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In several areas of the White Dragon Clinic, there was a sign that read [Kindly Do Not Feed The Baby Sweets].
The baby is question was, of course, baby Cheonhee…. But how exactly did they end up making this sign…?
Well, we have to go back to an incident that happened three weeks ago….
It is said that a baby's natural defence against predators is their cute face and adorable voice. Even a baby's cries can elicit heartache in the coldest man's heart, and animals such as cats are known to copy a baby's cries, thus attracting humans.
Baby Cheonhee was no exception to this.
He was, simply put, adorable.
In Jaegal's opinion, his disciple looked amazing whether he was an adult or a child. For the various members of the clinic, though, cooing over a grown man would be awkward, but now that Cheonhee was in his baby form, they could freely coo at him and call him cute.
Recently, baby Cheonhee had become addicted to sweets. It was actually a coincidence — Jaegal had gotten some honey, and, considering that baby Cheonhee had never tried it, Jaegal Lin scooped some and fed baby Cheonhee the golden liquid.
Cheonhee's eyes had immediately lit up at the taste, and his obsession with sweet food simply spiralled from there.
Baby Cheonhee refused to drink water without a little bit of sugar or honey in it.
Baby Cheonhee would pout adorably at Jaegal Lin until he gave in and fed him sweets.
Baby Cheonhee would refuse to finish his food until Jaegal Lin coaxed him with candied fruits.
It got so bad that Jaegal Lin finally rationed the amount of sugar intake for Jin Cheonhee. This was heartbreaking for Cheonhee, who pouted and whimpered as if his world had ended, but this, this was the moment when baby Cheonhee realized that he could maximize his cuteness to get what he wanted.
Baby Cheonhee, knowing that Jaegal Lin had strengthened his resolve not to give him too much sweets, turned towards the weaker-minded people in the clinic to get what he wanted.
First, Cheonhee started with Yooho.
“Sweet!” Cheonhee would say, tugging at Yooho’s sleeve and blinking owlishly — as much as Jaegal wanted to stay with Cheonhee 24/7, it was not possible, and taking advantage of the fact that Jaegal wasn’t here, Cheonhee unleashed his full power.
A small pout.
Tear-filled eyes.
Small whimpers.
Yooho gave in within minutes and handed baby Cheonhee a piece of candy.
Cheonhee: 1 Jaegal Lin: 0
(Yooho had shocked himself by giving in to baby Cheonhee immediately. If the Young Master was in his older form, perhaps Yooho would stand a chance and manage to say no, but in Cheonhee’s baby form? Yooho was not immune to cuteness, he realized that sadly).
Next, Cheonhee turned towards Gakyeon and her father, the Phantom Archer. These two caved in even quicker than Yooho (Cheonhee had just started pouting and muttering ‘honey’ sadly when the two immediately caved), with Gakyeon personally spoon-feeding Cheonhee big scoops of honey and the Phantom Archer standing as their lookout.
“The White Dragon is approaching!” the Phantom Archer would yell, and Gakyeon would quickly wipe Cheonhee’s mouth with her handkerchief, erasing the traces of honey, and Jin Cheonhee would cooperatively turn his head to give her better access to clean up his mouth.
When Jaegal Lin arrived, Cheonhee would beam at him, making grabby hands and yelling, “Mashter! Mashter!”, making Jaegal Lin melt with cuteness and hug him. Wang Gakyeon and the Phantom Archer would not say a word.
Cheonhee: 2 Jaegal Lin: 0
Cheonhee did not stop there, though. Since he was sometimes left in the care of several clinic members, such as Man Pagok (head of the Herbal Medicine Department), and Dokgo Junghu (head of the Security Department), he would act cute with them, too.
Surprisingly, Man Pagok, who was more gentle-natured, was actually sterner than the fierce looking Dokgo Junghu. She refused to give baby Cheonhee any sweetened plums until Cheonhee started crying.
Dokgo Junghu, on the other hand, gave in after Cheonhee pulled on his sleeve and called him ‘Cool!’ with star-filled eyes. Despite his rough-looking demeanor, he was absolutely softhearted towards babies, and Cheonhee was spoiled with lots of candied fruits, sugar-coated hawthorns, and so on.
Cheonhee: 4 Jaegal Lin: 0
The other clinic members were even more easily swayed, and over time, Cheonhee practically had everyone in the palm of his hands, happily eating more and more sweet food without Jaegal Lin’s knowledge.
Of course, Jaegal Lin was bound to find out. And in this case, he had to find out the hard way: baby Cheonhee got sugar-rush.
Jaegal Lin had just returned to the study, where Cheonhee was sitting on his desk innocently, when he noticed something was wrong. Cheonhee was more active than usual. His baby, who was usually well-behaved and quiet, was busy playing with Jaegal Lin’s writing brush with one hand while the other was crumpling paper and throwing it to the ground.
When Cheonhee spotted him, his baby waved at him, throwing down the brush, and trying to crawl towards him, babbling about rainbows and how much he loved his Master’s hair and that he wanted to eat lunch now and on and on.
Jaegal Lin knew something was off, and he immediately turned to Yooho.
Under his Master’s glare, Yooho sighed defeatedly and confessed everything that had been happening the past few days. Cheonhee’s sugar intake had not decreased at all. Instead, it had significantly increased.
Jaegal Lin was both horrified and amused. Some small part of him was proud of his baby for being resourceful and extremely cute, but the other part was quite angry at his baby and at the various people who had fed his baby too much sugar.
“Cheonhee,” Jaegal Lin called his baby, and baby Cheonhee looked up at him.
“Mash-ter? Cooki? Pwease?” Baby Cheonhee asked, and Jaegal frowned.
