March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 112

His heart was pounding so fast it felt like it would burst out of his mouth. His entire pulse throbbed like a large drum beating.

After a slight delay, Gi Taejeong subtly turned his head. The man’s smooth jawline and the tip of his nose, vaguely revealed, carried a heavy weight of complex emotions that Sehwa couldn’t possibly decipher.

“Oh, Mommmy, Dadddyyyy… that lower-class personnn…!”

The child, who had been lifted into the air and was just watching, noticed the softened atmosphere and began to whimper sorrowfully again.

Gi Taejeong neither put the child back down nor completely turned his body to check Sehwa’s condition. He simply breathed quietly, his waist held by a faint touch.

“Ha…”

Sehwa swallowed hard and tried his best to articulate words.

He didn’t think everything should be forgiven just because it was a child. Moreover, the child seemed old enough to understand that it was wrong to say mean things to others.

“……, don’t, please…”

Even so… whether it was an adult or a child, there was no need to corner someone like that, as if to kill them.

“Don’t, do… that, please…”

“……”

“He’s a child…”

His own voice, heard after a long time, felt unfamiliar. Even then, he couldn’t pronounce the end properly, and just speaking this much made him sweat profusely.

“St… op…”

Gi Taejeong’s broad shoulders rose and fell with his breathing. Even though they were covered by clothes, he could feel the muscles of his back, stretched like mountain ridges, tensing up. He had only seen this kind of reaction when they were intimate and Gi Taejeong was at his peak of excitement…

“…I wasn’t trying to deliberately corner the brat.”

The man, who had been standing like a stone statue, slowly bent down.

“This one, to you, he said something about the Brigadier General, but in front of me, he cried for his parents.”

Gi Taejeong almost threw the child onto the floor, then casually detached the anti-lost necklace. The child, covered in tears and snot, whimpered softly again.

“Of course, that brat is just repeating what his parents told him. But he should have shut his mouth when he saw my face. Those registered in the 5-Star usually know the faces and names of major generals by this age, at least roughly.”

Even without being forced, if they are dragged around by their parents to social gatherings and events, they naturally come to know. Even Gi Taejeong, who was indifferent to such elegant nonsense as social gatherings and events, was familiar with the children of famous figures.

“But you recognize him perfectly, yet you don’t know who I am? That makes no sense.”

Gi Taejeong held the necklace up to eye level and examined it. It had two Army emblems, but the guardian’s contact number wasn’t one used by soldiers. People who wanted to flaunt that they had a soldier among their distant relatives, not direct family, often used such shallow tricks.

Moreover, the child’s surname was Kim. A Kim with Army relatives… It was too early to jump to conclusions, but he had a guess as to who had put him up to this.

Gi Taejeong rolled the child around with his foot, then bent down and picked up the receipt. Without needing to look closely, this item also seemed suspicious.

“Even if it was dropped right after receiving it from the store, it wouldn’t be less stiff than this.”

The method was similar to that doctor who had arbitrarily blabbered to Lee Sehwa before. There were no detailed strategies or plausible logic. It was just throwing out hurtful remarks to Sehwa without context.

This brat, or more accurately, the brat’s parents, seemed to be a trivial, disposable pawn to Lieutenant Colonel Kim, just like that doctor, so there might not be a need for a full interrogation… But he still needed to pay a little more attention.

There were limits unless Sehwa was brought into the official residence. No matter how much access to others was restricted, as long as he consistently left the recovery room to see the child, there would inevitably be passing strangers. At the very least, the nurse in the incubator protective room might be bribed by Lieutenant Colonel Kim and say nonsense to Sehwa.

And even without Oh Seonran’s advice, Gi Taejeong knew well that Sehwa’s body and mind had weakened significantly. In this situation, if he clung to the child, Sehwa might truly think reckless thoughts.

Gi Taejeong subtly raised his eyes and checked his surroundings. Some of the security personnel, who were supposed to be hidden like shadows, had revealed themselves and were aiming their guns somewhere. Looking in that direction, two young men and women hidden behind a pillar were trembling, hands raised. Of course, some of them were also steadily aiming at the child.

“Anyway… I wasn’t trying to deliberately torment that brat.”

Sehwa stood rooted to the spot, unsure how to react. Perhaps due to tension, the accumulated sour saliva went down his throat.

