After Kang Seung left, Madame Kang let out a shrill scream of indignation; she glared at her son and then at me, but she didn't say anything further. She simply marched right past us and angrily left the room.
Then it was two. Myself and my Father.
This might sound strange coming from me, but I've always been curious about Parents.
I never got along with my previous Parents in my life as Daniel Slade. My father had been fond of the bottle, and the bottle had been fond of him. He was also a farmer who valued strength over intelligence. He never tried to understand me and I had never, in turn, understood him.
My mother had been a woman trapped in her fantasies, lost in grand dreams she never got to achieve. She had wanted to explore the world, but society had forced that adventurous spirit into the domestic role of a housewife caught up in the stereotypes of a patriarchal society. To her, I was simply a shackle that tied her to her marriage and lifestyle. The clearest memory I had of her, was of her small figure smoking on the patio mumbling about her regrets. She also never took the time to know me, and before I even got the chance to know her, they gave me away to the Church and I never saw either my Mother or Father again.
It's not that I missed them, or that I felt any attachment to them, but they always filled me with a sense of curiosity. Life ties you to the ones that gave you life, no matter how much you progress as an individual your parents and your origins will always say something about who you are. I had spent the majority of my past life observing people; how they operated and how they thought, and no matter who I met, even if they hated and vilified their parents, that parenthood was linked to their character.
So what about me, what impact or part of my character had I taken from my parents? What role had they really had in my life? What part of them; which animalistic, predatory and violent streak in their nature, created me?
To what extent is an individual a product of their DNA?
I wondered how Kang Joon-Ki's DNA in this life would affect me and my character. Would my nature be fully down to my soul, or would my vessel determine some of my decisions? Was the actions of Kang Ho in the novel due to the influence of parenthood, DNA and Nature, without my memories in the mix?
I was curious to find out what type of person Kang Joon-ki was, and how he might impact me. I didn't expect him to change my ways or anything like that, but I held an expectation that I couldn't explain, and if he failed that expectation I knew that I would kill him.
At that point Kang Joon-Ki glanced at me, he took a deep breath and sighed, "God, you really do look so much like Soo-Ah, you have her large clear slightly dark reddish-brown eyes, you have those eyebrows and that cute crown shape that looks like a heart...." His voice trailed off and then tears began to form and he started to weep, "Oh god I'm so sorry, I can't believe I blamed you, I can't believe I tried to forget Soo-Ah and abandon you. Oh god, Soo-Ah you must be cursing me from beyond the grave for treating our baby like this after all you went through. I wasn't in my right mind."
He cried incessantly for a while and hugged me close to his body. "I'm sorry Kang Ho, please forgive Dad, Dad's sorry."
As he cried, for a moment—I swear the smallest of moments— I almost felt comforted. I'd never had someone cry for my forgiveness in this type of way; not because they wanted me to stop some kind of pain, but because they cared for me and were sorry for something they did to me. Yes, I admit for a second I almost felt a connection, but then the taste of bile filled my mouth.
Fucking Pathetic piece of trash.
Look at him crying and whining to me and letting his pitiful guilt roll out. The only one he was crying for was himself. In the novel, when he didn't have to look nor care for Kang Ho, he didn't even bat an eye about him and quickly forgot about Soo-Ah. He became consumed with ambition and saw Kang Ho as an inconvenience, the same way the rest of the family did. Right now he was lying to his true nature, being a hypocritical fool.
I had the strong urge to bite his eyeballs out and reach all the way into his head and rip out those useless tear ducts.
You know everything I was saying about expectations and DNA and all that shit, yeah, he had just failed that expectation. Even if DNA meant something I would beat it until it meant nothing because I refused to be a crying fool like this man. Watching him snivel like that made that part itch again, I couldn't wait to get rid of him, but before I did that I would make him suffer and when he does die he'll be a shell of the man he is right now.
I grinned widely, so many plans for the future, I couldn't wait.
I patted Kang-Joon-Ki on the shoulder and said, "Don't cry Daddy, I don't want you to cry, I forgive you."
Joon-Ki's eyes brightened, "you really do talk very well for your age. Soo-Ah would be proud of our smart boy." He rubbed noses with me and kissed my cheek, "Don't worry Dad promises to look after you now, properly."
Inwardly I rolled my eyes, but outwardly I squealed and buried my face into his shoulder. He let out a hearty laugh, "You're so cute."
"Now then" he started walking with me, "Let me take you home, I'm sure the servants are already preparing a grand room for you. And, you can meet your new mother. She'll never be like Soo-Ah but Yong Myeong isn't bad, she's actually rather sweet and—"
He continued to babble about Yong Myeong, it appeared he had already fallen for her. All his talk about loving Soo-Ah became so fragile so quickly. His hypocrisy was laughable.
Yong Myeong in the novel was Kang Ho's biggest abuser.
If elegance, class and elitism became a person, then that person would be Yong Myeong. She has connections all over the world, her uncles, aunts, and godparents all respectively rule countries and governments. She knows how to work her way around a room with her glib tongue and she was also described in the novel as being a once-in-a-century beauty. A stunning woman that would turn heads wherever she went.
She disliked Kang Ho because he reminded her that she was the second choice for Kang Joon-Ki. His existence humiliated her in her social circles, even if she was the wife to a member of the powerful KangMung group, the presence of a bastard child allowed her to be mocked by her peers. She was also jealous of the dead Soo-Ah. All of that made her treat Kang Ho the worst.
Madame Kang may have isolated Kang Ho in the household, but she didn't endorse abuse. It was Yong Myeong who made sure that the servants mistreated him, she spoke down to him, she broke his confidence and his masculinity. And she was so good at being two-faced that Kang Ho could never mention what she did, to everyone else she was an angel.
In the novel, the incident that really made Kang Ho hate Song Jae, was when Song Jae witnessed him being beaten by Yong Myeong and a few servants for 'discipline' in an alley not too far from their school. Song Jae tried to help Kang Ho, but Kang Ho was humiliated.
As I was thinking about this, we arrived at Joon-Ki's home, it was a large and lavish mansion on the estate. Servants bowed and opened the doors for us, and the moment Joon-ki walked through those doors, a pregnant Yong Myeong came running at him.
She hugged him and laughed, "Hello lovely, how was the meeting what happen—" she paused as she noticed me in his arms.
I blinked at her and she blinked at me.
"Who?"
"Who do you think?" Joon-Ki laughed, "This is Kang Ho. Father set me straight and I realised it myself, I can't keep running away from him, he did nothing wrong, and I can't betray Soo-Ah like that. I'm going to take responsibility and raise him properly. From today he'll be living with us."
Joon-Ki patted my arm, "Say hi to your Mummy."
"Hi mama" I smiled.
At that point, I saw a dark flash in her eyes, but she quickly covered it up and ruffled my hair fondly, "Aww Kang Ho, nice to meet you."