A Child Who Resembles Me [EN]: Chapter 66

66. The Night of the Storm

Noon. Lee Jung-oh.

Jiheon’s eyes, fixed on the monitor, became bloodshot. Red blood vessels burst in the whites of his eyes.

Like eyes about to shed tears of blood.

“Sir… are you alright?”

The man, who had been quietly watching, asked worriedly.

“…Can I have this photo?”

Jiheon couldn’t hide the trembling in his voice as he asked the man. The man readily transferred the file.

After getting the photo, Jiheon left the flower shop and immediately contacted Seunggyu.

[Oh, hey, buddy.]

“Are you off work?”

[Yeah, on my way home. Why?]

“Do you still have the data you investigated about Lee Jung-oh?”

[Uh… yeah.]

Seunggyu’s voice grew softer, as if it were a sensitive topic.

“Can you send it to my email?”

Jiheon asked. He had never directly checked the data Seunggyu had gathered about Lee Jung-oh.

.*. *. *. *. *. *.

After a relaxing weekend for the first time in a while, it was Monday. Night shifts started again.

Jung-oh finished a long meeting and leaned back in her chair. Now, whenever someone appeared in the hallway near Jiheon’s office, she couldn’t help but tense up.

That person had left work early today, though.

As always, at 12 PM, a text message saying he was busy with work was the only sign of Jung Jiheon today. She had caught a glimpse of his face from afar a couple of times, just to check if he seemed okay.

Although they were in the same company and the same division, the distance between their offices and her desk felt vast.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t been unable to see him often before, so why did she feel so suffocated?

It seemed to be because of the dream she had last night.

In the dream, Jung-oh and Yena were wearing matching white dresses and strolling in the park when they found Jiheon. Jiheon was also wearing a handsome suit.

Unlike Jung-oh, who hesitated upon recognizing Jiheon, Yena ran with open arms and hugged Jiheon tightly.

Jiheon held Yena and sat on a bench in the park. Yena sat comfortably on Jiheon’s lap, laughing, as if she didn’t care about her mother.

The problem was Jung-oh’s mood. She wanted to bring Yena back from Jiheon, but her legs wouldn’t move. She woke up from the dream shuddering as she tried to bend her stiff legs.

A dream is a reflection of the unconscious. Perhaps the fear of losing Yena to someone else had manifested as a dream.

Meeting Chae Eunyeop on Friday must have also been one of the unsettling factors [불안요소 in Korean].

Anyway, she had decided to wait until Jiheon’s memories returned, so she would try to endure it for a while.

Jung-oh tried to think positively about the unsettling factors.

At least it was fortunate that she knew who the suspicious person was.

She didn’t know from which direction the arrow would fly, but now she felt like she could at least grasp the direction. Moreover, Chae Eunyeop had approached her by impersonating another lawyer, so she could use this as leverage.

What would be the best thing to do?

While she was pondering, she heard the sound of heels clicking. Chae Eunbi, who had been going out frequently these days, seemed to be coming back from somewhere to start working late at night again.

‘That team really doesn’t have any collaboration.’

She felt sorry for Team Leader Ahn Chanseop of Production Team 1 and put her hands back on the keyboard. She thought it would be better to do her thinking at home and finish work quickly to leave.

But this time, her phone vibrated. Her mother, Guksoun’s name appeared on the screen. Jung-oh immediately answered the phone.

“Hello.”

[Mom.]

“Yena, my princess!”

The voice that came over the receiver was not Guksoun’s but her daughter’s. Jung-oh’s voice rose a tone as she greeted Yena. Now that the fact that she was a single mother was fully known in the division, she didn’t need to be conscious of anyone’s eyes anymore.

Section Chief Park Younggwang, who was standing by her side, smirked as he watched Jung-oh run into the hallway with her phone to her ear.

8 PM. Jung-oh checked the time and asked,

“Are you home?”

[Yes.]

“You need to wash up. Did you wash up?”

