Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Can you talk to someone in the sky through your phone? A dead person?
'Of course...'
Of course not...
'Of course'...
"Hyunu, huh? Can you also talk to people up in the sky?"
"..."
What was so obvious?
To this child who had run out barefoot to the front door, pulling at my clothes with a desperate expression—the most earnest face I'd ever worn—nothing was obvious at all.
[What's obvious to one person may not be obvious to another.]
It's ironic that a line I'd read and laughed at would pop into my head at a moment like this.
"Not yet."
Crazy bastard.
What was I even trying to say? Knowing I'd regret it later, knowing how much lies hurt other people.
Maybe I really was irredeemable trash.
"Huh?!"
"Oh, it's... not possible yet. Yeah. But who knows what might happen later?"
"Later?! When? When is that?!"
"When you grow up much more mature than you are now. When you get older, when you grow up well and kind... then, well, maybe it'll be possible then."
"Really?! Really?!"
"..."
Words wouldn't come out, like a fist was stuck in my throat, so I just nodded vaguely.
[How do you plan to handle the consequences?]
I don't know either.
But if I told the truth right here and now... I felt like I just couldn't.
[Is that so?]
Yeah.
[If that's your judgment, I won't interfere. I think you're doing well, actually.]
Bullshit.
How long had I even been with this brat?
[No, that's not true.]
[In all the time I've observed, Miho smiles the most and brightest when she's with you.]
Shut up.
My head was already complicated enough, and it was embarrassing too, making me dizzy.
"Hyunu, one more time! One more time! Miho needs to practice a lot now for later!"
"Oh...kay! Okay! Let's go!"
"Gah-zzah~!"
Watching Miho dash back into the studio apartment like an arrow, I quietly sighed and made a phone call.
-Hello! Hello!
"Yeah, can you hear me?"
-Ahng! I can hear you well! Miho is Miho! This is Miho! Can Hyunu hear me?
"I can hear you so fucking well my ears are bleeding."
-Gasp!
Hearing Miho's lisping speech mixed in between, I clenched and unclenched my free hand dozens of times.
Even if I hadn't quit smoking, right now I felt an insane urge to smoke.
「Kkuk!」
In the past, before I even felt this way, I would have already run to the convenience store, bought two packs of cigarettes, and chain-smoked them all.
But not anymore.
-Hello! Hellooo!
"I can hear you."
Because from now on, I wasn't alone.
At least I shouldn't do things I'd regret just for myself. Even if I was going to regret things, let it be for that goddamn brat.
"This is fucking hilarious."
-Donna?
"No, nothing. Anyway, let's stop for today. I'm going inside now."
-Okay!
Looking at the call that ended with a click, I thought.
Honestly, at first, I figured as long as the Blessing kept up, I'd just keep Miho around casually. After all, what I needed was the Blessing, not Miho.
But my thinking changed.
In just one day.
"...How do you become a good parent?"
I wondered if I, a piece of trash who couldn't even treat my own parents properly, deserved to become a good one.
"Jesus... no, this is really hard. Just trying to raise one kid—one whose head is even somewhat big—is this difficult."
I couldn't imagine how parents back in the day managed to hold four or five babies who'd cry the second you looked away.
Had they all received some kind of Blessing like me?
「Hey, Kim Hyun-woo. As your homeroom teacher, I'll say one thing. I know better than anyone that you're a bastard who won't listen anyway.」
Was that my first year of high school homeroom English teacher?
The crazy bastard who carried around a long stick he could use as a cane even in an era where corporal punishment was banned once said something.
「Don't make your parents worry. You'll regret it later.」
"Man... fuck."
If I couldn't smoke, I felt like sucking on a candy or something.
I just smacked my lips and went inside.
"Hyunu!"
"It's already June, should be getting warm, but why's the weather still so cool? They say summers are getting longer because of global warming, but it's doing whatever it wants."
"Globoo warming?"
"It's a thing. Anyway, can't sleep? Let's watch some movies or something together before sleeping. Animation and stuff."
"What's that?"
"There is. Fun stuff. Perfect for passing the time when you're alone and I'm not here. Come here."
"Okay!"
Seeing Miho run into my arms faster than anyone, with the happiest expression—like a puppy—my heart softened again.
Wasn't this cuteness itself just a cheat code for little kids?
"Wanna watch Ddang-gu is Unstoppable?"
"Ddang-gu! Hehehe!"
Watching Miho laugh like an idiot in my arms, already focused on the phone screen, I was already worried about tomorrow.
Worried about whether I could go to work properly leaving behind someone this anxious.
But I still had to go... It was already a huge deal that I'd skipped work on my very first day.
[Ahn Gi-pyo you bastard: You. If you don't show up tomorrow either, you're fucking dead.]
Judging by the store manager saying that, it seemed some woman had requested me again today.
This damn popularity...
Getting requests right after returning was practically a miracle.
[Kim Hyun-woo: Even if the sky splits in two, I will come to work tomorrow.]
