A Child Who Resembles Me [EN]: Chapter 80

Jiheon answered as if it were obvious.

“Isn’t it Lee Jung-oh?”

“What?”

Wow. Jung Jiheon, you idiot.

He doesn’t seem like it, and he often looks smart when he’s working, but when it’s just the two of them, he seems surprisingly simple.

“Why am I a gift? I’m a person.”

His eyes, faced with a difficult task, belatedly glazed over.

No, Lee Jung-oh is the most precious person in the world to me, like a gift…

Jiheon couldn’t even guess what she was trying to give him. He also had a desire to decide on the gift himself.

“But you said it was a really good gift.”

If not Lee Jung-oh, what else could be so great?

If it’s not you, I don’t need anything right now.

“It is a really good one.”

“What is it?”

A gift that isn’t Lee Jung-oh. With little curiosity, Jiheon asked listlessly.

Jung-oh deeply lowered her head as if to enter inside, rummaging through her bag. Her hand stopped inside the bag. She had found the gift.

Seeing her expression, blooming like a person receiving a gift even though she was the one giving it, made him suddenly curious about what he hadn’t been curious about before.

What on earth could it be?

“Ta-da.”

Following her, he raised the corners of his lips, and Jung-oh held a photo right in front of his eyes. Jiheon took the photo from her.

So, this was it.

A photo taken seven years ago at ‘The Crown’ restaurant in Australia.

“I deleted all our photos a long time ago. I got one thanks to the restaurant owner.”

“Haa. I, because of this photo…”

A sigh escaped him, but he couldn’t get angry. The two people in the photo looked as affectionate as siblings and even seemed a little alike.

After getting out of the elevator, he kept fiddling with the photo for a long time, so Jung-oh asked.

“Why? Don’t you like it?”

“No.”

“…”

“I look happy in the photo.”

So, I used to smile like this. I was someone who could smile like this.

Even in his hidden past, which he thought was empty and not even worth remembering, there lived such a bright smile.

“At that time, you were traveling in Australia, and then you canceled the rest of your schedule and rented an apartment to stay in Melbourne. Until you returned to Korea.”

Jiheon quietly nodded. He had once looked at the records of his trip to Australia seven years ago. Melbourne seemed to be the last destination, but he was puzzled because the record of staying at a hotel in Melbourne was only for three days.

He had been curious about where he had stayed for the following three weeks, but that was what happened.

Although he didn’t remember, he could guess the reason.

You didn’t want to break up with me. You probably canceled the rest of your trip because you wanted to be with me a little longer.

Maybe I, too, fell in love with you at first sight back then.

To Jiheon, who was lost in emotion and couldn’t say anything, Jung-oh handed over another gift.

“And, you’ll be even happier if you see this.”

The real gift she had been eager to give him for a long time.

“I’ve brought Yena’s history.”

It was a USB memory card containing photos of Yena.

Jung-oh and Jiheon sat on the living room sofa and looked through Yena’s photos together on the large TV screen. Jung-oh had organized the photos well, so Jiheon was able to see Yena’s growth process in chronological order.

Jung-oh had seen the photos dozens of times, but it was Jiheon’s first time, so it took a long time to flip through each photo. Jung-oh wondered if they would be able to see all the photos today.

Jiheon couldn’t take his eyes off even the ugly photos that made him doubt whether she was a newborn baby or a red sweet potato.

There were many videos as well as photos. Yena crying, Yena laughing, Yena babbling, Yena doing tummy time… All sorts of lovely images of Yena captivated Jiheon’s attention and wouldn’t let go.

When Yena laughed, Jiheon laughed with her, and when Yena cried, Jiheon felt like crying too. No, he felt like crying at every moment. Before he knew it, a film of tears welled up, blurring his vision. Jiheon pulled a tissue box close to him.

“Yena received a lot of love. Her mom loved her a lot in your place.”

Jung-oh said, flipping through a photo of the restaurant lady in Gunsan and one-year-old Yena together.

“The restaurant ladies all adored her like their own granddaughter. When she cried, the ladies would take turns holding her and playing with her. That’s why our Yena learned to talk quickly and is so sociable.”

Lee Guk-soon told Jiheon not to hate himself or blame himself, but he couldn’t help but regret missing all those beautiful moments. If he could, he wanted to go into the photo and hug Yena tightly.

But the child would have been even cuter and prettier outside the photo…

Imagining the moments that were not recorded in the photos, his eyes had no time to dry.

In the meantime, the photos suddenly stopped.

“Huh? Didn’t I bring all the photos?”

Jung-oh moved closer to the TV and looked through the folders on the USB. Then she sighed deeply. There had been a mistake.

“I left my seat while transferring the files. I think the computer froze. I’ll bring them again. Sorry, sorry.”

“No. If you had brought everything, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep for days. Let’s watch what we saw again.”

At Jiheon’s suggestion, Jung-oh replayed the photo files, but this time, a new photo came out instead of the first one. There were a few photos in a separate folder outside the folder. It was an ultrasound photo of Yena in her fetal stage.

“Ah, this is a picture of our Yena when she was in my belly.”

Jung-oh didn’t go to the hospital until she was over 15 weeks pregnant. She was scared to go alone, so she told her mom and started preparing.

For Jung-oh, the day she first met Yena, six years ago, was as vivid as yesterday.

Jung-oh checked Yena’s appearance with a 3D ultrasound. The baby, building a house inside her mother’s body, moving her small arms and legs, and steadfastly enduring her small world, was so admirable and lovely.

It was as if she was whispering, ‘Mom, I’m here. Mom, you’re not alone.’ It was the comfort of life that Jung-oh first confirmed. Recalling that time, Jung-oh’s heart also became wet.

Jiheon, who had even checked the appearance of the fetus, came closer to Jung-oh.

