Saying nothing and just quietly gazing at the baby, I made my adoptive parents let out soft, gentle laughs.
“ Looks like Seolheon really likes his older brother. He can’t take his eyes off you.”
Time really flies. While I was rolling around full and warm on my adoptive parents’ dime, a new family member ended up right in front of me like this.
“ Three men in our house. It’s going to get noisy.”
“ Leave Geonho out. He’s calmer than most adults.”
“ Haha, they say siblings take after each other. If Seolheon takes after Geonho, will he grow up mild?”
My adoptive father, who had been haggard, was looking much livelier as he bickered with my adoptive mother.
And there, I suddenly felt warmth.
Early autumn rain against the windows and warm indoor light.
My adoptive parents’ ticklish laughter.
A small, warm child squirming in my arms.
“ Geonho is so bright—if Seolheon learns a lot from his older brother, that would be great.”
“ We’re the ones who should raise the kid. You can’t dump everything on a child, can you?”
So that itch in my chest from earlier—
now I felt it for real.
“ Geonho.”
Until now I’d thought of them as just… guardians I met when my new life began.
“ Let’s live happily with us—and with Seolheon—for a long, long time, okay?”
But now they were truly my family under one roof.
I felt like I had set my first foot inside that fence.
Without meaning to, a small voice slipped out between my lips.
“ With my parents and my little brother…”
A sense of safety I’d never felt even once.
A firm feeling that there was no way I’d trip and fall off a cliff.
The sensation felt strange precisely because I’d never known it in my past life.
“ For a long time, happily…”
I looked into the baby’s eyes again.
His navy eyes caught the light and shone bright azure.
Meeting that clear color, my adoptive parents’ chatter faded to the edges, and only the sound of rain filled my ears.
His eyes are the color of water.
[shaaaa—]
With the late monsoon rain hissing, a thought struck me:
If I’d named this child on the day he was born, today—
Wouldn’t it have been “Uheon Baek (White Rain Pavilion)”…?
In that moment—
“ Ugh!”
Suddenly—zap—pain stabbed through my head.
“ Geonho!”
“ Geonho, what’s wrong? Does something hurt?”
It felt like lightning split my skull.
Reflexively dropping my head from the sharp pain, Seolheon’s face fell back into my field of view.
The instant I met those bead-bright navy eyes, certain “lines of text” flashed up in my head.
[Baek Geonho.]
What?
Why my name…?
[Where did you hide my Omega.]
[So you finally came, Uheon.]
[I asked you. Answer me!]
What are these lines?
[I let him out of the cage.]
[Says who.]
Is this… a script?
Or a novel?
[Is stealing my family and position not enough… you even dare to steal Haram?]
“ Stole”? I picked him up.
I’ve… read this book.
[If the younger brother throws something away without mercy, the older brother will pick it up and use it.]
I’ve read it.
[Is it such a waste? My lovely younger brother?]
When I opened my eyes, I was lying in a hospital room.
“ Where is…”
At some point my clothes had been changed into a pediatric patient gown.
“ Did my adoptive mother… bring me…?”
I looked around, then opened the phone neatly placed at my bedside.
In this world it’s a latest model, but by my past life’s standards it was a long-outdated 2G phone.
A giant corporation called Baekil Group that didn’t exist in my past life, the time gap of about twenty years, and above all that damned Alpha-or-Omega—Everything pointed to the same conclusion: the world where I’d started my new life was a parallel Korea completely different from the one I knew.
After the “Baekil Electronics” logo passed on the boot screen, I opened the message box.
[Geonho, are you okay? You collapsed so suddenly that Dad and I were really worried.]
[Mom had a meeting so I stepped out for a moment. I’ll come the second I’m done! We’ll see the doctor together then.]
[There’s nothing wrong with your body for now, and they said a full day of rest should do it… but if anything hurts, tell the nurse and the doctor right away!]
[Ah, Driver Park is with you, right? If anything happens, tell him immediately!]
There were a bunch of messages from my adoptive mother.
I made them worry for nothing…
I looked around—no people, just a lone bag in the corner that must have belonged to “Driver Park,” my adoptive mother’s assigned chauffeur and aide.
