Chapter 52
“Are you really not going to tell me what you’ve been up to lately?”
I held Yu-min in my arms for the first time.
I’d heard that babies need to be burped after eating, so following Mom’s instructions, I patted his back gently while asking Yoon Cheong.
Yoon Cheong just scratched his cheek.
The two of them had stormed out earlier looking like they were about to have a huge fight, but they must have just bickered like usual since neither came back with disheveled clothes, and both casually sat down next to me.
Yoon Cheong was using his telekinesis to hold and shake a baby toy, but he wouldn’t answer my question.
At first he said he was going to the hospital because they needed help, but I’m not that oblivious—hospitals wouldn’t casually call on an Esper like that.
“Hyung, when does the baby need his milk?”
“Yu-min? Well, I think babies usually drink milk, play, and do that kind of stuff every two hours or so.”
“You must have done a lot of research about having a younger sibling.”
Yoon Cheong looked at me with such fascination that I actually felt embarrassed.
Before my regression, I never even dated, let alone got married, and the friends I hung out with didn’t care much about marriage either, so I didn’t have any nieces or nephews.
Espers responsible for national security often stayed close to their compatible Guides, and many developed romantic relationships.
Because of this, when Manifested ability users had ordinary parents, the Association provided various mandatory lectures.
The primary class we received was about how there’s no guarantee that compatible partners would be of different genders.
Thanks to that, my parents weren’t particularly concerned about who I dated or married.
I’m not sure what they think now that I’ve regressed, but they never pressured me about continuing the family line or having children because I was their only child, so throughout my life before and after regression, this was my only connection to a “newborn baby.”
“It’s my baby brother, so isn’t that natural? You guys were also looking up baby clothes like crazy.”
“Well, that’s…”
I know about the online orders these guys made recently.
The baby is still so small he can’t even wear them, yet they bought baby dresses and hooded sweatshirts.
No matter how cute my brother is, these guys are being ridiculous.
“And Ji Yeohoon, that small bowl you bought is a dog bowl.”
“I returned it.”
“Yeohoon bought a dog bowl?”
“Ah, Auntie, well…”
“Why~ If worse comes to worst, you could just give it to a puppy. Should I tell you which houses nearby have dogs?”
My mom really enjoys teasing people.
She kept teasing Ji Yeohoon until his face turned bright red, then when she saw Yu-min make a small burp, she praised me and ruffled my hair.
I thought I was all grown up, but sometimes when she treats me like a child like this, it makes me feel awkward.
And warm inside too.
“You, hands off.”
“He seemed to like it.”
“Are you the same as my mom?”
“Don’t you like it when I do it?”
Yoon Cheong looked dejected after I blocked his attempt to pat my head.
I was about to say “um” in response, but this guy seemed to be using his face to his advantage again.
Knowing that, I still lost my words.
“…It’s not that I don’t like it.”
And after taking in Yoon Cheong’s face, my mouth betrayed me.
This guy’s face was exceptionally handsome.
When did I start becoming weak to these guys’ faces?
It felt like they were too handsome to refuse, like when something costs too much money to turn down.
“Just look after Yu-min instead of me.”
“He looks like you.”
“…Like me?”
“Yes! He’s cute like you too.”
This guy’s talking nonsense again.
Ever since Ji Yeohoon grew taller than me, he’s been strangely calling me cute all the time. I wondered if he was making fun of my height.
When I glared at him, he just smiled back. Ji Yeohoon was also using his face against me.
“Don’t smile, I’ll get attached.”
“I think you’re already attached.”
“Yu-min, when you grow up, I hope you’ll hit these bad guys with your pretty little hands on behalf of your oppa.”
Yu-min, who seemed sleepy with his eyes half-closed, made both Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon laugh when I whispered to him.
I looked up at Mom with an indignant expression, and she nodded too.
“Why, Mom?”
“Cheong and Yeohoon seem to be taking good care of him.”
“Where do you see that?”
“Yu-min looks exactly like Soo-young when he was a baby. Cheong, Yeohoon, want to see photos of baby Soo-young?”
Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon nodded quickly.
These jerks—they’ve raised me, so they should already remember what I looked like as a child, yet they still want to see photos. And with their Esper memories being so good, they’re doing this on purpose.
Even now, they’ll probably remember this for their entire lives, so they’re deliberately trying to see more.
“I don’t want that, Mom. Those are my photos.”
“Oh? You really don’t want to? But you were so cute.”
I can almost hear Mom saying “my son is still cute now,” and it’s mortifying.
“Cute” should be used to describe Yu-min who just fell asleep in my arms.
With a “right?” I placed the now deeply asleep child down on the floor.
I thought about covering him with a warmer blanket, but as if she’d read my thoughts, Mom shook her head.
“The house is warm enough, so you don’t need to.”
“Mom, you might be an Esper. A mind-reading Esper.”
“This one.”
“Auntie, how did you know?”
“Soo-young just made the exact same expression as his dad.”
“Like Mr. Moon?”
“He’d make that face and pile blankets on Soo-young. Soo-young would cry.”
“Because he couldn’t breathe,” Mom said as she brought out the photo album and showed us a picture of me looking like I’d fallen asleep after crying, with thick blankets piled next to me.
I seemed to be about the same age as Yu-min, and seeing Dad captured with an apologetic expression made me laugh.
The two guys took out their phones and snapped photos of my baby picture.
“Why are you taking pictures of that?”
