Before he knew it, the long march of three days and two nights drew to a close.
“Um, now… can I really go?”
Jo Yeri tried to keep her chin up, maintaining her proud composure, but her pale face, like she might collapse any second, was saying for her that she wanted to go home right now.
“Yeah, you can go.”
When Hyunseung nodded a couple of times, Jo Yeri forced down the gagging that surged up and bolted out of the studio.
“Was it really that hard?”
Watching her, Hyunseung tilted his head, puzzled.
Of course, he was somewhat tired, and his eyes were dry.
But it did not feel like he was dying.
Swoosh.
Look, Jo Kyungmi is perfectly fine.
“Yeri….”
Jo Kyungmi looked at the door Jo Yeri had left through with worried eyes. Still, her complexion looked fine.
Well, she was someone who went on stage at least three hundred days out of the year.
Since she had to travel all over the world and keep up with endless schedules broken down by the minute, she took care of her stamina even more diligently than most national team athletes.
“Aren’t you going to go after her?”
Hyunseung asked Jo Kyungmi first. Now that all the work was done, he meant she really could go.
Shake, shake.
But Jo Kyungmi shook her head and took a seat on one end of the sofa. Then, with a faint smile, she said,
“Then my daughter might feel pressured.”
The anxious, restless, somehow desperate expression she had worn was nowhere to be found, and she looked very calm.
It was not as if this excuse had suddenly made the mother and daughter bright and cheerful with each other, but still, the icy atmosphere had loosened somewhat….
Maybe Jo Kyungmi felt that was enough.
After all, just as misunderstandings had piled up layer upon layer over time, undoing those knots would also have to be done slowly, carefully, step by step, if you wanted to untangle what had become tightly snarled.
“I won’t nag or rush anymore. I’m just going to move toward her like this, slowly, one step at a time.”
Jo Kyungmi continued in an even tone.
“A few years ago….”
She said there had been a day when she went to find the daughter she had pushed aside and avoided for the sake of her own future, simply because she was her daughter.
“My feelings mattered more than my daughter’s, back then.”
If a woman she had not seen for over ten years suddenly showed up and went, “I’m your mom,” how ridiculous must it have felt for her daughter?
“Even I wouldn’t have accepted it.”
She said she got back on the plane like she was running away because she felt sorry for her daughter, but looking back now, maybe she just did not have the courage to be hurt by her daughter.
She had thought she had the strength to overcome any hardship and adversity, but that day she realized that in front of her daughter, she was endlessly weak.
“I didn’t even stop to think about the hurt my daughter must have taken.”
Now she truly wanted to become a “mother,” she said, emphasizing the word mother again and again, saying she would become a mother stronger than anyone in the world for her daughter.
Then, adding that she would willingly endure whatever hurt might come after, for her daughter’s sake, she smiled brightly.
“Even if it takes a long time, I’ll try to ask my daughter for forgiveness.”
When she finished speaking, Jo Kyungmi bowed her head deeply with a sincere expression.
“Thank you.”
Hyunseung had already heard her circumstances once, but it was clearly a pretext for her to say thank you, so he did not add anything.
“It’s nothing.”
Hyunseung, who had been listening in silence to her confession and her lament, finally opened his tightly closed lips.
“All I did was give the two of you one good excuse.”
“There are relationships where you need an excuse, just to exchange a single word.”
Hyunseung nodded slightly and chimed in, “That’s true, too.”
In his previous life, his family had been like that as well. A relationship where he only reached out when there was an excuse, like a birthday.
And there was also her, whom he would take a long way around to go see, using a walk as an excuse.
And even the mother he could only ask about when he had a work-related excuse, could be called that kind of relationship in the broadest sense.
“But, you know…”
It was Hyunseung’s sudden question.
“Ms. Jo Kyungmi, could you forgive your daughter no matter what she did?”
The moment he asked, he thought, What am I saying?
But the question had already left his mouth, and taking it back would look even stranger.
“Hm?”
Jo Kyungmi must have found it odd too, because she tilted her head once, but she answered almost immediately.
“There’s no parent who can beat their child. I would forgive her.”
“What if your daughter led you to your death?”
The instant he heard her answer, Hyunseung hurriedly asked again.
“…No, never mind.”
But realizing he had gotten worked up, he immediately fixed his expression.
Jo Kyungmi looked startled for a moment at his face.
“Even if that were the case…”
She continued, very calmly.
“I would only hope my daughter would not live trapped in guilt.”
At those words, a sigh spilled out of Hyunseung, mixed with emotions he could not name.
“Ah…”
That was all.
“I see…”
Just as he could not continue with anything else,
“Do you live trapped in guilt, by any chance?”
Jo Kyungmi asked carefully. He did not answer. The lines around her eyes, set there so naturally, looked as if they could see straight through him, soaked with compassion.
Ah.
Maybe that saying exists for a reason: you can fool ghosts, but you cannot fool your mother.
“Instead of an excuse for someone else.”
In Hyunseung’s silence, Jo Kyungmi spoke again.
“How about making one excuse, this time, for yourself, Composer?”
Hyunseung did not answer again. To tell the truth, this too was his excuse.
Yes.
