Chapter 03

 

 

 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you.”

Seung-jun quietly looked at Yumin, who was staring back at him with wary eyes.

He was on his way back from a business trip. 

Noticing that his driver was exhausted, Seung-jun decided to let him take a break and pulled over. 

Feeling awkward just sitting around, he wandered into a nearby convenience store, not knowing who he would find there.

A part of his forgotten past was there.

He thought it was over. He thought it wasn’t worth thinking about anymore. But it wasn’t that simple.

A child I don’t know. But maybe… a child who might be deeply connected to me.

The next day, Seung-jun asked someone to investigate what had happened after she left him. 

As he suspected, she had been visiting an obstetrician regularly. 

The timing of the birth confirmed it—she had been pregnant when she left him.

The child was seven years old.

That night, Seung-jun couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t regret—it was anger. 

She had been raising his child somewhere he didn’t even know about. Without his permission.

He debated what to do but decided to check things out first, just to see how the child was growing. 

Just in case, he grabbed a Gold Land ticket as a gift to start a conversation.

It was the time when children were leaving kindergarten, and Seung-jun quickly spotted Yumin on the playground. 

But something happened.

A child who was teased for not attending after-school classes. 

A child mocked for not having a dad. 

This was how the son of Seung-jun, who grew up with everything as part of a rich family, was living.

“Who are you?”

Yumin glared at Seung-jun, not even touching the cake he had bought.

Seung-jun smirked.

“You keep asking who I am.”

Jin chul, sitting between them, was anxiously watching the situation. He wasn’t the type to stand up to Yumin’s mom, but after she stormed off angrily, Seung-jun had called Jin chul over like he already knew everything.

“Didn’t you say you were an uncle? Let’s talk for a bit.”

When Seung-jun walked off first, leaving Yumin and Jin chul behind, another woman, Yoonseong’s mom, appeared.

“Where’s Yumin’s mom? And why’s the convenience store guy here?”

Jin chul nervously explained, “She had something to do and left Yumin with me. I’ll take care of him.”

Yoonseong’s mom accepted it and left. Once she was gone, Seung-jun returned.

“Why aren’t you coming?”

Jin chul, flustered, glanced between Seung-jun and Yumin, not daring to refuse. Just then, Jin chul’s phone rang. 

Seung-jun snatched it, noticing the caller was someone named Sora.

After the call, Sora said she was coming immediately. Seung-jun sighed and decided to head to a nearby café instead of the VIP tea room he initially planned, as Yumin refused to get in his car, saying his mom warned him about strangers.

At the café, Yumin reluctantly ordered an odd cake but refused to eat it.

“Aren’t you going to eat that?” 

Seung-jun asked, trying it himself but immediately pushing it aside.

“Throw it away. It’s cheap.”

“Excuse me?” Yumin replied, glaring.

“It’s not even good quality. What a waste of 7,000 won,” Seung-jun scoffed.

“It’s not cheap! It’s expensive!” Yumin argued, defending the cake and his pride.

Seung-jun chuckled at the little boy’s feisty attitude.

“Do you know what ‘quality’ means?” he asked.

When Yumin asked back what “quality” was, Seung-jun pointed to his clothes.

“That outfit of yours. Where did you get it?”

“My mom got it from the market,” Yumin replied, proud.

Seung-jun laughed in disbelief. “It’s low-quality. No one would wear that.”

“That’s not true!” Yumin protested, standing tall and defending his clothes.

Their tense back-and-forth was interrupted when Sora arrived, storming into the café and glaring at Seung-jun.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

Seung-jun smirked, watching her and Yumin’s matching fiery eyes.

After a brief exchange, Sora tried to take Yumin away, but Seung-jun warned her. “If you want to keep raising him, you’ll do it properly. 

Move, change his school, and keep him away from bad influences. If not, I’ll take him.”

Sora’s voice shook as she defended her parenting, saying Yumin was growing up to be confident and kind, unlike Seung-jun’s arrogant worldview.

“Confident?” Seung-jun sneered. “You call giving him cheap clothes and scraps of cake good parenting?”

Sora, eyes brimming with tears, retorted, “He’s a wonderful child. You just can’t see it.”

Seung-jun watched her tears fall silently before leaving the café, making his intentions clear: if she didn’t raise Yumin to his standards, he’d take the child himself.