A child who looks like me

“You only need to say one thing.”

In the suffocating silence, he opened his mouth.

“That child is my son.”

His heavy voice sent a jolt through her heart.

It felt as if a helpless sigh was about to escape her lips, but Jeong-oh pressed her mouth shut.

Was it a certainty he had reached, or simply a desire to believe? She couldn’t read his mind.

Her heart, which had always raced toward him, now ached painfully. As she focused her eyes, they became even warmer.

“Ye-na is my daughter.”

Jeong-oh noticed that his gaze, which was fixed on her, trembled faintly. His voice was filled with longing and desperation.

“Say she’s our daughter.”

When she didn’t respond, Ji-heon spoke again. He tried to suppress his emotions, but waves of feeling churned within him.

All the same words.

Demanding an answer, Ji-heon’s doubts had turned into certainty.

There was only one answer she could accept.

Just say it.

If she would just answer, he would give her everything.

Had his desperate emotions reached her? Jeong-oh’s right hand rose to his cheek.

It was a soft and gentle touch that tickled his skin, but her lips remained tightly sealed. It seemed she wouldn’t ever provide the answer he desired. It felt as though she was trying to soothe him and escape the situation.

Anxious, Ji-heon took hold of her hand that was caressing his cheek.

“Say it.”

“…….”

“Say it. Please.”

Now, his voice had become a plea.

Looking at him, Jeong-oh’s heart ached as well. Her restless emotions churned continuously.

What made you this way?

Who drove this man to madness?

Who made him so desperate?

In her confusion, Jeong-oh had no way of knowing what had happened to him in the meantime.

Whether it was the truth or a lie, it seemed to matter little to him now.

He just wanted an answer.

She had to open her mouth for him.

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

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

His desire to have her entirely for himself might have led him to make a wrong decision. It could be a dangerous impulse to abandon everything just to grasp her.

Is it okay to say it? Is it really okay?

If he truly reached the truth, if he found out everything, she couldn’t confuse him any more by weighing his memories.

I’ve only been waiting to tell you the truth.

It was something she had desperately wanted too.

At twenty-three, she had now turned thirty.

Seven years had passed. She wanted to end this pain.

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

With her resolve strengthened, Jeong-oh’s lips trembled heavily.

“Yes. She’s your child.”

After seven years. After a long time, she returned to him.

She spoke calmly, but her voice soon faltered.

Even under the streetlight, the red hue in his eyes grew larger. Despite receiving the answer he wanted.

Having pressed her for just one answer, he looked as though he was engulfed by shock, as if he hadn’t expected anything at all.

He seemed lost for words, as if he had lost his voice.

His lips slowly moved up and down, but no sound reached her ears.

Jeong-oh firmly reiterated the truth once more.

“Our… our child.”

It was a confession that was also difficult for her.

Her blurry eyes were filled with the pain on his face.

Huh…

Had she ever seen such a pitiful expression?

It was the saddest face she had encountered in her life.

Jeong-oh’s heart ached too.

The sorrow of knowing a truth she had long been unaware of was devastating.

It was the first time she had seen it. The man who always showed coldness, arrogance, confidence, and strength in front of her now wore a face that looked as if he had lost everything in life.

It was an expression of someone whose supporting world had crumbled. He seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.

Jeong-oh caught Ji-heon as he wobbled, as if his legs had given way. He too grasped her arms but couldn’t hold on. Just as he seemed to lean on her shoulder, he collapsed like someone who had lost the legs to support him. Jeong-oh sank down with him.

Huh, huh, huh…

From her shoulder came a breathless, gasping voice that sounded like he might suffocate at any moment. Jeong-oh could do nothing but hold him. His desperate breaths darkened the surrounding gloom even further.

No, this was crying.

Huh… Huhhhhh…

With her heart weighed down, as if her vocal cords had been stolen, his beast-like sobs soaked her shoulder.

He held her arms and shoulders so tightly it felt almost painful. In the midst of summer, his shoulders trembled as if he had encountered a bitter cold.

Not long ago, Jeong-oh had asked him how he had lived for those seven years. Didn’t losing his memory mean losing himself?

That was true. He had lived those seven years lost, as if breathing while his eyes were shut and ears were blocked.

I didn’t know.

I truly didn’t know…

In a world without you, there was nothing, so I didn’t even know how to find my way back to you.

I thought perhaps I had something precious, but I couldn’t confide in anyone, not a single soul.

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

Time hadn’t only flowed for her and the child.

Ji-heon, who had been twenty-six, was now thirty-three.

He was still living in the prime of his youth, but that fact couldn’t turn back the time that had passed.

Ye-na at six years old…

He could no longer hold or touch that beautiful child.

He had lost everything that way.

So foolishly, the twenty-seven-year-old Jeong Ji-heon, who had known nothing.

Twenty-eight-year-old Jeong Ji-heon. Twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two empty years of Jeong Ji-heon.

The Jeong Ji-heon who could never return to those times screamed alongside him.

