A child who looks like me

“It appears that he has lost his memory for about the last three years.”

Mrs. Jang asked the attending physician for clarification.

“If it’s three years, that means my son’s memories are stuck at the age of twenty-three?”

“That’s correct.”

“Is it possible that his memories will come back someday?”

“That could happen. However, since it might be distressing for the patient, please try not to stress him too much. The patient’s stability is the priority.”

“……”

“There could be other issues as well, so you will need to monitor him for a long time.”

At the doctor’s advice, Mrs. Jang’s pulse quickened.

It was unfortunate that her son had lost three years of memories.

But if it was just the recent three years—then perhaps it could be for the better!

In the past three years, what had happened to her son was only his military enlistment, his discharge, and a brief romance with a girl named Lee Jeong-o.

If it was just that much, losing those memories might not be a bad thing at all.

His university life had only spanned two semesters in those three years, so he wouldn’t be far behind others.

Mrs. Jang’s mind raced with ideas.

She needed to erase all traces of her son’s past, especially any remnants related to that girl, Jeong-o. Then they could go back to the time when he didn’t know her and start anew.

This was an opportunity for her son to be happier.

“Yes. I will keep a close watch. Thank you, doctor.”

Mrs. Jang thanked the physician and stepped out of the consultation room.

Outside the room stood Eunbi, wearing a worried expression.

“Mother.”

The daughter of Supreme Court judge Chae Seobok.

This girl, who had recently returned to Korea after studying in the United States, had faithfully kept vigil at Jiheon’s bedside.

It could be a sense of duty as a witness to the hit-and-run incident, but she seemed to genuinely care for Jiheon.

She was from a good family and well-educated.

If she were to be my son’s partner, she should at least be this capable.

“Right, Eunbi.”

“What did the doctor say?”

“They said he has lost memories from the past three years. They don’t know if they will return or not.”

Mrs. Jang sighed deeply as she spoke to Eunbi.

“……Then has he lost his memory of me too?”

Eunbi’s face also showed concern, with tears pooling in her eyes.

“Oppa really liked me a lot, you know.”

“Oh, really?”

“He even said he wanted to date me when he returned to Korea, though it was probably a joke. But now he won’t remember that.”

Upon hearing Eunbi’s confession, Mrs. Jang instinctively grasped Eunbi’s hand tightly.

“It’s okay! We can start over.”

“Really? Do you think so?”

“Of course. Absolutely.”

Seeing her shy smile as Mrs. Jang encouraged her made her look truly beautiful. Mrs. Jang sincerely began to envision a happy future.

How wonderful it would be if such a girl were to become her daughter-in-law one day.

After parting with Eunbi, Mrs. Jang returned to the hospital room.

Jiheon, who had been sleeping, was now awake, staring blankly out the window.

“You’re awake? How do you feel?”

“Just okay.”

Jiheon replied dryly, his tone flat and emotionless. Mrs. Jang tried again to engage him; she wanted to infuse some life into her son.

“Did you see Eunbi? While you were lying there unconscious, she worked really hard. She came to visit you every single day.”

“Eunbyeol’s younger sister?”

“Yes. She just returned from studying abroad a few days ago and was still a bit disoriented, but she took good care of you.”

“……”

“By the way, do you remember this? You seemed to think Eunbi was really cute. Before you went abroad, you even said that you’d date her when you returned to Korea.”

“Is that so? That’s strange.”

“……”

“Eunbyeol’s sister isn’t really my type.”

Jiheon spoke coldly, as if he had no emotions.

His expression was empty, as if a huge hole had opened in his chest.

It seemed that not only had his accident caused him to lose his memory, but it also severed many of his emotional connections.

Watching this, Mrs. Jang couldn’t help but let out a weak smile.

“Well, it might just be something said out of courtesy.”

“……”

“But that girl is really kind and pretty. She’s bright and smart. She treated me very well, too. You must have thought her actions were cute as well.”

No, he probably wouldn’t say such nonsense even as a courtesy. He likely didn’t find her cute at all.

Jiheon wanted to argue, but at the same time, he felt like saying nothing, so he remained silent.

What had happened during the three years he lost?

The military… Was it that hard for him? How could he have no memories at all?

He wanted to recall even the smallest detail, but it was useless. As his brow furrowed, Mrs. Jang, looking worried, asked,

“What’s wrong? Does your head hurt again?”

“I’m fine.”

“……”

“I just feel like I’ve forgotten something very important.”

The more he struggled to recall his memories, the more his head felt like it would split open.

Yet, instead of tears flowing from his eyes, it felt as if they were welling up from his chest.

