This week had passed rather quickly. It was Friday already. One more day to go, and it will be - Sunday!
I came back home from office after picking Iseul up at school.
I made Iseul do her homework after which I washed the clothes and hung them to dry. Then, I noticed that the bedroom cup board was a bit dusty, so I decided to clean it too.
But... Ended up cleaning all the cupboards.
I took all the things off of the shelves dusted them and arranged them neatly again. It was Iseul's toys that took the most time to clean and arrange.
I started off the work to finish it in some 15 minutes but ended up doing 3 hours of work.
And guess what I got from it - Tiredness.
...
I was hella tired and was not in the mood to cook which made me order food online.
...
Hmm... What have they got?
Iseul's favourite hamburger and pizza with meat for myself - Aaand done.
~
While I was waiting for the ordered food, my eyes fell on my favourite book 'Light years apart', that laid on my mini table. Turning the pages, I got reminded of Insoo.
He likes this book too.
He... I don't know why but I feel like he's been ignoring me for the past few days. I mean we aren't the best of buddies to talk every few minutes. But... Something feels different when I'm around him.
Could it be related to me being a single mother? Is he getting second thoughts on hiring me now?
...
Ahh... No Dayun. Don't overthink things. You always do your work perfectly. There's no way he could think ill of me just because I'm a single mother now, can he?
...
...
While I was having my own personal talk, I heard someone else having a talk. And who else was there other than Iseul.
But if she's not talking with me, who is she talking with?
...
...
"This Sunday dada..."
"Yes... This Sunday."
What?
Could it be-
"Please come dada... Please..."
Nooo...
I had the worst panic attack of the year.
Must this girl give me such a hard time?
I sprinted to where she was.
...
Insoo's POV
It was Friday night and Chul-ho had brought me to a... You might have guessed... To a night club.
Against my will, of course...
I and him... We are friends from middle-school. But now I don't remember how or even why I became his friend. We're polar opposites after all.
But life's toughest times... We went through them together. Him on his way to become a model and I, to establish Moontalks. He was the only one that stood by my side back then.
Even though, he's a bit annoying, I can't trade that brat for anything. After all, being annoying is what makes him, him, I guess.
We grabbed a drink or two. He wanted me to dance for that stupid song which was making my ear drums bleed. And of course, I refused. So, there we stood in a corner, quietly drinking.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
"You know, we could do this at home?" He said looking at me. "I think you misunderstood the meaning of night club because this is clearly not how you're supposed to spend your night in a night freaking club!"
"And I think you should include the words 'I'm not interested in those crazy clubs' in your dictionary."
*Silence*
'Obviously, you wouldn't change' I heard him whisper to himself.
...
"So... Did they kick you out of the US or something?" I began.
"Keep wishing. I'm their best model, why would they kick me out? I left because I wanted to pursue acting." He made that sound like a dramatic reveal.
"Well, that would suit you the best." I took a sip from my drink.
"And mom's sick too. I've to stay in the country to be near her." He spoke after a long pause.
"WHAT?" I was taken aback. His mom was like a mother to me too.
"Chill bro... Chill. She's fine. It's nothing serious. She had a small fracture in her leg. She's fine now."
I heaved a sigh of relief. If something had happened to her then I'd be deeply worried.
"Stop it already. You seem more like her son than me." He patted my arm. "Speaking of which, she wanted to meet you, so, you're coming with me next time I visit her. She wouldn't allow me inside the house if I don't bring you with me." He said and it made me chuckle.
"I want to meet her too-"
*Rings*
In the middle of our conversation, I heard my phone ring.
"It's yours. Pick up. Who is it? Is it Ms. Mysterious past?" He asked me casually but when I took my phone out, I realized it indeed was Dayun.
"What? Is it really her?" His eyes grew wide seeing my reaction.
"Why is she calling me now? It's late. Something important?" I talked to myself.
"How would we know if you don't pick up?" Before I could scream 'Wait', Chul-ho already swiped my phone to attend the call and put it to my ear.
I cleared my throat.
"Uhm- Ms. Ro-" Before I could speak further, I heard the person on the other side speak...
"Dada..."
....
Iseul..?
"What? What does she say?"
"It's Iseul." I half whispered to Chul-ho.
"Hey Iseul..." I spoke to her on the phone.
"Iseul? Who?" He asked. I tried to ignore him but, "Tell me, Who's Iseul?" He asked again.
Remember, I told you, he could be annoying at times, this is of one those.
"My-" I paused.
...
"Her daughter" I whispered to him and he went "Ohh..." and proceeded to sip his drink.
Was I about to say 'My daughter'? I have only talked to her once, but why was I about to say that?............ Damn... I must be really drunk.
"What are you doing, dada?" I heard her childish voice ask me.
"Me? I'm not doing anything much..." I told her and asked, "Why? Is there something you want to tell me, little one?"
...
"Actually... I want to ask you something."
"Really? What is it that Iseul wants to ask?"
"Dada... There's a Founder's Day competition for fathers in my school. So, I want you to come with me. Would you come with me?" Her voice grew soft.
"What? A Founder's Day competition for fathers? When is that?" I asked her casually thinking that it was one of her playful talks.
"This Sunday dada..." She said and that is when I realized that she actually was serious.
"This Sunday?"
"Yes, This Sunday..." She confirmed. "Please come dada... Please..."
