Chapter 12 — Attachment to an Old Trophy

For a moment, I doubted my own ears. I had been the one who decided not to beat around the bush.

“Let’s get divorced.”

But Park Na-young had beaten me to it.

Her attitude had completely changed over the past few days, as though she had flipped her hand over.

My entire body began to tremble at this absurd situation.

Was this what it felt like to tremble like a leaf?

“How can you do this to me?!! To me?!”

An enraged shout burst out of me before I could stop it.

My voice was loud enough to reverberate throughout the elegant, luxurious hotel.

Meanwhile, Park Na-young calmly scooped up a spoonful of the mango bingsu that cost more than 100,000 won and brought it to her mouth.

The necklace I had seen that day swayed above her cleavage, and it irritated me.

“Yeah. I understand why you’re angry.”

As Park Na-young chewed and spoke as though nothing had happened, I couldn’t sense even the slightest trace of lingering affection or remorse from her.

“You know too, Oppa. The two of us didn’t start out of love anyway. We simply made the best choice for each other.”

“……”

For a moment, I was speechless.

Was it because Park Na-young was being so brazen?

Or was it because of the unavoidable nature of an arranged marriage?

I quietly closed my eyes and tried to accept the situation.

“I’m going back to my old love. And that person is perfect. I’m sorry, but no matter how hard you try, Oppa, you’ll never be able to beat him.”

In the end, she was saying that she had found better conditions elsewhere.

“Ah… An old love… Right… An old love. That’s nice.”

“You and I aren’t children, Oppa. And weren’t we both ambitious people? I believe you’ll understand.”

“You want me to understand you?”

“Yes. Let’s be honest with each other. If you were in my position, do you really think you could give up overwhelmingly better conditions? If there were a much shinier trophy waiting for you, could you really give it up just because you were attached to an old trophy?”

Right.

We had been trophies to each other.

And stepping stones for each other.

If that was all there was to it, I could understand it, at least a little.

Someone with conditions I could never hope to compete with.

If that were the case, I could let her go.

It was like Kim Jung-bae’s diamond ring, or the girl with the pearl earrings.

I could respect that choice.

“Compared to him, Oppa is just an ordinary seven-point man. There are plenty of men like you. Please understand me.”

“So you’ve been raising the child you had with that bastard with me all this time?”

A brief look of surprise crossed Park Na-young’s face.

But she soon regained her disgustingly calm expression.

“So you knew?”

“And you knew too?”

Her question—So you knew?—clearly meant that Park Na-young had known as well.

The anger surging inside me burned away what little reason I had left.

“Yeah. How did you find out, Oppa? Did you secretly have a test done because you suspected me?”

That was the answer I had wanted from my wife.

I knew it would be a lie, but I had hoped she would at least pretend to deny it with some remorse.

I wanted to leave open the possibility that the test result had somehow been wrong, and perhaps have another test performed.

“Does the reason matter right now? Isn’t the result what matters? I really… loved you… and Min-hee… for more than ten years. At the very least… shouldn’t you show some remorse?”

“I already said I’m sorry. If you’re still angry, pour this glass of water over me. Go ahead and curse at me if you want.”

Park Na-young pushed the glass of water in front of her toward me.

Drops of water splashed around inside it.

“Yeah… You knew everything. That’s why you were so obsessed with the child rolling her tongue when she was little… And you met that bastard in Gangwon Province too… didn’t you?”

I wanted Park Na-young to beg.

No, I wanted her to plead her innocence, to tell me it wasn’t true and beg me to believe her.

“Yes.”

Such an easy admission.

With that single word from Park Na-young, the sandcastle we had built over ten years was swept away.

I hated myself for still being unable to let go even after things had come this far.

And the fact that I alone was still holding on was humiliating.

“Fine. Then you’re the one at fault for the divorce.”

“Whatever.”

Without making eye contact, Park Na-young scooped up another piece of mango and brought it to her mouth.

As she chewed, her image overlapped with that of my daughter.

My anger surged even higher.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Shut your mouth.”

“Huh?”

Lee Jin-ho splashed the cold water in his cup directly into Park Na-young’s face.

It was a much harsher shower of water than the droplets that had splashed out when she pushed the cup toward him.

Splash!

“W-What are you doing…?!”

The attention of the cultured customers sitting around the café immediately turned toward us.

They couldn’t take their eyes off us, as though they had stumbled upon some entertaining spectacle.

“I told you to shut your mouth, didn’t I?”

There were two cups of water.

I still had one shot left.

Splash!!!

Perhaps because I had already practiced once, the second attack landed even more satisfyingly than the first.

Park Na-young, blinking and sputtering like a thoroughly soaked mouse, was almost a pleasant sight to behold.

“Fine. I’ll understand. Next time, let’s meet with the divorce agreement.”

I said what I had to say and turned around.

Park Na-young’s heated voice struck the back of my head.

Fine.

I’ll understand.

I don’t know how impressive that bastard is, but he must be worth giving up this family for.

“You!!! How dare you!!”

Her shrill voice came from behind me.

And for some reason, I felt both relieved and sad.

I would never be able to voluntarily make that expression again.

“What are you looking at!! Is this a show?!!!”

The café was filled entirely with Park Na-young’s enraged shouting.

“You ungrateful, worthless bastard.”

My father-in-law and mother-in-law contacted me repeatedly.

And they made my life miserable.

