Koala 2

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Chapter 6

Five years later…

*knock knock*

Si Eun opened the door of her house, seeing her landlord Mrs. Wang holding her son Jae Jung by the ear. A four-year-old Jae Jung tried struggling free but it was no use.

Si Eun knew immediately that her son was up to mischief again. She saw the bow and arrow in his hands that Jae Duc had made for him and knew it was the source of the problem.

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Wang! What did Jae Jung do this time?”

“Mrs. Lee, your demon child shot me on my bum!”

Si Eun clasped her hand over her mouth in horror. She gave Jae Jung a glare and pulled him to her side. She shook her finger at him in a disciplinary manner.

“Jae Jung! You apologize to Mrs. Wang this instant!”

Jae Jung rubbed his swollen ear and gave Mrs. Wang a defiant look instead.

“No! I’m not going to apologize!”

“Jae Jung!”

Si Eun was appalled at her son’s rude behavior but she had never raised a hand at him before. Luckily, Jae Duc appeared out from the bedroom at the same time to see what all the commotion was about.

“Hey, who’s squealing at this early hour?”

“Jae Jung shot me in the bum!”

Mrs. Wang gave Jae Duc a knowing look that he must have been the perpetrator. Jae Duc looked down at Jae Jung, who was immediately defending himself.

“I was trying to shoot a pig, Duckie! Mrs. Wang was in my way!”

“Ohhh…”

Jae Duc tapped a finger against his chin as if he was thinking and started to realize exactly what had happened.

“You can’t blame Jae Jung for shooting you then, Mrs. Wang.”

“And why can’t I blame him for that?”

“Easy. He couldn’t tell the difference between you and the pig.”

Jae Duc flashed her a megawatt smile while Mrs. Wang seethed in anger at the audacity of it. Si Eun’s jaw dropped open in shock while Jae Jung started to giggle.

“I should have known this child would turn into a hooligan when he’s not even living with his real father!”

“Oh yeah? I can say the same thing about your 4 kids and their 3 dads!”

“Well, I never!”

“Never what? Never went on a diet?”

Mrs. Wang sucked in her breath, her chest heaving in anger. She turned to give Jae Duc a fierce glare but he didn’t flinch. After a few moments, she turned heel and left.

When Mrs. Wang was far out of sight, Si Eun began to scold him.

“Jae Duc! She’s going to raise our rent if you insult her like that!”

“What? About Mrs. Wang looking like the pig? I’m not insulting her, I’m insulting the pig.”

Si Eun started to sigh, knowing it was useless to argue against Jae Duc. He spoiled Jae Jung rotten. Jae Duc bent down to give Jae Jung a pat on the head to sent him off to terrorize the town again. When Jae Jung had left, Jae Duc picked up his work supplies to leave as well.

“Well, I’m going to work in the fields now. I’ll see you at dinner time.”

“Bye, Jae Duc.”

Si Eun watched Jae Duc disappear into the distance. There was this bridge between them that neither of them could cross. Jae Duc is a wonderful parent to Jae Jung although he wouldn’t let Jae Jung call him dad.

It broke her heart that he was denying Jae Jung’s birth right. But at least he had the decency to give Jae Jung his last name, Lee.

Si Eun realized over the past few years that she was falling out of love with Jae Jin. A part of her still loved his old self dearly but she felt nothing for the new him.

She hummed an old melody to herself as she headed out to the other side of the field to work.

Jae Duc remained silent as he carried his rake off to work in the fields. The burning question of why didn’t he kill Si Eun yet ran through his mind.

‘Why didn’t I kill her when she gave birth to Jae Jung?’

Yet he knew the reason why. He is in love with Si Eun.

He had betrayed his own best friend and his punishment was seeing her everyday yet not being able to touch her.

Out of all his faults, Jae Duc is proud of the fact that he raised Jae Jung to be an intelligent little boy. He knew Jae Jin would have been proud.

Jae Duc forced the unpleasant thoughts out of his mind and started to work.

A few days later at Lee Corporation…

“Mr. Lee! Mr. Lee!”

Jae Jin spun around in his chair, his back against the view of the entire city of Seoul. He twirled a pen around his fingers as his vice-president burst into his office frantically.

“What is it, Mr. Chae?”

“I’m sorry sir, but I wasn’t able to do a routine inspection of the land you just purchased last month. There’s this little monster interfering with our work.”

“Eh? Some little kid is causing this much trouble for you?”

Jae Jin grinned at the thought of high-class men being outwitted by a little kid. However, Mr. Chae was wiping the sweat off of his baldhead as he recalled the ill memory.

“Yes, Mr. Lee. I’m very sorry to bother you with this minor detail but…”

“It’s okay, Mr. Chae. I’ll do the routine inspection myself tomorrow. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back in Pusan. It’s about time I gave myself a little vacation from the work.”

“Thanks for understanding, Mr. Lee.”

Mr. Chae breathed a sigh of relief to get the matters off of his hands. He bowed once and left the room, closing the door behind him. Jae Jin picked up his documents and looked at the picture of land he had just recently purchased.

The land is located near his homeland in Pusan. It had been such a long time since he’s been back that he decided that it was time for a trip down memory lane.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10