=========================================
SERIES: An Impure Reunion
CHAPTER: An Impure Reunion Chapter 9
=========================================
9.
“Isn’t it enough if I’m here?”
Jian’s first reaction to Taejun’s answer was anxiety.
Leaving her daughter with the man who’d told her to get rid of the child just moments ago felt deeply unsettling.
“Besides, the person who’ll be looking after her will be here soon.”
“She’s very shy around strangers. She has a particularly hard time with adult men.”
“I can figure that much out.”
As if reading her anxious gaze, Taejun added that the sitter was a woman who was fluent in Korean.
Still, Jian’s expression showed no signs of easing.
“What’s with that look? Are you worried I might grab her or something?”
“I never thought that.”
Jian had no other choice.
At the very least, an adult was needed to look after the child while she ate.
For now, she had no choice but to trust Taejun’s word that he would stay with her.
With a shallow sigh, Jian opened the door to the hospital room.
“Mommy, Mommy!”
The child was sitting on the bed, beaming.
Before approaching her, Jian quickly composed her troubled expression and spoke.
“Looks like our Seol-ah is all better now.”
“Mommy, is something wrong at Grace? Do you have to go now?”
“Hm? Oh, yes.”
But as if Seol-ah had caught that brief hesitation, a troubled look spread across Jian’s face at her daughter’s words.
“I’m sorry, Seol-ah. I don’t think I’ll be able to watch you eat.”
Though she had every right to be upset that her mother was going back on her word, the child just smiled brightly.
“It’s okay, Mommy. Seol-ah is a big girl.”
“Wow, that’s right, isn’t it? Our Seol-ah is a big girl.”
Seol-ah giggled and snuggled into her mother’s arms, rubbing her face against her.
The child had never been fussy, even from a young age.
She looked her age on the outside, but it was as if a grown-up lived inside her.
Instead of throwing tantrums, she always thought of her mother first.
Seeing her daughter act so mature and hold back, at an age when she should be causing mischief and laughing without a care, always made Jian’s heart ache.
The reason was a sense of guilt, a worry that she might have been unknowingly forcing her to be mature.
Jian stroked her daughter’s hair and said.
“Seol-ah, the Teacher who will be with you during your tests will be here later today. Greet her nicely, okay? And while you eat, this Mister will stay with you instead of Mommy.”
“The Mister?”
Hearing the word “Mister,” Seol-ah pulled away from her mother’s embrace, her eyes sparkling.
The sight made Jian’s heart ache with a slight pang.
Seol-ah was usually extremely shy around adults, especially men, so her interest in Taejun was not only unfamiliar but also made Jian’s heart ache with a strange pang of sorrow.
Just as Jian was stroking the back of Seol-ah’s hand to hide her own confused expression,
“Looks like I’m an exception.”
Taejun walked over to Seol-ah’s bedside, placed a hand on her head, and spoke.
Jian stared, momentarily lost in a daze.
The child’s father’s hand was touching the child’s head.
Why did the sight feel so heart-wrenchingly painful?
“Mister, please take good care of me.”
“She has good manners.”
The faint smile that graced Taejun’s lips,
and the bright smile that lit up Seol-ah’s face.
All of it made Jian’s heart feel like it was tearing apart.
After Jian left the room, Taejun sat on the sofa and opened a newspaper.
“Wow, Mister, you can read English? I can’t yet…”
Seol-ah had approached him at some point, and now she stood beside him barefoot, her eyes sparkling.
Taejun’s brow twitched when he noticed her.
“What’s this?”
“How did you get down from the bed?”
“I’m five. I can do this much.”
Seol-ah said with a proud look, her hands on her hips.
The sight was rather cute, but Taejun’s brow twitched again.
“I don’t think I was complimenting you on getting down.”
“Then what was it?”
Seol-ah asked, holding onto the sofa with a curious expression.
Watching her tap her feet on the floor, Taejun sighed to himself.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t have offered to watch her.’
He hadn’t felt right just watching Jian look so troubled.
The way she doted on the child was irritating, but there was no harm in humoring her.
That’s why he’d offered to stay for a bit, but his offer hadn’t included actually dealing with the child.
Unaware of his thoughts, the child was now making things difficult.
Taejun watched Seol-ah for a moment, then folded his newspaper, set it down, and swiftly lifted the child into his arms.
“Whoa! So high!”
The child in his arms showed no sign of surprise; she seemed to be enjoying the situation.
‘So much for being shy.’
Far from being shy with strangers, the child simply seemed fascinated by the sudden change in her vantage point.
But Taejun, paying no mind to what the child was thinking, set her down on the bed and said in a low voice,
“Wipe the dust off your feet.”
“Okay!”
Seol-ah capably brushed her feet with her hands, then took the wet wipe Taejun offered and meticulously cleaned them.
Then she beamed.
“Lie down.”
At his command, she lay down straight and carefully pulled the blanket up over herself.
“Close your eyes. Sleep.”
“But I’m not sleepy.”
But she immediately protested his command to sleep.
Taejun looked at the child’s wide, alert eyes and finally let his expression harden into a scowl.
