OMS 82

In his dreams, he saw a cool tree shade and blue sky. In the distance, a white rabbit and a black rabbit were hopping across a wide field.

“I wish I had diapers! I wish I had diapers!”

Park Dong-sik tilted his head to one side watching the black rabbit running away while giggling.

Diapers? What diapers?

“I want diapers too! Diapers!”

Could it be…?

[“I wish I could have a miracle too.”]

Park Dong-sik quickly called Blackey. The rabbit came rushing right up to his face. Its smiling face was increasingly adorable. When he patted its head, it grinned with eyes crinkling.

“Blackey?”

“Yes!”

“Is your daddy Kim Tae-han?”

“Our daddy is Kim…”

“Will you get angry if I do ‘suhanmu’ like this?”

Blackey pouted and drooped its shoulders. Seeing it so dejected, Park Dong-sik felt sorry and patted its bottom. 

“Just kidding. Why would I scold you? I’m just curious. Will you tell just me? You know who your daddy is, right?”

Blackey glanced at Whitey in the distance before bringing its mouth to Park Dong-sik’s ear.

“They said not to tell.”

“Who did? Whitey?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Um…well…um…”

Furrowing its round eyes, it tilted its head back and forth while frowning. Unable to think it through, it eventually crouched down again with a gloomy expression on its face. Park Dong-sik looked at Whitey. The eyes watching from far away were not ordinary. Surely that one must know.

Park Dong-sik slowly walked towards him, but Whitey noticed and quickly ran away. Even running after it didn’t help. Later, out of breath, he called out “Whitey!” but it wouldn’t let him get close. The distance kept growing, and Park Dong-sik called out desperately for Whitey while panting for breath.

“Whi…tey…”

Mumbling, he opened his eyes to a familiar scene. Ah, he failed to hear it again. Park Dong-sik barely raised his heavy body and rubbed his eyes. Getting up in the morning was becoming harder as more time passed. Unable to position himself as he wished, his whole body ached and his hands and feet were swollen and numb.

At such times, he thought of his mother who had abandoned him. He must have gone through such difficulty to give birth. What made him abandon him in the end? Did he feel nothing after abandoning him? Maybe he had circumstances that made it impossible not to abandon him? On the other hand, he let out a bitter laugh thinking that Park Dong-sik, who tried to sell his baby for money, was no different.

Coming down from the bed to check the time, it was already 11 o’clock. When did Tae-han leave? As he came out stretching his neck side to side, he found flowers piled high on the floor, with Kim Yoon-ah tending to them on one side. Kim Yoon-ah smiled brightly, blooming like the flowers she held in her hands.

“You’re up?”

“What’s all this?”

“Madam Song left them here this morning. She said you should see lots of pretty things, so she personally picked them from the farmer’s market.”

It felt like reliving a nightmare. Prenatal education, they called it—flower arranging, listening to classical music, tea pouring, what else was there? Ugh, while he was getting sick of it all, a delicious smell wafted from the kitchen. The staff must be cooking something good.

Park Dong-sik searched for traces of Kim Jun-han, hoping he might have visited this morning. Finding nothing special, he brought his phone to check messages and call history, but found nothing there either. Maybe he should have called first. He must be busy at the company.

While feeling conflicted and chewing on his lips, an unknown number appeared.

Park Dongsik tilted his head to the side.

“What’s wrong?”

“Got a call from an unknown number.”

“Don’t answer it.”

“Okay.”

But right after hanging up, a video arrived. An ominous feeling crept up his spine. Playing it on mute, it showed Lee Hee-soo explicitly having relations with some man underneath him. As he watched holding his breath, a message soon after arrived.

[Hello, Mr. Hee-soo. I wanted to discuss something regarding the video. If you don’t answer, I’ll report it to the media.]

As he glared at the screen, Kim Yoon-ah looked at him with a puzzled expression on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

Park Dong-sik pressed his lips tightly together. Only one person came to mind.

[Please spare me! I never intended to spread your video. I just needed money, that’s why I went! I won’t do it again! I won’t even show up before you! Please, please spare me, Hee-soo!]

Could that bastard be alive? No, if he were alive after half a year, he would have blackmailed him earlier. Kim Yoon-ah, watching with a concerned expression, got up and approached him. Park Dong-sik quickly put the phone in his pocket.

“Must be spam. Got a weird text too.”

“You must never click on them. They say spam these days disguises itself as condolence money messages.”

“What bastards.”

Pretending to be calm, he went to the kitchen and poured some water into a glass. Standing at the sink, he took out his phone with an anxious mind when another call came in. Glancing over at Kim Yoon-ah, he went into the bedroom, closed the door, and answered.

