My Secret Daddy

Chapter 3

1.

As his second year drew to a close and the summer vacation was nearing its end, Seonghyeon received an email.

It was from Hyein University in Korea.

“South Korea… Hyein University…”

Hyein University had close ties to the Hwaeum Foundation, which his father ran, so there had to be some connection between them.

A very long time ago, when he was a child, Seonghyeon had been immensely proud of his father’s business. Guests would often come to their home on weekends, and among them were poor children who were studying on scholarships from the foundation. Seonghyeon would often play with those children, but strangely enough, they never became friends. Back then, he had no idea that he could never truly be their friend because, to them, he was someone above them.

A few years later, he heard that the father of one of those children had committed suicide. Apparently, the man had embezzled and squandered money from the foundation before taking his own life out of fear.

But Seonghyeon knew that the man had been nothing more than an electrical-room employee who could not possibly have had access to the foundation’s funds.

But that was all.

Seonghyeon neither sought the truth any further nor wanted to know it. He thought about it very logically. He was an independent individual, just like everyone else. The foundation was his father’s business, and since he had no intention of inheriting it or working there, he was independent from it as well. If he wanted to insist on his own independence, then he had to acknowledge the independent lives of others. Therefore, he would leave his father’s business within his father’s domain and never interfere with it in any way.

Not long afterward, he left Korea with Violin and Hyejeong.

And so…

In the past, he would not even have given the offer a second thought. Yet this time, he could not bring himself to reject it outright. Instead, he found himself agonizing over the decision.

One reason he could not refuse was that his only protégé, Go Eunbin, attended the university.

He could almost hear Eunbin’s beautiful voice and see her beautiful eyes.

“Teacher, isn’t this what people call fate?”

Above all else, he wanted to escape the terrible nightmare that had haunted him once and for all.

During that time, he had acquired two girlfriends.

If such terms could be used, his relationship with Rose was “basic,” while his relationship with another woman, Miranda, was “fundamental.”

Because he stubbornly insisted on spending weekends with his young daughter, he went on dates with Rose every Thursday. Whether they went to a movie, a musical, shopping, or a party, the evening always ended at Rose’s apartment.

Little by little, he was growing tired of Rose’s enormous breasts and seemingly inexhaustible energy.

Then, one day, he ended up going on a date with the senior reporter from a music website who had come to interview him.

Her name was Miranda McKinn, a cheerful woman. Her mother was Japanese, so she had an affinity for East Asian culture, and unlike Rose, she preferred eating, drinking, and talking to sex.

Before spending the night with her for the first time, Seonghyeon told her about his relationship with Rose.

After hearing the whole story, Miranda smiled as she finished unbuttoning his shirt.

“I don’t mind. I’ll just try harder to win your heart.”

Perhaps, like people who had been wounded often did, he had been waiting for someone.

Someone who would appear and take Hyejeong’s place.

Someone who would erase those terrible memories completely.

But before long, he grew weary of these meaningless relationships that stirred nothing inside him. Rose and Miranda were different in some ways, yet almost identical in others.

One day, Miranda attended a party at Seonghyeon’s invitation, where she happened to meet Rose, who had been invited by someone else.

Contrary to Seonghyeon’s fears, the two women unexpectedly became friends.

He admired them for being such New Yorkers, but at the same time, their “coolness” began to disgust him.

After a date, he could no longer fall asleep in their beds and would call a taxi to take him home before morning.

At some point, he began wanting to put an end to these “messy relationships” and live quietly with Ruby.

“Korea… Hyein University…”

But next year, Ruby would turn eighteen. If she went to Korea, she would be a senior in high school there. She might want to stay here and attend college instead.

More importantly, Ruby had absolutely no memories of Korea.

For her, Korea would be a foreign country.

“Then I suppose I should think of it as sending her abroad to study. I’ll have to let her leave my side someday anyway…”

And yet, deep down, he was certain Ruby would come with him.

