Chapter 4 - Harper

As I silently gazed at the baby without saying anything, my adoptive parents let out gentle laughter.

“Samuel must like his brother. He can’t take his eyes off him?”

Time really does fly. While rolling around in a warm place with a full belly thanks to my adoptive parents’ wealth, I’ve come to have a new family member right before my eyes.

“To think there are only three males in our house. It’s going to get very noisy.”

“Leave Gabriel out. He’s calmer than an adult.”

“Haha, they say siblings resemble each other. If Samuel resembles Gabriel, will he grow up quietly?”

My adoptive father, who had been haggard, bickered with my adoptive mother with a face that had regained quite a bit of vitality.

There, I felt warmth anew.

The sound of early autumn rain and warm indoor lighting.

My adoptive parents’ ticklish laughter.

The small, warm child wriggling in my arms.

“Since Gabriel is smart, I hope Samuel learns a lot from watching his brother.”

“We should be the ones educating the child, is it okay to leave everything to another child?”

My chest has been strangely ticklish since earlier.

Now I finally feel it.

“Gabriel.”

Until now, I had only considered my adoptive parents as… guardians I met when starting my new life.

“With us and Samuel. Let’s live happily together for a long, long time?”

Now they’re truly a family living under one roof.

I felt like I had taken my first step inside that fence.

A small voice leaked out between my lips without me realizing.

“With my parents and my younger brother”

A sense of stability I’d never felt even once.

A reassuring feeling that I would absolutely never fall off a cliff.

A sensation I’d never experienced in my previous life feels unfamiliar.

“For a long time, happily…”

I looked at the baby’s eyes once more.

The navy blue eyes shone brightly in indigo, reflecting the light.

Facing the clear color, the adoptive parents’ conversation that had been lingering in my ears gradually faded away and only the sound of rain filled the space.

‘The eyes are like the color of water.’

Swoosh—

At the sound of the late rainy season rain, this thought occurred to me.

If I had given this child a name today, the day he was born into the world.

‘Wouldn’t it have been the name William Bailey…?’

At that moment.

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, a stinging sensation and my head throbbed.

“Gabriel!”

“Gabriel, what’s wrong? Does it hurt somewhere?”

It’s like lightning striking inside my head.

I reflexively lowered my head from the sharp pain, and Samuel’s face came back into view.

The moment I met those bead-like pretty navy blue eyes, certain ‘text’ suddenly came to mind.

[Gabriel Bailey.]

What is this?

Why is my name…

[Where did you hide my omega?]

[You finally came? William.]

[I’m asking! Answer me!]

What is this? These words?

[I let him out of the cage.]

[Who gave you permission.]

This is… like a script?

Or a novel?

[You took my family, my position, and even that wasn’t enough… you dare to take Harper too?]

[Take? I picked him up.]

This book, I…

[What your younger brother mercilessly abandoned, this brother will pick up and use.]

I’ve read this before.

[Is it that precious to you? My lovely younger brother?]

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I was lying in a hospital room.

“Where is this…”

Before I knew it, my clothes had been changed into pediatric patient gowns.

“Did adoptive mother… bring me here…?”

Looking around, I opened the phone neatly placed at the bedside.

It was called the latest phone in this world, but by my previous life’s standards, it was an outdated 2G phone from generations ago.

Whether it’s the major corporation called BK Group that didn’t exist in my previous life, or the time period that differs by about 20 years, or above all that omega or alpha thing… it seems right to conclude that this world where I started a new life is a completely different parallel world from the Washington I knew.

After the ‘BK Electronics’ logo passed on the powered-on phone screen, I entered the message inbox.

[Gabriel, are you okay? You suddenly collapsed, so both dad and I were very worried.]

[I had to step out briefly for a meeting. I’ll come right away as soon as work is done! Let’s see the doctor together then.]

[They said there’s nothing particularly wrong with your body and you’ll be fine if you rest well for a day, but… if you feel any pain anywhere, make sure to tell the nurse and the doctor!]

[Oh, Driver Paul is next to you, right? If anything happens, tell him right away!]

There were lots of messages from my adoptive mother.

‘I made them worry for nothing…’

Looking around, there were no people, and only the bag of ‘Driver Paul,’ my adoptive mother’s exclusive driver, was sitting alone in the corner.