Taejun had been making an effort not to look angry in front of Seol-ah.
He hadn’t intended to scare a small child with an angry expression, but it had come to this.
Sure enough, he saw Seol-ah’s face stiffen.
“Mister, are you angry?”
the child asked in a tiny voice.
Even hearing the child’s completely deflated voice, Taejun’s expression didn’t change.
A moment later, his expression softened slightly. He crossed his arms and said,
“Fine, you don’t have to sleep. But I need you to do one thing for me.”
“What is it?”
“Be quiet.”
The moment Taejun finished speaking, Seol-ah clamped both hands over her mouth and mumbled.
“I’ll be quiet.”
“Good thinking.”
As Taejun returned to the sofa, Seol-ah took her hands away from her mouth and quietly sat up.
Then, she stared intently at Taejun.
‘Wow, that’s amazing.’
She was still struggling to get used to English, so it was fascinating to see Taejun reading it so effortlessly.
The child’s gaze was persistent.
There was no way Taejun could have missed it.
But Taejun paid her no mind, keeping his eyes fixed on the newspaper.
And so, a silence fell over the hospital room.
After some time had passed, the door suddenly opened, breaking the silence.
“Breakfast is here.”
It seemed Seol-ah’s breakfast, the one Jian had been worried about, had arrived.
Taejun gestured toward Seol-ah’s bed with his chin for the female staff member, then went back to his newspaper.
Seol-ah quietly raised the overbed table, trying not to be heard by Taejun.
The staff member who brought the meal glanced between the child and Taejun before placing the food on the table.
Even after she was done, the staff member didn’t leave right away, watching Seol-ah instead.
“The fork is a bit big. Will you be okay?”
Faced with an unfamiliar person and unfamiliar English, Seol-ah hesitated and tilted her head.
The staff member looked troubled by the child’s reaction.
After watching Seol-ah for a moment, she finally placed a large, sharp, metal fork, one meant for adults, into the child’s hand and said,
“Be careful.”
Fortunately, she seemed to understand that.
Seol-ah nodded eagerly.
A moment later, the staff member left, and the two of them were alone again in the room.
Seol-ah licked her lips as she gazed at the fluffy, appetizing scrambled eggs, the plump sausage, and the soft-looking bread.
But for some reason, she hesitated instead of eating right away.
After pursing her lips for a long moment, the child carefully spoke up.
“Um, Mister.”
As Seol-ah spoke, Taejun’s gaze naturally shifted to her.
“What is it?”
“I thought you might be hungry, too.”
Seol-ah picked up the piece of bread from her plate and held it out to Taejun.
Even as she offered it to him, he could see the lingering desire in her eyes as she looked at the bread.
Noticing this, Taejun let out a small chuckle.
“You eat it.”
“But… Mommy said you should always share food…”
“I said, eat it.”
Seol-ah didn’t seem entirely pleased, but she took a big bite of the bread.
A bright smile spread across her face as she popped the bread into her mouth.
Taejun, who had been observing Seol-ah closely, set his newspaper aside to watch her.
Suddenly, a memory from a long time ago surfaced in his mind.
It was an image of Jian, on a midsummer day during a torrential downpour.
In college, Taejun had attended school while hiding his true identity.
The university he’d chosen in defiance of his father’s demand to study abroad had suited him quite well.
The school became an even better place thanks to a freshman he met after his military discharge.
That freshman was none other than Jian.
There had been a time when he and Jian were stranded alone together on a mountain during a summer retreat.
‘I’m so sorry you ruined your clothes because of me, Senior.’
A downpour had started while they were in the middle of a survival game in the mountains.
That’s when he’d spotted Jian in a precarious position on a slope.
Just as he thought she was about to fall, Jian did indeed lose her footing on the slope.
Before she could fall completely, Taejun rushed to grab her.
As a result, they both ended up sliding down the slope together.
A little later, they sat under a large tree, taking temporary shelter from the rain.
Even though it was midsummer, the drenching rain had turned Jian’s lips a pale blue.
Unwilling to just watch her shiver, Taejun took off the dry shirt he was wearing under his tactical vest and draped it over her.
‘You need to take care of yourself.’
‘…Thank you.’
It was after Jian’s pale lips had returned to their normal color.
She held out a piece of candy to Taejun.
‘I thought you might be hungry, Senior.’
Looking at her as she said that with her big, earnest eyes, Taejun felt his heart drop with a thud.
Perhaps that had been the first moment.
The very first moment his gaze had lingered on Jian.
Taejun gazed silently at Seol-ah.
‘She looks just like her mother.’
The child was the spitting image of Jian.
Seeing the child who resembled her, his longing for Jian seemed to grow even more acute.
As he watched her, Taejun’s eyes caught sight of Seol-ah’s struggle.
The sight of the child grappling with an adult-sized fork.
Author : Donggeurami (Son Yoon-seo)
Publisher : Toonplus
E-mail : [email protected]
ISBN : 9791157738274
© Donggeurami (Son Yoon-seo), 2022
※ This e-book is published by <Toonplus> under contract with the copyright holder and prohibits unauthorized reproduction and distribution. Violation of this may result in legal action.
0 Comments