SERIES: An Impure Reunion
CHAPTER: An Impure Reunion Chapter 28
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28.
“Mister, where are we going?”
Meanwhile, Seol-ah, sitting in the back seat of the car with Taejun, tilted her head in confusion.
Taejun seemed to have no intention of answering the child’s question.
He didn’t even glance at Seol-ah, his eyes fixed on his tablet.
As Taejun remained silent, a wave of disappointment washed over Seol-ah.
The child pouted and looked out the car window.
‘I was in such a good mood.’
Seol-ah had been happy right up until she left the preschool with Taejun.
The reason was what her preschool teacher had said.
‘Seol-ah, your dad is here to pick you up.’
The teacher had approached Seol-ah, who was in the middle of her afternoon snack, and told her that.
‘My dad?’
‘Yes, he said he’s here to pick you up because you have to go somewhere today.’
She had never had a father in her life.
There had been times with her mom, her uncle, and her aunt, but never once had a father been part of the picture.
She had never disliked it.
She had her mom, who was more precious than any father, so she considered herself lucky.
Still, very, very rarely, she had wondered what a father would be like.
Like when her friends of the same age would show off the hairpins or dolls their dads had bought them.
But she never mentioned such things in front of her mom.
The reason was that she had often seen the smile disappear from her mother’s lips whenever she did.
Seol-ah tilted her head and said to the teacher.
‘Teacher, I don’t have a dad.’
At Seol-ah’s reply, the teacher looked momentarily flustered, then took the child’s hand.
‘I misspoke. He’s someone you and your mother know well, and he said he came to pick you up today instead of your mother.’
Tilting her head again, a certain person flashed through Seol-ah’s mind.
‘Mister!?’
‘Huh? Ah, yes, that’s right, Seol-ah.’
Seeing the teacher nod, Seol-ah bolted out of the room.
Mister. Just hearing that word brought a wide smile to Seol-ah’s face.
She ran hard to the preschool gate, and just as the teacher had said, Mister was there.
‘Mister!’
Excited, Seol-ah ran and hugged Taejun’s leg.
Taejun seemed surprised by the child’s sudden action.
However, he didn’t dare push the child away.
Only, his brow twitched slightly.
The sight of his twitching brow stuck in Seol-ah’s eyes.
Seol-ah giggled to herself.
Mister was such a strange person.
On the outside, he looked incredibly scary, but when she hugged him like this, he smelled just like her mom.
Though he often wore a frightening expression, he always tried his best to hide it in front of her.
Now she could tell Mister’s mood just by looking at the forehead above his nose.
‘Hmm, Mister’s mood today is… a little bad, maybe.’
Seol-ah was tilting her head and rubbing her face against Taejun’s leg.
‘Oh my, Seol-ah. You have to take your bag.’
‘Teacher!’
Only then did Seol-ah loosen her grip on Taejun’s leg.
She took the bag the teacher handed her, smiled brightly, and said.
‘Teacher! This person isn’t my dad! But he’s the person I like the most after my mom!’
The best is Mom!
Originally, the next best was Aunt Kangji, and then Uncle Kang Jae, but that had changed recently.
‘After my mom, I like this Mister the best!’
Until she left the preschool, she felt like she was flying.
The reason was that she was so happy the teacher had mistaken her favorite Mister for her dad.
That’s why she had even declared so loudly how much she liked him, but now, Seol-ah slightly regretted what she had said at the preschool.
‘I shouldn’t have said that.’
Seol-ah pouted her lips again.
She slightly regretted telling her preschool teacher that she liked Taejun second best.
She regretted saying she liked him, but the fact that Taejun was her second favorite person in the world remained unchanged.
She just liked the Mister who smelled like her mom for no reason.
But Mister…
‘Does Mister not like me?’
I listened well when Mister told me to be quiet,
I even helped him pick a house for a friend my age last time,
He even promised to grant me a wish that day,
‘Should I say it’s my wish now and ask where we’re going?’
The quiet car was so boring that the thought even crossed her mind.
Seol-ah quickly shook her head, correcting her thoughts.
‘No. You have to use that wish for something very important, Heo Seol-ah!’
Seol-ah suppressed her desire to talk to Taejun and fixed her gaze out the car window.
The busily moving scenery was fascinating, but Seol-ah’s head began to drop.
