‘Has such a critical problem occurred that call records can’t be left?’
While Yeohwi was pondering.
Bzzzz. Bzzzz.
The phone inside the box vibrated as if having a seizure.
The caller’s name appeared on the LCD screen.
Father
Seeing that, Yeohwi flinched in surprise and almost dropped the box. His eyes wavered as if looking at a time bomb, and his heart that had sunk heavily shattered to pieces at his feet.
‘Father?’
That word was never an object of longing for Yeohwi. His parents had died in an accident when he was a baby, and the man who had cunningly burrowed into that empty space and told him to call himself father had long since disappeared ages ago.
The terrible man who had deceived, confused, brainwashed, and ultimately betrayed young Yeohwi who was only 10 years old, pushing him into hell.
Bzzzz. Bzzzz.
The vibration sound ringing from the box burrowed fiercely into Yeohwi’s ears. Beep, a high-pitched ringing sounded and his surroundings became muffled. Yeohwi’s fingertips trembled like aspen leaves.
He instinctively knew he shouldn’t answer, that the moment he answered this call, his current daily life would be shattered.
But at the same time, some kind of intense lump he couldn’t contain surged up from under his feet. It was resistance against Executive Director Gye who had dominated and forced half of Yeohwi’s life from when he was a 10-year-old child until now at 20. The anger he still couldn’t forgive remained as trauma in Yeohwi’s stomach, and now that he was an adult, it connected to an impulse to confront him.
Yeohwi was no longer a powerless and ignorant child.
He wasn’t weak enough to keep running away without being able to spit out a single resentful word to the person who had brutally deceived and backstabbed him, the one he had trusted and followed as a father. Now it seemed he could drag out all those dark inner thoughts and shoot them all out.
His trembling anger moved him.
Yeohwi’s finger pressed the call button as if drawn by a magnet.
“…Hello.”
-You answered. It’s been a long time, young master. No… my son.
The voice coming through the receiver wasn’t as vile as it remained in his miserable memories. It was a surprisingly affectionate voice with deep longing. Enough to make a corner of his chest throb.
Perhaps it was because it vaguely resembled the voice of family that struck Yeohwi’s weakness.
“Executive Director Gye?”
-That’s right. It’s Father, Yeohwi.
As expected, it was Executive Director Gye, Gye Sanghoon.
It wasn’t that he’d never thought about the moment of reuniting with him. In fact, he could have met him anytime if he wanted to. He could have gone to visit him anytime while he was serving his sentence, and after his release, if he’d set his mind to it, he could have used people to find out what happened to him.
What would it be like to meet him? Would they fight while shouting? Would he condemn him asking why he did it? He’d intended to demand whether he wanted money that badly, whether he ruined everything because of that. But when he actually heard that voice, his breath was choked off. It felt like his esophagus was being constricted.
“Father, don’t make me laugh.”
Yeohwi gritted his teeth. Something hot surged up from inside.
“Why would you… How could you think of contacting me. With what audacity.”
-Yeohwi, it’s a misunderstanding. It was all a misunderstanding. I’ve been waiting all this time to tell you that…
It was really ridiculous. Gye Sanghoon’s voice was muffledly choked like a father meeting a child separated for many years.
-Our Yeohwi, you’re twenty now, right? You’ve become an adult. You don’t know how much I’ve been counting down the days for this. Before, you were too young to tell you anything. I couldn’t bear to reveal the truth to you when you were so young with my own mouth.
“That’s a lie, you son of a bitch. You betrayed me. My grandfather too. When you were caught trying to steal grandfather’s inheritance, you even pulled a knife. Because of you, I was so…!”
-Yes, of course you’re angry. I understand. But please listen to me for a bit. I’ll tell you all the truth now.
Gye Sanghoon’s voice mixed with resentment and grief.
“Truth?”
-The one who was betrayed back then was me.
“…What?”
