After hanging up the phone, Seongjo gazed at the darkened phone screen, lost in thought. However, his contemplation didn’t last long. He flung open the door of the room he had been leaning against and announced.
“I’m leaving first.”
He heard flustered voices trying to hold him back from behind, but he ignored them all and moved his feet. First, he needed to get rid of the alcohol. He ran straight to the bathroom, gargled, then washed his face with cold water while organizing his thoughts.
How old was Baeksan Group Chairman Jo Baekchul this year? He remembered attending his 70th birthday celebration a few years ago, so it was certain he was well over seventy.
Jo Baekchul was Yeongbeom’s biological father. Yeongbeom at thirty-two and Jo Baekchul in his seventies. Their considerable age gap, even for father and son, stemmed from the fact that Yeongbeom was illegitimate. Yeongbeom’s mother had been a housekeeper working in Chairman Jo’s house, and he had three half-brothers. All of them were more than ten years older than Yeongbeom.
It was a family history fit for a drama. Because Chairman Jo didn’t acknowledge Yeongbeom as his son, Yeongbeom’s mother had to raise her son alone. Then about ten years ago, she married a new lover and had a daughter. However, that man also passed away in an accident not long after, leaving only the three of them—mother and two children.
That’s why for Yeongbeom, one younger sister with a different father was his entire family. Seongjo knew well that he was devoted to his mother and younger sister. He had always vowed to succeed by any means necessary to become a man worthy of Seongjo, and to let his mother and younger sister live in comfort.
Though he had loved that family-oriented side of Yeongbeom so much…
‘O-oppa… I haven’t been able to reach him for a while…’
Seongjo recalled Yeongeun’s voice he had heard on the phone.
Jo Yeongbeom’s younger sister, Jo Yeongeun. She was only in her second year of middle school this year. An age closer to a niece than a younger sister. She and Seongjo had met face-to-face a few times as Yeongbeom’s closest friend. At the time, he had awkwardly given her spending money and given her his number as a courtesy. Along with words to contact him if she ever needed help. But she had never contacted him even once.
That Yeongeun was cornered enough to call even Seongjo, yet couldn’t even contact Yeongbeom. And the word ‘for a while’ was attached to that too.
Had he decided to get married and cut off contact with his family too?
Could he really have done something that trashy?
The premonition wasn’t good, but inwardly he hoped it wasn’t true. He didn’t want to think that the man he had loved for 8 years was that rotten of a human being.
He raised his head with a sigh. He took out a handkerchief and wiped the moisture from his face. After throwing the handkerchief with a luxury brand logo brazenly stamped on it into the trash, Seongjo lightly sprayed perfume near his neck and left the place.
* * *
When Seongjo arrived at the staff room, the situation had already reached its peak. As soon as he opened the door and entered, highly agitated voices could be heard.
“So anyway, the important thing is that this kid pushed our child and injured him like this. What more needs to be said?”
“Ma’am, please calm down first…”
“Calm down what! Of course she should be disciplined. Just because she got angry, she recklessly pushed someone… and there was something right behind to hit. She did it on purpose! The quality of the crime is very bad.”
“Sir, please calm down for a moment too…”
Two students in school uniforms were sitting facing each other with a teacher between them. Of the two, the student sitting in the direction that entered Seongjo’s view was not Yeongeun but the other side. The brown-haired male student with gauze on his face had his parents on both sides. Despite the teacher’s restraint, the voices of those parents showed no sign of quieting down. Thanks to that, the male student on the other side had a triumphant expression. It was opposite to Yeongeun’s shrinking back.
“I-it wasn’t on purpose…!”
“Be quiet! Where do you get off interrupting when adults are talking?”
Yeongeun barely opened her mouth to protest, but it couldn’t continue to the end as the male student’s father raised his voice sharply. Seongjo clicked his tongue briefly. In fact, he had been conflicted until the very last moment. Whether it was right for him, who had broken up with Yeongbeom in that way, to come to his younger sister’s school. But having come in person, it was obvious what would have happened if even Seongjo hadn’t been there.
