Chapter 4, Part 1: Cry (4)

Rattle! Bang!

The sound of the shutter of the used bookstore being lowered was as loud as thunder.

Father, holding me in his arms as I went berserk, hurriedly got into a taxi. His anxious eyes had not left me since.

"Xinyi, just wait a little. Dad will take you to the hospital."

Father wasn't talking to me.

He was trying to reassure himself.

I felt sorry for Father, who was worried about me, but this was the only way right now.

Twenty minutes ago.

I was making a huge fuss.

I cried so loudly that my ears hurt, and I thrashed my limbs as if in convulsions. I even painfully vomited the milk I had drunk an hour ago.

Father was at a loss with me.

He tried to soothe and comfort me, but there was no way he could handle it.

There aren't many parents who can outdo their children.

Let alone if the child is sick, the parents are almost destined to lose from the start.

"Uh. Uh."

-...

"I understand. I'll go right away."

Father finally called for help from Mother, who was a nurse.

Mother told him to come to the hospital where she worked as soon as possible.

"Sir, could you please put out your cigarette? We have a child. I beg you."

"Sure, sure. I'll do that."

At Father's request, the taxi driver threw away the cigarette butt on the road.

At that time, it was a period when smoking was widely accepted in buses, taxis, restaurants, and homes, and hospitals even had designated smoking rooms.

'Shall I just do this much?'

Since I was already in the taxi, I didn't make a big fuss anymore.

Instead, I put on a performance of suffering like a national actor.

I expressed it with furrowed brows, narrowed forehead, and tightly pursed lips.

Pretending to be sick so seriously and consistently made me feel like I was really sick. But even if I were really sick, what difference would it make?

As long as Mother could be safe and healthy, even if I were in pain.

Held in Father's arms, I recalled a snippet of memory from the past.

If things went as they did in my previous life, Mother would take the bus home after clocking out on time.

However, the bus she took on her way home collided with an oncoming bus, severely injuring her wrist and ankle.

Due to the aftereffects, she had to quit her job as a nurse.

-Why did you quit your job at the hospital?

In my previous life, I had suddenly asked Mother this. With moist eyes, she answered:

-When you were one year old, I had a car accident. The heavens were indifferent; it was my birthday that day.

So, what I wanted to prevent by being reborn and living as a one-year-old was Mother's car accident.

Mother's car accident was like a prelude to the misfortunes our family would face in the future, and from then on, the lives of our three family members became entangled.

I wanted to properly button up the first button of our family's new life.

'I hope everything goes according to plan...'

Anxiously, I bit my finger.

'Pretend to be seriously sick.

Go to Mother's hospital for treatment. Mother will wait for me until my treatment is over, so she won't be able to clock out on time.

As a result, she will avoid the car accident.'

This was the only traffic accident prevention plan I, a baby, could come up with and act on.

It was a strategy I had devised by wracking my already limited brain cells over the past few days.

While life doesn't always go as planned, I could only hope that this time it would.

"Here we are."

Father, who had paid the taxi fare, got out of the taxi.

He rushed into Changsong Hospital where Mother worked.

"The child is very sick. She has a fever and has been vomiting."

"Yes, I'll register her. Please provide the child's resident registration number."

After completing the registration, Father and I entered the emergency waiting room.

As a former thoracic surgeon, my eyes, which had swept through the hospital, were now sparkling.

To me, who had experienced the distant future, the 1980s hospital was simply outdated.

The hospital's interior and furniture were rustic.

The hospital walls looked like they were painted white over rough cement. The waiting room chairs were plastic and the backrests only reached the middle of the back, making them look uncomfortable.

Doctors in white coats ran up and down the stairs like deer.

It was an era without EMR (Electronic Medical Records).

Interns were responsible for manually delivering charts and X-ray films.

Witnessing the vivid hospital life of the senior doctors, I felt a moment of sympathy.

'In my time...'

It was a structure that couldn't help but come out.

"Is Xinyi okay?"

Mother, dressed in a nurse's uniform, hurriedly came down to the emergency room.

She placed her hand on my forehead and checked my condition. But I was the one who felt relieved seeing Mother.

Because the plan to prevent Mother's car accident was on track.

The current time was 3:55 PM.

With various tests and waiting for the results, it would easily pass Mother's 4:00 PM shift end time.

"Since we got in the taxi, she's been much calmer. Before that, she was so bad. She was crying, thrashing, and even vomiting."

"Really? Tsk tsk. How difficult it must have been for her, unable to speak."

Mother continued, rubbing my limbs.

"Even if she says she's better, we still need to see a doctor. Sometimes the condition improves temporarily."

"I've already registered her for the emergency room and we're waiting."

"Xinyi, please come to the emergency room."

Just then, the emergency nurse called us.

Relieved, I entered the emergency room with my parents.

Since I had achieved my goal, there was no need to make a fuss anymore. I became a well-behaved child again.

"There doesn't seem to be anything unusual. The most suspicious is a cold, but she doesn't have a fever or a runny nose. There's no problem with her digestive system either."

The emergency doctor, after taking my medical history and using a stethoscope, tilted his head.

His eyes, directed at my parents, were saying:

-Excuse me? The child seems perfectly fine.

Inadvertently, Father looked like a fool.

Since it was a fake illness, there was no way any abnormalities would show up in the blood and urine tests.

