Chapter 3, Section 1: Cry (3)

‘This is really serious. Really.’

I, wrapped in a swaddling cloth and carried on my father’s back, suddenly furrowed my brow.

The bookstore was covered in dust.

When I lightly touched a bookshelf with my finger, a thick layer of dust stuck to the tip.

It seemed that no cleaning had been done for at least a few months.

The floor was just as dirty, with black grime stuck in various spots.

There were even pieces of gum stuck as prominently as moles on Wang Seobang’s face.

I recalled the conversation that some customers had had in the bookstore a while ago, without my father’s knowledge.

They were right.

Hygiene is important in any shop, not just restaurants.

My father, who pursued the dream of being a novelist, was extremely insensitive to reality.

But don’t dreams need to be firmly rooted in the ground of reality to be achieved?

In that sense, the used bookstore needed a thorough cleaning. If my father could sell even one more book, it would help the family.

‘Should I start my plan now?’

I lightly turned my head from side to side.

I had adapted to the life of a one-year-old to some extent.

A one-year-old can’t speak, walk, or control their bladder and bowels, but there were certain advantages.

What were they?

My inherent innocence and natural attention-seeking nature.

‘Let’s go!’

While my father carried me and toured the bookstore, I deliberately swept my palm across the bookshelves.

My hand turned black with dust almost instantly.

I rubbed my dirty palm all over my face, as if applying shoe polish. Then I started coughing uncontrollably.

“Cough! Cough! Cough!”

“Why is our Baeum doing this?”

My father reacted to the loud coughing that seemed to come from deep in my lungs.

“What’s wrong! Baeum, why is your face like that?”

My father looked at me with wide eyes, like a startled owl.

“Cough! Cough!”

I coughed with all my might again. My father finally seemed to sense something was wrong.

He took me back to the room, unwrapped the swaddling cloth, and cleaned my face and hands with a wet towel.

“It’s my fault. I’ve been too negligent with the bookstore while writing novels. Because of me, Baeum has become covered in dust.”

My father said in a troubled voice, and I nodded vigorously, as if agreeing.

‘Father, writing is good, but you need to clean the bookstore regularly. Otherwise, the number of customers will keep decreasing.’

Perhaps my act hit the mark.

“Baeum, I’ll clean the bookstore so you don’t cough. Just rest for a bit.”

My father rolled up his sleeves and left the room.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The sound of dust being brushed off the bookshelves and books.

Swish. Swish. Swish.

The cheerful and refreshing sound of sweeping echoed through the bookstore.

Somehow, it felt like my heart was being cleaned as well.

Perhaps because I had completed my mission, my body felt lethargic, and my mind became hazy.

I immediately drifted off to dreamland.

* * *

“Baeum, how is it? Clean, right?”

I was still in my father’s arms, having just woken up.

My father seemed eager to show me the cleaned bookstore.

He must have put in a lot of effort.

The bookstore was so clean that it was hard to believe it was the same place I knew.

When I ran my palm over the bookshelves and carefully touched the books, no more dust stuck to my hands.

That wasn’t all.

The aisles were much wider now that the books, which had been tied with ropes, were neatly arranged.

The bookstore seemed twice as spacious as before.

Yes, even in a used bookstore, this level of maintenance is necessary.

My father, a novelist, is knowledgeable about books and good at managing people.

If he pays more attention to cleanliness, the bookstore’s revenue won’t decrease.

Now I felt a bit more at ease.

“I’ll keep the bookstore clean so Baeum doesn’t cough. Isn’t that good for you too?”

“Babababa!”

I smiled and reached out to pat my father’s head.

It meant, “Well done, Father.”

“Father, did I do well?”

“Babababa!”

“Thanks to Baeum, I cleaned the bookstore. Your mother will be surprised. She never listens when she tells me to clean, but Baeum made me do it quickly.”

My father laughed happily.

Ding!

Just then, the doorbell rang, and two young men entered the bookstore.

They were carrying plastic bags bulging with books.

“Welcome. Are you the medical students from Jangwon University?”

My father greeted the customers with a broad smile.

“Huh? You remember us?”

“I remember the conversation we had when you came to buy books last time.”

“Oh, I thought you’d forget. You have a good memory. But the bookstore looks much cleaner than before?”

“Really? It looks much wider than the last time we came.”

The young man with glasses scanned the bookstore and nodded. The thin, lanky young man beside him agreed.

Although my father had done the cleaning, I felt proud.

“Decided to clean it thoroughly. Students, are you here to sell books?”

“Yes. These are the books we have. We were wondering if you could buy them.”

The medical students, or future seniors, laid out medical textbooks in front of my father.

These were books filled with bizarre medical terms and anatomical diagrams, which would look strange to a layperson.

It felt odd to be looking at medical textbooks in a baby’s body.

The blood of a thoracic surgeon, which had been dormant, began to boil.

“These are books I inherited from seniors, but I don’t need them right now… I need money urgently…”

The young man with glasses explained, almost apologetically. However, my father’s expression wasn’t very bright as he scanned the books.

I already knew what he would say.

‘I’m sorry…’

“I’m sorry, but we don’t handle specialized textbooks very well. They don’t sell well, and students often mark them up, so they’re usually in poor condition.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. We just wanted to ask.”

Just as the young men were about to back away, embarrassed, I grabbed the bag of medical textbooks with my fluffy hands.