An excuse to lighten the guilt he carried toward his mother, even if only a little.
“I’ll contact you again once the post-production is done.”
Hyunseung got up and headed toward the door to see her out.
As if she had read his intent, Jo Kyungmi followed quietly without a word.
Before long, Hyunseung smiled with a face that could not be more satisfied, and added one last thing.
“Let’s make that the next excuse for the mother and daughter.”
They would probably need many more troublesome excuses to reconcile completely.
For them, and for him, too.
Even after the mother and daughter left, Hyunseung stayed in the studio.
“Hyunseung, what if you really collapse at this rate?”
“Yeah, if you do, the director’s going to chew us out.”
“We’re seriously almost done, so stop making such a fuss.”
Until the engineers, who came running after hearing the news late, begged him to go get some sleep and finally tried to kick him out by force.
“This won’t do. Drag him out.”
In the end, he was shoved into a car as if being thrown out of the building, his limbs held by four burly engineers.
Already tired, Hyunseung gave in, started the engine, and left the building for the first time in days.
It was not like he had been living with the studio lights off, but it had still been a long time since he had seen sunlight, and his eyes stung from the brightness.
“Ah.”
When he turned on his phone to set the navigation, notifications lined up across the screen.
“This is bad.”
Because he had neglected his phone all through the work, he had even missed texts from his family since yesterday.
[ These days when I go to school, all I hear is about you, oppa, it’s so annoyingㅠㅠ ]
[ I just ate dinner with Hyuna. Did my son eat too? ]
[ Oppa, are you coming home today? If not, is there anything you want me to bring you? ]
[ Work is good, but don’t forget that your health always comes first. ]
[ What time are you coming home today? If you tell me the time… I’ll send it. ]
Every message was concern and checking in.
Vroooom.
Instead of replying, Hyunseung pressed the accelerator.
The house, returned to in the middle of the afternoon, was noisy for some reason.
‘What is this?’
On the entryway floor where Hyunseung lowered his gaze, there was a pair of shoes he had never seen before, neatly lined up.
“Hahahahahaha!”
More than anything, unfamiliar laughter rang from inside.
Gulp.
Just as Hyunseung, seized by a vague sense of dread, was about to step back out of the house,
“I need to go to the bathroom…”
A girl came crashing toward the bathroom by the front door, and their eyes met.
The girl stared blankly at him for a moment.
“Gasp!”
As if she had seen a ghost, she clapped both hands over her mouth and stumbled backward. Judging by her reaction, she seemed to recognize who he was.
Well, his face was already out there, so if someone paid even a little attention, there was no way they would not know.
And it was not exactly an ordinary face, either.
She looked around Hyuna’s age, so she was probably a friend of Hyuna’s….
‘Ah!’
That was when the last text message Hyuna had sent suddenly came to mind.
He had started reading it because it was on the way, then stopped. If he had known this would happen, he should have called. But it was too late. The water had already been spilled.
“Are you Hyuna’s friend?”
Hyunseung asked, putting on a calm face.
“…Huh? Y-yes….”
But the girl answered like someone terrified, forcing out words through trembling lips.
“Yoonjeong…?”
Hyuna, sensing something was off, ran out of the living room, then froze on the spot when she saw him and her friend.
“Gasp!”
Hyuna’s face was the very picture of despair.
She must have been keeping it secret that he was her brother, but now she had run into him at home with no room to make excuses, so it had to be awkward.
“I’ll be in my room. Have fun.”
Before long, just as Hyunseung was about to walk away like it was nothing,
“Y-Yoonjeong! This is my brother. Say hi.”
Hyuna grabbed his forearm and introduced him to her friend.
‘What is wrong with her?’
Hyunseung shot Hyuna a scolding look, but Hyuna only gave him a small smile.
“Uh, uh, I’m Hyuna’s friend, Go Yoonjeong. N-nice to meet you. I mean, it’s not… the first time… ah, hello….”
Yoonjeong probably did not even know what she was saying. She was so flustered that her gaze darted around, unable to settle anywhere.
Come to think of it, Hyuna had said there were several kids among her friends who were his fans. Could this friend be one of them too?
“Yeah. Have fun with Hyuna and get home safe.”
Hyunseung said with as warm a big-brother smile as he could manage. He needed to be careful, in case he ended up having a bad influence on his little sister.
He hoped Hyuna’s life would stay quiet for as long as possible.
“See you later, Yoonjeong.”
At that, Yoonjeong clutched her chest and stammered.
“Huh? Y-you just called me, Yoonjeong… um….”
But she could not finish what she was saying.
Thud.
She fainted on the spot.
.
.
.
After dealing with the situation and going into his room, Hyunseung sat at his desk instead of sleeping.
Then he opened a notebook and began to scribble words onto it.
Scratch, scratch.
Calling it a project would be an exaggeration, more like a to do list.
And he had also thought of a pretty decent nickname and wanted to write it down.
Swoosh, swoosh.
Then Hyunseung drew a line straight through the words written at the very top.
Jo-Jo mother and daughter (Yeri-Kyungmi)
Ma-Sarah-Te father and daughter (Mateo-Sarah)
.
.
Me
Now it was time for him to go meet Mateo and Sarah.
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