CH 59

Kwon Chae-woo’s eyes were twinkling and it lit up the night. She stared at him blankly for a while and then blushed. She bit her lip in nervousness.

“I am not a gold-digger…” she mumbled.

“A shame,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind you being one and coming after me.”

“You’re broke,” said Lee-yeon, amused.

“Didn’t you say my family was rich?”

“They are very scary.”

Lee-yeon sighed. “My family was a complete mess.” It was better to not get close to people too much. She felt torn. She wanted to tell him about her family while still wanting to build a wall around her.

“We were related by blood,” she said. “But we couldn’t really bring ourselves to be a family.”

Kwon Chae-woo listened patiently. “I was called Song-yeon at home,” she said.

“Song-yeon?”

She nodded. “It was sort of like a nickname.” When the name So Lee-yeon is written vertically, it read as Song-yeon. So that name had stuck with her. “Song-yeon is the soot from burning pine trees.” Lee-yeon paused. “I was considered a dirty stain on the image of my family.”

Just then, there was an eruption of noise and fireworks lit up the sky. She could distantly hear people cheering and applauding. Lee-yeon couldn’t take her eyes off the dazzling and colourful shower of light in the sky.

If only they could fill my empty heart with warmth, thought Lee-yeon. I would do anything not to miss my family.

“Is that how you’ve been seeing yourself till now?” His calm eyes looked at her. “As a stain or soot? Is that how you see yourself?”

His gentle eyes made her heart ache. His eyes seem to urge her for an answer. His eyes were like mirrors. And she didn’t see herself reflected as a stain or soot in his eyes. It made her see herself, for the first time, as an independent and resilient woman who had survived despite all odds. A Tree Doctor, a caregiver. She had overcome bullying from her co-workers and cousins. She had thrived in spite of difficult conditions.

“Do you know that after a forest fire, the tree still lives and makes a forest anew?’

“Hm… and?” he asked.

“I might have been Song-yeon but now I am a Tree Doctor.”

He smiled at her. “I have built myself up anew,” she said, her voice cracking. She managed to smile and didn’t mind the welling up of tears in her eyes.

A barren childhood had prevented her from putting down her roots. At a time when she should have been discovering the world and growing up strong, she had rotted and dried. With thorns in her life, he had only learnt to distance herself from others. She had painful memories but she had tried her best. Maybe a flower would not bloom in a place like this but… maybe someone…

She had hoped that someone could tell her that she had done her best and it was enough. That she was good enough.

“It might not be pretty, but it’s me.”

The fireworks erupted again. Kwon Chae-woo smiled brightly at her. His smile was so warm that it melted her heart. He wrapped his rms around her and pulled her close.

“I knew it!” he said.

“What?”

“I didn’t think a person who even picks up fallen petals from the ground with so much care would ever think of herself as a dirty stain.”

Fireworks went off one after another simultaneously. People cheered. But Lee-yeon couldn’t hear anything else. It was as though she was removed from the rest of the world. She was only aware of her closeness with Kwon Chae-woo and her pounding heart. It was different from how she had met him in the mountains months before.

Lee-yeon clenched her sweaty hands. At that moment, she thought of running away. But she stayed her ground. “I wanted to live a quiet life away from people. I was afraid of them. I was afraid of how they saw me. I chose trees instead of people,” She blurted. “They accepted me. Trees don’t have prejudices. The forest was the only place where I felt safe, but….”

He was still looking at her patiently. “But you…”

She looked at him. “You constantly….” She trailed off.

“Go on,” he urged.

“You are poisonous,” she blurted. “I think so. I think you are poisonous.” She suddenly skipped over what she had wanted to say. She panicked.

He was patient. He waited. He knew she was dancing around the words she actually wanted to utter. He would let her.

“So?” he asked.

His calm and steady voice helped her gather herself. “So… I…”

Another batch of fireworks lit up the sky.

“I think I really do have a second husband. A new man.”

“What?” he asked, now utterly confused.

“I no longer see the old Kwon Chae-woo. You are a changed man,” Lee-yeon declared. She looked as though what she said was embarrassing. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at herself.