Ch#197
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In the room where the four sat facing each other.
"This can't be......"
Jeong Myung-ja repeatedly clenched and unclenched the handkerchief in her hand.
"So you came back last night? Unnie's hospital......"
"Cut it out already! How many times do I gotta repeat? I'm sick of it now!"
Jeong Myung-ja shut her mouth at Chae Bok-su's hurried interruption.
Chae Bok-su let out a sigh and lowered her voice.
"......I don't know the details either. With Mr. Kim's mind all jumbled, what can ya do."
Jeong Myung-ja, who had been biting her lip, finally burst into tears.
"Then what about our Tie, sniff, what're we gonna do?"
She dabbed at her reddened eyes with the handkerchief.
"Must've suffered so much, with her dad sick and all...... After she vanished like that, sure it was a relief it wasn't somethin' worse, but......"
Tie's eyes drooped at Jeong Myung-ja's sobbing.
Tie fidgeted restlessly before scooting over to her.
"Auntie. Tie's okay."
The child awkwardly pulled Jeong Myung-ja into a hug.
"Tie didn't suffer at all...... I was with Dad the whole time. So don't cry...... okay?"
Jeong Myung-ja, wiping away tears, suddenly nodded.
Then she repeatedly stroked Tie's head with trembling hands.
"Aigoo, Auntie won't cry. Just so happy to see our Tie. But how'd you get here with your dad? Did you find the house on your own? Where've you been stayin' all this time, huh?"
Tie clamped her mouth shut, unable to answer.
The child's brows furrowed downward.
'I wanna tell Auntie and Grandma everything.'
But no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't.
What had happened in room 106 a few months ago.
How she'd gone to Talochioum, met Dad, and ended up back here. The passage from last night flickered before her eyes.
[Tie! Always be careful!]
Now she could tell just by looking.
How much Basto worried about her.
And not just him.
[Don't skip meals!]
[Miss! Miss!]
Veil, who even in that urgent moment had fussed first over Tie's meals.
Libia, who had desperately searched for Tie calling her strange names.
'And Association President Princess too, Uncle Leonardo too, everyone at the base is waitin' for Tie.'
Tie gloomily looked up while hugging Jeong Myung-ja's neck.
She saw the orb that had been circling above her head since last night.
The orb, which had been transparent just last night, now had a faint gold tint at the bottom.
According to Marbas, that meant Tie's mana was safely charging inside.
"Truth is......"
It was then that the silent child finally parted her lips with difficulty.
Bang bang bang-!
Suddenly, the iron door shook violently.
Startled, Jeong Myung-ja dropped her handkerchief.
Tie jumped in surprise too and instinctively ran to her dad.
As if he'd been waiting, a heavily drunken voice boomed from beyond the door.
"You bastards! Open the damn door!"
Jeong Myung-ja let out a short sigh.
"I know you're all in there, come out! If you don't right now, hic, I'll really tear this place apart!!"
An umbrella Chae Bok-su had left by the frosted glass door flew in.
"Open it! Ah, won't open!"
Held in her dad's arms, Tie blinked with frightened eyes.
The voice sounded somehow familiar.
"Auntie......"
The pondering child called out to Jeong Myung-ja.
As far as Tie knew, that man rarely came to Gold Apartment.
The always-busy-with-work husband from 203.
Quiet when sober, but someone to avoid when he reeked of booze—a bad neighbor.
'He sometimes yelled and cursed at Auntie......'
"This way, this way!"
At that moment, Grandma from 107 hurriedly pulled the father and daughter to their feet.
She shoved Tie and Tese tan into the small bathroom door beside the room.
"Stay quiet now."
With a finger to her lips, she quickly shut the bathroom door.
Soon after, the sound of the iron door opening came from outside.
"Have ya lost your mind! Why throw an umbrella at someone else's door!"
"Granny! You too, really, doin' that...... hic! No!"
"No my foot!"
"The other night, that bitch stayed here too, right? Huh?!"
Jeong Myung-ja sobbed at the voice echoing through the whole alley.
"I said no......! She just stopped by on her way back from shoppin'. Was gonna head up right away. Let's go, quick!"
"Let go!"
Something crashed down with a thud.
Tie's pupils trembled as she stared at the light seeping through the door crack.
"This is all your fault, you wench! My luck went to shit 'cause of you, ruined my whole life! And you think you can leave me? You dare, you?"
"Stop it, please!"
"You're not goin'. I'll never divorce you, even over my dead body. Get out here now!"
The sounds of Jeong Myung-ja from 203 being dragged out and Chae Bok-su from 107 following after continued.
"I'm callin' the cops! Really gonna call 'em!"
The iron door slammed shut with a thud.
Only then did Tie slowly blink.
Tese tan unwittingly grasped the child's hand.
The child was clenching her fist so tight her knuckles had turned white.
In the chilly bathroom.
Amid the quiet dripping of water droplets, Tie murmured.
"......It's Tie's fault."
Tears had already welled up in the child's eyes.
"Tie came back, so the uncle came too."
Everyone in the alley knew the man from 203 had a filthy temper.
Even so, when Tie and Tese tan lived in 106, his antics had been much less frequent.
There was often a police uncle who came by to check on Tie in the alley, and above all, the man from 203 had subtly feared her dad.
'But with Dad gone, and Tie suddenly leavin' too.'
The child's small back finally began to shake.
"Tie abandoned this place and left...... so Auntie from 203."
She recalled the countless mana stones she'd sieged after becoming the Necromancer King.
Tie had earned piles of gold from them, donated it, and even given Tani Pang dolls to her new tutoring friends.
"Shouldn't have been doin' that."
Tie was a fool.
With the power that had come like a gift one day, she'd only done such trivial things.
More importantly, there were things she should've taken care of first.
"Grandma too......"
Tears streamed down the child's cheeks.
"Grandma's sick too."
Grandma had said no.
Her constant coughing was just from food going down wrong, she'd said.
But even young Tie couldn't ignore it anymore.
The hat she never took off even in bed.
The occasional coughs.
The medicinal smell wafting from her whenever she went out.
And finally,
'So you came back last night? Unnie's hospital......'
The word 'hospital' that Auntie from 203 had just said.
"Tie's a fool......"
The child's lips quivered.
"Tie's a total disaster!"
Grandma looked like one of those patients.
In the insurance ads after singing shows ended, people just like Grandma appeared.
The narration always droned on with the same scary words.
'Cancer' or 'funeral', 'death' and such.
"Tie didn't know even that. Just beggin' for egg fried rice......!"
Pearl-like tears dripped down the child's cheeks.
But.
"Tie'll heal it."
The next moment, Tie quickly wiped her eyes.
Resolution dwelled in the child's uplifted gaze.
"Tie'll heal Auntie and Grandma too."
At the same time, the surrounding temperature abruptly chilled.
The fierce alley wind rattled the bathroom window.
