Chapter 69 : Baek Hyunseo – Pain

“Your mother is looking for you.”

Unlike his usual demeanor with others, Lee Minhwan, the aide to Baek Hyunseo’s mother, spoke to her gently.

“Y… You? M… Mr. Aide?”

Baek Hyunseo stared at Lee Minhwan with a surprised expression. He looked at her understandingly and said,

“That’s right.”

-Thud

Baek Hyunseo stepped back, on guard, and said,

“Why is my mother looking for me? She abandoned me a long time ago, so why is she looking for me now?”

“Your mother never abandoned you. It’s just that you two had to be separated for a while.”

“Don’t lie! After she divorced my father when I was young, she never even showed her face properly!”

“…”

Lee Minhwan remained silent for a moment, then said to Baek Hyunseo,

“If you come with me, the Madam will explain everything in detail. But I can tell you in advance, what you’re thinking is a misunderstanding.”

-Squeeze…

Baek Hyunseo clenched her hands tightly.

Then she said quietly,

“Let’s… Let’s hear what she has to say.”

Her mother, Won Yeojeong, who had divorced her father and abandoned her when she was young, was an object of both love and resentment for Baek Hyunseo.

She had followed her mother a lot when she was a child.

Back then, she would often sit with her mother and have quiet conversations.

“Mother, I’ll be 7 years old tomorrow!”

Won Yeojeong looked at the brightly smiling Baek Hyunseo and said,

“Our Hyunseo is becoming a grown-up now. When you’re older, you’ll be able to make friends at places like the academy.”

“R… Really?! I want to meet and play with other people soon!”

“Is that so? Don’t you like life at home?”

Baek Hyunseo shook her head and said,

“No! I love playing at home, but I’m curious about other people! I’m curious about what kind of people there are, and what kind of magic I can learn at the academy!”

When she was young, President Baek Jooseok wasn’t the president of Helmunt Academy yet. He was just an academy instructor at the time.

When he came home from work, he would often tell Baek Hyunseo stories about the academy. He would tell her about the students at the academy, what happened there, and what kind of magic they were learning.

She loved it. She loved that her father often told her stories that sounded like they were from a fairy tale.

She loved it. When her father wasn’t around, she loved that her mother would sit with her and listen to her stories. Her mother ran a guild, but she still made as much time as possible to spend with Baek Hyunseo.

She thought her happiness would last forever. At the time, Baek Jooseok didn’t have a lot of money or power, but he worked hard to support his family as much as possible, and her mother also tried to spend as much time as possible with Baek Hyunseo at home.

But that everyday life was soon shattered.

One day, she heard her mother’s চিৎকার.

-Crash!

“Are you crazy?! What the hell are you doing?”

Her mother screamed and pushed her father.

“What are you talking about?”

Baek Jooseok looked at Won Yeojeong with a bewildered expression. She laughed hollowly and said,

“This lipstick mark on your clothes, how can you ask what I’m talking about? What kind of
are you doing to come home with this on you?!”

-Crash-!

Unable to contain her anger, her mother started to break things around her. Baek Jooseok said, bewildered,

“I had to entertain someone for work, so I went to a bar with them.”

“Ar… Are you insane? Are you even listening to yourself?”

“Haa…”

Baek Jooseok sighed and said,

“I can’t stay a teacher forever, can I? I need to climb the ladder. The person I’m talking to has a lot of power. Fortunately, he likes me. But he also likes women, so I just played along. It was part of the business. It might look bad now, but doing business like this will allow me to open my own academy and become president someday. When that day comes, we’ll be able to live much more comfortably.”

-Thud Thud Thud

Won Yeojeong walked towards Baek Jooseok. And stood in front of him.

“So you finally understand what I’m saying? If you get it, hurry up and set the table. I’m hungry.”

-Smack

Won Yeojeong slapped Baek Jooseok across the face.

“How can you do such filthy things and say it so proudly? You’re a father with a child. I’m your wife.”

Baek Jooseok touched his cheek, laughed hollowly, and said,

“So?”

