The World Looked Bright Again
Cradling a bouquet nearly as large as her own torso, Jeong Dayeon walked on, making no effort at all to hide the smile on her face.
She had seen her teacher. After two entire years, no less.
I thought I would never see him again…
He had been the only person who took her hand in those days after her mother left the world, when everything seemed ready to collapse into darkness. The mere fact of meeting Cha Siheon again was enough to make the whole world look bright.
Dayeon took out her phone and sent a message.
No reply came. Even so, Dayeon felt as though she possessed the entire world, simply because she had seen him again. All the waiting, all the hurt of those years, seemed to melt away in a single instant.
That happiness crumbled the moment she arrived at her front door.
Standing before the entrance of the rundown villa, Dayeon remembered what she had managed to forget.
Today… I disobeyed Dad and ran from that man. Mr. Go.
By now, word of it would have reached her father's ears. Jeong Du-seop would be waiting for her, grinding his teeth over the daughter who had defied his orders. She was certain of it.
But this was the only home she had. She could not simply refuse to go inside.
Dayeon let out a long, unsteady breath and took hold of the doorknob.
"I'm home."
The greeting left her in a voice no louder than a mosquito's hum. What came back was not a kind welcome, but a burst of raw shouting.
"You damn bitch! What the hell have you been running around doing?"
Something came flying at her with vicious speed and struck her hard in the forehead. The world flashed white, and something hot began to run down her face. She smeared at it with her fingers and looked — a vivid red had spread across her fingertips.
Blood. Before she could even register the shock, the curses came pouring in.
"You little bitch who stole your own mother's inheritance. I fed you and put a roof over your head all this time, and you can't even handle one lousy Mr. Go?"
"How many times do I have to tell you? There is no inheritance. I mean it. All Mom gave me was a single business card."
Dayeon tried to explain, but Du-seop did not look even remotely inclined to listen.
"Don't lie to me. A woman like Do Hee-ok, and you think she'd leave behind nothing but that? She even left instructions that you were to claim it once you turned twenty!"
The shout came with an ashtray this time. Dayeon jerked aside on reflex, and the ashtray smashed against the wall and shattered to pieces. Had that struck her in the face— Dayeon's face went white.
"Where is it? The inheritance Do Hee-ok left behind. Where is it?"
In Dayeon's bloodless face, she saw Du-seop coming toward her, his eyes steeped in madness. She stumbled back, and a dark shadow fell across her head.
Back in his office, Siheon loosened the tie that had been cinched around his throat. In his impassive eyes rested a face he had long since buried in old memory.
Jeong Dayeon. The young girl who, three years ago, had become his student.
The words Do Hee-ok had once spoken to him rose in his mind like a ringing in his ears.
They were the words of the woman who had saved his life. He could not ignore them. He had meant only to look in on the girl in passing. He had never imagined that the bond formed then would stretch on for so long.
"Welcome back, Executive Director."
Director Myeong's courteous greeting as he entered pulled Siheon from his thoughts. Siheon held out the tie he had taken from his neck.
"It's thanks to you that I found out, Director Myeong. That child had been dragged off to some ridiculous matchmaking meeting."
Siheon had turned from the graduation hall the moment Director Myeong reported that Dayeon had been led away by her father before the ceremony was even over.
How a man who called himself a father could do that to his own daughter—
Siheon clicked his tongue softly and shook his head.
"That man, Mr. Go. Look into him separately, please."
"Yes, sir."
"And find out how much Jeong Dayeon's father is in debt."
"Understood, Executive Director."
Listening to Director Myeong's reply, Siheon let out a faint sigh.
Do Hee-ok, his benefactor, may have been unshakable in her own field, but her taste in men had clearly been abysmal. She had married a man who would sell even his own daughter for business capital, and had a child with him besides.
Reading the distaste on Siheon's face, Director Myeong raised his voice, deliberately trying to put a brighter face on things.
"Miss Jeong Dayeon did, at least, apply herself and earn a place in medical school. That's no small thing, is it? Coming from a household like that."
"No. It isn't."
