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“Father, you can’t just come out here without saying anything.”
Dojun grumbled with sleep still in his eyes.
Even before they went to the nursing home, President Park had occasionally left the house, causing a commotion.
“That guy’s a madman.”
Regardless of what his son said, he murmured with a mysterious smile.
Haejoo’s consciousness grew faint.
Could he really be the madman Dojun had heard about from Yura?
The notorious scoundrel in the neighborhood had disappeared one day without a trace. Haejoo, never one for small talk, hadn’t asked about his whereabouts.
“Father, there are mosquitoes because it’s summer. Let’s go inside.”
“Haejoo, you see... well...”
“Uncle, it’s a full moon! Can you see it?”
“Huh?”
Haejoo urgently cut off President Park’s words.
Using her diligently learned acting skills, she pointed at the large, round moon and spoke incoherently.
“It looks like a supermoon. They say your wishes come true on nights like this.”
“Aigoo, if our daughter-in-law says so, then it must be true.”
President Park put his hands together in prayer, following Haejoo. Then, he began to pray more earnestly than anyone.
“Please always keep our daughter-in-law healthy and let her give birth to three strong grandchildren.”
Three children, he wanted her to have.
For an actress, such a prayer was like a death sentence.
“Please make our eldest son even healthier, and please make our second son stop getting into fights.”
Dojun, who had his arms crossed behind him, snorted. It was amusing to see Haejoo and President Park getting along so well in their own way.
“Does your second son fight a lot?”
“Don’t even get me started. He used to beat up so many kids that I ended up sending him to the army.”
“Oh, really.”
President Park’s pointless ramblings about the past continued.
Dojun, unable to listen anymore, interjected.
“Father, that’s enough. Let’s go inside.”
“Huh? When did you get leave?”
Dojun felt drained whenever he listened to President Park’s stories. The timeline of the past kept jumping around, making it difficult to even nod along.
“Am I Yijun or Dojun?”
“What do you take your father for, you rascal! You’re Dojun.”
“Yes, I’m Dojun.”
“Don’t tell me you’re still doing stocks these days?”
“Oh, for crying out loud.”
“How many times have I told you that stocks are gambling?”
“I got it, so let’s go inside.”
Dojun took President Park into the living room.
About to close the door, he asked Haejoo, who was staring blankly at him, “Are you going to stay out here longer?”
“Yes.”
Only Haejoo remained in the garden surrounded by high walls.
Only then did the tension release, and she swayed.
According to Dojun, even though President Park confused Dojun and Yijun, his memory of past events was quite clear. Especially the events before Yijun’s death were something he repeated endlessly.
He had dementia, but he didn’t seem to have completely lost his mind.
“Could Dojun-ssi have been that person?”
Dojun’s hands and arms were covered in small scars and calluses.
She had thought they were from exercising, but perhaps not.
Her chest felt heavy.
An indescribable emotion welled up, and suddenly her heart ached sharply.
“I shouldn’t jump to conclusions just based on what Uncle said. But why...”
She had once asked Dojun if he had ever dated anyone.
At the time, Haejoo had mentioned as if she had dated the madman Yura had told her about.
Of course, she later said it wasn’t true.
Dojun hadn’t said much after hearing that story, or had he?
“Something feels strange.”
Dojun wouldn’t have deliberately lied about something like that.
Back then, their respective situations made it difficult for them to recognize each other.
Inferring from President Park’s words, the guy who had acted like a madman for Haejoo had disappeared when he enlisted in the army...
“So that’s why he disappeared.”
Haejoo crouched down under the eaves.
A fire seemed to ignite and then extinguish repeatedly in her chest.
Since childhood, both boys and girls had been drawn to Haejoo’s beautiful appearance. Then, when they realized Kyung-ae treated Haejoo poorly, there were two kinds of reactions.
They either treated her the same way, bullying or using her.
Because of this, Haejoo couldn’t open her heart to anyone and became isolated.
As she entered adolescence, these symptoms reached their peak.
That’s when she heard the story of that madman.
The hero who was invisible only to Haejoo...
“It was Dojun-ssi?”
He had reappeared before Haejoo without showing any sign of it.
Not even that he was the one who had held her hand on the rooftop railing.
If Haejoo hadn’t had that dream, she would have never known.
It had taken years for the two of them to meet again.
And that was through a marriage relationship Haejoo hadn’t known about.
That day at the government office, why had Yijun registered the marriage under his younger brother’s name? Sadly, the deceased couldn’t speak.
“What should I do?”
Only now did Dojun’s actions she had seen so far begin to make a little sense.
Even so, she still couldn’t be certain.
“Aren’t you sleeping?”
“You startled me. I was just about to.”
Dojun had come downstairs for a drink and then went out to the garden.