Won Yeojeong thought she had misheard. She couldn’t imagine him saying “So?” in this situation.

“Ar… Are you insane?!”

“You’re the insane one. You know what I hate the most? You touching my body.”

-Thud!

Baek Jooseok ruthlessly punched Won Yeojeong in the face.

-Thud

“That’s enough. There’s a limit to how much I can take. I explained everything. Are we going to live like this forever? To give Hyunseo everything she wants, everything she wants to eat, everything she wants to have, I need to climb higher. This is all for Hyunseo.”

-Grind

Won Yeojeong glared at Baek Jooseok resentfully and said,

“It’s for you, not Hyunseo. We were happy enough until now. We were perfectly happy even without you doing these filthy things to get a promotion! Don’t try to disguise your disgusting greed as something you’re doing for your family!”

“You
b*tch!”

-Whoosh

As her father raised his hand to hit her mother again, Baek Hyunseo quickly ran and stood in front of her mother. And she shouted,

“Waaaah… Father, p… please don’t… Don’t hit Mother…”

-Sob

Afraid, Baek Hyunseo, who had been watching from behind, stood in front of her father, crying. She wanted to protect her mother.

“Haa… Hyunseo…”

Baek Jooseok stroked the crying Baek Hyunseo’s head and tried to comfort her.

“Go to your room. I need to talk to your mother.”

Baek Hyunseo shook her head and refused to budge.

“Don’t hit Mother. And Mother, don’t yell at Father.”

-Sob

Baek Hyunseo cried, snot running down her nose. But her presence wasn’t enough to defuse the situation. Her mother was already furious, and their broken trust couldn’t be restored so easily.

Baek Jooseok picked up Baek Hyunseo and put her in her room, saying,

“Hyunseo, I’ll call you when I’m done talking to your mother.”

-Creak

-Bang-!

The door closed. And again, she could hear her mother and father fighting.

Young Baek Hyunseo didn’t understand. Business, other women, she couldn’t clearly understand the cause of the fight. But one thing was clear: her mother and father’s relationship had been damaged.

Even after Baek Hyunseo was put in her room, the two continued to fight for a long time.

“Let’s get a divorce.”

“Divorce?”

Unable to take it anymore, Won Yeojeong shouted that they should get a divorce. Baek Jooseok looked at her with a bewildered expression and mocked her.

“Are you serious right now? Divorce? Are you insane?”

“I’m serious. I can’t have someone as filthy as you as Hyunseo’s father. I’ll take Hyunseo and raise her myself. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think you can take her? Hyunseo is my daughter.”

-Crash!

-Thud!

-Crash-!

The sound of the fight continued for a long time. Baek Hyunseo’s ears were filled with the sounds of her mother and father shouting and the occasional sound of things breaking.

-Tremble

She was afraid. She was afraid of her kind father and mother fighting.

She was scared. The occasional mention of divorce, the possibility of them separating, terrified her.

“Sob…”

She was confused. She couldn’t believe that her parents, who had never even raised their voices before, were now fighting as if they wanted to kill each other.

She desperately prayed that this situation would pass quickly.

She hoped that when tomorrow came, her mother would read her a book and stroke her hair again, and that in the evening, her father would come home from work and tell her stories about what happened at the academy.

But her wish didn’t come true.

After several hours, the sound of her parents fighting stopped. Baek Hyunseo cried herself to sleep.

-Creak

She heard the sound of a door opening. Baek Hyunseo wiped the tears from her eyes and said,

“Father, I… I had a nightmare. I dreamt that you and Mother were fighting.”

Baek Jooseok looked at Baek Hyunseo with a pained expression and said,

“Hyunseo, it wasn’t a dream.”

“Your mother abandoned you.”

Baek Hyunseo shook her head and cried out,

“Wh… What are you saying?”

“She said she can’t stand the sight of you anymore. But don’t worry. Your father loves you. From now on, even without your mother, I’ll do my best to be with you.”

That day, half of Baek Hyunseo’s world crumbled.