A Child Who Resembles Me [EN]: Chapter 62

62. November 2nd, Seven Years Ago

“……What am I hiding from you? That hurts, son.”

Madam Jang glanced at Jiheon and said, deflecting his question with a playful tone.

His mother always feigned hurt whenever he brought up something unfavorable.

Jiheon decided further conversation was pointless.

The drive back home from the main residence felt endless.

He parked the car in a secluded spot and sank into thought.

When he was younger, his mother had interfered in his friendships. Once, after he’d made a huge complaint about it, his mother contacted the friend’s mother and completely sabotaged the relationship.

After that, Jiheon became cautious about his friendships. He avoided making friends who wouldn’t please his mother, and he maintained a strict boundary between acquaintances.

That’s why he didn’t have many true friends.

Since he avoided doing anything to displease his mother, her obsessive behavior naturally subsided.

Or so he thought.

He hadn’t considered that just as he could deceive his mother, she could deceive him just as easily.

But even so, how could he uncover the truth?

It had already been seven years.

Even ordinary people would struggle to remember details from that long ago.

Jiheon, idly tapping his phone screen, called Jung-oh.

[Hello?]

Jung-oh answered quickly.

He could hear Yena’s whiny voice in the background.

“Are you with Yena? Should I call later?”

[No. It’s okay.]

He was about to hang up out of politeness, but Jung-oh surprisingly stopped him. After a moment, Yena’s voice faded away, and the surroundings became quiet. It seemed Jung-oh had gone into another room to get away from Yena.

[It’s just that Yena is demanding I make a baby carrier for the koala doll the director gave her.]

“A baby carrier?”

[She says baby kangaroos get to stay warm in their mom’s pouch, but baby koalas just get carried, so they’re cold. So, she wants me to make a baby carrier.]

Jiheon smiled, touched by the child’s sensitivity.

He could easily picture the scene of the child pestering Jung-oh. The child was so cute and adorable, even in his imagination. The thought that Lee Jung-oh’s childhood probably wasn’t much different made him want to rush over and see for himself.

[Yena’s grandmother used to carry Yena around in a baby carrier a lot when she was little.]

A grandmother, a mother, and a child. A single-mother family spanning two generations.

To some, it might seem like a lacking and unfortunate situation, but when he thought about it, it was no worse than his own family.

He only talked about work with his father, and he barely saw his half-brother a few times a year.

And with his mother… they hid control and suspicion beneath the guise of ‘love,’ only concerned with appearances.

His family, which seemed so affluent and perfect on the outside, was so fragile and artificial.

Lee Jung-oh had the family that Jung Jiheon lacked.

[Oh, Director, why did you call?]

“No particular reason.”

[Ha. Then why are you using such a low voice? It makes me anxious.]

“Does my voice make you anxious?”

[Of course. I’m worried you’re going to tell me to come to work right away.]

He felt a brief surge of excitement, but it quickly turned to disappointment.

The desire to not be called ‘Director’ by her warred with the calculation that if he wasn’t her boss, she wouldn’t take his calls so seriously.

In any case, he needed to become someone more personal and important to her.

“Oh, I cook a little.”

Wondering what to say to keep her on the phone a little longer, Jiheon blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Yesterday, I was cooking as a hobby and tried flipping a pancake, and I was good at it.”

[Wow! Really?]

He thought she would dismiss it, but surprisingly, her voice sounded genuinely interested. Jiheon felt a little proud.

“When are you going to show me?”

[Yes!]

“……”

[Please show me.]

He expected her to refuse immediately, but an unexpected answer came back.

“Then when are you coming to my house?”

[When Yena’s asleep?]

Huh.

He felt taken aback by her straightforwardness.

He covered his mouth with his hand to hide his laughter.

“Does that mean it’s possible as early as today?”

The world beyond the phone went silent.

[……Thinking about it, I don’t think it’ll work because Yena wakes up when she’s sleeping. Yena always wakes up once if I’m not there.]

…That’s what I thought.

[Oh, Director, how about you bring the pancake and frying pan to the office? I won’t tell anyone, and I’ll quietly go to your office to watch. To see if you’re good at flipping.]