Ugh…

Ughhh…

Jung-oh held Ji-heon’s shoulder tighter. Unable to hold back, tears also flowed down Jung-oh’s cheeks. The still-trembling shoulders hinted at his despair.

In the midst of his heart-wrenching sobs, Jung-oh came to a sorrowful realization.

This man was truly alone.

Whom did his grief, his time, receive compensation from?

The seasons changed dozens of times, and each time, his beautiful daughter shone with a new light. She was the savior who pulled her mother from hell to heaven.

Ji-heon had never even thought about all the happiness Jung-oh experienced because of their daughter, the beauty and preciousness of that life.

So it was this person who walked through true hell…

Tears flowed ceaselessly.

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

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

Jung-oh boarded a train. She was going to spend New Year’s with her mother, Lee Guk-soon, who ran a restaurant in Gunsan, along with a friend.

As expected on such a day, the train was crowded. Each time she brushed past someone, Jung-oh’s hand instinctively went toward her belly.

Next to Jung-oh sat a woman who appeared to be in her thirties. Across the aisle, there was a child, about ten years old, and what seemed to be the child’s father.

Food constantly made its way into the child’s mouth. The child’s mother scolded him to stop eating so much, while the father, enjoying the special occasion, handed the child candy with a smile.

The family shared jokes and stories only they understood, laughing together the entire time. They were a beautiful, happy family—something she had never experienced and would never have.

Jung-oh stared blankly at the scene before turning her head away. Outside the window, she decided to press down on the passing scenery with her eyes. She could vaguely imagine her future, thinking she might never be able to go back.

After about three hours, the train arrived at Gunsan Station. Her mother, who had boasted around town that her smart and lovely daughter was coming from Seoul, was waiting with a bright expression.

“Lee Jung-oh!”

Her mother recognized her daughter immediately as she stepped off the train and waved her hand excitedly. However, the bright look soon faded. Her mother quickly noticed something strange about her daughter’s appearance.

Moreover, with each person she brushed past, Jung-oh’s behavior appeared as if she were trying to protect something in her arms.

“Mom.”

The smile on her face as she approached her mother was sad, and Guk-soon couldn’t bring herself to respond with any expression.

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

“You can stay here. You don’t have to worry about anything. You can just stay healthy with me while we go to the hospital and then return to school later.”

Thus began the new life of mother and daughter living together.

Guk-soon took care of Jung-oh fiercely. She was the only support Jung-oh could lean on. Knowing this, Guk-soon also wouldn’t easily crumble.

“There’s no problem. Just trust me.”

If Jung-oh ever looked even a bit gloomy, Guk-soon would show even more spirited behavior.

Even if her heart was torn and she felt like running straight to the child’s father, she never showed tears or spoke harshly in front of her daughter.

She protected her daughter with everything she could give. No matter how trapped Jung-oh was in darkness, to Guk-soon, Lee Jung-oh was her eternal sunshine.

Under her mother’s care, Jung-oh gradually regained her true smile. Last winter, when it felt like she had lost everything, she realized that she actually had so much.

And then, the child was born.

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

Jung-oh resolved to become a strong person who could tell her daughter, just like her mother, “Just trust me.”

A long time ago. A story that has now passed.

Before she knew it, everything had become a memory.

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

In Ji-heon’s car.

Ji-heon shared with Jung-oh the events of the recent days and what he had remembered. He told her that they were in a romantic relationship and that they were expecting a child. That was all Ji-heon could recall, and Jung-oh felt a little disappointed.

However, she wanted to applaud his determination to trace back to her from seven years ago. The story of how he had planned to propose to her filled her heart with warmth.

Jung-oh also briefly shared her own stories from the past seven years. As time passed, she could now smile while reminiscing about the wandering and hardships she had faced back then. Though Ji-heon’s eyes remained moist as he looked at her.

After quietly listening to Jung-oh’s story, Ji-heon asked, “Why did we end up like that?”

Why did we break up? I would never let you go.

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

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

At Ji-heon’s precise question, Jung-oh’s eyes tightened with tension.

It was time to reveal the truth.

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

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

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

After Eun-bi left, a long time passed, but Yeong-mi’s convulsions did not stop.

“No way. It can’t be. It must not be.”

“It can’t be. It must be a namesake.”

Unable to sleep and pacing back and forth in the hallway, clutching her phone anxiously, Yeong-mi finally called Ji-heon’s secretary in the middle of the night.

[Yes, Madam.]

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

“Secretary Yoon, are you off work? I’m sorry to bother you, but I have a question. Is there an employee named Lee Jung-oh at the company? Could you send me just one photo of that employee?”

[Yes. Understood.]

The secretary complied with Yeong-mi’s request without further comment.

A short while later, Yeong-mi’s phone notification chimed. It was a photo sent by the secretary. With trembling fingertips, she pressed the screen.

The photo appeared.

This is impossible!

Yeong-mi’s face froze as if she had met the Grim Reaper upon seeing the picture.

The girl from seven years ago. The daughter of a single mother.

The little girl who had been so obsessed with her son, Lee Jung-oh’s face was captured on the phone screen.

“Then that seven-year-old child is…!”