Chapter Text
The ding of the elevator sent a rush of people from behind its doors into the pediatrics unit with doctors, nurses, and worried families all pouring from them. As the crowd dispersed, a young, raven-haired man stepped out, one arm holding a sleeping baby to his chest, the other shoulder carrying a large diaper bag, and his hand holding a detached carrier seat. The young man’s green scrubs matched the nurses surrounding the floor, denoting his role.
He stopped at the nurse’s stations briefly, nodding to one of the sitting nurses, who returned his slight smile in return. Continuing down the corridor, he walked to the end to see the windows showcasing the nursery area. As the man stopped to glance at the other children, both newborns and other young babies, the little one in his arms groaned slightly and began wiggling in his hold. Readjusting the baby on his hip, the young man glanced at the groggy eyes staring up at him. “Are you awake now, Mookyul-ie?”
The dark-haired little one made a few small coos before turning his nose back into the young man’s neck. With a smile, the man made his way to the entrance of the nursery and worked his way inside. “Mijoo-yah!”
One of the nursery attendants turned towards the entrance, her wide smile and long hair whipping behind her at her movements. “Myungsoo-yah! Is that little Mookyul-ie?” she asked, a wide smile on display. Coming closer to the two, she kneeled slightly to meet the still-groggy baby’s eyes. “Aw, is someone still sleepy?”
The young man, Myungsoo hummed in content. “Of course, he is. He decided that we were only going to sleep in three hour intervals last night. Meaning I only got maybe three total hours. Of course, he got a nice nap in the car over here.”
“Awww, Mookyul-ie,” Mijoo cooed, reaching out to take the baby from Myungsoo’s arms. “Someone decided Appa didn’t need much sleep, huh?”
“Well, now Appa’s not sure how he’s going to last through the next 12 hours,” Myungsoo replied, as Mijoo took the baby over to an empty crib, the man tailing behind. As she laid the baby into an empty crib, Myungsoo rummaged through the diaper bag at his side, pulling out a stuffed monkey. He could hear Mookyul moving around in the crib, starting to fuss at the unfamiliar environment. “Hey, it’s ok, Mookyul-ie; look who’s here for you!”
The baby moved from fussing to happy coos and giggles as Myungsoo shook and rubbed the stuffed animal all around him. The little one reached up, grabbing hold of the monkey’s ear and proceeded to then yank it from Myungsoo’s grasp. At the baby’s happy cries, Myungsoo continued to smile widely, watching the baby’s eyes moving around the crib as he sucked onto the stuffed monkey’s ear.
“Myungsoo?”
The young man broke out from his trance and glanced over at Mijoo next to him. “Thanks for taking care of him. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Right,” Mijoo said, one hand nervously running through her long hair. “Myungsoo, I need to talk to you about something. Look, Sujeong-unni knows your situation--I mean, the whole department knows about you and Mookyul-ie--so, she was being very accommodating while you got your bearings for this whole thing. But, with how busy the NICU and the department’s been lately, she wants us to make sure we keep the cribs open if we need them. I tried talking to her, but--”
“Wait,” Myungsoo replied, looking up at his friend with wide eyes. “Are you saying that I can’t keep Mookyul here during shift? But she knows I don’t have anyone to help me--”
“And I told her that!” Mijoo exclaimed. “She said she won’t kick you out with nowhere to go today. But, you do need to find a daycare for Mookyul by next week…”
Myungsoo sighed. “But with my schedule and some of them are booked up for years in advance though--”
“She did give me a list,” the younger girl replied. “Some of the best daycares for healthcare workers, so they understand our hours.” She handed a small folder to the young man. “Myungsoo, I’m really sorry; I tried to let her keep Mookyul here because we understand what you did--”
“No, I get it too, Mijoo,” the man replied. “You can’t play favorites just because I work here. I know all of you were helping me out since this became official.”
“For what it’s worth, I think you really are doing an amazing job,” the girl said.
Myungsoo chuckled. “Tell that to my eye bags and the four coffees I’m going to need just to get through this shift.” Glancing back to the crib once more, the young man watched as the baby had ceased chewing on his stuffed toy, instead holding it close as he appeared to drift back to sleep. “I’ll do what I have to then, I guess.”
Leaning down, Myungsoo kissed the baby on his head before turning back to Mijoo. “Ok, give me the folder and I guess I should get this shift started.”
~*~
Myungsoo thought he had his life pretty well planned out. Since he was young, his parents had pushed him towards an interest in science and medicine in particular. The boy’s quick study and top acumen for remembering facts and figures, as well as ease with complex mathematics and science in school made the path seem like one of no ill accord to Myungsoo. And, it didn’t hurt that Myungsoo was the only son of the Kim family, a name which gave him great standing when it came to university applications and testing.
