#28
The Alpha father asked with a voice full of disapproval. Yes, he had reason to be displeased. But when things were going strangely, I couldn’t just leave. If he thought of it as me preventing him from potentially committing a crime, he might feel grateful, but that probably wouldn’t be the case.
“It’s because of the medication I’m taking. As they said at the hospital, I think I don’t need to take the medicine anymore. Director Cha doesn’t believe me, so I was hoping you could talk to her about it.”
“Let’s discuss that tomorrow.”
For now, it seemed Alpha father just wanted to send me away, as he kept insisting we talk about it tomorrow. I gave Omega father a look that asked, ‘Is this really okay?’
“Director Cha is waiting upstairs. Please go say just one word, father.”
“…All right, let’s go talk to her. I’ll be back. Please wait a moment.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’ll be right back.”
I’m not sure what meaning Alpha father found in Omega father’s words, but his face brightened.
Is this some kind of couple communication that I don’t understand? There was no sign of agreement anywhere, yet there seemed to be telepathy passing between the two fathers. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have barged in and made the atmosphere awkward.
“Let’s go.”
Omega father led me out of the bedroom. Through the closing door, I could see Alpha father’s back as he entered the bathroom inside the bedroom.
“I guess I saved him for nothing.”
“What?”
“The atmosphere seemed strange, right? I was originally debating whether to go or not, and was about to just leave. But the mood seemed to be turning hostile. Domestic violence is dangerous, you know.”
At my words, father slightly furrowed his brow.
“That’s not something for you to worry about.”
“I suppose not. It’s between a married couple. I stuck my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“…Still, it wasn’t a bad thing.”
After saying that, father walked down the hallway toward the stairs. I’m not sure when I was supposed to take that as a compliment. Anyway, they’re strange people.
“So, do you really think you can stop taking the medicine?”
“What did the doctor say? You consulted again before I was discharged, right? Does he still think I have depression?”
“He said you’ve gotten better. Even I don’t think it’s depression anymore. But we never know when the symptoms might reappear.”
It seems the doctor wasn’t a quack after all. If he had still insisted I had depression, I would have gone to grab him by the collar, but fortunately, I didn’t have to cause such an unpleasant scene.
“I don’t think that will happen, but if it does, I can take the medicine then. It doesn’t make sense to take medicine for depression that might never appear, especially when I don’t even have depression.”
At my words, father turned his body while climbing the stairs and looked down at me following behind. I tilted my head up to meet his gaze. Cold, emotionless eyes scanned my face.
“Can you make an assessment by looking at me like that?”
“You really… have changed a lot.”
“Are you always the same? If you were always like this, my previous personality would have been really hurt.”
“Hurt?”
“You’re cold. Distant. Parents are supposed to embrace their children, but it seems like there’s no one in this house who embraces me.”
At my words, father narrowed his eyes and smiled sweetly. It was a smile I’d never seen before, even searching through my memories. The unfamiliar face left me staring blankly at father.
“If you’re aware of that with your current personality, then I don’t think you’ll have depression again.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means it’s a positive development.”
Father gently brushed my cheek with his fingertips and then turned again to climb the stairs. Watching his receding back, I couldn’t tell if him caressing my cheek was real or if I was dreaming with my eyes open.
“Come along.”
“Yes, I’m coming.”
I gave up trying to think about it, and as I headed toward the room, Director Cha, who had been waiting patiently, stood face to face with father.
“It seems Sukyung can stop taking his medication, so I’d like you to focus on other things from now on.”
“May I ask what other things you’re referring to?”
“Help him adapt to the house by explaining the parts he doesn’t remember. His pheromone management seems difficult, so keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t forget his suppressants. Even if Sukyung’s behavior changes somewhat from before, I trust that you will handle things at your level to prevent any strange rumors from spreading.”
“I understand, ma’am.”
“I still have something to discuss with Sukyung, so please go ahead.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
It was this simple, yet I remembered all the times I had secretly thrown away the medicine behind Director Cha’s back, and I felt sad. I should have talked to father earlier.
