An Haesu died.
Dad disappeared, and even his mother, who had been his only support, died and was cremated. No matter how much she was a mother who didn’t love her child, to young Haeseong she was his only existence. Because before the family structure broke down, she was an existence who had only given him love.
When An Haesu died, Jin Yeongjin eventually left for America with his legal wife and the child she bore, Jin Taeyang, using the excuse of starting everything anew.
Because he only thought his father wasn’t visiting him temporarily due to circumstances, Haeseong waited endlessly, but when Haeseong learned the fact that his father had abandoned him and left, he collapsed right there.
Jin Yeongseol ignored Haeseong’s pain even though she knew about it. Her only goal was to successfully grow the company, and to do that, she had to make Haeseong continue acting.
“Haeseong-ah. Do you want to go to America?”
Jin Yeongseol thrust Jin Haeseong’s profile at Hollywood director Liam Lindberg, who was looking for an Asian child. Lindberg, seeing the desolate eyes and perfect features despite being young, immediately cast Jin Haeseong and called him to America.
“I don’t want to go. Dad doesn’t want to see me……”
“No. Haeseong-ah. I’m your dad’s older sister. This time will be different. I’ll make sure you meet him.”
The lonely child left alone in the world eventually accepted the proposal to meet his dad and went over to America. And, as Jin Yeongseol intended, he participated in Lindberg’s film.
Haeseong excellently played the role of an adopted child who became mute due to domestic violence. However, even after successfully finishing filming the movie, nothing improved.
The day before returning to Korea, Haeseong asked.
“What about Dad?”
“…….”
“You said he’d come. You said if I listened well to you, he’d come see me!”
His aunt was a cold and scary person. Mom died and was gone. The existence called Jin Yeongjin to Haeseong was a father who had always been kind in his memories. Since he was now the only remaining family, he had hope that even if he abandoned him and left, he would come find him again someday. Because of the harmonious times, because of the great love he had given, he couldn’t think that he had truly abandoned him. That’s how sincere Haeseong was.
“Our dad, he’s really not coming?”
That’s right. Jin Yeongjin never appeared until the very end.
Haeseong, who returned to Korea, only then truly realized the fact that he had been left alone in this world. There wasn’t a single adult who truly thought of him, and his father had abandoned his child. The adults all used Haeseong and only praised his appearance on screen.
Haeseong, who experienced the bitter taste of the world at far too young an age, collapsed. He was lonely, desolate, and became incomparably more sensitive than before. He began to act badly toward people who approached him, and he couldn’t trust anyone.
At that moment, Kim Yeongrok appeared before Haeseong.
***
“That was when Haeseong became extremely sensitive. He’d explode if you even touched him, wouldn’t go to schedules, wouldn’t talk to anyone… At the time, I thought Kim Yeongrok felt sorry for Haeseong. He was really devoted.”
Kim Yeongrok, armed with kindness and gentleness, steadily approached the sensitive and sharp Haeseong. Even when Haeseong pushed and pushed him away, even when he shouted at him not to come, he always spoke with a smiling face.
“At the time, Kim Yeongrok-ssi was struggling so much that employees asked why he went that far, and he said Haeseong looked like his dead younger sibling. Everyone thought there must be some circumstances that made Haeseong look pitiful to him. But……”
As Euiju stared at her terrifyingly without blinking an eye, the coordinator awkwardly cleared her voice and continued.
“At that time, the Lindberg film was released and Haeseong was making his name known worldwide.”
After the release of Director Lindberg’s work, Haeseong won an award at a major film festival and generated numerous fans. The film couldn’t be said to have sold well commercially, but it was recognized for its artistic merit and was a work still discussed as a masterpiece.
“In our country too, it was a huge deal, making headlines that a Korean child actor appeared in a major production. Maybe because of that, it was also when bad articles and malicious comments were really pouring out.”
Euiju nodded in agreement. Though he didn’t remember clearly, he remembered that at the time, an article questioning whether stronger sanctions should be imposed on malicious comments and harassment targeting minors had become a hot topic.
“Since he was a minor after all, we collected high-level comments and reported them. But……”
The coordinator looked around awkwardly here and there. Then she came close to Euiju and continued speaking in a whisper.
