7 Child Prodigy (1).

Just as the Doctor predicted, it took a full week for the swelling to go down but there was still a nasty bruise that had turned an interesting purple. A purple that was only exaggerated by how extremely soft and milky white my cheeks were, causing the smallest of marks to be visibly noticeable. As a result, it took a full month for the bruise to fully fade away. During that time, Lee Min-ki and Kim Bora attended to my every need, beck and call. Although they also had their duties at the main household, they practically ran to me as often as they could; there to feed me, pamper me, and look after me.

It made me understand why Sloth was a sin, what luxury laziness was. It really made me want to give up on all my plans and succumb to the lifestyle of a real baby. I'd never been waited on before in my past life, it really makes one feel carefree, and I almost found myself enjoying it until that rabid part of my brain started perking up again.

The restlessness, the urge for movement, the noises beckoning me to hurt someone, to relieve the itch in my body.

Perhaps I was in hell and the prison was this child's body.

Every time Kim Bora 'cooed' at me and shook her rattle in my face I had the urge to shove that rattle so far down her throat that it would tear through her voicebox, and then while she choked on the blood, I imagined continuously shoving it down until she drowned in it. Like an Edmund Kemper but without the decapitation.

Of course, that was only a fantasy, when I reached my small slow hands to grab the rattle from her, she easily moved it out of my face and continued to jokingly shake it with that goofy dumb smile.

"You're so cute Kang Ho, you really want the rattle don't you!" She laughed teasingly. She had no fucking idea.

Yes, the itch to kill, the urge hadn't disappeared and it made this sweet baby life so torturous.

So I bided my time and utilised my charms to get things from Kim Bora and Lee Min-Ki. Every day they brought me all kinds of toys and books with hints about the outside world. From the small encyclopedia's and children's books, I could tell that this universe was practically identical to my previous one. The major differences being the names of large corporations and brands.

For example, Vaseline was called Creamine, Coca-cola was Soke and so on. It wasn't every brand, but it seemed to be any product that was in some way linked or influenced by the powerful companies in this world. For example, Kim Bora had what looked to be a Samsung phone but she called it a Kangmung phone.

These small differences didn't really affect my day to day life but I found them surprising nonetheless.

After the slapping incident, Lee Min-Ki had become especially protective of me. When the Head Maid, Cha Hunha, came to the nursery on her rotation, he even supervised. Making excuses to stay in the room. That didn't stop Mrs Cha from grumbling curse words at me and pinching my small arms every once in a while, but she never dared to slap me like before. She didn't have the courage to show her true nature in front of others.

She was a coward.

Every time I saw Mrs Cha I imagined how I would kill her, various ideas played in my head. For example, one time she was changing my nappy and she started using talcum powder, and it made me wonder, what would it be like to bury her in talcum powder?

I've buried one or two people alive before, but not in baby powder, and I know talc is somewhat poisonous if consumed in large volumes. Imagine that I locked her up in a vat and buried her up to her neck in talc, and then forced her to eat all of it to stop herself from suffocating, how long would she last? Weeks, Months, Years? Would she beg me to save her as it snorted up her nose and blocked her airways?

The more I thought about it, the happier I got.

"Aww Kang Ho you're so cute when you giggle, I wonder what sweet things you're thinking about?" Lee Min-Ki hugged me.

I wish I could have told him, the expression he might have made would surely be orgasmic.

During my free time, I would exercise my small limbs by crawling all over the place.

Min-Ki and Bora thought I was simply playing around, but I was in fact examining my room.

I wasn't expecting some crazy security, but at least the bare minimum, but it barely had that. There were no guards, not even a grill on the window. The walls were high and the door was tall and had a simple latch lock on it, that could be opened with a twist. That meant the moment I was tall enough I could simply walk out and roam around. Also, while Kim Bora and Lee Min-Ki took shifts staying to watch me at night, during the early days I was often left alone in the evening. With such a feeble lock anyone could walk in and grab me.

It went to show that the Kang family really didn't care for my existence. This point was further proven when I went outside the nursery.

The first time Lee Min-Ki and Kim Bora took me outside to play in the sunshine and grass I realised I was quite literally located in some backdoor shed.

The small building that contained my nursery was practically an outhouse located several acres away from the main building. Heck, even the stables, with their horses, were closer to the main building than my nursery was, even the gardeners shed was closer.

It probably took Min-Ki and Bora a good while to travel between their duties with me and the Main Building, yet they seemed so optimistic all the time. I would have been frustrated if I were them, I didn't understand how they could laugh like fools when they were being worked like dogs. Was their earnest work ethic a by-product of the Korean working culture or simply due to them being good people. I couldn't understand it.

