Side Story 3

Side Story 3

Before he knew it, the baby had leaned against Kwon Chae-woo’s palm and started nodding off. In that large but steady hand, his cheeks puffed up with a soft ppuu, plump and ridiculously cute.

Without realizing it, the reporter found himself staring at the sweet, harmless baby.

Then a murderous stare slammed into him, like he was looking at a kidnapper.

What the hell…! What did I even do…!

The strange pressure radiating off the young man bruised the reporter’s pride. He lowered his gaze as if dodging it and steadied his wavering voice. The interview was only starting now.

“That was the end of the prepared draft.”

Kwon Chae-woo leaned back and crossed his legs. Even with a baby in his arms, his posture did not loosen. The reporter closed the notebook he had been holding for show and set it on the table.

“What I’m actually curious about starts now.”

“I figured.”

“I want to know how you’ve been. A musician with a brilliant future disappeared overnight. And only after all these years, you suddenly turned up on the floor of some island, out of nowhere. That gap was too long.”

“My slump ran a little long.”

Kwon Chae-woo only smiled, a smile that gave nothing away.

No matter what anyone said, she was still his mother, the one he missed. When he heard the news that Yoon Joo-ha had died, trapped beneath his room, he could not play a single note on his cello. He wandered. Then he lived like a butcher, clinging to nothing but the low register of the human voice.

Maybe it was because he was born into a family built on nothing but money and violence. He hit people easily, wrecked them, buried them, and lived like that to his heart’s content.

He did not stop at gangster work or loan sharking. He even handled the dirty cleanup for politicians tied up in mutual interests. He could not exactly tell a reporter that he had done every filthy thing imaginable while living as part of the Kwon family. He did not want to taint his young son’s dreamland, even a little, with that kind of trash.

My kid should grow up hearing only good things.

Without thinking, he covered his son’s ear as if soothing it. Kwon Chae-woo tilted his head, indifferent.

The reporter stole another glance at the sleeping baby, then asked, “How did you find your way back to music?”

“Most of the time, it’s because of a woman, isn’t it.”

“…Pardon?”

“I’m not saying this as some resident who actually lives here, but Hwaido has good energy. Unlike the city, there are a lot of trees. They manage them well, too. Every winter, they even dress the trees.”

“…”

No. Something just brushed past. The reporter did not let it go.

“A woman?”

Kwon Chae-woo raised only the corner of his mouth, playing innocent. Sensing something, the reporter shifted forward in his seat.

“Is she… the baby’s mother? The one you’re holding?”

That was when Kwon Chae-woo’s atmosphere changed. His sharpened gaze fixed on the reporter’s lips, no, on the teeth behind them, like he was counting them one by one. The strange scrutiny made the reporter hesitate for a beat, but once his mouth was loose, he was only getting started.

“You know there are rumors going around in certain circles, right. Single dad, unwed father, child out of wedlock. These days, the moment someone’s an influencer or whatever, attention pours in from everywhere.”

“…”

Single what?

He muttered it with a frown. Hearing that word again, here of all places. Kwon Chae-woo chewed over it like a curse.

Ah, Miss Lee-yeon. This is how I live. Being treated like this.

His lazy gaze drifted to empty air.

“If you search yourself online, eight out of ten results are photos of you carrying your baby around. You know that famous one, right? The one where you laid the baby in your cello case and played in front of the sacred tree site.”

“Does my private life matter?”

“It’s about buzz.”

“…”

“Hwaido is small, but social media is overflowing. More precisely, outsiders are obsessed. And you’re also in charge of Hwaido’s branding project. You’re young, capable, and your baby is so angel cute even when he sleeps, so…”

“Stop looking.”

Kwon Chae-woo snapped back, harsh, and covered the baby’s face with one hand.

“Stop smacking your lips or whatever. Why do you keep sneaking glances at him.”

Kwon Chae-woo made his irritation obvious on purpose. What? The reporter went half blank at the ridiculous accusation.

