Dea tiredly entered the password of the gate, good thing her stepmother didn't change that until that time.
Her head was still throbbing because of what Joo-eun had said to her earlier, her mind was running with an unknown feeling. All she had done in her life was just moving on and pretending everything else around her was invisible, the cause was she had been broken. Something had broken her a long, long time ago, which couldn't be fixed again. But in this evening, after hearing Joo-eun's words, another thing seemed to snap inside her again.
A middle-aged housemaid named Wandara opened the front the door. She had been taking care of their house for years, she was kind-hearted and nice, Dea knew her well.
"Miss Choi!" Wandara widened her eyes, looking at her with shock. "You came home eventually! Why on the heaven you're still standing outside? Come in, come in!" she vigorously waved her hand and stepped aside from the door to let her come in.
"Is Mum home?" it had been too long, but Dea still felt uneasy about mentioning her Mother.
"Madam isn't here now, she went to shop," Wandara led her way to the staircases while observing her face.
"Oh," Dea didn't say anything more.
Wandara sighed and stopped in front of the steps. "Aein Dea, how come you look this thin? Look at you, don't you eat well? Why don't you take care of yourself when you're not home?" she worriedly asked, then took her hand. "Come and sit here. I'm preparing food for you. Oh, Gosh. Kids these days, why they don't eat properly! Or are you in a diet like Young Miss?"
Choi Dea couldn't help but smile a little at her light scolding. "Wandara, I will eat your cooking. But first I want to see my father."
Wandara sighed again, then jerked her head since she understood. "Master Choi is upstairs. Go see him, Aein."
Choi Dea curved a smile and turned to the staircases. She was suddenly sweating and a strange feeling continued to emerge in her chest. When she was little, although with her silence and nerdiness, her father was the only person with who she felt free talking to. There was a time when she had been clingy to her father, even something he would have to take her with him in office, as she wouldn't let him go. As she grew older, she became cold and began to understand and knew the history of her family, they had become distant.
Dea nervously touched the doorknob.
Choi Dong-hyun was lying on the bed, as he had been lying there for the past three years. His both leg was paralyzed because of a car accident which happened three years ago. When the accident happened in a remote area far from the city, his legs had been stuck under a piece of steel for five hours, it had made his spinal cords estranged from his legs permanently. The other car which had hit her father, had escaped from the place immediately, those cowards bastards hadn't even called ambulance for the injured persons. It was such a pity that the polices didn't find the car's owner yet, since many months had passed.
When Dong-hyun heard the sound of opening the door, he slowly tilted his head to her.
Just seeing his kind face, Dea tried to fight back the threatening tears and stood there motionless. God, it had been a year since she left this house, her childhood home. Sometimes she visited him well, but it was hard for her. She didn't know what to do when her own family was ignoring her; her stepmother Chun-ja and her younger sister Joo-eun.
In this world, how you were born matters so much to some people, they don't give a glance back at you about what good you're doing. Choi Dea decided a long ago that she wouldn't care what people would think or talk about you, all she knew was - 'Your birth doesn't define yourself. It's your conscience and your work which define yourself.'
"Dad," the word escaped from her lips.
Dong-hyun looked at her eyes with surprise, then slowly lifted a hand up. "Little Dea?"
Choi Dea bit her lips to stop herself from bursting into tears, she ran to her father and hugged him tightly. Dong-hyun exhaled and put his palm on her head gently. He could feel her scattered pain, his chest began to hurt too. He softly brushed her hair and comforts her, "Shh, don't cry. It is okay, it is okay. I'm here, shh_ don't cry, Little Dea."
Dea sniffed in reply, remembering how the things with her father when she was little. She missed those days. She missed the time when she wasn't a grownup. She missed the way how she didn't understand everything because she was little then.
She lifted up her head and wiped the tears from her eyes by the thumb.
"Aren't you wearing makeup? Your eyeliner will get smudged if you continue to wipe your eyes like this."
Choi Dea glanced at him funnily, then suddenly laughed at the joke. She helped her father to sit up carefully and lean against the pillow so that he could stay comfortable. Before she came here, she made up her mind that she wouldn't tell him anything about her business downfall. She never wanted him to worry about the company.
"How have you been, Dad?" She asked when she controlled her emotions, observing him. There hadn't been much changes in him at last two months except his little beard.
"I feel fine, Dea," Dong-hyun replied. "Hey, suddenly what are you smiling about, huh? You just cried, remember? Are you smiling seeing me fine or are you fascinated by my new beard?" he rubbed his cheeks thoughtfully.
Choi Dea chuckled again at her father's good mood. She glanced around the room and noticed a white card on the table. It seemed like a wishing card, she guessed.
"What is that?" She curiously questioned.
Dong-hyun followed her pointed finger and tilted his head to the bedside table. "Oh, this wish card. One of my old friends sent this card in the morning, he wished me good health. I was surprised seeing this card, I thought he was running his underworld business. Who knew that he would recall me," he picked up the small card. "Health, eh?" He sighed miserably while looking down at his stiff legs. "What's the point of wishing when you know you will never walk again in the rest of your life?"
"Don't say it like that, Dad," she scowls slightly. "I believe in my heart that you will walk someday again."
"Okay, I won't say it like that."
"Anyway, your underworld friend? You never told me that you have this kinds of friends."
Dong-hyun shook his head playfully, smiling. "Little Dea, there are so many things that you don't know about me yet," he lowered his voice, showing her the card. "My this old friend, his name is Shi-woo. His family had been running their Mafia business for half a century and now his son is the leader," Dong-hyun whispered the sentence. "Don't tell anyone, okay? He likes to stay in secret from the normal people. Though you met him once... when you were tiny like a balloon."
As soon as Dea heard the 'Mafia' word, her frown deepened. She opened the card and read the full Korean name written inside.
That meant Jeong Shi-woo.
"Dad," she looked up at her father. "Your friend..... has a son?"
"Why do you ask about that? I just told you that he has one," Dong-hyun genuinely raised his eyebrows. "You should remember that, shouldn't you? He and his son came to visit us in our home one day. You played hide and seek with him, don't you remember? What his name was again...? Urm... Sung-ho. Right, right, his name was Sung-ho. Though it was many years ago."
"When was it?"
"Maybe you were six then."
"But I wasn't tiny like a balloon at that time. Why did you say that I was?"
Dong-hyun burst into laughter at her sense of humor, shaking his head. Choi Dea started to think deeply while she was searching for him in her memories. She wondered after a minute why she couldn't remember him at all.
'Jeong Sung-ho, who are you to me?'