What I could understand was that if there was a food chain in this household, I was at the bottom of it, and since this was the case if I wanted to become a predator I needed to start showing my worth. Or else I would most definitely become prey.

Since that was the case I needed to start showing off how special I really was.

Operation Child Prodigy began.

I took my first steps at 6months old. While walking at 6months wasn't uncommon it was still rare enough for Kim Bora and Lee Min-Ki to go crazy.

Min-Ki snapped photos of me using his phone like he had trained to be a Paparazzi for months. He laughed with a stupid look on his face, "Omg look at him taking his first steps, at only 6months, that's incredible, right?!"

Kim Bora who held my hands, keeping me steady as I walked around the room, also grinned like a fool, "You're such a good boy, yes well done Ho-Ah, you good boy!" She encouraged me like I was some puppy.

It made me feel a bit smug, they were both so easily amused, these loyal mutts practically wagged their tails at everything I did.

By eight months I began speaking, well I had been secretly practising before then, but I didn't reveal my skills until I was ready. I decided to do the big reveal subtly. I was finger-painting with Lee Min-Ki at the time. I drew a stick figure of a man, a woman and a baby all holding hands in a room, and then I proudly showed it to Min-Ki with a smile and said.

"That's you, that's me, and that's Miss Bora." It annoyed me how high-pitched and whiney my voice sounded. Since my tongue was underdeveloped my words also came out a bit slurred, like I was drunk or something.

Lee Min-Ki looked at the painting and smiled, "That's so cute Kang Ho, aww you're so swe—"

He paused and froze, "Wha-what did you just say!?"

"I said, that's you, this is me and that's Miss Kim."

"huh"

Min-Ki stared at me blankly, and for a minute I thought I broke him, but then his expressions became excited and cartoonish.

"Say my name, do you know my name?" he asked with glowing eyes.

"Mr Lee," I said.

He squealed and held his face, "OMG!!!" he shouted in English.

He brought out his phone and began recording, "Now, say 'hello Mr Lee', can you do that?"

Inwardly I rolled my eyes, this was starting to get annoying, but I fluttered my long eyelashes and smiled cutely at Lee Min-Ki and said, "Hello Mr Lee."

He practically swooned when he heard it. The next second he lifted me up in his arms and danced with me, "You're incredible, you can really understand me and you're speaking so well. You must be a genius Kang Ho!"

He threw me in the air proudly and I acted as if I enjoyed it by laughing like crazy, but inwardly I felt sick. Honestly, I had never been fond of rollercoasters.

Kim Bora had a similar reaction to Lee Min-Ki, at first, she couldn't believe it. Then she got me to say her name and the next thing I knew she was dancing with me around the room as well, throwing me about like a goddamn ragdoll.

After that, a rumour about me must have spread around the staff working at Kang residence, because several people came by to visit. At first, it was one or two, a maid and a butler who appeared to be friends with Min-Ki and Bora. They seemed sceptical at first, but when I smiled at them and greeted them politely they went crazy.

Soon large crowds of servants had wrapped around my room, and even a line had formed outside the nursery.

"He's not just babbling like normal baby talk, he even knows complicated words."

"He has a good grasp of manners, he even bowed to me formally when he saw me."

"He understands everything I say and he's so charming."

"Why he's the cutest little thing." They would say.

At first, they praised my Genius, but then they pitied me, the conversation would easily turn.

"I hear his Father hasn't seen him since his birth."

"Well he's an illegitimate bastard child, they want nothing to do with him."

"It's not like it's the child's fault, these people are so inhumane."

"Apparently they don't give him anything, all the toys and books here were bought by Bora and Min-Ki. Apparently, they had to beg Madame Kang—"

"Sir Kang Sueng's wife?"

"Yep the lady herself, they went and begged her to give them some allowance to buy him things beyond just nappies and food. Apparently, she made them bow for an hour before allowing it, and after all that, she only gave them 10,000 ₩ extra."[1]

"Are you serious? This is her grandchild right, what the fuck."

"Yeah well she wants nothing to do with him, especially after Master Joon-ki married Lady Yong Myeong, and now that Yong Myeong is pregnant, she wants to pretend that Young Master Kang Ho doesn't exist."

"Poor baby."

Hearing their superficial sympathy, I felt inwardly delighted. This meant opinion was shifting in my favour.

[1] 10,000₩ (Korean WON) is like £10/$10 you guys.