Chapter – 03
Walking along with a bouquet nearly as large as her own body cradled in her arms, Da-yeon couldn’t hide the smile on her face.
She had met her teacher.
After two whole years.
I thought I’d never see him again…
He had been the only person who had reached out and taken Da-yeon’s hand during the darkest period of her life, after her mother passed away and it felt as though her entire world had collapsed.
Just knowing that she had met Si-heon again made the world seem brighter.
Da-yeon took out her phone and sent him a message.
[Teacher, I was really happy to see you today. Let’s meet again sometime!]
Even though no reply came, Da-yeon was so happy simply because she had seen him again that she felt as though she had gained the whole world.
All the waiting and disappointment she had endured seemed to melt away in an instant.
That happiness shattered the moment she arrived home.
Standing in front of the entrance to the old apartment building, Da-yeon suddenly remembered something she had pushed to the back of her mind.
Today… I disobeyed Dad and ran away from that man, Mr. Go.
By now, her father had surely heard what happened.
Du-seop was probably waiting for her inside, grinding his teeth in anger because she had disobeyed him.
But this was her only home.
She had nowhere else to go.
She couldn’t simply refuse to enter.
Taking a long, deep breath, Da-yeon reached for the doorknob.
“I’m home.”
The moment she spoke in a tiny voice, what greeted her was not a warm welcome but a furious shout.
“You fucking brat! What the hell have you been doing?!”
Something flew through the air and struck her hard in the forehead.
For an instant, her vision flashed white, and something hot began running down her skin.
She rubbed the spot with her hand.
A bright-red liquid stained her fingertips.
Blood.
Before she could even process what had happened, another barrage of insults came flying at her.
“You little bitch, you’ve been hiding your mother’s inheritance! I’ve fed and supported you all these years, and you couldn’t even handle that pathetic Mr. Go?!”
“How many times do I have to tell you? There is no inheritance! I’m telling the truth. The only thing Mom left me was a business card.”
Da-yeon tried to explain, but Du-seop didn’t even seem willing to listen.
“Don’t lie to me! What kind of woman was Do Hee-ok? You think she would leave behind nothing but that worthless thing? She even left instructions telling you to look for something once you turned twenty!”
With another furious shout, an ashtray came flying toward her.
Da-yeon instinctively dodged.
The ashtray smashed against the wall and shattered into pieces.
If that had hit my face…
Da-yeon’s face went pale with shock.
“Where’s the inheritance Do Hee-ok left behind? Where is it?!”
Through her terrified eyes, Da-yeon saw Du-seop approaching her with madness in his expression.
She instinctively took a step backward.
A dark shadow fell over her head.
When Si-heon returned to his office, the first thing he did was loosen the tie constricting his neck.
His normally emotionless eyes settled on a face buried deep within his old memories.
Jung Da-yeon.
The young student who had formed a teacher-student bond with him three years ago.
“Si-heon. If something happens to me… please take care of that child.”
The words Do Hee-ok had once spoken to him echoed in his mind like a ringing in his ears.
He could never ignore the request of the woman who had once saved his life.
At first, he had only intended to check on the girl from time to time.
He had never imagined that the connection they formed back then would continue for this long.
“Welcome back, Executive Director.”
Si-heon snapped out of his thoughts when Chief Secretary Myung entered the office and politely greeted him.
Si-heon handed him the tie he had just removed.
“Thanks to you telling me. That girl had been dragged into an absolutely ridiculous marriage meeting.”
Si-heon had changed direction on his way to the graduation ceremony immediately after Chief Secretary Myung reported that Da-yeon had been taken somewhere by her father before the ceremony had even ended.
How could a father… do that to his own daughter?
Si-heon clicked his tongue softly and shook his head.
“Was his name Mr. Go? Look into that man separately.”
“Yes.”
“And find out how much debt Jung Da-yeon’s father has.”
“Understood, Executive Director.”
As he listened to Chief Secretary Myung’s answer, Si-heon let out a faint sigh.
His benefactor, Do Hee-ok, might have been highly accomplished in her own field, but there was no question that her judgment in men had been absolutely terrible.
She had married a man who would even sell his own daughter for business funds, and had a child with him.
Perhaps noticing Si-heon’s displeasure, Chief Secretary Myung deliberately emphasized the brighter side of things.
“Still, Miss Jung Da-yeon studied diligently all this time and managed to get into medical school. Isn’t that remarkable, considering her family circumstances?”