Looking at the brightly lit moon, he offered a blunt, unemotional remark.
“That’s a really big moon.”
“Aren’t you going to make a wish?”
“Did you?”
“Kind of.”
He put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes. His lips twitched, and he suddenly said, “Wish granted.”
“What did you wish for?”
“Secret. What about you?”
“Mine’s a secret too.”
The two went up to the second floor together.
Back in her room, Haejoo recalled the wish she had made with President Park a little while ago.
It wasn’t a grand wish.
She just wished that Dojun, at least, wouldn’t hide anything from her.
It was the first wish Haejoo had ever made in her life.
________________________________________
Haejoo’s eyes opened early on Monday morning.
Going outside, she found the third floor noisy.
“What’s going on?”
Dojun was lying down without a blanket, and President Park was bustling about on his own.
President Park had occasionally left the house and caused a fuss even before they went to the nursing home.
“That guy’s a madman.”
Regardless of what his son said, he hummed with a strange smile.
Haejoo’s mind went blank.
Could he really be the madman Dojun had heard about from Yura?
The notorious scoundrel in the neighborhood had disappeared one day without a trace. Haejoo, never one for small talk, hadn’t asked about his whereabouts.
“Father, there are mosquitoes because it’s summer. Let’s go inside.”
“Haejoo, you see... well...”
“Uncle, it’s a full moon! Can you see it?”
“Huh?”
Haejoo urgently cut off President Park’s words.
Using her diligently learned acting skills, she pointed at the large, round moon and spoke incoherently.
“It looks like a supermoon. They say your wishes come true on nights like this.”
“Aigoo, if our daughter-in-law says so, then it must be true.”
President Park put his hands together in prayer, following Haejoo. Then, he began to pray more earnestly than anyone.
“Please always keep our daughter-in-law healthy and let her give birth to three strong grandchildren.”
Three children, he wanted her to have.
For an actress, such a prayer was like a death sentence.
“Please make our eldest son even healthier, and please make our second son stop getting into fights.”
Dojun, who had his arms crossed behind him, snorted. It was amusing to see Haejoo and President Park getting along so well in their own way.
“Does your second son fight a lot?”
“Don’t even get me started. He used to beat up so many kids that I ended up sending him to the army.”
“Oh, really.”
President Park’s pointless ramblings about the past continued.
Dojun, unable to listen anymore, interjected.
“Father, that’s enough. Let’s go inside.”
“Huh? When did you get leave?”
Dojun felt drained whenever he listened to President Park’s stories. The timeline of the past kept jumping around, making it difficult to even nod along.
“Am I Yijun or Dojun?”
“What do you take your father for, you rascal! You’re Dojun.”
“Yes, I’m Dojun.”
“Don’t tell me you’re still doing stocks these days?”
“Oh, for crying out loud.”
“How many times have I told you that stocks are gambling?”
“I got it, so let’s go inside.”
Dojun took President Park into the living room.
About to close the door, he asked Haejoo, who was staring blankly at him, “Are you going to stay out here longer?”
“Yes.”
Only Haejoo remained in the garden surrounded by high walls.
Only then did the tension release, and she swayed.
According to Dojun, even though President Park confused Dojun and Yijun, his memory of past events was quite clear. Especially the events before Yijun’s death were something he repeated endlessly.
He had dementia, but he didn’t seem to have completely lost his mind.
“Could Dojun-ssi have been that person?”
Dojun’s hands and arms were covered in small scars and calluses.
She had thought they were from exercising, but perhaps not.
Her chest felt heavy.
An indescribable emotion welled up, and suddenly her heart ached sharply.
“I shouldn’t jump to conclusions just based on what Uncle said. But why...”
She had once asked Dojun if he had ever dated anyone.
At the time, Haejoo had mentioned as if she had dated the madman Yura had told her about.
Of course, she later said it wasn’t true.
Dojun hadn’t said much after hearing that story, or had he?
“Something feels strange.”
Dojun wouldn’t have deliberately lied about something like that.
Back then, their respective situations made it difficult for them to recognize each other.
Inferring from President Park’s words, the guy who had acted like a madman for Haejoo had disappeared when he enlisted in the army...
“So that’s why he disappeared.”
Haejoo crouched down under the eaves.
A fire seemed to ignite and then extinguish repeatedly in her chest.
Since childhood, both boys and girls had been drawn to Haejoo’s beautiful appearance. Then, when they realized Kyung-ae treated Haejoo poorly, there were two kinds of reactions.
They either treated her the same way, bullying or using her.
Because of this, Haejoo couldn’t open her heart to anyone and became isolated.
As she entered adolescence, these symptoms reached their peak.
That’s when she heard the story of that madman.
The hero who was invisible only to Haejoo...
