My Secret Daddy
Chapter 4
1.
Seulbi: Oppa. You didn’t forget the reunion at twelve, did you?
Club President: Bini-oppa. Are you bringing the saxophone and the bike? I want to upload a video.
“Ah… I know, I know…”
He had forgotten to turn off his notifications again before going to sleep. As he tried to figure out where his brain was currently located, another, slightly unfamiliar notification tone rang out.
What was that again? Oh! A new email notification.
“Who is it…? I only left one person…”
It was someone he had set up a long time ago. Before he was discharged from the military…
Before he had even opened his eyes, he suddenly sprang to his feet, only to be knocked back down by something. Several stars appeared before his eyes.
Was it still nighttime?
“Ow… my head…”
It turned out he hadn’t been sleeping in bed at all. He had fallen asleep underneath his desk.
“Ahhh, Teacher!”
He hurriedly got up, only to smack his head against the desk a second time. Rubbing the lump forming on the crown of his head, he waved his hand around blindly.
“The sound definitely came from eleven o’clock…”
In the end, unable to find his phone, Eunbin turned on his computer.
✉ Teacher.
“Teacher!”
There was an email from Seonghyeon.
An email after three whole years.
Seonghyeon hadn’t replied even to the last email Eunbin had sent before enlisting. Eunbin had been going through a bleak period of his own at the time. By some strange coincidence, his darkest days had overlapped with Seonghyeon’s.
Though they had been out of contact for several years, Eunbin had never once abandoned his belief that he would meet Seonghyeon again someday.
No. He couldn’t abandon it.
Both of them knew that the bond between them wasn’t something either of them could simply throw away because they wanted to.
✉ Teacher.
Eunbin. How have you been?
No news is good news, so I’m going to assume you’re doing well.
It looks like I’ll be going to Hyein University.
I suppose it must be about time for you to be discharged. I was wondering if you’d gone back to school.
By the time we get there, you’ll probably have finished your service.
Let’s meet when I get there. I’ll contact you.
—Seonghyeon
“Whoa!”
Eunbin screamed and practically jumped all the way to the ceiling.
Fifteen minutes later, a motorcycle shot out of the parking garage of the high-rise apartment building, slicing through the wind.
Weaving between cars, Eunbin let out a series of ecstatic yells.
“Teacher is finally coming back into my arms!”
A moment later, he rolled his eyes inside his helmet.
—By the time we get there, you’ll probably have finished your service.
“We?”
Eunbin racked his memory, trying to think of anyone in New York whom Seonghyeon might refer to as we.
No way, Teacher… Did he find someone…?
2.
They found a house with a yard not far from the school.
The yard had been nothing more than a tentative wish on Ruby’s part—a simple if possible—but Seonghyeon had treated it as the most important condition and ultimately based his choice on it.
The Hwaeum Arts High School Ruby would attend and Hyein University were both located in Yeonji-dong. There weren’t many houses in Yeonji-dong that also came with a yard.
Though he wasn’t particularly fond of it, Seonghyeon managed to find a two-story house that barely met all the necessary requirements.
But the moment he stepped inside, his eyes went dark.
“They said it was twenty years old, but… wow.”
The yard was overrun with grotesque shrubs and weeds that had apparently been left untended for at least ten years, sprouting everywhere like mold.
Ruby, however, bounced around with a look of pure delight.
“Wow! A yard! Maybe we can get a puppy!”
“This isn’t what I had in mind when I imagined a yard… Wait, is that fern?”
“I’ll take good care of it. I’m going to turn it into a beautiful flower garden!”
“You need to study. Where are you going to find the time for that? I’ll ask your grandmother to send over a gardener.”
It took them two full days to clean and furnish the house.
Things took even longer because Ruby kept changing her mind about which rooms should be used for what and what furniture they should buy. In the end, Seonghyeon canceled all their orders and had no choice but to go to the furniture store with Ruby and pick everything out one item at a time.
It wasn’t until their third evening in Korea that the two of them were finally able to sit down to a leisurely dinner.
Seonghyeon stood in front of the refrigerator, deep in thought.
It was packed with side dishes his mother had sent them. They were delicious, having been prepared by an expert, but Seonghyeon wanted to make something warm for Ruby himself.
Ruby stood in the kitchen doorway, staring at him in a daze.
“Wow… Daddy’s wearing an apron and cooking?”
“What else can I do? My daughter needs a warm meal. Sit down.”
