The Daughter’s Call
**CHAPTER TITLE: The Phone Call and the Park's Silent Regret**
So-yeon knew that everyone was watching her every move. She understood her own situation perfectly, yet the extra workload her team members were bearing because of her felt like a natural consequence. Still, she couldn't bring herself to be harsh or indifferent. So she merely watched, as she always had. So-yeon knew this herself. Therefore, she could no longer act selfishly. She stared at the monitor with eyes that were slowly dying, her hand moving unconsciously. She tried to focus on the work she was assigned, but damn, it was almost impossible. Her heart burned pitch black. More than anything, her mind was filled with thoughts about the call from her daughter. The police had said it might be a mistake. That her desperate pleas had been mistaken for a prank call, and that they had believed her. It was laughable. Did they really think that? Did they believe that the mother wouldn't recognize her daughter's voice even for a second? No, that couldn't be. It was clearly her daughter's voice. She couldn't know how or where her daughter had called from or why the caller ID had been restricted, but that voice—there was no doubt it was hers. She could never mistake it. Ha... she exhaled a long sigh. Eyes tightly closed, she swept her hand across her face. Just then, her phone rang. She startled! In a panic, she answered, thinking it might be So-hee again. Normally she wouldn't take personal calls during work hours, but what the hell! So-yeon couldn't care less about such trivial things. Perhaps it was So-hee calling again. But... "So, So-yeon?" The voice that came through was not her daughter's. "Honey?" It was her divorced husband. ////////
During lunch break at the company, So-yeon met her ex-husband for the first time in a long while in the park near the office. He looked exactly the same. She had always noticed it from their dating days—he never knew how to dress up. Even now, meeting his ex-wife after so long, he was disheveled. His beard hadn't been properly maintained and grew in every direction. Behind his round glasses, his eyes looked terribly weary. He was a writer. A novelist who was hardly popular... An awkward silence hung between them. So-yeon suddenly wondered how she could have fallen for this disheveled, introverted man. Had she been too young back then? Had she not had many experiences with men that made her feel this way? He really was a worthless person. At the time, she had loved him quite a bit. Yes, at the time she had. "How's the work? Finished?" So-yeon asked her ex-husband, Jun-hee, first. He looked startled for a moment, then quickly wore a bitter expression. "It's... I can't write the words..." "I see..." Same as always. Just like before the divorce, he had always said this. Making excuses, saying today he couldn't write the novel, tomorrow he couldn't write well, throwing out every excuse he could think of. Then deadlines would slip by, and he would pour all the stress onto himself. Moreover, people who liked his work, which couldn't even meet deadlines properly, were few. Thanks to that, he had nothing, and So-yeon had to handle the living expenses. Could love alone have carried them through? Even more so after the child was born... the emotional gap only deepened. The moment the child was born, the emotional gap widened even further, and eventually she had to decide to divorce him. She hadn't wanted anything from her husband. She hadn't even asked for child support. She already knew he didn't have the money anyway. Instead, she told him that if he just gave her full custody, she would quietly divorce him. Jun-hee accepted it. The divorce had been decided much faster than she expected. And here they were now, and in truth, she no longer felt hatred toward her husband. Jun-hee didn't blame her either. Perhaps he was blaming his own incompetence. "So-hee... any news?" So-yeon flinched. This time she couldn't answer. With her head lowered, her hand idly fiddled with her clothes. When they divorced, the thing she had wanted was custody. At least she wanted to raise her daughter herself and thought she had to. For her daughter's future, So-yeon had believed that. But now, thinking about it, she wondered if that choice had really been right? In the end, she couldn't protect her daughter. "Still no news?" "Hmm... yeah... were you calling to say that? To blame me? Because I lost So-hee... that's why... you called to blame me? You think I don't have custody?" "No, it's not like that." So-yeon's voice sharpened a little, and Jun-hee hurriedly waved his hands. "I... I was just... I was worried." So-yeon glared at Jun-hee. Just for that reason? With a hollow laugh, she turned her head nervously. Of course, So-yeon didn't misunderstand his heart either. She knew he hadn't called to blame her. As he said, he was worried and called her. Because he was more worried about himself than his daughter. Even knowing that, So-yeon treated him rudely. It felt humiliating that her ex-husband was worrying about her, and it made her feel even more pathetic. She had been sulking about the divorce. She had thought she could raise So-hee alone. But nothing had turned out right. This pathetic version of herself had snapped at Jun-hee out of nowhere. Suddenly she thought this attitude was no different from what Jun-hee had been like a long time ago. In the end, she was just the same kind of human being. Jun-hee kept his head lowered. So-yeon even resented that reaction. It seemed to make her feel more pathetic the more she thought about it. If he was worried, why hadn't he done better... why hadn't he treated her kindly back then... even when it came to their child, he had sat in front of the computer every day without a care... Why now... "I'll go." She didn't want to be in front of Jun-hee any longer. With her current state, she would only fight. She would only pour out endless words of resentment and wound him... That she didn't want. She didn't want to wound another person because she was pathetic. It would only make things more miserable. Jun-hee just kept repeating, "Sorry..." There was no energy left for excuses. "Ah... yeah... if... if you need any help, well... I'm fine. If you need help... contact me..." Jun-hee's voice came quietly. So-yeon said nothing. She just walked silently back to the company. /////
As expected, nothing was sinking in. She stared silently at the monitor screen. There was a mountain of work that needed to be finished. Her mind was blank. Even now, the phone call from So-hee filled her head. Especially after meeting her ex-husband that morning, her mind felt even more complicated. "Are you okay?" It was then. Somehow the team leader had appeared behind her. He wore a worried expression. "Ah... Team Leader... I'm fine. But why..." "It's... can I talk to you for a moment?" What could this be? It was the first time he had called her directly like this. So-yeon hesitated for a moment, then answered, "Okay." She soon headed to the break room with the team leader. The team leader poured two cups of capsule coffee from the machine in the break room and handed one to So-yeon. So-yeon hesitantly took it and looked at him. He took a sip of the warm coffee, then said to her with an apologetic look. "How's the situation?" "Huh?" "It's... about the... disappearance..." "Ah... that..." Why were there so many people asking about this today... So-yeon paused for a moment. She fiddled with the warm cup containing the coffee... "Same as before." She answered. She couldn't tell the team leader that the call from So-hee had come. The team leader nodded, took a sip of the coffee with a sigh. And he looked hesitant. It seemed he had something he wanted to say but couldn't easily. So-yeon just lowered her head in silence. After a few minutes, the team leader seemed to have made his decision. He cautiously took out the words he had been hesitating over. "How about taking a break for now?" "Huh?" "I mean... So-yeon, you have your own circumstances. I think it's bad to do nothing in this state, so this is a suggestion. So... I think you should take a break for now." "But... I still have work left..." "Ah..." So-yeon couldn't finish her sentence. She had only just realized the meaning behind the team leader's words. It seemed like it wouldn't help. No, it might even hinder her. The team leader's words weren't really a break; it sounded like a veiled suggestion for voluntary resignation. So-yeon pressed her lips together and said nothing, lowering her head. The team leader also seemed quite sorry to have said that to So-yeon. He kept sighing repeatedly and casually sipped his coffee. While doing so, he glanced at So-yeon's eyes.