“On bad sites, there were… several people who wrote strange posts making young Haeseong a sexual object. It was such a serious matter that the company reported it to the cyber investigation unit. But after they caught them and looked into it… one of them was Kim Yeongrok.”
Veins instantly bulged near Euiju’s neck. The thought process that had barely been working suddenly cut off completely. Euiju doubted his ears and asked again. His voice trembled greatly.
“What, what did you just say?”
“The police, who judged it to be a serious matter, launched an investigation, and eventually everything was revealed. Kim Yeongrok had intentionally approached Haeseong, whom he’d been watching closely from before, and it turned out he had even been planning a kidnapping systematically. Really, he was a crazy bastard. When Haeseong found out about that, how much……”
“Wait a minute. You confessed that fact truthfully to that young child?!”
At Euiju’s sudden shout, the coordinator flinched in surprise and shrank back. Soon she slapped Euiju’s back.
“Calm down, Euiju-ssi! How could we have told such a thing to a young child? It seems Haeseong happened to overhear employees talking about that topic not long after entering middle school. There was a huge uproar at the time, and after that, he started to hate like crazy anyone’s hand touching his body. Moreover, Haeseong thought that person had quit because of overseas immigration. How great must his sense of betrayal have been?”
“……”
“Kim Yeongrok touched the kid in various ways while taking care of him, but who could have dared to imagine that had other meanings? How fortunate that we found out before something big happened.”
At the coordinator’s last words, a wave of disgust instantly mixed into Euiju’s face. When Euiju glared at her with a cold gaze, the coordinator was momentarily stunned.
‘Fortunate that something big didn’t happen?’
Not at all. Something big had already happened.
Someone who had penetrated the heart of a fragile and hurt child had betrayed the child. In a very bad way at that.
“…Excuse me for a moment.”
Euiju, who had bowed his head deeply to hide his face, fled to the nearby bathroom. He entered a stall, lowered the lid, sat down as is, and quickly covered his face with both hands.
“Haah……”
He felt like he was going crazy. It felt like tears would burst out at any moment. Pain arose as if dozens of needles were being stuck into his heart. It felt as if he’d been hit in the back of the head by something heavy.
He bit his lower lip. Very hard, as if it might burst if he wasn’t careful.
He had thought disliking physical contact was simply that child’s personality. He had only thought he was a sensitive child who disliked being touched.
He recalled Haeseong, who had made a strange misunderstanding from the conversation between Seo Jiyul and himself before. At that time, he had said this.
“All adults are the same.”
Right. It made sense. From Haeseong’s position, wouldn’t they all look the same?
Parents who brought him into the world but didn’t properly take responsibility, an aunt who treated the child merely as a means to make money, managers who couldn’t look into the child’s true heart and easily gave up and distanced themselves for being rude. Kim Yeongrok who approached with strange desires.
And Lee Euiju, who cursed behind his back saying he hated him to death.
Although it was a misunderstanding at the time, how terrible and pathetic must adults have looked to those young eyes, all in their own clique?
His gaze as he looked at the ground while hanging from the wire wasn’t that of a teenager. It was like an old man who had experienced all the bitter tastes of the world and had no attachment to life, and there was also pure curiosity about whether it would be okay to die like this.
How gray must the world have looked?
He couldn’t even gauge how difficult it must have been alone. Haeseong’s violent personality wasn’t just his problem—it was practically a product spat out by the darkness of this society.
He wanted to run to him and hug him right now. Like he had embraced him tightly in his arms a few days ago, he wanted to comfort him. If he was angry, he wanted to let him vent even if it meant being hit.
Bzzzzt—.
Euiju, who had been roughly rubbing his face, slowly took out his phone vibrating strongly from his pants pocket.
「Noona」
Euiju, who confirmed the caller, cleared his throat. Because he didn’t want his dark and damp voice to be noticed. After coughing several times, Euiju pressed the call button and brought the phone to his ear.
“Yeah, noona.”
[……]
“Hello. Can’t you hear me?”
[……Euiju-ya.]
At Euiyeon’s voice full of trembling, Euiju raised his head. It was an ominous voice. Euiju had never heard Euiyeon’s voice this low in his life.
“…What’s wrong. Is something the matter?”
Euiyeon didn’t answer right away. A strange silence circled between the two.
At Euiyeon’s words that soon followed quietly, the light disappeared from Euiju’s pupils.