‘Did Driver Paul go eat or something?’

I sat my stiff body up from the bed. Fortunately, nothing hurt and I had no headache.

It should have been a healthy body that ate well and grew well compared to my previous life, so how did I end up fainting like that?

Then I suddenly remembered the text I saw right before fainting.

‘Gabriel Bailey, and the name William…’

I thought they were unfamiliar names I was seeing for the first time, but somehow I feel a sense of déjà vu.

Actually, when I was just adopted and heard my name from my adoptive parents, I felt like it was familiar too.

‘From today, you’re ‘Gabriel Bailey’!’

‘I’ve heard it somewhere. No, I’ve read it…’

It feels somewhat like déjà vu, but no matter how much I think about it, I can’t remember anything beyond this. Except for those strange texts.

“Well. I’ll remember someday.”

Actually, I’m the type to stick problems I can’t solve no matter how much I think about them in a corner of my head and forget about them. In my previous life, I got seriously ill more than once or twice from worrying about things one by one like that.

So I shook it off and got out of bed to stretch.

Sitting still and racking my brain made me thirsty, so I opened the refrigerator. It seemed I was admitted quite urgently, as the inside of the refrigerator was completely empty and the power wasn’t even turned on.

“I should go out and get something from a vending machine. Money is…”

I noticed a white envelope on the nightstand and opened it. A shining gold credit card and a thick stack of cash fell onto the table with a thud.

“…”

Checking the envelope again, it was written in my adoptive mother’s handwriting: [Gabriel’s emergency fund! Use it freely if you need it!]

“This is more than all the assets I accumulated in my previous life. Seriously.”

I can’t help having sage time at moments like this. Even though I’ve enjoyed such luxury and pleasure, I just can’t get used to the sense of money that wealthy people have.

I took out just one green bill from the stack of cash and opened the hospital room door.

Slide.

Just as I was about to go out into the hallway.

“Oh.”

“Ah!”

I bumped into some child.

“Are you okay? Sorry.”

I quickly wrapped my arms around the small body and stood them upright.

And when I confirmed the child’s face.

‘Crazy.’

Blonde hair.

Green eyes sparkling like lush forest.

‘Are they a child model or something?’

I can assert I’ve never seen such a cute and lovely child in my life.

I was in the mood to applaud an appearance that wasn’t of this world’s beauty, but instead the child looked at me and clapped.

“Cool brother!”

“C-cool?”

* * *

I just wanted to get a cola from the vending machine and drink it, but how did it come to this?

I finally couldn’t stand it and turned around.

“Why do you keep following me?”

Whether mixed race or a foreign tourist, what’s a blonde child doing in a Washington pediatric ward?

It’s like this is exactly what a baby angel drawn in some religious painting would look like. No, honestly, even cuter than that.

The owner of such an extraordinary appearance poured out words to me with sparkling eyes.

“Brother. Where are you going?”

“To get a drink.”

“A drink! You know, I like strawberry flavor!”

“I see…”

“It’s yummy! It’s like, red, and umm, sweet. Delicious!”

The child was basically having a festival of random words with everything they said. The conversation strangely didn’t connect, so I decided to ignore them and go my way.

Usually kids lose interest quickly when you don’t pay attention to them, but this one followed along without getting bored.

“Brother. You know I can count? One, twoo, three… four! Four years old!”

“Oh, I see. I’m twen… six years old.”

“Six! Six means, two years older brother! Real brother!”

“Yeah, nice to meet you. Little brother.”

Somehow I ended up with two younger brothers in two days.

I had no idea what kind of conversation to have with a 4-year-old.

“Cool brother. Your hair is black.”

“And yours is yellow.”

“Your eyes are slanted up!”

“…This isn’t racism, is it?”

“Like a black cat! Cool!”

“Hmm, I’ll take it as a compliment.”

Where the hell is this vending machine that it’s not showing up?

Just when I was thinking that, a rest area with a terrace and three vending machines came into view.

“Wow! It’s strawberry flavoured!”

Coincidentally, the vending machine was plastered with a fruit character called ‘strawberry very,’ and they were even selling a drink with what appeared to be strawberry very, a yellow hamster, drawn together with a strawberry.

“Strawberry very. Looks yummy…”

The kid drooled and sparkled their eyes.

