Chapter 79
He downed the remaining whiskey almost as if pouring it all out at once. Then, suddenly like someone who had gained a hundredfold courage, he spoke quickly without hesitation.
“Do you happen to have any important plans tomorrow? Executive Director-nim specially cleared his schedule for you, and it seems like he’s thinking of taking you to a very nice place.”
“Father.”
“Even from one man looking at another, he has wonderful looks, tremendous wealth, and is even kind… isn’t he truly a wonderful person? At your young age, if you’re going to enjoy yourself with someone, you wouldn’t really lose out with someone of his caliber…”
“Father.”
“……”
Only then did the adoptive father stop talking and look this way at Jiin’s voice calling him with emphasis.
Father. He couldn’t even tell how long it had been since he’d used that form of address. During his last visit to Miami, even when he had something to say, he had omitted the title.
It wasn’t because he didn’t want to call him that. It was just that the word wouldn’t come out of his mouth due to the awkward distance that had developed between them. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to call him that. Rather, he had wanted to call him that so much.
“I’m… not interested in that kind of one-time meeting… Because he’s not someone I can meet with continuously.”
The adoptive father just stared at Jiin silently for a moment. It was a considerably disappointed, no, frustrated expression. Since it happened to be his superior’s proposal, it might be difficult from his position. But even so, he didn’t want to have a meeting he wasn’t interested in.
The adoptive father was lost in thought for a moment, only drinking. Then suddenly he lifted his head and faced Jiin directly. Now his expression was no longer hesitating like before. Rather, he could even feel something like the stubborn determination of someone backed into a corner.
“When you were left neglected for a year in that facility, unable to be adopted or receive proper treatment… your mother and I visited and cared for you every week. You don’t remember… but while you wouldn’t open your heart to the facility’s social workers, you showed reactions only to your mother and me.”
“……”
“Even while treating you in America, and after settling in Paeli… I cared for you like my own child. I let you enjoy everything the twins enjoyed equally. I sent you to the same international school, bought you good clothes, taught you sports and instruments… now you’re… going to inherit the management rights of ‘Mio palazzo’, aren’t you!”
The more the adoptive father continued his story, the more he seemed almost angry at Jiin. Jiin remained frozen, just facing that anger. He couldn’t react to the sudden attack. Even though he wanted to drink the alcohol in his glass, his hand wouldn’t move.
Jiin’s adoption had been public, and it wasn’t a taboo word within the family, but no one in the family had ever once talked about that adoption as if it were a sacrifice made for Jiin.
That’s why, though he might feel loneliness about not knowing what his roots were, he had never felt sorrow about the reality of being adopted. He had never felt like he wasn’t their ‘real family’ because he was adopted.
But now, Jiin felt the vastness of having his existence directly denied.
‘Like my own child’… mother had never used such an expression. The expression ‘like my own child’ implied that he wasn’t the same as a biological child.
Jiin moistened his lips with his tongue and swallowed dry saliva, finally opening his trembling lips.
“I’m… grateful for what you’ve done for me…”
“Being grateful, just saying it with words won’t do. What we gave you wasn’t just that much, was it? Huh?”
“……”
The expensive tuition at international school and the luxury clothing and affluent lifestyle he had enjoyed all this time. Was he asking him to pay back all that money? Jiin just stared blankly at the adoptive father’s flushed dark red face.
“Look at me now. How difficult it must have been for me to reach my current position in this place where I have no one to pull me up… if it’s you who has deep loneliness inside, can’t you understand me?”
His eyes, filled with desperate appeal, looked at Jiin yearningly this time. As if the magic key that could fulfill his lifelong wish was in Jiin’s hands.
Where did it go wrong?
As in any major city in the world, but especially here in New York, the position of head chef at a five-star luxury hotel restaurant was special.
One leads a glamorous life through interviews with various media, TV appearances, invitations and collaborations with famous restaurants in other cities. Of course, one becomes a popular celebrity in high society. It would also work favorably when later establishing independence to run one’s own restaurant.
The senior chef position also received tremendous salary and excellent treatment, but the face of the restaurant was ultimately the head chef.
The adoptive father was craving only the top like a racehorse running with blinders on.
“What would have happened if you had stayed in Seoul? You wouldn’t have been adopted, let alone received proper treatment. Even if adoption had worked out, who can guarantee what kind of parents you would have met? But you… met good adoptive parents and lived affluently in a harmonious family. If you think of it as repaying that debt… one little date, it’s not something you can’t do, is it?”
“……”
Debt.
At the words telling him to repay his debt, Jiin was finally left speechless.
The adoptive father came down from the sofa and crawled on his knees to the front of the chair where Jiin sat. When he grabbed Jiin’s hand, the whiskey in the glass sloshed and spilled onto his thigh and the carpet.
“Please… I have no other way to get that position. I can’t stay as a chef for life and then retire… I can’t do that… that’s all I have left now.”
The adoptive father’s cloudy eyes with unclear edges looked up at Jiin. Then he buried his forehead as if collapsing onto Jiin’s tightly gripped hand.
“Just one night is enough. For your father… just one night… Jiin… I’m begging you like this… your mother has connections at Knox. But no matter how much I ask her, she won’t budge! So other than that, I have no way to climb to that position…”
He was someone who had lived together within the framework of family for 15 years, someone he had called appa, father for 20 years. He was also someone who had watched his entire growth process. Even if not as much as the twins, he still thought he would be a precious person to him.
Because that’s what he was to me.
Even while saying our relationship had grown distant, deep down I missed paternal affection, and I envied the twins who headed to America when the time came. When I heard his voice expressing disappointment that it had been too long since he’d seen me, telling me to definitely come with the twins this time, I was secretly happy.
