You’re Allowed to Stay

“Alright, repeat after me. Don’t hit innocent people out of nowhere.”

“That bastard—how is he innocent—”

“Now.”

“Don’t hit innocent people… ah, f*ck.”

“Hey? Did you just swear?”

“You run away from home, I drag you back and even wash you up, and now you’re getting cheeky?”

“Should I try running away again?”

“Go ahead. If you want to see what it looks like when someone chases you to the ends of the earth. You really think I’m easy, don’t you?”

“Such a fearless little Sowon.”

With that, he grabbed my nose and shook it.

A sharp sting spread from the pinched tip, and I let out a small whine.

He let go quickly, but the pain lingered long enough to make my eyes water.

“Anyway, hitting a kid who’s still in a school uniform—that’s your fault, hyung. Gamja hyung said you don’t hit civilians, right?

Or were you just some back-alley thug who punches anyone that annoys you?”

“…”

Woo Jaeyoung jutted out his lips, clearly offended.

“I wouldn’t normally hit someone. I just lost it when I heard you disappeared again.”

“So when you lose your temper, it’s not a mistake? Then if someone drives drunk, that’s not an accident, and if they kill someone in anger, that’s not murder?”

“Hey, hey.”

“I’m saying this and you’re making excuses—hyung, I’m seriously disappoi—”

“Fine. I made a mistake. I won’t do it again.”

In the end, Woo Jaeyoung surrendered.

Only after making him firmly promise that he’d properly apologize next time did my expression soften a little.

“But the problem is… I don’t even know how I’ll meet him again. I saw him for the first time today.

Honestly, I only knew his name because I peeked at his name tag.”

“Oh really?”

“But just in case. He might be important to Yoo Sowon.”

Jaeyoung scoffed.

“There’s no one more important to Yoo Sowon than Woo Jaeyoung. You keep forgetting—I’m the kid’s father.”

“There’s no kid though.”

“Don’t talk back.”

“What am I supposed to do about something that doesn’t exist…”

After all the commotion, my body felt drained again.

As I slumped, Jaeyoung caught me easily and carried me upstairs.

The way he carefully laid me back onto the same bed he had left me on earlier made it hard to believe he was the same person from before.

“Why did you think you had to leave this place?”

The bed was incomparably softer than the hospital one.

As my body relaxed, my mind loosened too.

Even when he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close, I chose to ignore it.

“Because it’s not mine.”

“Because you’re not Yoo Sowon?”

“Yeah. You said you don’t believe me, but that doesn’t change anything.

Even if Galileo Galilei got beaten to death, the Earth still rotated.”

“Did he get beaten to death? I don’t think so. Pretty sure he lied and lived.”

That tangent was dangerous.
I quickly steered the conversation back.

“I just… felt like I was forcing myself into a place that wasn’t mine.

You take care of me, so I’m not suffering out on the streets, and I know that… but even knowing that, it felt like I was deceiving you. That made me anxious.”

“Then don’t run away. Just deceive me. If I catch you three times, I’ll chain your ankles.”

“Yes, sir.”

The scary thing was—he sounded calm enough to actually do it.

Getting shackled as my first accessory after transmigrating didn’t sound appealing, so I nodded quickly.

“I think it is yours.”

Resting his chin on the top of my head, Jaeyoung spoke.

“Look. Even if what’s inside is someone else, the outside is still Yoo Sowon. Right?”

“That’s true.”

“And you said you can only leave once you reach the ‘ending’ of the story, right? Until then, you’re Yoo Sowon.”

“I told you, I’m not Yoo Sowon.”

“But you’re living in this body. What, are you going to walk around as a soul?”

“Ah… okay, fair point. You could say I’m borrowing it.”

“Exactly. Then you have the right to enjoy what I give you.”

“Huh?”

The sound of fabric shifting filled the quiet.

Jaeyoung lowered his head, staring at me in the dark.

“Listen, Sowon. If you need to reach Yoo Sowon’s ‘happy ending’ to leave, then you need my cooperation, right?”

“Right.”

“Then while I’m cooperating, you stay here and take care of this body. You said you have to return it to the ‘real Yoo Sowon.’”

“Yeah… that’s true.”

“Then why do you think you don’t deserve this? You’ve got more than enough right.”

He pinched my nose again.

This time, it didn’t hurt.

By the time dawn was nearly breaking, we had each made a promise.

Woo Jaeyoung would take care of Yoo Sowon as best as he could and avoid doing anything Sowon disliked.

Yoo Sowon would not run away from Woo Jaeyoung.

Only after confirming it multiple times, each in our own way, did we finally relax.

“Be honest, hyung. You still don’t believe I transmigrated, right?”

