Chapter 81
- Cuteness That Saves the World 2022.02.05.
As Jeong-o and Ji-heon moved to the parking lot together, a vibration rang. It was Ji-heon's phone. Ji-heon checked the screen but hesitated to press the call button, just staring at it. Jeong-o asked,
“Who is it that you're making that face?”
“My mother.”
“Answer it. …Should I give you some space? Should I just go alone?”
“No. It's okay.”
As Jeong-o moved slightly away, Ji-heon quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back to his side. And then he pressed the call button as she told him to.
[Hey. Ji-heon.]
Even before Ji-heon could put the phone to his ear, Ms. Jang Young-mi's voice rang out sharply.
“Yes, Mother.”
[Come home. Let's talk.]
“What about?”
[What about? You must have a lot to say too.]
Youngmi's voice barely managed to suppress her urgent feelings.
[Eun-yeop came home earlier.]
“Mother, I told you not to meet Chae Eun-yeop…”
[What that child said was all true. I really don't know if you're lying or Eun-yeop is lying.]
“……”
[You, who used to be so kind and obedient, suddenly broke up with Eun-bi, don't listen to me, and ignore me. How can I accept everything you say? If that Lee Yena isn't your daughter, do you know what will happen to you? You'll be a fool. A pushover. Is that all? You'll be a laughingstock…]
As the provocative words continued, Ji-heon quickly lowered the call volume.
[Let's do the DNA test first. A blood test. If the blood test shows she's your child, then we'll talk again. Right now, I'm against you hanging out with someone like that.]
It wasn't a pleasant call. It was fortunate that it ended quickly. Jeong-o, who knew about Ji-heon's family situation, quickly understood the gist of the conversation.
“Your mother seems to have said something.”
“……She wants me to get a DNA test quickly. A blood test.”
“I can cooperate, but I'm worried about Yena.”
Ji-heon sighed. He was already worried about losing more points with his daughter, who hated her father. Ji-heon quickly gathered his thoughts and said decisively.
“Let's do the DNA test later. After Yena accepts me.”
“How are you going to endure it when your mother keeps saying things?”
“It's okay. I have a way.”
Ji-heon answered firmly, so Jeong-o wouldn't worry. The car sped smoothly down the road and soon arrived in front of Jeong-o's house. While Jeong-o was unbuckling her seatbelt, Ji-heon asked cautiously.
“Can I come in?”
“Of course. You have to come in. Hurry up and get out.”
A bright smile bloomed on his face at Jeong-o's answer. Jeong-o couldn't help but smile at his delighted expression, like a child who had received unexpected pocket money. She kept finding him cute, getting so touched by small things. He would stop smiling if he knew what she was thinking. Thanks to Ji-heon, Jeong-o also began to cherish her daily life. Her child's sleeping face, her child's passing words, the time she spent with her child… She was the most precious princess in the world, but sometimes Jeong-o was overwhelmed by reality and neglected her child. There were times when she was so engrossed in her work that she had brought home from the office that she only answered after Yena had called her 'Mom' about ten times, and there were many times when she had just played with her roughly. When her child fussed because she couldn't fall asleep, she had scolded her to be quiet. She wondered how envious Ji-heon would be of the things she had easily and conveniently overlooked. With that thought, Jeong-o also began to reflect. She resolved to become a more affectionate mother to her child in the future. As Jeong-o opened the front door, her child ran up to her.
“Mommy!”
“Princess Yena!”
It was the same mother-daughter reunion as always. Jeong-o hugged Yena tightly and walked to the center of the living room, asking,
“Did our Yena go to Gunsan and come straight back because she missed Mommy?”
“Yeah. To sleep with Mommy.”
“But Grandma must be tired.”
“Yena was tired too. But I still came.”
As the mother-daughter conversation continued at length, Guk-soon, who had been unpacking in the room, came out and asked.
“Lee Yena, aren't you going to say hello to your father?”
“……Hello.”
Yena, who greeted him without using the word 'father,' whispered to Jeong-o.
“Mommy, why did he come with us again today?”
“Because Daddy said he missed Yena.”
Jeong-o also whispered back to Yena.
“Why? We saw him yesterday.”
“Yena also slept with Mommy yesterday, but she still came back from Gunsan to sleep with her again today. It's the same thing. Daddy also wants to see Yena every day.”
Hmph. Yena wasn't swayed by Jeong-o's gentle persuasion. She wanted to ask him again why he hadn't come before if he wanted to see her every day. But she was afraid that her mother would hate her if she got involved with the stranger, so she didn't say anything. Ji-heon spoke to Yena, who was clinging to Jeong-o like glue with that stubbornness.
“Yena, shall we play Go together?”
But as expected, Yena refused with a sulky expression.
“I don't want to.”
Hmph. Does he think I only play Go all the time?
“I'm going to play cat's cradle with Mommy. Mommy, let's play cat's cradle.”
“Okay, okay, let's do that.”
Jeong-o, who was suddenly chosen as her cat's cradle partner, glanced at Ji-heon and brought the yarn. Her calculation was that since cat's cradle was played in turns, if she made a shape and handed the string to Ji-heon, the three of them would naturally play together. But the problem was that Jeong Ji-heon didn't know how to play cat's cradle. Jeong-o took the string from Yena's hand and handed it back to Ji-heon. An earthquake occurred in Ji-heon's eyes. Yena looked at him disapprovingly.