Siheon thought of those hazel eyes that had seemed to plead for his praise, and a faint smile touched his lips.
A quiet pride settled in him, as if it were somehow his own accomplishment — even though he had taught the child for a single year, and whatever help he had given her must have been small and faint.
Had he gotten that absorbed in playing teacher, somewhere along the way?
Director Myeong folded the tie neatly in his hands, hesitated, and then spoke.
"Why didn't you simply tell her the truth, sir?"
Siheon's gaze, cold and inquiring, turned on him.
"Tell her what?"
"The reason you had to leave Korea without a word, sir. Miss Dayeon seems to have waited a very long time, without knowing why."
Siheon lowered his eyes, as if turning the thought over, and then shook his head.
"There's no need."
"Even so…"
"There's nothing to be gained from her knowing."
"……"
"It's enough that I remain a teacher who simply passed through her life."
At that unyielding answer, Director Myeong could not bring himself to press any further.
"Understood, sir."
He offered a brief bow and was on his way out of the office when Siheon's voice caught him from behind.
"Ah."
Director Myeong turned back.
"Add Jeong Dayeon to the candidates under consideration for the enrolled-student scholarship program."
"Miss Jeong Dayeon, sir?"
"I can't stand by and let Do Hee-ok's daughter give up her studies — give up the path of a physician — because of her family circumstances."
"Yes. I'll see to it."
Director Myeong swallowed what he had been about to say and bowed his head.
It had never made sense, from the very beginning. Siheon was the designated heir of a pharmaceutical conglomerate that vied for first or second place in the nation's business rankings. His days were carved into minutes, and multi-million-dollar decisions passed through his hands as a matter of course.
Time, for a man like that, was not something to be allowed to slip by. It was a resource to be managed — something that had to hold value for the fate of the group.
And yet that same man had concealed his identity, gone to Dayeon, and taught her himself. As if that were not enough, he was now offering to cover her tuition out of his own pocket.
Did Executive Director Cha Siheon truly intend to remain nothing more than a teacher who had merely passed through Dayeon's life?
There was no knowing. Director Myeong had watched him since they were young, and still he could not begin to guess what lay inside the man.
With a word that he would follow the instruction, Director Myeong left.
Alone, Siheon turned his eyes back to the documents he had been reading. The face of Dayeon, who had thrown herself into his arms in tears, rose in his mind — but only for a moment. As he reviewed the contents with swift efficiency, not a trace of disturbance remained on his face.
"Good work today, Dayeon."
"Thank you."
"I just deposited your day's wages, so go ahead and check."
Dayeon bowed her head and, the moment she stepped out of the hotel, opened her phone to confirm the deposit.
The amount that appeared drew a long sigh from her.
It was the money she had earned standing on her feet all day, serving tables and washing dishes. But the number sitting in her account showed no sign of growing.
"At this rate, when am I ever going to get out on my own?"
She had thought that once she became an adult, she would be able to do anything. But once she actually stepped into the world, a girl fresh out of high school found the choices permitted to her vanishingly few.
Even a cramped one-room flat, even a single cubicle in a goshiwon, required a deposit first. She had scrambled to find part-time work and tutoring gigs, but it was nowhere near enough to strike out on her own.
"And I still have to think about tuition…"
For the past three years, Du-seop had all but abandoned her. There was no chance he would pay her school fees, which meant that burden, too, fell entirely on Dayeon.
It was the school she had clawed her way into through three years of relentless study. She barely had enough to last the coming month, and now tuition on top of that — the road ahead looked pitch-black.
Pushing the turmoil aside, Dayeon walked toward a nearby park. Du-seop would not be asleep for a long while yet. She meant to kill time here and slip inside at dawn.
She dropped onto a bench and pulled from her bag a triangle kimbap she had not even bothered to heat. It was her first meal of the day.
Hunger drove her at it in a rush — and then the skin pulled taut, and a sharp, stinging pain spread from her forehead.
"Ssht…"
Dayeon swallowed the hurt and probed the wound with her fingers. A few days ago, the spot where Du-seop's thrown remote had struck her had split open again.