As I was regretting this internally, father called me to sit down. The arrangement with us sitting on the bed and chair respectively was similar to the previous situation. I became a bit tense, wondering what father wanted to talk to me about.
“I received a card usage text message today.”
Oh crap, it seems the card usage history is set to send text messages. My expression soured, but father waved his hand lightly as if it were nothing.
“I’m not scolding you for using the card. I’m just curious why you suddenly used it. It’s not really a small amount to pay at once. You haven’t been discharged from the hospital for long, so consider it me asking out of worry. Next time, I won’t have to ask like this.”
“That…”
“Yes?”
“I went to a jewelry store and bought a gold bar. I just wanted to have one.”
“…”
Father was silent for a moment after my response. It is a bit large-scale for something bought just because I wanted it. It’s not like I bought a toy at a stationery store. I glanced at father nervously.
“It’s fortunate that the limit was enough. You didn’t use to spend large amounts of money before the accident, so I didn’t increase your limit.”
It’s surprising that an unincreased limit was this high. I nodded with a blank expression.
“Do you remember the card you used today? That’s the card I gave you. The other card is from the Hospital Director. That one probably has a slightly higher limit. He doesn’t receive text messages about the transactions and rarely checks, so feel free to use it without worry.”
“…Really?”
“It’s not a fun joke to make about something like this. Use it freely. The problem until now was that you didn’t use it enough, not that you spent too much money.”
“But still, the past me and the current me are a bit different… If you tell me to spend like that and then get hit with a card bomb, you might change your mind.”
What if I went and tried to buy an entire jewelry store? Of course, you can’t buy a jewelry store with a credit card. But if I maxed out the card limit, which I don’t even know how much it is, things might be different.
“Then you can think of it as spending money you haven’t spent until now. You still have a long way to go before you spend as much as your brothers have.”
Can I really spend as much as my brothers did? Though Omega father isn’t exactly a concubine, he is a second spouse, so there must be some difference between children from the first wife and children from the second wife. What if Alpha father gets angry if I spend too much?
“You don’t need to worry about that. You more than deserve it.”
As if knowing my concerns, father smiled and spoke. I could see the true image of a wealthy person in father, who spoke as if spending fifty million won in one day was nothing surprising. It was even more surprising to see both the thought that ‘how much could you possibly spend’ and the genuine feeling that it’s really okay to spend as much as I want.
“Because I’m your child?”
Just because I’m your child, I can freely use a card with a limit I don’t even know? Even today, I bought a gold bar with no practical use just because I wanted to have one, and you’re not scolding me for that? The scale of this household was truly incomprehensible.
“Because you’re my child. Don’t feel hesitant and use more. No one will say anything to you anyway. Oh, tomorrow go buy another one with the Hospital Director’s card. If you wanted one so badly, would you be satisfied with just one?”
I was already planning to buy one each time the card limit reset. With this kind of encouragement, I’m not sure how to react.
I smiled awkwardly, and father lightly stroked my head before standing up.
“There’s no need to worry about money. Unlike me, you can have both money and background.”
“You mean having a good family? When I went to the gathering, everyone was just bragging about their family. It’s not even theirs, not their job. Every time they introduced themselves, it was always ‘child of which company,’ ‘grandchild of whom,’ they all weren’t introducing themselves but their parents, and they didn’t seem to know it was shameful.”
“If you found that shameful, then you must be quite normal.”
Father said that and quietly left my room. As I pondered father’s last words, I felt somewhat perplexed.
Do you think so too, father? Everyone speaks and acts as if their family is their name and their everything, so I thought I was just failing to adapt to the world of the wealthy. Was I not the strange one?
It felt like I had seen an unexpected side of father. I always thought father, who constantly emphasized manners, etiquette, education, dignity, and refinement, lived in a different world from me. The scale of spending money is still something I can’t adjust to.
But it seems like our ways of thinking are somewhat similar in peculiar aspects.
Certainly, there are too many things in this household that I don’t know about.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