If Ruby came along, he felt as though he could quickly reclaim the life of an adult.

That would leave him at least two more years before Ruby became an adult and truly left his side.

Two years should be more than enough time to prepare himself emotionally.

2.

It was a warm and sunny Sunday.

Seonghyeon and Ruby walked hand in hand through yet another autumn.

The streets were filled with the languid air of a holiday, and the warm, comforting scent of freshly baked bread drifted through the air.

Ruby swung their joined hands back and forth.

“Daddy! That bread smells amazing. It’s about time that place puts out its croissants. Should we get some?”

“Sure.”

A little while later, the two of them emerged from the bakery and walked through the park, eating their croissants.

Seonghyeon exchanged a nod of greeting with a middle-aged man out jogging in running clothes.

He was a neighbor Seonghyeon had encountered almost every weekend morning for nearly five years, ever since he had lived there with Hyejeong.

“Ruby. You know Daddy’s contract ends next year, right?”

“Yeah. Did they fire you?”

“It’s not that. I got an offer from another university. But it’s in Korea. What do you think?”

Ruby’s gaze sharpened as she looked at Seonghyeon.

He brushed the crumbs around her mouth away with the back of his hand.

“Do you want to go?”

“I don’t know… It’s not so much that I want to go…”

Seonghyeon raised his head toward the trees whose leaves were beginning to change color.

“There are too many memories of Hyejeong here.”

Ruby felt a little disappointed.

I thought that wasn’t the case anymore.

I thought I had taken up most of his heart.

Maybe it was because of that jogger.

Or that bakery.

Or this park.

There had to be memories of Hyejeong everywhere.

Yeah. Maybe if we leave this place and go somewhere new, whether it’s Korea or somewhere else, all of Hyejeong’s memories might disappear at once.

Suddenly, Ruby wanted to go to Korea as soon as possible.

“Korea…”

“Don’t worry about me and think it over. If you don’t want to go, you can just stay here and live like you do now. You can think of it as studying abroad.”

Ruby’s eyes widened in shock.

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“What? Where did that come from? Going to Korea right now would be difficult for you. You could just go to college here, and it would be a lot less trouble. Next year, you’d be a senior in high school in Korea, and apparently that’s an incredibly difficult time. Of course, I’m worried about leaving you alone, too, but you could always live in a dorm…”

“Daddy… Can you live without me?”

“Without you? We’d only be apart for a little while. I told you, it’d be just like studying abroad.”

“I’m going, too.”

“You’ve got plenty of time, so think about it some more. It’s an important decision for you.”

“I want to go to Korea, too. I don’t even know what kind of country it is. Rose said that ‘Sseonghyeon’ is Korean to the bone.”

“What? What does Rose know about me or Korea?”

“She said she’s been studying really hard because of you. Whenever she has a chance, she looks up Korean TV shows and watches them. She’s even read tons of Korean books that I haven’t read. Her Korean is pretty good, too.”

“No, it isn’t. Not at all.”

Seonghyeon was not particularly fond of the Korean “dirty talk” Rose had picked up.

She usually uttered those words in bed, and every time she did, Seonghyeon had to forcibly remind himself that she was an anthropology professor.

“How many times have you kissed?”

“W-What?”

Ruby pulled another pastry from the bag in Seonghyeon’s hand and rolled her eyes at him with a slightly accusing look.

Then she took a huge bite of the croissant as though it were about the size of Seonghyeon’s arm.

“What do you do when you meet at night?”

“W-When did I ever meet Rose at night?”

“Oh, so you meet her during the day and stay together until night? Now that I think about it, you always come home in the early hours of the morning on Thursdays. That’s also the day Rose doesn’t have an afternoon lecture, isn’t it?”

“N-No, that’s not it. We just have dinner and…”

“And what about that woman named Miranda? Don’t tell me you’re seeing both of them.”

Seonghyeon stared down at Ruby’s audacious eyes, unable to close his open mouth.

