CH 24

Episode 24. Scandal (3)

However, at this time, he was just glad that Lee Nahyun was relieved.

“Heesun should also participate. I will too.” 

“…Yeah.” 

“I’ll put off the exclusive helicopter for now. I think it will take some time for Heesun to get into a body that can enter the dungeon. You needs to get a basic education too.”

“Yes, do it.”

“I want to give Heesun some pocket money. I can’t give me this card, right?”

“Set the limit on another card and give it to me.” 

“How much?”

“One million won.”

“I will.”

“Then let’s talk about the house.”

“….” 

“I heard it was Hunter Kim Changho’s house?”

“…This is the safest and best place, but I’m afraid you’ll hate it.”

“That’s right. I hate it.” 

“….” 

“But I’ll be here for a while. Because it seems like the safest and best environment for Heesun. But, I will pay the rent. I think it’s right between us.” 

“….” 

“About saving me that day…Thank you. I mean it. I’m so glad you didn’t die. But—no, it’s not.” 

After Lee Beomjin washed his face dry, he vomited what had been hanging in his throat the whole time. 

“My father did the trick.”

“What?”

“Didn’t you say that I was trying to sort things out after meeting you moderately, and that if things didn’t work out, I would marry another woman and make you my lover? I remember when I said that. It was something I said to my father to protect you.”

“…You said you were trying to protect me?”

“Yeah. You heard what I said to my father, right?”

“…That’s right. It’s because your father came to visit me and felt sorry for me, and you… you’re playing with me. You do that to other women. I said I didn’t believe it, so I overheard you talking. That’s why I thought so, and I left after notifying you of our breakup.”

“My father is a powerful man. I couldn’t protect you back then. I thought if my father found out we were serious, he wouldn’t leave you alone. That’s why I said that.”

“….” 

Lee Beomjin didn’t know what kind of emotions Lee Nahyun was feeling right now.

He was going crazy now.

He grabbed his clothes around his chest and let out the emotions he had been holding for so long.

“I! There was only you! I endured under my father, thinking about how to share the future with you every day! But you! You didn’t even talk to me properly, you just said you suddenly hated me and left! Still, I tried to follow you. Then my father said so! You met me for money. I didn’t believe it, but I soon saw it. you’re getting paid! Since then, I, I’ve been—!” 

He couldn’t say it anymore. 

Because the pain from 19 years ago, when it felt like his heart was about to be torn to pieces, rose again.

“….” 

Lee Beomjin gritted his teeth and closed his eyes tightly.

Otherwise, this great pain can’t be suppressed. 

“…I’ll tell you why I went to your father and took the money. Because he knew I was pregnant.”

“….” 

“Even after I found out you played with me…I wanted to have the baby. But in reality, it seemed really difficult. That’s why I took the money. I don’t regret it. Thanks to that, I can give birth to Heesun, and she grew up well even in chaotic situations because of the dungeon.”

Lee Beomjin opened his eyes.

Just like him, Lee Nahyun was suffering from pain.

“I didn’t know that you didn’t mean it… I really didn’t know.”

“Couldn’t you confirm it? If I really mean it? You could’ve just asked me that, right?”

“….” 

“Couldn’t you tell me about the pregnancy?”

“…I thought I wouldn’t be able to give birth if I told you. Or be taken away. Your father, pretending to think of me while threatening me not to show up or contact you again. My guess, is it wrong?”

This time, Lee Beomjin couldn’t say anything.

Because Lee Nahyun’s guess was right. 

“…I’m sorry.” 

He said sorry.

Lee Nahyun looked surprised.

“It wasn’t just me who was having a hard time. No, you must have had a harder time being pregnant. You are the one who gave birth and raised a child alone…I’m sorry for getting angry.” 

“….”

“It’s already been 19 years… Although it doesn’t mean much to you anymore…I wanted to tell you.”

Lee Nahyun now had a painful expression.

He seemed angry at the fact that he had been deceived by his father, and felt guilty about his actions at the time.

He opened his lips several time, but he couldn’t say anything. 

“…I’m going to go now. I have a job.”

Lee Beomjin, who couldn’t hold on any longer, turned around and came out.

He found his daughter holding a bundle of paper in the living room.

An existence that seems to have brought together all the joy in the world. 

“Have you finished printing?”

Although he was in a very depressed state, Lee Beomjin smiled.

Because the child’s eyes are worried about him.

“Yes.” 

“Read it carefully. I have to go now. I’ll stop by later at night.”

“Yes.”

“You want to meet your friends, right? You can call them here.”

“Can I?”

“Of course, this is your house now.” 

“Wow!”

“Then, I’ll get going.” 

“Wait.”

Her daughter put the paper down on her table and came closer.

