Chapter 16

"And was that it?"

"Yes, that was it." Replied Soobin, lightly patting the child's head. She was curling in on herself now, leaning into him with her duck plushie snugly pressed against her tiny chest. Her eyes were growing a bit droopy from his tediously long storytime, and Soobin himself was surprised the girl managed to sit through it all.

"What happened next, mister nurse? What happened to the older boy?" Asked the child as she looked up at him once more with those wide, curious eyes which Soobin found hard to resist.

It was quite peculiar for a child her age to enjoy such a sad story. Didn't normal kids usually enjoy fairy tales with happy endings?

"The older boy tried his best to live his life without the younger boy," he continued, giving the girl a gentle squeeze of her cheeks, which she responded with a delighted giggle. "But sometimes, even that was hard."

"Mister nurse, I don't understand." She interrupted, brows furrowed like she'd just come to an unpleasant realisation. "Don't stories normally have happy endings? Why is this one so sad? They are in love, but why can't they live happily ever after like the princesses in my books?"

Soobin smiled. There it was, the childlike innocence. "Those are stories, little one. This, however, was reality." He paused then, unsure if he should finish the rest of his sentence. A moment later, he decided to proceed. "Reality isn't always happy. Once you grow up, you will know."

"I know, mister nurse. Whenever I fall in the garden and my knees get little scraps, they hurt so much and it doesn't make me happy." She responded with a pout, leaning back into the pillow. Soobin could only chuckle. "Really? I'll make sure to replace the garden floor with foam mats so you'll never be hurt again." His words were met with an excited exclamation.

"But tell me, tell me. What happened next?"

Soobin's smile lightly faltered, but it grew twice as wide before the little girl could even notice it. "What happened next, was reality."