Chapter 12 – Family [Children]

“Are you awake?”

At Yoo Seoyoung’s question, Siguk lightly bowed his head in greeting instead of answering.

As Siguk silently passed by her and entered the bathroom, Yoo Seoyoung secretly let out a sigh.

She left Siguk behind and entered Nayeon’s room.

Nayeon was asleep, tightly hugging a doll she had brought from Angel’s Shelter.

“Nayeon. Nayeon? You need to get up. You have to eat and go to school.”

“Ung…….”

“Let’s get up, Princess Nayeon.”

“Ung…… Just five more minutes, Unni…….”

“Aish. Come on, let’s get up.”

Lee Jeonghoon smiled as he watched from outside the door while Yoo Seoyoung struggled to wake Nayeon.

He shifted his steps and headed towards the bathroom.

“Someone’s in here.”

At Siguk’s voice coming from inside the bathroom, Lee Jeonghoon waited briefly in front of it.

“Uuuung…….”

Nayeon came out of the room, stretching with still sleepy eyes.

“Did you sleep well?”

At Lee Jeonghoon’s question, Nayeon yawned once before answering.

“Yes, I slept well. How about you, Mister?”

Briefly brushing aside the question of why Seoyoung was ‘Unni’ while he was ‘Mister’, Lee Jeonghoon answered.

“So-so.”

“So-so?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“Not that.”

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“Not that either.”

“Then why so-so?”

“Who knows?”

While the two exchanged meaningless banter, gradually breaking down the wall, Siguk finished his shower and came out, drying his hair with a towel.

“Huh? Oppa, when did you wake up?”

At Nayeon’s question, Siguk simply answered, “A little while ago.”

He gave Lee Jeonghoon a slight nod of greeting, then also gave a light bow to Yoo Seoyoung, who had just finished tidying Nayeon’s bedding and came out.

Then he immediately went into his room.

Watching that, Yoo Seoyoung made a bitter expression. Lee Jeonghoon’s heart wasn’t very comfortable seeing her like that.

“Alright, Nayeon, you need to go wash up too, right?”

“Okay, Unni.”

Confirming that Nayeon had entered the bathroom, Lee Jeonghoon took Yoo Seoyoung’s hand.

Yoo Seoyoung looked at Lee Jeonghoon.

“Why?”

“Just…… because I’m thankful.”

“Aish. That talk again.”

Yoo Seoyoung lightly pinched Lee Jeonghoon’s arm. Lee Jeonghoon laughed and showed a bit of lighthearted aegyo.

“The kids will probably still feel awkward for a while.”

At Lee Jeonghoon’s words, Yoo Seoyoung nodded.

“But it’ll probably get better with time. These things usually need time.”

“I’ve been prepared since Oppa first talked about it. So I’ll get close to Nayeon, and you get close to Siguk. Got it?”

“Yeah. Let’s try.”

Siguk, listening to their conversation from beyond the door, gave a bitter smile.

Standing in front of the mirror, Siguk dried his hair with a hairdryer and thought.

‘Nayeon is adapting better than I thought.’

It had already been a week since they moved from Angel’s Shelter to this villa in Gocheok-dong.

During that time, Nayeon had adapted quite well. She had made friends she seemed quite close with at her new school, and at home she got along well with Yoo Seoyoung and Lee Jeonghoon, sitting together on the living room sofa in the evening to watch television.

‘Just like a family…….’

Except for Nayeon calling Yoo Seoyoung ‘Unni’ and Lee Jeonghoon ‘Mister’, that scene was clearly no different from any ordinary family.

Something Nayeon didn’t have in her past life, something she had always longed for since she became sensible.

Excluding the issue of titles, Nayeon was definitely assimilating into this household.

‘I don’t need to do that too.’

On the other hand, Siguk had no intention of doing so at all.

From the start, his adoption as Lee Jeonghoon and Yoo Seoyoung’s son was itself a strategic choice. According to his contract with Lee Jeonghoon, he planned to leave this house when he became an adult and was old enough to be independent, to live a leisurely life alone like Kim Yanggi in his past life.

Therefore, it was a natural action, as he judged there was no need to build familial bonds unnecessarily.