However, despite his more privileged upbringing, Myungsoo found himself quite lonely. The boy was studious of course, but also quet, shy, and awkward when it came to making friends. It didn’t help that the young boy was left mostly to his own devices at home, causing him to not only retreat inward to entertain himself, but to also remain reserved around others around him. Even as the young boy grew up, his sharp features becoming more prominent and more enticing to his peers, Myungsoo remained more of a studious introvert over anything else in school.
He began his medical studies with classmates all talking about desires to be top surgeons, pioneering medical procedures, and attaining top status in some of the top hospitals throughout Korea. Yet, as Myungsoo’s medical cohort began actually working shifts and rotations at the hospital, the young man found himself drawn to asking more his questions to the nurses around them, more so than the doctors his group was assigned to. At the conclusion of his first two years, the young man moved to divert his studies from an MD to looking into nursing instead.
While Myungsoo’s parents may not have been pleased with his sudden trajectory shift--not that the young man cared, considering he knew his parents only looked to him as a status symbol--they moved to more reluctant acceptance as Myungsoo earned a position in one of the city’s top pediatrics and NICU programs.
And for the first two years of the young man’s tenure there, Myungsoo quickly saw that this path was the perfect one for him. While nursing delivered on the same rigorous scheduling and an intense depth of medical knowledge and outcomes, it lacked the high prestige of the doctors and surgeons throughout the ward--yet Myungsoo found himself perfectly content. Even if the hours were grueling and tiring, he found himself connecting with all his patients and finding the joy in being a part of their recoveries or being the shoulder they needed when things took turns for the worse.
At 25, Myungsoo had reached a pretty decent spot in his life. He had his own apartment, a career that he loved and felt so rewarded by, and a caring group of friends among his coworkers. All was where it needed to be.
That is, until Myungsoo found himself move from single, young professional to a single father of an infant boy.
~*~
It wasn’t one of the worst cases that Myungsoo had seen since he arrived at the hospital, but this one definitely ranked high due to the emotional factors behind it. Myungsoo and the four other pediatric nurses were currently on hour 16 of a demanding 28-hour shift. After having assisted with multiple pre-surgery preparations and a few more demanding pre-teens arguing with him about their casts and their movement restrictions, Myungsoo already felt his emotions fraying for the night.
After letting Dongwoo, his coworker and close friend, know he was running to grab something from the vending machines in the basement, the raven-haired nurse made his way down the winding corridors and down the stairs near the loading docks--all the nurses knew that the best snack were available in those machines. He paid for a couple triangle bimbaps and a hot coffee can and made his way to sit on one of the extra stretchers laid out along the corridor. The lights from the parking lot and the garage door to the dock streamed in through the window to his back.
He quickly made his way through one package and ravenously tore the wrapping to the second, as he took a long gulp of the coffee. Myungsoo could hear all the usual sounds of the traffic above him, with the occasional screech of an ambulance siren in the distance, along with the rush of the late August winds. He could feel the exhaustion of the shift catching up to him, so he leaned against the window’s glass and just listened to the sounds around him.
Suddenly the calming sounds of the wind were interrupted by small sounds--cries?--and Myungsoo sat up suddenly alert, glancing out the window. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, but his ears now picking up the unmistakeable sound of a child crying, the young man jumped from the stretcher to the back door of the loading dock. The cries reverberated from the metal walls of the bay and Myungsoo’s eyes darted around the area.
Finally he spotted a small basket lying almost right under the window he had been leaning against. Breaking into a sprint, the raven-haired man rushed over to the tangle of blankets, now moving under his eyes, and the cries becoming even louder. Myungsoo kneeled down and peeled back the soft blanket to reveal a small baby boy, probably only a few months old, wrapped up warmly in a soft onesie along with the cotton blanket. “Oh my--it’s ok, little guy! It’s ok!” Myungsoo said, picking the infant up carefully in his arms.
The baby continued to cry, but Myungsoo began to softly coo at the baby, rubbing his back gently to soothe the little one. He continued patting the baby boy in his arms as his eyes searched the basket the boy was placed in. He spotted a folded sheet of paper and quickly unfolded the sheet, another paper flopping to the ground.
My son, I’m sorry. I carried you with me all those months, even though I wasn’t sure I could make it. Even when you were born, as happy as I was to see you healthy, I still didn’t know how I could take care of you.
To whoever finds this beautiful boy, please care for him and love him in the ways that I never could.
Myungsoo stared at the note in his head in shock, the baby in his arms mostly quieted down from his crying. The young man grabbed the other sheet of paper from the ground, noting it to be a birth certificate, with a blank area left for the father’s name and permanent marker scratching through the type where the mother’s name should have been. The only pieces of information easily seen were the baby’s birthdate and first name: Mookyul .
The baby in his arms continued to make a little fuss, even though he had calmed down from crying. Myungsoo glanced at the boy in his arms. “Oh, Mookyul-ie...You’re safe now. I promise.”
