episode_0065

“That’s… I had a little fight with the future… .”

I couldn’t tell the truth.

I didn’t want to deceive Hanna Yeon, but I couldn’t find the words to tell her exactly what had happened.

“That’s right.”

The chairman, who had been listening quietly from the side, nodded his head.

Why is the chairman interfering with this…?

Hanna Yeon and I looked at the chairman at the same time.

“Oh, no, I mean it must be that way… .”

The chairman, embarrassed by the sudden attention, waves his hand slightly and steps back.

… Have you seen it?

Since it happened at the chairman’s house entrance, that possibility couldn’t be completely ruled out.

If that’s the case, I don’t have the face to meet the chairman… .

“What happened.”

“Just… As you live, even family members fight, right?”

He turned his gaze away from the chairman as he heard Hanna Yeon’s question flying in from the side.

In some ways, it could be considered a fight.

No, it’s even bigger than that… .

“… Yeah.”

Did I look like I was in a lot of trouble?

Although she looked completely unconvinced, Hanna Yeon didn’t ask any more questions and just bit into the straw in her Americano.

“Thank you… .”

After a timid thank you, there is a brief moment of silence.

The sound of Hannah Yeon stirring ice with a straw. The sound of a mug being put down that I heard.

Only those two sounds spread quietly, awakening the time that seemed to have stopped.

Knock knock─

In the meantime, Hanna Yeon stood up from her seat and pulled her chair back.

“Where?”

I grabbed Hanna Yeon’s arm as she passed by me.

“Bathroom.”

Perhaps because she had kept her mouth shut for such a long time, Hanna Yeon’s voice was lower than usual.

Is it because of me that Hanna Yeon is in a bad mood? I’m a bit worried…

But I couldn’t keep holding on to someone who wanted to go to the bathroom, so I slowly let go of Hanna Yeon’s arm.

“… … .”

When I was left alone with the chairman, silence came again.

This time, Hanna Yeon didn’t stir the ice, and I didn’t even pick up the mug.

“… Did you see it?”

Instead, the doubts that I had kept in my head came out of my mouth.

“Ah… .”

“Yes, I saw it.”

The chairman’s reply was a little faster than I could have taken back what I had said.

Thanks to that, I was able to put my shaking butt back in place, and there were no awkward situations where the conversation got twisted.

“But you don’t say anything… .”

Unable to raise his head, he muttered in a bitter voice.

No matter how surprised you were, you put a handprint on your daughter’s face…

“Because it’s not something I can meddle in.”

I thought it would be quite a shocking sight, but surprisingly, the chairman did not show much of a stir.

Maybe… the chairman had noticed it a long time ago.

“However, as an aunt, I would like to try to be a bit nosy.”

“Oh my god… .”

That’s nonsense.

If the word ‘ojibbang’ is used between aunt and nephew, then all interactions in the world will become ojibbang.

“Daily amount.”

The chairman, who had been observing my face for a moment, soon opened his mouth with a nervous expression.

“I have never once thought of a sheep as family.”

“Yes… .”

“I don’t feel too bad.”

I blurted out the answer without thinking and then looked up in surprise.

The chairman was clearly smiling, but it was difficult to deduce the meaning behind it.

“That, that’s… .”

I had something to say, but my throat was so blocked that it wouldn’t come out.

The reason was clear.

Because I forced myself to swallow those words and tried to cover it up with a lie.

“To be honest… I felt the same way. I think I tried to force myself into the family fence… .”

Although he was talking nonsense, his words were definitely sincere.

Until now, I never once thought of the Chairman as a real family member.

Didn’t they say that a cousin who lives far away is worse than a neighbor?

It may not be only for that reason, but if the standard for family is the future, the chairman was clearly a stranger.

“You knew it.”

You knew it… What the heck… .

“The future amount may have been the same.”

“The chairman and the future are different!”

thud!

As I stood up, placing my palms on the table, the coffee in my mug swayed as loudly as my heart.

“Oh, no… That’s not what I meant… .”

It’s not like it’s not true.

