Only Bad for Me (Completed Main Story) - Side Story 7

Young Jae Ha saw that the children were like that.

Most of them couldn’t stop crying easily.

For a brief moment, they’d forget their parents—who’d left them in this unfamiliar place, or more accurately, abandoned them—and find peace in the arms of those caring for them, but that peace never lasted long.

Just before falling asleep, right after waking up, or even while happily playing, they’d suddenly burst into heartbroken sobs.

This was true for both babies too young to speak and children who could already clearly call out “Mother.”

Jae Ha once overheard a volunteer clicking their tongue and saying babies couldn’t easily forget the scent of their mothers.

The scent of their mother?

Young Jae Ha tilted his head in confusion. His mother’s scent?

Of course, given enough time, most children eventually forgot not only that scent but even their mothers’ faces.

But the boy had never had such memories to begin with.

Jae Ha had arrived at Sunflower Hill as a newborn.

He was told his surname “Kwon” came from the priest, and his given name “Jae Ha” had been chosen together by the priest and the nun.

The nun, who recalled how astonishingly cold it had been that day—so cold it was a miracle the baby hadn’t frozen to death—patted Jae Ha’s head with evident pride.

What she meant was that whoever abandoned him hadn’t even wrapped him in a thick enough blanket—it had been the dead of winter.

The boy, far too clever and perceptive for his age, had also thought perhaps they hadn’t just abandoned him but actually wished for him to die.

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