Correction Chapter 128 - Side Story 4

BANG BANG—

Jungmin shot up at the sound, which was loud enough to break the door down. Kim Joohwan, who seemed to have already woken up, was standing in front of the door. It wasn’t the wind. This… was someone knocking on the door. When Jungmin got out of bed and tried to open the door, Kim Joohwan blocked his way.

“How can you open the door without knowing who it is?”

“It’s a patient. Someone knocking at this hour is either a patient or something happened at the clinic.”

Having experienced this several times already, Jungmin quickly opened the door. Sure enough, an elderly man from the village stood before the door, his face a mess of tears. Jungmin quickly supported him. He was an old man who couldn’t see due to acquired cataracts. For him to have come all this way at this time, it seemed he was in a very serious situation.

“My son!! My son is in danger, Doctor!”

“How is he in danger?”

“I think he’s about to give birth.”

“Give birth?!”

This old man’s son was an omega male named Omondi. But he was still a minor, only 16 years old. He hadn’t seen him recently, but when he first met him, he wasn’t married and showed no signs of being pregnant at all.

“When did he get pregnant?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know!!”

“You don’t know?”

“Save him. Please, save him.”

This wouldn’t do. There was no time to talk to the old man now. Jungmin quickly got dressed and packed the necessary tools.

“Where is your son now?”

“At home. He’s at home.”

The old man’s house was quite a distance from here. Perhaps because he had run all that way in a hurry, his shoes were completely torn and his feet were a mess. To think he came all the way here in that state…. He couldn’t even begin to guess the man’s state of mind, and his heart felt heavy.

“Let’s go in my car.”

“Got it.”

Kim Joohwan picked up the old man, sat him in the back seat, and then headed for the driver’s seat. Jungmin got in next to the old man, treated his feet, and asked what had happened.

The old man said his son had been unwell for the past few days. While he was fretting, not knowing the cause, his son finally collapsed today. Clutching his stomach in pain, he had only then told the old man that he was pregnant.

He said he still didn’t know who the shameless alpha bastard who got his son pregnant was. Jungmin’s head throbbed. Sadly, this was a common occurrence here. Sometimes there were young omegas who would easily give their bodies for one or two potatoes.

After calming the old man, they arrived at the house to find that Omondi’s water had already broken. The house’s conditions were so poor that it was not a suitable environment for giving birth, so they immediately put him in Kim Joohwan’s car and headed to the clinic. When they arrived at the operating room, the nurses, who had been contacted from the car beforehand, began to rush in, out of breath.

“Where is Doctor Ha?”

Doctor Ha was the obstetrician in charge.

“Doctor Ha hasn’t arrived yet. He said he was going to the neighboring village today….”

Only then did Jungmin remember, and he slapped his forehead. This was bad. Jungmin could assist, but he couldn’t lead a delivery. He had the theoretical knowledge but had never actually done it. Especially since giving birth for an omega male was always a cesarean section. But he couldn’t just stand by and watch. Omondi was also weak from not eating properly, and time was of the essence. He wouldn’t be able to endure this pain for long. And of course, neither would the baby in his belly….

Jungmin clenched his fists and asked the nurses for help. There was no time to hesitate.

✽✽✽

“Haaa….”

After finishing the surgery and taking the shower that was only permitted on surgery days, Jungmin plopped down on a wooden chair, bent over, and looked at his own two hands. They were only now starting to tremble violently. He had held such a tiny life in his hands. The baby, who had squirmed as if determined to live even in that harsh environment, was fortunately born healthy, and the mother also went to the recovery room safely. It was a huge relief.

“You worked hard, sunbae.”

Kim Joohwan sat down next to him and handed Jungmin a cup. He could smell coffee. The scent of coffee beans, which he hadn’t smelled in a long time. It was even the scent of the beans from the cafe Jungmin used to frequent.

“I had them flown in from Seoul. To give to you, sunbae.”

“Kim Joohwan.”

“Yes?”

“I want to kiss you right now.”

“What?”

What wouldn’t he do for the saint who had handed him the water of life? He felt like he could even suck his dick if he asked him to right now. But he was too tired at the moment. He repaid him with a kiss and quickly drank the coffee. It really felt like he was coming back to life. How he had missed this taste.

From far away, he could hear a baby’s cry. The sound wasn’t grating; rather, it sounded like a serenade.

“He’s crying so loudly.”

“I know. But has this kind of thing happened many times?”

“Why?”

