A Child Who Resembles Me [EN]: Chapter 68

68. Back to You (1)

“Just say one word.”

In the suffocating silence, he opened his mouth.

“That child is my child.”

His heavy voice resonated, making his chest tingle.

Jung-oh wanted to sigh, but she kept her mouth shut.

Was he sure, or did he just want to believe it? She couldn’t read him.

Her heart, which always raced when she faced him, now throbbed. She strained her eyes, making them feel even hotter.

“Yena is my daughter.”

Jung-oh noticed that his eyes were also trembling slightly as he looked at her. Even his voice was desperate and urgent.

“Tell me she’s our daughter.”

When she didn’t answer, Ji-heon spoke again and again. He tried to suppress his emotions, but a wave surged inside him.

All the same words.

Demanding an answer, Ji-heon’s suspicion had become certainty.

There was only one acceptable answer.

Just answer.

If you just answer, I’ll give you everything.

Did his desperate feelings reach her? Jung-oh’s right hand came up to his cheek.

It was a soft and gentle touch, as if tickling his skin, but her lips remained tightly sealed. It seemed like the answer he wanted would never come. It seemed like she was trying to soothe and appease him to get out of this situation.

Growing anxious, Ji-heon grabbed her hand that was caressing his cheek.

“Say it.”

“…….”

“Say it. Please.”

Now his voice was pleading.

Jung-oh, looking at him, also felt a pang in her heart. Aching emotions surged within her.

What made you like this?

Who drove this man crazy?

Who made this man so desperate?

Jung-oh had no way of knowing what had happened to him in the meantime, so she couldn’t help but feel confused.

Whether it was true or false, he didn’t seem to care anymore.

He just wanted an answer.

She had to open her mouth for him.

Her eyes, weighing the weight of her answer, wandered like a lost child.

As always, she had to think rationally. She had to make a realistic decision.

His desire for her to be completely his might have led him to make the wrong decision. It might be a dangerous impulse to throw everything else away just to hold onto her.

Can I say it? Is it okay to say it?

If he had really reached the truth, if he knew everything, she couldn’t weigh his memories and confuse him further.

I was just waiting for you to tell the truth.

It was also something she desperately wanted.

She, who was twenty-three, was now thirty.

It had been a full seven years. She wanted to end this pain now.

She wanted to be someone who didn’t deceive herself or her daughter.

Jung-oh’s lips parted heavily as she made up her mind.

“Yes, she’s your child.”

Seven years. After a long, long time, back to you.

She spoke calmly, but her voice soon trailed off.

His eyes, tinged with red even under the streetlights, widened even more. Even though she had given him the answer he wanted.

After urging her to give him that one answer, his mouth slowly opened with a look of shock, as if he hadn’t expected anything.

As if he had lost his words, as if he had even lost his voice.

His lips moved slowly up and down, but she couldn’t hear anything.

Jung-oh told him the truth once more, clearly.

“Our… our child.”

It was a difficult confession for her too.

Her blurred eyes were filled with his face, distorted with pain.

Huh…

Had she ever seen such a pitiful expression before?

It was the saddest face she had ever seen in her life.

Jung-oh’s heart also ached.

The sorrow of someone who had learned the truth after a long time was devastating.

It was the first time she had seen it. A man who had always shown her a cold and arrogant appearance, a confident and dignified appearance, a rational and strong appearance, had a face that had collapsed as if he had lost everything in his life.

It was as if the world that supported him had collapsed. He seemed to have forgotten to breathe.

She grabbed Ji-heon, who was staggering as if his legs had given way. He also grabbed Jung-oh’s arms, but couldn’t hold on. Just as he seemed to lean on her shoulder, he collapsed as if he had lost the legs to support him. Jung-oh also sat down with him.

Huh, huh, huuh…

A panting voice, as if he was about to die, came from above her shoulder. There was nothing Jung-oh could do. She just hugged him. His desperate breathing darkened the darkness even more.

No, it was crying.

Hueueu. Heueueueueu…

A beast-like sob, as if he was wailing with his heart crushed and his vocal cords taken away, soaked her shoulder.

His arms and shoulders, which he was holding onto and hugging, were stiff. His shoulders were trembling as if he had encountered a cold wave in the middle of this summer.

Not long ago, Jung-oh asked him. How did you live for seven years? Isn’t losing your memory the same as losing yourself?

It was true. He lived those seven years without himself. It was no different from living with his eyes closed and his ears blocked, only breathing.

I didn’t know.

I really didn’t know…

There was nothing in my world without you, so I didn’t even know how to get to you.

I thought there might be something precious to me, but I couldn’t tell anyone, no one.

There was no one, so I couldn’t say anything.

It wasn’t just time that had passed for the child and Jung-oh.

Ji-heon, who was twenty-six, was also thirty-three.

He is still living in the prime of his youth, but that fact does not bring back the past.

Yena at one, two, three, four, five, and six years old…

The current Ji-heon cannot hug or touch that beautiful child.

He missed it like that. Everything.

So foolishly, Jung Ji-heon, who didn’t know anything at twenty-seven.

Jung Ji-heon at twenty-eight. Empty Jung Ji-heon at twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, and thirty-two.

All the Jung Ji-heons of that time, who could never return, screamed together.

Eueueu…

Eueueueueueu…

Jung-oh hugged Ji-heon’s shoulder even tighter. Jung-oh’s tears, unable to bear it, also flowed down. His still-shaking shoulders made her guess at his despair.

