“Then hurry up and give me a name.”
As soon as they got home, the boy asked for a name. He seemed to have been thinking about it the whole time since he met Halion.
Rafi couldn’t refuse that. It was no different from the plea not to abandon him.
“Okay. Let’s do that.”
Rafi shook off Halion’s words that giving a name meant the end, searched the closet, and found some fairy tale books he used to read when he was young.
He figured it would be easier to choose a name from the books he usually read, so he left the boy aside and opened the book.
“Let’s think carefully and find a good one.”
This was also largely due to his own given name Rapunzel. Because of the insincerity behind the origin of his name, Rafi believed it was very important to name a person properly.
“I’m only going to use this name until I know your real one… Here’s a story called Ludsil. What about this name? I think it suits you well.”
“It’s not good.”
Although he was young in age, he was surprisingly firm in his decisions.
“Hmm. Then Spinel. I like this name, too.”
“Not really.”
It was difficult.
Rafi scanned over the bookshelf.
“Stephan. Arad. Kirne. Hoen.”
“They’re not good.”
“Danegel, Esseled, Swain, and Gregory?”
“I don’t want them.”
“…”
At that rate, he might as well call out all the names in the fairy tale book.
“You don’t have a name in mind, do you?”
He didn’t think so, but he asked just in case.
“What’s your favorite name?””
“Rafi.”
It’s like he’s been waiting to say my name.
“That’s my name. You have to come up with your own name.”
“Rafi is good.”
What is he talking about?
“… Do you want the name Rafi?”
“You asked me for my favorite name. It’s Rafi.”
Rafi sighed. The difficulties of parenting didn’t seem necessarily limited to the physical realm–the mental fatigue was also considerable.
“I can’t call you Rafi. That’s my name.”
“There’s no other good name than that. I don’t think they’re good.”
“Well, that’s…”
Rafi began to worry about whether he initiated the wrong efforts in the first place.
Should he have asked for a name that is easy to call or a name that is easy to remember, instead of a good name?
“You say you like Rafi, but you’ll hate it when you know what it means. So let’s go with a different name.”
Compared to the other names that he had been indifferent to, interest sparkled in the boy’s blue eyes.
“What does it mean?”
“Rapunzel. Rafi for short.”
“Rapunzel?”
“Yeah. Don’t you know what Rapunzel is?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s a vegetable that you dig in the field. And in my case, it became a person’s name.”
It was his father who named him Rapunzel.
The witch said she had been angry when the man begged her to at least take the child, since he had nothing else to offer. When she yelled at the man to name his child if he had been born, the man had roughly offered the name Rapunzel. It was a ridiculous name even when he thought about it.
So he didn’t want to name anyone that way, even if it was a name that didn’t matter if he gave it to others.
I think all the children who are abandoned will become ‘Rafi’.
“Rafi is good.”
“…”
“Do you really want a vegetable name? Apart from that, it would be confusing if our name was the same.”
“If we can’t have the same name, give me a similar one.”
It was a good idea, but Rafi found himself speechless. In this world, there seemed to be a child with strange taste, who liked vegetable names.
Well, too bad. He got the name Rapunzel first.
Rafi smiled blandly, saying he didn’t know what it was like to have a bad name.
“Then Romaine. It looks similar to Rapunzel. Let’s shorten it to Romi.”
They’re both vegetables, and the way they were abbreviated was similar.
It should be enough.
“Rafi, Romi. Similar, right?”
“Yes.”
Unlike the first round, where the boy was picky, the vegetable name was accepted at once.
“It’s good.”
“I’m glad you like it. I don’t know why…”
Rafi, still smiling blandly, raised his hand and gently mussed the hair of the person who had just become an abandoned vegetable like him.
.
“Okay, Romi. Now that you have a name, listen carefully. Let’s wash up and sleep.”
Silver hair with fine strands fell around his fingers smoothly. Jeweled eyes stared at Rafi through his fingers.
“Now that you named me, you won’t abandon me, will you?”
The sudden question poked at the weakest part of Rafi.
A child who was brutally abandoned was completely different from a noble child that had someone waiting for them.
“…Well.”
“Well. Will you throw me away?”
Rafi continued to talk, his hand still stroking the child’s head.
He didn’t think he would live with a child who was bigger than him. However, there was no reason to kick out a person who had nowhere to go.
If he was asked what kind of world he wanted to live in, Rafi would answer “a world where no one is abandoned”.
“I’ll think about it if you listen to me well. Don’t ever pull my hair. Oh, and you have to apologize to Halion. You shouldn’t do anything that puts others at risk twice.”
“You’re touching my hair, too. I haven’t told you not to do it.”
“It’s different. I’m touching it, but you pull it. That hurts.”
Romi’s expression became serious when he realized that it hurt.
“Then I’ll think about it too.”
“What?”
“How to touch your head without hurting it.”
“Haha.”
Rafi laughed out loud.
What was this stubbornness? But he was still learning. It might be worth teaching him.
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“Okay. Think about it. I’ll think about it, too.”
“Okay.”
Outside the window, the moon continued to tilt.
Only after putting Romi in bed did Rafi realize that he forgot to cut his hair today.
Shall I cut it tomorrow?