Chapter 128 – 128 – Apology for the Past
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“…”
“…”
Two people sitting facing each other.
There were a lot of words to ask each other’s regards as they hadn’t seen each other in a long time, but there was only silence at the table.
Then there was silence again.
‘Ahh… Awkward’
To be honest, I had nothing to say to Eun-seol.
No, there was
‘What have you been doing?’
Such a simple hello.
However, it was not something to be said from Woojin’s point of view.
Because the biggest thing was that we broke up badly.
Because of that, only silence flowed.
“There…”
It’s so awkward that Woojin breaks the silence…
“How do you accidentally see it here?”
“Yeah.”
“…”
“…”
Failed to keep the conversation going.
Normally, there should be give and take in a conversation, but that was not established at all.
‘What should I do?… What do I have to say?…’
Woojin struggled to wring his head out and decided to ask the most basic question to lead the topic of conversation.
“What is your sister doing here?”
“I didn’t have enough clothes to wear… So… I came to buy them.”
“Oh, I see. I came for the same reason, but.. Haha…”
“…”
“…”
The conversation seemed to disappear into silence again, but…
“There…”
This time, Eun-seol started to speak out.
“Sorry…”
Woojin, who had been drinking Americano in awkwardness, looked at Eunseol, who was making a voice, and Eunseol was bowing his head to him.
“Collock Coke! Uh?”
Woojin heard about the case in America, who was drinking in embarrassment.
Embarrassed by such a reaction, Eun-seol reached out to Woo-jin and asked if he was okay.
“Oh… Are you okay?”
“Uh… But an apple… What kind of apple?”
“So… I’m not sure how to start talking…”
Woojin had no idea what Eunseol was trying to apologize for, but
“Sorry. The fact that I made you wait in the cold that day… And the fact that I hurt you by saying harsh things…”
As he listened, he clearly understood what he was apologizing for.
“And…”
Eun-seol, unable to speak as if speechless.
As I looked at Eun-seol, I could see that his hands and shoulders were shaking.
I couldn’t see it well because I lowered my head, but I thought maybe she was crying.
“…”
Woojin is embarrassed by such a reaction.
Should I say it’s amazing that Eun-seol had this much guilt?
Of course, it is true that I was hurt a lot at the time, and it is true that something similar to trauma came about because of that. It was true that Eun-seol had to apologize to herself like now.
However, although the saying ‘the past becomes beautified’ may be correct, Woo-jin’s sad feelings at that time were weathered.
Above all, since it was judged that Eun-seol’s actions were unavoidable choices for Woo-jin’s sake, I thought it was not something to be apologized to this extent.
Even if I just apologized lightly, I would have accepted it… Eun-seol’s attitude in front of me was quite burdensome.
Woojin wants to get out of this burdensome situation.
Woojin quickly accepted Eunseol’s apology.
“Okay, I get it.”
“Uh?”
Upon hearing that, Eun-seol raised her head.
Was it because Woojin spoke too lightly?
Eun-seol had a slightly dumbfounded expression on her face.
With an expressionless Eun-seol and a flushed face that didn’t match…
As Woojin expected, it seemed right that Eunseol was crying.
Looking at that expression, I thought it was fortunate that he accepted the apology quickly.
Even if he was a little late, he could be mistaken for a bad guy who makes women cry around him.
In fact, there were quite a few people looking at them.
Most of the people who had been watching Eun-seol from earlier, though.
Ringing silver snow in this state?
Then it was clear that it would be a very tiring job for Woojin.
“Of course, I hated my sister at first. But as time passed, I began to understand. Didn’t you have to make that choice then?”
Eun-seol shaking her head up and down.
“Also. If so, that’s it. You don’t have to apologize that much.”
“That… But…”
Restless cover-up.
Seeing Eun-seol like that, Woo-jin said it was okay and calmed Eun-seol down.
“Still, if it ends like this, I’m uncomfortable…”
“No, really, I’m fine…”
The contradictory battle between the person who apologized and the person who accepted the apology continued, and while I was thinking about how to calm down the secret, I came up with a clever idea.
“Okay. Okay. Then I will ask you one favor.”
“Ask? Yes. I’ll listen to anything. Just talk.”
Contrary to the above expression, Eun-seol has a puppy-like expression paying attention to the owner.
In fact, the fact that he stretched his back straight and looked straight at himself looked like a loyal dog.
What Woo-jin wanted to ask Eun-seol about was something in the past.
