12 – 12.
I turned my steps, squeezing through the crowd to observe the situation.
“Hey! Ryewon! Why are you ignoring your father’s words?!”
In the midst of it all, there was indeed Hanryeowon.
The troublemaker in front of the school gate was her father.
“Oh. So that’s Hanryeowon’s father?”
“He’s crazy… They don’t look alike at all.”
“They must be a completely different family.”
Snicker. The students forming the crowd jeered at the two women without hesitation.
Of course, it would have reached the ears of the people involved as well.
Sigh. Hanryeowon, clenching her fist and trembling, turned her hardened face away from her father.
But.
“Hanryeowon! Aren’t you going to stand there?!”
The more he shouted, the louder her father’s voice became, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Hey!”
In the end, she had no choice but to stop.
“….”
Her face, standing tall, was contorted with deep anger and shame.
“Ha, you shameless woman. Do you really have to shout like that?”
“…How did you find this place?”
“Hey, you… If you saw Dad, shouldn’t you at least say hello?”
“How did you get here?”
Her father stared at her as if he could kill her, and with a nonchalant face, he burst into laughter.
There seemed to be some kind of reason behind it.
“You don’t need to know that. Give me some money.”
“What…?”
For a moment, I thought I misheard.
“You have ten thousand won, right? Your aunt always gives you pocket money. You’ve been saving it, right? Huh?”
Her father shamelessly demanded money from his daughter with a face that was beyond belief.
“Is this the only reason you came here to say?”
“Hey! Do you think Dad would have come all the way here for nothing? Give me the money already!”
Then I started to hear murmurs from the people around.
“Wow, he’s really insane.”
“I’m so frustrated…”
“Abby is a legend.”
“Oh, if it were me, I would have killed myself.”
Is this what they mean by “watching a fire across the river”?
Even as the third party, I found myself burning with anger amidst the pouring ridicule.
“……”
Hanryowon, trembling with clenched fists at the actions of her wretched father, took out her wallet with a fierce expression.
Then, she took out all the bills inside and handed them over as if throwing them away.
“…Never come back again…. Please….”
However,
“That’s all she has?”
Her father was not satisfied.
“Don’t you have more? There’s an ATM over there. Go and withdraw some more.”
An unfathomable display of insensitivity.
Finally, Hanryowon, who had held back her anger, let it explode, tears streaming down her face.
“Please, just…!”
And at that moment,
“Oh, Father!!!”
Unable to bear it any longer, I jumped in between them, raising my voice.
“…!”
“Hmm?”
The attention around me pours in.
Sneakily hiding Hanyeo-won behind me, I slowly distanced myself and faced her father.
“I’m sorry for interrupting, but we’re really busy right now!”
“Who are you?”
“Hanyeo-won’s friend!”
“Friend?”
“Hey, hey….”
Hanyeo-won grabbed my collar in confusion.
Without hesitation, I firmly held her hand and shouted.
“Anyway! Excuse us, but I’m going to take Hanyeo-won with me!”
“…Huh?”
During his momentary stunned reaction, I grabbed Hanyeo-won’s hand and swiftly escaped through the crowd.
“Hey, hey! Hey, you bastard! Aren’t you staying there?! Hey!!”
Then, I heard a desperate voice shouting from behind, but…
“If you’re going to stay, then stay.”
Of course, there was no way I would stop.
*
After running for a while, we arrived at an empty playground nearby.
Yoo-chan and Hanyeo-won sat side by side on the swing.
“……”
“……”
A heavy silence filled the air.
Lyowon, looking down at her toes as if she might die any moment, and Yoochan, carefully observing her every move.
Yoochan felt a pang of regret for getting involved in this mess.
“Was it all for nothing?”
He had impulsively grabbed her and ran away without thinking, but now, looking back, he wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do.
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Of course, even if they were in the same situation again, he would make the same choice.
He still lacked the experience to distinguish right from wrong.
“By the way, just how messed up is her family…?”
Yoochan slowly recalled the actions of Lyowon’s father.
He came to the school drunk and caused a scene, even going as far as stealing money from his own daughter in front of everyone.
And to make matters worse, he even did something despicable, claiming it wasn’t enough.
It was truly a situation one would only see on TV.
“How could someone like her come from such a person?”
Unable to hide his astonishment, Yoochan sighed and cautiously spoke up to comfort Lyowon.
“Are you okay…?”
“Yeah…”
However, she still seemed lost in shock, unable to fully recover.
“Sigh. Poor thing.”
Yoochan felt sorry for her, but he didn’t have any words of comfort to offer.
There was nothing I could do to replace my father, who was like trash, and forcing strength into a shocked child seemed pointless.
All I could do was offer calm comfort instead of the words swirling in my mouth.
“…You’ve been through a lot.”
“……”
“……”
The heavy silence returned.
Yoochan, who had been absentmindedly scratching his messy hair and looking around, glanced at the small convenience store in front of the playground.
And then, as if something suddenly occurred to him, he abruptly stood up.
“Just wait here for a moment.”
“……”
While Yoochan briefly left his seat,
Ryowon, who was now alone, unconsciously lowered her head and closed her eyes tightly.
“I want to die.”
She loathed the existence of her father so much.
From a young age, he had hit and cursed at her mother in front of her, and even after her mother died from illness, he hadn’t changed at all.
Instead, he wasted the insurance money on alcohol and entertainment, proudly claiming that he had a good death.
If only that was the end of it, she could have just blamed her parents for a bad match.
But he went as far as to visit relatives who took care of her since she had no children, demanding money for the child and causing a scene.
Not only that, he even followed her to the agency she had just joined, demanding payment for her body and threatening to sue.