His face turning bright red, he ran a hand through his hair several times before glaring pointlessly at the dogs being walked nearby.

Eventually, a faint smile appeared on his face as he bent down toward Ruby.

“What about your boyfriend?”

“What about him?”

“If you go to Korea, you’ll have to break up with that perfect boyfriend of yours.”

“That’s okay. I won’t break up with him.”

“Why haven’t you ever brought him over? Bring him home sometime. Daddy wants to meet him.”

“I see him every day. Why would I?”

Ruby chewed on the last of her bread and pointed toward the convenience store at the end of the street.

“I’m thirsty. Let’s get something to drink.”

As he watched Ruby scamper off, Seonghyeon shook his head.

“What happened to your clothes?”

A tie-dyed T-shirt that looked like something a Black rapper might wear, a heavily worn denim vest, shorts with loose threads hanging everywhere…

Now that he thought about it, Ruby’s fashion had gotten strange after Hyejeong left.

She had clearly preferred neat dresses back then, but now she dressed like a hippie.

Is this some kind of delayed adolescence?

Ruby had already gone into the store and was opening the refrigerator door.

Seonghyeon hurried inside and snatched the Coke from her hand.

“You don’t drink stuff like this at school, do you?”

Ruby pursed her little lips.

“They don’t sell it at school.”

“Let’s get some milk.”

“Then chocolate milk.”

Seonghyeon let out a little laugh.

3.

That winter, the two of them were at the airport.

Seonghyeon’s friends had come to see them off, divided into his professor friends and his musician friends.

The men were too busy discussing work until the very last moment, while Miranda occupied Ruby and rambled on about nothing in particular.

“My sweet Ruby, Auntie is always on your side and your daddy’s side. Don’t forget Auntie, okay?”

Ruby had only met Miranda once, so she had no idea what the appropriate response was.

She muttered in Korean,

“It’s a shame, but Daddy hasn’t given you people even a crumb of his heart.”

Meanwhile, Rose, who believed herself to be Seonghyeon’s true lover, wrapped her arms around his neck and had no intention of letting go.

“Sseonghyeon! Don’t forget me. Let’s call each other every day. And we’ll spend every vacation together, okay?”

Seonghyeon kissed her affectionately and nodded, but he had absolutely no intention of doing what Rose suggested.

After the boisterous farewells with his friends were over, he took Ruby’s hand.

“All right. It’s time to go.”

Ruby looked at him brightly.

“Yeah! Just the two of us! This is so exciting.”

“What about your friends?”

“I already said goodbye. There aren’t any friends close enough to come all the way here just to see me off.”

“What about your perfect boyfriend?”

“Oh, he’s always by my side, so it’s okay.”

As they passed through the gate, Seonghyeon revisited the nightmare of the terrible accident one last time, as though it were a final ritual.

He dragged out even the moments he had buried deep within his unconscious and replayed them slowly.

Three years had already passed, yet they remained vivid enough to touch.

Even after he had regained an ordinary, peaceful life, those moments would sometimes appear before his eyes like seizures.

Whenever that happened, Seonghyeon would fall into self-reproach, believing that a peaceful life was something he had never been meant to have.

At last, when the ritual was over, he clasped Ruby’s hand tightly, just as he had during the funeral.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

“How do you think we’ll be living next year?”

Looking into Ruby’s sparkling eyes, Seonghyeon imagined the not-so-distant future.

“Daddy will be a little older, and our Ruby will have grown a little more. Of course, our Ruby will be happy. And if you’re happy, Daddy will be happy too. No matter what.”

“That’s nonsense! Daddy will never get old.”

Seonghyeon chuckled softly and stroked Ruby’s hair.

Once they boarded the plane and took their seats, Ruby rested her head against his shoulder.

Then she looked at him with an expression so mature that it felt almost unfamiliar to him.

“From now on, I’ll make Daddy the happiest man in the world.”