“Would you, if you were me?”

Fair.

“It sounds like nonsense, but there’s just enough logic to it that it bothers me. And your attitude’s changed too.”

“Whatever it is, I don’t want to be hospitalized.”

“I won’t send you. Who benefits from that? I’d rather keep you with me even when I’m working, but that’s bad for your mental health, so I’m holding back.”

“What kind of work is that where mental health is a concern?”

“Well…”

He smiled meaningfully.

That meant don’t ask.

And I, someone very committed to self-preservation, chose not to ask.

“Like I said, I won’t put you in a hospital. No matter what, you’re staying by my side.”

It seemed that the fact I had run away, gotten hurt, and lost the child had shaken him more than I thought.

Even as he held me, he kept shifting slightly, pulling me closer.

His large hand brushed my back, as if checking my warmth, and he pressed his chin into the hollow between my shoulder and neck, holding me tightly.

“Don’t think about anything else.”

With the rising sun behind him, he whispered,

“Just think about being happy. That’s your job.”

“Mm.”

“I’ll handle everything else. Just accept it. Got it?”

The obligation to be happy.

“Answer me.”

“Yeees.”

“Properly.”

“Yes.”

My eyelids grew heavy.

I couldn’t hold on any longer.

As I burrowed into his arms, he let out a low laugh and rested his cheek against my head.

“Sleep well,” he murmured, the vibration wrapping around me like warmth.

That night, I dreamed of being buried in a field of large roses.

“Youuu really need to reflect. No, seriously.”

“I know…”

“Be good to hyung, yeah?”

“Yeees…”

“Sowon-ah.”

“Ah.”

A spoonful of properly cooled porridge slipped into my mouth.

Gamja, who had been watching me with moist eyes, suddenly started praising me enthusiastically.

He was so over the top that I couldn’t even find the right moment to say I could eat on my own now that my fever had gone down.

As if punishing me for wandering in the rain at dawn, I had been sick for several days.

On the first day, my fever burned so high that Woo Jaeyoung canceled all his plans and stayed by my side.

From the second day onward, he reluctantly went out to handle urgent matters.

Still uneasy despite my promise to stay put, he left Gamja behind.

Seeing how pale I looked, Gamja practically panicked and took care of me with excessive devotion.

“Eat the side dishes too, Yoo Sowon.”

“I can eat by myself now—”

“Ah.”

“…Ah.”

After about three days, the fever finally subsided, and my body felt lighter.

After a good night’s sleep, my head cleared, and I even walked around the house in the morning, exploring the rooms.

“I’m really okay now.”

“Okay my ass. You’re half my size.”

“You’re just big.”

“Tch.”

Only after being fed another quail egg did I regain the right to speak.

“I want to go out today…”

“Where you going? Hyung won’t be back anytime soon.”

When I asked why Woo Jaeyoung had been so busy, the answer was simple he was hunting down the people who kidnapped Yoo Sowon.

“They say he’s gonna wreck the new club that bastard Gong Chanhyuk is opening. Bringing a ‘gift’ too.”

That single sentence probably carried countless violent events behind it.

And that “gift” definitely wasn’t anything normal.

Better not to know.

I shut my eyes and decided not to think about it.

Good is good.

They were kidnappers—let the violent people handle violent problems.

Besides, Gong Chanhyuk was the villain of the story.

A scheming, backstabbing gangster—if he died one day, no one would feel sorry.

I decided to focus on “Yoo Sowon’s happiness,” just like I promised.

“I can go with hyung too. Actually, it’d be better if you came with me, Gamja hyung. Can you drive? Is there a spare car?”

“The garage is full of them.”

“Nice. Can you ask Jaeyoung hyung if I can borrow one?”

“He wouldn’t mind even if you drained oil out of it for a late-night snack.”

Ignoring that, I pulled out a crumpled business card.

A tailor shop in Nonhyeon—Lagu.

The man who lent me the umbrella had given it to me.

“I need to return this umbrella. I’ll just go and come back quietly. Please get permission from Jaeyoung hyung for me, okay?”

“Hmm…”

“Tell him I won’t run away. You’ll be with me the whole time, right? I won’t even go to the bathroom alone. Please. I’ve been eating my porridge so well too.”

Though troubled, Gamja eventually gave in.

After making a call, he got permission.

Soon, I was in the back seat as we headed to Nonhyeon.

I had imagined a small clothing store.

Instead, the tailor shop occupied an entire three-story building.

Intimidated, I clutched the umbrella tightly with both hands.

Gamja looked at me like I was a troublesome nephew and opened the door.

Ding.

The dark blue door swung open.

“Welcome—oh my, darling!”

…Me?