"But Iseul... Why are you asking me and not your father? I mean, your real one. He would get upset, wouldn't he? And your momma too. She would be angry too." I wanted to know what was this about. "No, dada... Momma is my real fake dada... But momma is a girl. They won't let girl dada to participate. They only allow boy dada."
...
???
...
???
...
Uhm- So- I'm not supposed to laugh, right?
...
...
"What are you talking about Iseul?" I tried not to laugh but failed. It really sounded serious but in my defence who would have expected that?
"ISEUL!" The next thing I heard was Dayun's scream all the way through the phone. As soon as I heard her voice, for some reason, my face grew empty.
"Give it to me... GIVE!" "Momma... Noo..." "Iseul... If you don't it to give me, I won't buy you Princess bag!" "What? Nooo..." "Then, give it to me." "Noo, momma, no." "Ah... Iseul-"
After a lot of struggle and chaos, it seemed like Dayun managed to snatch the phone from Iseul's hands and I could hear Isuel's distant screams.
"I'm really really sorry that my daughter disturbed you sir. I won't let this happen again, ever. Please forgive me this one time. I'll make sure she never calls you... I'm sorry." She ran out of breath and begged me sincerely like a rat would beg to a cat for life.
"It's fine as long as it doesn't happen again." I tried to sound as professional as possible.
"No. It won't, I promise. Thank you..." She sounded really guilty. And after which none of us uttered a word or even hung up the call, but just stayed with our phone glued to our ears... while I could still hear her panting but now not very loudly.
So, I slowly removed the phone to hang up. But while I was about to press that red button, 'Uhm-' I heard her say and immediately my hands kept the phone to my ears again.
"May I ask, what she told you?" It took another couple of minutes to ask the question.
"She said something about Father's Day competition and asked me to accompany her?" I carefully let the words out wondering what her reaction would be.
"Oh..." That was all she said but I could sense a lot of mixed emotions behind her voice, the dominant emotion being . "I'm sorry
she troubled you." She apologized for the n th time but all I could focus on was how sad she sounded now.
...
Is she really that sad? But why?
...
"It's okay, don't worry... But don't let her phone me again. Children talk whatever is on their mind I understand. But if her father- I mean if your husband hears her addressing me like that, I'm afraid he would misunderstand and I don't want that. So, it's better if she doesn't call me again."
...
Insoo... Are you in your right mind? What are you saying? I gulped.
...
"What?" She sounded like that was the most ridiculous thing someone has ever said.
...
So, did I mess up with words?
...
"I mean, I don't want anything to happen because of me..." I stated.
"No, no... You- you got it wrong... Iseul doesn't have a father. I mean he's not with us. We live alone."
"What?" It was my turn to be shocked. With that she quickly cut the call after she heard a doorbell and after apologizing again leaving me shocked and intrigued.
...
...
...
"What did she say?" Chul-ho asked.
~
~
~
Dayun's POV,
I thanked the delivery guy for delivering my food. And carried it inside after closing the door carefully.
"Iseul... Food is here." I announced.
"Iseul..." I found her sitting on the far end of the sofa with her arms crossed and head looking to the other side. She was sulking.
I went to sit beside her and slowly opened the food. I first opened her favourite Hamburger. "Wow... Doesn't this smell so yummy, Iseul? Look... isn't this your favourite?" I said in an attempt to tempt her. "Don't you want it? Then, should I eat it?" I acted as if to take a bite.
Iseul quickly snatched it from my hands. "I want it." She said and proceeded to take a huge hungry bite.
It made me laugh.
"Iseul-ah... Look, I know you're angry. But you see, we should never trouble others. And Mr. Moon would be troubled if you call him unnecessarily." I told her calmly to make her understand.
"But I just wanted to-"
"I know, Iseul... But we cannot force someone to do something, can we?"
~
~
~
The next morning, I woke up rather early. It was Saturday and Iseul didn't have school as her school was preparing for the Founder's Day tomorrow.
She still looked upset about it. I was worried too, but... There's simply nothing I can do about that competition.
*Sighs*
She didn't speak much with me. So, I just made sure she had her breakfast and quietly left for work after instructing her to stay safe.
~
I met Jae-mi in the office hallway. She hasn't come to work for the past few days. Apparently, she had visited her hometown to celebrate some annual festival of her hometown with her family. We talked about it and she invited me to visit it with her next year and I gladly accepted. Our talk continued to the office as we walked together.
"And thank you for taking care of Iseul, I couldn't thank you properly that day." I remembered to thank her for the help.
"Yo girl... Don't mention it." She said in a rather commanding.
With that, we went onto do our respective jobs.
~
Being Insoo's secretary, I have to visit him first thing in the morning. And my work too is mostly to go with him to wherever he goes and to help him with all his official meetings, visits and basically everything.
I was earlier today, so, I was happy. I went inside his room but he wasn't there. I went near his table. His table was always clean and dust-less as usual. He is a total neat freak.
While looking at his table, my eyes quickly caught something on the table that I've never noticed before. It was a photo of his high-school graduation. He was with his father. He looked rather innocent and small in the photo. You know, the quiet, shy and smart type.
One can not guess that this confident and daring Moon Insoo was once that shy high-schooler.
But one thing that was strange to me was, I couldn't spot his mother. Where is his mother?
"Dayun..." Insoo's voice brought me back to reality as he grabbed the schedule note-pad from my hands and went through it. I proceeded to explain it and when I finished...
Out of nowhere... He asked,
"So... What time is it tomorrow..?............ The competition"
To be continued...