Lies and Secret

Chapter Thirteen

Lee Seung Gi’s Point of View

Choi Hyun Soo waved at me with a bright smile every time our eyes met and I rolled my eyes after the tenth time, probably even more than that. I grab the rag and walked towards him. He sat at the corner with a smile and he is still in our uniform meanwhile I am dressed in my part time uniform.  A green T shirt, a black trouser at a cap that says ‘SUBWAY SANDWICH’

“What are you doing here?” I asked him as I slowly cleaned his table

“I came to see you” he cheekily replied. I know he came to make sure that I was okay especially after what happened yesterday. I never wanted Choi Hyun Soo or Min So Ra to see me like that, all vulnerable and scared in front of Do Min Woo but it wasn’t something that I could are predicated, neither was Hyun Soo beating Do Min Woo or Min So Ra breaking up with him.

Do Min Woo didn’t come to school today, I saw Do Min Su and she avoided me, I don’t know if it is because she knew what happened yesterday or maybe she just wanted to avoid me, I couldn’t really tell

“You should be at your extra classes with the others” I said to Hyun Soo. Extracurricular starts an hour after school, I don’t go for it but instead I go for my numerous part time jobs. I already missed two days and my bosses were kind enough to let me come back to work. I have spent the last two days staying in Hyun Soo’s place it’s amazing how his parents doesn’t know about me staying there but I know I can’t stay there forever.

I am too scared to go back home but I know I have too; I just have to push the thought as far as I can and pretend like it doesn’t scare me to go back home. I have to find a way to stand again, although So Ra as asked her dad about the scholarship program and she has asked me to apply for it. The Program brochure is in my bag (a new bag Hyun Soo bought for me because mine is at home) which I kept inside the staff locker room as I have not had the time to go through it

“Midterm exam is coming up soon Choi Hyun Soo, you either buy something here and go back to class or you go back to class without buy anything”

“Ouch”  he fakes hurt as he placed his hands on his chest “When does your shift ends?” he asked avoiding the fact that I just asked him to go study

I placed my hands on my hip “In the next five minutes but I’m heading to another part time job” I tell him

“Let’s have dinner together” he grin “I promise I will go back the second I watch you finish eating”

“Watch me?” I laughed “Fine” I give in and he flashes me a huge smile. I shook my head as I continued to do my work for the next five minutes. Hyun Soo, So Ra and I has talked about Do Min Woo, at first they were angry at me for not fighting back although I took Taekwondo for five years and then they held me saying it must have been hard all this years. It was but I felt so much better now that they know about it and I promised to always tell them about it if anything like this ever happens again.

I pitied Min So Ra the most because I know she really liked Do Min Woo, she said she was going to tell us that she and Min Woo was dating that very night but who knew they’ll last for last than twenty four hours. That needs to be in a Guinness record or something

My shift finally ends as I handed over my apron to my colleague and removed my cap and changed back into my school uniform and my winter jacket. I greeted everyone good night and walked over to Hyun Soo

 Hyun Soo who was pressing his phone doesn’t notice me until when I cleared my throat to gain his attention he then looked up at me “Let’s go” he stood up and held my hands, I quickly removed my hands out of reflex “ah sorry” he stuttered

I didn’t mean to remove my hand so quick but it was out of reflex and now it caused an awkward tension between us. We seem to be getting a lot of awkward tension these days. Like when I kissed his forehead, when I rested my head on his shoulder on the roof top, when I caught him tracing his hands down my face when I was asleep. Yeah just awkward tensions these days

“What do you want to eat?” he asked me breaking the awkward silence as we walked out of my work place

“Uhm I don’t know what do you want…” my phone starts to ring at my back pocket cutting my question short. I take the phone out and my eyes widen

“What?” Hyun Soo asked “Who is it?”

