I learned horseback riding 3 years ago, when we decided to expand the farm and bought the neighboring barangays. Originally, Oning's farm is only a private resident in Nagsabaran, then when we secured 80% of the land, my brother bought parts of the neighboring barangays, now it is also expanded to the other town/province, the original 100 hectares of land now it is 2000 hectares. I toured around our private resident, along the riverbanks, to the mountains and finally rest at the foot of the stream. This has been my dream. I dedicated all of these in the memory of my dad. And to learn right now about his past made me so angry. I started crying in frustration, anger and disappointment.
I'm crazy to think that I can hide from work when I'm in the farm. Aside from my online consultation, I needed to make sure to check updates on the publishing, the restaurant, the company and RTR. I guess there's nothing important for him to say that he managed not to bother me today. I met with unle Edward at the patio at lunch the next day.
"I heard from your Mom you are asking about our time in Korea?" he is direct.
"I'm just curious uncle. I am not really sure what happened then. I am doing my PhD fellowship in Seoul now and I was just curious since I'm meeting some Korean friends. I heard you worked at Namshin Foods?"
"Yeah. Are they still in business though?"
"Why would you think they're not?"
"Well, when we are there, they had problem with the government, you know their eldest son who married a politician's daughter used the company as a money laundering place for all the corruption of his wife's father. Then they end up blaming your father for it…"
"Why would they blame Dad? Does he have a very important role in that company?"
"He was the team leader…and you know…."
"I knew about the woman…." I interrupted.
"Yes. Since, he was in a relationship with the chairman's sister, he used it as an opportunity to blame your father. He said your father is using his sister as an excuse, that your father is too ambitious, and he wanted to get everything for himself, so they framed him. But he couldn't defend himself and he didn't have the chance to clear himself since he got deported on the spot…"
"And what happened to the woman and her 2 kids?"
"She begged me to tell her about your dad, she is so desperate to come to here, but I knew your dad would have problems if she will be here, besides she has a nice life in there. Even if her family disowned her, she is still part of Namshin."
"But aren't you the one they blame for the death of the elders?"
"That was another story that they came up with. I just happened to be at the wrong place that time. It's good they didn't kill me. The Namshin elders have the evidence that it was all the wife of their son's doing…but the politician in-law took care of business. They wanted to make it look like accident, but I guess they didn't make it clean enough. I was going back to the warehouse and there was a boulder on the road. I tried to stop the truck, but the car rushed towards me. I didn't know that the car was the elders of Namshin, the driver seemed to be out or sleepy. I got unconscious after then when I woke up at the hospital, I was handcuffed, they said I have been drunk driving, but I never drink that day…"
"So, I was in jail for three months for negligence, I suspected the Nam Shin-jae's wife to have masterminded what happened, but when I asked for a lawyer and in hopes of getting a fair trial, I was deported immediately."
"Why did they not investigate further? Did you meet the 2nd son of Namshin?"
"No. We didn't know about the 2nd son. We just heard they have another son, but he was living as a judge or lawyer. We never met him."
"Do you still have any contacts on the people who worked at the company that time?"
"I knew one, Filipina. She's married to Korean. She's living in Gimpo…I will give you her contact. We are friends in Facebook."
"Don't tell her about my name. Just tell her about my dad…does she know my Dad's real name?"
"Well, we call your dad Ronnie even then, but nobody really knew about his life here…"
"I don't think that the incident in 1995 was really taken cared off, since the Nam Shin-jae and his family is still in Namshin…but who would I talk to about this?"
"You can ask Lydia, that's her name. We are still in contact with some of the people who worked at the factory before, since we are all close to each other and we became closer when that incident happen, because we are all laid off and deported without being paid…it was a hard time."
"Thank you, uncle…"
"You're welcome, if there's anything else just tell your Mom, or you can just contact me directly…" he offered his number.
Am I really going to follow this road now? If Jae-woo would find out about my Dad, would he think less of me? It's not like I am at fault. It's not liked my family is at fault. We are all but a victim of my Dad's infidelity and whatever happened to Namshin is not even his own doing but his uncle's.
It seems that he doesn't really have something important to tell me since he managed not to call me at all. At least I'm progressing with my first thesis draft. I got a flight back to Seoul Thursday morning. I needed to report to Namdo Friday to participate with an onsite talent commercial. I arranged a meeting with Lydia Son for Saturday, and she insisted on meeting her at her place. She is running a Filipino style restaurant by the airport and she said she also have invited other people I might want to meet.