I wanted the books, even though I couldn’t read them right away.

I had forgotten the basics of other subjects while working as a thoracic surgeon.

While the heart and lungs are important, a person can’t live on just a heart.

Having prior knowledge of other specialties allows for more thorough treatment when consulting with other departments.

“Baeum, this is a problem. The guys need to go.”

“Bababababa!”

I held on to the books with all my might, determined not to let them go.

“Our good Baeum is being stubborn. Let go.”

“Bababababa.”

I shook my head desperately.

Then the clever medical students came to my aid.

“Your son seems to want to be a doctor when he grows up, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah. It’s rare for infants to throw such a tantrum. His stubbornness is just like a surgeon’s, isn’t it?”

The medical students’ encouragement seemed to pique my father’s interest.

- Medical students are selling specialized textbooks, but the baby won’t let go of the books?

- Could this mean our son is destined to be a doctor?

My father, a novelist, must have had such romantic thoughts.

Or, even if it wasn’t my father, all parents tend to read something profound into their children’s minor actions.

‘This is an opportunity!’

To reinforce my father’s thoughts, I held the bag of books even tighter.

“Ugh. Ugh.”

I tried to say “doctor” with my baby tongue.

The medical students exclaimed in amazement, and my father shook his head in disbelief.

“Students.”

“Yes.”

“Normally, we don’t handle specialized textbooks, but I’ll make an exception for you.”

“Really? Thank you.”

“I think your son will grow up to be an excellent doctor. I guarantee it.”

The medical students left with a generous allowance, and the medical textbooks remained in the bookstore.

My father was filled with the rosy hope that his son might become a doctor, and I was happy to have the medical books.

This was the perfect happy ending everyone dreamed of.

* * *

After the medical students left, my father neatly arranged the medical textbooks near the cash register.

Since these were books bought for me, they probably wouldn’t be sold.

When I can walk, talk, and read, I’ll thoroughly study these books, I decided.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The sound of my father typing on the typewriter echoed softly through the bookstore.

With no customers, my father immersed himself in writing his novel.

The look in his eyes, as he created another world, was serious and cool.

If I was a person who healed bodies, my father was a person who healed hearts.

I’ll do my best to ensure my father doesn’t give up his pen.

Lying in the crib, which had been moved from the back room to the shop, I gazed up at the ceiling.

It had been a week since I was reborn as a baby.

Reflecting on it, I still couldn’t quite believe my current situation.

It was as if I was in a dream, unsure whether my past life or this one was the real me.

But perhaps distinguishing between the two wasn’t that important.

I decided to do my best in the place I was in and work to make my family happy.

‘What can I do?’

I wanted to open the medical textbooks right away, but that was impossible.

With nothing else to do, I began to review my past life.

Reflecting on it, everyone’s life has turning points.

For my father, it was giving up on writing novels.

For my mother, it was marrying my father and estranging herself from her family.

In this life, I intended not only to put my life back on track but also to guide my parents’ lives back to their rightful paths.

Since I knew what would happen in the future, it wouldn’t be difficult.

I was confident I could do it.

I wasn’t foolish enough to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“What are you doing, Baeum?”

My father, who had been working on his manuscript, came over and leaned over the crib.

“Bababababa.”

“Yeah. Daddy. Do you really want to be a doctor, Baeum?”

“Yeah. Ugh. Ugh.”

My father smiled brightly, showing his teeth, as I acted cute.

It was hard to believe that in my past life, my father was always frowning.

“I hope Baeum becomes a doctor. If Baeum becomes a doctor, I can finally gain the respect of my in-laws.”

A faint sadness tinged my father’s voice. In my past life, my father never gained the respect of his in-laws until he passed away from heart disease.

- A writer with no practical skills.

- A good-for-nothing who only makes his precious daughter suffer.

That was the in-laws’ assessment of my father.

While it might seem harsh, from the perspective of the conservative in-laws, it wasn’t entirely wrong.

The environment in which my mother grew up and the one in which she lived with my father were worlds apart.

If I became a doctor, as my father said, he could finally stand up to the in-laws.

And it would definitely happen.

For my father and mother, for the in-laws, and for myself.

“Babababa, ugh. Ugh.”

“Baeum, do you really want to be a doctor?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.”

As I instilled confidence in my father, I soon turned my gaze to the wall clock.

Today’s date: September 17.

Current time: 3:40 PM.

A rough wave was about to hit our otherwise peaceful family life.

I had been waiting for this moment all morning.

If I couldn’t prevent the impending tragedy, my rebirth would be meaningless.

Perhaps today’s events would be my debut test of my reborn abilities.

“Hmmm. Hmmm.”

I cleared my throat and turned my head from side to side.

I let out the cry I had been holding back since my rebirth.

“Cry! Cry! Cry!”

“Bae… Baeum, why are you suddenly doing this?”

My loud crying made my father jump and panic.

I hadn’t cried once since my rebirth.

My father quickly checked my diaper, but it was clean. I wasn’t crying because I had soiled myself.

“Are you hungry?”

My father offered me a bottle of formula, but I angrily pushed it away.

I wasn’t crying because I was hungry.

My crying was a kind of siren, alerting to an emergency.

Today was my mother’s birthday and the day she would be in a terrible car accident.

I had to prevent this accident from happening.