Naturally, rumors about him spread in no time.
In the end, Ryeowon couldn’t bear the stress of being bullied by the other trainees and gave up on her debut.
She had caused nothing but trouble and harm, without even giving the slightest help to her only daughter.
So she deliberately hid the school she attended and kept her distance…
But somehow, he found out and came to the school.
Ryeowon resented her fate of not being able to escape from her father’s shadow.
“…Rumors, they’ll spread for sure.”
Since she had caused a scene in front of everyone, it was obvious that rumors would spread throughout the entire school.
Maybe transferring schools wouldn’t make a difference.
She would always be stressed, wondering when he would come and cause a commotion again.
Until the moment he died. For the rest of her life.
It felt like her whole life had been ruined because of that lump of cancer called her father.
“Should I die?”
Tears welled up in her moist eyes.
“Yeah. What’s the point of living like this? Let’s just die.”
That moment, Ryeowon was engulfed in extreme impulsiveness, feeling hopeless about her miserable fate.
“Take this.”
An indifferent voice pierced her ears.
“…?”
Reacting to the sound, Ryeowon unconsciously looked up.
There stood Yoochan, who had suddenly returned.
With a vitamin drink in one hand.
“He says vitamins are good for the body.”
“……”
Ryewon could easily tell that he was trying to comfort her.
Honestly, it wasn’t a very skillful attempt at comforting.
“……”
She absentmindedly takes the bottle.
The pleasant coolness transmitted from the cold bottle.
Judging by her slightly ragged breathing, it seemed like she had hurriedly bought it at the convenience store.
“…Thank you….”
“Drink it and give me the bottle.”
Ryewon absentmindedly twisted off the cap at the non-insistent insistence of Yoochan.
And then, she blankly stared at the bottle before bringing it to her lips and chugging it down in one breath.
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Maybe because she wasn’t feeling well. It felt like the sweetness was seeping into her whole body.
“Phew….”
That was when Ryewon emptied the bottle and let out a refreshing sigh.
Twist. Yoochan, who was twisting off the cap right after, said.
“Feeling better?”
At that moment.
“…Huh?”
Ryeowon was inwardly startled and exclaimed.
Just a moment ago, all sorts of impulses had overwhelmed her.
And now, her once complicated mind was completely empty, as if it were a lie.
“…Yeah….”
Quietly nodding at Ryeowon’s absent-minded response, Yuchan brought the bottle to his lips and said,
“As expected, vitamins are good for the body.”
A remark tinged with subtle satisfaction.
For some reason, Ryeowon found his appearance cute and burst into laughter.
It was a surprising change of emotions.
“…Who is he, really…?”
Ryeowon discreetly turned her head and stole a glance at Yuchan, who was drinking his beverage.
At first, when they kept running into each other at the library, she thought he was just another guy trying to get her attention like the others.
But surprisingly, he seemed completely uninterested in her.
He was deeper and more mature than she had thought. And there was a certain charm about him.
While he had masculine qualities, there was also something cute about him.
Above all, when they were together, she felt strangely at ease.
He felt distinctly different from the men she had encountered so far.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Finally finishing his drink, Yuchan reached out his hand as if asking for the empty bottle.
As Ryeowon silently handed him the empty bottle, she lowered her head.
“I’m nothing.”
She decided to become closer to Yoochan from now on.
*
After Hanryeowon found stability.
As they sat on the swing and had various conversations, naturally the topic of each other’s families came up.
“What…? Your father came to the company?”
Her father, whom she found out about like that, was worse than she imagined.
No, calling him trash was too kind.
“He used to drain the insurance money from domestic violence and even followed his daughter to her workplace to ask for money?”
Hanryeowon casually laid out the sickening things she heard.
As if she had resigned herself to life, she spoke calmly.
She looked so pitiful.
“Oh… It’s not all good to have a father… I grew up without a dad since I was young.”
“…Really?”
“There was someone who acted as my father instead. He was my mom’s boyfriend, but he suddenly disappeared.”
“Suddenly?”
“He was an awakened individual. I remember his rank was quite high. Was it A rank?”
“Oh…”
Surprisingly, we had many similarities in various aspects.
Step-parent families. Unintended transfers and bullying.
There were many similarities between us, even in our small preferences for books and movies.
“Oh! I’ve seen that movie too. It was so good that I watched it twice.”
“Really? You’re the first person besides me who’s seen it.”
“For me, personally, Spring was the best.”
“Ah…you’re a fan of Spring? I liked Autumn the most.”
“Autumn was cute too, though.”
Because of this, no matter what topic we brought up, the conversation flowed smoothly.
It even felt like the conversation flowed better than in the novel Mayeonseo.
“It’s fascinating.”
Lost in conversation without realizing how time flew by, we finally stood up with a start as the sun began to set.
“Are we going to the bookstore?”
“The store hasn’t closed yet, so let’s go.”
“Then…let’s go together until we reach the store.”
“Really?”
We decided to accompany each other until we reached the split in the road…
“Um, Yoochan.”
“Yeah?”
She suddenly brought up a topic as we walked side by side.
“Come to think of it, I don’t have your number.”
“My number?”
“Sure. Can you tell me…?”
“There’s nothing I can’t tell you.”
Without much thought, I gave him my number and immediately tried to save his contact on my phone.
“It’s the number of a friend I made when I entered high school.”
But…
“…?”
For some reason, the pocket of my jacket that should have felt solid was strangely light.
“Uh, uh?”
“What’s wrong?”
Without even having the presence of mind to answer, I urgently searched through all the pockets and the inside of my bag.
But…
“Oh, sh*t.”
My phone was nowhere to be found.