“It was Dojun-ssi?”
He had reappeared before Haejoo without showing any sign of it.
Not even that he was the one who had held her hand on the rooftop railing.
If Haejoo hadn’t had that dream, she would have never known.
It had taken years for the two of them to meet again.
And that was through a marriage relationship Haejoo hadn’t known about.
That day at the government office, why had Yijun registered the marriage under his younger brother’s name? Sadly, the deceased couldn’t speak.
“What should I do?”
Only now did Dojun’s actions she had seen so far begin to make a little sense.
Even so, she still couldn’t be certain.
“Aren’t you sleeping?”
“You startled me. I was just about to.”
Dojun had come downstairs for a drink and then went out to the garden.
Looking at the brightly lit moon, he offered a blunt, unemotional remark.
“That’s a really big moon.”
“Aren’t you going to make a wish?”
“Did you?”
“Kind of.”
He put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes. His lips twitched, and he suddenly said, “Wish granted.”
“What did you wish for?”
“Secret. What about you?”
“Mine’s a secret too.”
The two went up to the second floor together.
Back in her room, Haejoo recalled the wish she had made with President Park a little while ago.
It wasn’t a grand wish.
She just wished that Dojun, at least, wouldn’t hide anything from her.
It was the first wish Haejoo had ever made in her life.
________________________________________
Haejoo’s eyes opened early on Monday morning.
Going outside, she found the third floor noisy.
“What’s going on?”
Dojun was lying down without a blanket, and President Park was bustling about on his own.
President Park had spread out old ledgers he used to use and was reminiscing about his busy days.
“This lady’s interest is several months overdue. Oh dear, Mr. Kim too?”
Haejoo quietly approached Dojun.
He had been tormented all night and was sound asleep.
“Dojun-ssi.”
Dojun lifted his heavy eyelids. He rubbed his face wearily and grumbled.
“This is why I can’t bring Father here.”
“I see. I didn’t know it was this bad.”
“He hasn’t lost his mind completely, but he can’t escape the past.”
The housekeeper had prepared breakfast and called them.
The three went down to the first floor and ate.
Throughout the meal, President Park kept making a fuss, saying he was still hungry.
“You’ve had enough.”
“This won’t even touch the sides. How am I supposed to work like this?”
Just then, the caregiver arrived for work.
Dojun was about to try and catch up on his lack of sleep when Secretary Song rushed in.
“President, John, who we had a meeting with in Hong Kong, has sent over a proposal.”
“Oh, really?”
“You need to go to the office urgently.”
Dojun’s gaze turned to Haejoo.
He had originally planned to take President Park to the hospital around lunchtime and then go to work, so he gave instructions.
“I’ll take Father later, so you go take care of your business.”
“I’ll stay home today too.”
Dojun, having changed his clothes, left for work.
The caregiver was with him, so she thought nothing much could happen.
“I’ll be back.”
Throughout the morning, President Park wandered around the house, talking to himself. Most of it was nagging, but no one paid any attention.
The caregiver washed him, changed his clothes, and prepared to go to the hospital. Taking advantage of this time, Haejoo approached President Park.
“Uncle, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Why was it me?”
“Why what?”
“I’m curious why you chose me as your daughter-in-law.”
“Because you’re pretty.”
“Is that all?”
Just like yesterday, President Park chuckled.
His eyes, which had been unfocused, looked at Haejoo, and he spoke in a clear voice.
“Our son liked you.”
“Dojun-ssi?”
“No. Yijun.”
“......!”
“I don’t know what he was thinking. He even threw away the money he was supposed to receive to connect you two.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Yijun, how did he even know you? He asked me a favor. When I looked into it, your mother was tormenting you too much.”
“So?”
“I felt so sorry for you. I wanted to help you get out of that house.”
Haejoo listened but couldn’t understand what he meant.
Even as she was confused, President Park’s memories continued.
“But that rascal suddenly registered the marriage under his younger brother’s name.”
“Does Dojun-ssi know about that?”
“Shh, it’s a secret. Our Yijun told me to keep it just between us.”
If President Park’s mind was clear, this story was a secret Dojun didn’t know.
For Haejoo, it felt like she had been struck on the head.
“You know, looking back later, it was because of you that Dojun was always getting into fights?”
Haejoo’s lips trembled, wanting to ask the reason. She clenched her fists tightly and finally opened her mouth.
“Why?”
“That guy was always rough. He liked you, but that’s how he was.”
“......”
“What other way would dying Yijun have had to protect you?”
“Protect me how?”
“Park Kyung-ae is a bad person.”
“That’s right. She was a bad person.”
“Turns out, she was trying to sell you off to other loan sharks besides me.”
During their conversation, the caregiver put socks on President Park’s feet.