“Myungsoo! Where are you?” Dongwoo’s voice rang out through the basement corridor.
Myungsoo stood up, keeping the baby close to him. “In the loading dock!”
The silver-haired nurse wandered out through the back door, with a huff. “There you are! Supervisor Min’s getting ready to start her rounds again and you’re--is that a baby?! Where did you get--”
“I found him,” Myungsoo replied, pointing to the basket still on the ground. “He was abandoned here.”
Dongwoo took the two pieces of paper from Myungsoo’s hands and read through them. “My God…” he muttered. “We have to report this, Myungsoo. Let’s go!”
~*~
The next month found Myungsoo glued to the NICU ward--and not just for his own shifts. Once he and Dongwoo reported the baby’s finding, he was immediately taken in to be checked out. Myungsoo had to recount the events of his night finding the little one so many times, he could recite it in his sleep--from telling his supervisor, the head of the nursing department, hospital administration, child care services advocates, and police--but he also found himself drawn to the infant.
Only found to be slightly underweight, but still suffering from some enteritis and colic, the baby needed to stay in the NICU while the authorities tried to find some solution to the problem. Myungsoo found himself visiting Mookyul whenever he could, rocking the baby to soothe him as needed, as was his training, but also finding himself caring more about the baby than was probably advised professionally. Even if it did go against their professional courtesy, even the head nurses couldn’t deny that the infant seemed to have bonded with the young man and when Myungsoo was in the ward, the baby seemed in much better spirits.
Myungsoo had heard the supervising nurses speaking with the social services advocates in the lounge quite a few times. He knew that Mookyul’s mother had been officially located, but she remained steadfast--she admitted to abandoning the baby and signed away all parental rights, leaving the baby now without any known family.
The day Myungsoo heard that news, he immediately left the lounge and stayed in the NICU ward all night, rocking Mookyul softly on his shoulder--the young man knew how loneliness could affect someone as a child, seeing it both in his work and throughout his own childhood. He wanted to do everything he could to protect Mookyul while he could.
~*~
After a month-long stay in the NICU, Myungsoo came into the unit during his rounds to find Mookyul’s child services advocate and the nurses around his bed. The young man noticed them all glancing towards him as he entered the room. “Myungsoo-ah,” the head nurse called to him. “Join us.”
The young man bowed his head in acknowledgement and walked over to the group. “How can I help?” he asked.
“You’ve spent the most time with Mookyul, correct?” the advocate asked. At Myungsoo’s nod, she continued. “We were hoping you could write some specific care instructions for him, since you have spent the most time and seem to understand his habits and temperament.”
Glancing at his supervisor, Myungsoo noted her nod of agreement. “Yes, i can do that. May I ask what for?”
“Mookyul’s adoption,” the advocate said. “We are preparing his file to put him in the adoption system and want to have good instructions and notes for any family possibly interested in adopting him.”
“Preparations?” Myungsoo asked. “But where is he going to stay until an adoption is finalized?”
“One of our group homes,” the advocate replied. “Just until his adoption goes through.”
Myungsoo felt like his heart dropped in his chest. “And how long would that take?”
“It depends,” she said, nonchalantly. “For most children, it can take anywhere from six months to a year to prepare the files and finish the screenings for an adoptive home--”
“And he’s just supposed to be alone that whole time?” the young man exclaimed.
“Myungsoo-shi--” the head nurse said, noting the young man’s irritation.
“He won’t be alone,” the advocate said. “There are plenty of caretakers and children as well--”
“But will they take the kind of individualized care that he needs?” Myungsoo exclaimed.
The advocate looked startled at the emotional man in front of her. “The caregivers will do what they can, of course. Your instructions will be invaluable--”
“Meanwhile, he will be just one of many children there,” he replied sharply.
“I understand it may not be ideal,” the advocate said. “But unless there is someone who is willing to adopt him immediately, we have to follow this protocol--”
“I’ll adopt him,” Myungsoo affirmed.
“Myungsoo-ah!” his supervisor started.
The advocate looked shell-shocked. “Kim Myungsoo, you understand what you are agreeing to right now, correct?”
“I do,” the young man said. “I understand it sounds crazy, but Mookyul needs someone who understands what he needs. And I think I can be that person for him.”
Glancing at the other nurses in the room, the advocate noticed their understanding expressions. “Well, Kim Myungsoo, we have a lot of paperwork we need to go through. Character evaluations, background checks, personal inspections--”
“All of which the hospital has already done for my work here,” Myungsoo said. “Whatever you need from me or from them, I’ll provide it. Let me provide for Mookyul too.”
The advocate nodded her head, finally reaching her resolution. “Very well then. I’ll get everything filed. But for all intents and purposes--Congratulations, Kim Myungsoo. You are now a father.”