Tae Kyung furrowed his brow and stared intently at Hyun Young.
Hyun Young’s words suggesting it was natural for Min Seop to care for Min Joon bothered him.
He felt sick as the thought of being a foreign object between Min Seop and Seo Ha rushed over him.
He hid his inner feelings and asked dryly.
“Do other parents stay quiet about the apparent favoritism towards a specific child?”
“Some occasionally express discomfort, but everyone understands. And since Teacher Kwak has been filling in as Min Joon’s father at kindergarten events until now, they probably feel even more attached.”
“…”
Tae Kyung felt an inexplicable sense of defeat towards Min Seop. He felt bitter, as if he was intruding between Seo Ha and Min Seop.
“I’ll be going now. I’ll be back in time for class.”
“Alright. You’re working hard. Take care.”
Tae Kyung had stopped by the kindergarten wanting to see Seo Ha, but he headed to Emil Kindergarten with only bitterness, having failed to achieve his goal.
Tae Kyung returned to Onnuri Kindergarten an hour before the afternoon coding class was to begin.
As he was setting up for class in the creativity room, there was a commotion outside.
When he opened the door and went out, Seo Ha was sitting on the ground with tears in her eyes, looking dazed. Her face was deathly pale and her whole body was trembling.
[This is the timeline separator]The children who arrived at the pool were excited and bustling.
Min Seop skillfully led the boys into the changing room. As all the teachers were women, Min Seop’s touch was needed to wash, dress, and take care of the boys.
“Alright, friends. Put your clothes in the lockers and come here with your swim caps and goggles.”
Min Seop showed the children to their lockers while changing into shorts and a white short-sleeved t-shirt himself.
Following Min Seop’s lead, the children wet their entire bodies in the shower before entering the pool. Then, putting on their swim caps, they went out to the pool one by one.
Min Joon put on his swim cap with his tiny hands, but strands of hair were sticking out. Min Seop smiled gently and properly adjusted Min Joon’s swim cap.
“Min Joon, you look great! Shall we go out now?”
Min Joon smiled brightly and held Min Seop’s hand as they headed to the pool.
The children sat in a line in front of the children’s pool.
While the pool’s swim instructor conducted the lesson, Min Seop and the other kindergarten teachers stood by the children’s pool, carefully watching the children swim.
Accidents at the pool can happen in an instant, so they couldn’t relax for a moment.
The children were delighted, splashing about like fish in water once they got in. It was cute to see them kicking with their tiny hands holding kickboards.
In the middle of the lesson, Min Joon raised his hand towards Min Seop.
Min Seop approached Min Joon.
“Min Joon, what’s wrong?”
“Teacher, I need to poop.”
“Alright. Then come out carefully. Let’s go to the bathroom.”
“Okay.”
Min Joon came out of the water. In a great hurry, Min Joon started running without even holding Min Seop’s hand.
“Min Joon! Dangerous! Don’t run in the pool!”
Min Joon ran with all his might on his short legs, as if he couldn’t hear Min Seop’s warning.
“Aaah!”
Thud!
There was a loud sound as the small body of the running child staggered.
“Min Joon!”
Seeing this, Min Seop quickly ran to Min Joon.
Min Joon had slipped on the pool water and hit his head on the floor as he fell.
Min Joon’s face was pale white without a hint of blood, and his lips were blue. The whites of his eyes showed through his half-closed eyelids.
Min Seop hugged the unconscious Min Joon and shook him.
“Min Joon! Min Joon, wake up! Call 119! Please call 119 first!”
Min Seop called for Min Joon desperately, but Min Joon couldn’t open his eyes.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no visible bleeding.
“Hello! Is this 119? We’re at a pool, it’s a 5-year-old boy, the child fell and hit his head on the floor and lost consciousness. Please come quickly, quickly. He’s not vomiting, but his lips are blue.”
Min Seop held Min Joon’s hand tightly. The child’s hand was ice cold.
Will he be okay until 119 arrives?
Why isn’t 119 coming? Where is the lifeguard?
“Blanket! Please bring a blanket!”
Min Seop shouted towards the pool staff. Min Seop unfastened the life jacket Min Joon was wearing and laid him on his side. He positioned him to make breathing easier.
His small chest rose and fell with wheezing breaths.
The children became chaotic, watching Min Joon who had collapsed and Min Seop massaging the child’s limbs.
“Is Min Joon dying?”
“Really? No! Our friend can’t die!”
At one child’s question, other children fell into panic, some losing their minds, some trembling and crying loudly in the water. Some threw tantrums saying they wanted to go home.
The supervising teachers were busy trying to calm the children.
“Kids, it’s okay. Min Joon isn’t dying. Don’t worry.”
“If anyone isn’t feeling well, you can come out of the water.”
At the teachers’ words, a few crying girls came out of the water and shivered.
Meanwhile, Joo Ri, who had come to supervise, immediately called the kindergarten.
“Di, Director! Min Joon! Min Joon fell and lost consciousness! What do we do about Min Joon! What do we do, Director! Please help!”
– Calm down and call me again as soon as you move him to the hospital. I’ll have Teacher Kim go there.
“Yes, Director. Sob sob.”