Did he step out to grab a meal?
I pushed my stiff body up from the bed. Thankfully, nothing hurt and the headache was gone.
Compared to my past life, I was eating well and growing strong—so how had I ended up fainting?
Then the lines I’d seen right before I blacked out floated back up.
Baek Geonho, and a name like Uheon…
I’d thought it was a name I’d never seen before, but somehow it gave me déjà vu.
In fact, right when I’d first been adopted, when my adoptive parents told me my name, it had felt familiar.
“ From today, you’re ‘Baek Geonho’!”
I’ve heard it somewhere. No—I’ve read it…
I felt something like déjà vu, but no matter how I tried, nothing else came back except those strange lines.
“ Whatever. I’ll remember someday.”
Honestly, if a problem won’t yield no matter how hard I think, I just pound it into a corner of my mind and forget it. In my past life, trying to track every little thing had worn me down more than once.
So I shook it off, got out of bed, and stretched.
Sitting there thinking made my throat dry, so I opened the fridge. I must have been admitted in a rush; it was empty, and the power wasn’t even on.
“ I’ll go grab something from a machine. Money…”
A white envelope on the nightstand caught my eye. When I opened it, a gleaming credit card and a thick wad of cash plopped onto the table.
“ …”
Checking the envelope again, I saw a note in my adoptive mother’s handwriting: [Emergency cash for Geonho! Use freely if you need it!]
“ This is probably more than everything I saved in my past life. Seriously.”
I couldn’t help the bout of cold clarity that hit me in moments like this. No matter how much luxury and indulgence I tasted, I just couldn’t get used to a chaebol’s sense of money.
I pulled just one green bill from the stack and opened the room door.
Rattle.
And just as I stepped into the hall—
“ Ah.”
“ Aah!”
I collided with a child.
“ You okay? Sorry.”
I quickly got my arms around the small body and set him upright.
Then I saw the kid’s face.
Holy—
Golden hair.
Green eyes sparkling like a deep summer forest.
An actual child model?
I could swear I’d never seen a child this cute and adorable in my life.
I felt like applauding a beauty not of this world—but instead, the kid looked at me and clapped.
“ You’re a stylish big brother!”
“ S-stylish?”
All I wanted was to grab a cola from a vending machine. How did it end up like this.
I couldn’t help it; I glanced back.
“ Why do you keep following me.”
Mixed race or a foreign visitor—what was a blond kid doing in a Korean pediatric ward?
He looked exactly like one of those baby angels you see in religious paintings. No—honestly, even cuter.
The owner of that unusual face bombarded me with words, eyes shining bright.
“ Big brother. Where you going?”
“ To get a drink.”
“ A drink! I like Bigkachoo strawberry!”
“ Do you now…”
“ It’s good! Like, it’s red, and, mmm, sweet. Yum!”
The kid’s mouth just ran and ran. Conversation wasn’t quite… happening, so I decided to ignore him and go my way.
Most kids lose interest fast if you don’t give them any, but this one kept pattering after me without getting bored.
“ Big brother. I can count? One, twoo, three… four! I’m four!”
“ Oh, is that so. I’m twen… ty-six.”
“ Six! Six means you’re two years older! A real big brother!”
“ Nice to meet you, little brother.”
And just like that, I’d gotten a second younger brother in two days.
I had no idea how you were even supposed to talk to a four-year-old.
“ Stylish big brother. Your hair is black.”
“ And yours is yellow.”
“ Your eyes go whoosh up!”
“ …That’s not, like, racism, right?”
“ Like a black kitty! Cool!”
“ Mm. I’ll take it as a compliment.”
Where on earth was this vending machine hiding.
Just as I thought that, I spotted a lounge with a terrace and three vending machines.
“ Wow! Bigkachoo!”
As luck would have it, the machines were plastered with a character called “Bigkachoo,” and they even sold a drink with a yellow hamster I assumed was Bigkachoo, and strawberries.
“ Bigkachoo… looks yummy…”
The kid’s eyes sparkled as he drooled.
