“Seojin, if you got to be born all over again, what would you want to do?”
By then even opening his eyes felt like too much effort, so he kept them shut while noona asked.
“Mm... I’d just want a solid job with a steady, guaranteed income.”
“What else?”
“A warm little family would be even better, right?”
“Nothing more?”
“A place of my own, and enough money that getting by isn’t a problem. Say, two billion won?”
A joke, of course. None of it was ever going to happen in real life anyway.
How in the world did it come to this?
“Daddy!”
A bright, cheerful voice rang out right beside him. Something poked him in the back, again and again.
“Daddy, wake up!”
His mind had sunk somewhere heavy and wouldn’t come back up. Even so, half-asleep as he was, he had a very good reason to drag himself awake.
“Where... is this?”
The first thing he should have seen when he opened his eyes was a white ceiling without a single smudge on it, recessed fluorescent lights set at even intervals, and the medical equipment bolted to the wall at the head of the bed.
Instead his vision filled with wallpaper: clouds and cute little animals on a blue background. Though that was nothing next to his shock when he registered what was standing in front of him.
“Daddy!”
“...What? Are you talking to me?”
Roughly five years old. A child with shoulder-length hair all mussed up, as if she’d only just rolled out of bed herself, stood there with her eyes wide and round.
...And somehow, that face wasn’t unfamiliar.
“Daddy! What’s wrong with you? It’s me! Euni! Noh Eun!”
The little thing jabbing a dainty thumb at her own chest was adorable. She had her cheeks puffed right out, too, so full he wanted to catch them in both hands and blow on them.
“Daddy, get up already. Euni has to go to daycare! Hurry! Hurry!”
The child grabbed his arm with tiny hands, fingers curled like little fern shoots, and hauled at him with great determination. He watched it all blankly, then fumbled out a question.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, Daddy! Are you still not awake?”
The small head that had been dragging him along regardless of his opinion tipped over to one side.
“Euni goes to daycare! And Daddy has to go to the new company starting today! We’re late, hurry!”
Out of patience, the kid started tugging at his arm again.
“Uh... uh.”
Dragged along before he could think, he found himself looking out over a living room flooded with morning sunlight.
Am I still dreaming?
The last things he’d seen before his eyes closed last night were a hospital ceiling, the bitter, stinging smell of disinfectant, and the beep— beeeep— of his vital signs. Nothing else.
And now? Two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room with good light, and a kitchen. He took in the whole layout at a single glance.
“Daddy! Euni’s going to wash up by herself!”
The five-year-old flung away the hand she’d been holding and shot off like an arrow. The way she bounced as she went, she might as well have been a rabbit.
Destination: a mint-green bathroom door.
That’s the same too.
Which was exactly why it really did feel like a dream.
“Daddy! Euni’s washing her face!”
At the sound of her calling him, he drifted over in a daze. The child stood at the sink with great dignity, a little stool under her feet.
“Hurry! Hurry!”
Chivvied along, he stepped up to the sink, and his eyes went naturally to the mirror.
“Oh.”
The face in the mirror was familiar. Obviously. It was his own. Then his eyes met those of the little lady reflected in the glass, grunting away as she clumsily folded up her sleeves.
“Daddyyy, are you still sleepy?”
At that clear, ringing voice he shook his head, then looked back at the mirror. Turn it whichever way he liked, it was him. The baggy T-shirt and trousers were exactly what he always wore, too.
So what on earth was this baffling situation unfolding in front of him?
“Euni’s going to wash her face!”
“Ah, no. Let me do it for you.”
That snapped him out of it, and he stepped into the bathroom. Nothing in his head had been sorted out yet, but he rolled his sleeves up to the elbow all the same.
First things first: deal with whatever was right in front of him. He finished washing the child’s face, combed out her tangled hair and tied it into two bunches.
All those times he and noona had nursed each other through illness came in handy at moments like this.
“Daddy! Euni wants toast today!”
At that, he opened the fridge straight away. The inside, which by rights should have been a jumble of dairy and drinks and side-dish containers somebody had crammed in, was instead stocked with all sorts of ingredients and banchan laid out in neat order.
He took out butter, milk and eggs and got a frying pan going. While the kid carried off the milk carton and carefully poured herself a cup, he seasoned the beaten egg, soaked the sliced bread in it and set it frying. A sweet, nutty smell filled the kitchen.
“That looks so good!”
One look at the white milk moustache around her mouth and a laugh slipped out of him before he knew it. He wiped it away gently with his thumb and turned the bread over.
