Special Side Story 12
“Mr. Yoon, your tie looks particularly well-chosen today.”
“What?”
“And your complexion is glowing.”
Sa-eon was praising assistant Yoon’s fashion, a man known for not washing his clothes often.
“You’re very competent and handsome.”
There it is, the falsehood. The corner of Baek Sa-eon’s mouth twitched.
“…….”
Suddenly, unable to resist the impulse, he abruptly stood up and ordered the rest of the meeting to be postponed. He ignored the startled looks of his aides and abruptly left the room.
The knot in his throat was finally gone. He wanted to make hundreds or even thousands of confessions to his wife.
But-
“Hong Heeju. Answer quickly. Where have you gone….”
Dozens of calls had already gone unanswered. Heeju was not picking up the phone.
***
Heeju absentmindedly silenced the vibrating phone and stared at the glass wall. Her heart began to race again. She took a deep breath to calm herself, telling herself not to be afraid and not to falter.
The iron doors opened with a metallic clang.
“…….”
The woman in the prisoner’s uniform had gray hair now. Her wrinkles were deeper, her neck thinner, and her eyes no longer held the same fiery intensity.
Her impeccably ironed dress and perfectly coiffed hair spoke volumes about the meticulous care she took with her appearance each day.
It was the first time she had made the effort to visit her in prison since the trial that ended with her incarceration. Heeju had come to see her mother-in-law, Shim Gyu-jin, who was in jail.
“So, did you finally get into some trouble?”
When Gyu-jin realized it was her former daughter-in-law who had requested the meeting, she laughed coldly. The corners of her lips curled into a petulant smirk that didn’t suit her.
“How are you?” Heeju greeted her.
“The food here isn’t as bad as you would think. I can’t digest it and the people are nice. It’s funny how time flies.”
Though they hadn’t seen each other in years, Shim Gyu-jin’s casual demeanor made it feel as if they had met just yesterday. Heeju felt slightly out of place at her nonchalance.
“What’s wrong?”
“…….”
“You’re not about to tell me you’re divorcing him now, are you?”
Heeju clenched her skirt.
“I just wanted to ask you something, Mother.”
Her voice trembled, but she couldn’t run away.
Simply undergoing a vasectomy wouldn’t erase old fears. No amount of persuasion or logic would work. What Baek Sa-eon needed was to believe in himself, not to sterilize his fertility. So Heeju decided to face his fears alongside him.
What if our child turned out to be someone like the “real Baek Sa-eon”?
The first person she thought of was her mother-in-law, Shim Gyu-jin, a once-respected figure who was both a mother and a distinguished professor.
“Do the parents of monsters… grow into monsters themselves?”
You, too, sought to eliminate both the counterfeit and the real Baek Sa-eons.
The chilling realization struck Shim Gyu-jin, leaving her utterly speechless and her face devoid of warmth. But she didn’t make it evident and slowly crossed her legs.
“Dear, are you pregnant?”
“What?”
Heeju immediately shook her head. But she was indeed shocked.
“Hmm….” Shim Gyu-jin let out an ambiguous noise, staring off into space for a moment. “You’re not wrong. If not, the parents would become the targets.”
Heeju’s posture stiffened.
“Is it about Sa-eon?”
Shim Gyu-jin gave a knowing smile. She fixed her snake-like gaze on Heeju trying to read her.
The unfamiliar scent of the prison and the sound of iron doors clanging overhead made Heeju want to rise from her seat. Yet each time she tried, she gripped the chair legs tighter, grounding herself in place.
It was more urgent and important to dissolve her husband’s old nightmares.
“It seems you didn’t grow up in a normal household either.”
Heeju met her eyes.
At that moment, the glass wall separating inmates and visitors trembled with a loud bang. Shim Gyu-jin leaned her forehead against the glass and smiled.
“But he’s not a monster.”
Her face took on a strange expression.
“It’s just a selected gene, one that makes it easier to do what others cannot.”
“……!”
“When someone stabs another person to death with a knife, we don’t curse the knife. How it’s used depends on the person. Some use a sashimi knife to gut fish; others use a scalpel to cut into a person’s heart.”
At over sixty, Shim Gyu-jin’s face transformed instantly into that of a stoic professor, so composed it was hard to believe she was wearing prison garb. It felt out of place, but also completely natural.
“I was obsessed with my child’s problems and spent my whole life studying them. I was quick to judge, again and again. I tried countless times to change him, but the more I tried, the more distant we became…. That man, Baek Jang-ho, was the only one who….”
Her dry voice trailed off.
“So, tell your husband this: heredity isn’t destiny; it’s just a possibility. If your child isn’t afraid of blood, let them touch it. If they’re desensitized to violence, train their body even more.”
“……!”
“There are things in the world that ordinary people can’t easily achieve. Extraordinary people delve into the depths of despair to bring light and hope. Extraordinary people punish evil with even greater force.”
Shim Gyu-jin spoke in a daze.
“If it were me, that’s how I would have used the knife.”
“But….”
Heeju’s lips parted in protest. But… why would someone want to give a knife to a baby in the first place? The words remained unspoken.
Meanwhile, Shim Gyu-jin’s vacant eyes wandered somewhere on the wall.
“By the way, last night I dreamed of my son for the first time in a long while. It was a day from the past, and my son was asking me what love is. He was six years old back then. Now that I’m in prison, I keep thinking about it.”
“…….”
“I didn’t answer him back then because I was so angry. I was so furious to see him pouring water onto an anthill he found in the yard.”
A faint smile formed on the corner of Shim Gyu-jin’s lips.
Heeju swallowed hard.
“I could teach him what was wrong,” she said, “but I couldn’t teach him to love, because it’s so intangible. I told him love is something that burns and dies.”
“…….”
“So don’t place your hopes in it. Don’t place your life in it.” Shim Gyu-jin’s voice cracked slightly. “Those words from my son were harder than any question a student has ever asked me.”
The memory left her reeling, and she wiped her mouth in a reflexive gesture.
“Yes…. I have a lot of time to think these days, but even if I could go back, I don’t think I could give a more perfect answer than that.”
She turned to Heeju, her eyes lifeless like a dead fish.
“Dear, don’t you know what love is? If only you could teach him that… Unlike me….”
