Before he knew it, the evening sky had darkened.
Since waking up at dawn to the sound of a crying baby, it felt like time had vanished in an instant while caring for the child all day. During the daytime, the struggle was intense, and once the baby finally fell asleep, the house would become so quiet that he wouldn’t even realize how the day had ended.
Lying on the spacious bed, Jae-jin gently patted the back of baby Seo Eui-woo, who was dressed in tiny baby clothes and sleeping soundly.
“Sleep tight, sleep tight.”
The moment Jae-jin stopped his hand to take a short rest, the baby would somehow sense it and wake up instantly. In the end, he had no choice but to continue patting the baby’s back as if he were performing some kind of spiritual training.
“Sleeping so well, my baby. Sleep tight, sleep tight…”
His hand gradually slowed down. As he gazed at little Seo Eui-woo, who had finally fallen asleep after fussing for so long, he became completely mesmerized.
‘Hah…’
The more he looked, the more baby Seo Eui-woo’s features imprinted themselves into his mind. Even though he spent every day with him, it still felt new each time.
Soft, round, and squishy.
‘No matter how many times I look, he’s still adorable.’
But really, how could a baby’s features be this distinct?
His striking beauty was already becoming evident. His nose was well-defined, his eyes were bright and expressive, his plump lips were beautifully shaped, and his eyelashes—oh, his eyelashes! They were unbelievably long. The delicate, curled lashes looked so fine and lovely that he could probably balance five matchsticks on them with ease.
Seeing that tiny creature sleeping soundly, his little breaths making soft noises, felt nothing short of breathtaking.
‘…He’s absolutely precious!’
The more he looked, the deeper he fell, as if he were being enchanted. Just watching over him made his heart naturally gravitate toward him. It wasn’t just because he was cute or beautiful—he simply wanted to help him sleep peacefully, to protect him.
‘Maybe it’s because he’s Seo Eui-woo.’
Jae-jin gently brushed the baby’s hair aside, lost in thought. The downy strands were so soft, like a chick’s feathers, and he felt like he could keep touching them forever.
‘Honestly, if it weren’t for this incident… I never would have seen Seo Eui-woo as a baby.’
The truth was, Jae-jin had never seen what he looked like as a child. From the moment Seo Eui-woo was born, he had been isolated as an Esper and raised under strict supervision, so there was no chance for anyone to witness his infancy. Jae-jin’s childhood had been carefully documented in family photo albums, but Seo Eui-woo’s had not.
Though they were together now, their childhoods had been completely different.
The meaning of family that Jae-jin understood and the meaning of family to Seo Eui-woo were also different. Jae-jin had grown up naturally surrounded by his family from birth, whereas Seo Eui-woo…
The hand that had been stroking the baby’s hair gradually slowed. His thoughts were tangled, and his heart felt uneasy. No matter how devotedly Jae-jin cared for baby Seo Eui-woo now, no matter how much he treated him like family, it wouldn’t change the reality of Seo Eui-woo’s childhood.
Seo Eui-woo, like all other Awakened, had grown up in solitude, never knowing the warmth of family. And in the end, they died alone. Mourning Seo Eui-woo was mourning all of them.
On top of that, Seo Eui-woo had endured everything by himself, without proper guiding, until he was twenty years old. Even though he had now met Jae-jin and, after much struggle, found some semblance of stability, that didn’t erase the desolate twenty years he had suffered through.
‘If only I could have held and put to sleep the Seo Eui-woo of the past as well.’
How wonderful it would be to have been his family, to have been his pillar of support.
His heart ached to do so, but he couldn’t.
The child in his arms wasn’t the real, past Seo Eui-woo, but merely a younger fragment of him. And in ten days, this fragment would return to the original Seo Eui-woo.
‘…Right. That’s just how it is.’
Letting out a faint breath, Jae-jin hugged baby Seo Eui-woo tightly against his chest. He couldn’t change Seo Eui-woo’s real childhood, but since things had turned out this way, he resolved to care for his fragment with all his heart.
Just ten days.
For those ten days, he would devote himself fully to this baby.
In the dimly lit bedroom, Jae-jin made his silent vow—to do his best with the time given to him.
‘Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be able to do this?’
Is childcare just about physical endurance?
If it came down to stamina, he could get through it with sheer determination.
No matter how exhausted he became, no matter how little sleep he got, it was only ten days—he could endure it. Other parents struggled for years, so how could he balk at just ten days? The difficulty of parenting didn’t matter.