Once it was golden, he slid it onto a plate. Then he crouched to meet the child’s eyes.
“Want jam on it? Or whipped cream?”
“Ummm... I want both!”
“Sure.”
He spread the jam first, then piped the cream over it. He wondered whether he ought to cut it into bite-sized pieces, but watching her pin it down neatly with a fork and saw at it with a plastic knife, that seemed unnecessary. Only after she’d finished eating and briskly dressed herself did he finally let out a breath.
“Daddy, get ready for work too, quick!”
The little lady was capably looking after her still-unadjusted father as well. Thanks to her he was back in the bedroom before he knew it, opening the wardrobe.
He picked out something close to his usual taste, changed into it, then had a look around. That was when he spotted a phone sitting tidily by the head of the bed.
He tapped the screen and opened the photo app. It was packed with pictures: shots of him with the little lady, shots of the child on her own.
Bewildered, he swiped through the thumbnails, then stopped dead at an odd one.
Three documents, photographed laid out side by side.
A family relations certificate, an adoption registration confirmation, and an adoption decision order.
“Ah.”
The sigh came out of him on its own.
‘Shin Eunyoung,’ written in the birth mother field. His fingertip stopped. The screen slowly went black, but that name stayed burned vivid on his retinas. She was someone he could never, ever forget.
Not real family, no, but a noona he’d been tied to more firmly, more inseparably, than any blood relation.
That explained why the child’s face had looked so familiar.
“Don’t tell me it really is that.”
Flustered, he hurried to open the messenger app. He skimmed the threads at the top and spotted one that caught his eye.
Heart unsteady, he clicked it and read.
Manager Kim
Manager Kim, Righteous Information Office: Noh Seojin ^^ Thanks for coming in for the interview today. Let’s do good work together starting tomorrow. You’ll definitely show up, right?^^
**Me
** Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Manager Kim
Manager Kim, Righteous Information Office: Mm. Good ^^ I’ve sent over a little something for the interview so you won’t feel shorted, so be sure to come tomorrow. Get plenty of rest ^^
**Me
** Sorry? Interview pay? Is that a thing? You really don’t have to give me anything.
Manager Kim
Manager Kim, Righteous Information Office: No no. I’m just grateful you’re starting right away ^^ See you tomorrow ^^
Reading a conversation stuffed with tacky emoticons at every turn, reality came rushing in on him all at once.
“Is this for real? I got transmigrated? And into the novel noona wrote, of all things?”
If anyone asked how he could be so sure of a transmigration off nothing but a handful of clues, the answer was simple.
Because he’d practically co-written the novel in question with his noona!
How in the world did it come to this?
It had only ever been a game, the kind of talk he and his noona tossed back and forth. Where they’d go first once they got discharged from the hospital, what they wanted to eat, what they wanted to do before anything else.
When you’ve been shut up in a hospital for years on end, what else is there left to do?
“Daddy! The daycare bus is here!”
At the voice hurrying him along from the front door, he shoved the phone into his pocket without another second to agonize over it. He got Euni ready and rushed down to the ground floor, where a yellow van sat waiting.
“Good morning, Teacher!”
“Morning, Euni! Good morning, Euni’s father.”
“Yes, good morning, Teacher.”
He exchanged greetings with the escort teacher, made sure the child was safely aboard, then pulled up a map app. Twenty minutes to the office on foot.
Every time another piece of the situation shifted into place, his own predicament got that much clearer. And once it was clear, he could picture exactly what was coming next.
He reached a gleaming building, took the elevator up and got off on the eighth floor. His legs shook the whole way down the wide corridor.
In front of the <Righteous Information Office> sign, a sigh escaped him all on its own.
“An information office... Looks like a glorified errand service to me, no matter how I squint at it.”
The ad copy plastered shamelessly across the entrance reeked of exactly that to anyone with eyes.
Should I turn around while I still can?
Just as he was wavering, the door flew open with the impeccable timing of a plot device that shows up in every story ever written.
“Gah!”
He swallowed a startled breath and lifted his head. A man tall enough to brush the ceiling stood there, frighteningly handsome, his face drawn into a scowl.
He knew this man.
The sub yandere top who loved the main bottom so much he’d try to kidnap him, lock him away, fail at it, and vanish from the story entirely. Yoon Haegang.
And he himself was the villainous secretary, Noh Seojin, who’d be written out right alongside him.
The moment his guess hardened into certainty, his head went dizzy.