“I suppose so.”
Si-heon remembered her light-brown eyes, which had seemed almost to demand praise from him, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.
He felt strangely proud, as though her achievement were his own.
He had only taught the girl for a year, and the help he had given her must have been small and insignificant.
Maybe I got a little too absorbed in playing teacher.
Chief Secretary Myung folded Si-heon’s tie and held it in his hands. After hesitating for a moment, he finally spoke.
“Wouldn’t it have been better to simply tell her the truth?”
Si-heon’s cold, questioning gaze turned toward him.
“Tell her what?”
“Why you had to leave Korea without saying anything. Miss Da-yeon seems to have waited for you for a long time without knowing the reason.”
Si-heon lowered his gaze as though lost in thought for a moment.
Then he shook his head.
“Forget it.”
“But still…”
“There’s nothing good that can come from her knowing.”
“……”
“I’m just a teacher who briefly passed through her life. That’s enough.”
His tone was so firm that Chief Secretary Myung could no longer bring himself to argue.
“Understood.”
After giving a brief bow, Chief Secretary Myung turned to leave.
“Ah.”
Si-heon’s voice came from behind him.
Chief Secretary Myung turned around and looked at him.
“Include Jung Da-yeon in the list of students to be considered for the in-school scholarship support program.”
“Jung Da-yeon?”
“I can’t let Teacher Do Hee-ok’s daughter give up her education—and especially her dream of becoming a doctor—because of her family circumstances.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Chief Secretary Myung lowered his head, swallowing the words he had been about to say.
None of this had made sense from the beginning.
Si-heon was the heir apparent to one of the pharmaceutical conglomerates that ranked among the top one or two business groups in the country.
His days were divided down to the minute, and decisions worth billions of won passed through his hands.
To him, time wasn’t something to simply let pass.
It was a resource that had to be managed, something that had to hold value for the future of the group.
And yet, this man had hidden his identity and personally gone to find Da-yeon to teach her.
As if that weren’t enough, he was now planning to pay for her tuition out of his own pocket.
Does Executive Director Cha Si-heon really intend to remain nothing more than a teacher who briefly passes through Da-yeon’s life?
There was no way to know.
Chief Secretary Myung had known Si-heon since he was young, but even he found it difficult to guess what was going on inside the man’s heart.
With a promise to carry out the instructions, Chief Secretary Myung left the office.
Alone, Si-heon turned his attention back to the documents he had been reading earlier.
Da-yeon’s tearful face as she had clung to him came to mind.
But only for a moment.
As he quickly reviewed the documents, not a trace of hesitation remained on his face.
“You worked hard, Miss Da-yeon.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“I transferred your day’s wages right away, so check your account.”
Da-yeon bowed her head and, the moment she stepped outside the hotel, took out her phone to check the deposit.
After confirming the amount that had been deposited, she let out a long sigh.
It was money she had earned after spending the entire day serving customers and washing dishes.
Yet the number in her bank account showed little sign of increasing.
“When am I ever going to be able to live on my own at this rate?”
She had thought that once she became an adult, she would be able to do anything she wanted.
But after actually stepping out into the real world, she realized that the choices available to a student who had just graduated high school were extremely limited.
Even renting a tiny room or a small space in a boarding house required a deposit.
She had hurriedly found part-time jobs and tutoring work, but the money she earned was nowhere near enough to live independently.
“I have to think about tuition, too…”
For the past three years, Du-seop had practically abandoned Da-yeon.
There was no way he would pay her tuition.
That burden, too, had fallen entirely on Da-yeon.
It was the university she had finally managed to get into after studying desperately for three years.
She barely had enough money to survive the following month, and now she had to somehow come up with tuition as well.
The thought left her feeling utterly hopeless.
Da-yeon pushed her troubled thoughts aside and walked toward a nearby park.
There was still plenty of time before Du-seop would go to sleep.
She planned to kill time here and only return home late at night.
She dropped onto a bench and took an unheated triangle kimbap out of her bag.
It was her first meal of the day.
Starving, she hurriedly began eating.
Then the skin on her forehead pulled painfully, sending a sharp sting through her head.
“Tsk…”
Da-yeon swallowed the pain and reached up to feel the injured area.
The spot where Du-seop had struck her with a remote control a few days ago had split open again, leaving the wound exposed.