A few days before the day that left Woo-jin with a big trauma, he knew that the reason Eun-seol tried to push him away was to avoid hurting him, but he didn’t know the details behind it.
So she decided to ask Eun-seol.
What is the details of the inside story, and about what happened again.
“I’m roughly predicting my sister’s situation, but can you tell me what happened?”
“That’s…”
Eun-seol hesitates at Woo-jin’s question.
Seeing Eun-seol with a troubled expression on his face, Woo-jin thought he was just saying something.
It could have been a painful story for Eun-seol as well.
“No no! It’s okay if you don’t want to talk. Just my personal curiosity. Even if you don’t tell me, I’ll forgive my sister.”
I waved my hand and tried to correct what I said, but
“I won’t. Listen.”
Eun-seol seemed to be determined to answer Woo-jin’s question as if he had caught up with him.
…
…
When Eun-seol was young, his parents divorced.
He later lived with her mother, but the new father reportedly led her mother to remarry.
At first, she grew up with the affection of her biological mother and stepfather, but it is said that the tragedy began when a child was born between her mother and stepfather.
“To that family, I was… Just a hindrance…”
Two parents.
It seemed that the step-dad and real mother wanted a perfect blood-connected family.
“From the stepfather’s point of view, I’m a complete stranger, right? Even from a mother’s point of view, things like me must be the past that you want to erase…”
I don’t praise Eun-seol, but even if my younger sister is good at small things, I praise her.
It is said that Eun-seol suffered from persecution and discrimination since she was a child.
However, he says he has no ill feelings toward his brother.
My younger sister worried about herself and used to take care of herself without her parents’ knowledge.
“Still, I was on my side as much as my younger sister… Even if I tried to hold on after seeing her younger sister, it was too hard.”
As time passed, the family discriminated against Eun-seol more and more, and he said that at some point, he treated himself as someone who did not exist.
As if they were tired of them and asked them to quickly disappear from the house.
Because of such a family environment, after a little wandering in middle school, he attended high school and then dropped out.
Originally, he intended to go all the way to get a diploma, but since high school was not compulsory education, he had no choice but to drop out as Eun-seol, who had no support from his parents.
“So even if I tried to work part-time, they didn’t accept minors. To be precise, parental consent is required, but even that was not agreed…”
In the end, Eun-seol couldn’t stand it and ran away like that.
I was wandering around and out of the house day after day like that.
He says he ended up meeting Woo-jin.
“At first, it just suited my curiosity, but later on, I think Woojin enjoyed the time he spent with you.”
Eun-seol fiddling with the container containing the Americano.
Eun-seol continued the story, reminding him of his face with a different meaning than before.
“I waited every day… For Woojin to come to the playground… Looking back now, I think that was the happiest time…”
“…”
Seeing Eun-seol with a strangely recalled expression, Woo-jin was worried about what to do.
It was clear that Woojin and Eunseol had a crush on each other to the point of waiting to meet each other, but if he said that, the question “How much time did you spend with Shia?” Followed in my head.
In conclusion, saying ‘yes’ would feel like betraying Shia, so he kept silent so as not to agree.
And so, the story of the hidden story continues…
“Back to the main topic… While I was spending time outside aimlessly like that, a man asked me.”
She said she would not stay with him.
Eun-seol said she knew this type of person well.
I’ll give you what I usually say…
Eun-seol said that he used this method to stay away from home.
It is said that Eun-seol, who had no place to go, followed the man.
The place where the man lives is a tattoo shop.
Eun-jin said that she sold her body on the condition that the man provide her with a place to sleep and at the same time learn to work so that she can become self-reliant later.
“Isn’t that the boss I know?”
“Yes…”
That person was the owner of the tattoo shop with the strange look that hurt Eun-seol and herself.
As Woo-jin listened to Eun-seol’s words, he felt complicated emotions.
Pity for the pitiful background behind Eun-seol and a sense of betrayal that he was doing such a thing behind his back.
Since Woo-jin had a crush on Eun-seol at the time, he couldn’t erase this sense of betrayal.
And when he saw Eun-seol talking to him honestly and without hesitation, he felt a surprise.
‘But, do I need to feel resentment? We weren’t even dating…”
When I thought about it, I wondered if I needed to feel betrayed.
He had a cold crush on him, but he wasn’t dating.
‘Let’s not overindulge.’
Woo-jin listened to Eun-seol’s words, holding his heart.