“You don't know how to play cat's cradle?”
“Yena, you should call him Daddy.”
At Jeong-o's correction, Yena stubbornly pressed her lips together even more tightly.
“Our Yena is a kind friend who helps her friends when they have difficulties and teaches them when they don't know something. How about being kind to Daddy and teaching him how to play cat's cradle?”
Jeong-o handed the string to Yena and gently coaxed her. After a long pause, Yena reluctantly showed the yarn to Ji-heon. Since both of her hands were holding the yarn, she had to use her toes.
“Put one finger here, and another finger here. Put one here and here too, and then pull it tight.”
“Here? Here?”
Ji-heon put his fingers out, following Yena's wiggling toes. Jeong-o and Guk-soon barely managed to hold back their laughter as they watched the two of them, who looked like they were conducting a science experiment while playing cat's cradle. Ji-heon followed Yena's instructions and put the yarn on his thumb and index finger. The string that had been firmly held on the child's small fingers was passed to Ji-heon's hand. Yena took her hand away and said.
“Now, pull it tight!”
At Yena's thorough advice, Ji-heon pulled the string steadily. But he failed to control his strength, and the yarn came loose. Yena looked like she was about to cry, and Ji-heon felt embarrassed.
“Aaaaaah, it's ruined! You ruined it because of you!”
“Yena, you should call him Daddy.”
Jeong-o immediately corrected her.
* A precious night passed by like flipping a page, and the next morning, Ji-heon dressed neatly in a suit and visited the headquarters. He had something to discuss with his father. Chairman Jeong Jaekwang, the head of the Seryun Group. A thorough man who worked 380 days out of 365 days a year, using 25 hours a day.
“Father, I'm here.”
“Yes.”
“You're here on a Sunday.”
“I have a lot to be briefed on.”
Except for a brief glimpse during the executive briefing, it had been almost two months since they had met personally, but the father and son's conversation was cold and blunt.
“When you sit in this seat, you'll understand how I feel. It's a position that's responsible for the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. Not only those employees but also their families become our family. So I have to work hard.”
His father's philosophy of life was embedded in his stories about work and the advice that followed. He was so perfect when it came to work, but he was never a family man. Perhaps his father's thorough sense of responsibility made his mother even lonelier. Perhaps his mother was more obsessed with him because of the love she didn't receive from his father. Apathetic father. He wasn't sure if he should tell his apathetic father everything. He was afraid that his father would be a shield that could block all the external pressure, or that he would side with his mother and pressure him. He was afraid that the conflict would escalate, but he would still try.
“I have something to tell you.”
“Yes. That's why you came. Tell me.”
Ji-heon took a deep breath and began.
“Father, don't you want to see your granddaughter?”
At the unexpected question, one of Jaekwang's eyebrows shot up.
“Have you finally changed your mind?”
Jaekwang sighed roughly, as if it were an obvious but tedious topic, and answered easily.
“Yes. Get married. I used to think I’d let your brother get married first and then send you off, but I don’t care about that anymore. If you’ve made up your mind, do it right away. Have lots and lots of granddaughters or grandsons.”
“No, it’s not that.”
“……”
“Actually, I already have a child. Seven years old.”
Jaekwang, who had been waving his hand as if to dismiss a bothersome task, abruptly raised his head and looked at Ji-heon. Jaekwang stared at Ji-heon in silence, then offered him a seat on the sofa and sat down opposite him.
“Sit down.”
An illegitimate child. His son had fathered an illegitimate child. It was fortunate that he was still unmarried, but the fact that the child was seven years old was quite problematic.
“What’s the child’s name?”
“Lee Yena.”
“Lee?”
“Because I didn’t know.”
“……”
“I lost all my memories, so I missed everything.”
Jaekwang took a deep breath as if preparing himself, and said,
“Tell me. Tell me everything without leaving anything out.”
Ji-heon told Jaekwang everything that had happened. How he met Jeong-o and how they broke up. How Jeong-o had lived because of his car accident and amnesia, and how they met again. While Jaekwang listened to Ji-heon's story, he slowly rubbed his sweaty hands together. He never imagined that his son would be the protagonist of such a story. And.
“A granddaughter. A granddaughter…”
Shock and excitement, curiosity and pity. All sorts of emotions that he had forgotten while focusing on work seemed to be clamoring inside him, each claiming to be the most important. To that excited heart, his son added more fuel.
“Father. Daughters are great. It’s daughters who rule the world. Besides…”
“……”
“She’s incredibly smart.”
Smart?
“And she’s incredibly pretty.”
And pretty? Incredibly?
“She’s incredibly cute.”
Even cute?
“She has a cuteness that saves the world.”
Ji-heon, who had come with the mission of persuading his father, took out a photo from his inner pocket that would be the finishing touch. It was a photo he had received from Jeong-o. A photo of Princess Yena's beautiful appearance taken on the morning of her seventh birthday. Jaekwang picked up the photo with trembling hands. A precious girl who had appeared in the Jeong family after three generations. His impression of first encountering his precious granddaughter through a photo was… Unbelievable. Jaekwang unknowingly placed his hand over his heart. Because his heart ached. It really was a cuteness that saved the world.