In the end I sighed, jumped, and punched the button to buy it for him.
“ Waa! Bigkachoo!”
“ I’m buying this for you.”
“ Thank youuu, big brother!”
He bent so deep to bow his bellybutton nearly toppled him, and I barely threw my whole body forward to stop him from face-planting.
Even after nearly getting hurt, he just giggled, then turned red trying and failing to get the bottle open.
“ I-it won’t open…!”
“ Give it here.”
“ Waa! Big brother is super strong!”
Watching him, I thought—
“ You’re a grown-up big brother! So cool!”
So this is why people raise kids.
If a creature is this cute… I could adore it for life.
Please let my little brother Seolheon be this adorable too.
“ Bigkachoo strawberry is good! Big brother, you like it too?”
“ Yeah. It’s… incredibly sweet.”
“ Heehee.”
As that artificial syrupy sweetness spread over my tongue, my head cleared a little. I used to hate tastes like this, but maybe because I’m younger now, my palate is back to a kid’s.
The child parked himself and drank in long pulls, and I ended up in the chair beside him.
“ Big brother, will you be my big brother?”
“ Sorry. I became someone else’s big brother yesterday.”
“ Aww, I wanted you to be mine…”
While we were continuing that stream-of-consciousness chatter, a loud rumble sounded.
“ Big brother. I’m hungry. Food.”
“ Huh?”
F-food? Do I have to feed him too?
No. That’s his parents’ job!
“ Where’s your mom, anyway?”
“ Mom…?”
He tilted his head and said,
“ I don’t have a mom.”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
What a lethal slip of the tongue.
“ Th-then your dad…?”
“ I have a dad!”
Whew. Thank goodness.
I lost ten years of my life worrying I’d mess up twice.
“ I have a pretty dad and a stylish dad!”
“ …You have two dads?”
“ Yep! One, and two! Jealous?”
The blond kid held up one finger on each hand and beamed.
Oh, right. I’d briefly forgotten again that in this world having two moms or two dads is biologically possible.
“ R-right. Having two dads must be nice…”
“ Heehee!”
I… had a lot to say. Never mind. Forget it.
Even after over a year of sex ed from my adoptive mother, and even being here for my adoptive father’s delivery, I still couldn’t quite break free of my past life’s common sense. Maybe it was a psychological block.
“ Anyway. Where did your dads go, that you’re alone?”
“ I’m alone?”
“ Yeah. Where are your dads?”
“ Oh, my dads…?”
He suddenly looked around fast, and his eyes began to well.
…No way.
“ M-my dads. Where are my dads…?”
I’d pushed the button I shouldn’t have.
“ H-hic, snff!”
“ Ah.”
“ Waaaaaah!”
And then he burst into huge sobs.
“ Snff, big brother! Where are my dads? Huaaah!”
“ How would I know.”
“ I’m scared! Hold me…”
He was crying so hard I couldn’t not pick him up.
In an instant, my luxury-brand shirt—worth nearly my total wages from my past-life part-time jobs—was smeared with snot and tears.
What do I do with you.
“ Do you remember where you last saw them?”
“ Snff, my dads?”
“ Yeah. The pretty one or the stylish one.”
“ I dunnooo. Huuu!”
People started gathering at the sound of his crying. But when they saw an angelic baby, instead of coming over… they took out their phones and started taking pictures!
Hey! Can’t you see he’s crying?! And with a 2G phone, the quality’s trash—at that distance you won’t even get a face! Are some of them taking my picture too? They don’t think I’m a kidnapper, do they?
M-missing kids desk! Do hospitals even have those?
I picked the child up and headed blindly toward wherever there might be a nurse’s station.
I was in a six-year-old body myself, so it was ambiguous whether I was carrying him or dragging him along, but the priority was getting out of there.
“ Then what’s your name?”
“ My name…?”
“ I’ll find your dads for you. What’s your name?”
Knowing his name would make it easier for the nurses to help.
I was striding fast when the answer froze me mid-step.
“ I’m Haram.”
“ Huh? Haram…?”
“ Yeah. Haram.”
Because it was a name I’d heard somewhere.