The Woman Who Stole My Flower
Chapter 34
# Chapter 34
#34.
Because they lacked money, he had never once been able to send her to an academy like other parents did. Far from sending her to academies, he had put her to work helping at the shop. No matter how much he told her to go out and play with her friends, she was the kind of child who came straight home the moment school ended, washing dishes with those tiny, tender hands.
[I like washing dishes, Dad. It feels nice seeing dirty plates become clean.]
Hyeong-sik had lived a tumultuous life himself. Ever since he was young, he was teased for being a cripple and bullied by his peers. Even then, the high school was so far away and the commute so difficult that he could only finish middle school.
To think that an uneducated, impoverished, and disabled man like him had such a pretty, kindhearted daughter like Yeon-seo—no matter how much he thought about it, it felt like a miracle. For that reason, he never resented his wife, who had run away only a few years after giving birth to Yeon-seo. He only felt sorry for making her suffer, and utterly grateful for giving him Yeon-seo. So when his wife reached out asking for a divorce, he readily agreed. Telling her he was thankful and sorry, and wishing her a good life wherever she went.
Though he couldn't raise her well-dressed, well-fed, and well-educated like others, to Hyeong-sik, Yeon-seo was the most precious princess in the world and the sorest spot in his heart.
And now, that very Yeon-seo.
The daughter he wouldn't trade for the entire world.
Was cooped up in her room, weeping softly.
‘Falsely accused of being a thief? Our Yeon-seo?’
A fire ignited in the chest of Hyeong-sik, who had lived his entire life foolishly kind and meek. He couldn't just sit still. He wanted to do something. He had to do something.
Hyeong-sik started by changing his clothes. He took out a suit he had bought for an occasion last year but never got to wear, and neatly combed his hair. Without even telling his daughter, who was still crying in her room, that he was leaving, he quietly locked the shop door.
- Closed for today
After posting the note on the shop door, Hyeong-sik set off blindly in his electric wheelchair. His destination was the company where his daughter worked.
Unable to walk, Hyeong-sik's living radius was strictly limited to the shop and a few dozen meters around it. All the ingredients used in the shop were delivered by freight truck; he never went out to buy them himself. Although he had an electric wheelchair, roaming here and there with an impaired body felt like a nuisance to others. Going outside frightened him, too.
He didn't dare take a taxi. He had taken them a few times in the past, and whether it was just bad luck with drivers, he didn't have a single good memory. They acted openly annoyed while loading the wheelchair, or complained that it would scratch the car. When getting in, far from helping support him, they would just stand by blankly, staring as if telling him to get in on his own.
Thus, Hyeong-sik decided to ride what was called the subway for the very first time in his life. The station itself was a hurdle from the start. He was at a total loss over how to get down the stairs, and only after a long time did a safety officer saunter over and operate the wheelchair lift for him.
“Take the elevator next time, the elevator.”
“Ah, yes. I'm sorry.”
To the young safety officer who looked green behind the ears, Hyeong-sik bowed his head like a guilty criminal.
Asking passersby for directions, he somehow managed to board the subway heading toward Yeon-seo's company. Boarding wasn't easy either. The gap between the arrived train and the platform was so wide that he hesitated, afraid the wheels would get caught, only for an irritated voice to fly from behind him almost instantly.
“Ugh, what is this? Is SADD protesting today or something?”
His shoulders instinctively shrank inward.
Jostled by the crowds, he missed the station where he was supposed to get off and had to double back; through untold hardships, Hyeong-sik finally managed to arrive at the subway station near Yeon-seo's company.
Remembering the rebuke from earlier, he looked for an elevator to go up to the surface. The elevator was tucked away, hidden far in the distance, and after wandering for a long while, he barely found it—yet getting on was no easy feat either. Putting the elderly aside, even able-bodied people wouldn't move out of the way despite clearly seeing Hyeong-sik in a wheelchair, so he was only able to get on after waiting a long time.
When he finally arrived in front of Yeon-seo's company after several hours, to make matters worse, the battery of the electric wheelchair completely ran out. The back of the dress shirt he had worn for this rare occasion was drenched through with sweat.
“Is this…”
Fear welled in Hyeong-sik's eyes as he looked up at the endlessly tall building. For someone who rarely left the vicinity of his home, simply being alone in such a downtown center was nerve-wracking. Just looking at the corporate building terrified him, making him desperately want to turn right back around and go home.
