Hunter Kindergarten, Dolphin Class! - Chapter 128

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 128

 

Lee Seo-hyeok was having an endless nightmare.

 

The dream didn’t unfold by showing fragmentary scenes in passing, but rather reproduced everything exactly the same, as if reviewing what he had experienced that day.

 

Inside the bus going on a trip with friends.

 

The mobile phone screen showing dozens of missed calls.

 

The taxi moving to the hospital.

 

Arriving at the hospital, then through the funeral home to the columbarium.

 

Finally, holding his younger siblings’ hands and returning home.

 

When they arrived at their home, which was no different from a cold cave without their parents anymore, the nightmare would end.

 

And then, without fail, it would come back again…

 

Starting with boarding the bus to go on a trip with friends.

 

‘I want to stop.’

 

How many repetitions was this?

 

At first, he didn’t even know this was the beginning of an endless nightmare and was simply happy.

 

He didn’t know. Maybe he wanted to believe that the ridiculous assumption of going back to the past had happened to him too.

 

The thought that this might be a chance to correct what he regretted seemed to dominate his mind.

 

‘It would have been better if it started from the morning of the accident day, but I thought this was good enough.’

 

He felt he could handle it more calmly than before, and at the very least, he could see his parents’ final moments… Yes, he definitely seemed to have liked it.

 

However.

 

“You need to be strong from now on. I think it’s better if you don’t see your parents. Their condition is too bad…”

 

“Ah…”

 

Words that wouldn’t come out.

 

In the infinitely repeating time, he made the same words and choices every time.

 

No matter how many times it repeated, I couldn’t stay calm at the news of the accident, and I couldn’t properly convey my opinion before ultimately collapsing.

 

And then, regret.

 

Another repetition.

 

After several such repetitions, at some point I realized this wasn’t reality but a dream.

 

‘When will I be able to wake up?’

 

‘If it’s a dream, I can’t change it anyway.’

 

Once I had that thought, from then on I just watched the passing time with dead eyes.

 

Hoping it would pass quickly.

 

Then.

 

‘Did I see something like this back then?’

 

In the nightmare that started once again, I began to see things different from before.

 

My reflection in the window of the bus going to the Glamping Site.

 

‘I was too busy chatting with my friends to even look toward the window.’

 

However, unlike before, my gaze was fixed on the window, staring intently at my reflection there.

 

At that blatant stare, I unconsciously looked at the same thing.

 

‘So this is what my face looked like back then.’

 

I was slightly surprised.

 

Even though it was my own face, it felt unfamiliar.

 

It felt like facing a thoughtless, immature child.

 

The strangely unpleasant feeling was brief, as I simultaneously felt a sense of longing.

 

But before I could dwell on such feelings, time flowed by quickly.

 

Once again, the hospital.

 

Lee Seo-hyeok was huddled in some corner of the hospital corridor with his knees drawn up.

 

Was it around the time when he received news of his parents’ accident and his grandparents collapsed and were moved to a hospital room?

 

‘I’ll spend the whole day at the hospital like this and then stop by home tomorrow…’

 

“….”

 

Again.

 

He caught sight of his reflection in the window across from him.

 

He was wearing the exact same clothes as on that bus when they were going on the trip, but he looked tired and haggard now.

 

“….”

 

According to my memory, around this time, I should have been staring blankly into space with my mind half gone.

 

But this nightmare was different somehow, as it kept checking intermittently as if to see whether I was okay.

 

‘What is it? It doesn’t seem like my will is involved.’

 

After unintentionally looking at myself several times like that, there was something I naturally came to realize.

 

‘So young.’

 

His past self looked too young.

 

He was too young to bear the sudden death of his parents all alone… Looking through the eyes of a 22-year-old, he finally came to realize this objectively.

 

And at the same time, he realized something else.

 

That even if he went back to the past, nothing would change.

 

No matter how much he regretted it, nothing would change.

 

‘Back then, I… did my best just by enduring.’

 

Even though he only nodded at his relatives’ words and cried in secret… the past Lee Seo-hyeok had truly done his best.

 

He was shocked by this obvious fact and was sitting there dazed when he suddenly heard a sound.

 

“Older Brother…”

 

“Hyeong…”

 

Around this time, the twins who had just started talking and were throwing around all kinds of words had called for him.

 

Rather than understanding their parents’ death, they seemed frightened by the unfamiliar environment they’d been brought to after being woken up. The twins whimpered at the sudden situation and burrowed into his familiar embrace.

 

‘Were the twins like this back then?’

 

He couldn’t remember.

 

“Crying?”

 

“Why, crying?”

 

Though they themselves had cried their hearts out, he could see them lifting their sleeves to wipe away his tears.

 

His eyes that had been looking at them for a long while shifted his gaze to look into the distance.

 

‘What is it this time?’

 

“…”

 

He could see that his grandparents, who had fainted, had awakened at some point and come out of the hospital room to watch them from the end of the hallway.

