Chapter 184 Even the Almighty is New to Being a Dad Chapter 185
Absolute Beginner Dad Episode 185
Lee Doo-hyun had a dream.
"Oh God..."
It was a dream of wandering through flames.
"When I am called, grant me the strength to save even one life from the fiercest fires."
His vision was entirely dyed crimson.
The scorching heat stung his skin, and the suffocating blaze was at its peak.
"Let me embrace a child before it's too late. Let me rescue the elderly trembling in fear."
As always, he spotted a dark figure.
His comrades' shouts echoed around him.
They screamed as if in agony, gesturing wildly.
"Get back here now!"
"You crazy bastard!"
"Turn around, I said!"
Doo-hyun looked at them and shook his head.
"You all go ahead first."
He had relived this same dream countless times since that day.
Each time, he made the same choice.
"Let me always stay focused enough to hear even the faintest cry. Let me extinguish fires swiftly and efficiently."
He turned back.
Like a moth drawn to flame...
He walked straight into the blazing inferno.
"Let me fulfill my duty faithfully. Let me do my utmost—"
The building's ceiling collapsed.
"—to protect the lives and property of my neighbors."
A chunk of debris fell at terrifying speed and struck the back of his skull with pinpoint accuracy—
Thud.
The collapsing structure pinned his entire body, leaving him unable to move.
"And if it is Your will that my life should end here, please... watch over my wife and children with Your gracious hand."
His vision darkened gradually.
He should have saved them.
He should have saved them no matter what.
"Ghhhk—"
The raging flames pierced through his thick firefighting gear and seared into his flesh.
His entire body burned.
But more than his flesh, it felt like his heart was turning to blackened ash.
"I'm sorry."
Sorry for failing to save them.
"I'm so sorry."
Just before losing consciousness and collapsing...
He...
Shed tears of bitter sorrow.
"I'm sorry—"
This was already his hundredth time.
The dark figure—
The one who might have been a person—
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you every time."
He had never saved them. Not once.
A voice echoed in his ears.
A voice that tore at his heart.
"It's hot."
The dark figure kept repeating those words.
His wife shook him awake.
"Honey."
Their cramped one-room apartment surrounded them.
"Are you leaving for work already?"
She forced a bright smile as she spoke.
"Yeah. Take care of Chae-ah today too, okay?"
"Don't worry. Come back safe."
"Did you really drink that much last night?"
Doo-hyun scratched his head awkwardly.
"Ah, well..."
He gave an embarrassed laugh.
"It was fun for once."
His wife looked surprised.
"Fun?"
"Yeah. For once."
If anyone else had said that, she wouldn't have been shocked.
But her husband was the last person to ever say something was "fun."
Ever since the accident, he had been withdrawn.
He never truly smiled, always weighed down by despair.
Hearing him say he had fun was nothing short of astonishing.
"Come to think of it, how did I even get home...?"
His wife answered.
"Some young man carried you back."
"A young man?"
"He said something like..."
She tried to recall.
"'I just brought you back because you couldn't sleep like this, so don't bother thanking me.'"
Doo-hyun suddenly muttered, "Ah!" under his breath.
"Damn it, damn it all!"
The voice of the young man who had carried him on his back echoed in his ears.
"If you don't come home, your family will worry, you know? If you're going to drink, at least drink enough to stay conscious—"
He was definitely the worker from the udon shop.
"I only brought you back because I can't sleep with someone next to me, so don't even think about thanking me later—!"
He had definitely carried Doo-hyun on his back, grumbling all the way up the hill to their tiny house at the top of the slum.
"And besides, you have a daughter, don't you?!"
He was a good person.
"Don't make your child worry!"
Definitely a good person.
"I'm really sorry about this..."
His wife continued.
"Anyway, I left some food, so eat with Chae-ah and take her to daycare, okay?"
Doo-hyun nodded. "Got it."
Without realizing it, his gaze drifted to his wife's hands—rough and cracked.
They were ugly hands.
Once smooth as silk in her youth, they had become calloused and worn after marrying him.
Ever since the accident, she had taken any job that paid—cleaning, restaurant work, anything.
"I'll be back."
Just as she was about to leave—
"Honey."
Doo-hyun stopped her.
"I'm sorry."
She shook her head.
A brief silence passed.
Then she spoke solemnly.
"You were right."
"......"
"You made the right choice."
She slipped on her worn-out sneakers.
The soles were completely worn through.
Stained and tattered.
"I respect you."
No words could answer that.
What did respect even mean when they worried about having rice for tomorrow?
"Chae-ah will understand someday."
A useless husband who made his wife suffer.
A terrifying father his daughter feared.
That was his reality.
"Let's try to stand up again."
Doo-hyun forced a nod.
"Yeah. Let's do that."
He was an outsider.
Nowhere...
Would accept him.
Click.
Worried their daughter might wake up, his wife left quietly.
Silence filled their cramped home.
Lee Ji-hee, the homeroom teacher of the Love Class, glanced at the notice she had just received and murmured.
"Field trip schedule?"
The teacher sitting beside her in the faculty office shrugged and chattered away.
"Apparently, it was suddenly arranged by the chairman?"
"Really?"
"I don't know why it's so last-minute, but it looks educational."
Ji-hee nodded several times.