But Hyeong-sik gritted his teeth. If not him, who else would clear his daughter's injustice? No matter what, he was going to meet Yeon-seo's superior and demand an explanation. Asking if they had proof that his daughter stole anything. Saying that our Yeon-seo would never do such a thing.
If they truly wouldn't listen to reason, he planned to hire a lawyer and sue. He didn't know how much a lawyer cost, but even if it meant pulling the deposit from the shop or breaking his savings account, he would fight. He would hold a picket sign and stage a one-man protest in front of the company every single day. He would do whatever it took. If only he could clear his daughter's name.
The directory indicated that Bellator Korea occupied the 20th through 24th floors of the building. Taking the elevator up to the 20th floor, Hyeong-sik was stopped at the company entrance's reception desk.
“Welcome to Bellator Korea. How may I help you?”
The receptionist asked. Perhaps because Hyeong-sik was in a wheelchair, she appeared polite at first glance, but a distinct air of guardedness peeked through, making him even more nervous.
“Um, I am the father of employee Jeong Yeon-seo, who works here in the Public Relations Office.”
The receptionist searched the computer system and asked,
“Shall I call Manager Jeong Yeon-seo from the CSR Team in the Public Relations Office?”
“No, my daughter is at home right now.”
“Then how may I assist you?”
“Well…”
His voice kept shrinking into a mumble, but Hyeong-sik gathered his courage.
“I would like to meet a higher-up.”
“Do you mean the Team Leader of the CSR Team?”
From overhearing the phone call earlier, it seemed Yeon-seo's team leader was in a position where, despite knowing Yeon-seo's innocence, she couldn't help. If so, he had to speak with someone even higher.
Having never worked at a company, Hyeong-sik didn't even know what came above a team leader. So he just blindly asked for a superior.
“No, someone higher. Please let me see a higher-up.”
From the receptionist's perspective, he was just blindly demanding to see a higher-up without specifying who, and even if she knew, she couldn't simply summon one on a whim.
“I apologize, but that is difficult unless you have scheduled an appointment in advance.”
Thus, she had no choice but to repeat the standard policy.
“I really have something I must say to a higher-up in person. Please? Please just contact someone. The Chairman, or, well, the President…”
Bringing up the Chairman, who was at the UK Headquarters, left the receptionist utterly dumbfounded. Even if the Chairman were here, did he really think he could just meet him?
“You cannot meet our executives without a prior appointment.”
Despite the repeated refusals, Hyeong-sik couldn't back down easily. Having suffered so much to come all the way here, he couldn't just return without meeting anyone. For his Yeon-seo, he had to do something.
“Please, I beg of you. I won't take up much of their time. Just five minutes, please?”
As he practically made an unreasonable scene, the receptionist's voice grew increasingly irritated.
“As I keep telling you, you cannot meet them. If you continue like this, I will have no choice but to call security.”
In the end, after the back-and-forth dispute, the receptionist called security.
“This is the 20th-floor reception. Please come up.”
Seeing two burly security guards approaching from a distance, tears suddenly welled in Hyeong-sik's eyes. After struggling so hard to get here, he was on the verge of being forcibly kicked out without even catching a glimpse of a superior's face.
“What is going on?”
Just then, a voice rang out from above.
“Director Kang Joo-heon!”
At the receptionist's words, Hyeong-sik looked up to see what was happening. Seeing the face of the large man in a suit standing beside the wheelchair, his tears vanished in pure shock.
“Kang Joo-heon…?”
Was he dreaming in broad daylight? But even after rubbing his eyes and looking again, it was unmistakably the athlete Kang Joo-heon.
Kang Joo-heon stepped between the security guards and Hyeong-sik, blocking them with his own body, before looking at the receptionist.
“He appears to have mobility difficulties. Shouldn't you be helping him?”
At the unmistakably displeased tone, the receptionist replied with an awkward expression.
“Um, the truth is, he's the Secretary's father, and he showed up without notice, repeatedly demanding to see a higher-up…”
“Secretary? Whose secretary?”
“I mean Manager Jeong Yeon-seo, who is serving as your secretary, Director.”
“…!”
In an instant, Kang Joo-heon's eyes widened.