My Secret Daddy

Chapter 8

1.

Seonghyeon stopped for a moment and looked up at the School of Music.

The School of Music was a huge, old brick building shaped like the Korean letter ㄴ. Known as the Music Hall, it consisted of two additional buildings extending from either side of a central hall like wings. The two buildings, Mozart Hall and Paganini Hall, contained practice rooms, classrooms, and auditoriums, while the central section housed various administrative offices.

At the clang of steel beams colliding, Seonghyeon turned his head.

Construction was in full swing on the neighboring lot, separated from the school by a narrow footpath. He had heard they were tearing down a gymnasium to build a new annex for the School of Music.

“They’re worried that the number of music students is declining every year, and yet they’re building a new annex.”

Seonghyeon knew perfectly well that the simple logic of one plus one equaling two didn’t always apply in society, but that fact bothered him every time he encountered it.

He was thirty-eight now. Getting older had only made it worse, but he had always been the sort of person who chose to avoid a problem whenever he came across something that made him uncomfortable.

Today was no different.

After staring at the construction site for a few seconds, he decided to put the matter out of his mind.

He walked slowly down the eerily quiet hallway. The sound of his footsteps echoed throughout the entire building, almost like the notes of a trumpet.

When he stopped in front of the door marked Professor Ha Seonghyeon’s Office, he felt strangely unsettled.

Since when did I become a professor?

Until four years ago, he had never once imagined that he would teach students at a university.

He had been certain that he would spend his entire life as a musician, and to question that certainty would have been to deny his entire life.

He exhaled once and opened the door.

A tremendous burst of cheering and applause erupted from inside, making Seonghyeon suck the breath he had just exhaled right back in.

Fireworks exploded before his eyes.

“Professor Ha Seonghyeon! Welcome!”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Professor Ha Seonghyeon! I’m Lee Hoyoung, your teaching assistant.”

Before Seonghyeon could even open his mouth, two women appeared, enthusiastically beating tambourines.

“Welcome, Professor Ha Seonghyeon!”

Before he knew what was happening, Seonghyeon was wearing a flower necklace and a floral wreath.

“Huh? What—”

A moment later, someone placed a small cake with lit candles in his hands.

“Oh, my…”

The three people immediately bowed their heads in unison.

“It’s such an honor to have you as our professor that we wanted to express it somehow.”

The woman in her mid-thirties and the woman in her mid-twenties introduced themselves one after another.

“I’m Kang Sunbok, a researcher.”

“I’m Jo Yeseul. I’m a graduate student at Hyein University.”

Seonghyeon blew out the candles and handed the cake to Hoyoung.

“It’s nice to meet you all. And thank you for welcoming me so warmly.”

“Please, speak casually with us.”

“We can take it slowly.”

Sunbok took the opportunity to place a large shopping bag into Seonghyeon’s now-empty hand.

“These are chocolates and love letters the students left for you.”

“Love letters?”

“Fan letters.”

Seonghyeon nodded and handed the shopping bag to Hoyoung as well.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. My daughter was sick.”

“Oh, yes~ I see. No wonder…”

The two women, who had been smiling brightly, simultaneously dropped their jaws.

Sunbok jerked her head up so quickly that her short, permed hair bounced.

“You have a daughter?!”

Yeseul, standing beside her, gave Sunbok a sharp jab in the ribs.

“Ow!”

2.

Ruby inspected every corner of the house, even going over the blueprints.

Seonghyeon hadn’t been particularly enthusiastic about the place, but Ruby absolutely loved it.

She liked that it wasn’t a newly built house and that it had a small yard. If they cleared out the weeds and dead shrubs and planted flowers and vegetables, it would be both beautiful and useful.

More than anything, what mattered was that this was the house she and Seonghyeon had chosen for just the two of them.

There was only one thing she didn’t like.

There was only one usable room downstairs.

It would have been nice if there were two rooms side by side.

Ruby started by cleaning Seonghyeon’s bedroom.

There were now more pictures of Ruby than Hyejeong scattered around the room.

With a satisfied smile, Ruby picked up the photograph sitting on the bedside table.

It was the first picture they had taken in this house.

She showered the Seonghyeon in the photograph with about fifty kisses before finishing making the bed.

After cleaning the room, she picked up the laundry basket.

Ruby buried her face in the dress shirt Seonghyeon had taken off and inhaled its scent for a long while.

Then she let out a sly little laugh.

“I guess I really am a pervert.”