“Forget it.”

Forget it, Lee Jung-oh.

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[I won’t.]

Jung-oh laughed at his disappointed and sulky tone.

Her face flushed slightly.

She genuinely wanted to see him flipping pancakes with her own eyes as soon as possible. But this sly man seemed to have misinterpreted her words.

‘It’s my fault. I showed an opening to this opportunist,’ Jung-oh thought.

Jung-oh reflected inwardly and ended the call.

“Yena’s calling me, so I have to go. Have a happy Friday! Do a lot of hobby cooking.”

Jung-oh, offering her encouragement, sighed deeply and went back to the living room. It was a pleasant call.

It felt like she had returned to the time seven years ago when she used to hang out with him all night for no particular reason.

“What’s so fun that you’re enjoying yourself alone?”

Guksoon, who was making a baby carrier at Yena’s urging, asked, seeing Jung-oh smiling.

“No, I just thought of something funny. Oh, Mom. I have to go out for a bit.”

“Where are you going again?”

“I’m going to the company to get something I left behind. It’ll take an hour or two. Go to sleep first.”

“Go tomorrow. It’s late.”

“If I get caught tomorrow, there’s no answer. It’s better to go quickly today.”

“Be careful.”

Jung-oh waved to Guksoon, who looked worried, and left the house.

A call came from the law firm. The lawyer seemed quite busy, so the consultation time was scheduled late at night. Still, it was fortunate that the appointment was made early without having to wait until next week.

Jung-oh went down to the first floor and saw a familiar face when she opened the entrance door. It was the neighborhood police officer, Kwon Bae-il.

“Officer Kwon, hello!”

“Ah, yes. Hello.”

Jung-oh smiled slightly at his awkward greeting.

Today, Bae-il was wearing a suit, not plain clothes or a police uniform. He was dressed as neatly as if he were going on a blind date.

Thanks to his handsome face and tall height, this outfit suited him well.

“You look like you’re going somewhere. It’s the first time I’ve seen you in a suit. You look great today, too.”

“Thank you.”

However, there was a somewhat absurd flaw in that wonderful suit. There was a piece of yellow packing tape stuck to the back of his hand.

“But Officer, you have something on the back of your hand.”

“Ah, this.”

Bae-il didn’t think about removing the tape and shyly held it out to show her.

“The tape you put on my mosquito bite back then was effective…”

“Oh, you put it on because of a mosquito bite?”

“Yes. This is the only tape I have.”

Hahaha. He’s someone who can’t properly use his good looks.

‘The PT [Physical Therapy] is over, so I don’t carry tape around anymore, but I want to buy him transparent tape…’ she thought.

“I’m glad it was effective.”

Jung-oh couldn’t bring herself to say it wasn’t a good look and smiled politely.

“Lee Jung-oh, you look better than before.”

“Really?”

“You look like it. Is there a sign that the long-term unsolved case is being resolved?”

“I don’t know about that yet, but…”

“Anyway, you look much better. Keep up the good work. If you need any help, contact the police anytime.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Jung-oh felt a little more encouraged by Bae-il’s words.

Jung-oh took a taxi and headed out.

The law firm was located about halfway between the company and her house. She was surprised that it was one of the top ten largest law firms in Korea and that while they primarily handled corporate business, they also offered personal consultations.

Jung-oh entered the building, following the directions of the receptionist.

It was 9 p.m., quite late, so the receptionist looked tired.

“Please wait a moment. The lawyer will be out soon.”

“Yes.”

As she stood at the desk waiting for about three minutes, she heard footsteps.

“Lee Jung-oh?”

A man called her name.

“Yes.”

“Hello. I’m the lawyer in charge of today’s consultation… Ha Jin-cheol.”

Was it just her imagination, or did the receptionist and the lawyer exchange strange glances?

Jung-oh hesitated for a moment before greeting him. She had definitely checked Ha Jin-cheol’s face on the company’s website. He was wearing glasses, which was similar, but he looked very different from the picture.

“Yes, hello. …I thought you were someone else. You look very different from the picture.”

