Ch.59059 – Bloodline 2

# 059 – Blood Ties # 2

Former novelist and current game company CEO, Kang Bada.

He said:

“…It seems Chaeyeon really didn’t tell you anything. It feels a bit awkward for me to tell you what your mom didn’t… I thought you were Harry Potter, but now I see you’re Luke.”

“What’s Luke supposed to mean?”

“You don’t know this? Do kids these days not watch movies because they’re too busy studying?”

“This is why I hate adults. You could just tell me directly instead of beating around the bush.”

I’ve grown stronger through all kinds of experiences.

I didn’t want to be played by puzzling wordplay anymore.

Soon, Mr. Kang Bada burst into laughter.

He laughed so hard that the few students in the library started giving us looks.

“True. Adults are cowards. I used to think the same way. Especially doctors. I wondered why they had to use such difficult technical terms to obscure things from patients.”

Swish-

Mr. Kang Bada placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Well then, Ha Yeongwon. Let’s make a deal.”

I noticed now that Mr. Kang Bada had a ring on his left ring finger, but it looked extremely cheap. I thought it might be a wedding ring, but what made me question it was that it looked like plastic, like a children’s toy.

“You know your friend Yu Dahui, right? Find out about her. What food she likes. Who she’s close with. What animals she likes. What she dislikes too. Actually, just try to get as much information as possible.”

Mr. Kang Bada’s eyes were flickering with a strange emotion.

He seemed like a complete pervert.

A scruffy, unshaven man trying to buy information about a high school girl.

I felt extremely uncomfortable and disgusted.

But since this man clearly knew something, I decided to agree to the deal.

“Fine. But couldn’t you just ask her directly? Yu Dahui will be here soon.”

“I’ve been marked by the Cheon family. If I approach Yu Dahui directly, there would probably be a huge commotion. But let me tell you one thing—I’m your ally. I can jump into flames for the woman I love. In that way, you and I are similar. You… are you really not my son? You seem to resemble me. If I calculate the dates correctly…”

“Ugh!? What the hell are you saying?”

“Hahaha! Just kidding. It’s fun teasing you. You get bullied at school, right? Seeing how enjoyable it is to tease you, I can see why kids would like bullying you.”

“……”

“Chaeyeon and I were really nothing. Very unfortunately. I couldn’t even hold her hand. Your mom was so proud… she made many men cry.”

This man wasn’t telling me anything I was really curious about, just chattering about things I didn’t want to know. What a weirdo.

Soon, Kang Bada put on a serious expression.

“You don’t resemble me at all. But you’re the spitting image of that guy. I know well. Your father, I mean. I know you don’t like talking about your father. But still, he’s your father.”

“……”

“Can’t you forgive him now? Being sick like this only harms your own soul. I know that well.”

“Forgiveness? Who should forgive whom?”

I spoke sharply, like an angry bee stinging.

Mr. Kang Bada scratched the back of his head as if a bit embarrassed.

“Well, I guess I’m being too nosy. That doesn’t suit my personality either. I’ll be going then. Give my regards to your mom. Tell her I love her. Tell her I’m free tonight.”

“No way.”

“Kid. Quick to get angry. Just like your father.”

Chuckling, Kang Bada disappeared.

Right after, as if passing a baton, Yu Dahui appeared.

Dahui asked:

“Yeongwon, who was that man just now? I was waiting because it looked like you were talking.”

“A potential sex offender. Don’t pay attention to him. You’d better be careful.”

“…?”

Yu Dahui tilted her head as if she couldn’t understand.

Right now, we had more important things than a man asking for information about high school girls.

I sat quietly at the desk and asked:

“Dahui, I have a lot of questions for you. I’d like you to be as honest as possible. I found your cat for you, after all.”

“Hmm. Okay.”

“Can you tell me everything you remember about the housekeeper who worked at your house?”

Yu Dahui frowned at my question.

Then, puffing her cheeks slightly, she replied curtly:

“Tch. That’s what you’re curious about? I was expecting something different. Like asking about my favorite music or my ideal type.”

I was curious about those things too, but right now there were priorities.

Eventually, Yu Dahui nodded.

“Fine. A promise is a promise. I met the housekeeper about 10 years ago. I was still in the facility then. I met her at the facility… and we went to the mansion together.”

“Wait. You were in a facility?”

“Huh? Didn’t I tell you this? I lived in an orphanage until I was 5 years old. Oseong Orphanage. I think it’s gone now… Then my grandfather found me and I moved into the mansion.”

This was another fact I was hearing for the first time.

So Yu Dahui came from an orphanage.

“…What about your mother and father?”

“My mom… died when I was very young, they say. So I don’t know much. As for my dad… my grandfather doesn’t like talking about him, so I don’t know much either. But I was told it was my father who put me in the orphanage.”

Everyone has their painful circumstances.

Even Yu Dahui, who seemed like a rich young lady, had a more complicated family history than I thought.

Should I ask more?

It felt like I was digging into someone’s wounds.

But… if I were to be cold-hearted, I was in no position to be picky.

I wasn’t in a position to be choosy or judgmental.

“So you lived with the housekeeper you met at the orphanage for 10 years at the mansion?”