“My dad” I whisper

“Don’t pick it”

It was too late I already had my thumb slide the answer button and pressed the phone to my ears

“Dad?” I asked trying to confirm if he was really the one

“When are you coming home?” he asked. The man who asked me to go kill myself is asking me when I am coming home

“I don’t know” my reply is short. I try to hide as much emotions as I could

“Okay” he said and hung up. I looked up at Hyun Soo and back at the phone

“What happened what did he say?” Hyun Soo asked curiously

“h-he asked when I’m coming home?” I stutter and another call comes in. My dad was calling me again. He has never called me twice in a roll, hell he has not rang my phone even since before mom died, I didn’t even know he still had my phone number

Again I slide the answer button and placed the phone on my ears “Have you eaten?” he asked

I cannot explain the rush of emotion that goes down my spine, not to be dramatic but he has never asked or cared if I have eaten why the sudden change? They say if a person changes overnight he is going to die. Is that what is happening to him?

“No” I replied

“I am the Kimchi Stew place around the house come there I’ll buy you dinner. You can decide if you want to leave after you are done eating but first come”

I looked at Choi Hyun Soo is staring at me curiously. “Okay. I’m coming” he hung up

“Coming? Where are you going to?” Hyun Soo asked

“M-My dad wants to buy me food”

“We are supposed to eat together” he reminds me

“I’m sorry”

“Will you be okay? Should I come with you in case he tries anything funny?”

I chuckle and ruffle his hair before I could stop myself “I’ll be fine, besides it’s a public place”

“Will you come back?” he asked with home in his eyes

“I don’t know. I will call you”

*****

I stood in front of the Kimchi stew place unsure if I should really go in, I look through the window and see my dad sitting down staring at his phone. What’s the worst that could happen? There are a lot of people here he wouldn’t just go wild here or should I just turn back and go back to Choi Hyun soo?

I paced the front of the restaurant for a few seconds or maybe minutes thinking of what to do. Maybe I shouldn’t have come, I shouldn’t have picked the call in the first place this is a bad idea, what was I thinking?

This is a terrible idea

“Young man, are you coming in or not?” The owner of the Kimchi Stew place asked

I turned to her and saw that she had brought the attention of my dad and the other customers.

“He is my son” My dad said and I have no choice but to go into the Kimchi stew place. I walked up to my dad and sat opposite him. He orders for both of us and began to dig in without saying anything, I don’t even touch my food wondering what was going through his mind. I can never tell what is going through his mind and it scares me

He notices that I wasn’t eating and asked “Why are you not eating?”

“What’s the problem? Why did you call me here?” I asked

“First eat” he gestures at the stew in front of me, his mouth filled with it.

“I don’t want to”

He sighs and runs his hands into his hair “I haven’t seen you in days I’m just worried if you have been eating well” he said

“Are you kidding me? Whose fault is it that I haven’t been home?” I scoff. Now he wants to be the good father who is worried about his son? After stealing my money, beating me, cursing me to go and die, all of a sudden he wants to be the caring dad that he has never been since the day I’ve known him

How ridiculous

He searched inside of his pocket and brought out a bank book, he placed it on the table and slides it forward to me

“What’s this?” I asked opening in the bankbook

“This should be enough money for your college tuition fee right?”

My eyes widen as I say how many zeros are at the back of the number 2. Twenty million Korean Won. I closed the bank book and looked up at him. This is more than I had saved, five times the amount of what he had taken

“What did you get this money from?”

“I told you, I only borrowed your money” he replies taking a sip of the soda beside him. Since when does he even drink Soda? What has happened to this man in the few days that I didn’t come home?

“Where did you get this money from? You don’t have a stable job to be able to afford this. You didn’t do anything illegal did you?” At this point it was impossible to trust him

“Of course not, the online trading business I told you about, it finally brought something good” he replied

I stared at the bankbook and at my dad. Is this even real, am I dreaming? Did he really open a bank account for me and put such hefty money he got from his supposed ‘online trading’ for my university tuition? This doesn’t feel real and I feel like I’m in a stimulation

“Use this for your University tuition fee”

I took the bankbook staring at him as he takes a mouth kimchi stew, did the online trading finally pay off? After all this years, it finally paid off enough to pay more my tuition fee till I graduated

“Come back home Son” he said in between eating “I’m sorry for what I did, I know I can’t change overnight but I promise to try”

I stared at him unable to find the words to express what I was feeling. Was this really happening?

“I was wrong, forgive me. I’ll be better from now on. I promise” he said handing me a can of soda