“Because it’s cute.”
“Because it’s cute.”
“Please just take pictures of Yu-min instead. You should photograph something actually cute.”
As soon as I finished speaking, both guys turned their phone cameras toward me.
What’s with these guys?
“Stop it!”
I smacked them lightly on the back, and they finally lowered their phones.
We kept our voices low enough not to wake the baby, but it was still quite lively.
When Yoon Cheong left for the bathroom, Ji Yeohoon and I reconnected as soon as we confirmed the door was closed.
“What is it?”
I’d been giving Ji Yeohoon signals behind Yoon Cheong’s back.
“Did Yoon Cheong say anything to you? Any hints about what happened when you went out earlier?”
“Nothing at all.”
“No talk about the Association either?”
“No. Did he say anything when I stepped away earlier?”
“Nothing. I just did a little guiding for him, but a lot more bigar came out than usual.”
“He uses S-class bigar with us. If that much came out, it means he used quite a bit of his ability. Not as much as at the hospital though, right?”
“Right. It wasn’t as much as at the hospital, so maybe he really was just moving papers.”
I was worried.
As the two of them grew up, their appearances became similar to how they looked before I died, but their personalities had subtle differences that concerned me.
They’d grown up to be kind, but something about them worried me.
Ji Yeohoon at least acted cunningly and calculatingly toward people other than me, but Yoon Cheong’s outward reactions weren’t that different from his inner feelings.
He said he was getting paid, but I worried he might be working for something ridiculous like 1,000 won per hour.
“Should we storm the Association? Want to go together?”
“That’s a bit…”
“So you don’t like the Association either, as an Esper.”
“Mom told me about it. Dad says it’s comfortable there, but Mom is sometimes honest with me. That’s why I’m a bit worried about Yoon Cheong hyung. That hyung doesn’t have many people to talk to like I do.”
These days I keep feeling that these two are really like real brothers.
They growl at each other in person and try to mess with each other, but they can’t stand it when someone else badmouths or backstabs the other.
They’d been together for so long, so it made sense.
“You could talk to him.”
“When that hyung is actually in front of me, I start to say those things but then get angry and give up.”
“…Ji Yeohoon.”
“Yes?”
“They say siblings fight a lot during high school.”
“If that guy were my real brother, our family would have fallen apart already. Even if it’s you, Soo-young hyung, you shouldn’t say such horrible things.”
Yet their reactions are almost identical.
Anyway, we couldn’t come up with a good solution even after putting our heads together.
Yoon Cheong was doing some work the Association had asked him to do, but he wouldn’t tell us exactly what it was.
We agreed that if it was about moving documents, we could offer to help, with Ji Yeohoon going along since he’d be more useful than me with my limited abilities.
But as soon as Yoon Cheong returned, he immediately rejected our offer.
“Why? If I go with you, we can finish quickly and that’s good for you too, hyung.”
“It’s unnecessary. You really don’t have to.”
There’s definitely something.
Something he’s deliberately hiding.
“Really? If not Ji Yeohoon, should I go instead?”
“…And why would you?”
“Why not? You’re using your abilities, and if you need guiding, I’ll be necessary, right?”
“Ha.”
Even when I looked at him with an expression that said “just tell me,” Yoon Cheong shook his head.
“Why can’t we really come?”
“…Because it’s documents. Really.”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking. Are we going to steal the documents or something?”
“No, it’s…”
Yoon Cheong looked at us with a troubled expression, then let out a deep sigh.
“There are a lot of Association confidential documents. I can move things from a distance without seeing the contents.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“I have telekinesis, not x-ray vision. But could you two really resist looking at documents lying around?”
If they were confidential, we probably couldn’t resist. Our eyes would wander.
That was Yoon Cheong’s reason.
“Even with my good eyesight, it’s only 2.4.”
“I thought it was 2.0.”
“It’s 2.4. Since it’s not like 3.0 or 4.0, it’s fine if I just help move documents from the end of the hallway.”
“But why specifically you…”
“They said other telekinetics might tear up the papers.”
“Ah?”
“The Association saw me carefully move beds and machines last time. They need to move files, cabinets, and stacks of papers from the original document storage to another place, and apparently other telekinetics aren’t delicate enough.”
Is he saying he’s good at it? Is he bragging right now?
Ji Yeohoon and I looked at each other with dubious expressions, and Yoon Cheong stuck his head between us.
“Anyway, that’s why you can’t come.”
To be honest, the reason sounds flimsy.
It was hard to accept, but for now both Ji Yeohoon and I nodded in apparent agreement.
That doesn’t mean we’re giving up, though.
The reason I care about these two isn’t just because they’re handsome or because I raised them from when they were young.
“Alright then. Just tell me the exact dates you’re going.”
“That much I can do.”
“Also let me know the exact time you’ll finish. Don’t just barge in like today. When I saw Yu-min crying earlier, I worried that if you come in loudly again, you’ll make the baby cry.”
“You sound like the baby’s mom or dad. Stop it.”
“I’m the baby’s oppa.”
“A doting oppa?”
“I won’t deny it. Anyway, tell me. If you skip lunch plans like today, I won’t make lunch plans with you next time.”
At this, Yoon Cheong looked absolutely devastated.
Ji Yeohoon seemed happy, though…
I said I wouldn’t make lunch plans with Yoon Cheong, not that I would make plans with Ji Yeohoon.
For now, I decided to take a step back.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