For now, just commit.
It was like a promise to myself.
If I spoke so firmly to the other person, maybe I'd be forced to go no matter what.
'This way I'll have to go.'
Muttering that to myself, I gently stroked Miho's head as she lay in my arms, completely absorbed in the animation.
"Huh?"
[What is it?]
"No, nothing."
I looked at my palm with a sour expression.
It felt like something was really hot just now...
Probably my imagination.
The next morning, having fallen asleep after watching nearly five hours of animation lying next to Miho, my eyes snapped open at a sound from beside me.
"Keuuuuh, uuuh... Ke, keuht, uuh..."
"..."
What, what is it, what's wrong?
"Hey, hey!"
I shot up and looked beside me. Miho was clutching her chest tightly, her face bright red, sweating profusely.
With a heavily furrowed brow and continuous groans, the pain seemed considerable.
"W-wait, 911, 911... I mean, no, taking a taxi to the hospital nearby would be faster..."
[Calm down! She's fine!]
"Does this look fine to you?! Can't you see she's dying?!"
[She's just having a temporary fever while adapting to this world. This world has an especially unique environment among the countless dimensions. So otherworldly beings must go through this process once, or sometimes multiple times, for their bodies to adapt.]
"So... I'm just supposed to watch?!"
[I'm telling you that going to the hospital won't change anything.]
I was about to jump up angrily at that, but before I could, Miho weakly grabbed one of my fingers.
And said this.
"Hyunu... is Miho... dying?"
"What nonsense! People don't die from this kind of thing. Got it? It's just temporary pain."
The disease you have is always the worst in the world.
When I was little, even catching the flu used to make me worry alone whether I had a terminal illness.
Remembering that, I absolutely couldn't leave Miho alone.
「Shwaaaa!」
I washed a towel in cold water, wrung it out hard, and placed it over Miho's face.
"It's cool..."
Then I went through the same process with another towel, just in case, and carefully put it in the freezer. If her fever went higher, or the current towel got cold, I'd use that one.
After that, all I could do was be there for her.
Reading her a picture book, and when she barely had enough strength to sit up, I made her porridge and force-fed her.
"Well, at least you're eating well."
"It's... tasty..."
This was what kids were like.
I realized it again.
Children were creatures who could change dramatically overnight, and at the same time, could get hurt badly too.
[Current Time]
[PM 7:00]
Already 7 PM, huh...
[Kim Hyun-woo: Even if the sky splits in two, I will come to work tomorrow.]
It was ridiculous that I'd sent that message.
[Kim Hyun-woo: Sorry, looks like I can't come today either.]
This was a bigger deal than the sky splitting in two.
"Look what I've become because of you."
"Sowwy..."
"If you're sorry, just get better faster."
"Okay..."
I stared blankly at Miho, who had finally collapsed from exhaustion and fallen asleep like dead weight as evening came.
They say once you have a kid, your life's center revolves around them.
That was exactly right.
"Maybe..."
[....]
"...Is it strange to think I wish I had gotten sick instead?"
The answer was simple.
[No.]
For three days and nights, Miho was sick with a raging fever.
Her eyes wouldn't open properly, her heart ached, and she was gripped by the fear that she might die at any moment.
Her whole body had no energy, and the slightest movement brought excruciating pain.
'I'm going to die. This must be a terminal illness.'
Miho thought so.
Because this level of pain couldn't mean anything other than death. Moreover, every time she felt this pain, she remembered her tongue, which she had bitten countless times before.
So...
'...Maybe dying wouldn't be so bad.'
Then Miho could meet her parents up in heaven too.
But...
"Hey, I'm changing your towel."
"..."
"You okay? If you're okay, say something. If you don't have the strength to talk, at least wiggle a finger or something!"
...This human was strange.
Everything was different from the humans she had seen before.
Why was he being so kind to her?
He bought her lots of food, bought her clothes.
He even took her to play at a place called an arcade, and the animation she'd seen a few days ago was so amazing and fun that she'd watched it obsessively, completely absorbed.
'It was fun...'
It was amazing.
Time spent with Kim Hyun-woo was so much fun, so happy, and, and also... warm.
Like, it was like...
"Waaah, waaaaaahhh!"
"What do you need? Why are you crying? Does it hurt somewhere? Want me to pat your back or something?"
For some reason, the name she had heard recently came to mind.
"Kim Miho."
At that moment, Miho cried out without thinking.
"Appa, huaaaah! Appa, Miho hurts. Hyaaaah, Miho hurts so much. I don't wanna die! Hyaaaaaaahhh...!"
At the same time, Kim Hyun-woo, who was watching from beside her, pulled Miho into a tight embrace.
In that cold iron cage, no matter how much she cried and screamed, she couldn't feel even a tiny bit of warmth, but here, she could feel it immediately.
It was so warm that Miho felt safe, relaxed her body's tension, and was able to sleep soundly.
And the next day.
Miho recovered her health.