Chapter 87

“Teacher. Did my dad send a reply yet?”

Among the child’s chirping little questions, the word reply popped out brightly, like one of those paper figures springing up when you turned the page of a picture book.

At the small hands repeatedly tugging at the hem of her pants, the teacher stopped what she was doing. Wearing an awkward expression, she gently patted the boy’s head.

“Sorry, Yuli. There’s still no message yet.”

“.......”

At her answer, his lips puffed out between his round, chubby cheeks. Even his short eyebrows lifted sulkily, making his displeasure painfully obvious.

What am I supposed to do with this?

Feeling helpless, the teacher stroked Yuli’s hair again.

“Maybe your dad’s busy and hasn’t checked his phone yet? If he replies, I’ll tell you right away.”

“Dad’s always busy.”

The grumbling complaint slipped out immediately. The teacher looked down at the child’s unhappy face before pressing the back of her hand gently against his cheek.

“Let’s see... you still feel a little warm.”

“I have a fever. My face feels all hot. Did you tell Dad Yuli has a fever too?”

“Of course I did. I told him everything. So once he sees it, I’m sure he’ll reply right away.”

Speaking reassuringly, the teacher disinfected the thermometer before placing it into the boy’s ear.

37.4 degrees Celsius.

Not dangerously high, but the fever that had started around lunchtime still refused to go down.

“Dad’s stupid. Yuli’s sick and he doesn’t even know.......”

Oh no.

The same conversation was about to start all over again.

“Our Yuli, what did teacher say about why your dad is busy?”

“...So he can buy Yuli yummy food, buy him clothes, and raise him.”

“That’s right. So what should our Yuli do?”

“Eat lots of food bravely, run around a lot, and study hard.”

The child answered carefully, one word at a time.

“That’s right. Then did our Yuli finish coloring the picture you drew earlier?”

The boy visibly flinched.

“...No.”

The teacher laughed softly and patted his back.

“Then hurry and come finish coloring it with teacher. You have to show it to your dad later.”

The sketch Yuli had drawn showed three people.

When she’d asked who they were, he’d proudly answered:

Dad, Uncle Hyesung, and Yuli.

Watching the child clutch crayons in both fists while diligently coloring away with squeaky little strokes, the teacher checked the time.

Already 5 PM.

Yuli was part of the extended daycare program. “Uncle Hyesung,” who usually dropped him off and picked him up from preschool, would probably arrive around six.

The number of times the teacher had actually seen “Yuli’s father” could be counted on one hand.

Three or four times at most.

And every single time, he’d shown up wearing a hat and mask, so she’d never even properly seen his face.

Among the teachers, though, he was fairly famous as “the guardian with incredibly pretty eyes.”

Still, whenever he came to pick Yuli up, he usually kept his head lowered and quietly disappeared with the boy before anyone could get a good look at him.

The teacher had never thought much about it.

He stood out a little, yes, but there were all kinds of children at the preschool, which naturally meant all kinds of parents too. And these days, there were plenty of younger parents with unusual circumstances.

Still, on the rare occasions when Yuli’s father — not Uncle Hyesung — came to pick him up, Yuli would become visibly overjoyed.

So even if he was busy, the teacher had assumed he must be a good father.

Yuli certainly seemed to think so. The boy talked about “Dad, Dad, Dad” every chance he got.

And that wasn’t all.

Yuli’s father was also one of the rare guardians who consistently replied to the preschool notification messages with long, thoughtful responses filled with gratitude.

But it seemed the first real hardship of Yuli’s six-year-old life had finally arrived.

He said he was a freelancer... I wonder where he went on a business trip.

“Yuli’s father” had apparently left home for about two weeks because of work.

Normally, Uncle Hyesung handled all the drop-offs and pickups anyway, but Yuli’s father had still sent the teacher a careful message explaining the situation and asking her to look after Yuli well while he was gone.

He’d always replied to every preschool message without fail.

But ever since leaving for the trip, the messages had stopped completely.

Resting her chin on one hand, the teacher watched the child quietly.

Yuli was always bright, cheerful, and resilient. With his unusually adorable face, he resembled a freshly steamed dumpling.

Sometimes he had a habit of puffing his cheeks while chewing on his lips, and every time he did, his plump cheeks bobbed up and down in the cutest way imaginable.

Poor thing.

Over the past few days since Yuli’s father left home, the boy had grown noticeably gloomy.

He talked less. He’d lost interest in playing.

And now, today, he’d even developed a fever.

The teacher swallowed back a sigh just as the intercom inside the art room rang.

When she answered, the director’s office informed her that Yuli’s guardian had arrived to pick him up.

“Yuli, looks like Uncle Hyesung is here. Let’s pack up!”

Yuli bounced up like a ping-pong ball.

Hurriedly stuffing his sketchbook into his bag, he sprinted noisily down the hallway.

He’s so cute.

Smiling, the teacher followed after him.

“.......”

But the moment Yuli reached the entrance, he froze.

“Yuli, Uncle’s here. Let’s go home.”

The person who’d come to pick him up wasn’t Uncle Hyesung.

It was Uncle Kisoo.

The teacher knew him well too. A middle-aged man who occasionally came instead whenever Uncle Hyesung was busy.

“I don’t wanna! No! Bring Dad!”

Yuli threw himself onto the floor and burst into tears.

It wasn’t that he disliked Uncle Kisoo.

More than anything, it seemed he was devastated because his hopes kept being crushed again and again on top of his father’s absence.