‘Adopting Nayeon together was really the right choice.’

Siguk thought it was the correct choice not only for Nayeon’s life but also for this household, for this community he had to live in at least until just before becoming independent.

As he finished getting dressed while having such thoughts, Lee Jeonghoon entered the room.

“You think bringing Nayeon was the right choice?”

Siguk said, looking at Lee Jeonghoon who had entered.

Lee Jeonghoon lightly nodded.

“Then that’s enough.”

“Hmm.”

“Why?”

“Seoyoung is a little worried.”

“What worry?”

“She seems to think you’re not adapting well.”

At Lee Jeonghoon’s words, Siguk chuckled.

Seeing that laugh, Lee Jeonghoon’s expression stiffened slightly.

He continued.

“Seoyoung wants to treat you like Nayeon too.”

“That’s why I said to adopt Nayeon together. I’m sure I told you, right?”

“I know. But…….”

Siguk looked at Lee Jeonghoon.

“Remember our contract? You become my legal father and manage my assets, and I make you a solid businessman. Right?”

“…… That’s right.”

“Then that’s enough, isn’t it? That contract didn’t have elements like family, son, or parents.”

“……”

“You get along well with Nayeon. Raise that child like your own daughter. I’ll disappear from this house in 10 years, but Nayeon won’t.”

“……”

“Remember well why I said to adopt Nayeon together.”

“…… I’ll do that.”

Lee Jeonghoon bit his lip and went back out.

Watching him leave, Siguk made a bitter expression.

‘I don’t do things not in the contract. In my past life, you knew that well, so you never asked me to do things not in the contract either. Unlike Kang Bonggil or Han Myeongho. This life shouldn’t be any different.’

Thinking that, Siguk finished preparing for school.

Lee Jeonghoon and Yoo Seoyoung accompanied them to the front of the school.

“I’m off. Unni, Mister.”

To Nayeon who said that, Yoo Seoyoung said with a smile.

“Okay. Have a good day. And it would be even better if you called us Mom and Dad? I’d like it if Nayeon did that.”

“I’ll try.”

With that innocent answer, Nayeon ran into the school.

Siguk lightly bowed his head to Lee Jeonghoon and Yoo Seoyoung in greeting, then followed Nayeon.

Leaving the two’s subtle gaze behind, Siguk entered the classroom and sat at the very back desk by the window.

His classmates only glanced at Siguk, neither approaching to talk first nor picking a fight.

The trace amount of Mana Siguk intentionally emitted naturally created that atmosphere.

It was the same for the teachers, who didn’t ask Siguk anything separately either.

Actually, even if they did ask, there was nothing Siguk couldn’t answer.

No matter how much he had kept his distance from studying in his past life, he at least possessed the knowledge required for elementary education.

‘Annoying.’

However, since there was no need for him, weary with annoyance, to step forward in a place where children should exercise their creativity, he just quietly gazed out the window and idly passed the time.

Siguk thought today would be the same, and it wouldn’t change until compulsory education ended.

But he couldn’t control unexpected incidents from occurring.

“Nayeon’s Oppa! Nayeon’s Oppa!”

After lunchtime, when everyone was spending time in their own way, a girl urgently called for Siguk.

‘Nayeon’s friend?’

A small girl with pigtails, whom he had seen a few times after school, urgently looking for him, made Siguk instinctively realize something was wrong.

“What is it?”

Siguk approached the girl.

As soon as the girl saw Siguk, she grabbed his wrist.

“Right now Nayeon is…… Anyway, come quickly!”

The urgency and fear felt in the girl’s voice made Siguk’s expression harden.

He immediately followed the girl down to the 5th grade classroom.

“Waaahhh-!”

Nayeon’s crying voice, clearly audible even from afar.

“You are! You’re an orphan!”

And the words of a boy bullying Nayeon.

A murderous intent flashed momentarily in Siguk’s eyes.

“Waaahhh-! I’m not an orphan! I have a mom and dad! I have an oppa too!”

“You’re lying! You came from an orphanage! My friend at Geumcheon Elementary told me everything!”

“No!”

“Yes, you are!”

Pushing through the wall of children created by the crowd with force, Siguk intervened between the two.

“Oppa! Waaahhh-!”

