A Child Who Resembles Me [EN]: Chapter 61

61. Because That Person Must Have Been Waiting All Along

Jiheon drove in silence. He faltered once on the way to the parking lot, appearing momentarily dizzy, but quickly regained his composure.

Throughout the drive to the restaurant, Jeong-o worried about Jiheon.

‘It’s not just about taking Yena home; he looks like he needs to go to the hospital.’

Fortunately, the restaurant wasn’t far from the academy. Jiheon’s car soon arrived.

Guksoon, preparing for the evening’s service, saw Jeong-o, Yena, and another guest arrive. She rushed out from the kitchen but hesitated upon realizing the third person was Jiheon.

Jiheon greeted her first.

“Madam, how have you been?”

“Ah, yes. Good… it’s been a while….”

Guksoon returned the greeting. Jiheon’s good looks always made her heart flutter, but knowing he was the director who made her daughter work late and caused her granddaughter to cry, she couldn’t wholeheartedly welcome him.

Still, she had to be polite, as he was her daughter’s superior.

“Why… are you all together?”

Guksoon awkwardly turned to Jeong-o and asked.

“The director came with us today because he felt sorry for Yena.”

Jeong-o’s bright answer brought a relaxed smile to Guksoon’s face.

“Oh my, how thoughtful. Thank you….”

*See? I have an eye for people.*

“Since you’ve come all this way, you should have a meal before you go.”

“No, Mom. The director is busy and has to go back to the office right away.”

Before Jiheon could respond, Jeong-o answered for him. Jiheon was a little disappointed but followed Jeong-o’s lead.

“Yes. I just stopped by on the way. I’ll greet you again when I have the chance.”

“Oh my, okay, okay….”

In their brief meeting, Guksoon sensed a strange undercurrent. Jeong-o’s director was more than just a superior; he seemed to regard Jeong-o in a special way.

On the way back to the company, Jeong-o carefully broached the subject with Jiheon, who was again behind the wheel.

“Don’t you think you should go to the hospital?”

“Why the hospital? Who’s sick?”

“No, I just thought you looked like you had a headache earlier.”

Jiheon, who had been looking straight ahead, turned slightly towards Jeong-o, grateful for her concern. That’s why he couldn’t bring himself to tell her what had happened.

Jiheon asked expressionlessly.

“You said something back then, right? At the hotel.”

“Yes?”

“That you hoped I would recover my memories.”

“……I did.”

“Do you still feel that way now?”

“…….”

“Do you want me to recover my memories?”

“Of course.”

Her coolness hadn’t changed. Jiheon was disappointed by her answer.

A moment of silence.

“Seven years ago, when I lost my memory, I might have had someone else I liked.”

He voiced his thought carefully, nervous that she might be surprised.

As expected, her voice wavered.

“Then you should meet that person.”

But her answer remained cool.

*Is she different on the inside? Does she give textbook answers on the outside but suffer alone on the inside?*

Jiheon complained honestly.

“The present is important to me, though?”

“Still. You should meet.”

“…….”

“That person might have been waiting all along.”

“But they haven’t contacted me all this time.”

“They might not have been able to contact you.”

“…….”

“Perhaps… someone in your family deliberately prevented it….”

Her voice, speculating on possibilities, lacked confidence. She seemed to be watching him.

Still, she quickly regained her composure and said, “Let’s meet first. No, first, try to remember something. If there’s someone you remember, meet them and explain the situation. Explain the situation, ask how they’ve been, and make sure to apologize for anything you’ve missed.”

She seemed to be getting more and more absorbed in the topic he had brought up. Jiheon, stopped at a traffic light, turned to look at Jeong-o.

“Because that person must have been waiting in the place you left them.”

*A woman who is more seriously absorbed in what I’ve experienced than I am.*

He couldn’t read her mind at all.

“Got it?”

Finally, she smiled brightly and urged him to answer, having already erased the tremor from her voice.

“What if I meet that person, and they don’t let me go? Is it okay if I can’t come back to Lee Jeong-o?”

“Hmph.”

“Don’t just smile, say something.”

“…….”

“Is it okay?”

*What kind of person am I in your life?*

*I may not be as important as Yena or your mother, but can I be next in line?*

He wanted a glimpse of her heart, even a little.

“I guarantee I’ll win, no matter who it is.”

Neither an ‘okay’ nor a ‘not okay,’ but an answer that she would win came back.

*You know that I will definitely come back, right?*

It was Lee Jeong-o, as always: confident, bold, and honest.

The answer was neither yes nor no, but he gained a little comfort.

“Try to remember something and then talk. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, Jung Jiheon.”

Jiheon wouldn’t know how desperate she was right now.

He might see her as a woman with a serious case of ‘coolness disease,’ but Jeong-o’s heart was actually pounding the whole time.

*If there’s even a small spark of hope left, I never want to give up.*

“I’m so curious about your life seven years ago. So, so, so, so much.”

Every moment she tried to persuade him, her throat kept tightening.

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

After finishing his remaining work and leaving the office, Jiheon stopped by the supermarket. He suddenly felt like he should cook.

He had already decided on the menu: pancake.

He would make an amazing pancake.

He had never bothered to do anything for himself.

He had no appetite and lived in a hotel-style apartment complex where he could have all three meals provided, so he didn’t feel the need to cook. As a result, his house didn’t even have proper kitchen tools.

When he tried to cook, he realized he needed quite a few things: a knife, a cutting board, other kitchen utensils, and a frying pan set. And various ingredients… It cost almost 300,000 won [approximately $250 USD] just to buy the ingredients to make a single pancake.

He carried a bundle of ingredients into the house.

Even after putting all the ingredients in the kitchen, his mind was blank for a while.

But when he remembered what Jeong-o had said, he felt a surge of energy.