“I heard that you’ve been eating a lot of sugar these past few days,” Jaegal Lin declared.
Under normal circumstances, baby Cheonhee would’ve realized he was in trouble and pleaded with Jaegal Lin for leniency using his watery eyes and soft voice, but since Cheonhee was sugar-rushed, he ignored Jaegal’s grave tone, crawled closer to Jaegal Lin, and began clapping his hands.
“Mash-ter! Masher!!! Hee, wanna, play!!! Pwease, Mash,ter!!! Now, now now!!!” Cheonhee whined.
Jaegal Lin was rather taken aback — this was actually the first time Cheonhee whined and threw a ‘tantrum’ like this, and it was certainly a new experience.
“No, Cheonhee,” Jaegal said stiffly. “You made a mistake, remember?”
“Miss-take?” Cheonhee asked, tugging on Jaegal Lin’s sleeve.
“Mash-ter Masher!!! Play with, Hee!” Little Cheonhee yelled again, and Jaegal Lin picked up his baby.
“Cheonhee, you shouldn’t eat too much sugar,” Jaegal Lin chided gently. It was hard for him to keep a stern demeanor when his baby was this cute, but Jaegal knew that if he spoiled his child too much, it wouldn’t do him any good.
Instead of staying still in Jaegal’s arms, though, Cheonhee began kicking his legs excitedly and flailing his arms, making Jaegal struggle to hold him in place.
“Cheonhee,” Jaegal said warningly, but Jin Cheonhee ignored his Master and made grabby hands at Yooho.
“Yoo-hoo~~” Cheonhee giggled cheerfully, unaware that Jaegal’s face was darkening at a rapid pace. Yooho could feel his Master glaring at him and winced.
Young Master… please be careful, Yooho said a silent prayer in his heart.
“Yoo! Ho! HO!” Cheonhee giggled louder this time, pushing against Jaegal Lin’s body in an effort to get closer to Yooho. Jaegal Lin’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot.
“Cheonhee,” Jaegal Lin was smiling, but Yooho shivered.
“Do you want sweets that much?” Jaegal Lin asked.
“Masht-er!! Sweet, sweet! Hon-ey? Now? Pweasee!!” Cheonhee stopped trying to reach Yooho and turned to Jaegal, blinking his eyes.
“…No, Hee. I’ve told you many times, too much sweet food won’t be good for you,” Jaegal Lin repeated.
“But! Butt! Hee likey,” Cheonhee protested, bringing one leg up and sticking his toe in his mouth. Jaegal Lin grasped the leg and pulled it away, making Cheonhee whine.
“No, Hee.”
“Pwease?”
“No,” Jaegal Lin said again.
Cheonhee looked at Jaegal Lin with a hurt expression on his face, and Jaegal Lin looked back at him.
“You shouldn’t have eaten too much sugar,” Jaegal sighed. “Now, you’ll have to suffer the consequences…”
“Con-see? Con, cons,” Cheonhee tried to copy his words and failed, looking at Jaegal Lin before letting out a laugh.
Jaegal Lin softened at his baby’s laughter, but he reminded himself to stay firm. He had to teach his baby things like this from now.
“Cheonhee,” Jaegal Lin placed baby Cheonhee on his cot, putting his baby on his tummy.
“You need to exercise,” Jaegal Lin decided. “I think now’s a good time to start, baby. Come on, you have to flip to your back.”
Babies of Cheonhee’s age were starting to move better, and Cheonhee had been trying for several days to flip and roll over from his back to his tummy and vice versa. Jaegal Lin decided that since his baby had excess energy, plus he had to teach his baby that actions had consequences, and added to the fact that Cheonhee should exercise, even just a little bit, now was a good time to let Cheonhee practice rolling over to his back.
“Come on, baby,” Jaegal Lin encouraged, “You can do it.”
Cheonhee, though, looked at his Master as if he had been ultimately betrayed.
“Uhh, ugh, Mash-ter,” Cheonhee groaned, looking at Jaegal and hoping for assistance.
Jaegal steeled his heart.
“No, baby. You have to do it yourself,” Jaegal said.
Baby Cheonhee let out a sad cry and lay there listlessly for a few seconds before clenching his fists, strengthening his resolve and trying to roll to his back.
…
After a few tiring minutes, though, baby Cheonhee looked tearfully at Jaegal Lin.
Cheonhee failed to turn over, and he was tired.
Cheonhee: 0 Jaegal Lin: 1
Seeing his baby looking at him grievously, Jaegal Lin softened and picked up baby Cheonhee, hugging him and sighing when Cheonhee hugged him familiarly.
“Baby, will you eat too much sweets in the future?” Jaegal Lin asked.
“…No,” Cheonhee said mournfully.
“If someone offers you candy, should you eat it?” Jaegal asked again.
“…No,” Cheonhee pouted.
“Should you hide things from Master?” Jaegal asked again.
“…No,” Cheonhee replied again, clutching Jaegal Lin even tighter.
The rush of energy from the excess sugar had pretty much subsided, and Jin Cheonhee was exhausted now, leaning on Jaegal Lin and yawning a little. Jaegal Lin patted his baby’s back.
“No, shu-ga,” Cheonhee mourned, before his eyes lit up and he grabbed a handful of Jaegal Lin’s hair.
“Mm,” Cheonhee hummed happily as he nibbled, making Jaegal Lin sigh.
Well.
It was hard to stay mad at his baby.
The other people in the clinic, though… Jaegal Lin’s eyes hardened. No matter how cute his baby was, they should’ve known better than to give in—!
(Various members of the White Dragon Clinic shivered at the same time and wondered what unfortunate thing was going to befall them….).