#150

Side Story Episode 1

Shoot-out

It had been a long time since I last stepped foot on Seoul soil.

Had it been two months? I had left for the United States around the time the magnolias in Seongbuk-dong were budding, and now those magnolia trees were adorned with green leaves, round-tipped and larger than an adult’s palm.

“Hyung, should I just go in by myself after all?”

As I stood there without getting out of the taxi, staring blankly at the mansion’s main gate and the magnolia trees atop the wall, Ho-jae asked tenderly, perhaps thinking I was hesitating. Jung-hyun shook his head slightly.

“No. I was just wondering if the gate to this house always looked like this.”

Ho-jae continued to study his expression with a worried face. He probably didn’t understand what that meant. Not that I had spoken with the expectation of being understood.

I had come to Korea following Shin Ho-jae, who had decided to visit Korea briefly before starting his full-scale training. It was a decision made after receiving a phone call from my mother while in the middle of Lake Louise.

Jung-hyun let out a small breath and stepped out of the taxi. Ho-jae followed shortly after, but he couldn’t stand immediately behind Jung-hyun. This was because the taxi driver had asked Ho-jae for an autograph. I had felt him glancing through the rearview mirror since we got in; it seemed he had recognized Shin Ho-jae’s face.

Jung-hyun looked at Shin Ho-jae with a secret sense of pride. If he were to live with a Super Player, such occurrences would likely be commonplace in the future.

After a short wait, Ho-jae, having finished the autograph, hurried back and stood beside him. Fearing that he would start apologizing for making him wait if left alone, Jung-hyun beat him to it.

“You should start carrying a marker with you from now on.”

At those words, Shin Ho-jae, who had been about to apologize, closed his mouth and smiled faintly.

Jung-hyun tried to smile back, but the corners of his mouth felt heavy, and it didn’t quite work. Instead, he lightly stroked Shin Ho-jae’s shoulder and chest. It was meant to tell him not to be nervous, but perhaps it had the opposite effect, as Ho-jae straightened his back rigidly.

Today, Shin Ho-jae was wearing a shirt and suit trousers. Although Jung-hyun had told him that casual clothes were fine, it seemed Ho-jae felt differently about his position.

Since Jung-hyun was dressed similarly, to an outsider, they might have looked like a couple-to-be visiting the family home for the first time to give their greetings. However, the reason Jung-hyun had visited Seongbuk-dong with Shin Ho-jae as soon as he arrived in Korea was not for something so warm and affectionate.

Through his mother’s phone call, he had learned several things he had previously made no effort to know.

The biggest issue was his father’s health. After Kwon Ki-hyuk died, his father had been deeply devastated, and from a certain point onward, his health had declined rapidly.

He began to struggle with even the simplest decisions, and eventually, there were several instances where he failed to recognize his own secretary’s face. He immediately underwent a thorough examination at the best hospital in the country, but the result was the disheartening conclusion that it was a psychogenic illness rather than a neurological problem.

A closed-door board meeting was convened, and it was decided that his father would take an indefinite leave of absence. Following the attending physician’s recommendation, his father decided to go to a convalescent home in a place with clean water and fresh air.

His mother’s voice as she relayed everything was unexpectedly calm and composed. From the sound of her voice over the phone, there was no way to tell if her attitude was because she lacked the emotional energy after so much had already happened, or if she was truly indifferent.

Guided by an employee, Jung-hyun headed toward the drawing room. Every antique window was filled with lush green trees. Perhaps thanks to the May weather, which could be called a blessing, the atmosphere of the house—which he had expected to be grim—was unexpectedly ordinary. No, he even felt that it seemed better than usual.

“Madam, Young Master Jung-hyun has arrived.”

His mother, who had been sitting in the drawing room, stood up. Before Jung-hyun could offer a greeting, Shin Ho-jae, who was behind him, bowed deeply, and his mother gave an awkward smile, as if recognizing his face.

“Ah… Athlete Shin Ho-jae came along as well. I see… Have you been well?”

The relationship with Shin Ho-jae had been briefly explained over the phone. That the child in the womb was Shin Ho-jae’s, and that they intended to marry soon.

Although he hadn’t come with Shin Ho-jae for that specific purpose, his mother looked uncomfortable the moment she saw him, as if she had done something wrong. It seemed she was bothered by the fact that she had previously urged him to get rid of the baby.

Since Jung-hyun didn’t particularly want Ho-jae to be affectionate with his mother, he left the two of them as they were. Shin Ho-jae also seemed to understand his intention, maintaining only the minimum level of courtesy without initiating conversation as he had before.

His mother cast a glance at Jung-hyun’s lower abdomen and then awkwardly looked away. It wasn’t yet very obvious that he was pregnant, but as his mother, she would have immediately noticed that Jung-hyun’s body was different from before.

He hadn’t expected a warm welcome, but Jung-hyun smiled bitterly inside at the distance that felt almost like they were strangers. It was then that Ho-jae, sitting beside him, reached out and took Jung-hyun’s hand.