A little while later, Ruby turned on the washing machine before heading down the stairs from the auxiliary kitchen to the basement.

She intended to finish sorting through the last of the boxes.

“Whoa! There’s a spiderweb!”

She pointed toward a corner and burst into laughter, but after a moment, her expression turned slightly lonely.

“Should we get a dog? Or maybe a cat?”

On her first day in the house, Ruby had discovered Seonghyeon’s rare posters and records.

There were also two more boxes bearing international shipping labels. Apparently, they had arrived later by post, and Seonghyeon had simply tossed them down here.

When Ruby opened the boxes, she found exactly what she expected: various plaques and trophies, along with several large photo albums.

Ruby took one of the albums and sat down on top of a box.

The photographs were from Seonghyeon’s years in Munich and New York, long before Ruby had entered his life.

Some of the pictures were familiar to her. Others were not.

But in most of them, there was a remarkably handsome boy.

“Go Eunbin…”

Seonghyeon and Hyejeong had mentioned Eunbin often enough that Ruby felt as though she knew him quite well.

They used to say that he was a devil with the face of an angel.

With every turn of the page, the boy grew older.

But once he reached what looked to be his high-school years, he suddenly disappeared from the album.

There were also a dozen tapes and CDs inside the box.

Ruby gathered them up and carried the box upstairs.

Once she returned to the living room, she took out the tapes and checked their labels.

They were marked with years and locations, covering the period from 1991 to 2000.

Ruby inserted the first recording, 1991, Munich, into the VCR.

A Seonghyeon she had never known appeared on the screen.

He was eighteen years old.

Facing a 6mm camera, he smiled mischievously and whispered to himself.

“Munich Airport, December 29, 1991. Today is the day my future wife, Yoo Hyejeong, is coming.”

The camera shook, then began showing random views of the airport.

A little while later, the gate opened, and a young-looking Hyejeong appeared.

From behind the camera, Seonghyeon shouted.

“Hyejeong!”

“Seonghyeon!”

The camera shook violently and pointed at the floor for a long while.

Then Seonghyeon and Hyejeong appeared on screen, standing close together.

Seonghyeon wrapped an arm around Hyejeong’s shoulders and smiled brightly.

“We’re getting married today.”

Ruby pressed the pause button and knelt down in front of their faces on the screen.

Then she cried her heart out.

Their smiles were simply too beautiful to watch without crying.

3.

“What’s this?”

Seonghyeon peeled a yellow sticky note from his shirt collar.

Eunbin had barged in and stuck it there moments earlier.

“Three domestic calls, three calls from New York, and three spam calls. Your texts were practically a bomb, but I couldn’t check them because of the pattern lock.”

“You didn’t have to answer every single one. Anyway, thanks for taking care of it.”

“Which one is your girlfriend, Rose or Miranda?”

“Ah, they’re both just friends.”

“Doesn’t look that way.”

“What do you mean, it doesn’t? What was the word? Right. They’re just female friends.”

Eunbin planted both hands on the desk and leaned his face right into Seonghyeon’s.

“Who is she?”

“Who is who?”

“Don’t tell me you’re paying a teenage girl for companionship.”

“What?”

“Even if I try to give you the benefit of the doubt, she looks like she’s in her teens.”

Confused, Seonghyeon followed Eunbin’s gaze to the cellphone lying on his desk and picked it up.

When Ruby’s photograph appeared on the screen, Seonghyeon realized his mistake.

He had been in such a hurry on his way to work that morning that he had put some random picture on the screen, intending to change it later.

And of all pictures, it happened to be one of Ruby making a playful, coquettish expression.

Of all things, I’ve been letting that picture sit there for everyone to see…

“It’s understandable that you’d get the wrong idea, but no.”

“What exactly isn’t? That she’s a teenager? Or…”

“She’s my daughter.”

“What?”

“I was planning to introduce her when you came over.”

“I don’t understand. Your daughter? I stayed at your house for two whole weeks during summer vacation eight years ago.”

“I adopted her that fall.”

“Adopted?”

“Yeah. I was going to surprise you when you came over, but things got complicated.”

“You could’ve told me before I enlisted.”

Seonghyeon’s expression darkened slightly at those words.

“Well… You know what things were like back then. I had a lot on my mind.”

“Ah, right. I’m sorry for prying into something that wasn’t my business.”

“It’s fine. Anyway…”

Seonghyeon picked up some documents and gestured that Eunbin should leave now.