In the end, I sighed, then jumped to press the button and got them a drink.

“Wow! It’s very Strawberry!”

“Brother is buying it for you.”

“Thank you, brother!”

They gave a deep bow and almost toppled forward from the weight shift, which I barely prevented by throwing my whole body to catch them.

Even though they almost got hurt, the kid giggled happily again, then struggled with a reddened face because they couldn’t open the drink.

“It, it won’t open…!”

“Give it here.”

“Wow! Brother is super strong!”

Watching that, I thought.

“Brother is an adult! Super cool!”

‘So this is what raising kids is like.’

If it’s such a cute creature… I’m confident I could adore them for life.

I hope my younger brother Samuel Bailey  is also this adorable.

“ Strawberry is yummy! Brother, yours is yummy too, right?”

“Yeah. It’s incredibly sweet.”

“Hehe.”

As the sweet taste full of artificial sweetener spread in my mouth, my head cleared up a bit. Originally I hated this kind of taste even if it just touched my lips, but maybe because I got younger, I’ve reverted to a kid’s palate.

Since the child settled in and was drinking their beverage steadily, I ended up sitting in the chair next to them too.

“Brother, brother, can you be my brother?”

“Sorry. I became someone else’s brother yesterday.”

“Aww, I wish you’d be my brother…”

As we continued what was essentially another festival of random conversation, a growling sound suddenly echoed.

“Brother. I’m hungry. Food.”

“Huh?”

F-food? Do I have to take care of meals too?

No. That’s the kid’s parents’ job!

“Now that I think about it, where’s your mom?”

“Mom…?”

The child tilted their head and said.

“I don’t have a mom.”

‘This can’t be.’

What a fatal slip of the tongue I made!

“Th-then your dad…?”

“I have a dad!”

Whew. Thank goodness.

I lost ten years of my life thinking I might have made a slip of the tongue twice.

“I have pretty dad and cool dad!”

“…Two dads?”

“Yeah! One, and two! Jealous?”

The blonde child held up one finger on each hand and smiled brightly.

Ah, right. I forgot again for a moment that this is a world where two moms or two dads are biologically possible.

“Yeah. It must be nice to have two fathers…”

“Hehe!”

I… have a lot to say. No. Never mind.

I’ve been receiving sex education from my adoptive mother for over a year, and even came to the hospital for my adoptive father’s childbirth, but I still can’t escape from my previous life’s common sense. Maybe it’s because of psychological resistance.

“Anyway. Where did your fathers go that you’re alone?”

“I’m alone?”

“Yeah. Where are your dads?”

“Oh, dads…?”

The kid suddenly looked around quickly and their eyes started to well up with moisture.

…No way.

“D-dad. Where’s dad…?”

Did I press a button I shouldn’t have pressed…

“Sniff, sob!”

“Ah.”

“Waaah!”

In the end, they burst into tears.

“Sob, brother! Where’s dad? Waah!”

“How would I know?”

“I’m scared! Hold me…”

The child was crying so pitifully that I couldn’t not hold them.

My designer brand shirt worth close to the total of my part-time wages in my previous life instantly became covered in snot and tears.

What should I do about this.

“Do you remember where you saw dad?”

“Huk, dad?”

“Yeah. Either the pretty one or the cool one.”

“I don’t know. Waah!”

People gradually gathered around at the sound of crying. Then when they saw the angel-like baby… instead of approaching, everyone opened their phones and started taking pictures!

Hey, you people! Don’t you see the kid crying?! The 2G phone quality is so bad that even if you take photos from that distance, you won’t get their face! Meanwhile, it seems some people are taking pictures of my face too, they couldn’t possibly be mistaking me for a kidnapper, right?

‘L-lost child center! But do hospitals even have lost child centers?’

For now, I picked up the child and headed aimlessly toward where nurses might be.

Since I was also just a 6-year-old body, it was ambiguous whether I was carrying the child or dragging them along by force, but getting out of here was the urgent priority.

“Then what’s your name?”

“Name…?”

“Brother will find your dad for you. What’s your name?”

The nurse would be able to handle things more easily if we knew the name.

I was moving my feet quickly like that when I stopped dead at the answer I heard.

“I’m Harper.”

“Huh? Harper…?”

“Yeah. Harper.”

Because it was a name I’d heard somewhere before.