‘I did well to come, anyway.’
It was when Seongjo was about to deliberately make his presence known loudly to announce that Yeongeun’s guardian had arrived.
“It wasn’t intentional.”
Someone intervened before Seongjo. He approached holding two paper cups in each hand, then neatly set the cups down on the table. The mixed scent of coffee and hot chocolate slowly spread and soon reached where Seongjo was standing.
“Who are you?”
“I’m a teacher. Have some coffee.”
“…”
While the parent was speechless, he continued.
“This student didn’t intentionally push your child. It was an accident. I saw it myself.”
“…How can you know what the intent was from just a glance?”
“Then how do you know, sir, when you didn’t even see the situation?”
“What, what?”
After setting down the coffee and organizing the table, the man raised his head and his face finally entered Seongjo’s view. An expressionless face that didn’t seem troubled or intimidated at all, with thin silver-rimmed glasses. Usually when people wear glasses, even those with sharp features tend to have their impression neutralized, but he still gave off a strong sharp feeling. A face that looked quite young for a teacher.
A handsome young male teacher who looked decent and proper to anyone.
‘The girls must chase after him.’
And when he was having such playful thoughts.
‘His eyes…’
Did they meet?
The eye contact was so brief it was confusing whether it was a mistake. He quickly turned his gaze elsewhere. But why? He felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu. Seongjo briefly wondered if he had seen him somewhere before.
Meanwhile, Yeongeun was looking around, not knowing what to do. Although the situation had improved a bit with that man’s intervention, what Seongjo had to do hadn’t changed. He cleared his throat once, widened his stride, and opened his mouth.
“I’m a bit late.”
Yeongeun turned her head with delight. Seeing the tears clearly formed at the corners of her eyes, she seemed quite tense.
“Are you this student’s guardian? You’re too young to be her father, aren’t you?”
Instead of the father who was still glaring at that young teacher with displeasure, the male student’s mother threw out a question.
“I’m her uncle. Yeongeun’s parents are busy today.”
Seongjo answered without much thought. He had naturally expected this question, so he had prepared the answer in advance.
“I heard the situation roughly. So where and how badly was he injured?”
He had heard a brief explanation of the situation from Yeongeun before hanging up. She had gotten into a quarrel with a male classmate, and while trying to avoid him, she accidentally pushed him and that student got hurt. Except for the other side claiming that Yeongeun pushed him on purpose, the explanation wasn’t much different. What the male student showed as his injury was near his leg. Judging from the swelling on the back of his calf, he seemed to have bumped into something. Since he had gauze on his cheek, he wondered if that was also Yeongeun’s work, but it seemed completely unrelated to that wound.
“It’s not even that serious, is it?”
“Our child’s leg is swollen this much and you don’t think that’s serious?”
While Seongjo was bickering with the other parent, that young teacher brought a fresh cup of coffee for Seongjo. The moment Seongjo received the paper cup, their fingertips lightly touched.
Was it on purpose? He reflexively whipped his head around to look at him. But his gaze was completely turned away from Seongjo as if uninterested. Seongjo narrowed his eyes and stared intently at his profile. Acknowledging that he had paid excessive attention, he turned his head again. Looking straight at the angry parent, he shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, I understand. Let’s discuss the details with a lawyer.”
Saying that, Seongjo took out a lawyer’s business card and placed it down.
“From what I hear, Yeongeun didn’t intentionally hit your son, but rather it happened while trying to avoid him… Since both stories are different, what can we do? If we talk with lawyers involved, it’ll become clear.”
When saying he didn’t even see it directly, he deliberately glanced toward that teacher. This time their eyes met, but it didn’t last long. Because he naturally turned his head away again. Somehow it felt strange. Even though he knew it wasn’t the time, he almost smiled inadvertently.
