The Father's Shadow
I turned away and pushed through the crowd to watch the situation unfold.
“Hey! Yeoryeon! Why are you ignoring your dad?!”
At the center of it all was none other than Han Yeoryeon.
The drunkard causing a scene in front of the school gate was her father.
“Whoa. That's Han Yeoryeon's dad?”
“Crazy... They don't look anything alike.”
“What a total mess of a family.”
Whispers spread through the crowd of students, who didn't hesitate to mock the father-daughter duo.
Of course, the two could hear every word.
Yeoryeon clenched her fists, trembling, her face stiff as she turned away from her father.
But.
“Han Yeoryeon! You stop right there!”
The louder she ignored him, the more he raised his voice, drawing every eye in the crowd.
“Hey!!!”
In the end, she had no choice but to stop.
“......”
Her face, frozen in place, twisted with deep anger and humiliation.
“Ha, you ungrateful brat. Gotta yell to get you to listen?”
“...How did you even find out about this place?”
“Hey, you little shit. When you see your dad, shouldn't you greet him first?”
“How did you get here!”
Yeoryeon glared daggers, snapping back, while her father grinned shamelessly, his face flushed red without a hint of embarrassment.
There had to be some backstory here.
“Doesn't matter how. Just gimme some money.”
“What...?”
For a second, I thought I'd misheard.
“Got like 100,000 won? Your auntie always gives you pocket money, right? You must have some stashed away. Huh?”
Her father demanded cash from his daughter with the most brazen face imaginable.
“...You came all the way here just for that?”
“Hey! Do you think I'd come this far if I had any other choice? Hurry up and hand over the money!”
Then the murmurs from the crowd started up again.
Was this what they meant by watching a fire across the river?
Even as a bystander, the barrage of mockery made my face burn.
“......”
Yeoryeon's fists shook with rage at her deadbeat dad's antics, but she pulled her wallet from her bag with a fierce glare.
She yanked out every bill inside and shoved them at him like trash.
“...Don't ever come find me again... Please...”
But.
“Pfft, this all you got?”
Her father wasn't satisfied.
“Don't you have more? There's an ATM over there. Go withdraw some extra.”
An inhuman level of thick-skinned audacity.
Tears finally streaming down her face, Yeoryeon exploded with pent-up fury.
“Please, just...!”
And that's when.
“Ah, sir!!!”
I couldn't stand it anymore. I yelled at the top of my lungs and wedged myself between them.
“...!”
“Huh?”
All eyes turned to me.
I subtly pushed Yeoryeon behind me and started backing away slowly while facing her father.
“Sorry to interrupt, but we're kinda in a rush right now!”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I'm Yeoryeon's friend!”
“Friend?”
“H-Hey...”
Yeoryeon tugged at my jacket in panic.
I ignored it, grabbed her hand firmly, and shouted.
“Anyway! Sorry, but I'm taking Yeoryeon now!”
“...Wha?”
While he stood there dumbfounded, I yanked her hand and bolted through the crowd.
“H-Hey! Hey, you punk! Stop right there! Hey!!”
Desperate shouts chased us from behind, but...
Like I'd stop just 'cause you said so.
Of course I didn't.
We ran for a while until we reached an empty playground nearby.
Me and Yeoryeon sat side by side on the swings.
“......”
“......”
A heavy silence hung between us.
Yeoryeon stared at her toes like she wanted to die, while I stole glances at her, gauging her mood.
Having jumped in on impulse, I was inwardly kicking myself.
Was that a mistake?
I'd dragged her away because it was too painful to watch, but looking back, I wasn't sure if it was the right call.
Though if it happened again, I'd do the same.
I just didn't have enough life experience yet to judge right from wrong perfectly.
Man, just how messed up is her family...?
I replayed her father's disgraceful behavior in my mind.
Showing up drunk at school, throwing a fit, and extorting money from his daughter in front of everyone.
And even that wasn't enough—he kept pushing for more sleazy demands.
It was like something straight out of a trashy TV drama.
How does a kid like her come from a guy like that?
Unable to hide my shock, I sighed and carefully opened my mouth to comfort her.
“You okay...?”
“...Yeah...”
But she still seemed dazed, not fully over the shock.
Sigh. Poor girl.
I felt bad for her, but I didn't have the right words.
I didn't know enough to curse out her scumbag dad on her behalf, and forcing pep talks on someone that shaken felt wrong.
All I could do was offer quiet sympathy instead of empty platitudes.
“...You've been through a lot.”
“......”
“......”
The heavy silence returned.
I scratched my head awkwardly, scanning the area, when my eyes landed on a small convenience store right across from the playground.
Suddenly inspired, I jumped to my feet.
“Stay here a sec.”
“......”
While I was gone.
Alone, Yeoryeon hung her head and closed her eyes tightly.
I want to die.
She hated her father with every fiber of her being.
From a young age, he'd beaten and cursed her mother right in front of her.
Even after his wife died of illness, he never changed.
If anything, he blew through her life insurance on booze and women, bragging about how great it was that she'd kicked the bucket.
If it had stopped there, she might've just written it off as bad luck with parents.
