#199

Yong handed his cell phone to Seon-jae.

It was Bae Young-do.

Seon-jae answered the phone with a smile.

“As expected of a pro. Did you finish already?”

He asked in a bright voice.

A sigh could be heard from the other end of the line.

-It’s not that. How should I put this?

“What is it?”

Seon-jae’s smile disappeared from his face.

He quickly gestured to Yong to stop the car.

“Hyung, just a moment.”

As soon as the car pulled over to the side of the road, Seon-jae got out.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

-Nothing.

“What do you mean?”

-There’s absolutely no record of him after he got out. No trace at all.

“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? Why are you acting like it’s something new?”

Seon-jae said nonchalantly.

-That’s right. It’s my job. It’s what I’m damn good at, too. But he’s really vanished without a trace.

Bae Young-do sighed heavily as he said this, then wondered, “Did he die?”

“No. He’s alive.”

Remembering Kim Young-ja’s words, he was certain.

“He’s definitely alive.”

-Are you sure he’s alive?

“Yes. I’m sure.”

-Okay, it’s good that you’re sure, but I’m telling you, there’s really nothing. You know me, right? How obsessively I look for people?

Bae Young-do seemed to have his pride hurt.

“Of course, I know. There’s no one in this world you can’t find, Hyung.”

Seon-jae tried harder than ever to boost Bae Young-do’s ego.

“Maybe he’s living under someone else’s identity. It’s his specialty.”

-Someone else’s identity? That changes things. Shit, this isn’t going to be easy.

He said that, but Bae Young-do’s voice brightened.

He hadn’t thought that far, and he could be heard saying to himself, “Aish, you dumbass.”

-Alright.

Just as Bae Young-do was about to hang up, Seon-jae suddenly realized that finding Kim Sung-hwan wasn’t the priority right now.

“Wait a minute.”

In the first place, Seon-jae had been trying to find Kim Sung-hwan because of his desire for revenge for what he had done to Man. But now, revenge wasn’t the issue.

Whatever information came from Oh Dae-ho, it was Yoon Ki-beom who had done it, not Shim Kang-woo. If he just had proof that the man wasn’t Yoon Ki-beom, he could get out of whatever Oh Dae-ho had given Lee Seok-doo, no matter what. There was no need to be anxious.

Shit. He was the real dumbass.

Would Kim Sung-hwan give proper testimony for Man? No. He was the one who had caused Yoon Ki-beom’s death, so there was no way.

But what about Dr. Choi, Choi In-ho?

What about the doctor, Choi In-ho, who was a fervent believer in Yoon Ki-beom and had an almost religious affection for him?

“Hyung. Ignore what I said and find Choi In-ho first.”

Saying this, he recited Choi In-ho’s resident registration number.

“He was an obstetrician.”

-What about Kim Sung-hwan?

“Choi In-ho is the priority.”

Seon-jae emphasized Choi In-ho again.

-Okay! I’ll find that bastard no matter what! And I’ll find Kim Sung-hwan while I’m at it.

Bae Young-do hung up the phone with a relieved voice.

Seon-jae frowned and closed his cell phone.

Like an idiot, he had been blinded by revenge and mistaken the priorities. He had wasted two precious days. He was angry at himself, but Seon-jae quickly regained his composure.

How fortunate that he realized it now. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Seon-jae knocked on the driver’s side window, and Yong lowered it.

He looked at Seon-jae and the cell phone as if asking why he wasn’t getting back in.

“This is safe, right?”

He asked again, handing back the cell phone.

Yong looked like he was tired of the question, but soon answered with a curt, “Yes.”

Right, who was he working for? Of course, it would be safe.

Besides, he hadn’t been talking on the phone inside the car, but out on the main road, so even if they were bugging the inside, they wouldn’t be able to hear.

Seon-jae winked at Yong.

Yong quickly turned his head away.

In the meantime, the child had taken a fairy tale book out of his schoolbag and was reading it.

