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SEOUL WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HIS FRESH NEW START. It was what he told himself over and over again; when he walked across the stage at his high school graduation, when he packed his bags into the taxi trunk that was headed to the train station, when he waved to his baby sister from the window, when he turned his back on his mother for the last time, when he waved goodbye to his hometown that he never wanted to see again.
There would be a better life for him under the harsh neon lights of the capital. At least that was what he prayed for every night he laid his head on that cheap pillow.
Maybe for a while, Jooyeon had believed it every time he reached up to open the golden locket that never strayed too far from his warm grasp. Staring back at him was a fading picture of the people he had done all of this for, the people he wanted to make proud of him. It was a picture from his baby sister, Dayeon's 2nd birthday party at the park only 15 minutes away from his childhood home.
Even if it was her party, their father was always deadset on never leaving either of his children out of anything. It was the one thing he was always remembered, no matter how old or heavy they got Jooyeon would be on his father's right hip and Dayeon would be on the left.
That was the kind of man Kang Juho was.
If only this wasn't the only picture Jooyeon had left of his father. If only this picture hadn't faded as badly as it had, maybe he would still be able to remember his father's face.
Sometimes a man just needed his dad.
And this was one of those moments. Sulking on a park bench in the pouring rain, dressed in his best or at least it was before it was soaked, unsure of where to go, what to do, and what he was even feeling...if he was feeling at all. His eyes, bloodshot red from crying, were trained on the ruined picnic before him. The blanket was soaked from the rain and the spilled expensive champagne that he never should have bought. The champagne glasses were tipped. The picnic basket was overflowing with water. The beautiful flowers he picked on the way here were scattered across the ground. The wind had blown away the candles. The food he had prepared was quickly stolen and thoroughly enjoyed by the park's squirrels, pigeons, and ducks. At least they got to eat.
This was a moment where he was at his wit's end. When everything had just become too much for him to bear. Who was he kidding? There was no better life for him! No matter how hard he tried, something had always gone awry.
The prestigious media company he had been working at since his college graduation, would let him go after his failure to capture an attention-grabbing, front-page story. He would even has his original story idea stolen by one of the shareholder's nephews with less experience and qualifications in the field. The lousy, good-for-nothing bastard didn't even have a degree to his name yet! With his dream investigative journalist job ripped from underneath him, Jooyeon returned to his two part-time jobs.
