Chapter Text
Kim Dokja died.
It wasn’t a very fun experience that he reincarnated immediately after offing himself. It was so fucking stupid that he wanted to cry the day he woke up in the orphanage as a 12 year old boy. “This is so exhausting,” he groaned into his hands, feeling the fatigue of the original owner’s body creeping onto him.
It was truly a weird situation. Even after discovering he had no parents even in this life, hurray! Let’s just hope his mother isn’t a serial killer here too.
So the next day he discovered that both his parents died. I guess that’s better than being ridiculed for your mom murdering your dad and writing a book about it. Thanks, I guess, but he thought it would’ve been nicer if he remained.... dead perhaps?
Though, he did also find out where he ended up. This is one of those typical isekai manhwas he’s read before with people dying and reincarnating into the villainess of the novel or otome game—except he’s the said ‘villainess.’ Yeah, life was really fucking with him right now. Out of all the characters, they pick Kim Dokja?! The character that had the same name as him and practically deceived everyone in the damn story?!
No thanks, but dying again in such a gruesome way is not on his to-do list. Couldn't the author spare mercy on him and just let him normally die by poison or something? (Even if he hoped the Kim Dokja of this universe died horribly.)
“Dokja, get over here!” the orphanage director called out from outside his shared bedroom with like 7 other kids. Kim Dokja shouted, “Alright!” in response and practically ran out the door after putting away his cleaning materials. It wasn’t that bad of a place, considering the conditions he previously lived in.
Anything is better than that place. Especially this orphanage. This place was more comfortable than his aunt’s house where he barely had anything to eat and only slept with a makeshift bed out of old blankets. At least here he had a nicer bed with clean blankets and pillows.
He wasn’t sure why the director was calling him out, the original novel didn’t have a scene like this in Kim Dokja’s backstory?
Oh man....did he already alter things just by being nicer in the orphanage? If he remembered correctly, Kim Dokja was an ass in the orphanage before he was sent to another one after an incident. So now that he’s avoided the incident (which surprisingly wasn’t that hard to deal with) he already changed like half of Kim Dokja’s character???
‘Hopefully it isn’t a bad development,’ the young boy wished as he rushed over to the lounge where most of the books and items are placed. Other children go there to play or read whenever they could, since there was basically nothing else to do in this orphanage.
Standing beside the orphanage director was someone he wasn’t expecting to see so early. Duchess Persephone of the <Olympus> kingdom. His eyes almost bulged out of his eye sockets. What is she doing here?!
The woman smiled slightly when she saw Kim Dokja slowly approaching them with awe on his face. “I’ll leave you alone now,” the director bowed before going back to his office, leaving the 12 year old with the duchess.
“What’s your name?” she asked politely, taking a seat on the lounge chair. She also gestured to him to sit down on the chair across from her.
He nervously twiddled his thumbs, slightly intimidated by her presence. “It’s Kim Dokja....ma’am.”
Persephone let out a pleasant laugh at his cuteness—though he didn’t know that and internally panicked. ‘Oh my god what did I do wrong??’ he thought before spiraling down with his overthinking. “You don’t need to call me ‘ma’am’ alright? Persephone will be fine.”
Persephone visited the orphanage every week, chatting with him and offering sweets to the young boy. He was skeptical at first but was surprised by the flavors blossoming in his mouth. You could see his eyes practically shine.
Persephone thought it was really cute.
The more Persephone saw Kim Dokja, the more she picked up on his behaviors. One time, when she reached out to wipe frosting off the dark haired boy’s face, he closed his eyes as if he were expecting to get hit. Or another time where his eyes blanked after seeing a wine bottle, hands slightly trembling at the sight of it.
It was weird, but she didn’t push for answers yet. He has yet to get more comfortable with her.
When it finally reached the 4th month mark of Persephone and Kim Dokja’s weekly meetings, she finally decided to ask him the question she and her husband have been preparing for a while. “Persephone!” Kim Dokja brightened as he rushed towards the noble lady with a bright smile on his face.
“Good morning, Dokja,” Persephone greeted with a smile, “Have you eaten already?”
The young boy nodded his head. “I did! The food is surprisingly better than before!” he rambled, excitedly talking about his day while the older woman listened intently. She was pleased to know he had been doing well in the orphanage while she was away.
“That’s great,” she said while sipping her cup of tea before placing it down on the table in front of her. “Though I have something to talk with you about.”
Kim Dokja’s face fell a bit seeing the serious expression on her face. ‘Ah...of course. Why did I think this would last any longer?’ he bitterly thought, taking a drink from the tea cup that was set in front of him, waiting for Persephone to continue.
“My husband and I have decided that we want to adopt you.”
He spat out his tea.
“W-what...?” he asked in an incredulous tone. Persephone and Hades?? Want?? To adopt him??? What kind of unexpected plot twist was this?! It would’ve been more believable if she just said that she can’t visit anymore due to her duties as duchess.
It probably took him 5 minutes and two cookies for him to process the turn of events. Sure, he had a fleeting thought about it but he didn’t actually expect for it to happen!
“You...want to adopt me?”
Persephone nodded, getting a bit worried that he might reject the offer.
Kim Dokja was really shocked. He...never expected someone to be so willing to take care of him. Tears flowed out his eyes as he went over her words again in his head. Why was he crying? It’s so stupid.
Persephone was worried and helped him wipe away the tears. “I’m sorry, did I say it too early?” she asked in a caring tone, making him cry even harder.
“No...I’m just happy,” he cried with a big smile on his face.
And on that day, he was officially taken in by a person who has shown him more care he’s deserved in his entire life. It was comforting to feel the warmth of a mother.