[Yes. I washed up alone today.]

“Good job. What is 할머니 [halmeoni – grandmother] doing?”

[할머니 is doing laundry in the bathroom.]

Yena’s voice, which had been answering calmly, suddenly lowered.

[Mom, but 할머니 cried today.]

The smile that had filled Jung-oh’s face disappeared at the news Yena urgently conveyed.

“Why? What happened?”

[No, someone just came to the restaurant. But 할머니 cried. So she came home without cleaning the restaurant.]

“A strange guest came?”

[I don’t know. They ordered food but didn’t eat any of it.]

“할머니 cried because the guest didn’t eat the food?”

[I don’t know. But that guest said they were Mom’s friend.]

“What?”

[They said their name was Chae Eunbi twice. And they gave me 50,000 won too.]

Jung-oh turned her head and looked at Chae Eunbi’s desk. Chae Eunbi was working, her shoulders shaking as if something was so good. Come to think of it, Chae Eunbi, who had only been showing a rotten expression recently, had a strangely excited face.

Chae Eunbi. You finally touched my family.

[But 할머니 took the money away. She said she had to give the money back.]

“……”

[Mom, but 할머니 was secretly crying. It’s a secret that Yena told you.]

Before Jung-oh could answer, the call was cut off from the other end. It seemed she had made the call secretly.

Seeing Eunbi get up from her seat and head to the bathroom, Jung-oh immediately followed.

“Chae Eunbi.”

Eunbi, who was fixing her makeup in front of the sink, looked at Jung-oh and smirked.

“Did you go to my mom’s restaurant?”

“Lee Jung-oh, Acting Manager. This is a company. Let’s be respectful.”

Eunbi pointed out, but Jung-oh was not in the mood to be respectful.

“Why did you give money to my daughter?”

“She took it readily, though.”

“……”

“She took it so well, I thought she was a beggar.”

Slap!

Unable to contain her anger, Jung-oh slapped Eunbi across the face.

As much as Jung-oh’s palm stung, it must have been a shock to Eunbi.

Eunbi, who collapsed onto the sink from Jung-oh’s blow, covered her cheek and glared at Jung-oh. She had calculated to use the fact that she was assaulted if she was provoked and hit, but she felt terrible when it actually happened.

“How dare you hit me?”

Eunbi screamed, veins popping out on her neck.

“That’s why you hear that you’re all the same!”

“……”

“Is it something to be proud of [자랑 in Korean] to be a single-mother family for generations? Is it hereditary to sleep around? Still, you should have thought about your life and had the child aborted. You wouldn’t have wanted to hear that she’s like her mom and sleeps around, would you?”

At Chae Eunbi’s outburst, Jung-oh’s hand rose again.

“Eek!”

Eunbi screamed, guarding the cheek she had been hit on with both arms. The sight was truly ridiculous.

“That’s it. You’re just hopeless.”

Jung-oh, giving up, turned around.

“Don’t ever touch my family again. This is a warning.”

“A warning, what, what! I’m going to sue you too. I’m going to sue you for assault!”

Eunbi shouted at Jung-oh, who was leaving first. At this moment, a dumbfounded voice was heard from behind Eunbi.

[Is it something to be proud of to be a single-mother family for generations? Is it hereditary to sleep around? Still, you should have thought about your life and had the child aborted. You wouldn’t have wanted to hear that she’s like her mom and sleeps around, would you?]

It was her own voice from just now.

Deputy Manager Go Eunju, who came out of the toilet stall, pressed the playback stop button on the recording file.

“Don’t misunderstand, Section Chief [과장님 – gwajangnim]. This isn’t illegal wiretapping, but I was testing how nicely my voice sounds in the bathroom, but it’s ruined data because of you, Section Chief.”

Eunju sneered coldly and left the bathroom first.

“Trying to be all high and mighty, how pathetic.”

The muttering to herself as she left the bathroom was clearly heard in Eunbi’s ears as well.

Eunbi’s face twitched.