-What does the grandfather you remember look like? He must have been the image of a kind and friendly, senile old man. But Chairman Seong Jehwi’s active days were different. The chairman didn’t hesitate to do illegal things and collected dirty money. As the chairman’s closest aide, I took the lead in handling those dirty and filthy tasks…
“That’s a lie…”
Yeohwi murmured.
“That’s a lie. You’re trying to deceive me now.”
-No. You know the scale of the chairman’s inheritance too. Does that look like a scale that could be accumulated legally… The chairman used and discarded human lives without a care. Like scraps of tissue paper. Working under such a chairman, my humanity was gradually worn away.
“I don’t believe you. Don’t pull your tricks.”
-Then how about this. Did your parents really die in an accident? They were sacrificed. By someone who held a grudge against the chairman’s dirty deeds. And I too…
“No!”
Yeohwi’s hands trembled.
Was what Executive Director Gye said true? Was there a truth hidden that Yeohwi didn’t know? What about Yeohwi’s grandfather…
-The chairman, who retired in his later years, came not to trust even me, who had been his loyal blade. Alzheimer’s is that terrifying a disease. He simply couldn’t keep me by his side. Me, who had all the shameful secrets of his life in my head… So he wanted to eliminate me. That’s how I ended up in prison under the charge of trying to forge a will.
‘That can’t be.’
He was confused. Fragmentary memories of the past collided with the affectionate voice coming through his ears now, making his head dizzy. What ten-year-old Yeohwi remembered was the scene where there was chaos with shouting, grandfather collapsed covered in blood, and the fruit knife stuck in Gye Sanghoon’s shoulder.
Shocked, Yeohwi cried and ran into his room to call the police, and Gye Sanghoon who was caught at the scene like that was immediately convicted as a caught-in-the-act criminal.
‘What if grandfather’s influence was involved in the verdict? If it was hushed up with money…’
No, no. That can’t be.
That’s absurd.
Yeohwi gritted his teeth and denied the nightmare-like thought. He took a deep breath to somehow regain his composure.
“Ridiculous. You should have argued that in court. Telling me after 10 years is completely useless. There’s not a single piece of evidence either.”
-Fighting in court would have been useless. Because the chairman had made up his mind to sort everything out. I had no choice but to be helpless and take it.
“I don’t believe that either, but even if I were to believe you, it’s strange to reveal the truth only now after everything’s passed. Why would someone who was so wronged stay quiet until now?”
-I understand it’s hard to believe. But I wasn’t staying quiet—I was waiting. I only learned belatedly that you got married, Yeohwi. You’re all grown up now. I thought it would be okay to hear the truth since you’re an adult…
“Then, you hid it for my sake all this time?”
-That’s right… Why else would I contact you only now? If it were for money, I would have come looking for you long ago. I would have looked for you as soon as I was released. But I really, truly thought of you as a son, Yeohwi. That’s why I silently endured taking all the sins and going to prison, so that you, Yeohwi, could have all of the chairman’s inheritance.
“Even if you say that… I clearly saw it. That day, the one who harmed grandfather was…”
-It was self-defense. I was also stabbed with a knife. It was rather the chairman who wielded the weapon.
Family. That was a deficiency that had tormented Yeohwi for life and a huge hole that couldn’t be filled. Gye Sanghoon precisely stabbed into that hole. With his specialty of clever tongue work and a well-fabricated story.
-But it’s okay now. This father will soon leave Korea. I just wanted to tell our son the truth one last time.
“…”
-And you say there’s no evidence. There is evidence. I’m keeping Chairman Seong’s real will. And… records containing the truth of the crime from that day regarding your parents’ accident.
Gye Sanghoon drove in the wedge.
-I’ll take a boat from Incheon Port tonight. I won’t come back forever. We’ll never contact each other again. I’ll throw away this phone too.
“…”
-Before leaving, I contacted you because I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding one last time.
“…”
-If you want to see the chairman’s will and the records of your parents’ accident, I’ll send you the storage locker address. That too will be disposed of after today passes, so if you want to check, you have to go today. My son, please know this father’s innocence.
Click.
The call ended.
