Episode 003
I quickly left the downtown area while holding Estelle in my arms.
“Luna, Luna…”
“Shh, be quiet.”
I didn’t know what she might say, and I couldn’t be sure who might overhear her.
In the end, the only option left to me was to take Estelle home.
“Here we are, go on in.”
“Wow! Your house is huge! I love it!”
She really was a child, judging by how loud her footsteps were as she ran through the narrow entryway hall.
I almost yelled at her not to run, but instead, I just let out a small sigh. I didn’t have the energy.
I pointed to the sofa in front of the fireplace on the opposite side of the stairs and said,
“Sit over there. Juice is fine for a drink, right?”
“Yes. Estelle loves juice.”
Estelle held the cup I gave her with both hands and gulped down the juice. Her throat must’ve been very dry because she emptied the cup in one go.
“Phew! That was good!”
“Would you like another?”
“No, it’s okay. I couldn’t trouble you like that…”
Just then, the well-mannered child who had been sitting so politely suddenly exclaimed,
“From today, I’m Luna’s daughter! So now it’s okay to trouble you a little, right?”
“Right, about that. I’m sorry, but you can’t be my daughter.”
“What? Why not!”
Estelle shot up from her seat, clenching her little fists and staring at me.
“Luna, you promised me. You said you’d raise me if you won the lottery. You’re not planning to just take the money and pretend like nothing happened, are you?”
“Where on earth did you learn to say things like that…?”
“Luna is someone who keeps her promises!”
Before I knew it, Estelle’s eyes were filled with tears. To calm her down, I first apologized.
“I mean… okay, I’ll be honest. I didn’t think I’d actually win the lottery. I thought you were just playing around.”
“That’s no excuse to break our promise. A verbal agreement is still a contract.”
She spoke with such confidence. At times like this, she didn’t seem like a five-year-old—more like at least fifteen.
What kind of education were they giving the kids at the orphanage she stayed at?
Thinking I’d need to visit the place someday, I began to explain to Estelle.
“There’s something you don’t understand yet…”
“I know everything! There’s nothing I don’t know! I even know how babies are made!”
“I know too. The stork brings them, right? Anyway, I’m single, so I can’t legally adopt you.”
“You’re just trying to brush it off because I’m a kid… Wait, what?”
“In this country, only married couples who are legally registered can adopt.”
To adopt Estelle, I’d have to get married first. But I didn’t even have a boyfriend, let alone a husband.
In short, regardless of my intentions, adopting Estelle was legally impossible.
“No way…! Luna, you don’t have a husband? Not even a boyfriend?”
“Neither.”
“Then just get one!”
“It’s not something you can just make happen because you want to…”
“You can make a deal! Just find a decently handsome, good guy and pretend to be a couple! Then as time goes by, you’ll fall in love and live happily ever after! And you’ll raise a cute daughter while you’re at it!”
This kid, seriously.
“That cute daughter would be you?”
“Of course! Oh, and I’m fine with having a younger sibling. I prefer a cute little sister over a naughty little brother.”
“…I’m genuinely curious—are all the kids at your orphanage like you?”
“Like me, meaning cute? Not really. I’m the cutest. So don’t go eyeing the other kids. You already have me, the cutest and most adorable one!”
If only those cheeky words had come from a charming, well-mannered guy just one year younger than me.
Then maybe I could have welcomed this situation a bit more willingly.
“Anyway, let’s start with the reason. Why do you want to stay here? Is the orphanage director or the teachers abusing you?”
“Um…”
Estelle started to speak, then swallowed her words and smiled brightly.
“That’s not it! I’ve been doing great. Super great!”
“Then is the orphanage in bad shape? Are meals scarce, or do you all sleep crammed together in a small room at night?”
“There is a fixed meal portion, but we do get three meals a day. The bunk beds are crammed together like a chicken coop, but at least I get a bed to myself… The orphanage budget is tight, but they said we can manage if we tighten our belts.”
“So you want to stay here because you don’t like that?”
“Well, it’s just that…”
Did she realize how important her answer was to me?
Fiddling with the long ears of her bunny backpack, Estelle hesitated for a while before finally speaking.
“In about a month? Some noble will come to the orphanage.”
“To adopt a child?”
“No. He’ll come looking for the daughter he lost when she was young. I look a lot like her, so he’ll think I’m his daughter and take me with him.”
Her voice grew louder, as if she had endured something deeply painful.
“But later, the real daughter will be found, and I’ll just become an outsider in that house! They’ll say I’m a freeloader who only eats and takes up space, and I’ll cry myself to sleep every night!”
“Oh… is that so?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just gave a wry smile.
“You have quite the imagination. Maybe you should become an artist someday. Art is expensive, but now that I’ve got the lottery money…”
“This isn’t just imagination! This is something that’s really going to happen.”
Estelle pointed at the account holding the lottery winnings as proof.
“Otherwise, how would I know the winning numbers? I know the future. I saw it all in my dreams.”
“You saw it in a dream?”
“Yes!”
She nodded with conviction.
Her face was full of certainty. Certainty that what she saw in her dream would really happen.
‘She really is a kid, huh…’
Most people would just dismiss such dreams and forget them.
“Anyway, I legally can’t become your mom. But I’ll find a kind couple who can adopt you.”
At that, Estelle’s lips jutted out.
“No. How can you be sure they’re not just pretending to be kind? I won’t go to anyone but Luna!”
“What if I’m the one pretending to be kind?”
“Luna is kind. I know it.”
“Thanks for saying that…”
At this point, I was really curious. What did I do in her dream to earn such unwavering trust?
“So basically, as long as you don’t get adopted by that noble, you’ll be fine, right?”
“And I want to live with Luna.”
“Stubborn as a bull…”
“Thank you for the compliment!”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
Estelle pouted at my retort.
“Luna’s the stubborn one. Normally, someone would help if a cute kid cried and begged like this.”
As she muttered, something seemed to occur to her. She perked up and asked,
“So the problem is that I don’t have a dad, right? If I had someone to be my dad, that’d solve it?”
“Well, yes… but it’s not something that’s easily fixed.”
“Okay. Got it.”
Estelle began folding her fingers one by one, as if counting something, then nodded to herself.
I started to feel uneasy. I had a bad feeling that Estelle’s “got it” didn’t mean she understood my situation.
‘She wouldn’t… bring back some random guy and say, “I found someone to be my dad!” right?’
