[2065] Sinsamudr

Late 2065

Apaimanee became a father when he turned seventeen.

Naming his son was the biggest decision he had to make.

Butterfly decided to use an artificial womb, so when the delivery date came, all they had to do was go to the underground birth center and watch their child decant.

The moment Apaimanee held his little baby boy in his arms for the first time, he felt a rush of love and joy. His feelings towards Butterfly paled when compared to the love he felt for this little baby.

He realized that he thought of her as a good mentor, but she was far from being the love of his life, the person he would call a wife. She was simply a cool girl that saved his life.

Apaimanee never knew who the tall man from the sia po rice shop was, though it was clear that he was the one giving out orders. The ‘lay low’ order never changed, so Apaimanee had some quiet time with the three of them.

Butterfly never got a hang of being a mother. She felt that she was always doing something wrong, and ended up leaving most of the caretaking to Apaimanee and the nanny bot.

Outside training hours, Apaimanee was almost always in the baby room, watching the nanny bot. He was equally clueless when it came to raising a child, but he did try to be around physically for the baby.

About three months in, he settled on a name for his son: Sinsamudr, the treasure of the sea. They call him Sin, for short.

He asked Butterfly about her relationship with her son, but she never wanted to talk about it. One night, she sat alone on the balcony, gazing at the run-down cityscape. He joined her.

“This is all a lie.” She said when he sat down.

“What do you mean?”

Butterfly sighed.

“I had a physical relationship with my mentor, but he left me as soon as he found a partner to settle down with. I sought him out and killed him. Before dying, he said that I’ve completed the final stage of my training and he had nothing else to teach me.”

Apaimanee did not know what to say.

“It felt good to kill him. But on the other hand, I envy my dead mentor. I want a big room with large windows, and a cute little baby too. Now that it’s all real, I don’t know what to do. It feels so fake.”

“It isn’t fake. I’m here with you. So is our son.”

Butterfly mumbled something he could not make out. She got up and locked herself in her room.

After that, the lay low order was lifted, and she regularly went on missions, leaving Apaimanee to protect the house.

As soon as Sin got old enough to go to school, she started homeschooling him and teaching him how to fight, just as she did with Apaimanee. However, Sin saw her as a teacher, not a mother. She never hugged him or comforted him, and outside of schooling hours, rarely even talked to her son.

Apaimanee thought it was suffocating to be with her, but luckily, he had his son. The little boy with curly hair and bright, clear eyes was his pride and joy.

Apaimanee would regularly turn on some streaming channels for his son to watch. When Sin turned four, Apaimanee heard a news report saying that a family called the Rattanawohan family was murdered in their own home. The police thought it had something to do with the power struggle after the regime change, but they could not find the culprit.

Apaimanee started crying for no reason.

“Papa?” Sin patted his father. When the tears did not stop, the little boy hugged his father tight.

“I’m fine.” Apaimanee wiped his tears away. “I just feel really sad for that family. I wonder why…?”

The only survivor from the murder was the family’s teenage son, Srisuwan.