Nayeon ran and clung to Siguk. Siguk patted Nayeon’s back with a hardened expression.

“What about your oppa! You’re both orphans!”

Siguk’s gaze turned toward the boy.

Whatever he had been eating, for a 5th grader, he had the build of a middle school student.

Siguk glared into the boy’s eyes.

“What! What are you looking at! You look like a runt.”

At the boy’s words, a few other boys nearby snickered.

“Nayeon, here.”

Siguk handed Nayeon to the pigtailed girl and slowly approached the boy.

“What? What are you gonna do if I look at you!”

At the boy’s bold words

“Hey, just kick him!”

“Totally a runt bastard!”

“Should I fight for you?”

Amidst the instigation of the surrounding boys

“My oppa is not a runt!”

Nayeon’s protest and

“Jinyoung is fighting a 6th grader, huh?”

“Shouldn’t we call a teacher?”

“He’s a 6th grader but not that big. Looks like he might lose?”

“What are you doing? Call a teacher.”

Listening to the whispers of bystanders pretending to be neutral, Siguk stood before the boy.

“You, what’s your name?”

At Siguk’s question, the boy laughed.

“Oh Jinyoung! Don’t let this fool you, I’m the boss of Guro Elementary 5th grade. You and her came from Geumcheon Elementary, right? The 5th grade boss there is my friend. We go to the same dojang.”

“Are your parents rich?”

“Super rich!”

“So they raised a kid into a bastard?”

“What?”

The boy, Oh Jinyoung, flared up.

His shoulder twitched.

But before his fist could fly, Siguk’s Mana shot at him first.

“……!”

Oh Jinyoung froze in place, in the exact posture of about to throw a punch.

A force difficult for anyone but a skilled Superhuman to handle, something a kid who was at best a boss in elementary school couldn’t handle.

“Uuuu…….”

An inexplicable terror surged over Oh Jinyoung like a tidal wave.

The survival instinct possessed by all living beings sent an alarm to Oh Jinyoung.

But a child that young had neither the will nor the ability to receive such an alarm and act accordingly.

Instead, there were only primal, physical reactions.

“Uuuu……”

Oh Jinyoung’s pants crotch became damp. The smell of urine spread through the hallway.

But Siguk had no intention of stopping there.

‘Not even worth beating up.’

The Mana pressed down on Oh Jinyoung even more.

Squelch-!

The back of Oh Jinyoung’s pants bulged.

A smell fouler than urine spread through the hallway.

Only then did Siguk withdraw his Mana.

As the force pressing down on him disappeared, Oh Jinyoung slumped down on the spot.

What had bulged his pants was pressed and squeezed, leaking out of his pants.

“Ew! Oh Jinyoung pooped his pants!”

“Huh~”

“Eww.”

“Gag!”

“Ah, seriously! And I ate curry!”

Since the Mana was focused solely on Oh Jinyoung, the other children couldn’t feel anything.

To their eyes, it just looked like Siguk and Oh Jinyoung had a staring contest, and then Oh Jinyoung wet himself and immediately pooped himself.

“He did it, he did.”

“Poop boy!”

“Poop general!”

Voices teasing Oh Jinyoung flew from here and there.

Siguk looked down at Oh Jinyoung’s dazed expression and tossed out one remark.

“Poop-shitting bastard.”

Then he went to Nayeon.

Nayeon, who had been sniffling, was now laughing while holding her nose.

“He pooped! He pooped!”

“Poop-shitting bastard!”

“Poop-shitting bastard!”

Teasing aimed at Oh Jinyoung flew from everywhere.

Even some of the kids who had claimed to be Oh Jinyoung’s loyal lackeys joined in, and those who didn’t just stared blankly at Oh Jinyoung.

“Shit! No! I’m not a poop-shitter!”

Oh Jinyoung protested, but it only backfired.

“He’s a poop-shitter! He’s a poop-shitter!”

“I said no!”

In the end, Oh Jinyoung broke down sobbing.

The situation had reversed in an instant, and only then did a teacher come running.

But there was already nothing the teacher could solve.

The teacher hurriedly washed Oh Jinyoung, changed him into gym clothes, and then contacted both guardians in turn.