“Jaehee, Jaehee.”
Jeongwoo clung to the phone and cried endlessly. The call continued for quite a while, but there was barely any conversation as they were both crying. Jeongwoo’s crying finally stopped because of Jaehee’s bombshell declaration.
“Jeongwoo. I think I’m pregnant.”
When there was no response even after waiting, Jaehee continued speaking.
“Our child must have been Blazing Flame.”
“Jae, Jaehee. Wa, wait. What are you saying right now?”
“So, I’m sorry but you need to come here quickly, Jeongwoo.”
“Wha, wha, wh, what, what on earth is going on. Wait a minute, hold on. I’ll come right now. Father! I need to go up to Seoul right now.”
Even after hanging up the phone, Jaehee stood there blankly for a long time. It didn’t feel like any of this was real.
* * *
After that day, Jaehee’s belly swelled up at a terrifyingly fast pace. His belly grew faster than Jaehee could accept the fact of his pregnancy.
Jeongwoo suggested going to an obstetrics and gynecology clinic, but Jaehee refused. Not only could modern medicine not explain a man being pregnant, but what was inside his belly was a Constellation. Even if it had lost its power, it wouldn’t easily go wrong. Moreover, the speed at which his belly was swelling was abnormally fast. In just three months, Jaehee’s belly had swelled up like a full-term pregnant woman. No doctor would understand such an abnormal phenomenon, so there was no way he could go to a hospital.
“Jeongwoo! Jeongwoo!”
“Huh? Why, why! Does, does it hurt? Are you okay?”
“Damn it! Kheuk.”
Jeongwoo looked at Jaehee with a tearful expression, fidgeting anxiously.
“Jeongwoo… Whew, probably, the baby will come out today or tomorrow.”
Jeongwoo’s face turned pale. Despite the serious situation, seeing that made him laugh.
To think he’d see Woo Jeongwoo, who could do anything in the world, make such an uncertain and fearful expression.
From that moment on, Woo Jeongwoo didn’t even sleep and stuck right next to Jaehee.
“Wha, what do we do? Then… the, the baby, how do we…”
Jeongwoo looked at Jaehee’s belly, which was as big as Namsan Mountain, with a tearful face. He had no idea how he should help with Jaehee’s delivery. It was dizzying to think that in case of emergency, he might have to help with the delivery himself.
“It’ll work out somehow.”
“Wha, what do you mean by that! Ho, how will it work out! We need a, a plan… Let’s go to the hospital even now.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Hey! Shin Jaehee! Wha, what are you planning to do! We, we need to go to the hospital and ha, ha, have su, surgery!”
Jeongwoo had been trembling continuously from the moment Jaehee brought up the delivery. Seeing Jeongwoo trembling like that actually made Jaehee feel more relaxed. Jaehee gently stroked his large belly with his hand and smirked.
“Jeongwoo. I’m just going to stay here.”
“Do, don’t say such ri, ridiculous things.”
“Hey, then does it make sense that I got pregnant? If I go to the hospital now, all the doctors will faint in shock.”
“Bu, but! How are you going to give birth!”
“The pregnancy itself was already an impossible act anyway. Blazing Flame will take care of it.”
“He’s inside your belly right now! How can he take care of it!”
“Don’t yell. And I don’t know about that either. But it’ll work out somehow.”
“Shin Jaehee! How can you say such carefree things!”
Wasn’t the pregnancy itself something beyond common sense? He had a vague thought that the delivery would be the same. But it seemed Jeongwoo didn’t agree with Jaehee’s thinking. He stayed up all night searching the internet, studying home births, and prepared various things starting with disinfectants. While Jaehee, the person in question, was relaxed and carefree, Jeongwoo was so anxious he couldn’t sleep properly.
That moment they both anticipated and feared came suddenly. Normally with childbirth, labor pains would come first, but this pregnancy, which had been far from normal from the start, had a delivery that also exceeded imagination.
“Wa, wait…! Ugh, uaaaah…! Wha, what should we do…?”
The first one to scream wasn’t Jaehee but Jeongwoo. It was because the baby floated up from Jaehee’s swollen belly as if separating from it.