Anyway, he wasn’t shaking the child in the air anymore, and he said he hadn’t intended to harm him… So it should be okay to let go. Contact with the man itself was uncomfortable, but the vibrations that reached his fingertips every time he spoke in a low voice made Sehwa flustered.

When he took his hand off Gi Taejeong’s waist, the man finally turned around abruptly. Their eyes met without warning, and Sehwa flinched, stepping back a couple of paces.

“So… that’s it?”

Closing the distance in an instant, Gi Taejeong subtly nodded his chin backwards, unseen by Sehwa. It was a signal to capture all the suspicious individuals.

“Anything you want to say to me?”

“……”

“Besides ‘don’t hurt the naughty child,’ nothing?”

“……”

“Sehwa.”

‘Don’t do it.’ That short phrase wasn’t enough to quench his thirst. It didn’t have to be a complete sentence. Even if it was a rejection, saying ‘I hate you,’ it would have been fine if he could just hear his voice a little more. But Sehwa, having achieved his goal, sealed his lips again.

Gi Taejeong let out a long sigh through his nose and extended the cup he was holding. Colorful drinks had cloud-like cotton candy embedded in them. It didn’t look healthy at all, but he had chosen it because its unusual appearance might interest Sehwa. And it looked sweet at a glance.

“……”

Sehwa was about to turn his head away, uninterested, but suddenly stopped and hesitantly took the takeout cup.

He liked it after all. Gi Taejeong’s lips were just about to curve into a smile. Lee Sehwa’s gaze, awkwardly holding the cup, went towards the brat who was forcing out tears. It was only for a fleeting moment, but it was definitely so.

His gently relaxed lips tightened into a straight line again. He had thought the drink he chose had caught Sehwa’s interest… But no, it seemed Sehwa was worried that he might harm the child if he became displeased.

His mouth felt rough, as if he had swallowed sand. He had sufficiently explained why he had been rough with the suspicious brat. He had also said he had no intention of harming him. Yet, Lee Sehwa didn’t trust his words at all. Even after showing evidence right in front of his eyes and adding a somewhat logical explanation.

“…Try it. They say it’s popular.”

Gi Taejeong then spoke to Sehwa in a normal voice, as if nothing had happened. But Sehwa still didn’t open his mouth, as if he had nothing to say to him except for prohibitions like ‘don’t do it.’

Lower-class outside the castle.

It was a familiar derogatory term he often heard from guests, but strangely, the words of the little child who had bickered at him kept coming back.

That suspicious doctor had also said something of a similar vein about his background. Back then, he was a little surprised but it didn’t weigh on his mind much… This time, perhaps because he heard the accusation in a child’s voice, he felt his thoughts constantly being consumed by this topic.

Saessak, who was healthy unlike him, would grow quickly and soon build his own small society… And the lower-class father from District 2 would remain an indelible flaw for that child throughout his life.

Saessak, too, would probably be called the son of House Samwol, his name erased like his own. Even if he could settle inside the castle with Commander Oh Seonran’s help, it would still be a problem. That’s when he would be scorned as the son of a lower-class person who had rolled in without knowing his place.

As the future of Saessak, who would live an even harder life than himself through no fault of his own, became clear, his heart inevitably ached. His immature thought of going out to sea and rooting himself elsewhere might bring misfortune to his child in the future; it sounded like an excuse, but he was too cornered at the time to think about it.

The period when love alone is enough for a child is not long. Won’t Saessak someday wish to live in a moderately good environment with moderate affection, rather than boundless, undying love? If he were to get angry at him, asking if his other biological father was actually a brigadier general, begging to live under that person’s care because he didn’t need his love, asking why he hadn’t told him…

“Lee Sehwa.”

Gi Taejeong poked his cheek, pulling the somewhat dazed Sehwa back to reality.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

Since he had barely managed to utter “Don’t do it,” Gi Taejeong had been in that state. He didn’t try to hide his eagerness to hear Sehwa’s voice. How to put it… The man seemed to be mistaken that Sehwa’s voice returning was a sign that he was beginning to let him in, even a little.

“They said we can move the incubator to your recovery room in about three weeks… Of course, there will be several people stationed there, so you might find it hard to rest comfortably.”

“……”

“What do you want to do?”

“……”

“Still, it’d be good to keep him by your side, right?”