“Oh, you’re pretending to read.”

Seon-jae teased the child for no reason. the child only glared at Seon-jae, then clicked his tongue as if he was pathetic.

the child was an angel. He was nothing less than a savior to Seon-jae.

Seon-jae, who had hurried out to buy snacks for the child, walked to the hospital room whistling. He could hear laughter even from outside the room. Not only the child but also the man was laughing out loud.

When Seon-jae opened the sliding door and entered, the child and the man looked up at the same time. the child waved at Seon-jae, and the man greeted Seon-jae with a smile as always.

“Oh, Ji-hye also bought a present for Tae-heun.”

man said this and gestured to Ji-hye to give it to him quickly.

“Really? Is it okay for Mister to receive Ji-hye’s gift?”

He was sincerely touched.

Seon-jae looked at the child with an exaggerated tone and expression without realizing it and put down the bag of food as if throwing it.

“Aish, it’s nothing special.”

the child opened his schoolbag, embarrassed, and rummaged around for something.

It was a key ring with a doll attached.

“It looks like Mister.”

Saying this, he handed it to Seon-jae.

As soon as Seon-jae received the gift, the child quickly ran to the man and buried his face in the bed. He was dying of embarrassment.

The small plastic doll attached to the key ring was a ballerina wearing a ballet costume. He looked closely to see how it resembled him, and the doll’s face was white. The lips were pink, and it was generally pretty.

“Really? It looks just like me.”

Seon-jae said this and shook the key ring next to his face.

He quickly looked for something to attach it to. His bunch of keys, which included his Benz key and the truck spare key he had received from Man, were left in Dongjam-ri, and there was no hole in his Motorola cell phone to attach the key ring. The only thing with a ring was his pager, so he hung the key ring there.

“Thanks to Ji-hye, it’ll be easier to find my pager. Right, Ki-beom?”

He deliberately shook the pager with the key ring attached at Man.

man nodded with a smile as always.

“What did Ki-beom get?”

He approached the man and asked in a friendly manner.

man shook the muscular plastic doll hanging on his middle finger and held out his cast.

“Look at this. Ji-hye drew it.”

He said with a proud face.

In the meantime, the child had scribbled all sorts of pictures and letters on the cast with a marker. It went without saying that ‘Father♥Ji-hye’ was written the largest, and a heart was drawn next to the words ‘Pretty Mister’.

In the picture the child drew, Man, the child, and Seon-jae were standing side by side holding hands. The drawing skills were so bad that everyone looked ugly, but he could tell that the man had brown skin, the small person decorated in pink was the child, and the unusually fair-skinned man was himself. Next to it was written ‘Our Family’.

As soon as Seon-jae saw the words ‘Our Family’, his eyes welled up and his throat tightened.

Me, Man, and the child are a family.

I am family with them.

Family. Our family.

Seon-jae was flustered because he didn’t know how to react. He forced down something that was welling up from a corner of his heart and said something pointless.

“Who did you take after to draw so badly? Is Ki-beom the culprit?”

He teased Man.

“Oh, who’s this witch? I’m scared she’ll come out in my dreams.”

“I’m not a witch! She’s So-jin’s grandmother!”

the child shouted back, embarrassed and not knowing what to do.

“Really? As expected, So-jin’s grandmother is also a great beauty.”

He said nonsense.

His voice kept getting stuck, and he kept cracking.

man looked at Seon-jae and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I think I choked while swallowing.”

Seon-jae forced himself to cough and looked at the rest of the pictures.

the child had drawn everyone and everything he liked and loved on Man’s arm. Not to mention the taekwondo uniform, why was Honey Twist there, and there was Let’s Be that the man enjoyed drinking, Mansu and Mugang, and Man’s small and humble country house. Tae-heun’s blue roof, too.

Of course, there were So-jin and So-jin’s grandmother, and Jung Eun-hee, who was called the little grandmother, was also visible. The diamond ring she often wore caught his eye. Jung Eun-hee would have loved to see this picture.