Jaehee looked at his belly with a curious feeling. The baby became semi-transparent and slowly floated up outside of Jaehee’s body. Seeing that reminded him of when he broke the crown and put it into Jeongwoo’s chest. The baby’s birth process seemed like watching the process of the crown entering Jeongwoo’s chest in reverse.
“Woo Jeongwoo! Just stay still!”
Jeongwoo’s hands and feet trembled, and he started spinning around and around the room without stopping. Finally, unable to bear it, Jaehee yelled at Jeongwoo, and he barely stopped, but even stopped, his whole body trembling wasn’t even funny.
Meanwhile, the baby wrapped in a semi-transparent sphere floated up into the air. Between Jaehee and the baby, a semi-transparent line was connected lengthily, but as the baby floated upward, at some point that line snapped. And at that moment, the baby in the air dropped down.
Perhaps the most surprising moment for Jaehee would have been this one. Jeongwoo, who had been trembling, caught the child with amazing reflexes. The baby burst into crying in Jeongwoo’s arms with a “waah.” It was the first cry.
“Uwaeaeaeaeng”
Jaehee and Jeongwoo looked at each other with blank expressions, then looked at the baby.
A child who grew in an instant and came out on its own without any labor pains.
But it was clearly their child, his and Jeongwoo’s.
“Jae, Jaehee…”
Seeing Jeongwoo choking up, Jaehee smiled a little. The baby crying until its face turned red definitely resembled Jeongwoo.
Jaehee took the baby from Jeongwoo. It was so small and insignificant that he couldn’t quite think of it as a Constellation, let alone a person. Then the baby started to wiggle its hands and feet. He gasped at the tiny hands and feet that he couldn’t believe could move.
“Blazing Flame. Nice to meet you.”
Jaehee decided to set aside thoughts about the future for now and, at least for today, rejoice in meeting this small life.
And at the same time, a system window appeared.
[Congratulations! A new candidate for king of the protected planet Earth has been born. Currently, Earth is a protected planet, and this system window is visible only to Zero and some Awakened Ones.
With the birth of a candidate qualified to be king, the judgment of the end for planet Earth has been postponed.
The judgment of the end will be implemented again in 3 years. We applaud the fortune of Earthlings.]
* * *
“Where’s Dad?”
“He went to work.”
“Again?”
Looking at the child pouting, Jaehee clicked his tongue. The child loved Jeongwoo so much that he became depressed every time Jeongwoo went to work.
“Heewoo, you know. That Dad is going.”
“I know.”
The child’s name was decided to be Heewoo, taking the ‘Hee’ character from Jaehee and the ‘Woo’ character from Jeongwoo.
Before the child was born, Jaehee had worried for a long time about how to explain the child’s existence to his parents and those around him. But once the child was actually born, he realized all those worries were useless.
Just as Jeongwoo had been rejected according to all laws before Earth regressed, Heewoo was welcomed by everything.
What this means is that as soon as Heewoo was born, everyone naturally accepted Heewoo’s existence.
There was no need to explain Heewoo to anyone. Everyone naturally accepted Heewoo as Jaehee and Jeongwoo’s child. It was as if everyone had been brainwashed.
“Heewoo. You know that Dad goes to work for your sake, right?”
“I know. I know too. That Dad and Mom both love Heewoo. But still, Heewoo wants to be together! It’s Christmas!”
“Ah…!”
Jaehee finally understood why Heewoo was so pouty today.
He had been expecting to party together since it was Christmas, but he was upset because Jeongwoo was away.
He understood Heewoo’s disappointment, but it couldn’t be helped.
Jeongwoo being away was for Heewoo’s sake. Heewoo, Blazing Flame, had exhausted almost all his power to turn back Earth’s time. As a planet itself, it was something to welcome since a way to survive opened up, but it was true that he had violated the laws. Therefore, penalties for violating the laws followed, mainly things like young Flame, Heewoo, getting sick or hurt.
Jeongwoo made a deal with the system to take on these penalties himself. Accordingly, he had to do the tasks the system demanded.