Woo-jin will be Woo-jin, but Eun-seol will also have a painful and embarrassing past…
From what he said, it was clear that he was sincerely apologizing to himself without falsehood.
“So you’ve been living there ever since?”
“Yes…”
While listening to the story, a question came to mind.
“After listening, I have a question, can I ask?”
“Sure… I’ll tell you anything.”
“Where have all your sister tattoos gone? It must have been all over my body…”
She obviously remembered it being there the last time she saw it, starting with her neck, then her arms and legs, and so on.
However, there was not even a trace of a tattoo on Eun-seol.
“…”
Eun-seol’s expression is not good.
I’m trying to say that I don’t have to answer because I wonder if I asked a useless question.
“I erased it…”
Eun-seol’s answer came.
“Because most of the tattoos on my body were made by him…”
“That person?”
That person is the owner of a tattoo shop who has reaped the secret.
He was the one who had just stopped talking.
‘But did the original tattoo get erased so neatly?’
He had a question, but he didn’t dare to say it.
As for the boss, he said he liked getting tattoos on Eun-seol’s body.
No I have to say he had an obsession.
“He was a little sick. As far as I know, at the time we met, they said it was time-limited,,,”
It is said that the tattoo shop owner, who suffered from cancer and lived a terminally ill life, refused treatment and ran the tattoo shop.
In the meantime, he met Eun-seol, and said that he had reaped Eun-seol.
“That was the beginning of the tragedy…”
The mental state of such a boss was not as normal as his physical state,
“Even if that person said so, shouldn’t he leave a trace of himself before he dies?”
The president started tattooing Eun-seol on Eun-seol’s body, perhaps because of her animalistic instinct to leave her mark on the world.
He says that at first he thought he was just trying to practice.
The president’s tattoo design was okay, so he just got it…
However, when he showed signs of obsession with getting tattoos on his body, Eun-seol finally realized that this person was abnormal.
‘I thought I was haggard… But the sick person was right…’
Even at the time, I thought he was a little sick, but hearing Eun-seol’s words, it was true.
Woojin decides to continue listening.
Eun-seol says it had nothing to do with it until now, but as the president’s condition became more and more serious, he said he started urging him to engage in prostitution…
“I refused at first, but he got angry at me for kicking him out if I didn’t, and he looked at me like he was going to kill me right now…”
You would think it wouldn’t be scary because a person who didn’t have much time left to live would be angry, but he said that he was going to do something really dangerous because he had no back.
“If it was that scary and you didn’t want to do it, wouldn’t it have been better to just find someone else?”
I don’t know because I’ve never had such an experience, but I thought I’d find another place if I was like myself in danger.
“That’s right… But…”
The man’s condition was that he would give the store and his property to him when he died.
Enchanted by it, Eun-seol couldn’t get out of there.
“It was a bit foolish, but somehow I persevered… It was already too late to turn back… Because I was used to it…”
After that, it is revealed that he sold his body to customers who came to the tattoo shop.
Exactly, I didn’t sell it for money, but in the form of a tattoo after getting a tattoo…
“Even if he said that, how will he attract guests when he dies? I have to make regulars like this from now on… He said that this would all help you… He persuaded me with nonsensical words…”
Eun-seol brushed his hair and drank the coffee.
“But I fell for that persuasion… To be honest, I lacked skills at the time, and the road ahead was bleak… So I managed to persevere… One day, that person’s real problem will come next…”
Time passed like that…
One day, the president told Eun-seol about this.
“Looks like there’s a kid hanging out lately… Who is it? Boy friend?”
“I don’t know… I don’t know…”
She was horrified as soon as she heard it, but Eun-seol pretended not to know that the president might be having strange thoughts.
It was because I hated this man for no reason, and my efforts so far could have been in vain, and even Woo-jin could have been harmed if I did something wrong.
And he says he hasn’t been to the playground since.
…
‘It’s not that he didn’t come, it’s that he didn’t come.’
Of course, Eun-seol could have said it in a way that suited her, but the situation at the time and Eun-seol’s attitude now seemed highly likely to be true.
…
After a few days like that.
After the boss came back from outside, he said to Eun-seol:
“The kid at the playground. It looks like I’ve been waiting for you all along, is it okay if I don’t go?”
Surprised, Eun-seol said that she pretended nothing happened this time, but the president’s next words made Eun-seol move.
“Yes? Then I’ll have to take her as a shop customer. Kids these days all get tattoos, so…”
And then I felt bad for grinning…
“Didn’t Eun-seol do that to you too?”