Seon-jae chuckled and looked at each one carefully. But his eyes soon turned to the picture that said ‘Our Family’. His eyes were hot again. Fearing that he might shed tears, Seon-jae shouted, “Let’s eat snacks!”

Then he went to the refrigerator and took out Man’s favorite canned Sikhye.

“There are a lot of drinks in the refrigerator, so Ji-hye, pick what you want to drink.”

“Yes!”

the child ran over and looked inside the refrigerator. An orange juice bottle was in the child’s hand.

“What about Tae-heun?”

man asked, having noticed when.

“I have an appointment, so I have to go out.”

“Ah….”

man looked disappointed.

As soon as he saw Man’s expression, his decision to leave early crumbled.

Seon-jae quickly took out a can of coffee from the refrigerator and shook it.

“There’s plenty of time to eat snacks and go.”

Saying this, he quickly laid out the snacks on the coffee table. There was a feast of snacks, rice cakes, sundae, and fried food from a nearby street stall.

the child exclaimed, “Wow.” the man got out of bed and took a seat on the sofa.

“Hey, call Yong, too.”

man took care of Yong.

Was he at odds with the word Yong? Kwon Yong-joon’s name also had Yong in it, and Yong was Yong.

Seon-jae grumbled inwardly and reluctantly called Yong. Fortunately, he was someone who didn’t eat any snacks at all, so he politely declined and let the family be together.

“Our family.”

He muttered softly.

He never knew the word family could be so good. Seon-jae’s cheeks kept twitching.

Man, who had only been drinking Sikhye since he was hospitalized, ate snacks for the first time.

Seon-jae opened the can and handed it to him, and the man took it and drank it, saying, “Thank you.” His eyes turned red for no reason.

“Oh, our Ji-hye. Why are you so pretty today?”

Seon-jae stroked Ji-hye’s head instead of the man he wanted to hug.

the child said, “Oh, stop it,” and was disgusted.

the child ate snacks aggressively and didn’t rest his mouth for a moment. Seon-jae and the man sat facing each other and listened to the child’s chatter.

the child had so much to say that he would start talking about one thing and quickly move on to another. If Seon-jae or the man asked about the rest of the previous story, he would make a face as if he had forgotten and continue the story he had been telling a little while ago. The story of Jung Eun-hee, who had been with him in Seoul all along, also came up often, and the man naturally thought she was So-jin’s grandmother’s younger sister or relative.

“Little Grandmother is a real fashionista. She has so many shoes and so many clothes that her closet is overflowing. And when I went to the department store, all the clerks recognized her! What was it? Oh, right, she’s a VIP. VIP!”

the child was very proud of Jung Eun-hee as if he were a VIP himself.

Honey dripped from Man’s eyes as he looked at the child. Then, even when his eyes met Seon-jae’s, he didn’t harden his face or avoid his gaze, but gave him a kind look as if he were looking at the child. He acted as if nothing had happened between them. That made Seon-jae flutter. He wondered if the man had really forgiven him, too soon, but if it was really true. He expected it even though he knew it wasn’t.

Seon-jae was often moved and his eyes turned red from time to time. In order not to get caught, he talked more and moved busily, trying to feed the man snacks.

“Oh, shall we eat chicken tonight?”

When Seon-jae suggested, the child screamed and answered, “Yes!” instead of Man. the man shushed and raised his index finger to stop the child.

How could this father and daughter be so different? Seon-jae exchanged glances with the man and smiled.

“He’s always like that. Ki-beom understands.”

“Yes. He’s always like that.”

They both looked at the the child at the same time.

Ji-hye was that kind of the child. It wasn’t her first time eating it, nor her first time seeing it, yet she was always happy and delighted as if it were her first time. Seon-jae thought it was because she resembled the Man.

He wanted to stay in the hospital room with the man and the the child all night like this.

The approaching appointment time felt cruel.

Chapter 200