After hesitating for a moment, as if she was shy, she opened her arms wide as if she had made up her mind and gave him a big hug.

“Come on, Dad.”

“….” 

Lee Beomjin barely endured it by biting his teeth and hugging the child.

Even if he hugged her daughter as hard as he could, it wouldn’t hurt her, but he couldn’t hug her too hard.

Never, he couldn’t hurt her.

“…Yeah. See you later.” 

Lee Beomjin held his daughter for a moment and then released his hand.

‘I want to keep her in my arms.’

He couldn’t delay it any longer.

He had to go to the Blue House, talk to his sister, and go to the Department of Ability to deal with various things about the new SS and A class. 

Still, he could step up with a lighter feeling than before.

***

‘What were they talking about?’

My Mom, as well as my Dad, was very depressed. 

At least my Dad felt better after I gave him a “hug of comfort.” 

But when I saw how dark Mom’s face was, I couldn’t even try it because I thought a hug wouldn’t help. 

“Mom, can I ask?”

“Yes?”

“What did you and Daddy talk about?”

Mom sighed for a long time, then nodded and told me. 

“…Helicopter?”

“Yes, the helicopter. The one he rides it.” 

“Hunters are really different. Oh, I saw on YouTube the other day that high-ranking hunters fly on private planes when they go on overseas expeditions. Dad probably has a private jet too? Even a private helicopter.”

“….!”

“I hear they live a super-luxurious life.”

“Heesun, do you want to do that too?”

“Then should I tell him to buy a helicopter?”

“…That’s a bit. I don’t think I’ll be able to use it yet. Let’s decide later, well.”

“Yes, I will participate in a program for the high-level Hunter family.”

“Yes.” 

“I also gave Lee Beomjin’s black card back. You dropped it in the hospital room.”

“Ugh.” 

“He’ll give you another card with a limit. Use it however you like.” 

I asked with my eyes shining.

“The limit, how much is it?”

“One million won.”

“Whoa!”

“And…” 

Mom hesitated a little and confessed.

In the past, Dad’s father used to do something between them.

“Ugh, he’s really bad!” 

“Right…” 

“But why did Dad say he was a powerful person— ugh, come to think of it, he was a very high-ranking person, right? I think I heard that his family is a politician.” 

“That’s right. Lee Beomjin’s father is now the Prime Minister.”

“Prime Minister—!” 

Mom took out her cell phone and showed me the results of searching on the Internet.

Lee Seunghoon.

Before becoming Prime Minister, he was a member of the National Assembly four times, served as Minister Department of Ability, and also served as Chief of Staff to the President. 

“Whoa…But his face doesn’t look like Dad at all.”

“Lee Beomjin must have resembled his mother. Look. I have a picture.”

“It really is. She’s very pretty. But is this person dead?” 

“That’s right. I heard a glimpse of it before, that she died of an illness when Lee Beomjin was young.” 

“I see.”

“I heard that Lee Beomjin and Lee Beomjin’s Nuna hated their father very much because their father was busy and didn’t take care of their mother.”

“Nuna? Ah right. I heard that Daddy has an older sister who is a member of the National Assembly. I guess that’s why Dad said he was from a political family.”

“This is the person. Lee Jong-jin.”

“She doesn’t look like Dad. Uhm, she looks like Dad’s father?” 

“That’s right. Come to think of it— Our Heesunie resembles Lee Jongjin a lot.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. From this angle, you look very similar. This is why Lee Beomjin was convinced that you were his daughter.”

“Hmm. I don’t resemble my Mom, who is a former beauty, but rather resemble Dad’s sister.”

“Mom is beautiful?” 

“Yes. The most beautiful woman in the world!”

When I raised my hands and shouted playfully, Mom laughed happily.

I was glad to achieve my goal.

“But Heesun-ah, don’t you feel strange? You have a grandfather and aunt. Oh, there are uncles and cousins too. Lee Jongjin is married. Here, a picture of his husband.”

“Oh, handsome!”

“He look really tough, but you say he’s handsome?”

“Yes!” 

“You’re my daughter, but your eyes have been….”

“What’s wrong with my eyes?”

Mom clicked her tongue. 

I pouted my lips, then turned my head sideways.

“I don’t feel weird. Because it doesn’t really touch me. Hmmm, but Daddy’s father is really bad. Didn’t he come up with a plan to keep you from being together?”

“Right. But, Mom is also at fault. I should have checked—” 

“You heard what Dad said. You might not be able check it out. No, you can’t.” 

“Still—”

“It’s not Mom’s fault. It’s not Dad’s fault. It’s Dad’s father who did something wrong.”

I just cut it off and said.

Because I sincerely think so.

Mom, who looked like she was about to cry, hugged me.