer, the child stares at me with wide eyes innocently. I would’ve called him cute if it weren’t the fact that he came from an egg and presumably a supernatural being.
I tried to reach out to the child, but before I could do that, Saheon was already in front of him, lowering his body and waving his hand to the boy.
“Hello.”
The boy flinched shyly at Saheon and responded by waving his hand to Saheon.
“Do you know where your parents are?”
Saheon asked surprisingly gentle with his words and it made me shiver at how fast he could switch up to someone. This made me wonder, does he have a soft spot with children? Or is he acting? No, wait. He’s sweating, definitely acting.
The boy then shook his head and answered.
“umm… no…”
Baek Saheon smiled at the boy and pointed at the egg.
“Okay. Do you want to get out of there?”
He nods.
“I’ll get you out.”
!!!
“No!”
The boy shook his head vastly.
“No, Scary…”
“Pfft-”
I almost choked at the boy's answer.
“Rejected, huh?”
“I was just trying to help.”
“Children are never wrong when it comes to judging a bad guy.”
He looked at me disgusted, as if I’m the bad guy. Nevertheless, it seems like the boy has a sharp sense.
[Indeed.]
I turn to the child and do exactly what Baek Saheon did. I lowered my body to match his height and tried a softer approach.
“I’ll get you out, okay?”
Then the boy nodded.
Huu
I actually wanted to turn and show victory, but this is too much! Carrying an entity that spawns from a supposedly item sounds terrifying.
After I carry him out, I saw a piece of paper inside the egg. After I put the boy down, I grab the paper and read the contents of it.
__________________________________________________________
CONGRATULATION TO NEW PARENTS!
NEW PARENTS:
KIM SOLEUM
BAEK SAHEON
CONDITION:
MUST NOT HARM CHILD
MUST TAKE CARE OF CHILD
MUST RETURN CHILD
HAPPY NEW FAMILY!
__________________________________________________________
It was a contract paper, wrapped like a birth certificate. There were blood stains, presumably mine and Saheon’s, as the sign for agreement to the contract.
“It used Human Blood, huh?”
I don’t want to think like that, but considering the blood it actually needs and then a human appeared. Doesn’t that mean it collects human information or maybe DNA to create another human?
I shuddered at the thought. Does it mean this item's purpose is to form a child? And to activate it, it needed at least two people to recreate its DNA? Hell.
I saw Baek Saheon peeking on the side to see what I was holding.
“Doesn’t that means biologically-”
“Are you a biologist?
“...”
“Do you want to act like you are one?”
“No, sir…”
“Great.”
That’s enough to shut him up.
But according to the paper, logically, he is mine and Saheon’s…
[Ho, no need to be worried! The child is more like you than your roommate. Yes, very charming and sharp.]
That’s not the issue…
I shook my head at the thought and looked at the boy, he seemed to be confused.
“Sir, shouldn’t he be handed to autorethies? Or at least daydream?”
Hearing that, I turned to Baek Ssheob and showed him the back of the paper.
“No, look.”
It says
Breach of contract may cause curse and death.
“We’ll die if he gets hurt.”
Also, the last conditions caught my attention.
‘Return Child?’
That’s the information we got. We need to take care of him, and presumably return?
Return to where?
Do we need to return him to the guy who sold the egg? Do I need to get to that darkness again to gain information?
The boy tugged me and signaled me to come closer for him to whisper
‘Toilet, please.’
Alright, so he acts like a human, he needs basic human needs, going to the toilet. I’m surprised though.
I escorted him to the bathroom and kneeled to talk to him.
“You can do it yourself?”
“Yes…”
He nods to me.
“Call me, if you need any help okay?”
“Umm… what should I call you?”
Heck right, what should he call me? Ahjussi?
[Let him call you Father, or what do you call it in Korean? Appa?]
Braun…
“Call me Ahjussi, okay?”
“Okay, Ahjussi.”
It’s better than any weird things.
After he gets inside and closes the door, I immediately turn to look at Saheon who is still trying to digest the situation.
“We’ll take care of him.”
“‘We’? Shouldn’t it just be you, sir?”
“You’re on the contract, of course you have the role here. Besides, you’re the one who startled me.”
He seemed to be speechless. I mean, I get it, suddenly have big responsibility such as taking care of a child is shocking.
“B-but Sir, don’t you think it’s dangerous to just blindly follow a contract? It’s from a darkness, right? What if it kills us in our sleep?!”
Good point. It’s not that I didn’t consider that. The idea of having an entity lurking in our house would sound dangerous to any sane person.
“Do you think Daydream would just let him be? Can you imagine all sorts of inhumane things they would do? Anything that happened to that child will affect us.”
“Still, sir, are you really sure it will be safe?”
“Braun, said it’s safe.”
I lied.
I looked at Saheon’s face, I almost screamed, he glares at me like someone who’s about to pick up a fight at my words because he thought I’m some lunatic for talking to Braun.
But isn’t it crazy to just scoop up a child to an institution that would kill you just to extract information? I don’t think I’ll be able to do that.
[You are right, friend, though the boy is a replica of a human, he is not dangerous.]
‘A replica?’
‘What does that mean-’
“Ahjussi!”
As I was wondering, the boy shouts and knocked at the door, signaling that he finished, then I opened the door for him.
“Ha…”
“Aigoo…”
The child came out with a really wet shirt, his pants are damp, and his hair is wet.
‘Was he playing with water or something?!’
Saheon then goes to his room.
“I’ll get a towel.”
‘That’s nice of him, just what is this crazy bastard plotting?’
Maybe, I’m just being paranoid.
He then came back with a towel and a hairdryer. I wrapped the boy in the towel and take off the boy's clothes. I told Saheon to dry the clothes outside, while I dried the boy’s hair.
***
In the morning, I dragged Baek Saheon to go shopping with me.
The boy needs to reuse last night's clothes because we don’t have anything that fits him. That’s why we’re going to shop.
We eventually arrived at the train station.
The boy doesn’t seem to be scared of Saheon anymore and even got curious about him.
‘Kid, I advise not to…’
When we were on the train we saw someone familiar.
‘It’s Ms. Goral!’
I immediately grabbed Baek Saheon’s arm in panic.