“Unwed father, huh. Kids and adults, all the same…”

Kwon Chae-woo swallowed a curse and patted the baby’s belly, tap tap. The baby seemed perfectly comfortable, already sucking on his thumb.

But the calm scene did nothing to soften the man’s eyes. They stayed razor sharp as they locked onto the reporter.

“Any more questions?”

So Lee-yeon had always been modest, never greedy, but in a different way, that was exactly what made the man feel slighted, and desperate.

Miss Lee-yeon, do you even know how people treat me now? Everywhere I go, they call me some unwed single dad. Your husband’s pathetic like this.

“Ah, yes… I, um. What is the baby’s mother like…?”

Kwon Chae-woo let out a short, humorless laugh, but the corners of his eyes did not move at all.

Up until the birth, Lee-yeon had not given him a marriage registration, a wedding, or even a clear yes. It burned him up inside. But in the end, for the baby’s birth registration, they had stumbled through the marriage registration anyway.

That careless signature, the one that did not feel sincere, the one that said she had put it off and put it off until she had no choice, still left him dissatisfied.

She called herself a tree doctor, yet she never even held a bouquet once. How could a woman have less romance than him. I’m still the only one crazy about her. Just me.

His inferiority churned until he wanted to crush the reporter in front of him, but the ugly impulse faded quickly, soothed by the small warmth wriggling in his arms.

He was a father now. And on the day Nam-woo was born, he had even sworn to himself that he would clean up the entire life he had lived so roughly.

Kwon Chae-woo took a deep breath and forced the heat in his head back down. Like they had agreed, Nam-woo had become So Nam-woo. And he had planned to have a second, a third, too, but now even that felt impossible.

A shadow fell over his handsome face, one that did not belong there. He looked cold even when he stayed still, and when he frowned, the rougher edges of his features surfaced at once.

Miss Lee-yeon…

Because it was true.

Lee-yeon was not here beside him.

“Then… does the baby’s mother even exist?”

The reporter finally crossed the line.

***

—

“I seriously almost died giving birth.”

In the rugged mountains under blazing sun, Lee-yeon flipped up the straw hat that had been pulled low over her eyes and wiped the sweat off her drenched forehead.

“I heard you’ve been through a lot, Director So.”

One of the colleagues with her held out a radio. Lee-yeon took it without hesitation and slipped into the shade of a tree. Her lips drew close to the mic and parted, crisp and clear.

“This is Fir Tree Hospital. Please come to our location…!”

She panted out the breath that had climbed all the way to her chin.

Not long after, a crowd of people in similar work vests came swarming up from the middle of the slope. They gathered in a circle around Lee-yeon.

“Fir Tree Hospital again? Do you have a GPS installed or what?”

“No way, it’s real…!”

“Team lead, come over here, quick!”

“They’re saying the director of Fir Tree Hospital found it again!”

Someone’s cheerful shout slapped her tired shoulder. Lee-yeon rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed.

A week had already passed since she left home. More than thirst that split her throat, she craved the baby’s scent so badly it made her frantic.

Nam-woo… Chae-woo…

Even so, her eyes sparkled like water as she looked up at the old tree. This was the first time she had ever been away from her child for this long.

The entire climb, the baby’s face kept flickering in her mind. Every time she heard birdsong, it sounded like Nam-woo’s voice, so sharp and vivid it made her heart ache. And then, like clockwork, guilt followed.

Ever since he was born, she had not even taken care of him properly…

“Hng… Chae-woo… hng…!”

She had not been exaggerating when she said she almost died. Labor pains hit every few minutes. It felt like a massive wave rolled in, swallowed her whole, then pulled back again.

With the steady beeps of the heart monitor and the contraction tracker in her ears, she thrashed through pain that only grew more brutal.

Every time it surged, she grabbed Kwon Chae-woo’s hand instead of the bed rail. She clenched her teeth and forced down her moans, then cried anyway, and when he wiped her sweat, she cried even harder.

“Hng… It hurts so much… hng, waaah… waaah…!”

She had never cried like that in front of Kwon Chae-woo before, not unless she counted the time she had cried at the Kwon household during pregnancy because she was hungry.