“Yes. She was a good person. I thought if my mom were alive, she might have been like her. The housekeeper treated me like her own daughter. Actually, I heard she had a son she’d been separated from for a long time.”

“A son?”

“I don’t… remember well. But she said there were circumstances that prevented her from meeting him… She said if she just waited a few more days, she could go see him… Then she quit her job saying she was going to meet her son. That’s right.”

It was absurd, but I thought that the housekeeper who had worked at Yu Dahui’s house for 10 years might be my mom. Of course, my mom had always been with me for the past 10 years.

But.

Recently, there was exactly one time when my mom was separated from me, wasn’t there?

It was when mom entered the elevator and disappeared.

That elevator, as far as I knew, was connected to the “orphanage.”

What if mom met Yu Dahui at that orphanage?

“Dahui, the orphanage you lived in. Where is it now?”

“It doesn’t exist anymore. There was a big fire about 10 years ago that burned it down.”

Everything has cause and effect.

There’s always an essence to things.

I tried to piece together the puzzle in my head.

An orphanage that disappeared 10 years ago.

Mom who disappeared into the elevator and then reappeared.

When mom came back, I could feel that something about her had changed.

Even her latest model phone had discharged as if the battery was old…

“Could it be…”

Even I knew it sounded impossible.

I questioned whether such a thing was possible.

Could it be that after mom disappeared into the elevator, she escaped to the past, 10 years ago…?

Could it be that mom went to the past 10 years ago and stayed at Yu Dahui’s mansion? I couldn’t understand the reason.

Perhaps mom escaped to the past 10 years ago, and since the past version of mom who would be with me, Ha Yeongwon, existed simultaneously in the same world, she thought she shouldn’t reveal her identity.

And then-

Mom remembered the day she entered the elevator and disappeared, waited for that day, quit her job at the mansion, and returned to me.

As if nothing had happened.

“Dahui, do you remember the housekeeper’s face?”

“…No. I don’t remember well. It’s strange. We were together just a month ago.”

Yu Dahui couldn’t remember the housekeeper’s face.

She didn’t seem to be lying.

My mom also couldn’t remember anything that happened during the time she was missing.

Something had clearly tampered with “memories.”

That’s what I decided to believe.

# # #

“Mom’s being discharged soon. And look at this. The ladies in the next room gave it to me. For knitting.”

I headed to the hospital.

Mom was enjoying knitting.

I looked at mom carefully again.

Mom was thirty-four years old.

She was often told she looked very young, and people always said they couldn’t believe she had a high school son.

Even now, at a glance, she looked that young.

At a glance, she would look like a woman in her mid-thirties.

But as her son, I could see the faint wrinkles that had formed on her face and the increasing white hairs.

That was a gap of 10 years.

“Oh my. What’s with you suddenly hugging mom like this?”

“……”

In that moment, I made a vow.

I would never forgive whoever was making us go through this, whoever they might be.

And mom might remember.

“Mom, I’m sorry for asking again, but do you really not remember anything from when you were missing?”

“I don’t… remember well. But thinking about it again… I think I really missed you. My only son. And… if I think carefully…”

“If you think carefully?”

“I think I thought it would have been nice to have a daughter. I wonder why I thought that.”

“……”

“Maybe mom wants a daughter-in-law already. So how far have you gone with Juhui? Hmm? You’re not going to suddenly give me a grandchild, are you? Raising a child while in high school is hard. Mom knows that well.”

My mom seemed to really like Yang Juhui.

Perhaps because she reminded her of her own high school days.

After all, mom couldn’t complete high school properly because of me.

As I was feeling awkward, mom said:

“And… during the time I was missing, I think I talked with your father.”

“…With dad?”

“I know. It sounds impossible. Your father is in a place where we can’t meet him even if we want to. I think I just had a dream like that. When I first woke up, it seemed like a scary dream. But thinking about it again, it seems like it was quite an interesting dream…”

I see.

It was fortunate that it was an interesting dream.

I took out my Yeongji High entrance ceremony photo from my pocket and handed it to mom.

Mom was delighted.

“Oh, I lost that after putting it in my wallet. Where did you find it?”

“Adam Smith gave it to me.”

“What Smith? A foreigner?”

My mom didn’t know Adam Smith.

It was because she had nothing to do with studying.

It couldn’t be helped.

# # #

In a dark, gloomy room, there was a man.

Someone spoke to him as he was facing the wall.

“1101. You have a visitor.”

A visitor.

At those words, the man’s senses awakened.

He walked down a narrow, long corridor and made eye contact with a man through a transparent glass window.

“Hey. Don’t look so obviously disappointed.”

“What’s this? Aquaman?”

“I met Chaeyeon. She seems to be doing well. There seem to be various issues, but overall she looked very healthy.”

“That’s good.”

“And I also met your son. Ha Yeongwon. He’s the spitting image of you. Looks like he’ll do all the things you shouldn’t do, just like you. Blood really doesn’t lie.”

“Ha Yeongwon?”

“Well, these days, kids can take their mother’s surname too. But it seems Cheon Daegon has met your son. Will that be okay?”

“……”

The man fell into deep thought.

Kang Bada spoke to the contemplative man:

“Well, now that I’ve seen your face, I’ll be going. And from now on, don’t call me Aquaman, call me Professor Snape.”