“No. I don’t need the money. What Haeseong and I want isn’t that big. If we can just keep in contact consistently…”
“Ha.”
Jin Yeongseol scoffed as if it was laughable.
“If you come at me like this, you won’t see anything good. You’re already struggling to take care of the child, can you handle it? You’ll have to come back to Korea and live later, so you should establish yourself when that time comes.”
The meaning implied in Jin Yeongseol’s firm words sounded like a threat—that if he didn’t do as told, it would be better not to think about making a proper living in Korea.
“Noona is disabled, Lee Euiju-ssi is a student on leave, no, you’ll be a dropout now. You have three young siblings below you, so surely you’re not planning to keep living in America?”
No, it was definitely a threat.
“Making a few people unable to set foot on this land isn’t difficult for me. I’m someone who would prefer Euiju-ssi not to appear in front of Haeseong, and I’d be glad if you didn’t enter this country.”
“…”
“It would be good to seize the opportunity while I’m kindly advising you with words.”
Jin Yeongseol, who spoke as if making a light suggestion, blew out cigarette smoke nonchalantly.
Euiju’s expression loosened. He stared blankly into space, his empty pupils trembling intermittently.
Even if Euiju left for America, he had not the slightest intention of cutting off contact with Haeseong. If the child wanted, he planned to call whenever he had time, and even if Haeseong followed, he intended to look after and care for that child as much as circumstances allowed.
It was an unreasonable treatment. It was too cruel to the child.
Even now, if the child who was struggling so much because he was leaving had contact completely cut off, he would spend time lonely with nowhere to pour out his difficult inner feelings. Though he was leaving unavoidably, he never wanted to leave Haeseong like that.
Euiju spoke in a pleading tone.
“Can’t I at least stay in contact? Haeseong relies on me a lot. Anyway, I can’t enter Korea until the child recovers. I won’t meet him, so if you just let me contact him…”
“Lee Euiju-ssi.”
Jin Yeongseol cut off his words at once.
“Jin Haeseong is a child who will shine after becoming an adult. Right now I’m holding him back, but in just 2 years when he gains his rights, he’ll try to go to your side. That child said he’d give up even acting and go because of you, but I, who discovered and raised that child, can’t stand to see that.”
“What do you… he said he’d quit acting?”
“Yes. Because of just one manager who’s only been around for a short while.”
Jin Haeseong was a child who enjoyed his acting life. Even if he felt uncomfortable with fans approaching closely, he tried to respond to the love sent infinitely from afar. He tried not to disappoint fans who loved his appearance, and made efforts to develop his acting skills by watching, listening, and doing.
—At first it wasn’t, but it gradually became fun.
That such a child had tried to give up even acting and follow, Euiju’s eyes began to redden again.
“…Must you go this far?”
Her indifferent gaze turned to Euiju again.
“What can I do when I have to go this far for that stubborn bastard to listen?”
For someone talking about her nephew, her attitude was worse than how she’d treat a stranger. How could her eyes be so cold and indifferent like that? Were they really family, how could she act only for her own benefit like that?
Only after facing this situation did Euiju properly realize. That Haeseong truly didn’t have a single person left to rely on…
“I don’t understand why the deliberation is getting long. Even setting aside Haeseong, wasn’t Lee Euiju-ssi just someone who joined our company chasing money? I’m saying I’ll give you that money, so why are you showing such lingering attachment?”
Jin Yeongseol spoke as if urging him. She checked her watch and pressed him to make a conclusion immediately.
“Or, you really don’t want to set foot on this land again.”
Euiju bit the inside of his cheek painfully. It was to hold back tears that seemed about to burst.
It was a threat. If he didn’t listen to this person’s words, his family’s situation could fall even further into the abyss than now. In this situation where something bad had happened, he couldn’t spit out words of refusal.
Euiju, who had firmly pressed down the emotions rising from deep within, opened his mouth quietly. A voice full of trembling flowed out.
“…I will disappear as you’ve said. However, I won’t accept the money. If Haeseong finds out that I’m leaving after receiving money from the director, how hurt he’ll be—even though you’re Haeseong’s family, don’t you know that?”
“No. That bastard knows best the principle that everything runs on money. If I say you left after taking money, it’ll be easier for that bastard to accept than now. Because he’s cunning and has been sharp about that since he was young.”
As if it was laughable, a derisive sneer hung on Jin Yeongseol’s lips. Her nephew was a vicious type who couldn’t easily trust anyone, but he was someone whose mind was exceptional in that direction through society he’d experienced early and various experiences.