“Did Daddy make the soybean paste soup?”
“Yeah. How is it?”
“Wow!”
“Is it good?”
“Don’t cook anymore. I’ll do it.”
Seonghyeon tasted the soup and closed his eyes as if praying.
“Ah… Is it a little salty?”
“It’s still the first thing Daddy’s ever cooked for me, so I’ll eat it happily.”
“Your grandmother’s housekeeper is coming next week. Just bear with it until then. Or… let’s eat out.”
“I want tteokbokki!”
“Okay, okay.”
“I’ll do the dishes.”
“You must be tired. Go rest. I’ll do them.”
“Then let’s do them together.”
Whenever Seonghyeon handed her a washed dish, Ruby dried it with a dishcloth. She looked like a child who had just discovered a brand-new game.
Seonghyeon smiled awkwardly.
“Is washing dishes really that fun?”
“We’re already done! What a disappointment!”
“Then from now on, you can do all of them.”
“It’s fun because we’re doing it together!”
“I’m going to have coffee. You like milk, right?”
“I want coffee too.”
“Then you’re having milk. Go sit in the living room.”
Ruby grumbled as she walked out.
The furniture hadn’t arrived yet, so the only thing sitting in the living room was a lone piano.
It was the last of Hyejeong’s belongings they had kept.
Hyejeong’s gentle smile floated before Ruby’s eyes.
Always calm. Always happy.
Ruby had wanted to become a pianist just like her. She had believed the reason Seonghyeon loved Hyejeong was because she made music.
Ruby sat down at the piano, thinking of it as the final piece she would dedicate to Hyejeong.
I won’t feel sorry anymore.
And I won’t be grateful anymore.
I simply have someone of my own now. That’s all.
A little while later, Seonghyeon quietly came over with a cup of coffee and a glass of milk and sat beside her.
He pretended to listen intently to her playing, covering his mouth with one hand.
When the performance suddenly came to a stop, Seonghyeon hurriedly wiped the smile from his lips and adopted a serious tone.
“That was a good performance.”
“I know you’re laughing at me.”
“L-Laughing? I’m not… You’re just cute.”
“Hmph!”
“All right! My princess, Daddy will play you a song to celebrate our new life together.”
“Really? What’s gotten into you? Daddy really has changed since we came to Korea!”
Ruby perched herself on one of the stacked boxes.
The performance began.
It was faster than the original Passion, and it sounded like an entire orchestra, something only Seonghyeon could produce. A dazzling arrangement that used a single piano to imitate the sounds of numerous instruments, yet rather than being flashy, it possessed a profound resonance.
Ruby was transported back eight years in an instant.
The day she first met Seonghyeon.
That night, she had been running away, yet she had completely forgotten about her escape as she became captivated by Seonghyeon’s playing.
After the cruel Director Christine—who had been like a black widow—had taken her fifty dollars and beaten her with a wet glove, Ruby had been locked inside a terrible solitary room.
And yet, beneath a face streaked with tears, Ruby had been smiling.
Holding onto Seonghyeon’s image and music in its entirety, experiencing the warmth of love for the first time in her life, and feeling a strange pride that perhaps all the suffering she had endured had not been meaningless after all…
At last, I can finally die.
With only one passage left to play, Seonghyeon’s hands gradually came to a stop.
He felt he needed to figure out what exactly was happening.
Ruby had wrapped herself around his back and was showering kisses on the back of his neck and his ear.
Right.
This was unmistakably similar to an act of affection.
Where did she learn something like this?
Don’t tell me she’s already…
For the first time in his life, he could feel his face turning red all the way up to his neck as he cleared his throat repeatedly.
For some reason, he couldn’t lump what Ruby was doing today into the same category as all the other bizarre things she had gotten up to in New York.
And understandably so.
Ruby was eighteen now, and the small, childlike frame she had once had was growing at an astonishing rate these days.
“Ruby. What are you doing?”
“Why’d you stop…?”
“You’re too big now. It’s creepy. Get off me.”
“Creepy?”
“Yeah. You haven’t been doing this with your boyfriend every day, have you?”
Ruby returned to her usual mischievous self, releasing her arms and bursting into laughter.
Then, imitating Seonghyeon’s exact tone like a parrot, she laughed even harder.
“You’re too big now. It’s creepy!”
Seonghyeon stared at the giggling Ruby with a bewildered expression.
“You like that line that much?”