.*. *. *. *. *. *.

Jeong-o couldn’t go to the hospital.

When she was with Jiheon, it felt like they could overcome everything, but just the fact that she had lost contact with him completely sapped her spirit.

But her body was honest. Sleepiness overcame her, and a pressing pain settled in her chest. Even when she sat still, it felt like she was nauseous.

She couldn’t put it off any longer. She couldn’t keep despairing like this.

She had to make a decision.

Let’s try just one more time.

Let’s try to contact him just one last time.

Taking a deep breath, Jeong-o courageously picked up her phone.

Ringing… Her heart raced throughout the ringing tone, but the call never connected.

Her heart crumbled once again, leaving her mind in ruins to the point where she couldn’t even lay a single brick of hope.

Just when she felt so dry that even tears wouldn’t come, her phone vibrated for the first time in a long while.

Unexpectedly, Jiheon’s name appeared.

Jeong-o hurriedly answered the call.

“Hello.”

[Lee Jeong-o?] It was undoubtedly Jiheon’s voice. How long had it been since she heard him?

“Oppa….”

She had so much to say. So, so much. All the hurt she had felt burst forth.

Tears began to well up in her eyes, which she thought had run dry.

“Why didn’t you contact me…?”

She spoke in a tone that seemed to be whining. But she couldn’t get really angry.

Right. I thought something was wrong too. Oppa wouldn’t just cut off contact like that.

“Oppa, is something wrong? Nothing happened, right?”

But her resentment didn’t last long. It was more important to check on his condition.

[I’m doing well.] Jeong-o felt relieved at the response that came from the other end of the line.

Okay. As long as nothing happened, that’s all that mattered. Now, the two of them could resolve the other issues together.

She wanted to say that.

[I heard that my mother met you instead of me. Wasn’t that the end of it?] His dry voice returned.

“……Huh?”

[Wasn’t my opinion already conveyed?] His words sounded so cold that she could hardly believe it was his true feelings.

[Since it’s burdensome, can you not contact me anymore?] But it was unmistakably his voice.

Jeong-o’s expression froze. A darker shadow loomed over her, greater than the one that had engulfed her when they first lost contact.

[You wouldn’t want to be a stumbling block in someone else’s life, would you?] She felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

Did he think she was a stumbling block in his life?

Why? Because she was having a child?

[You’d better be prepared when you reach out again.] “……Prepared for what?”

“What do you mean by ‘be prepared’?”

[I’m going to hang up, thinking you understood. Take care.] His calm and sharp voice brought the conversation to an end.

Click.

Without a response to her question, and before she could even offer any kind of greeting, the call ended.

This couldn’t be happening.

She felt completely drained and dropped her phone from her hand.

But then she shook her head.

That can’t be true. It must be a lie.

Picking up her phone again, Jeong-o wiped away her tears with her sleeve and quickly dialed Jiheon’s number again.

[The phone is off, followed by a beeping sound and voicemail…] The automated voice, which she had heard dozens of times, rang painfully in her ears.

That was the end of their connection.

.*. *. *. *. *. *.

Oppa, our child has just turned one.

She’s started calling me “Mommy.”

I don’t know where she learned it, but sometimes she even calls me “Daddy.”

Jiheon, now our child is running around.

She’s starting kindergarten.

She’s very curious and eats well.

She loves touching my face, and occasionally she sings songs.

Jiheon, next year, Ye-na will be a first grader.

She’s very pretty, has a good personality, and has many friends.

Even without a dad, you wouldn’t believe how bright she is.

I no longer wait for your contact.

Thinking about it, you never told me you loved me.

Well, I don’t think it was all a lie.

You must have liked me to some extent, but you probably didn’t love me enough to say it.

That’s okay. It’s fine now.

The season that I couldn’t let go of for so long has left behind nothing but a hard residue like a steel ball.

And enough time has passed for that steel ball to rust again.

7 years have passed.

Now, she no longer cries over the love she lost.

.*. *. *. *. *. *.

“Mom, why is there a gacha machine here?”

On the way back from her academy.

Ye-na, who had let go of her mother’s hand and rushed a few steps ahead, stopped in front of the gacha machine and asked.

“Mom, why is there a gacha machine here?”

The bright eyes of the child, looking up at her, tickled Jeong-o’s heart.

Like a black pebble shimmering in the clear valley water, her curious expression was so lovely that even her slyness was endearing.

“Ye-na, are you really asking why the gacha machine is here, or do you want to try it?”

Jeong-o squinted and asked.

“Be honest.”

“I want to try it.”

Caught out by her true feelings, Ye-na pursed her plump lips and confessed.