*Lee Jeong-o’s ex-boyfriend. He had to become a better person than that guy.*

He prepared the ingredients according to the instructions of the chef in the video.

He washed the ingredients, put them on the cutting board, and cut the zucchini like the chef.

“The way you chop, chop, chop with the knife is so cool. Especially when you flip it with the frying pan, it’s really awesome.”

It felt like Lee Jeong-o’s voice in his memory was louder than the video he was watching for reference.

*What’s the big deal?*

Jiheon, who had been grumbling as he roughly cut the zucchini, wanted to chop, chop, chop with the knife like the chef in the video. He watched the video carefully three times, braced himself, and struck a pose.

Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop.

He had never held a knife before, but surprisingly, the zucchini was cut neatly and evenly.

*Do I have a talent for cutting?*

Jiheon’s father was a giant in the food industry who had grown a company that started as a snack factory into a large corporation. He thought that he might have inherited his father’s sense, but he had never seen his father cook.

He put aside the brief question and continued cooking. It was a simple dish: mix pancake mix, add all the shredded ingredients, put cooking oil in the frying pan, and fry.

The video showed it as a simple dish, but the surroundings were getting messier and messier. Still, when he put a ladle of the mixture into the heated frying pan, the sound of the ingredients sizzling in the oil was plausible.

Now it was time to flip the pancake.

“When you make a pancake, you have to flip it. Like this, like this. Do you know how to flip it with one hand? Using a snap. Like this. Whoosh.”

Again, Lee Jeong-o’s voice in his memory came first. The cute image of her demonstrating also played in his head.

Gripping the handle of the frying pan tightly, Jiheon lifted it and shook the frying pan back and forth to make sure the bottom of the batter was evenly cooked. And using a snap of the wrist.

Whoosh!

Slap!

Jiheon’s eyes widened.

The evenly cooked bottom of the pancake had miraculously come up.

Too easily.

Jiheon let out a hollow laugh.

‘See? I can do it too.’

Lee Jeong-o’s ex-boyfriend was pathetic.

*What’s the big deal?*

Then.

‘Wait, it really works?’

Unable to believe it himself, Jiheon tried again.

Whoosh! Slap!

The properly cooked pancake flipped even more smoothly than before.

*It works.*

*Am I actually a cooking genius?*

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

The next day, during work hours, Seunggyu visited Jiheon’s office, eager for an update.

“Friend, are you busy?”

“No. Come in.”

Jiheon was happy to see Seunggyu, as he had something to say.

Jiheon placed a tablet PC in front of Seunggyu’s seat. A children’s bicycle was on the screen.

“What’s with the bike?”

“Dobeon doesn’t have a bike, right? I was thinking of buying him one.”

“I’m grateful, but why all of a sudden?”

“About seven years ago…”

Jiheon calmly conveyed yesterday’s conclusion.

“I think I liked you a lot more than I thought. Maybe I wanted to be the godfather of your son.”

“Godfather? What are you talking about?”

Seunggyu frowned and asked sullenly.

“It felt like some of my lost memories were coming back.”

“Oh. What kind of memories?”

“There’s a new child being born, and I remember wanting to be good to that child, wanting to show them the stars, wanting to teach them how to ride a bike. I remembered having those feelings.”

Seunggyu tilted his head at Jiheon’s sudden memories.

It was definitely Korean, but it felt like he was listening to a foreign language.

A new child being born? Wanting to be good to that child?

“Are those real memories? I think you’re mistaken?”

Jiheon’s faint smile suddenly disappeared.

“Dobeon was born in August. I didn’t know my wife was pregnant until January of the following year. I think you’re misremembering things that happened after your accident as happening before?”

“…….”

“Or is it a different memory? Think about it some more.”

He felt a throbbing in his head again. Jiheon didn’t want to talk about this again.

Seunggyu, noticing Jiheon’s serious expression, advised, “Jiheon, if you really want to recover your memories, if you have that will, how about something like hypnotherapy?”

“…….”

“Should I look into it?”

Jiheon’s heart fluttered at Seunggyu’s suggestion.

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

Jiheon, who left work early, visited his family home.

Lady Jang Youngmi was overjoyed at her son’s visit after a long time, but Jiheon’s interest was elsewhere. Jiheon looked for the storage room where he kept his old belongings.

Old toys he had played with a long time ago, albums, and awards from his school days. There were many things, but the item Jiheon was looking for was not visible.

Lady Jang came over and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for something.”

“What are you looking for?”

“The cell phone I used to use.”

“When did you use it?”

“The cell phone I was using at the time of the accident seven years ago. Do you know where it is?”

“……Why do you ask?”

“I think there might be something I didn’t take care of. The 11-year-old phone is here, but the 7-year-old phone isn’t.”

“I threw that away a long time ago… It was all broken and damaged.”

“Then what about the data inside?”

“I transferred that to the new phone and gave it to you. You know all this, why are you asking?”

*He thought so.* Jiheon gave up looking and got up.

“Mother, you know I went to Australia after serving in the military, right?”

“……Yes. You did.”

“Why aren’t there any pictures from that time?”

Jiheon asked the question and closely observed Lady Jang’s expression.

“There are pictures from other trips, but only the pictures from that time are missing. Why is that?”

His mother’s trembling eyes, her slightly pale complexion…

Jiheon recalled what Jeong-o had said the day before.

“They might not have been able to contact you… Perhaps… someone in your family deliberately prevented it….”

He began to think that what he had believed for a long time might not be the truth.

He also thought that someone who had been deceiving him for a long time, like Chae Eunbi, might be very close.

And, a person who had packaged the heart of restraining her son in the guise of love.

“Mother, are you hiding something from me?”

He began to think that he had trusted her love too much.