The Cruel Beast’s Desire - Chapter 25

Both of their heads turned simultaneously toward the voice.

A child in a dress stood in front of the door. The strong afternoon sunlight filled the space behind the child, revealing only a silhouette and obscuring the face.

“That’s my favorite.”

“Yeah, it’s cool and delicious.”

“I want some too…”

The child strode into the house.

The child’s face, previously obscured by the bright light, gradually became clearer.

“Dad… were you secretly eating it here because of me?”

The title of “Dad” was several times more surprising than the child’s appearance. Hayeon met the child’s eyes as she got closer.

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

The same sound escaped from both Hayeon’s and the child’s mouths.

“You… back then, we met at the hospital…”

“The older sister I bumped into.”

The child scurried toward Hayeon. Unlike the brightly smiling child, Hayeon unconsciously took a step back.

“This is my house.”

The child seemed to have quickly forgotten being upset about the ice cream.

“Oh… this was your house…”

“This is my dad.”

The child ran to Yoonjae and clung to him.

The overly affectionate scene resembled the family Hayeon had imagined long ago.

As if all the blood in her body had evaporated, her body swayed, but Hayeon barely managed to stand by holding onto the table.

“Dad… you said?”

“Yes, he’s my dad.”

At the child’s confirmation, Hayeon squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again.

Calming her messed-up breathing without making it obvious, Hayeon slowly shifted her gaze from the child to Yoonjae.

He was looking down at his child. The corners of his eyes were softly curved, and a gentle smile played on his lips. His face showed that he was overwhelmed by how much he loved the being in front of him.

He had said that he wanted to protect the person he loved no matter what. Hayeon seemed to be facing that being now.

“The person you’re trying to protect…”

Hayeon asked him, her parched lips parting and her voice trembling slightly.

“Oh, she’s my daughter. I was going to introduce you, but I didn’t know you two had met before.”

Hayeon desperately wanted to disappear in front of the father and daughter. Seeing the child looking up at Hayeon with clear eyes, she felt rooted to the spot.

“Do you remember my name?”

Even though her mind was blank, the child’s name came to her clearly.

“Of course, Lee-eum.”

Lee-eum smiled brightly, as if she was happy. Hayeon should have smiled back, but she couldn’t.

“Yes, I’m Tae Lee-eum.”

Just hearing the familiar name again made Hayeon feel breathless.

Loud footsteps were heard near the front door.

“Oh, my young lady! I was looking for you for a while, not knowing you were here. Playing hide-and-seek as soon as you get home.”

The middle-aged woman she had seen at the hospital rushed in.

According to the countless words Ms. Lee spewed out, she seemed to be Director Jang.

“I’m not a young lady, but you always call me that.”

With a pouty face, the child grabbed Yoonjae’s sleeve and shook it. Anyone could see they were a loving father and daughter.

Director Jang clapped her hands together as if she was clapping.

“Oh my! Aren’t you the person Lee-eum bumped into at the hospital back then?”

“Ah… yes, hello.”

“How nice to see you, but what brings you here… perhaps, are you the young lady’s teacher?”

It was a matter that had not yet been settled with Yoonjae. Hayeon hesitated, unable to answer readily, and Lee-eum came right up to her.

“Is the older sister a teacher?”

“Uh… well…”

“Yes. She’s a teacher.”

When Hayeon’s answer was delayed, Yoonjae answered instead in a soft but firm tone. It was a sign that he would put an end to the story with Hayeon.

“To think we’d meet again like this… it must be fate.”

Unlike Director Jang, who was pleased, Hayeon was still unable to escape from the confusion.

“Teacher!”

Perhaps because she was so friendly, Lee-eum grabbed Hayeon’s hand. Hayeon froze stiffly.

“Our young lady must be happy that the teacher is here.”

“Yeah, I’m happy to have a pretty teacher.”

Unlike the child, who liked her without any hesitation, Hayeon didn’t know what to say and just bit her lip.

A warm and strange energy flowed through the hand the child was holding. The mind that had been turning white since earlier seemed to have finally stopped thinking.

She didn’t know what to do or how to act.

“Tae Lee-eum, you know you shouldn’t overdo it and run around just because you’re home, right?”

“I… I know.”

The child pouted at her father’s gentle nagging.

Yoonjae cut the monaka ice cream he was holding into a square shape with his hand. He handed the ice cream pieces, cut to the size of ice cubes, to the child.

“I want to give you the whole thing, but you can’t eat cold things yet. Just eat this much. I’m making an exception to celebrate your discharge from the hospital.”

“Yay.”

The small hand that had been holding Hayeon’s hand slipped away.

The child grabbed the ice cream piece her father handed her. The child smiled brightly, as if she had the whole world with just one small piece of ice cream.

“Lee-eum, let’s go to your room and rest. You still shouldn’t overdo it.”

“Okay.”