“I heard the nurses whispering earlier that it seemed to be ‘one of those again.’”

“The baby’s father is probably an outsider who comes and goes here. There are a lot of guys like that. Because it’s a place with a shortage of food…. Bastards who use that as an excuse to do bad things to young kids. Omondi isn’t the first. During the three months I was here… there were two others, I think. Those kids didn’t make it to birth, they miscarried partway through….”

“Hmm… why didn’t he tell his mother? He would have had options then.”

“Because he’s young. And because he doesn’t know anything… Omondi probably didn’t even know he was pregnant himself… and by the time he found out, it was already too late. There would have been nothing he could do.”

Jungmin gripped the mug tightly before taking another sip. The bitter taste of the coffee went down his throat.

“It’s amazing he held on. He really held on well.”

The future would probably be an even bigger problem, but for now, he wanted to feel relieved and blessed that they were both safe. May there only be peace in the future for these two lives.

✽✽✽

From somewhere, a cute and lovely singing sound could be heard. At first, he thought it was the cry of the newborn baby from today, but listening closely, it also sounded like a bird’s chirping…. Yes… that’s right, a bird. The cry of a baby bird.

That little bird that was always on the road to the clinic seemed to be singing for him today for some reason, and his mood improved. Jungmin smiled without realizing it.

“Sunbae.”

Snap— the bird song stopped, and Jungmin’s eyes flew open. Startled by the familiar yet unfamiliar face in front of him, he just blinked, and then the events of the previous day came flooding back.

Ah, right. He had come back home at dawn today, and it seemed he had dozed off afterward.

“What time is it….”

“It’s almost 11 AM.”

Kim Joohwan said as he handed Jungmin some water. He had already informed the clinic, so it didn’t matter that he woke up at this hour… no, actually, he wanted to sleep more…. As Jungmin’s body slumped to the side again, Kim Joohwan quickly caught him and carefully laid him down on the bed.

“Sleep more.”

“Yeah….”

“I’ll be out for a bit.”

“Yeah….”

Watching Jungmin mumble in his sleep, Kim Joohwan smirked and gave him a kiss. Then he got out of bed, made a phone call, and drove to the site where the clinic was to be built. He had planned to take his time a little, but after seeing the situation at dawn, he felt he couldn’t afford to waste even a moment. If things had gone wrong, both the mother and the baby could have been in danger. Honestly, Kim Joohwan didn’t care what happened to them. But the story changed when Jungmin was involved. If, by some chance, something had happened to them, Jungmin wouldn’t be sleeping peacefully like this now. Because he was a soft-hearted person, despite acting tough. He would blame himself for the rest of his life. That could never be allowed to happen. The only person Jungmin should be thinking about for the rest of his life was Kim Joohwan, himself. He didn’t want anything else to remain in his heart.

“If we hurry from now, we should be about 90% complete in a week. But the electricity and water right now….”

He had heard about the situation here before coming and knew it was very poor, but he hadn’t known it would be this bad. Even though he had prepared everything as quickly as possible, supplying electricity and water was, as expected, not easy. Especially the water; since it couldn’t just be transported, they had to build a waterway to connect it somehow. The only fortunate thing was that they had been working on the waterway with the government even before he came here.

“I understand. Please hurry as much as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kim Joohwan looked at the trucks full of temporarily brought water and thought about the conversation he’d had with Jungmin on the way back home at dawn after the surgery.

‘Sunbae.’

‘Yeah?’

Jungmin was exhausted, leaning against the passenger seat with his eyes closed. Feeling sorry for him, he threw out a joke to cheer him up a little.

‘Should we have sex?’

Mixed with 50% seriousness, of course.

‘What are you talking about all of a sudden….’

He spoke in a mumble with his eyes closed, as if he didn’t even have the strength to answer properly.

‘Come to think of it, we brought water. A whole truckload. And you just took a shower, sunbae. Can’t we just wash up with that again after we do it?’

‘N…o.’

He kept mumbling and reached out his hand to pat Kim Joohwan’s arm. As if to calm him down. And pitiably, that action from Jungmin was enough to raise Kim Joohwan’s seriousness to 99%. If Jungmin had just a little more strength… if he had at least opened his eyes, Kim Joohwan might have ravished him right there on the dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

‘The patients have to use it… having water will be a great help…. Thank you….’

Watching Shin Jungmin stroke his head with a voice that sounded like it would crumble at any moment, Kim Joohwan’s heart tingled. So much so that all the lewd thoughts he’d been having just moments before vanished completely.