But Eunbin kept his hands in his pockets and asked another question.

“But why did you adopt a child, Teach? If you don’t mind me saying, I remember you were deliberately using contraception back then.”

“That’s just how things turned out. I’ll tell you the details later. Your teacher is really busy right now.”

“Can I come over to your place today?”

“What should I do? My daughter isn’t feeling well, so we need to take it easy today. And I have plans this evening…”

“Then was that the kid who was sick yesterday? What’s wrong with her?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s nothing serious. She’s fine now.”

Seonghyeon picked up the calendar from his desk.

“Hmm… Let’s see. I have a dinner gathering tomorrow. Looks like I won’t have any time until the weekend. Come over anytime this weekend.”

“What’s her name?”

Seonghyeon smiled warmly and gently ran his hand over the stack of documents.

“Ruby. Her birthday is in July.”

“You even gave her a name?”

“Mm. I think I did a pretty good job, too. It suits her perfectly. You’ll understand when you meet her. She really is as beautiful as a ruby.”

“She didn’t have a name before?”

“Ah, Ruby wanted a different name.”

“How old is she?”

“Eighteen. She’s a third-year student at Hwaeum Arts High School.”

“Eighteen years old, third-year at Hwaeum Arts High School, Ha Ruby…”

“That’s right. She majors in literature. She used to give me quite a headache because she wanted to play the piano. She has an excellent musical ear, but strangely enough, she was terrible at actually playing.”

“Really? Oh, but is this a secret?”

“I didn’t deliberately hide it, but as it happens, no one I know is aware of her. Since things have turned out this way, I’d like to keep it that way until Ruby graduates.”

“Understood.”

Seonghyeon suddenly seemed to remember something and waved his cellphone at Eunbin.

“By the way, did you really come all the way here just to give this to me?”

“Of course.”

“You could’ve sent it by courier. Anyway, what should I do? I also have some appointments I missed yesterday, so I don’t have any time to hang out with you today.”

“Well, what can I do? I guess I’ll just have to wait impatiently for the weekend.”

“Exactly. Now hurry along. Your teacher is very busy right now.”

“Okay. When are you going to call me?”

“We’ve already seen each other. Why do you need a phone call, too?”

“I think about you constantly, Teach. But once I walk out that door, you’re going to forget all about me, aren’t you?”

“You greasy little brat. Save those lines for the girlfriends on your list.”

“Oh! Teach, you even know the word ‘girlfriend.’ Want me to teach you one more thing? It’s a bit old-fashioned, but that sort of thing is called ‘making a move.’”

“W-What are you making a move on?”

“Nice office. It looks more like a CEO’s office than a professor’s.”

Eunbin gave him an exaggeratedly seductive wink before sauntering out of the room.

Seonghyeon smiled to himself and began sorting through the pile of documents.

4.

Eunbin made it from the central hall to the entrance and out of the building in thirty seconds.

Then he ran as though his eyebrows were flying off his face.

He did have somewhere to be, but that wasn’t why he was running.

Whenever he was happy or sad, or whenever something wasn’t going his way, he had a habit of running himself into the ground.

Sometimes he ran on his own two feet.

Other times, he made his motorcycle do the work.

Today, he intended to do both.

As luck would have it, a special lecture had just ended, so several familiar faces passed by.

They spotted Eunbin, too, and started screaming.

“Go Eunbin!”

“Oppa Bini!”

“Did that crazy bastard just laugh?”

“I think he did.”

As if determined to prove them right, Eunbin laughed even louder.

Everywhere he passed, startled birds took flight, shaking the branches as they scattered.

He reached the parking lot in an instant and sped off campus before the motorcycle’s engine had even properly started.

Flames burst from the engine as though a gas burner had exploded.

Once he reached the road, the motorcycle weaved between the cars waiting at the traffic lights.

Curses followed him from behind.

“You crazy bastard! Do you want to die?!”

He burst into another delighted laugh.

The infuriated drivers honked their horns.

To Eunbin’s ears, those horns sounded just like the question that had been trapped inside his head all night.

What’s your name?

She’s my daughter. Eighteen years old, a third-year at Hwaeum Arts High School, and her name is…

It felt as though he had been trapped in a cramped room with walls on every side, only to have finally escaped.

What’s your name?

“What’s your name?!”

Amid the deafening barrage of questions echoing across the asphalt, Eunbin shouted his answer.

“HA RUBY!”