The small ice cream piece didn’t fit in the child’s small mouth in one bite. The child bit off a small corner of the square and took the hand Director Jang offered, moving out of the house. Then, as if she remembered something, she stopped and looked back at Hayeon.

“Teacher, see you later.”

“…Okay.”

Hayeon couldn’t ignore the child waving her hand, so she awkwardly raised her hand and waved back.

Hayeon couldn’t take her eyes off the child until she took Director Jang’s hand and crossed the garden to enter the inner quarters.

“What about the child’s mother?”

Breaking the heavy silence, Hayeon spoke with difficulty.

“She’s dead.”

“Haa…”

Even though she had heard the news of Lee Joo-rin’s accident from Ji-hye earlier, it was a great shock as if she was hearing it for the first time.

She felt much more resistant to teaching her daughter than teaching Lee Joo-rin.

“I… I can’t do it.”

Was he really asking because he didn’t know?

She had failed to protect her child, but Lee Joo-rin had protected her child even in death.

The blue sea flickered before her eyes. She desperately wanted to see the waves crashing in, endlessly creating white foam on the rolling blue sea.

Hayeon wanted to see the child. She couldn’t bear not seeing the child wriggling in her womb.

Unable to stay in front of Yoonjae any longer, Hayeon left his house as it was.

Without knowing where she was going, Hayeon headed wherever her feet took her. No one was chasing her, but she ran and ran.

Tears blurred her vision, and she couldn’t see anything. She tripped over something and fell with a thud, but Hayeon couldn’t even think about getting up again and just sat there. She cried and cried as if she was about to suffocate.

Her mind became faint, and her body slowly tilted to the side.

When she struggled to lift her heavy eyelids, she saw a ceiling that was both unfamiliar and familiar. She was more curious about how she got here than knowing where she was.

She had definitely run out of Yoonjae’s house, but she was back in the same place.

“Ms. Kang, are you awake?”

Ms. Lee asked, wiping Hayeon’s forehead with a damp towel. Judging from the fact that her face, filled with worry, was gradually becoming clearer, she didn’t seem to be wandering in a dream. Hayeon slowly raised her body.

“Just lie down. Oh my, look at this cold sweat.”

It was uncomfortable to move her hand because of the IV drip on the back of her hand. Hayeon sat up, holding the bed with her other hand, and breathed roughly.

“I… what happened?”

“What kind of exercise did you do to overdo it and collapse like this! What would have happened if Director Jeon hadn’t seen Ms. Kang collapsing on the street?”

She couldn’t remember anything, no matter how hard she tried to think about what happened. Hayeon tried to recall anything she could remember.

She had met Ji-hye after a long time, and she had bought ice cream to give to Ms. Lee and came home.

“The young lady is discharged from the hospital, and Ms. Kang gets sick…”

That’s right, she met the young lady.

Tae Yoonjae’s daughter, Tae Lee-eum.

She wanted to see the child she had never held in her arms so much that she ran to that place.

But why was she here and not where the child was?

As soon as she thought that far, a stinging pain spread in her eyes. Thick tears fell drop by drop.

“Ms. Kang, what’s wrong? Why are you crying so sadly like that? It makes the person watching feel upset.”

“It hurts… it hurts so much.”

“How much does it hurt for a grown adult to cry like this? Cry, just cry.”

Ms. Lee gently stroked Hayeon’s back.

“Cry as much as you want. You’ll be okay after you’ve been sick like that.”

After crying for a long time, Hayeon fell into a long sleep again.

Beyond her blurred consciousness, she saw Yoonjae.

The woman who was linking arms with him, facing him, and smiling affectionately was Lee Joo-rin. Yoonjae picked up the child running toward the two of them. He smiled happily as he watched the child laughing gleefully.

It was a perfect family. It was such a beautiful sight that it was blinding just to look at it.

Why wasn’t that happiness Hayeon’s?

She didn’t think she had ever done anything that would harm anyone, so why was the only thing that had befallen her such terrible misfortune?

It hurt so much.

Her whole body, her heart, hurt without knowing where it hurt.

When she barely regained consciousness and opened her eyes, Ms. Lee was wiping away her cold sweat. She sometimes saw a doctor.

One day, she seemed to have seen Yoonjae on a dark night without any lights on. In her continuous nightmares, he was happily laughing with that woman and child.

There was no one next to Yoonjae she could see now. Perhaps that’s why he was looking at Hayeon with a deeply furrowed brow. She hated seeing him smile happily and wanted him to be as unhappy as she was, but seeing his cold eyes was also painful.

“Another nightmare.”

To think that Yoonjae was the only thing she saw whether she opened or closed her eyes. It would have been better if she couldn’t see anything at all.

Hayeon slowly closed her eyes again.

“What was such a big shock that it even made you sick?”

Yoonjae’s voice was heard like a dream in her fading consciousness. It was a question that she didn’t know if he was asking to himself or if he wanted to hear an answer.

“Nightmare… it’s really tiring.”

A voice drunk with sleep mumbled softly. It was a night when she thought she heard someone sighing.

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