They called me a despicable bastard for secretly requesting a paternity test based solely on my suspicions, without consulting them beforehand.

They called me pathetic for refusing to settle things amicably and instead trying to determine the amount of compensation through a lawsuit.

As far as they were concerned, the fact that their daughter had given birth to a child out of wedlock wasn’t the problem.

The only thing bothering them was that I refused to quietly wrap everything up.

“Oh, I’m an ungrateful, worthless bastard?”

“Yes. After everything we’ve done for you and your family, do you really have to take things this far?”

“Let’s do a quick fact check. Of course, adultery was abolished as a criminal offense. In 2015. But an affair is still very much a matter of trust, isn’t it? Tell me what exactly I did wrong.”

My father-in-law’s shameless shouting made my ears ring.

For a moment, I almost wondered if I really was the bad guy.

“That’s why! What’s done is done!!! I’m saying we should think about the future!! Can’t you just let her go quietly, considering all the years you’ve spent together?!”

“Then make me an offer. Give me something that satisfies me.”

“Is money really that important? I’m asking whether you really have to make such a fuss about this!”

My former father-in-law.

No.

Now I should call him miserly old Scrooge.

He and I were strangers now, so every penny he had to spend on me must have felt like a waste.

I could almost hear the wrinkles on his face creasing.

“Yes. From what I’ve heard, Na-young is apparently marrying into a very impressive family again. Shouldn’t I be allowed some compensation for healing my emotional wounds?”

“That’s exactly why I’m saying we should settle this at a reasonable level. Come on.”

“Then propose a reasonable amount. Before I make a scene. Or should we go to court?”

There was one more thing I noticed during my conversation with him.

He was afraid of a lawsuit.

If his only concern were money, he could simply hire a lawyer and let the law take its course.

But there was something in his words—Can’t you just let her go quietly?—that suggested he would be in trouble if things became public.

That was their problem, not mine.

“How much is reasonable, then? Would giving you, say, 100 million won in compensation be enough?”

“Hmm. I guess we’ll have to go to court. I’ll hang up now.”

The man Park Na-young called her old love was undoubtedly someone with considerable social standing.

And someone who wouldn’t want his future wife’s previous marriage exposed.

It was a simple deduction.

Like Occam’s razor.

Then there’s no reason for me to hurry.

I hung up and took a sip of cold water.

It helped calm my anger toward them a little.

But the longing for my daughter that kept suddenly resurfacing was unbearable.

Was this what it meant to have raised a child?

My emotions were as unstable as reeds swaying in the wind.

Dad, when are you coming home? Min-hee misses you, Daddy.

The voice from our last phone call endlessly echoed in my head.

And for some reason, my daughter hadn’t called again.

Had they taken her phone away?

Perhaps they were even keeping an eye on her.

Do you have any idea how much money I’ve given your family?!

My father-in-law’s words also refused to leave my ears.

He wasn’t entirely wrong.

My family had never been well-off.

My parents and siblings had been cursed with terrible luck.

If I had been alone, perhaps I would have sunk all the way to the bottom alongside them.

But thanks to my father-in-law and mother-in-law, I had been spared that fate.

What a saint he thinks he is.

As I thought about this and that, time passed quickly.

I couldn’t remain like this forever, living like a wreck.

But my motivation had disappeared, leaving me incapable of doing anything.

Perhaps I should at least eat something.

Bzzzzt—

It was a call from my father.

Thinking about my family, I realized how long it had been since I had heard from him.

Not really a call from my father so much as a call from an entity with a father-son relationship recorded on the family register.

There was only one reason he ever contacted me.

When he needed money.

“What is it?”

—What do you think!? It’s about your divorce! Why are you being so selfish? Is that how I raised you?

“What exactly did you hear?”

—You said you’re getting divorced! Your father-in-law called me! He said you and Na-young are getting divorced!!!

“So what? That’s not really the point, is it?”

—Right, now they’re demanding that you pay back all the money they’ve lent you, with interest!!! Good grief, how are we supposed to live, you bastard?! Hurry up and beg them! Just do whatever they ask!

The conversation with my father dragged on.

Apparently, he had spoken with my father-in-law.

But what exactly had my father-in-law told him to make him think I needed to grovel and beg?

“This isn’t something that can be solved just because I beg, Father.”

—What? Either way, you should at least beg, you bastard! Do you want me to end up on the street? No, forget about me. What about your brothers? What are they supposed to do!!!

The same words kept repeating.

I hung up without saying anything.

For a moment, I was overwhelmed by the urge to put an end to everything.

Right.

My father and brothers had always been like this.

They hadn’t changed at all.

Their own well-being always came before anyone else’s.

It was the same when it came to my mother and me.

I took after my mother.

My brothers took after my father.

—And you, you know how well you’ve done in life! Isn’t it all thanks to your father and your brothers? You can’t do this to us. Isn’t that right?

They believed they had sacrificed important things for me.

But it wouldn’t be wrong at all to say that I had received virtually no support from them.

It was as obvious as the fact that there was no oxygen in outer space.

“Haa… Father. The suggestion of divorce wasn’t made by me first. I’m the one being divorced right now. I’m the victim here.”

—What? What the hell happened?

“What exactly did my father-in-law tell you? You have to tell me that if you expect me to understand… Please, don’t just say whatever you want without listening to me… Let’s communicate. Communicate!”