Chapter 83: Human Warmth

My head throbbed, and every time I swallowed saliva, it felt like sandpaper was scraping my throat.

I couldn’t breathe properly due to a runny nose and phlegm, and when I inhaled, a cough burst out, making my chest hurt.

‘To catch this terrible thing twice.’

I had caught it once in the past.

I remember the orphanage was in chaos when the children were infected en masse.

At that time, it didn’t hurt this much.

Is it because I was infected in the early stages of the outbreak? Or maybe my senses changed after changing into this body.

‘…Cold.’

It’s cold weather where a cold wind comes in when you open the window.

But even though I turned on the electric blanket and boiler and covered myself with a blanket, my body shivered.

I hugged the blanket tighter, trying to drive away the hot cold.

‘Byeolmuri will be fine, right?’

In preparation for this situation, I established the company and debuted faster than planned.

Besides, all work can be done from home, so the company should run well even in this situation.

Jina told Chiro and Guzuz not to go outside, so those two should be fine too.

‘Now, all that’s left is to go up when the atmosphere stabilizes for a while.’

The time when corona spread nationwide.

People couldn’t go outside and started consuming internet content.

Starting with dramas, movies, novels, and comics, and even animation.

People who ran out of content to consume gradually began to turn their eyes to subculture.

At the same time, VTubers, a combination of internet broadcasting and subculture, content unaffected by corona, surfaced.

“Cough cough! Ugh…”

I couldn’t hold back the cough, so I just kept drinking warm water and praying that the cough wouldn’t come out.

“…Lonely.”

Including the self-quarantine period, I had been in my room for a month already.

My throat hurt and I coughed when I spoke, so I couldn’t even call my acquaintances.

I just had to endure the loneliness by listening to the broadcast sounds coming from my phone and the voices of my parents talking occasionally beyond the door.

‘It’s only been a month, but it’s this hard. I guess I’ve really changed.’

In the past, I had been alone for years.

I had no friends or family, so only broadcasting filled the emptiness and lubricated my life.

But now, there are many precious people around me.

Those who have never laughed don’t know how to laugh, and those who have never cried don’t know how to cry.

I was always alone, so I didn’t know loneliness.

But now I know how much emptiness loneliness brings.

“Ugh…”

My vision blurred.

A hole was pierced in the emotions I had been holding back.

Was it the unbearable pain that pierced the balloon of emotions with a needle?

The hole, once pierced, grew uncontrollably large.

Loneliness turned into sorrow, then into sadness, and it became tears that wet the blanket.

“Sob, sniff. Hmm…. Hiccup, hic.”

I covered my mouth to control my emotions and suppressed the sound, but it was not enough to stop the floodgates from opening.

‘I need to make a new virtual model for Osorin and upload a new video on my Kirinuki channel….’

I can’t organize my thoughts.

The huge emotions in my heart consumed reason and refused to let thoughts proceed.

Memories overlap. Spaces overlap.

The computer turned on alone in the dark room and me covered in a blanket.

The illusion of feeling the cold of Christmas on my skin arises.

My emotions were heading downwards, towards the dark single room.

Suddenly-

My room door was roughly opened.

As I looked there with still blurry eyes, a huge figure was approaching with large strides.

And it approached me with large strides and hugged me tightly with its huge embrace.

“…Dad?”

“You little rascal, why are you crying alone, so sad.”

“G-go away. If Dad gets infected too, what about Mom?”

“Do you think your mom is that weak? Your mom is the one who led the way with a machete in the jungle. I’ve never seen a woman as strong as her in my life.”

“But if you get infected, you will be sick too….”

“It hurts more to just watch my child cry like this because she’s sick. So just stay quietly in Dad’s arms.”

A huge chest. Thick arms.

Dad hugged me tightly, but strangely, his embrace was warm.

Feeling the warmth of a person for the first time in a really long time was so warm that I buried my face in it and felt the warmth.

“I missed you…”

“Dad will be by your side, so don’t worry.”

The piercing cold of Christmas disappears.

Warmth fills the dark and narrow single room.

Tears of sorrow still remained and continued to flow, but what was in my heart was no longer loneliness.

Perhaps my stamina was depleted from crying.

I fell asleep in the safest place in the world.

After some time, the corona could be cured quickly.