.*. *. *. *. *. *.

Jiheon, who returned home, immediately checked the email Seunggyu had sent.

– Buddy, I did this investigation because you asked, but I’m feeling a strong pang of conscience. Please keep it a secret that I did this investigation.

Attached to the email were a few documents that Seunggyu had received through a company, along with an earnest request.

Jiheon carefully examined the documents line by line. His heart was pounding more than ever as he examined the rigidly refined facts.

Lee Jung-oh’s daughter, Lee Yena. 7 years old. Born on May 27, 6 years ago, at Gunsan Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic.

The child’s blood type, B.

Lee Jung-oh is blood type O, but the child is blood type B.

The information, which started with a brief profile of Lee Jung-oh’s family, became increasingly detailed as it dug into Lee Jung-oh’s past.

The studio apartment where she lived when she was a college student was in the Haengdang-dong studio apartment village. Jiheon felt strangely concerned about the address and turned on the road map. And he quickly remembered the place.

It was the place where he had met Lee Jung-oh on the day of the Dawon Liquor new product tasting event.

‘Was I drawn to that place by a memory I don’t remember?’

Did I frequent that place a lot in the past? So I found that place like an instinct?

Even if he tried not to jump to conclusions, his heart kept pulling him to that place.

And 7 years ago, during the working holiday period. Lee Jung-oh left for Melbourne, Australia.

I was also in Melbourne during that period. Is this a coincidence?

Am I trying to force a nonsensical story now? Huh? Lee Jung-oh.

Now his whole body was trembling greatly, as if it had become a heart.

With trembling fingertips, Jiheon clicked the mouse to turn one more page and let out a rough sigh.

A photo she took during her working holiday was embedded in the document.

Long straight hair, a sky-blue T-shirt with a character on it.

Jiheon picked up his cell phone and found and opened the photo he had previously taken at the Melbourne restaurant ‘The Crown’.

……Yes. This outfit.

It was her. It was Lee Jung-oh.

The gaze toward the monitor became blank. After a long sigh, Jiheon straightened his body and read the word ‘THE CROWN’ from the pile of emails. The owner of The Crown had sent Jiheon an email a few hours ago.

Jiheon clicked on the email.

Mr. Jung.

How are you doing? I’m contacting you because I remembered what you asked for when you visited our restaurant last week.

I happened to have the opportunity to look back at the restaurant’s CCTV, so I looked at the records of the day you visited the restaurant, and there was a person who touched the photo on the wall about an hour before you visited the restaurant.

This Asian woman seems to have taken your photo. Do you happen to know her?

Jiheon downloaded and opened the video attached to the email. The interior of The Crown restaurant, which Jiheon had visited, was visible.

A somewhat deserted restaurant was entered by an Asian woman wearing a hat.

It was Lee Jung-oh. It could never be anyone else. Lee Jung-oh.

Sitting in the corner of the restaurant, Jung-oh looked at the wall where the photos were attached, noticed something, and looked around. And while no one was watching her, she took a photo off the wall.

Tears welled up in his throat.

Lee Jung-oh. Who the hell are you?

What kind of heart were you watching me with?

He felt like he had to meet her right away and hear the story.

Jiheon left the house immediately. His stomach churned and he felt dizzy as he went down in the elevator. He remembered Lee Jung-oh, who had gripped the handrail tightly in the elevator they had ridden together.

Only after rushing down to the underground parking lot did Jiheon realize that he had not brought his car keys. He had to go back home, but his legs were shaking.

The world he was breathing in felt overwhelming.

He had to go to her.

Jiheon sat down for a moment and then got up. At that moment.

Screech!

A car, which had not noticed the person sitting down, belatedly recognized Jiheon and stopped abruptly, making a tire friction sound.

Flash. The headlights poured onto Jiheon’s face.

A flash of light flickered in his head as well.

Tears that he couldn’t hold back fell.

I love you, Jung-oh.

Why did I save those words?