* * *

In the face of an unexpected visit from a famous celebrity, Dogwon couldn’t think of stopping him or kicking him out.

He even looked behind Yiryeong, wondering if this was some kind of surprise visit for a TV show, but no one else entered the small apartment.

“I’m Yoon Yiryeong.”

He introduced himself casually, as if his name explained everything.

Suddenly, Dogwon remembered talking about Yiryeong earlier that day when the nanny was still there.

It had been awkwardly quiet, so he had mentioned some trivial gossip about Yiryeong supposedly abandoning his child.

Why was that story coming to mind now?

Of all days, he’d mentioned him today, and like a tiger appearing when talked about, here Yiryeong was.

“What on earth….”

Dogwon paused for a moment.

He remembered something he had forgotten because of how coldly Yiryeong had left that day.

This baby was born from two different donors, one being himself and the other the man standing before him.

That’s why they had both been at the lab that day.

The story the nanny had told, the one that had been all over the entertainment news for days, suddenly made sense.

The baby Yiryeong had supposedly abandoned was the very child now crying their lungs out in Dogwon’s arms.

Dogwon’s gaze moved to Yiryeong. Yiryeong’s eyes were on the baby.

The large man was huddled over the tiny baby, holding them as if they might break.

The baby, with their face scrunched up and mouth wide open, was wailing fiercely.

The sound was so loud that it made Dogwon wince.

“Why are you here?”

Dogwon asked first.

He was only briefly flustered by Yiryeong’s sudden appearance; there was something more important to attend to.

He needed to calm the crying baby.

The baby’s cries brought him back to reality.

Though he asked the question, he wasn’t really in the right state of mind to listen to the answer.

Dogwon hurried to find his phone, which he had tossed aside earlier.

In the small, cramped apartment, he spotted the phone under the narrow table and quickly grabbed it.

He turned on the screen, found the app, and checked the feeding time. It had been about two and a half hours.

Alarmed, he put the phone down and moved to find the electric kettle.

“It’s because of the baby.”

“The baby’s healthy. If you were worried, you could have contacted the lab instead of coming here….”

“I’m not here because I’m worried….”

Yiryeong hesitated, embarrassed to continue.

He hadn’t wanted to come here. He thought his aunt was just bluffing, but she really did cut off his credit card.

Then came the phone, and next, she threatened to cancel his lease, telling him to figure things out himself. So, he had no choice but to come here.

After so coolly walking away, saying he didn’t care and didn’t need anything, it wasn’t in his nature to come crawling back now.

Having started his career in the entertainment industry at a young age, he had never handled his own banking, used public transportation, or even opened a phone account in his own name.

His aunt had made sure he never had to do anything on his own, but now she was taking everything away.

It was both infuriating and unfair, but his aunt had only given him one solution.

‘Just take care of the baby.’

So, Yiryeong had no choice but to swallow his pride and say what he had to.

“I want to help raise the baby….”

Dogwon, who had been anxiously waiting for the water to boil, turned to look at Yiryeong.

He saw him standing there, holding his hat and sunglasses, his eyes darting around awkwardly.

“What…? What do you mean?”

“I’m not trying to take the baby away from you or anything. I just want to help raise them, at least until the scandal blows over. You’ve probably seen the news about me supposedly abandoning the baby. It’s a mess, so I need to stay with the baby for a while.”

Dogwon instinctively pulled the baby closer, even turning slightly to shield them from Yiryeong’s view.

His eyes were full of suspicion, as if he was ready to defend the baby at all costs.

Yiryeong quickly shook his head, trying to reassure him.

“I didn’t want this either. But things have turned out this way… I swear, I’m not trying to take anything away from you. Honestly, we could even raise the child together. All I want is to take care of the baby.”

“Together?”

“Yes, really, I have no intention of taking the child from you. You see the baby as your own, right? I don’t. So, there’s no need to worry at all. Just for a few weeks… no, even just a few days until the rumors die down, please… help me.”

Yiryeong hesitated as if questioning whether she really needed to go this far, but finally, she asked for help.

And as if to prove his sincerity, he held Dogwon’s gaze, his large eyes shining brightly without a hint of avoidance.

Most people would yield to Yiryeong’s stubbornness at this point.