I had faith that I too would be someone whose safety, health, and happiness he would wish for.
Jiin let out a scoff at his own foolishness. His eyes grew hot regardless of his intentions.
He could hear the roaring sound of something collapsing inside. You are nothing. Someone was shouting with a demonic voice.
The adoptive father threw away Jiin’s hand as if shaking it off, then this time clung to Jiin’s calf.
“If you tell me to, I’ll even pretend to die. Huh? I could lick your feet, I could bark like a dog if you tell me to!”
The adoptive father actually lay flat on the carpet and licked the top of Jiin’s slippers with his tongue. Completely blinded by money and honor, he couldn’t be seen as a normal person. Jiin was almost at the point of feeling sadness.
Knowing his appearance when he had embraced him with generous and warm character and lifted him high to the sky, this change felt even more futile. Where did it go wrong? A hot tear that had been held back flowed down his left cheek. He couldn’t tell what kind of tears they were himself.
Children repay kindness to their parents, they don’t repay debts.
The debt of meeting good adoptive parents and growing up affluently… repaying kindness belonged to the realm of duty, but repaying debt was a matter of obligation. It meant there was no choice.
Jiin wiped away the flowing tears with the back of his hand.
“You don’t need to do this. Get up. And… promise me. That you’ll never contact mother about this kind of problem again.”
“I promise! I promise! I swear on the twins!”
He promises. The adoptive father nodded his head vigorously several times with his reddened eyes.
■
A limousine was waiting at the hotel’s back entrance.
Since a man waiting at the far end of the car’s long tail bowed his head toward this direction, Jiin knew it was the vehicle he was supposed to board.
There was another man inside. The man sitting on the inner side of the L-shaped seating arrangement briefly bowed his head to Jiin. The one standing by the door was Western, and the one inside was an Asian presumed to be Korean.
When the Asian man gave instructions to the driver’s seat, the space between them and the driver’s seat was blocked by a screen partition. And the long car began to slowly exit Madison Avenue.
“We will escort you to the destination. Please expect the travel time to be about one and a half to two hours.”
Since the man used English, his origin became even more difficult to gauge.
He took out a long, glossy black string from a small case. Instantly, Jiin realized it was meant to cover his eyes. It was such a movie-like situation that he almost scoffed, but of course no laughter came.
“Please don’t find this unpleasant, and think of it as a tool for a surprise. There will be no restraining of other parts of your body. Since the person we’re escorting has a special status, this is just a small measure for security. Please understand.”
What would happen if he answered that he couldn’t understand? Did he even have the right to refuse? While thinking such thoughts with an unreal mind, the ribbon was passed to the Western man sitting next to Jiin, and soon the smooth, cold ribbon touched his eyes.
The moment he boarded this limousine himself, Jiin could realize that his understanding and consent were no longer essential to these people.
“Water and beverages are prepared, so please let us know if you need anything.”
“A glass of whiskey, please. Straight.”
After a series of small clinking sounds, a glass was placed in Jiin’s hand.
“It’s filled about one-third.”
Jiin carefully let the liquid flow down his esophagus so that the alcohol wouldn’t flow to the corners of his mouth due to failed angle control.
The interior of the vehicle was quite comfortable. The noisy road sounds of busy Manhattan were almost perfectly blocked out, and instead, classical music that helped loosen tension was playing at an appropriate volume. The interior temperature and seat temperature were also just right. Throughout the journey, the two men never once conversed with each other, so Jiin felt like he was having alone time in a cozy room cut off from the outside.
If it hadn’t been such a disastrous situation, he would have fallen asleep in less than ten minutes.
“Thank you for your patience. We’ll remove the ribbon for you.”
How far had they traveled? The man’s calm voice announced their arrival. The soft ribbon was untied, brushing past his nose bridge and cheeks.
Even though the interior wasn’t very bright, since his eyes had been covered for about an hour and a half, his vision needed a few seconds to adjust at first.
The car was stopped in front of some mansion. The two-story mansion, with edges that curved inward on both sides forming a half-moon shape, was surrounded by layers of tall trees.
Sending a limousine, covering eyes with a ribbon, and bringing someone to a secluded luxury villa…
If this had happened between lovers, Jiin smiled bitterly to himself, thinking it might have been a romantic and exciting surprise event.
Two hours by car from Manhattan.
It seemed to be somewhere in Suffolk County, which included areas like East Hampton, Greenport, and Montauk where wealthy people’s villas were concentrated, but it was just speculation. He couldn’t find any geographical hints that would narrow down the candidates further. Jiin acknowledged that a ribbon about 10cm wide had a definite effect.
“He’s waiting inside.”
As he got out of the car, cold and clean air rushed into his lungs. Without leisure to look around carefully, Jiin took a deep breath and followed behind the man.
Opening the brown front door and entering, there were stairs leading to the second floor on the left, and a hallway connected on the right.
The man guided Jiin toward the inner part of the hallway. They passed through the spacious main living room, turned the hallway several more times, and went deep inside. Finally, the man stopped at the dead end of the hallway.
There was only one wooden door that looked simpler than the other doors in the mansion. From the outside, it looked like a storage room for hiding cleaning supplies or storing equipment.
The man stood with his back to Jiin, completely blocking the door. After rattling something briefly, he pulled the handle outward and stepped aside.
“You can go down.”
“……”
It seemed to mean he should move alone from here.
Inside the door was a narrow staircase leading to the lower floor. Unlike the shabby door, the stairs were carpeted, and the walls were luxuriously decorated with burgundy velvet wallpaper.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