Jaehee didn’t know exactly what kind of work Jeongwoo did either. Jeongwoo explained it was something like mercenary work.
“Heewoo, Dad will be back soon.”
“I don’t know. He promised me.”
“What promise?”
“He promised to make a Christmas cake with me and draw pictures together.”
Jaehee picked up the grumbling Heewoo. Seeing his eye corners, which drooped downward resembling Jeongwoo who had cleanly defined features, made his heart complicated.
Heewoo grew at an amazing speed even during pregnancy, and even after being born, his growth rate was extraordinary. It had only been a little over 2 years since he was born, but he looked about five or six years old.
Jaehee found Heewoo’s growth both amazing and, on the other hand, regrettable. Thinking that this cute appearance would disappear quickly made him feel sad, so he was taking as many photos as possible.
“If Dad’s not here, you can do it with Mom. Heewoo, shall we make a cake with Mom?”
“Mom… Mom can’t cook.”
At Heewoo’s words, Jaehee had nothing to say and scratched his head.
“Then, then, shall we go buy a cake with Mom?”
“Bu, buy…?”
“Yeah. Let’s go buy one with Mom. Mom can’t make a cake as well as Dad, but I can buy a pretty cake! Let’s buy a big, pretty one!”
“Okay!”
“You’ll catch a cold, so you have to wear thick clothes. Come on, let’s put on clothes first.”
Jaehee meticulously checked Heewoo’s clothes. Although Heewoo’s frequent minor illnesses had decreased after Jeongwoo took on all the penalties, Jaehee still kept his attention sharp on Heewoo’s health.
“Okay, shall we go out now?”
“Yeah!”
It was when Jaehee picked up Heewoo and was about to leave through the door. He saw a familiar figure behind the door. The first to react was Heewoo.
At a glance, Jeongwoo looked exactly the same as when he left the house. But Jaehee saw a wound on the side of Jeongwoo’s neck. It was such a small wound that you couldn’t tell unless you looked closely. But seeing that a wound remained even after potion treatment meant it had been quite a large wound. Noticing that Jaehee’s gaze touched his neck, Jeongwoo subtly raised his collar to hide the wound.
“…Dad!”
“Heewoo!”
When Heewoo ran over, Jeongwoo embraced Heewoo.
“Where were you going? It’s snowing outside.”
“Because Dad wasn’t here! I was going to buy a cake with Mom.”
“Cake? If you go now, everything will be sold out and there’ll be nothing. Shall we make it together with Dad now? Dad bought all the ingredients to make it with Heewoo!”
“Yeah! Good! I want strawberry cake!”
“Strawberry cake! Dad likes that too!”
Jaehee tapped Jeongwoo, who was spinning around holding Heewoo.
“When did you arrive? Without any sign.”
“I just arrived, and we luckily ran into each other. If I’d been a little later, we would have missed each other.”
“How many penalties are left now?”
“It’s decreased a lot now, so I think it’ll be over after just one or two more times.”
At Jeongwoo’s words, Jaehee felt choked up for a moment. Even without knowing what work Jeongwoo did, erasing the penalty received by a Constellation couldn’t have been easy. He was both grateful and sorry to Jeongwoo for doing such things silently without any complaints.
“…You worked hard. Welcome back. Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas.”
Jeongwoo and Jaehee whispered softly to each other.
When Jaehee turned his head, he saw white snow falling outside the window.
“Jeongwoo! Heewoo! It’s snowing!”
“Huh? Really? Heewoo, if it snows a lot, shall we make a snowman with Dad?”
“Good! Snowman!”
Seeing the white snow, Jaehee suddenly recalled a certain Christmas Eve. Everything started from that day. That day when a black hole suddenly appeared in the air and began. From that day until today, truly a long, long time had passed.
Perhaps everything now could seem imperfect. The system and the planet still didn’t recognize the young Blazing Flame as king, and the judgment of the end could start again at any time. But conversely, now was a time when anything was possible. A time when no one had to die or get hurt, no one had to sacrifice. It was the perfect time that Blazing Flame had gifted. Jaehee affectionately kissed Heewoo’s forehead.
<Surviving with a Madman in a Ruined World> The End
