Deal Breaker - Chapter 89
Anyway, Han River
That fall, Han Saebyeok was born.
They named her Saebyeok (daybreak, dawn) because she was conceived at dawn and born at dawn. Of course, neither of them told anyone about the first half of that meaning.
“Uweeng.”
“Our baby Saebyeok is saying she’s hungry.”
It turned out that an S-Class mental-type Esper was also an S-Class childcare expert. Whenever the baby cried, he could look at the images forming in her mind and immediately figure out what she wanted.
“Guh.”
“Mr. Han Kanghyeon’s child has emitted carbon.”
Every time the baby burped in Kanghyeon’s arms, Hyeji teased him like that.
After eating a hearty breakfast, the baby burped and immediately fell asleep in her father’s arms. Watching the man gently patting the baby while standing by the window overlooking the Han River, bathed in sunlight, became Hyeji’s new hobby.
It had looked awkward at first, but now the way he held the baby looked comfortable. While Hyeji had been away from home for a few days, he had handled solo childcare, and it had become even more natural.
After placing the sleeping baby into the car seat, the two of them headed to a nearby district office. As they got out of the car and walked toward the entrance, a woman around Hyeji’s age passed by them. Kanghyeon’s gaze followed the unfamiliar woman.
“That coat would look good on you. Don’t you think?”
It turned out this man hadn’t been memorizing the bags female employees carried around because his observation skills and memory were uselessly sharp. He had been thinking things like ‘That would suit Secretary Noh’ and asking employees where they bought them.
Back then, he hadn’t even realized he liked her. Since he didn’t know it himself, Hyeji hadn’t realized it was personal interest directed at her.
“What brings you here?”
The clerk asked as they stood at the counter.
“We’re here to register a birth.”
Three months after she was born, just before the new year, they were finally registering the baby’s birth. They had been too overwhelmed before.
After finding out she was pregnant with Saebyeok in March, Hyeji only got the employee health checkup she had skipped in July. And during a thyroid ultrasound, nodules were found.
“So that’s why you wondered if something was wrong with my thyroid.”
It almost felt like a mental-type Esper had the ability to make words come true.
While waiting for the results after undergoing a biopsy at a university hospital due to the possibility it might be thyroid cancer, the two of them spent many sleepless nights.
When she heard it might be cancer, the reason Hyeji’s heart dropped was different from Kanghyeon’s. She remembered her biological father, who had acted like he would give up his liver and gallbladder for his family, but then changed completely and cut ties the moment he heard her mother had cancer.
She knew she shouldn’t, but Hyeji buried herself alone in those bad memories and subtly put some distance between herself and Kanghyeon. But either he didn’t notice or didn’t care, because he stuck close to her side and researched relentlessly, from the internet to everyone he knew.
“What kind of thing is a ‘good’ cancer? Only people who’ve never had it say crap like that.”
He spoke with anger, as if he himself had cancer.
Fortunately, it wasn’t cancer. However, the nodule was large, so two months after giving birth, she had to undergo surgery to remove half of her thyroid.
Going through cancer testing, childbirth, and surgery, Hyeji came to acknowledge something. The man she had trusted as her superior and matching Esper was also someone she could trust as a life partner.
And as she spent a year constantly going in and out of hospitals, experiencing everything from the delivery room to the operating table to the hospital bed, Hyeji realized one more thing. Marriage, being a legal institution, also guaranteed legal rights.
Because Kanghyeon wasn’t Hyeji’s legal guardian, there were many things he couldn’t do. It also meant that if one day Kanghyeon had to frequent hospitals like Hyeji did, there would be limits to what she could do for him as well.
She still thought marriage wasn’t a necessity, just a choice.
So Hyeji chose marriage.
When she took out the marriage registration form, with every field filled except the name and signature under the husband section, along with Saebyeok’s birth registration, Kanghyeon frowned, his neat brow creasing.
“Hyeji-ya, this is too sudden. Marriage is such an important thing. You should at least give me time to think it through carefully.”
Saying that, he scribbled his name and signature into the blank space like someone being chased, and handed it to the clerk in one quick motion.