When he looked at him, Ho-jae squeezed his hand without saying a word. Thinking that this was his own way of giving him strength, a soft smile played on Jung-hyun’s lips. Unlike before, the corners of his mouth rose gently.

“…….”

His mother, who seemed to have something to say as her lips parted, naturally turned her head away upon seeing the two of them. It seemed that saying anything in front of Shin Ho-jae was burdensome for her.

If it had been a meeting between just the two of them, his mother probably wouldn’t have been this cautious with her words. For now, it was more comfortable for Jung-hyun that his mother found him difficult to deal with.

Too many things had happened for them to smile over pregnancy stories or talk about ‘Hoppang’ like a normal family. If his mother had brought up such topics nonchalantly, he might have struggled to control his expression.

Not long after they had been sitting in the drawing room in silence, Suncheon-daek brought tea on a tray. Jung-hyun gave her a nod of greeting as he helped her set down the teacups.

It was when the three of them had taken a sip of tea and set their cups back on the saucers that his mother finally spoke.

“…I’ve decided to move to the Gangneung villa with your father tomorrow. The attending physician and a caregiver will be coming along, so please keep that in mind.”

“Yes.”

“I wanted to see you once before leaving, so thank you for coming from so far. Would you like to go and greet your father before you go?”

“Yes, I will.”

Jung-hyun nodded and stood up.

His mother was guiding the two toward the bedroom when, hearing from an employee that his father had gone to the hanok annex, she shifted her direction.

His father was looking out at the lush Bukak Mountain from atop the open wooden veranda. All Jung-hyun could see was his back in a wheelchair, but that alone was enough to tell that his father had become much more frail than before.

“Honey, Jung-hyun is here.”

His mother approached him and whispered softly. However, his father only slowly turned his gaze toward her. Finding it strange, Jung-hyun stared blankly, and his mother added an explanation in a bitter voice.

“Sometimes it seems like he can’t hear anything. I suppose today is one of those days.”

“…….”

“At times like this, he doesn’t remember you, of course, nor does he remember Ki-hyuk. Sometimes he doesn’t even remember that your grandfather passed away.”

Jung-hyun looked at the two of them, lost for words. His brow furrowed automatically. He could accept it for himself, but to think his father didn’t even remember Kwon Ki-hyuk. The condition was far more serious than he had heard over the phone.

They say that when a person suffers a trauma too difficult to handle, they excise painful memories as a self-defense mechanism. As the doctor had explained, he could only guess that Kwon Ki-hyuk’s death had been that shocking for his father.

He thought it was ironic. Kwon Ki-hyuk had wanted his father’s recognition so badly during his lifetime, yet his father had ended up forgetting him. It meant he had failed to achieve that wish even in death.

Jung-hyun let out a faint sigh and took a step toward his father. Even if the man didn’t remember him, he wanted to offer at least a formal greeting. His mother spoke with a look of strange pride on her face.

“But strangely, your father remembers me. And exactly as I was back when we first met.”

“…….”

Feeling a complex mix of emotions, he looked at the two of them in silence when his father called out to his mother in a hoarse voice.

“Gwi-ran.”

“Yes, honey. …Oh dear. You’ve been biting your lips again. I told you to stop that habit.”

With a tender expression, his mother wiped the corners of his father’s mouth and brought ointment to apply to them.

After exchanging greetings with his father, who did not recognize him, as if they were strangers, Jung-hyun entered his old room.

Perhaps because he had been tense the whole time without realizing it, his trapezius muscles felt stiff. Ho-jae seemed to feel the same, as Jung-hyun heard him let out a long sigh from behind.

“It’s a bit of a strange family, isn’t it?”

He spoke to try and break the stiff atmosphere, but Ho-jae didn’t answer and instead wrapped his arms around Jung-hyun’s waist.

Soon, pheromones like the shimmering surface of summer water poured over his body. Jung-hyun remained embraced, leaning his cheek against the man’s broad chest for a moment.

The image of his mother he had just seen came to mind.

The way his mother treated his father almost like a child was something he had never seen when his father was healthy. His mother had always trembled before his father, fearing she might say a single wrong word.

However, that side of his mother didn’t seem particularly strange to Jung-hyun. It closely resembled the way she had been when he was a child, strictly teaching him not to bite his nails.

Considering that what she had wanted her entire life was the position of the mistress of Myeong-jeong, it was a bit bizarre. Does the mistress of Myeong-jeong only disappear once Myeong-jeong itself collapses?

Yet, his mother looked truly comfortable and happy in a house that was now nothing more than a collapsed shell.

Perhaps she felt great solace in the fact that, even if his father forgot all his sons, he had not forgotten her. Since his mother was the type of person who found fulfillment in closely caring for someone, she might have felt satisfaction in finally being able to take care of his father.

“I’m glad I came with you, Ho-jae.”

When he said that, Ho-jae smiled brightly.

Shin Ho-jae had stood quietly behind Jung-hyun the entire time without saying a word. That alone made Jung-hyun feel as though he had a reliable ally by his side.

If he had been alone, the conversation with his mother and the sight of his father’s changed state would not have passed so calmly, without a single ripple of emotional turmoil.

151 – Puck Drop