“It must have been really hard.”

“…”

“Thank you.”

It wasn’t admiration for the cute Yena, but gratitude towards Jung-oh.

Jiheon sat close to Jung-oh, crossed his legs, and pulled her waist closer. His gentle and calm low voice rang out softly nearby, as if trying to comb her hair.

His voice was gentle, but his lips were not. During a few deep kisses that couldn’t be done when Yena was around, an even less gentle guy suddenly touched her lower abdomen.

As their lips parted, he repeated the same words again.

“Thank you, really.”

“For someone who’s grateful, your hands seem a little naughty?”

Jung-oh said with a smile. Even in the midst of that, her upper body was leaning down, following the direction he was attacking.

“That’s because you don’t know how truly wicked you are.”

“…”

“This is a reward.”

Eventually, her head touched the floor. Jiheon stared at her slender waist, which was tantalizingly revealed, as if admiring it for a long time. As if trying to check the place where the child had stayed. And the moment his large hand, which wrapped around her flat stomach, tried to move further up.

The phone vibrated. Jung-oh jumped up and ran to where she had left her bag. Jiheon couldn’t stop her.

“It’s Mom, Mom.”

She had entrusted her young daughter to her mother, so she couldn’t relax for a moment. In fact, she was on standby so that she could run to Yena whenever she called.

“Hello.”

[Are you at work?]

Guk-soon’s voice was heard from the other side. She also sounded a little tired.

“Yeah, yeah. Did you meet your friends well? Where are you sleeping tonight?”

[I met my friends well, and I’m going home now. I’m almost there.]

“To Seoul? Why?”

[The child says she won’t sleep in Gunsan. She can’t leave her mom to sleep alone. Oh, my. She doesn’t even think about her grandmother’s suffering. I wonder who she takes after, being such a filial daughter.]

Guk-soon complained as if she was dumbfounded. Jung-oh blankly hung up the phone.

“Yena is being stubborn about not sleeping in Gunsan, so she’s coming home. She’s almost here.”

“…I should go.”

Jiheon also got up from his seat. The destiny of parents who have to run when their child calls. Even in the midst of that, Jiheon’s heart fluttered as he thought of Yena’s cute face, whining that she wanted to go home.

“Let’s go quickly.”

Thinking about it, he wanted to see her even more.

* * * * * * *

Eun-yeop couldn’t stand it.

Neither Mrs. Jang Young-mi nor Chief Choi answered the phone. She couldn’t help but suspect that they had blocked her.

How much time had she put into Jung Jiheon, how much had she invested, only to have all her efforts ruined like this. Eun-yeop’s anger soared at Lee Jung-oh and Chae Eun-bi. Eun-yeop couldn’t stand still and went directly to Mrs. Jang Young-mi’s mansion.

She was friendly with the security guard at the entrance, so there was no problem getting inside, but they wouldn’t open the door inside the building, so she had to stand there for a long time.

After about ten minutes, the person who opened the door herself was Mrs. Jang Young-mi.

“Mother, have you been well?”

“There’s no need to come in. I’ll go out.”

Young-mi answered Eun-yeop, who was politely greeting her, in a cold tone, unlike before.

Young-mi, who came out of the house, asked with her arms crossed.

“What’s going on?”

“I called about the real estate issue, but I couldn’t reach you, so I came because I was worried.”

Hearing the polite answer, her heart wavered. But because of what her son had said, she couldn’t let her guard down. Young-mi ended up revealing her frustrated feelings, resenting Eun-yeop.

“Let me ask you just one thing. Did you really manipulate the paternity test results?”

“What are you talking about, Mother?”

Eun-yeop still had a clueless expression. If Eun-yeop really didn’t know, the words ‘paternity test’ could rather cause anger.

“Please tell me exactly, Mother. I need to know what that’s about to answer.”

Young-mi was embarrassed by Eun-yeop’s questioning.

“Paternity test? Does that mean Jiheon is not the chairman’s biological son?”

“What nonsense!”

“Then did your hidden child appear? Or Jiheon’s hidden child?”

“…That’s enough. Go away quickly. If our Jiheon finds out, you’ll be even more humiliated.”

Young-mi waved her hand as if refusing to talk to Eun-yeop.

Eun-yeop’s eyes were filled with strength.

Jung Jiheon knows everything.

Lee Jung-oh and Jung Jiheon knew everything after all.

If so…

“Mother, I know everything you’ve done.”

Eun-yeop had no choice but to use other tricks.

“You even hired a voice actor seven years ago to break up Lee Jung-oh and Jiheon.”

“…”

“I didn’t want to know about this either, but the voice actor is my friend, so I accidentally found out.”

Eun-yeop clearly confirmed that Young-mi’s eyes were widening. She had regained a favorable position.

Eun-yeop nodded as if understanding Young-mi’s feelings.

“I understand. A daughter-in-law like Lee Jung-oh is nothing but a disgrace to the family.”

“…”

“Now that Lee Jung-oh is clinging to Jiheon, she made Eun-bi and Jiheon break up. Eun-bi and Jiheon looked so good together. Eun-bi was so good to you too.”

In times like this, a preemptive strike is always advantageous. She had to finish the work behind the scenes before Lee Jung-oh made a new paternity test result.

“Ah, Lee Jung-oh was a single mother, right? Is the paternity test related to Lee Jung-oh? Is Lee Jung-oh claiming to be raising Jiheon’s biological child? If so, Lee Jung-oh will somehow manipulate and bring a paternity test result. Several times until you believe it, Mother.”

Young-mi’s clenched fist trembled.

“You and Jiheon may end up raising a cuckoo’s chick for the rest of your lives.”

Young-mi was confused about what was true and what was false at Eun-yeop’s confident words.