Thanks to going to preschool for the first time in a while, she had been so busy playing hard to make up for lost time.
As a result, Seol-ah was now very sleepy.
She would doze off, then awake, then doze off again, repeating this several times.
Eventually, Seol-ah fell into a deep sleep.
“……”
Realizing the chattering child had gone silent, Taejun glanced to his left where she was sitting.
And he found the child asleep, her head tilted precariously.
Taejun set his tablet aside and stared intently at the sleeping child.
‘Mister, where are we going?’
As they left the preschool, the child had held his hand tightly and asked that.
In that moment, Taejun felt a shiver run through his entire body from the weight he felt in his hand.
Like a fool, he couldn’t even move his feet as he wished.
He thought he had quickly let go of the child’s hand as soon as they reached the car.
He did it so the weight would no longer press down on him.
Today was the day he was sending the child abroad.
He had purchased the house the child had chosen last time and had stationed a considerable number of employees there.
From people to care for the child’s overall needs, to a chef to cook her meals, and even someone to take her to and from school, at least five people were hired.
More people were mobilized than his own father had assigned to him in the past.
It was as if the child had been given the best possible conditions.
So why couldn’t he just say it plainly?
‘You’re going to leave your mother and live alone from now on.’
The words came easily in his head, but he couldn’t bring himself to say them in front of the child.
Taejun quietly reached out his hand to the sleeping child.
Just as he extended his hand to touch a strand of hair on her cheek, the child’s precariously tilted head gently came to rest in his hand.
A look of bewilderment filled Taejun’s face.
He was at a loss, not knowing what to do with the child’s head that had suddenly landed in his hand.
After a moment, he quickly raised his other hand and used it to support the child’s head as well.
Taejun was holding the child’s head up so her neck wouldn’t be strained, maintaining the position.
The phone in his pocket was vibrating continuously.
Not just once, but dozens of times.
But with both hands taken by Seol-ah, Taejun had no chance to check his phone.
‘Was such a small head always this heavy?’
The child’s head looked tiny.
But perhaps because she was completely limp, her head felt unusually heavy.
He maintained that position for a long time.
Manager Ha, who was driving, glanced at Taejun in the rearview mirror and spoke.
“Sir, you have a call from your wife.”
Taejun let out a scoff.
She must have realized this little-headed child was gone, so she must be in an uproar.
A dark sneer formed on Taejun’s lips as he thought of Jian, out of her mind, calling him repeatedly.
“Don’t answer it.”
During the time no one answers the phone, you need to feel it too.
You need to feel what I felt, how I went crazy after losing you overnight.
“Yes, sir.”
“How much further do we have to go?”
“We’ve arrived.”
While so cold to Jian, Taejun’s hands supporting Seol-ah’s head remained just as they were.
Then, when he saw the faint smile on the child’s lips, a similar smile appeared on his own.
Manager Ha was watching Taejun’s expression in the rearview mirror.
Jian couldn’t stay still for a moment, pacing back and forth in the living room.
After several minutes of this, Jian’s silent phone began to ring.
Jian answered the call without even checking the caller ID.
“Hello? Taejun?”
- So this is what it takes for Heo Jian to desperately seek me out?
Hearing Taejun’s voice over the phone, Jian’s heart began to pound.
Her hand holding the phone was trembling.
Jian barely managed to calm the shaking with her other hand and opened her mouth.
“Seol-ah, where is Seol-ah?”
- Why?
“Joo Taejun! Seol-ah, where is our Seol-ah?!”
At Jian’s shout, the sound of Taejun chuckling could be heard from the other side.
- To think I’d see Heo Jian get angry over something so small?
“Taejun, please, please tell me. Our Seol-ah, where is Seol-ah?”
Jian forced her voice to be steady.
She had judged that getting angry at Taejun now would do no good.
As long as the child was in his grasp, there was nothing to be gained by provoking him.
Jian pressed the phone tighter to her ear and parted her lips.
But before she could speak, Taejun beat her to it.
- The plane just took off.
Author: Donggeurami (Son Yoon-seo)
Publisher: Toonplus
Email: [email protected]
ISBN: 9791157738274
© Donggeurami (Son Yoon-seo), 2022
※ This e-book is published by <Toonplus> under contract with the copyright holder. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited. Violation of this may result in legal action.
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