Unlike the internet fuss that those who caught it would die, my symptoms improved quickly, and there were no aftereffects.

In the past, even after corona was completely cured, I couldn’t taste well for several weeks, so I have memories of being scared, but this time, it seems I got over it safely.

After I was fully cured, it was Dad’s turn, but strangely enough, after suffering for only 7 days, Dad was also able to take off his mask.

Although he is a person who takes good care of himself, I wonder how he has such resilience.

He boasted, “Real men get better quickly even if they get sick! Hahaha!”, but it was truly a mysterious part.

While receiving treatment, I kept thinking about the route of infection.

I kept worrying about why I got infected first, even though I was so thorough with disinfection.

What came to mind was the mask.

After contacting Dad, I immediately wore a mask, but I wore a loose adult mask.

I think the virus entered my mouth in that process.

Anyway, after such a commotion, our family was finally able to return to normal.

“…Sua, Mom needs to do the dishes. Can you let go for a moment?”

“Just a little longer.”

I hugged Mom, who was wearing an apron and standing in front of the sink, from behind.

Her belly, which had just begun to swell slightly.

Only after feeling Mom’s warmth for a while did I release my hugging hands and step back.

“I finally finished it all. Why do they give work to someone on vacation?”

“Dad.”

“Oof!”

I spread my arms towards Dad who came out of the workroom, jumped, and hugged him.

Dad didn’t get surprised, accepted me, held me high, and hugged me.

The scratchy stubble pricked my neck, but I rubbed my head further into his embrace.

Dad, holding me, sat on the living room sofa, slowly patted my back, and turned on today’s news.

“It seems like I won’t be able to go to work for a while? Other kids have caught it too. Jintae hyung must have a headache.”

“How long do you think this will last?”

“Well…. It seems like it will last longer than a year, right? There’s no talk of a vaccine yet. And it’s very contagious.”

Dad said a year, but social distancing was lifted only after about 2 years.

During that time, the number of people who could gather kept changing, and there were confusing times.

“Hmm…. Song.”

“Yes?”

“Should I just retire this time?”

“If you want to, do it.”

“Aren’t you saying that too easily…?”

“If you say that much, there must be a reason.”

“That’s true, but….”

Dad scratched his head and smiled somehow pleasantly.

“Even if the broadcasting station somehow manages to run, it seems too dangerous because it’s a job where you meet people outside.

Like this time, I might make Sua sick again. We have a lot of money saved up. Our YouTube also brings in quite a bit of profit.”

“It brings in about the salary of an office worker.”

“If it’s that much, I think it’s okay to retire. Our second child is on the way too. How about it?”

“Let’s do that. Then I can do less housework too. Our Sua, who has become a crybaby, seems to like it too.”

Me, still clinging to Dad and hugging him.

Seeing my expression, Mom smiled as if finding it cute.

“Our daughter has become more of a crybaby after being sick. She’s become cuter.”

“…It’s just comfortable like this.”

When I was sick and lying down, Dad kept hugging me by my side, so somehow I felt empty when I was still.

Besides, I learned how pleasant the warmth of a person is.

The sensation when hugging is also slightly different.

Mom is soft, and Dad feels stable.

So how can I not hug them?

“Then, you won’t work after retirement?”

It was hard to imagine Dad not working.

As in the past, the person named Lee Seongbeom was quite a workaholic.

Even if he continues the home cam vlog at home, I thought it might not be enough.

“I don’t have any thoughts yet…. I think I’ll probably find something I can do at home and do it.”

“Then what about us?”

“Us?”

“Our company, Byeolmuri. We have individual employees, but it would be nice to have a veteran.”

“You rascal. Are you trying to bring your dad into your company?”

“Please. Can’t you?”

If Dad is there, I’ll be able to get a lot of help in broadcasting and various other fields.

No matter how much it’s personal broadcasting, there must be know-how that can be obtained from someone who has been at the top of entertainment broadcasting for decades.

“Hmm…, if my daughter asks like this, I can’t help it.”

“Really?”

“Instead, Dad should receive a fair price, right?”

Price.

It probably doesn’t mean salary or anything like that.

Dad smiled with the expression I had seen sometime before.

“Dad, I love you!”

Smooch!

Holding Dad’s face, I smiled brightly and kissed his cheek.

The sensation of my first kiss felt the prickliness of his stubble.