Once they got to know her true nature, they’d be repelled and leave, but at first sight, without fail, everyone was swayed by those eyes.

His large, beautiful eyes were like a weapon, making it impossible for anyone to resist. Dogwon wasn’t immune either, and after looking into her eyes, he fell into thought.

Yiryeong took his hesitation as a sign that he was leaning towards him.

The electric kettle signaled that the water had boiled. Dogwon glanced at it briefly.

“When you say raise the baby together, do you mean you’ll help take care of it?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Then could you give me some formula now? I really need to go somewhere urgently.”

“Huh? Right now?”

“Did you wash your hands? Wash them first and come back out.”

Dogwon urgently pushed Yiryeong into the bathroom, placed the baby on the blanket-covered floor, and quickly started getting dressed.

Yiryeong, who washed her hands in a daze, hadn’t yet grasped the situation, and the baby was still crying sorrowfully.

“The formula is on top of the fridge. The baby drinks about 30 to 40cc, so make about 60cc. After feeding, check the time. You need to feed again every two to two and a half hours, and make sure to burp the baby after feeding.”

Dogwon hurriedly explained while putting on his coat and handed the baby to Yiryeong. Having never held a baby before, Yiryeong awkwardly held the baby with both hands, not knowing what to do.

This was far from the situation she had imagined when she gave him that pleading look.

“Wait, wait a minute! How can you just hand me the baby and leave like this?”

“There’s something really, really important I have to do. Please, I’m begging you.”

Since bringing the baby home, there had been one thing that weighed heavily on Dogwon’s mind.

When the helper came during the day, he needed to catch up on sleep, and in the little waking time he had, he was busy learning how to take care of the baby.

After he left, he couldn’t go outside with the newborn baby in the cold, so it had been constantly on his mind.

Yiryeong might not be reliable, but since he shares half of the baby’s genes, it should be okay, right?

Though sudden, his offer to take care of the baby made him seem like a savior to him.

But for Yiryeong, it felt like a bolt from the blue.

He was suddenly given a responsibility onto him without a proper explanation before running out the door, so it was only natural for him to be taken aback.

“But you can’t just leave the baby with me like this…!”

“Please! Baby, Daddy will be back soon. Stay with this nice lady for just a bit, okay? Just a little bit!”

With that, Dogwon dashed out of the house and disappeared, leaving Yiryeong standing there in a daze, holding something that was so small he couldn’t tell if it was a baby or a tiny speaker crying its heart out.

---

“Hey! Hey! Be quiet for a second! I need to look up how to make formula before I can give it to you!”

Yiryeong laid the still-wailing baby on the baby bed and started searching for how to make formula.

“How am I supposed to know what 40 to 50 degrees feels like?”

The article mentioned a kettle that could adjust the water to that temperature, so he checked the electric kettle, but it either didn’t have that function or it was hidden.

All he had in front of him was boiling water, probably close to 100 degrees.

He poured a little of the hot water into the bottle. He never knew 60cc was such a small amount.

Seeing the tiny bit of water that barely covered the bottom of the bottle, he took out the formula container.

He’d never made formula before in his life.

Holding the container, he spent some time reading the instructions, trying to figure out how much to use.

Meanwhile, the baby started crying even more loudly.

The baby’s face was turning red, as if he might burst, and Yiryeong’s eardrums felt like they might burst too. (TL: The gender of the baby here is still unknown so I will use he for now.)

“Oh, come on! Damn it!”

Feeling desperate, he scooped up the recommended amount of formula with the spoon provided and hastily dumped it into the bottle.

After shaking the bottle a few times to mix it well, he opened the fridge and added some cold water, but he had no idea if the temperature was right.

He did remember something from TV, so he dripped some of the formula on his wrist, but since he didn’t know what to look for, he couldn’t tell if the temperature was correct.

“Well, it’s not hot, so it should be fine. Hey, little one. Come here.”

If it wasn’t hot enough to burn, the baby should be fine, right?

When he brought the bottle to the baby’s mouth, she started sucking on it.

Maybe he had done it right, or maybe he was just too hungry to care.

Either way, the baby was vigorously sucking on the bottle.

Looking at the baby was drinking slowly, it was almost painful to watch.

But at least he was drinking his milk. Yiryeong decided to be satisfied with that.

* * *