# Chapter 146
“Igyeol. Can Dad speak first?”
“Go ahead.”
“I’m not against it. Eunje is more than welcome. If anything, I feel sorry because I wonder if you’re even worthy of Eunje.”
“Then that’s settled. What about Mom?”
Tae Hyunseok’s opposition wasn’t something Igyeol had been worried about, but this development was still unexpected. Either way, it seemed the conversation would end quickly, so Tae Igyeol turned his attention to Song Yeonhwa. She was slowly clenching and unclenching her fists as if her hands were numb, and upon noticing this, Tae Hyunseok began massaging them.
“If Mom is against it, will you break up then?”
“No. I’m telling you, you don’t have the right to be against it.”
“Why do you keep saying we don’t have the right? The building where you live was given to you by your mother. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you growing up, but who do you think provided you with a more privileged environment than others?”
Whenever young Igyeol asked about his mom and dad, his grandmother would always say the same thing: that his mom and dad were with Igyeol in spirit, and that they had temporarily gone to work to buy Igyeol good food, clothes, toys, and books. But their hearts were always by Igyeol’s side.
Even as a child, he couldn’t fully understand those words, and becoming an adult didn’t make them any clearer. As far as Igyeol was concerned, those were merely self-justifications or rationalizations from people who failed to fulfill their roles and responsibilities as parents. Tae Hyunseok and Song Yeonhwa were people who prioritized their careers and were ambitious about their work.
“If that’s your reason for opposing, then take back the villa you gave me. I’ll return it. I’ll pay back everything I’ve enjoyed abundantly until now. Just please don’t oppose us.”
“Haa… You’re my son, but you really…”
“I barely convinced Eunje. He absolutely refused because he was thinking about the relationship between our parents. I barely got his permission by using Grandmother. I can’t break up with him even if I die.”
“Tae Igyeol. No one has told you to break up yet. And no one has said they’re against it. Why are you jumping ahead and being so ungrateful?”
Song Yeonhwa rubbed her forehead with a tired sigh. When she spoke again, her voice was much softer.
“Do you think you’d listen if we were against it? Your grandmother came to talk to us first. She told us about how you came here a month ago, how you were living, how much you cried, and how much you smoked to the point where we’d be worried.”
Igyeol hadn’t expected his grandmother to step in once more. No wonder Tae Hyunseok had given his permission so readily. He had named his agency “Ila Actors” after his mother’s name, showing his exceptional filial piety, so it was only natural that he would readily give his permission if his mother intervened. Trusting this, Igyeol hadn’t worried much about Tae Hyunseok. But he had restrained his tears in front of his grandmother and never cried out loud even when lying in bed, so he didn’t know how she had found out.
“Mom isn’t against it either.”
In the end, it was his grandmother who had convinced them.
“We’ll respect your love, but don’t harm Iden’s career. I know this might sound hurtful, but we should maintain boundaries even as family.”
“Eunje is also known. I won’t do anything stupid that would harm him.”
Having accomplished his goal, there was no reason to stay in this space any longer. He wanted to hurry and tell Mo Eunje that his parents weren’t against their relationship. That would put Eunje’s mind at ease.
“But Igyeol.”
As he turned his back, Tae Hyunseok caught his ankle with a heavy voice. When Igyeol turned to look at him, Tae Hyunseok gazed at him with an expression that couldn’t be put into words and softly expressed his true feelings.
“We never prioritized work over you kids. How could work ever come before children? There are no parents like that in the world.”
“…”
“But if that’s how you felt, I apologize. I might have unintentionally made you feel that way. But not your mother. For your mother, you and Iden have always been the top priority.”
“I never felt like I was Mom’s top priority.”
It wasn’t just his imagination that it sounded like an excuse. No matter how positively he tried to think about it, it only sounded like an excuse or a pretext. Faced with Igyeol’s cold response, Tae Hyunseok continued calmly with a bitter, dismayed smile.
“Being physically present isn’t the only way to prioritize someone. When you were little, we weren’t well-off, so both of us had to work. Your mother worked every day crying because she missed you, whom she had left with your grandmother… So I’d appreciate it if you apologized for what you said earlier.”
“…”
“…”
“…I’m sorry. My words were harsh.”
Just as parents know less and less about their children as time goes by, children also know less about their parents. No, in most aspects, children don’t know their parents. Unless things are expressed in words, even blood relations can’t know everything about each other.
