Chapter 7 - Highschool

……Sharper than I thought.

No, perhaps it was because he was a child that he could keenly perceive the emotions of others.

“……Harper.”

“Hm? Why, brother?”

“What if.”

I impulsively asked Harper.

“What if William…… Samuel someday tells you that I’m a bad guy who does terrible things.”

The development in the novel.

What will happen in the future and……

“Could you not be friends with him?”

My wish.

“Huh? Not be friends? Why?”

“Could you not even acknowledge him, and live your whole life without ever seeing his face?”

“Brother……?”

At my words, Harper hesitated.

Then suddenly lifted his head sharply and shouted.

“That’s weird!”

“Huh, weird?”

“Samuel is a baby who can’t even talk! How could he do bad things to Harper?”

“Ah, no. I mean, later when he grows up, he might…….”

“How does brother know what will happen later?”

Because I saw it in a 19+ novel, you brat!

……I couldn’t say that, so I vaguely dodged the question.

“Anyway, I know. I do.”

“How?”

“I know everything because I’m more of an adult than you.”

“Hmph! Then brother! What snack will Harper eat tomorrow?”

“Wh-what, suddenly?”

“Hurry up and guess!”

And then a quiz suddenly started.

“Well, cookies?”

“Wrong!”

“Then something like sweet potato?”

“Wrong, wrong! The answer is yogurt!”

“……How would I know whether you’ll eat yogurt or yogurt drink tomorrow.”

“See! Brother doesn’t know either. But then how do you know if Samuel will be a bad kid?”

That kid doesn’t understand. That this is a world inside a novel, and that he might not be able to escape that development.

“Harper. This is like a weather forecast. Like how it will rain tomorrow…….”

“But it might not rain!”

But Harper kept shaking his head.

“If it rains, just open an umbrella!”

He offered an alternative.

“So Gabriel can spank him!”

“Sp-spank?”

“Since Samuel is a younger brother, if he does bad things, brother can spank him!”

Sp-spank, you say, man! Does he even know who he’s talking about when he says things like that!

“I don’t know if scolding him a bit will work on someone like…….”

I stopped mid-sentence and shifted my gaze toward the baby lying in the cradle.

William in the novel is a terrifying person. A psychopath without blood or tears, who committed murder and torture, blinded by love and jealousy. That ‘obsessive maniac.’

But what’s lying there is…….

“If he’ll even be that kind of…….”

A small baby.

A one-month-old, soft and warm, unblemished…… pure white baby.

‘……Wait a minute.’

The internet post from earlier came to mind again.

The post about whether to eliminate or save Hitler if he became a newborn baby.

Separately, there’s a theory that Hitler became a war criminal because the butterfly effect of not getting into art school. A comment related to this flashed through my mind.

[Anonymous1: Just give him hardcore early education from childhood and it’s solved.]

└ Anonymous2: ??? What education

└ Anonymous1: If he gets into art school, he won’t become a war criminal. I’d save him lol thanks

Like Anonymous1’s comment…… what if he was sent to art school? What if support was given generously from childhood, pushing him hard to become an art master?

What if the very possibility of Hitler leading war and massacre was eliminated……?

“Ugh!”

Then suddenly a familiar headache struck.

[Not content with stealing my family, my position…… you dare to even steal Harper?]

The part where William says he was ‘robbed’ by Gabriel came to mind again.

‘What! And his sworn enemy older brother Gabriel was actually not blood-related?! An adoptee trying to take over BK Group by doing such cruel and ruthless things?! Wow, what a crazy dysfunctional family…….’

Then the muttering I had done while reading the novel before came to mind.

[The one who destroyed me like this……. It’s all because of you. Gabriel!]

And a new line flashed through my mind!

‘That’s right! In the first place, the reason William became twisted was because of his adopted older brother Gabriel!’

In the novel, there were hints that Gabriel had been abusing William behind his adoptive parents’ backs and constantly gaslighting him from childhood to keep his biological son in check!

He was a very cunning and rotten character, so William’s personality becoming twisted was practically an inevitable progression……!

Of course, that pathological obsession toward Harper was partly due to his innate nature, but considering the tremendous hatred William harbored toward his brother, it wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

“Harper.”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks! For making me remember something incredibly important!”

“H-huh?”

Why did I forget this again, you stupid fool!