Joo Ri burst into tears, more shocked herself. But soon she wiped her tears and started taking care of the children.
Not long after, paramedics in orange uniforms arrived. They loaded Min Joon onto a stretcher and took him out. Min Seop followed Min Joon.
In the ambulance, Min Seop held Min Joon’s hand tightly and prayed inwardly.
Please let this child open his eyes again with a smile.
The ambulance arrived at the hospital emergency room with urgent sirens blaring.
Fortunately, Min Joon’s eyelids trembled and slowly opened.
“Min Joon! Can you see teacher? Hm?”
Min Joon turned his head towards Min Seop with difficulty.
Seeing this, the paramedic shone a light in Min Joon’s eyes.
While checking his pulse, he asked Min Joon a few things. As the emergency room doctor examined Min Joon, Seo Ha arrived.
“Min Joon!”
“Mo… Mommy…”
“Yes. It’s Mommy!”
Seeing Min Joon recognize her, Seo Ha burst into tears.
She had been terrified of what might have happened.
Her hands and feet were as cold as Min Joon’s.
“Ah… Thank you. Thank you for saving our Min Joon. Sob sob.”
Seo Ha held Min Joon’s hand tightly and sobbed with her head bowed.
Though Seo Ha had no religion, at this moment she was grateful to every existing god.
For not taking away the child she had protected with her life, the child she would gladly give her life for, for letting him stay by her side, she was simply grateful.
Tae Kyung watched Seo Ha from afar for a long time. He followed Min Joon’s attending doctor who was going to write the chart.
“Doctor!”
“Yes? What is it?”
The wrinkled gown of the doctor who turned around showed his fatigue plainly. Tae Kyung asked as politely as possible.
“How is the condition of Min Joon, the child you just examined?”
“Are you the father?”
“Ah, yes, yes.”
Tae Kyung lied without realizing it. The doctor didn’t seem to doubt much.
“The man who came with you must be the teacher then. No wonder. You and your son look very much alike.”
It made sense that Seo Ha and Min Joon looked alike, but Tae Kyung himself had no relation to Min Joon, yet they looked alike?
As Tae Kyung’s face twisted slightly, the doctor thought it was because he hadn’t answered promptly, and quickly changed the subject to Min Joon.
“We’ll need to run tests to know the patient’s condition. There could be cerebral hemorrhage, so we need to do a CT or MRI scan.”
“I see. But does he really need a CT scan when he’s still such a young child? I’m worried about the radiation.”
Tae Kyung asked worriedly, but the doctor answered calmly as if this was a common occurrence.
“If it were my child, I would get the scan. We need to check for any bleeding or fractures. And we need to monitor the progress. I can’t tell you anything definitively right now.”
The doctor pushed up his glasses with an indifferent expression.
Tae Kyung expressed his gratitude with a slight bow. The doctor again moved his heavy steps to go write the chart.
As Tae Kyung was about to return to Seo Ha, the doctor’s muttering caught his ear.
“The power of genes is indeed formidable.”
Tae Kyung turned his head to look at the back of the doctor’s head again. Then his eyes met with the doctor who had turned around.
The atmosphere emanating from Tae Kyung’s expressionless face caused tension in the doctor.
What was running through Tae Kyung’s mind was none other than a conversation between nurses.
A nurse inputting Min Joon’s patient information asked the nurse next to her curiously.
‘Oh, Nurse Kim. This patient has a watermelon allergy as a special note.’
‘Watermelon allergy? That’s an uncommon case. Any allergic reactions to other antibiotics or medications?’
‘None. Blood type is RH− too.’
‘Double-check when administering drugs.’
The nurses whispered, unable to take their eyes off the monitor.
But Tae Kyung paused at the nurses’ conversation.
Watermelon allergy. Though he didn’t know for sure, cases of watermelon allergy were rare, so Tae Kyung hadn’t seen anyone else with it besides himself.
No, to be precise, he had heard that his father had a watermelon allergy, but he didn’t know about others.
Blood type would be inherited, but are allergies inherited too?
Moreover, even the RH− blood type was the same, making him more interested in Min Joon.
It gave him goosebumps as it was too similar to himself to be a coincidence.
He felt strangely close to Min Joon who had a similar constitution to his own, but the fact that he was another man’s child also made him uncomfortable.
Tae Kyung became more and more curious about Min Joon’s biological father.
Tae Kyung shook his head to clear his thoughts and approached Seo Ha.
Min Joon had closed his eyes again, and Seo Ha was watching the child with a face wet with tears.
Soon a nurse came and explained about the tests to Seo Ha, then after getting consent, moved Min Joon onto a stretcher.
Seo Ha’s hands were still trembling.
“It will be alright. Min Joon is a strong child. Don’t worry too much.”
“Teacher Min Seop, thank you.”
“No, it’s my fault. I should have watched him better. I should have held his hand and gone together.”
Min Seop, with regret all over his face, put his arm around Seo Ha’s shoulders.
Seo Ha’s shoulders shook. She couldn’t control the tears that kept flowing.
Seeing this, Tae Kyung became very displeased.
How dare he touch her.
Tae Kyung strode over and lifted Min Seop’s arm.
“Don’t touch her carelessly.”
__________
“Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