To Eun-seol, it felt like a final warning to herself.
To interpret the president’s words, it was a story that he brought Eun-seol to the tattoo shop where he worked, made him get a tattoo, and provided Eun-seol’s service as usual.
Eun-seol heard the president’s words and immediately ran out.
The place Eun-seol is heading to is the playground of promise.
He said that when he ran out, the surroundings were dark, but he thought that no matter how Ujin, it would not be at this time.
However, contrary to his expectations, Woojin was squatting at the playground waiting for him…
Eun-seol found it and said that she ran to Woo-jin.
“When I first saw you, I felt welcome. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”
But that joy turned to worry.
It could have gone wrong if Woojin was here for nothing.
“But I couldn’t express my delight. Because I thought I had to push you away.”
At first, he just told him not to come, but he said that Woojin kept trying to stick to him, so he kicked him hard on purpose.
“Seeing that he even packed a lunch box for me… Haha… I thought it was foolish… It was only because of me… That he prepared and waited this far.”
Eun-seol said that she thought Woo-jin was foolish, and at the same time, she felt self-loathing.
“The more I listened, the more I pushed harder…”
Come to think of it, it was a bit awkward for Eun-seol to get angry at the time.
I felt like I did it on purpose.
Woojin conveyed his thoughts to Eunseol.
Then, Eun-seol made a surprised expression.
“You knew… Did you?…”
Woojin nodded and answered Eunseol’s words.
“It’s been so long that I don’t remember exactly what it is, but I thought so at the time. I felt like something had happened to my sister, or I wanted to believe that…”
Woojin says that he went to the playground a few days later with that thought in mind.
He didn’t talk about what happened after that.
Because it wasn’t a very pleasant story to tell.
“So what happened to that person called the boss?”
“Dead. Seeing my despairing expression, as if his goal was to die, he soon became very ill.”
After the president died, he passed on the tattoo shop and the owner’s property to Eun-seol, as he had promised in his lifetime.
“It was better than when I ran away, but it wasn’t very smooth after that.”
Although the ‘housing’ of food, clothing and shelter was solved by inheriting the tattoo shop, there was almost no inherited property, so there was a problem with the rest of the ‘clothing’ and ‘food’.
“I couldn’t live with just one tattoo. It’s embarrassing, but… I had to maintain the man’s sales method.”
Eun-seol smiled self-deprecatingly, saying that the man who said he would be of help to her in his lifetime was right.
…
“It must have been difficult…”
“Uh?”
Eun-seol with a surprised expression.
“It must have been difficult. He has had a hard time living alone.”
I didn’t have any good feelings for the people who bought and sold sex, but I just said that I bent my arms inward, it seemed appropriate to the current situation.
“I was me too, but I think my sister must have had a really hard time. Even if I was your older sister… Older sister?”
Suddenly, Eun-seol sheds tears.
“Uh…Uh?…Why all of a sudden…”
Embarrassed, Eun-seol started to wipe away tears.
The tears that kept falling even after stealing made Woojin embarrassed beyond Eunseol…
Woojin got up and went to Eunseol’s side.
“Are you okay?!… Did I say something strange?”
While dealing with Eun-seol with such restlessness.
Suddenly, Eun-seol hugged herself.
“Seol’s older sister?!”
Woo-jin is flustered.
“Wait… Wait… Let me be like this…”
Woojin was in a difficult situation.
It was difficult for Eun-seol to suddenly embrace him.
The soft sensation in the chest and the smell of milky flesh made it difficult to feel the blood rushing down.
‘Restrain… Temperance… Seo Woo-jin…! You have Shia…!’
Woojin managed to restrain himself while thinking peaceful thoughts in his mind.
Woo-jin managed to calm down somehow.
Then, he felt that many eyes were directed towards him.
‘Everyone looks at me strangely…’
I don’t know what the reason is, but what about other people?
In the end, thinking that the situation would end only when Eun-seol stopped crying, Woo-jin decided to wait until she calmed down while patting Eun-seol’s hair.
Just like Eun-seol did to her before…
..
Woojin comes out of the locker room.
Woojin’s body was covered in clothes that looked a little expensive.
“Will this suit me? It looks quite expensive than that…”
“Don’t worry about the price. You said I would buy it for you.”
By chance, Eun-seol and Woo-jin are choosing clothes.
Ever since Eun-seol offered to buy her clothes as a sign of apology, I’ve been dragged(?) Around like this…
‘Is this… Right?’
