A Beautiful Accident ✓

36.

Kang Hei Ryung looked around the place. It wasn't extravagant, the colours all white with modern furniture but the misplaced brown leather couch and the askew kitchen did tell that men lived here. There wasn't anything that told her women lived here although she had met two of them already.

The blue haired girl hadn't left a good impression on her, her clothes shabby in a way only normal people wore them. Hei Ryung would have commented on her choice of clothing if her similarly blue haired boyfriend hadn't interjected at the same time, leading her inside.

She had met the other girl there. Even if she was in the kitchen cooking something, it looked like she didn't know how to be organised or much less clean up. Hei Ryung had firmly refused to sit on the ugly couch and was made to sit in the backyard instead. Again, the plastic chairs and the simple foldable table didn't make her feel any good about the place. Yet, her only consolation was the green grass beneath her feet. She had been apprehensive about removing her shoes but seeing the trimmed natural grass made her feet itch.

Despite her upbringing and the way she liked things a certain way, she sometimes behaved like a normal person. It didn't mean she liked behaving that way, her father had always told her that she wasn't a normal person but sometimes, she ignored it and indulged in small things like these.

From the corner of her eye she could see some activity. She was content just sitting in the sun, her feet moving over the grass but she was curious and so, she looked inside. What she saw surprised her however.

She watched her daughter with that man who claimed to be her boyfriend. He was fussing about something to her, his brows drawn together in concern. He had a gentle but firm hold of her hand but the way Heejae smiled at him, it looked like she genuinely liked him. What surprised her further was how she stood on her tiptoes and silenced him with a long kiss.

When Heejae pulled back, she was grinning, a big one Hei Ryung hadn't seen on her face in ages. It made her heart twist strangely in her chest, her eyes stinging as she wondered how long it had been since she saw her little girl smiling that freely around her. When did things go so wrong? When did she mess up so bad?

“Miss Kang,” she snapped out of her thoughts and looked up, only to find her daughter standing in front of her. She didn't even bother calling her mother.

You can consider me dead from now on.

The words she had spoken a few weeks ago rang in her ear as she watched the young woman take a seat. Seeing her emotionless face and blank eyes, her heart squeezed painfully.

“You look good,” Hei Ryung started, trying to cut the thick tension. Heejae smiled wryly. “Thank you but I would appreciate it if you get to the point. I don't wish to be in the presence of a woman who has ill intentions against me and my child.” The woman let out a sigh, her eyes becoming sad as she gazed at her daughter. “I’m sorry, Heejae.”

The young woman felt her eyes widen and her jaw slacken. Never in her twenty something years of life, she had heard her mother apologising to anyone, much less to her children. She couldn't speak, she couldn't come up with any words. Heejae was rendered speechless by her mother.

“It was cruel of me,” Hei Ryung continued, “I wasn't thinking straight and I regret saying those words to you. I think… I think I forgot for a moment that I was your mother and not a businesswoman. I’m really sorry, my girl. I hope you find it in yourself to forgive me.”

“I can't,” came her quick reply, making the old woman tear up. “It is not the only thing you have to be forgiven for. There are more things and its years of piled up resentment. You can't just expect me to forgive you if you drop here out of nowhere like you care when you haven't in so many years. And how am I supposed to believe your apology is real? That there isn't a hidden agenda like blackmailing me yet again to quit my company and join you or better yet, leave Yoongi and marry a man of your choice? How do you expect me to trust you again?”