Sehwa still kept his lips tightly sealed. He could speak now if he wanted to, but he didn’t want to give Gi Taejeong any room for misinterpretation.

• Madam Lee Sehwa, Brigadier General Gi Taejeong has arrived.

As they reached the protective room, the usual clear voice was heard. Inside, wheels rolled softly, and Saessak’s incubator, on a wagon, drew closer. It had one fewer wire attached than when he last saw it.

Saessak was growing well without any problems, just like his prenatal name suggested. Like a young sprout holding only beautiful and pure things, he was stretching vigorously towards the bright sky.

“Ah.”

Gi Taejeong, who was about to take a seat next to Sehwa, checked something and a shallow furrow appeared between his brows.

“Watch him alone for a moment. I won’t go far.”

Perhaps there was something he didn’t want Sehwa to hear, Gi Taejeong tapped his wristwatch and moved a little further away. Even so, he wasn’t completely leaving; he was within a few seconds’ running distance.

• We’ve now entered Phase 2. You can co-room in the recovery room soon, or continue to visit in the protective room like now. What would you like to do?

Ah… Sehwa, who had been hanging on the distant man’s gaze, collected himself and shook his head.

• Do you think co-rooming is still too early?

Why wouldn’t he want to keep him by his side and look at him? He wanted to stroke Saessak’s virtual hologram floating above the incubator.

But what if all those wires got tangled during the process of moving him to his side? What if he accidentally pressed the wrong button…? Frightening and anxious thoughts kept surging, and Sehwa thought it would be better for the child to remain safely in the protective room as he was.

• Yes, many mothers feel that way. We are always ready, so please let us know if you change your mind. Oh, and when we enter Phase 2, we need to input a new code name. Since you haven’t decided on the baby’s name yet, we’ll use an alphabet combination for the latter part as before, and just add the family name in front.

The nurse tapped somewhere on the incubator, and a screen with personal information appeared. Surgical date, time of entry into the incubator, active program information, current week of gestation, and gender were meticulously recorded. But…

• Oh, what’s wrong?

Something was strange. No, it wasn’t strange; something was terribly wrong.

Sehwa vigorously shook his head and pointed to the name field, and the nurse looked at the incubator in confusion. She seemed surprised that he was expressing such intense emotion for the first time.

“…No, no… it’s not right.”

• Yes?

“It’s, it’s wrong…”

The nurse, whose eyes widened when Sehwa spoke for the first time, tried to hide her surprise and calmly asked.

• What part are you referring to…?

“The name, the family name…”

Only a family name floated in Saessak’s name field. But it wasn’t Lee; it was Gi. People had arbitrarily given Saessak Gi’s surname instead of Lee Sehwa’s ‘Lee’.

“This, this is… not right…”

• Oh…

The nurse, who had been carefully choosing her words for a long time at the remark that this child would not use the Gi surname, cautiously began.

• I apologize. We should have asked you first before inputting it… We put the Brigadier General’s surname because there’s usually an order for determining the baby’s surname; it wasn’t for any particular reason.

The nurse explained that the surname of the parent who lived in a higher district or had a higher profession took precedence. And as with all things, military personnel were given top priority over other professions.

• We didn’t intend to upset you, Madam, it’s just the established law… Of course, if both of you agree, we can modify it.

“Yes… But, he’s, my, child…”

He meant that it was his child, completely independent of Gi Taejeong, but the nurse didn’t seem to fully understand what Sehwa meant by saying ‘this child is my child.’ Still, she smiled kindly, as always, and said she would correct it as soon as the Brigadier General arrived.

• Oh, he’s just arrived.

With the sound of footsteps steadily approaching, a familiar perfume scent wafted over. Sehwa stubbornly clenched his fists. It wasn’t wrong, was it? Saessak was his child, who didn’t need that man’s permission…

• Brigadier General, Madam Lee Sehwa just said she would like to correct the child’s surname.

Gi Taejeong, who was about to close the work page by operating the watch button, slowly raised his head.

“…He spoke directly? This person?”

Sehwa speaking and asking to remove the Gi surname from Saessak… He didn’t know what had triggered it, but Gi Taejeong’s low, questioning voice seemed unusual.

• Yes, we immediately apologized for our mistake, and I was just telling her we would proceed with the correction as soon as you arrived, Brigadier General. Then we will register the child’s information with Madam’s surname.

At that moment, a scorching gaze poured onto his profile.