“I hear that a lot. It seems the company touched up the photo a lot. Please come this way.”

The lawyer turned and walked down the long corridor. He was walking quite fast.

Jung-oh followed him at a brisk pace, passing several private offices. The lawyers’ names were posted in front of the rooms: Kim Jin-wook, Hong Da-kyung, Lee Min-hyuk, Ha Chin-cheol, Chae Eun-yeop…

The room with the name ‘Chae Eun-yeop’ caught Jung-oh’s eye.

A memory she had retrieved a long time ago flashed through her mind.

‘I heard Chae Eun-bi’s family is in the legal profession.’

Jung-oh carefully took out her phone, keeping her distance from the man walking ahead with his back turned. Then, she typed ‘Lawyer Chae Eun-yeop’ into the search bar of a portal site.

The face of the person walking ahead filled the image search bar.

It wasn’t Ha Jin-cheol; it was Chae Eun-yeop.

“Please come in here, Lee Jung-oh.”

The man said, opening the door to a room in the corner.

‘This man is deceiving me,’ she realized.

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Even after finishing the call with Jung-oh, Jiheon stayed in that spot for a long time.

He wanted to bring her to his room quickly. He wanted to mark her as his.

‘Should I give her a ring?’

He remembered Chae Eun-bi wearing a ring that looked like a couple ring a long time ago. He had also heard that it had made the employees misunderstand the relationship between Jiheon and her even more.

Should he trust the binding power of a ring? Would she wear it if he gave it to her?

After several considerations, he returned to his initial concern.

He had to resolve the memory from seven years ago first.

Jiheon thought about how to recover the memory from so long ago.

He had to operate on the assumption that his mother might have hidden something.

The phone call records would have already exceeded the telecommunication company’s retention period, so there was no possibility of retrieving them.

What about credit card usage records? Could he uncover the past with that?

Assuming that his mother had even canceled the cards Jiheon had been using, those records wouldn’t be available now either.

Seven years is a long time. The information that had already been erased was a distant time that couldn’t be revived.

Jiheon sighed and started the car. He was about to go home, but he stopped by a jewelry shop. It was the most famous jewelry shop in Gangnam.

“Welcome.”

“I came to look at women’s rings.”

“Are you looking for a proposal ring, sir?”

“Something similar.”

The employee who greeted him happily brought out pretty rings for Jiheon to see.

It shouldn’t be too flashy because it could be overwhelming, and it shouldn’t be sharp because there’s a child.

Or maybe it should be flashy since he’s going to do it anyway.

After much deliberation, he chose a ring with delicate diamond cutting but a simple design. In fact, he knew that anything would look pretty on her hand, so there was no need to worry about the design. Putting it on her hand would be the real challenge.

“What about the size? It might not fit her hand.”

“Please fill out the customer card, and you can bring it later to adjust it. Would you like me to help you fill out the card?”

“Yes, please.”

“Can you leave your contact number and name?”

Jiheon wrote his contact number and name on the card according to the employee’s instructions. The employee stopped while trying to enter Jiheon’s record into the computer and asked.

“Sir, has your phone number changed by any chance?”

“It has, but why do you ask?”

“Do you happen to know the number ending in ○○○○?”

“Yes. It’s the phone number I used to use.”

“Can I ask for the entire number?”

Jiheon recited the phone number he used to use to the employee. The employee smiled brightly.

“Your name is still in our shop’s system, sir. You visited seven years ago.”

Jiheon also stopped and looked at the employee.

“Don’t you remember? You bought a ring back then, too.”

“…Exactly when was it seven years ago?”

“It says November 2nd, seven years ago.”

November 2nd, seven years ago.

The day before he had a traffic accident.

The inside of his throat became hot as if he remembered the pain at that time.

Jiheon hid his trembling voice and requested.

“Can I see those records?”

“You bought a beautiful proposal ring. Don’t you really remember? It was our shop’s top-of-the-line product at the time.”

The employee turned the monitor towards Jiheon and showed him the records.

Purchased product, date, credit card company.

Short, partially obscured information was on the monitor.

November 2nd, seven years ago.

I.

Was going to propose to someone.