Unable to calm down, Haejoo went out to the garden.
“How in the world could she think of selling me off again!”
Her mother, Kyung-ae, was a devil.
She had driven Haejoo to the edge of a cliff, and she was a beast who had abandoned her humanity.
How could she do that to her own daughter?
From the start, to Kyung-ae, Haejoo was just a cumbersome piece of excrement she had squeezed out of her womb...
“Damn it! This is so frustrating.”
She would have been better off not knowing. Asking had only turned a barely healed wound into a festering sore.
Her head was spinning.
Seeing how she was still like this even after several years, it wasn’t President Park who was trapped in the past, but herself.
“Sir, I’ll be back in a moment from the second floor, so please stay here.”
The caregiver briefly left her seat.
The housekeeper was busy cleaning, and President Park was sitting on the sofa.
It was peaceful, yet not peaceful.
At least, that’s how it was for Haejoo.
She closed her eyes for a long time, trying to calm her mind. Then, the caregiver suddenly screamed, and Haejoo jumped up.
“The elder has disappeared!”
The front door was wide open.
In a moment of carelessness, President Park had left the house.
“Where did he go?”
Haejoo and the caregiver went out to look for President Park.
They divided the area and began searching the surroundings.
________________________________________
President Park was walking aimlessly.
He waved at passing cars, but no one stopped.
“I need to go to the office.”
Wearing only socks, he stepped on the scorching cement floor under the blazing sun.
Just as he was getting breathless and exhausted, someone recognized him.
“Isn’t that old man President Park Dojun’s father?”
“It is!”
Choi Inho had been loitering near Dojun’s house, planning a stakeout.
He had come out today with his junior reporter, Sunkyu, and had caught a big fish.
Although older than in the photo he had brought, it was definitely President Park.
“Why is he wandering around like that?”
“He has dementia. Maybe he came home and got lost.”
“Hey, let’s pick up that old man.”
“Would that be alright?”
“Quick! If he’s lucid, we can ask him all sorts of things.”
Sunkyu turned the car around and went to President Park.
After stopping briefly, Choi Inho got out of the passenger seat.
“Sir! Where are you going?”
“I’m trying to go to work, but I can’t catch a taxi at all.”
“Please get in. I’ll give you a ride.”
“Hehehe, thank you.”
Choi Inho put President Park in the back seat of the car.
As Sunkyu slowly drove around the neighborhood, Choi Inho’s questions began.
“Your son’s name is Park Dojun, right?”
“How do you know? Did that rascal get into another fight?”
“Fight? Someone as great as him wouldn’t do that.”
“Well, he did change completely after getting a wife.”
“His wife’s name is?”
“Lee Haejoo, a very kind girl.”
Finding him quite talkative, Choi Inho secretly rejoiced.
He pressed on further.
“Why have the son and his wife been living separately all this time?”
“Hoo...”
President Park’s focus drifted away from reality. He stared blankly into the air and said something completely unrelated.
“The women aren’t paying back their interest. We’re going to go bankrupt like this.”
“Sir?”
“I’m hungry, I’ve been starving all day.”
“Sir, why have your son and daughter-in-law been living apart!”
“Our daughter-in-law is kind. She even made a wish yesterday.”
Choi Inho frowned deeply.
Realizing it wouldn’t work, he abruptly shouted at Sunkyu.
“Hey, stop the car.”
The car had gone quite far from the house.
Ignoring this, Choi Inho dragged President Park out and left.
It wasn’t a residential area, but a field of crops.
There was no shade to be found, and President Park felt dizzy.
.
.
.
At that time, Haejoo was frantically searching the entire neighborhood. No one had seen President Park, so she went outside the village.
“Uncle!”
Tears welled up in her eyes.
She suddenly became terrified that she might never find President Park.
Just then.
In the distance, she saw a disheveled old man rummaging through a pile of rotten apples discarded in an orchard.
With a desperate hope, she ran like crazy.
Getting closer, she saw that it was indeed President Park.
“Uncle...”
“I’m so hungry, I feel like I’m going to die.”
Haejoo approached him, sobbing.
A strong smell of sweat emanated from President Park’s body.
“I’ll give you food at home. You can’t eat this.”
Haejoo took off the slippers she was wearing and put them on President Park’s feet.
Then, holding his hand tightly, she walked home.
Tears kept falling foolishly.
She hadn’t brought her phone or wallet, so she couldn’t call a taxi.
When she finally reached the area where her house was, there were two police cars. Through the police officers, she saw Dojun, who had come after receiving a call from the caregiver.
“Dojun-ssi...”
“Haejoo-ya! Father!”
He ran towards them.
Seeing that President Park was safe, Dojun pulled the sobbing Haejoo into an embrace.
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