Ch 3.3
“I’m sorry. I cannot live here with you all.”
“Why?”
“Hyung, do you hate us?”
“Can’t you play with us anymore?”
Ah, the reaction I expected eventually burst out from the children.
This must be why Lian tried to just see the
children from a distance and leave…….
“I’m sorry. Instead, I’ll make sure to come often in the future whenever I have time.”
“I don’t want that. Let’s stay together with us.”
“I want to live with Oppa too…….”
“You guys, stop it. You’re making it hard for Hyung.”
The child who first recognized Lian shouted at the three children to stop.
“But…….”
“Oppa…….”
Realizing that Lian was troubled, the children’s words gradually dwindled.
Then they were cautiously reading the room, not knowing what to do.
Seeing that, a pitiful and sorry feeling for the children rushed in.
So, instead of staying quiet, I stepped in between the children and spoke.
“Now, everyone. Hyung Number 5—I mean, Oppa—has become a knight. You all know what a knight is, right?”
“Yes. I know.”
“I know.”
“But once you become a knight, there is so much training. You have to train after waking up in the morning, train at lunch, and train again until you go to sleep.”
I tried to explain step by step at the children’s eye level.
“Is it that hard when you become a knight?”
“Yes. That’s how you can become a cool and wonderful knight.”
“Wow, Hyung Number 5 must have a really hard time.”
“Oppa is amazing.”
“And to become a knight, you have to stay somewhere other than here. That’s why Hyung Number 5—Oppa—cannot stay here together.”
Perhaps because of the environment they had lived in, the children were quick-witted and clever.
They immediately understood what I was saying and were even exchanging glances among themselves.
“Are you really going to come often……?”
“Oppa, promise that you’ll come to see us often.”
Then they shifted their stance and were trying to get a promise out of Lian.
“I’ll come often. For sure.”
Lian replied while leaning down to meet the eyes of the children who were each a head shorter than him.
“You promised!”
the child with black hair, who had been especially teary-eyed since a while ago, was intentionally widening his eyes.
It was a struggle not to cry anymore.
“Yes. I understand.”
I let out a sigh of relief with a smile.
It was a relief that we could resolve it well without the children being deeply hurt.
A moment later, the children sat in a circle with Lian in the middle and began a barrage of questions at him.
Children were truly children.
The atmosphere had completely changed, as if they had already forgotten the situation from earlier.
The children laughed and chattered noisily.
And I was just watching the children from the side.
“Oh, right. Oppa, we have names now!”
“Names?”
“Yes. I’m not Number 3 anymore; I’m Lucy, Lucy!”
It was a name that suited the cute and lovely-looking child very well.
“Me too! I have a name too!”
“Me too!”
The children each boasted about their names to Lian.
I could feel the excited hearts of the children, who now had names instead of numbers, so clearly that a smile formed naturally.
“So let’s see. It’s Lucy, Noah, Adrian, and Dominic, right?”
Since I was bored just staying still, I slowly joined the children’s conversation.
“Yes. That’s right!”
“Hyung Number 5—Oppa here—also has a name now.”
“Really? What is it?”
“Lian, it’s Lian.”
“Wow, the name is pretty.”
“Right? Then shall we greet each other again?”
Even though it had been quite a while since we met, the children looked at me with puzzled expressions at my suggestion to greet each other again.
“Hello? I’m Belita. Nice to meet you.”
I faced the children and held out my hand.
Then, to the children who were hesitating on what to do, I held Lian’s hand and explained to the children again.
“When you meet someone for the first time, you can introduce yourself like this and shake hands. Now, who wants to go first?”
“I, I’ll go first!”
“I want to do it too!”
“I’m Lucy.”
Lucy held my hand first.
“I’m called Adrian.”
The boy with curly blue hair and a good eye, who had recognized Lian first earlier, came out next and greeted me.
“I’m Noah! It’s Noah.”
And then I shook hands with the boy with delicate black hair who had been speaking while on the verge of tears the whole time.
“I am…… Dominic.”
Lastly, the blonde boy who was uniquely silent and quiet compared to the other children spoke hesitantly.
The child seemed to lack social confidence and couldn’t even think of holding my hand.
So I grabbed the child’s small hand first.
“Nice to meet you, Dominic. Now, shall we do it with Lian?”
At my words, Lian and the children exchanged greetings while introducing their own names.
Watching that sight, I couldn’t hide my gratified feeling.
These were children whose identities had been granted only by numbers.
But now, those children had names.
Because I knew so well what that signified, I was quite moved.
“Noona! Noona, then is Hyung the knight who protects Noona?”
Adrian asked me.
“Yes, that’s right. He’s the knight who protects me.”
“Wow, cool! I, I want to be a knight too! I want to protect Noona too!”
His way of speaking was so cute that I gently stroked Adrian’s hair.
“If you eat well and sleep well and grow as much as Hyung, you can enter the knighthood.”
“Really?”
“Of course!”
“Then from today, I’m going to eat this much food and sleep for a really long time.”
Adrian replied while drawing a circle with his arms exaggeratedly.
“Right. Are you promising from today?”
“Yes! Promise!”
“Noona, I want to be a knight too.”
While I was making a pinky promise with Adrian, Noah cut in abruptly and spoke.
“Sure. Noah, promise too.”
“Unnie, me too!”
“……Me too.”
In the end, I ended up making promises with Lucy and Dominic as well, quite unexpectedly.
While talking with the children like that, quite a bit of time had passed.
The sky was turning red, as if the sunset was about to begin.
“Now, we have to go. Next time I come, I’ll buy and bring wonderful gifts. Stay well until then. Understood?”
“Gifts?!”
“Wow, she said gifts!”
The words that we were leaving were buried by the sound of “gifts.”
I felt it again, but children were truly
children.
“Unnie, you have to come next time for sure.”
“Yes. You all have to stay well, eat well, and get along with your friends. Got it?”
“Yes!”
Only after such a lively meeting with the children ended could Lian and I leave the orphanage.
Before completely leaving the village, I stopped the carriage.
And I stepped outside to look at the village view for a moment.
Perhaps because I had just seen the children, the village felt friendly as if I had lived here from the beginning.
“Young Lady?”
Lian got off his horse and approached me.
I looked at Lian and opened my mouth after a moment.
“Lian, how was today?”
“……It was good.”
“It seems it was a good thing to meet your siblings after all, right?”
“Yes. Thank you, Young Lady.”
I hadn’t intended to face the children from the beginning, but the result was very good anyway.
“In the future, if you miss your siblings, tell me. Understood?”
“Yes. I will do so. Thank you.”
“What do you mean ‘thank you’ between us. Let’s hurry back. It’s gotten too late.”
“Yes. I understand.”
In that way, after spending a satisfying and pleasant time, we left Hemmoa.