 

Unable to approach, they were secretly swallowing their tears.

 

‘They were watching everything.’

 

They must have been worried.

 

Only now did things that hadn’t been visible before begin to enter his sight one by one.

 

‘Why couldn’t I see these things before?’

 

After that, his eyes moved as if controlled by someone else, pointing out things he had missed until now.

 

His uncle who had to return to America urgently but stayed until the end to see the funeral through.

 

Distant relatives who secretly slipped him notes with phone numbers and money, saying they were worried.

 

Grandmother and grandfather who covered him with blankets when he fell asleep in corners.

 

The twins who never left his side for even a moment during all that nightmarish time.

 

“Ah.”

 

Right.

 

Those I thought I had to hold onto were also holding onto me….

 

Lee Seo-hyeok took the twins’ hands and returned home again.

 

Then he felt the gaze of someone affectionate examining him from head to toe once more in the mirror placed at the entrance of the house.

 

Not empty pupils, but eyes that seemed worried.

 

Because of this handful of gaze, he was able to see today from a different perspective.

 

‘I think I know who this person is.’

 

With that thought, he opened his eyes.

 

And the place where he finally opened his eyes was not inside a bus going on a trip… It was a quiet hospital room.

 

Lee Seo-hyeok confirmed the person across from him who had just slowly opened their eyes and was examining him.

 

“…Teacher.”

 

Those were familiar eyes.

 

***

 

Lee Seo-hyeok was looking at me with bloodshot eyes where all the blood vessels had burst.

 

I glanced at Kang Ho-won for a moment.

 

‘I was the one who told him to watch suspiciously, but if he wakes up this quickly…’

 

However, Kang Ho-won seemed purely delighted that Lee Seo-hyeok had regained consciousness and showed no sign of looking my way at all.

 

“Lee Seo-hyeok! Seo-hyeok! Are you conscious?”

 

“…Yes, I’m fine. Senior.”

 

“Hey! Do you know how worried I was? No, more importantly, I’ll go get someone. Stay lying down.”

 

As Kang Ho-won rushed out of his seat like that, only Na Hwi-yeon and Lee Seo-hyeok remained.

 

We silently looked at each other in the sudden silence that came over us.

 

To be precise, Lee Seo-hyeok was staring at me intently…

 

‘Does he know what I did to him?’

 

Eventually, I spoke first with an awkward smile.

 

“Um… I’m glad you woke up from that bad dream.”

 

“…!”

 

“And thank you for staying alive safely… This might be inappropriate to say to a guardian, but I’ll use informal speech this time… You did well. Seo-hyeok.”

 

Lee Seo-hyeok might think I was suddenly saying something out of the blue, but these were words I really wanted to say to him at least once.

 

You must have wanted to collapse at least once, but you endured it all steadfastly without doing so throughout your young past days.

 

“You did well. Really.”

 

“…Thank.”

 

“…”

 

“Thank you.”

 

After hearing my words, Lee Seo-hyeok cried.

 

And quite heavily at that.

 

“…?!”

 

I was startled and approached him.

 

‘Wait, why is he suddenly crying?’

 

I pulled tissues from the box on the bedside table and kept handing them to Lee Seo-hyeok.

 

‘Was saying “you did well” that touching?’

 

Then, taking the tissue, he dabbed at his tears while rambling incoherently.

 

“T-Teacher… Did I really do well?”

 

“Of course, Seo-hyeok has always done well.”

 

I don’t know what it is, but there’s no way you couldn’t do it!

 

“…May I also think of myself a little selfishly? Of course, the twins are still young and my grandparents are getting older, so I should pay more attention to them-”

 

“Yes, be selfish. If you give up on yourself, the people around you will know. When that happens, they too will live giving up on themselves. Only when Seo-hyeok becomes someone who knows how to take care of himself can he properly take care of others.

 

‘Put down that heavy burden and take care of yourself.’

 

Though I had only answered his question, Lee Seo-hyeok looked relieved as if he had heard a clear answer and nodded quickly.

 

While still holding back his overwhelming emotions, he raised the corners of his mouth and said:

 

“Yes, I’ll try being immature from now on.”

 

Even if Lee Seo-hyeok tries to be immature, it would probably just be calling me on weekends.

 

Anyway, it seemed like he had made a very big decision, so I was about to add a word of encouragement telling him to cheer up.

 

“Hyung!”

 

“Older Brother!”

 

“Seo-hyeok.”

 

Lee Seo-hyeok’s family and team members opened the hospital room door and came in.

 

‘It doesn’t seem like they came after hearing the news, but coincidentally came to visit and the timing matched?’

 

But the problem was that Lee Seo-hyeok, who had been hovering between life and death until just moments ago, burst into even bigger tears the moment he saw his family.

 

People began to panic seeing him start crying like a little child.

 

Behind his family, the medical staff and Kang Ho-won who came running late were also flustered, and their gazes naturally turned to me, the only one who had been in the hospital room with him.

 

‘I… didn’t make him cry.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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