But then he tracked her down at relatives' house—who'd taken her in since he had no other kids—and threw tantrums demanding money for her.
And when she finally got into an entertainment agency, he followed her there too, demanding payoff money and threatening lawsuits with all sorts of thug behavior.
Rumors spread like wildfire, of course.
Suddenly ostracized by the other trainees, Yeoryeon cracked under the stress and quit before debuting.
He gave his one daughter absolutely nothing but piled on every harm imaginable.
She'd deliberately kept her school a secret to keep her distance, but...
Somehow he'd found out and shown up anyway.
Yeoryeon resented her fate for trapping her in his shadow.
...The rumors will spread everywhere.
He'd made a scene in front of everyone, so the whole school would know soon enough.
Transferring wouldn't help.
And the constant dread of when he'd show up next would stress her out forever.
Until the day he died. Her whole life.
Her father's existence felt like a cancerous tumor ruining her entire life.
Should I just die?
Tears welled up again in her damp eyes.
Yeah. What's the point of living like this? Let's just end it.
Just as Yeoryeon despaired over her miserable fate and gave in to suicidal impulses.
“Here, take this.”
A casual voice pierced her ears.
“...?”
Reacting to the sound, she looked up instinctively.
I was back, holding a vitamin drink in one hand.
“Uh, vitamins are good for you.”
“......”
Yeoryeon could tell right away he was trying to cheer her up.
It wasn't exactly smooth, though.
“......”
She took the bottle silently.
The cool glass felt refreshingly crisp against her skin.
He was breathing a bit hard—must've rushed from the store.
“...Thanks...”
“Drink it and give me the bottle back.”
At my not-so-subtle nudge, she twisted off the cap with a crack.
She stared blankly at it for a moment, then tilted it back and chugged the whole thing.
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Maybe because she felt so down, the sweetness soaked right into her body.
“Phew...”
As she emptied the bottle with a relieved sigh.
Crack. I twisted open my own cap and asked.
“Feeling better?”
That moment.
...Huh?
Yeoryeon jolted inwardly.
Just moments ago, her mind had been a storm of dark urges.
Now, it was eerily clear, like all the chaos had vanished.
“...Yeah...”
I nodded quietly at her dazed reply and took a sip from my bottle.
“See? Told you vitamins are good for you.”
A hint of quiet pride in his words.
For some reason, it struck her as adorable, and she let out a soft pfft of laughter.
An astonishing emotional shift.
...What the heck is this guy's deal...?
Yeoryeon sneaked a glance at my profile as I drank.
At first, when we kept bumping into each other at the library, she'd thought he was just another guy trying to get her attention.
But surprisingly, he didn't seem interested in her at all.
He was deeper than expected, mature in ways, manly yet somehow cute too.
Above all, being around him put her oddly at ease.
He felt completely different from all the guys she'd known.
“What're you staring at?”
Having finished his drink, I reached out for the empty bottle.
She handed it over obediently, shaking her head as she watched him.
“Nothing.”
She decided to get closer to me from now on.
Once Yeoryeon had calmed down a bit.
We chatted about this and that on the swings, and naturally, the topic turned to family.
“What...? Your dad showed up at your company too?”
What I learned about her father was beyond trash.
Calling him trash felt like too high a compliment.
Domestic violence, blew his wife's insurance money, then stalked his daughter at her agency demanding cash?
Yeoryeon rattled off the dizzying horrors like they were nothing.
Calmly, like someone who'd given up on life.
It was heartbreaking.
“Ugh... Having a dad isn't always a good thing, huh... I grew up without one since I was little.”
“...Really?”
“There was someone who stepped in as a dad figure. Mom's boyfriend, but he vanished outta nowhere.”
“Outta nowhere?”
“He was an awakener. Pretty high rank from what I remember. A-rank, I think?”
“Ah...”
Surprisingly, we had a lot in common.
Single-parent homes. Unwanted transfers and bullying.
Even little things like favorite books and movies overlapped.
“Oh! I've seen that movie too. So good I watched it twice.”
“For real? You're the first person besides me.”
“I liked Bom the best personally.”
“Ah... You're a Bom stan? I preferred Gaeul.”
“Gaeul was cute too.”
Every topic flowed effortlessly.
It even felt like we clicked better than with Ma Yeonseo.
Weird.
We talked for hours without noticing the time, only snapping out of it as the sun dipped low.
“Heading to the bookstore?”
“Hasn't closed yet. Yeah.”
“Then... Let's walk together till we split.”
“Sure.”
We agreed to part ways at the fork...
“...Hey, Yuchan.”
“Yeah?”
As we walked side by side, she spoke up out of the blue.
“Come to think of it, I don't have your number.”
“My number?”
“Yeah. Can I get it...?”
“No reason not to.”
I gave it to her without a second thought, then went to add hers to my phone.
First friend number since high school.
But.
“...?”
My jacket pocket, which should’ve felt heavy, was strangely light.
“Uh, wha—?”
“What's up?”
Too flustered to answer, I frantically checked every pocket and my bag.
But...
Oh, shit.
No phone anywhere.