[Retired Firefighters Invitational Retirement Ceremony]
Organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Awakened and Gate Management Bureau, it was a grand ceremony to honor firefighters who had retired in recent years.
"It definitely sounds educational."
If the children attended, it would be a valuable experience—a noble and upright event.
"Huh."
She muttered briefly.
"Come to think of it, I heard Chae-ah's father was a firefighter who retired just a year or two ago."
In any case, the ceremony was—
"Tomorrow."
Definitely a sudden schedule.
The Fire Commissioner hurried into an upscale Korean restaurant.
"I'm here to meet Director Seo Do-cheol."
At his words, a staff member politely guided him to a private room.
"Right this way, please."
Tension was etched across the commissioner's face.
The retirement ceremony had been arranged abruptly.
On the surface, it was a joint event between Seoul and the Bureau, but...
'The order came from higher up.'
It was practically orchestrated by Seo Do-cheol, the Bureau Director whose authority rivaled that of a national leader.
Why would someone as busy as him personally oversee a retirement ceremony?
Even the city officials had scrambled to push the event through at short notice—something he couldn't comprehend.
'Just whose orders are these...?'
Then—
Knock knock.
The staff member cautiously rapped on the door of the private room.
"Here we are."
As the sliding door of the elegant hanok-style room opened—
"The Fire Commissioner?"
Neither the Seoul Mayor nor the Bureau Director—the ones he was supposed to meet—were present.
"Who...?"
Only a young man sitting at the head of the spacious table and a goblin standing behind him came into view.
"I asked if you're the Fire Commissioner."
The man's imposing tone made the commissioner shrink slightly.
"Y-Yes, I am, but..."
His eyes darted around nervously.
"And you are...?"
The young man, who had been eating alone, set down his chopsticks lightly.
"Thanks for cooperating with the event."
The commissioner swallowed dryly.
Decades of civil service instincts whispered to him—
This young man.
A single word from him had mobilized all those powerful figures.
They had rushed to arrange the ceremony overnight.
"Not at all..."
The commissioner replied humbly. The young man at the head of the table took a sip of green tea before speaking again.
"By the way, the support funds for firefighters who died in the line of duty or retired due to injuries are ridiculously low."
The commissioner answered cautiously, gauging the young man's reaction.
"Well, recently, most of the budget has been diverted to the Bureau, so we have no choice but to—"
The young man cut in.
"Increase the compensation."
"Huh?"
"Double it. No, triple it."
How could they increase the funds when the budget was already stretched thin?
"You asked who I am, right?"
The young man wiped his mouth with a napkin and added playfully.
"I'm a wealthy donor."
Then he glanced at the goblin behind him.
"Kazan, prepare the documents."
Kazan promptly produced a sponsorship certificate and handed it to the commissioner.
"A sponsorship certificate...?"
It stated that Kang-jun, through the Yi-Seol Foundation established for the welfare of the Snow White Daycare children, would donate a substantial sum annually.
"I'll head out first."
The commissioner stood abruptly, bewildered.
"You're leaving already?"
This was supposed to be a meeting with the Seoul Mayor and the Bureau Director.
Hadn't they all just arrived?
Kang-jun answered nonchalantly.
"You handle the tedious details."
As he stepped out of the private room—
"Ah! G-Goodbye!"
"Yeah."
"I'm so sorry for being late!"
"It's fine."
Seo Do-cheol, who had just entered, spotted Kang-jun and immediately bowed deeply at a perfect 90-degree angle.
"I'll get going."
"What about the meal—?"
"Already finished."
Kang-jun patted Do-cheol's shoulder lightly and left the restaurant without another word.
"Please take care!"
The commissioner could only gape at the scene.
Just who was he...
That even the mighty Bureau Director would bow so respectfully?
"What in the world is going on...?"
Questions piled up in his mind.
Kang-jun stepped out of the restaurant and got into the waiting car.
"Shall we head there now?"
At the goblin driver's question, Kang-jun nodded.
"Take me straight there."
He wanted to check something before tomorrow's ceremony.
Just what was the dark figure Doo-hyun had seen?
Was it really just an object—or had it been a person?
"We're here."
The car glided to a stop in front of the skeletal remains of an apartment building.
Once a towering structure, it was now a hollow shell.
Kang-jun climbed the stairs of the abandoned building, slowly expanding his sensory perception.
How much time passed?
When he reached the exact spot where Doo-hyun had been injured, he stopped and stared in one direction.
Something was there.
A black mass.
Once... a child.
"It's hot... Save me... Help me..."
The lingering grudge of a child who had never left the scene of the accident.
"Damn it."
He had hoped it wasn't true.
"It was a person after all..."
Kang-jun gestured, and the inky black mass shuffled toward him.
"It's too hot..."
He soothed the child gently.
"It's okay now. You're safe."
"You didn't save me."
"I'm sure he wanted to."
Then he held the child in his arms.
Just about Seol's size.
His heart ached.
"It's really okay."
He wanted to ask for forgiveness on Doo-hyun's behalf.
But...
It felt like too much to ask right now.
"Hey, kid."
He made a request instead.
"Want to come with me for a bit?"
The child's grudge hesitated briefly...
"If you come with me..."
Kang-jun added softly.
"You might be able to forgive him."
The child's grudge nodded.
And so...
The retirement ceremony drew near.
Tomorrow.