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Baby CriesSeokjin sighed while tapping the rear end of the ball point pen against the waxed surface of the wooden table beside a stack of papers he has to sign. Being president of the student council wasn’t so easy, but he wanted this so he doesn’t really have much of a choice.
Glancing up at the clock, his eyes widen in shock to see that it was already 7:43. Seokjin has completely lost track of time from being so focused on the papers. Thinking that he could finish it once he reaches home, he starts packing up. Despite his rush, he still finds time to be meticulous in arranging his stuff, gently sliding the papers in his expanded envelope, even arranging them by importance. Once he was done, he grabbed his bag, turned the light off and locked the office door.
Striding to the exit, the guard waves him goodbye and reminds him to be careful. Seokjin takes the guard’s advice and wanders into the night alone.
He feels the vibration of his phone in his pocket. Whipping it out, it was a text message from Namjoon asking him if he was home yet. Seokjin smiled and texts him back.
I’m on my way
Knowing Namjoon, he’s probably worried sick after reading that. He offered Seokjin a ride home a while ago but Seokjin didn’t want to become a hurdle for Namjoon to spent time with his sister so he insisted he could go home on his own. Of course, Namjoon persisted, but Seokjin made him go, telling him he’ll be in the office a little longer and didn’t want to make Namjoon miss his sister’s underground concert. Namjoon, defeated, sighed and went on his way.
A part of him regretted the decision of going home on his own, but he really didn’t want Namjoon to miss it. The phone vibrated, displaying another message from him.
Wait there, I’ll pick you up
Seokjin quickly types away, telling Namjoon he didn’t need to and insists him to enjoy the concert, even adding a smiling emoji, although that won’t calm his boyfriend down. He was expecting Namjoon to flood him with texts saying he’ll really pick him up, but instead, he receives a ‘k’, imagining Namjoon sighing on the other line in defeat, again.
Seokjin heaves a sigh of relief. He was about to put his phone back in his screen until it vibrated once more, displaying probably Namjoon’s last message for now.
I promise to make up for everything, and I’ll be there on time, I promise.
Namjoon and Seokjin have been dating for about a year but something happened between them that caused their relationship to go on and off, until one time it literally went off. Namjoon did an irreversible mistake and Seokjin was there to witness how everything shattered into pieces.
Namjoon tried everything to get back with Seokjin. After countless efforts, Seokjin gave him the second chance he needed, but he reminded Namjoon that he won’t be giving him his full trust now, and Namjoon understands that.
As Seokjin exhaled a puff of white smoke, he pulled his scarf up to cover half of his face and buried his hands in his pockets. The night was chilly and quiet, not a single sound was heard besides the music of grasshoppers and Seokjin’s feet shuffling against the concrete.
His thoughts were going through the papers he needed to sign until it was broken when he heard a shuffling sound. He looked around him and saw nothing, only the garbage pile by the lamp post. Must be a cat or something, he thought, and turned his attention back to the papers until an ear breaking cry broke the silence. Seokjin turned his head around in search of the source and his eyes landed on the garbage pile.
Walking towards it, he looks around it when there inside a dirty and worn out box, lying beside the pile was a bawling baby, its face red and streams of tears falling from its tightly closed eyes. Seokjin, bewildered by the situation he got himself into, looked around him, as if expecting someone to come pick the baby up, but who would leave their child beside a garbage pile and inside a box?
Seokjin looked at the baby, still crying for who knows what. He was wondering what he was going to do with it. He can’t take it in, that’s for sure, but he can’t just leave it there. Seokjin was thinking he should call the police or something and let them take care of it but then that thought was dismissed when he heard the feint sound of the roar of thunder. He started to panic and decided to just take it in for the meantime, and when the rain presides, he might take it to an orphanage.
Seokjin shoves his envelope in his bag and crouches down to pick the baby up. He didn’t want to attract attention while he walked home so he started bouncing his arms and shushing the baby, even humming a lullaby to put her to sleep, and it was working. Seokjin felt confident with this and continued humming. She must’ve fallen asleep when Seokjin felt her weight grown heavier. Relieved, he started walking when suddenly his feet came to an abrupt stop.
“What the…”
Seokjin tried to move, but he couldn’t feel his legs, heck, he couldn’t feel his entire body. He couldn’t even open his mouth to call for help. And were babies supposed to be this heavy? He found himself crouching down, slowly inching towards the ground as the baby grew unbearably heavy.
When his arms were merely inches from the ground, he knew he was no longer carrying a normal baby. What kind of baby was supposed to be heavy as seven full sacks of rice!? At this point, Seokjin thought he was going to die this way. As the baby slept peacefully, he was going to die from being crushed by her unbearable weight. His legs were about to be lifted off the ground when he suddenly found the power to stop the weight from crushing his arms.
He used this newfound will power to live from trying to carry the baby back up, although it was proven impossible with his body still strangely paralyzed, but it didn’t stop him from saving is arms. Seokjin groaned as he strived to keep the baby touching the ground although he was sure he was straining his arms rather than saving them. He tried shifting his arms, even just the slightest. That too, was proven impossible, but Seokjin’s forced his arm and it was made possible when it slowly slid away from the baby. Yes, he’s dropping her. Surely this wasn’t a normal baby so dropping her wouldn’t make Seokjin a cold-hearted person.
His other arm was grasping the baby near his chest. Seokjin forced it to let go and slowly, his arm inched away from the baby until he no longer held on to her and the baby fell to the ground.
Seokjin regained full control of the baby and stumbled backwards, crawling away from the baby as it sat up and transformed into something Seokjin couldn’t exactly make it. It stood up and faced Seokjin but with the lack of lighting, he didn’t know what it was. It crouched down to the ground, its arm stretched out to where the light could reach and its palm opening before retreating to its standing position. After that, it turned its heel and ran off into the darkness.
Seokjin blinked a few times before his eyes went to the ground and down there he saw, what he thinks is a piece of candy. He had no idea what it was made of but he was sure as hell he wasn’t going to eat it.
Author’s Note :
Guess Seokjin’s never going to like babies anymore.
So our featured Japanese creature for today is called a Konak Jiji. It’s mostly found in remote mountain areas. It takes the form of a crying infant so when a traveler passes by it, they would pick it up to calm it down, but that’s what the Konak Jiji wants. Once you carry it, though, it would become unbearably heavy. Some reports say it would grow to 350 kilograms, the same weight as 7 full sacks of rice ( one full sack is 50 ). You can’t easily let it go, since you become paralyzed once you pick it up, but if you manage to survive, it’ll give you a magical gift.
Wonder what the candy it left for Seokjin contains?
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