“Y-Yuli. You can’t cry like this, okay?”

The more flustered Uncle Kisoo became, the louder Yuli cried.

The teacher hurried over to comfort him too, but the boy showed no signs of calming down.

There was one thing the teacher didn’t know.

Yuli was a smart child.

He had long since figured out that if he shook Uncle Kisoo hard enough, there was a high chance Dad would magically appear.

But this time, even little Yuli’s clever trick wouldn’t work.

Because Yuli’s father, Go Gyeol, was trapped on an island.

***

Maybe it was because he’d suddenly entered water deep enough to reach his chest.

Breathing felt strangely difficult, as though the oxygen around him had thinned.

Gyeol wasn’t stupid.

He understood perfectly well what it meant for someone — especially someone like Sun Choi — to approach him this directly.

“......”

Words refused to come easily.

While Gyeol searched for what to say, Sun quietly took hold of his other hand beneath the water and carefully lifted it out.

His injured hand.

The sudden oath-taking pose was ridiculous enough on its own, but seeing Sun still worrying so carefully about his injury even now was so absurdly endearing that Gyeol couldn’t bring himself to deny it.

A laugh escaped him helplessly.

“Sorry. I really don’t want to laugh.”

“......I’m sorry too. I don’t want to keep doing things I should apologize for.”

Sun added dejectedly while staring at the soaked bandage.

The bold confidence he’d shown earlier had vanished entirely; even the ends of his brows drooped with disappointment.

“It was only underwater for a second. I put a waterproof bandage on it, so it’s fine.”

“One moment. I’ll be right back.”

After glancing around, Sun cut through the water toward the opposite side of the pool.

“Huh? Um.......”

The pool was fairly long, so Gyeol could only stand there blankly and watch him.

After walking several steps, Sun slipped fully underwater and began swimming freestyle.

Then suddenly, Gyeol’s gaze drifted elsewhere.

Maybe he’d felt someone watching him.

Or maybe something irresistible had simply pulled his eyes there.

The only thing Gyeol knew for certain was that Yo Han Sung stood at the end of his line of sight.

The annex pool was an infinity pool jutting out over the cliffside below.

And unfortunately, the spot where Gyeol stood faced directly toward the western pool of the main building.

Yo Han Sung stood at the edge of the infinity pool, looking outward.

More precisely—

he was looking at Gyeol.

Their eyes met.

How long had he been watching?

From where?

It felt like being caught in a moment that never should have been seen.

Which meant, conversely, that Gyeol himself hadn’t wanted Yo Han to see him with another Alpha.

It wasn’t anger.

He wasn’t upset or disgusted.

Nor did he think Yo Han had been secretly spying on him.

Honestly, it might’ve been easier if he had felt something simple and negative like that.

But no matter how deeply he searched through the tangled mess inside himself, not even the thinnest thread of those emotions existed.

He simply...

hadn’t wanted Yo Han to see him with someone else.

Without even understanding what that feeling meant, what kind of emotion it was, regret flooded him over being exposed like this.

“Gyeol?”

At the sound of his name, Gyeol hurriedly tore his gaze away.

At some point, Sun had returned and was now standing nearby with an inner tube floating beside him.

His heart pounded violently.

Perplexed by Gyeol’s reaction, Sun turned to look toward the direction Gyeol had been staring.

“That’s Yo Han Sung. Looks like they’re swimming over there too.”

They.

Meaning Yo Han Sung and Jaekyung Park.

Because Jaekyung — who had won the Ivory Mansion date pass alongside Sun — had chosen Yo Han as his date partner.

“......Yeah.”

Sun’s reaction remained calm.

Gyeol stole another glance toward Yo Han’s side.

Unlike before, Yo Han now stood with his back turned. Apparently Jaekyung had entered the pool.

“Here. If you rest your arm on top of this, it shouldn’t get wet.”

As though it were no big deal at all, Sun turned back and held the inner tube out toward him.

So that’s what he went to get.

Thanking him softly, Gyeol accepted it.

Gyeol rested his arm on the tube while Sun walked beside him, the two of them slowly wandering through the pool as they talked.

Gradually, night deepened.

As the surroundings darkened, the underwater lights glowing from beneath the pool floor became brighter and brighter.

And because of that, the pool where Yo Han and the others were also seemed to burn brighter in the darkness.

Gyeol wanted to stop paying attention entirely.

But in the dim, nearly deserted surroundings, it was impossible not to keep noticing the only place where silhouettes still moved.

Finally, Gyeol turned his back on them completely.

Then, gently kicking toward the deck while holding onto the tube, he looked at Sun.

“Sun, should we head inside now? I’m getting hungry.”

“Sounds good. But before that....”

After watching Gyeol lift the tube onto the deck, Sun gestured for him to wait a moment before bracing a hand against the edge and climbing out of the pool alone.

He didn’t even use the handrail.

He simply jumped cleanly onto the deck in one smooth motion.

Gyeol couldn’t even begin to understand how he’d done it.

“......Huh?”

“One moment.”

Did he seriously just leave me here?

Gyeol stared up blankly as Sun smiled and gestured for him to stay put.

“No, wait. Sun.”

I want to get out too.

Before Gyeol could continue protesting, Sun strode off across the deck and disappeared.

Then he returned carrying a large towel draped over one arm.

Walking right up to the edge of the pool where Gyeol stood, Sun brushed back his wet hair and held out his hand.

“Here. I’ll lift you up.”

Under the underwater lights, Sun’s wet face and body glowed softly.