Why did I only think about running away? I just need to block the cause first!

‘Isn’t this a problem that can be mostly solved if I, as Gabriel, just do well!’

Finally, I didn’t need to weigh the possibility of having to flee from the psychopath obsessive maniac and pray that my next adoptive family would also be upper class.

Suddenly courage welled up. The courage that I could enjoy this life as is, sucking up all the sweet honey……!

“Harper, you’re a genius!”

“Woaah, brother! Why are you suddenly like this! I’m dizzy!”

I scooped up Harper in one go and spun around.

I wanted to kiss him all over, but as Gabriel, that seemed like a line I shouldn’t cross, so I held back.

That’s when it happened.

“Waaah……!”

Suddenly, crying sounds came from the cradle.

The navy blue eyes that had been watching us the whole time were scrunched up tight.

“Brother, Samuel must be upset that we were playing by ourselves!”

Harper stared at the baby intently, then suddenly said to me.

“Brother, hold Samuel too!”

“N-now?”

“Yeah! Spin him around like you did earlier!”

“……He’s still too young to spin around.”

“Really? Then just hold him!”

That was also a difficult request. Ever since learning that Samuel was William, I had been reluctant to even touch him.

But now it’s different.

‘He is William, but…….’

At least that baby in front of my eyes isn’t cursing, being violent, or acting coercively like that maniac bastard.

‘The William I know isn’t here ‘yet.”

That is a life just born,

unblemished by anything,

as white as a blank canvas…….

“Samuel. I’ll be a good older brother.”

I carefully picked up the baby, ‘Samuel,’ and met his eyes.

“I’ll never bully you.”

“…….”

“When you’re struggling, I’ll be your strength.”

“…….”

“And if you do bad things, I’ll spank you……too.”

“…….”

“So you can’t become a bad person, okay?”

Did he understand what I said? He’s a baby who was just born, so there’s no way he could.

But as if responding to my words, Samuel’s eyes seemed to sparkle once.

Of course, it might just be my own delusion. Still, with the relief that naturally seeped in, a smile naturally leaked out.

“Brother! Then we’ll all play together, right?”

From the moment I heard young Harper’s innocent voice,

I decided to erase the name ‘William’ from my mind.

“Yeah, let’s play together. Harper, Samuel!”

From the moment I gave this small snowball his name,

I believed that the fate of the three of us had changed.

* * *

Swoooosh–

At a foreign dock where rough waves crashed.

“Samuel.”

“Harper.”

Two tall, handsome young men faced each other.

And just like that, their fists crossed, striking each other’s faces.

Thwack!

Watching the two of them like a scene from a noir film, I shed tears inwardly.

‘But I didn’t know it would change this much, damn it……!’

The reason I’m shedding tears of deep regret like this is something that happens more than 20 years later.

* * *

The time is early spring, even before the flower buds have formed.

“Next, we will have the welcoming remarks from the student council president.”

Young students gathered in the school auditorium, standing neatly in rows and columns.

The children wearing their uniforms for the first time whispered excitedly to each other for a moment, then their eyes sparkled at the appearance of a certain student climbing onto the podium on stage.

“Wow, isn’t this crazy?”

“He’s, he’s really handsome…….”

“That senior must be a model.”

“Isn’t he an idol trainee?”

The noisily chattering new students quickly shut their mouths tight and focused on the student’s actions as he tapped the microphone, testing if it worked.

Black hair, and ash-gray eyes.

With a sharp jawline, broadly set shoulders, and well-proportioned legs, even though he wore a middle school uniform, it created the illusion of a man in his 20s standing there in a suit.

“That person is 100 percent an alpha, right?”

“What are you even saying?”

“At that level, honestly, he might even be a dominant alpha.”

Anyway, an incredibly handsome alpha male!

Everyone became of one mind and one heart, staring blankly at the student standing at the podium.

Then that student smiled and opened his mouth.

“Hello, new students. I am a third-year at Abraham Lincoln Middle School, and I have been appointed as the 32nd student council president.”

It was a low voice with heavy pressure, but a warm voice filled with kindness resonated throughout the auditorium.

“My name is Gabriel.”

* * *

“Senior G-Gabriel!”

Another new student came to find me.

“Please date me!”

To this, I smiled and answered.

“Sorry. Physiologically, guys are a bit…….”

“What?”