At that moment, the shoulders of the person sitting in front of her began to tremble, and Jin Yeongseol’s eyes narrowed.
“Director… do you really not know why Haeseong is obsessed with me?”
“…What?”
“You shouldn’t have judged him that way but looked closely and given him attention. Because you’re family, you should have embraced and taken care of him. The things I did for Haeseong, you as his family should have done them, Director! He’s still a child who hasn’t become an adult. Far from pitying a child who lost his parents early, how could you…”
Seeing Euiju pouring out his feelings with veins bulging, Jin Yeongseol frowned as if displeased.
“Lee Euiju-ssi. Do you know this is overstepping? Just picking him up and taking him in, I’ve done my duty as an aunt. Growing up is his own portion to handle.”
If she had made him a grandson of the J Group chairman when he could have grown up as an orphan bastard without parents, if she had made him an actor whose name is widely known like this, Jin Haeseong should have known to be grateful and prostrate himself flat. Jin Yeongseol thought he shouldn’t repay kindness with enmity.
“It would be good to moderately meddle with useless interference. Since you say you don’t need money, then get up first. Since that child fell asleep, it’s perfect timing to leave.”
Jin Yeongseol, who stubbed out the cigarette she was smoking in a portable ashtray, stood up without lingering attachment. Before leaving the terrace, she looked at Euiju with indifferent yet amused eyes.
“Ah right, what you said about disappearing on your own. That was quite impressive.”
“…”
“I’ll explain well so that bastard doesn’t get hurt, so don’t worry too much. Then.”
Jin Yeongseol stood up without lingering attachment and left the terrace. Euiju looked at her retreating figure with a sense of futility.
—If you can’t take responsibility, you shouldn’t even start.
—All day long, that child will wait looking only at the door, wondering when Euiju will come, where he is. If it becomes like that, I think that friend will become even more pitiful than now.
Tears began to fall drop by drop from Euiju’s eyes.
How could such trials cover him all at once—he wanted to die from the pain. The news like a bolt from the blue that the youngest was sick with not much time left to live, the fact that he had to leave this country where he’d been born and raised his whole life, the situation where he had no choice but to extend his hand to Jeong Gwangho, and the fact that he had to leave Haeseong, to whom he’d given his affection, behind in this shitty environment.
—Don’t leave me behind. Absolutely not…
“Heu… urgh, cough, cough!”
He had never once put a curse word in his mouth in his entire life. But just this once, he wanted to pour it out at anyone. He wanted to resent the world. He wanted to raise a sharp sword toward the sky that kept bringing down trials too hard for him to endure.
Euiju poured out sobs for a long while in that spot.
Kim Jaeho, who had pulled a chair to sit beside the bed where Haeseong was lying, was absorbed in looking at photos of his child on his phone. Since the child had just started crawling not long ago, he felt fulfilling emotions rising just from looking.
At that moment when he was laughing quietly for a while, the door opened. It was Lee Euiju.
“Ah, Euiju-ssi. Did the talk with the director end well?”
He approached Haeseong, barely acknowledging Kim Jaeho. He sat on the edge of the bed and suddenly grabbed Jin Haeseong’s hand.
“…What did the doctor say?”
“What did he say? Since the kid hasn’t been sleeping or eating properly lately, he said he collapsed from overwork.”
At those words, Euiju stared intently at Haeseong’s hand with the IV inserted.
“Geez. These days I’m suffering the most because of this bastard Haeseong. Being called out at all hours day and night, I can’t even see my own child, let alone recruit a new employee. Wait what? Euiju-ssi… are you, are you crying right now?”
Euiju, silently shedding tears drop by drop, stared at Haeseong sleeping soundly without moving. Soon he raised his hand and began to gently caress his face as if handling porcelain that might break. His lips where white dead skin had formed, the area under his eyes where dark shadows had appeared that weren’t there before, his slightly rough skin, his neat eyebrows.
“Euiju-ssi. I don’t know what’s making you like this, but Haeseong will wake up. It’ll be troublesome when he wakes, so hurry and move away. Okay?”
Kim Jaeho was anxious. It had been so long since Jin Haeseong had slept properly—why was he touching him like that when it was obvious the sensitive child would wake if handled? There would only be troublesome things when he woke.
“No. If he wakes up like this, Haeseong won’t let go of Euiju-ssi, so why are you doing this…! I don’t want to get tired, so hurry…”
At that moment, Euiju’s pupils, frozen cold, turned toward Kim Jaeho.