When he stayed silent after putting it to his ear, the other party was also silent. After a moment, a voice saying “Mr. Hee-soo?” was heard. Something was odd about it being the lover’s voice. Perhaps it was artificially modified with mechanical sounds mixed in.

[You must have seen the video. If you report to the police or try to investigate us through people, we’ll spread it on the internet immediately. The whole nation will see you rolling naked with another man. Do you understand what I mean?]

“Who are you?”

[It’s not difficult. Nothing will happen if you do as you are told. What we want is 10 billion won in dollars. Just prepare the money and leave it at the designated place. We’ll decide the place and time. However, you must absolutely not tell anyone outside. Know that if you do, your life is over too.]

“You’ve got the wrong number. That’s not me in the video.”

The conversation itself could become ammunition if he wasn’t careful. Though he tried denying it first, his tactics didn’t seem to work on the other party at all.

[If you exceed the time even by one minute, it goes up on the Internet. Remember that.]

Click. The call ended, and Park Dong-sik roughly ran his hands through his hair while grinding his teeth. Damn it. Who the hell is this bastard? He paced around the bedroom, while lost in thought. If I were Park Dong-sik, I wouldn’t care whether the video spread or not. No, I might have even used this chance to officially debut as a porn star for money.

But Lee Hee-soo was a different matter. There were many people who would be troubled by this video. They had already dealt with enough chaos from the tabloids, and if this broke out too, even the Daesan Group wouldn’t be able to contain it.

That wasn’t all. This would follow like a tag not only for the father but also the children yet to be born. His hair stood on end thinking that the children might someday see the video through some channel. Park Dong-sik collapsed onto the bed and played the video.

The man’s face was cut off while Lee Hee-soo’s face was clearly visible—it was definitely filmed with intent. The first lover had blackmailed Kim Jun-han. Did Kim Jun-han see the video when he was being blackmailed? Should he tell him and ask for help?

A thought flashed through his mind. The lover who filmed the video had blackmailed Kim Jun-han. And Kim Jun-han wasn’t the only one blackmailed at the time. Though thinking ‘it couldn’t be,’ his instinct pointed to someone.

“Damn, if it’s really that, they’re not even human.”

Coming out while fuming, he met eyes with Kim Yoon-ah holding the roses. Park Dong-sik sat across from her and picked up the scissors. As he snipped away at the flower branches, Kim Yoon-ah asked worriedly.

“Are you okay? Nothing’s wrong, right?”

“Yoon-ah.”

“Yes?”

“What kind of person was Hee-soo’s mother?”

Kim Yoon-ah bit down on her bottom lip. 

“Hmm…” 

Seeing her hesitate, it seemed she was trying to wrap it in pretty words.

“It’s okay, just be honest.”

“He was…different from other mothers.”

“He was an actor from before, right?”

“Yes, I’ve only heard stories…”

“Did you know there were rumors he fell for a beta and quit acting to disappear?”

Kim Yoon-ah carefully nodded her head.

“Roughly. Ah, come to think of it, you were looking for someone before losing your memories.”

“Who? Me?”

“It was related to your mother, but you outsourced it so I don’t know the exact details.”

“You don’t know who I was looking for?”

“You said you’d tell me when it was confirmed, but then the accident happened…”

“The agency that handled it then?”

Kim Yoon-ah shook her head. Her expression showed she really didn’t know, so Park Dong-sik let out a small sigh. Would there be any clues if he searched through Lee Hee-soo’s belongings?

“Should I look into it?”

Park Dong-sik nodded readily at Kim Yoon-ah’s offer.

“That would be most helpful.”

“If it helps recover your memories, I’ll do anything.”

Park Dong-sik smiled bitterly while snipping a flower branch.

“Never mind the memories, I have something very suspicious in mind.”

“Suspicious?”

“Yeah. Anyway, I’m counting on you. I only trust you.”

Kim Yoon-ah’s face brightened at Park Dong-sik’s words.

“Yes! I’ll look into it as quickly as possible!”

“Thanks. You’re really reliable.”

Then Kim Yoon-ah belatedly sensed something odd and her expression darkened.

“You’re not…planning to do anything dangerous, are you?”

“No. What could I do in this condition?”

“You absolutely can’t go around holding guns like before. Understood?”

Park Dong-sik momentarily paused in his cutting. Ah, right, I had a gun? Why didn’t I think of that? Hahaha. When he just smiled without answering, Kim Yoon-ah’s face gradually turned pale. 

“What are you thinking? It’s nothing dangerous, right?” 

Though she asked this repeatedly, Park Dong-sik never answered her.