In the heart-wrenching sob, Jung-oh realized one pitiful fact.

This man was really alone.

Who will compensate for his pain, his time?

Seasons changed dozens of times, and each time, a beautiful daughter shone in a new way. An angel of life who pulled her mother, who was in hell, into heaven.

He had never even thought about all the happiness that Jung-oh had enjoyed because of her daughter, the beauty and preciousness of that life.

This person was walking through real hell…

Tears flowed incessantly.

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

Seven years ago, on the last day of the year.

Jung-oh boarded a train. It was to spend the New Year with her mother, Lee Guk-soon, who ran a restaurant with a friend in Gunsan.

As it was the end of the year, the train was crowded. Every time she brushed against people, Jung-oh’s hand naturally went to her stomach.

A woman in her 30s was sitting next to Jung-oh. And next to her, across the aisle, sat a child of about 10 years old and his father, who appeared to be the woman’s family.

Food was constantly going into the child’s mouth. The child’s mother nagged him to stop eating, and the child’s father put candy in both of his hands, saying, “What’s wrong with it? It’s a special day.”

The family shared stories that only they knew and laughed together at jokes that weren’t even funny. It was a beautiful and harmonious family. One that she had never had and would never have.

Jung-oh stared at the scene with a heavy heart and turned her head. She decided to press the passing scenery into her eyes. She could vaguely guess her future. She thought she might never be able to return.

The train, which had been running for about three hours, arrived at Gunsan Station. Her mother, who had been bragging to everyone in the neighborhood that her daughter was coming from Seoul, that her smart and admirable daughter was coming, was waiting for her daughter with a flushed face.

“Lee Jung-oh!”

The mother, who immediately recognized her daughter getting off the train, waved her hand happily. But the mother’s flushed expression soon disappeared. The mother quickly realized that something was wrong with her child’s body.

And the way the child quickly retreated as if protecting something in her arms every time she brushed against people.

“Mom.”

The smiling face that came to her after finding her mother. Guk-soon couldn’t make any expression on that sad face.

Guk-soon took time off from work and went straight to Seoul to clean up her daughter’s house and returned to Gunsan.

“Just live here. You don’t have to worry about anything. Go to the hospital with Mom and stay healthy, then go back to school.”

That’s how the mother and daughter’s life together began again.

Guk-soon took care of Jung-oh firmly. She was the only support Jung-oh could rely on. Knowing this well, Guk-soon did not collapse easily either.

“There’s no problem. Just trust Mom.”

Whenever Jung-oh was depressed, Guk-soon showed a more energetic appearance.

Even if her heart was breaking, even if the desire to run after the child’s father immediately filled her head, she did not show tears or put swear words in her mouth in front of her daughter. She didn’t scold her daughter either.

She protected her daughter with everything she could do as a mother. No matter what darkness the child was trapped in, Lee Guk-soon was Jung-oh’s eternal sun.

Under her mother’s care, Jung-oh slowly regained her true smile. Last winter, Jung-oh, who seemed to have lost everything, realized that she actually had a lot.

And the child was born.

Jung-oh realized that she could fall in love again. She also learned about the mother’s desire to become stronger for her child.

Jung-oh vowed that she, too, would become a strong person who could say “Just trust Mom” to her daughter like her mother.

A long time ago. Now it’s a past story.

Everything is now left as a memory.

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

In Ji-heon’s car.

Ji-heon told Jung-oh about what had happened in the past few days and what he had remembered. Jung-oh was a little disappointed that all Ji-heon remembered was that he and Jung-oh were lovers and that they had a child to be born.

But she wanted to applaud his will to trace his traces from seven years ago and reach her. Her heart was warmed by the story that he had tried to propose to her seven years ago.

Jung-oh also briefly told Ji-heon about the past seven years. As time passed, she was able to laugh while reminiscing about the wandering and hardships of that time. But his eyes were wet the whole time he looked at her.

Ji-heon, who had been listening to Jung-oh’s story silently, asked.

“Why did we end up like that?”

Why did we break up? I wouldn’t have let you go.

It was such a natural thing that Ji-heon’s suspicion immediately flowed in a natural direction.

“Why couldn’t you contact me? Who blocked us?”

Jung-oh’s eyes also tightened at Ji-heon’s accurate question.

It was time to tell the truth.

Jung-oh carefully began to speak in a relatively calm voice.

“Can you listen to my story? It might be a little shocking to you.”

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

After Eun-bi left, Young-mi’s convulsions did not stop for a long time.

No way. It can’t be. It won’t be.

‘That can’t be. It must be a person with the same name.’

Young-mi, who couldn’t sleep and paced back and forth in the hallway holding her cell phone tightly, eventually called Ji-heon’s secretary in the middle of the night.

[Yes, Madam.]

Ji-heon’s secretary responded immediately to Young-mi’s call.

“Secretary Yoon. You’re off work, right? I’m sorry. I have a question. Is there an employee named Lee Jung-oh at the company? Can you send me a picture of that employee right now?”

[Yes, I understand.]

The secretary responded to Young-mi’s request without complaint.

After a while, Young-mi’s cell phone rang. It was a picture sent by the secretary. Young-mi pressed the screen with trembling fingertips.

The picture popped up.

No way!

Young-mi’s face froze as if she had met a grim reaper after confirming the picture.

That child from seven years ago. That child who was said to be the daughter of a single mother.

The face of Lee Jung-oh, the girl who was so obsessed with her son, was on the cell phone screen.

‘Then that seven-year-old child is…!’