“Because I’ve always been attached to the future. Well… I guess we just think a little differently… We’ve been getting along really well up until now… .”

I tried to add an excuse in a timid voice, but in the end it was just an extension of the same thing.

The Chairman doesn’t know because he hasn’t spent much time with the future.

Even in this situation, I felt disgusted at myself for thinking such thoughts.

“The amount of daily dose is well known, but it goes around and around.”

But what the chairman focused on was something completely different.

The chairman let out a sigh that was neither a sigh nor a laugh, and continued speaking with his eyes turned sharper towards me.

“Just like me and Haru Yang, Future Yang and Haru Yang are different. Naturally, their thoughts are bound to be different. The fact that things have been going well so far is just Haru Yang’s personal impression.”

The chairman brought out all the facts that I had been unable to accept and had been avoiding without a second thought.

“It’s the same with everything. If everyone has the same idea and moves in the same direction…it’s just an ideal world.”

It felt like a huge rock had settled on my chest.

I said it gently, just in case I got hurt, but that meant I was forcing my thoughts on Mirae.

It was even more bitter because it wasn’t a wrong statement.

“What should I have done… .”

If you think about it calmly, the future has a chairman.

I’m the only one left alone.

Maybe I’ve been holding on to Mirae, my only family, because I didn’t want to be left alone.

“I’m not saying that I should have done it differently. Haru Yang has already made my dirty dream come true.”

The chairman gave me warm comfort as if there was nothing wrong with me.

You say you’ve done well so far, even while putting yourself down.

“The dream of becoming a future mother. It really came true, so I couldn’t utter a single word of complaint.”

He looked at me with straight, clear eyes and patted me on the back.

“So I feel like I can handle it well this time too. Of course, my intuition isn’t all that reliable, but… .”

Of course, at the end, I was rolling my eyes here and there and groaning.

That’s okay too.

I liked this clumsiness of the chairman.

“No, that’s enough. Most of what the chairman says comes true, right?”

For some reason, I laughed.

The sincerity that was directly conveyed in an unavoidable way, the chairman’s recognition mixed with warm consideration.

It made me jump out of my seat.

“I want to meet the future.”

Nothing has changed.

It’s the same as the day the chairman took the future. The only thing that changed was the target from the chairman to the future.

If we continue to struggle like we do now, not knowing what the future holds, our relationship will never get any better.

“The future sheep will not want to meet you.”

“Still.”

More than anything, I wanted to see the future so badly right now.

The future may be bleak and I may hate it, but I still love the future.

“Then there’s nothing I can do.”

The chairman nodded and smiled with a look of satisfaction on his face.

“Haru Yang, I never thought of Haru Yang as family… .”

Then he gently grabbed my sleeve.

“I definitely think you are a precious person.”

He soon turned his gaze beyond the café window and quietly muttered.

“Future transfer, day transfer. It’s too good for me… That’s why I don’t want to lose these relationships.”

This is the first time I’ve heard about the Chairman’s feelings towards me.

Of course, I knew it long ago. If you hadn’t treasured it in the first place, you wouldn’t have cared this much.

But somehow, something inside my chest was welling up, and it felt like the tears I had tried to stop were going to come out again.

“So please.”

Slurp─

After a while, the chairman released his grip on my sleeve, straightened his posture again, and bowed his head to me.

“Please finish it amicably.”

It is something that even the CEO of a large corporation would bow his head to.

“Keuheung… !”

I answered confidently, breathing hard into the running snot.

“Of course.”

If it’s something like that, I absolutely have to make it happen.

Above all, for my sake.

* * *

Hanna Yeon and I returned home in the car provided by the chairman.

The chairman said he would drive me there himself, but then it would be considered drunk driving… .

“Hanna Yeon… .”

A dark staircase.

I went along with the momentum and came suddenly, but I didn’t have the courage to face the future, so I walked as slowly as possible.

“Yeah.”

“What if…what if…the precious person I can’t exchange for anything else ends up going down the wrong path because of me?”

Thud thud.

The stairs are finally reaching their end.

Maybe this is your last chance to pull yourself together.

“Maybe it’s your own mistake to think that it’s the wrong way.”