As long as he fully accepted baby Seo Eui-woo into his heart.
With that decision made, he looked down again at the baby in his arms. And suddenly, he felt something unfamiliar. A feeling he had never experienced before in his life.
The emotion of pouring boundless love into a small, young, precious, and innocent being…
‘Hmm. Is this what all parents feel?’
Jae-jin’s heart slowly softened. The tension that had kept him on edge relaxed, and the constant alertness he had felt while caring for baby Seo Eui-woo gradually eased. It felt like he might fall asleep right alongside him.
‘Not bad…’
Jae-jin let his heavy eyelids fall. Lying on the soft bed, his exhausted body stretched out, sharing the blanket with the warm little baby. Sleep quickly overtook him.
As he drifted in and out, he heard a faint sound.
Creak.
The bedroom door quietly opened, letting in a sliver of light.
The door quietly closed again, and the cozy darkness returned. Jae-jin could feel the presence of Seo Eui-woo naturally climbing onto the bed. A faint scent of soybeans drifted from him, likely from the baby food he had been preparing in the kitchen for tomorrow.
“Jae-jin, are you awake?”
Seo Eui-woo slipped an arm under Jae-jin’s head, offering him a pillow, and gently wrapped an arm around his back. In Jae-jin’s chest lay baby Seo Eui-woo, and behind him, the adult Seo Eui-woo embraced him. Sandwiched between the two, Jae-jin drowsily mumbled in response.
“Not yet…”
“Are you going to sleep now? You must be really tired.”
Before Jae-jin could answer, he felt soft lips press against the nape of his neck. Warm breath brushed over his skin, sending a subtle shiver through his body.
“Jae-jin…”
A hand slid under the blanket, pushing aside his clothes. Jae-jin, already half-asleep, barely registered it, even when fingers traced over his lower abdomen. His mind was too foggy, his exhaustion too deep—so much so that sleep felt inevitable.
“Mm…”
“It’s still early in the evening. Are you really just going to sleep?”
“…Yeah.”
“Then… can I just touch you a little? Just a little bit…?”
“…Jae-jin? Are you really just going to sleep? Again? Hmm?”
Seo Eui-woo’s whispers only made him sleepier.
In the end, completely worn out from childcare, Kwon Jae-jin succumbed to his exhaustion and drifted off.
Seo Eui-woo let out a deep sigh, pulling Jae-jin’s unmoving body into his arms.
“Haa…”
He had lost count of how many days it had been like this.
Ever since baby Seo Eui-woo appeared, they hadn’t had a single moment to themselves. One of them was always tending to the baby, while the other handled household chores. Then they’d switch—watching the baby, doing chores, cleaning, laundry, cooking baby food, running over whenever the baby cried, feeding him on time, changing diapers, bathing, boiling and sterilizing bottles…
Babies required an unbelievable amount of attention.
‘I never expected this.’
Seo Eui-woo was the one who wanted a baby in the first place. He was the one who used his ability to create this fragment of himself.
But still…
Jae-jin collapsing from exhaustion every night left Seo Eui-woo feeling both bitter and guilty. Jae-jin had only gotten caught up in this mess because of him. It wasn’t like he could complain about it, nor could he tell Jae-jin to stop caring for the baby. They couldn’t even kiss properly, let alone anything beyond that—it was completely out of the question.
‘Ugh. This is frustrating.’
To put it bluntly, they hadn’t done anything since the baby was created.
Before this, unless a mission required him to leave on an unavoidable assignment, they had spent every night together. Three rounds were the bare minimum, and when they really got into it, they would go at it from morning until night like animals in heat.
But now, this forced celibacy was making Seo Eui-woo feel like he was dying of thirst.
On top of that, it would take ten days for baby Seo Eui-woo to fully grow. Which meant—his forced abstinence would also last ten days.
“Fucking hell.”
Seo Eui-woo grumbled under his breath, tightening his arms around the sleeping Jae-jin and pressing a kiss to the top of his head. Jae-jin, still deep in sleep, remained oblivious, but the real reason Seo Eui-woo felt drained wasn’t due to a lack of stamina. It wasn’t childcare that had exhausted him—it was pure sexual frustration.
But waking up an obviously exhausted Jae-jin just to strip him down and take him? That would be crossing a line, especially when he was the one who caused this whole situation in the first place.
‘Ten days? There’s no fucking way I can last that long!’
The baby was asleep. Jae-jin had collapsed from exhaustion.
And once again, Seo Eui-woo was left alone to suffer through another long, restless night.