She was so cute that Jeong-o couldn’t even scold her.

Jeong-o chuckled softly.

“Choose. I’ll let you do it just once. If you don’t get what you want, that’s tough. Just this one time.”

“This one.”

Ye-na pointed to the gacha machine at the bottom left.

“It eats three 500 won coins. Ye-na, how much is that?”

“1,500 won!”

Jeong-o had asked to teach her math, but Ye-na responded faster than usual.

She must have already calculated it in her head.

Jeong-o glanced at Ye-na with half-opened eyes and handed her three 500 won coins.

Ye-na confidently inserted the coins into the gacha machine.

Seeing how adept she was at handling the machine, it seemed she had learned this trick from her grandmother.

That seven-year-old girl was very clever.

Jeong-o thought of the sly man from seven years ago.

So subtly cunning that he never realized she was deceived.

It struck her as funny that she was reminded of Ye-na’s father in such a strange way.

‘But I’m not the Lee Jeong-o of that time anymore.’

Jeong-o had become someone who could smile wryly at the innocent version of herself from seven years ago.

Occasionally recalling him didn’t mean she missed him at all.

It was just like a farmer reflecting on an extreme drought.

A dreadful past.

She wished never to encounter it again.

“Wow! Mom! I got what I wanted!”

Ye-na, holding the gacha capsule, jumped up and down, but Jeong-o felt a sense of emptiness.

A rubber ball. Just a round clump of rubber. It was absurd that it cost 1,500 won for such a trivial thing, so Jeong-o asked her,

“Did you really want this, Ye-na?”

“Yes!”

“Why?”

“Because it’s the same color as the Go stones.”

Ye-na, having retrieved the contents from the capsule, replied.

This rubber clump dressed like a soccer ball was similar in color to Go stones, and that made her happy.

What a delightful child.

Jeong-o couldn’t help but smile.

Like the leaves of the street trees in this season, my daughter has unexpectedly grown up again. She has become a child who knows her preferences and can express them.

Throughout the walk to the restaurant, Ye-na’s hand didn’t leave her pocket.

The way she fidgeted with the gacha ball in her pocket was very noticeable to Jeong-o.

Her steps were quicker than usual. It was clear that she was eager to reach her grandmother’s restaurant and take out the gacha ball to play with it.

The two of them walked confidently and arrived at “Guksun Baekban.”

“Guksun Baekban.” Jeong-o’s mother, Lee Guksun, runs the restaurant.

It’s a small place with only five tables, but it’s famous in the area. During lunchtime, nearby office workers line up to wait, making it quite popular.

“Grandma!”

“Is my baby here? Hurry and eat.”

As Ye-na opened the restaurant door and shouted, Guksun welcomed her with a broad smile. Dinner for the two of them was already prepared on the table.

Before even sitting down, Ye-na took the gacha ball out of her pocket.

“You got another one, didn’t you?”

Guksun noticed what Ye-na was holding and asked. Ye-na didn’t respond, as if feeling guilty.

Tonight’s dinner menu was bean sprout soup and stir-fried pork.

Without any pork cutlets or tteokbokki on the table, Ye-na quickly grew sullen.

Unaware of Ye-na’s feelings, Guksun picked up the anchovy side dish and placed it on Ye-na’s bowl.

“Come on, sweetie. You need to eat.”

Since Ye-na wasn’t moving, Guksun’s hand instinctively reached for Ye-na’s spoon. She scooped rice from Ye-na’s bowl and brought it to her mouth.

“Mom, let her eat by herself.”

Jeong-o, sitting across from her, spooned rice into her own mouth like a servant as she spoke.

“She’s not eating because of that.”

Guksun retorted.

Her daughter and granddaughter were Guksun’s treasures.

Watching her daughter eat the rice she cooked until she was full and seeing her granddaughter’s mouth filled with food brought Guksun joy for the day.

As if sensing this, Ye-na looked at her mother and said, “Grandma, I feel full just watching Mom eat.”

Heh. Jeong-o burst out laughing as she swallowed her rice.

Children are mirrors of adults.

Children gather the pieces of words thrown out carelessly by adults and make them their own.

So, Jeong-o also tries to speak beautifully and act kindly to set an example for her daughter, Ye-na.

Even during the meal, Guksun got up several times to attend to customers. Jeong-o tried to help, but Guksun cherished her daughter.

“Eat quickly and go home. Prepare for work tomorrow.”

“There’s nothing to prepare for work.”

“It’s your first day after changing jobs. You need to be mentally prepared.”

As if mental preparation were akin to a large-scale move, Guksun’s voice was filled with strength.