“Tta, you didn’t say it was about me?”

The opportunity was lost due to Hanna Yeon’s indifferent answer.

My mistake… .

Maybe that’s not wrong.

Strictly speaking, Mirae and I are complete strangers who do not share a single drop of blood, so I can’t say that it was wrong for Mirae to have feelings for me.

“Hoo… .”

In the end, I ended up standing in front of the door without organizing anything.

But if you try to avoid it now, the situation will only get worse.

I pulled the doorknob of our house with a deep sigh.

“Future… .”

As I entered the hallway, I called out to the future, but then stopped dead in my tracks.

“There isn’t any… .”

There was no sign of life in the house.

Well, the probability of that happening is lower.

Then at least 4 hours.

This means that the future will be lonely and alone for a long time, four hours.

“I have to go quickly… .”

I walked faster, avoiding Hanna Yeon who was standing behind me.

Then suddenly.

Hannah Yeon grabbed my arm and I couldn’t move forward any further.

“Leeharu.”

“Huh?”

He just turned his head and signaled that it was urgent.

“What am I to you?”

But Hanna Yeon wasn’t looking at me.

A question asked with an anxious expression and a voice that seemed ready to scatter at any moment.

“What kind of being is it? It is precious… .”

“That’s not it… .”

I didn’t have time to figure out why the question was asked.

Hanna Yeon bit her lip as if she had asked the wrong question in the first place, then continued speaking.

“I was actually angry. Because it seemed like you didn’t trust me.”

I stopped fidgeting and twitching my hands.

Certainly, I think it was too blatant a hiding.

So that’s why you suddenly went to the bathroom.

This… didn’t seem like a story worth listening to in my current state.

“And I feel like I’m no help to you.”

And then all of a sudden, I started getting scared.

Well, what Hanna Yeon said was so similar to what I was thinking.

It doesn’t help.

If you can’t be of help to someone you care about, it might be better to just disappear from their life.

“That, that kind of… .”

I grabbed the sleeve of Hannah Yeon’s jumper and sobbed.

I don’t want to lose.

I don’t want to lose Hannah Yeon, Mirae, or anyone else…

“That’s not it, Hanna Yeon… .”

He shook his head.

I said it was a misunderstanding, but I couldn’t say what the misunderstanding was, so I just kept mumbling that it wasn’t.

“That’s not it… No… .”

“I know.”

Talk.

The moment my vision blurred and I felt tears welling up, a shy yet rough hand touched my crown.

“I’ll let you off just this once.”

A hand runs down the back of your head, down your nape, and across the hollow of your spine between your shoulder blades.

“Instead.”

“Instead… ?”

“Hold on for a moment and go.”

As I tilted my head and looked up, Hanna Yeon immediately pulled my slightly trembling body into her arms.

“Hanna Yeon… !”

At the same time, all my anxiety melted away like snow.

Tsk tsk… .

Take a deep breath and enjoy Hanna Yeon’s unique scent.

A reassuring smell. Is this the first time since the day I was separated from Mirae?

Because Hanna Yeon was much taller than me, not only her smell but also her warm feeling played a big part in calming my heart.

“Why do I smell… .”

But on the other hand, it was because Hanna Yeon showed that she couldn’t calm down.

“What, what? Isn’t that why I hugged you?”

My mind, which I had tried to calm down, began to overflow again.

“I sweated… .”

“Really? But it’s still good, right?”

It may sound like something said to cover up an awkward situation, but what I just said was true, without a single lie.

Maybe the smell that reassured me was Hanna Yeon’s sweat!

In the first place, she was the one who hugged me first.

“Contact us at ”

“He didn’t come… .”

A dark hallway with darkness falling all around.

In a passage where a chilly wind blows in and out.

Hanna Yeon and I hugged each other and whispered to each other, sharing our body heat.

“But how do I find it?”

But now it’s time to let go.

Because I have to go see my daughter.

“I think I can just… find it.”

I untied my arm from around Hannah Yeon’s waist and slowly stepped back, smiling confidently.

“Because I’m your mom.”