Our family left the hospital without even getting a prescription, let alone an injection, in just 30 minutes.

"Really strange. She was crying so badly when she was with me, as if she was about to suffocate."

Father said with a tone of injustice and lingering regret.

"It's okay. No one blames you."

"Yeah. Let's just say it was a scare. As long as Xinyi is healthy, it's fine. Right? Xinyi?"

"Um. Dad."

I looked up at my parents and smiled brightly.

It was a car accident only I knew about.

A car accident that only happened in my previous life.

I was happy that we could wisely overcome the misfortune that would have befallen our family.

Even as a one-year-old baby, if I sincerely wished and planned, I could achieve my goals and change my fate.

If we continue like this, there should be no problem, right?

* * *

"Wow! My goodness, Xinyi. Look at this! Dad cleaned the bookstore? And the floor is so shiny? Is the sun rising in the west today?"

Yuhie entered the bookstore and made a fuss as she looked around.

Despite her storm of nagging, her husband had no interest in cleaning the bookstore.

-Dust accumulating means time is passing. If time passes in the bookstore, isn't it quaint and charming?

-Ugh, you call that a reason?

Whenever her husband, who was the same age as her, spouted pretentious nonsense, she would hit his back hard as a response.

Despite nagging until her ears bled, her husband never cleaned, but today he had done a good job cleaning the bookstore!

It was quite a surprise.

"Um... I don't think he cleaned it just because it's my birthday..."

"Of course, I did it for you."

"Don't lie. Tell me the truth. You can fool the king, but not me."

Yuhie glared at her husband with her narrow eyes.

Her husband soon laughed awkwardly and confessed.

In fact, while carrying Xinyi and walking around the bookstore, Xinyi had gotten dust on his hands and face, which made him decide to clean.

"Tsk! You listen to your son more than your wife, huh?"

"Haha. Honey, that's an exaggeration. Anyway, it's good that the bookstore is clean, right?"

"Ahaha. Momma."

Xinyi, who had been quiet, stretched out his arms as if trying to mediate between her and her husband.

"Mom, don't fight with Dad? I understand. We won't fight."

Yuhie smiled and kissed Xinyi's cheek.

When she received a call from her husband saying Xinyi was sick, she was so shocked that her heart sank.

Pneumonia, meningitis, bronchitis, otitis media, intussusception, and so on.

All the names of diseases that could happen to Xinyi came to mind, making her head spin.

I hope it's not a serious illness that requires hospitalization.

Fortunately, Xinyi was healthy and fine. Seeing her perfectly fine son, her tense heart relaxed.

"The bookstore looks clean and tidy. Sales were better than yesterday."

"I told you to do it earlier."

"I'll work hard from now on. Please be kind and watch over me."

"Did anything else happen?"

"Besides going to the hospital, something amazing happened."

Like a novelist, her husband began to tell a story, capturing her attention.

A medical student from a nearby university came to the bookstore to sell medical books.

Xinyi had tightly held onto the medical books and wouldn't let go.

"Our Xinyi might really become a doctor when he grows up. I know parents always think their children are exceptional, but he already shows some outstanding qualities."

"I felt that too. It would be great if Xinyi becomes a doctor. Really."

She had defied her parents to marry her husband.

While her parents' approval was important, she believed that choosing a partner based on her heart was more important.

Her married life with her husband was generally happy.

After Xinyi was born, she was even happier.

However, the guilt she felt towards her parents didn't disappear.

It was like a thorn in her throat, not easily removed.

-It would be nice if there was a reason.

-It would be great to show my parents a harmonious and successful family.

Yuhie thought that if Xinyi became a doctor, it would give her a legitimate reason to visit her parents.

But she quickly discarded those thoughts.

Raising a child for the sake of her parents' desires was a sin.

"Still, we shouldn't put pressure on Xinyi from now. It's just our desire. I just want Xinyi to grow up healthy and strong."

"I was just talking. It's embarrassing for someone who has read a lot to project their desires onto their child."

Her husband agreed with her.

Sometimes like a friend, sometimes like a younger brother, sometimes like an older brother, she liked her husband.

"Let's go to the room and watch TV. I'll prepare dinner soon. I've perfectly prepared seaweed soup and bulgogi, so look forward to it."

"Okay. Thank you."

"Happy birthday. Honey. I'm really happy to have you."

Her husband kissed her cheek.

Her face turned red like a girl's.

Holding Xinyi in her arms, Yuhie watched TV. But her eyes widened at the news that was just broadcast.

"Honey, come here. Quickly!"

Yuhie urgently called her husband.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Surprised, her husband entered the room with a ladle in his hand.

"Look at that."

Yuhie's finger pointed at the TV.

Her husband's limbs stiffened like a log as he followed her finger.

-At around 4:10 PM today, city bus number 342 collided with oncoming bus number 341.

-As a result, driver Mr. Kim and about 20 passengers suffered various injuries. The cause of the accident was the driver of bus number 341 falling asleep at the wheel...

Her husband looked at her with a blank expression, speechless.

She had the same reaction.

Bus number 342.

Yuhie's commuting bus.

If Yuhie had clocked out normally today, she would have taken this bus number 342.

And she would have been seriously injured in the traffic accident reported on the news.

The time that had passed without incident was now turning into a source of fear.