.*. *. *. *. *. *.

The next day.

“Do well. Don’t skip lunch.”

On her first day at the new company, Jeong-o left the house, seeing Guksun off.

She moved to this new company on the recommendation of a senior who had already transferred. It’s a small company, but the conditions were good, so she didn’t hesitate for long.

However, when Jeong-o arrived at the new company, her senior immediately told her to come to Gangnam.

At the bank intersection, Jeong-o waited for her senior. After a while, her senior arrived.

“Assistant Lee.”

“Senior.”

After greeting her senior, Jeong-o asked what was on her mind.

“Why did you call me here?”

“The company was sold. To Max Planning.”

An unpredictable life.

Jeong-o couldn’t close her gaping mouth and finally asked after a long pause, “When?”

“The official announcement was made last night. Didn’t you see the article?”

As if she would have. Last night, she went to bed early as her mother advised.

“It seems everything progressed really quickly. But your position as an assistant is still there. Only the company building and the management have changed. It’s just a brief confusion, and it will be sorted out soon.”

“…….”

“Since this is your first job wherever you go, I arranged for you to start directly here without needing to sign the employment contract twice. I’ll be moving here soon too, so don’t worry.”

Now that she thought about it, the place her senior had asked her to meet was in front of the building of Max Planning.

While Max Planning was a better company with a decent location, it was sudden.

“The HR team has contacted you. Go on in quickly.”

“By myself?”

“You can do it, Assistant Lee.”

Her senior encouraged Jeong-o with a pat on the shoulder.

The excitement and tension of her first day at a new job was overshadowed by extreme fear.

She felt like she was alone in the vast ocean.

But life is originally solitary.

Thirty years. The experiences of a life not short have now become Jeong-o’s assets. Compared to the despair of long ago, this level of tension is nothing.

Lee Jeong-o, you can do it!

Jeong-o firmly steadied herself and entered the building.

In front of the company entrance stood a woman and a man.

“Is this Lee Jeong-o?”

When Jeong-o replied, “Yes!” the man introduced her to the woman.

“Team Leader, this is the new copywriter, Lee Jeong-o.”

The woman nodded enthusiastically and extended her hand toward Jeong-o.

“Assistant Lee Jeong-o, nice to meet you. I’m Seong Mi-ran, the team leader of Production Team 2. Let’s do well together.”

“Yes. I look forward to working with you.”

Feeling reassured by the team leader’s pleasant demeanor, Jeong-o followed Mi-ran after parting ways with the HR staff.

“I heard about you. You moved from Sang-A Planning and ended up here.”

“Yes.”

“It must be confusing. Things have been quite hectic here lately, so we won’t have much time to help you adjust. You’ll be able to adapt, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

Jeong-o replied confidently.

Contrary to the introduction of chaos, the inside of the company was eerily quiet.

Noticing something unusual, Mi-ran asked a colleague from the adjacent team as they walked to their seats.

“Why is it so quiet?”

“Director Jeong is over there,” the colleague replied, pointing down the hallway.

Jeong-o turned to look at the end of the corridor. There stood a tall, slender man, noticeably taller than the others. His back seemed more fitting for a model than someone referred to as a director.

“Oh? Then there’s no need to greet him separately.”

Mi-ran murmured as if to herself, then leaned closer to Jeong-o and said seriously, “Actually, the director is scarier than the CEO. He’s only been here a week…”

“…….”

“He’s the son of the group chairman.”

The chairman’s son. Someone from a different world.

Maybe it was the tension, but her stomach churned.

“I need to do well. I need to do well.”

Just as Jeong-o steadied herself again, Director Jeong turned around.

Life is always unpredictable.

Jeong-o’s face stiffened as she looked down the hallway.

…That body, that face.

Seven years. The gap of time felt like a lie, but even from a distance, she recognized him clearly.

The father of my child.

Jeong Ji-heon. It was him.

She never expected to meet him like this.

She didn’t know he would turn out to be this kind of person.

While Jeong-o was so startled that she couldn’t move, he approached her without hesitation, without even a moment’s pause or tremor in his eyes.

Step by step, step by step.

The sound of his heels hitting the ground echoed like heavy chains locking around her body.

It felt as though all her breath had been cut off, making it difficult to breathe.

Only her heart struggled inside, as if it might leap out at any moment.

He was getting closer.

An encounter she had once dreamt of.

But now, she wanted to shake her head in denial.

As she vigorously shook her head in her mind, he drew near.

At last, his footsteps, matching hers in rhythm and pace, came to a stop right in front of her.

Time froze.

Without her realizing it, she took half a step back, but Ji-heon firmly held onto her.