For the first time in his life, Tae Igyeol thought he wanted to talk more with his parents.
&
Mo Eunje was searching throughout the entire house. He couldn’t find Mo Yeongwoo and Han Seola anywhere—not in the house, not in the patio, not in the garden. In their room, there were only two untouched hamburger sets sitting abandoned.
He felt he needed to talk when his resolve was firm, or he might waver, but he couldn’t find them anywhere, and he was getting exhausted before the conversation could even begin. The words he had organized in his head several times were becoming increasingly jumbled. As Mo Eunje was pacing back and forth in the living room, anxiously biting his lips, Tae Iden came out of his room.
“Iden. Have you seen my parents?”
“Earlier when I told them to eat the hamburgers, they said okay and then went outside.”
If only he had asked Tae Iden earlier, he wouldn’t have been anxiously searching all over. Beads of cold sweat had formed on his forehead despite the air conditioning, showing how tense he was.
“Hyung. You know…”
Tae Iden was obviously rolling his eyes as if he wanted to say something, but his lips just quivered without continuing. Only then did Mo Eunje remember that Tae Iden must have been curious about many things too, but had been forced back into his room because Tae Igyeol had lost his temper.
“Ah, I’m sorry. Were you very surprised earlier?”
“Well, I was a little surprised, but not extremely so. Because I’ve been thinking to myself for a long time that I could see it coming, watching how Tae Igyeol behaves.”
“I see…”
“Yeah. I was only a little surprised that what I’d been thinking turned out to be true, not shocked enough for my heart to pound hard. I was so hungry I ate three hamburgers, you know?”
Tae Iden’s innocent consideration, even pointing with three fingers, was touching. Mo Eunje had always known that Tae Iden was naively kind, but only today did he realize how deep his understanding ran.
“Good job. But I’m sorry the mood has turned out this way during a family vacation after such a long time. I don’t know what to say to you.”
“…Hyung, then should I say something? This is a secret, but I’ve confessed to Noona Suji 6 times so far and got rejected all 6 times.”
“Huh? Why suddenly?”
“No, I just felt like I should share my secret since I learned about your secret… Don’t tell Tae Igyeol. He’d think I’m pathetic for getting rejected so many times.”
Your brother has been rejected by me many times too.
…But he decided to keep those words to himself for the sake of Tae Iden’s fantasy about Tae Igyeol.
“Okay. I’ll definitely keep your secret. Baek Suji will someday recognize our Iden’s true worth.”
“I think so too. She told me not to confess again until I’m at least twenty, so she doesn’t feel guilty.”
“That’s not far away. A year and a half will go by quickly.”
“When I turn twenty, I’m going to propose to Noona Suji, not just confess. I’ll ask her to marry me.”
Everything has its procedure and order, but Mo Eunje couldn’t help but sigh, wondering what was wrong with the Tae brothers’ genes that made them so recklessly aggressive. With a year and six months remaining, there would be plenty of opportunities to teach Tae Iden. Right now, he needed to solve his own immediate problem first.
Since he couldn’t tell where Mo Yeongwoo and Han Seola had gone, he couldn’t rashly go out to find them. It would be troublesome if they missed each other. As he was fidgeting, unsure of what to do, he spotted Mo Yeongwoo and Han Seola slowly walking back through the living room window facing the road. At the same time, Tae Igyeol and Song Yeonhwa came out of their room.
“Aunt…”
Mo Eunje examined Song Yeonhwa and Tae Igyeol’s expressions before turning his gaze back to the window. Their eyes also turned toward the window. Soon after, Song Yeonhwa looked at Mo Eunje again with warm eyes. Even without hearing an answer, he could feel they had given their permission, and he felt like he might burst into tears.
“Eunje, you haven’t talked with your mom and dad yet, right?”
Afraid that he might start sobbing if he opened his mouth, Mo Eunje quietly nodded.
“I’ll talk to your mother first. You might not know much about your mother, but I know my friend well.”
His vision finally blurred with tears. Song Yeonhwa stroked the head of Mo Eunje, who was pressing his lips tightly together, trying to hold back the tears that were welling up.
“What can I do when my son says he can’t live without you? I like you too, Eunje. So straighten your shoulders. Don’t cry, you haven’t done anything wrong.”
As he nodded, tears fell abundantly. Song Yeonhwa wiped the tears from his cheeks with her thumb, gave a slight smile, and went outside.