“Yep! I love it!”
“What a silly girl…”
3.
Once the chaotic house had finally been put into decent order, the reality of their move truly began to sink in.
Ruby looked around her room with satisfaction.
Every wall was covered with Seonghyeon’s posters.
When Seonghyeon came to look at Ruby’s room, he stopped short and slowly turned in a circle.
“You… What on earth are you doing?”
Ruby walked around the room clockwise, giving him a curator’s tour.
“Starting here, we’ve got the major competitions and concerts from your teens, twenties, and thirties. And this is your discography. Isn’t it amazing?”
Seonghyeon clicked his tongue as he looked at photographs even he barely remembered.
“Where did you even get pictures like these?”
“I found them all in the basement. How could you just leave things like this stuffed away?”
“Put up pictures of your boyfriend instead. What are you planning to do plastering your dad’s pictures all over the place?”
Ruby clapped once, then flopped backward onto the bed.
“That’s right. Daddy should put up my picture too. I’ll have a huge one printed for you.”
“I wouldn’t mind that, but you… Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”
To his utter disbelief, Ruby had undone about five buttons of her shirt and let down her previously tied-up hair.
“If girls start hitting on me, just tell them I’m your girlfriend.”
Seonghyeon promptly buttoned Ruby’s shirt all the way back up and took a few more pictures.
“My goodness, you’re pretty. You’d be even prettier if you stopped doing ridiculous things.”
“Hmph!”
Ruby grabbed Seonghyeon’s arm and pulled him out onto the tiny terrace.
“Your room is directly below mine. I’ll hang a rope here, so whenever you miss me, just text me. I’ll come down in a flash, even if I’m asleep.”
Seonghyeon snorted.
“We see each other every day. Why would you text me in the middle of the night? That’s noise between floors.”
“How is that noise between floors?!”
After exchanging jokes for a while, the two gazed at the full moon rising red over the unfamiliar landscape.
“Wow! Look at the moon! It looks like a carrot cookie.”
“It’s huge!”
“Daddy. I’m so happy. This is our house, just the two of us. It feels just like a newlywed couple’s home.”
“W-What?”
“Have you ever regretted it?”
“Hm?”
“If you hadn’t met me, you’d have continued playing the violin, right? And you wouldn’t have any reason to be here now.”
As far as Seonghyeon could remember, Ruby had never once said those words.
And he had always been grateful for that.
He never wanted Ruby to develop an inferiority complex over their relationship.
Only now did Seonghyeon realize that it wasn’t that Ruby had never thought to ask him that question.
She simply hadn’t been able to bring herself to ask.
He shook his head firmly.
“It’s not because of you. No… Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t met you back then. If you hadn’t been by my side, I never would have been able to endure it when your mother left us like that.”
Ruby quietly closed her eyes beneath his gentle hand stroking her hair.
A warm tear slipped down her cheek, and Seonghyeon wiped it away with his thumb.
“Don’t ever think such foolish things again. Understand?”
At that, the usual mischief returned to Ruby’s eyes.
“Can I kiss you?”
“N-No! You’re too grown-up these days.”
Ruby giggled as if she absolutely loved hearing him say that. She wrapped both arms around Seonghyeon’s arm and hummed a tune.
It was a pop song familiar to Seonghyeon, but so old that none of the children Ruby’s age would have ever heard it.
“…And in my dreams I kissed your lips a thousand times…”
Ah. This was the song Hyejeong and I used to play together.
Every now and then, Hyejeong would play pop or jazz.
She had been thoroughly influenced by Eunbin during their time in Munich.
Seonghyeon had frowned every time.
That brat, Go Eunbin, has smeared the devil’s candy all over sweet, innocent Hyejeong’s ears.
Come to think of it, Ruby had always gotten incredibly excited whenever they played those songs.
He remembered how she used to beg him to play along with her.
In that instant, Seonghyeon realized with a start that he was remembering his memories of Hyejeong without any pain.
He had come to Korea intending to finally forget everything, but he hadn’t expected that day to come so soon.
For the first time, he felt as though he had finally emerged from a long tunnel.
Seonghyeon gently wrapped an arm around Ruby’s shoulders.
With Ruby by his side, the two of them could surely make it through life together, no matter what came.
“Ruby.”
“Hmm?”
“You’ll stay by Daddy’s side forever, won’t you?”
Ruby smiled as brightly as the full moon.
“Of course!”
