Heartland

~Three~

"What? Why are you saying that? He was not my father. My father is a famous surgeon. I think you all have me confused with someone else.

Oh god.. I uprooted my entire life to come down here and y'all are expecting someone else! What am I going to do now?" He begins pacing and mumbling to himself.

Hobi stands and tries to cut in so he could explain. But Jin is freaking out and on the verge of a panic attack.

So Hobi goes into the doctors private office and grabs something from the shelf and brings it out towards Jin. He stands in front of him and shoves it in his face.

Jin stops walking and looks at the picture frame in front of him. It is of a man and a woman and he immediately recognizes the man as the doctor from his graduation. He takes it out of Hobi's hands to take a better look at it.

The woman alongside of the doctor, is smiling brightly and they are embracing as a couple deeply in love. It's his mother. But he has never seen her look so happy as she does in this picture.

He looks up at Hobi who gives him a knowing smile.

"Dr. Baek spoke of you and your mother often. My eomma used to work here before I did and they were very close. Like brother and sister. He would tell her everything in his life.

He went on a cruise years ago and he returned telling my eomma of the wonderful time he had. And of the woman he met. He fell head over heels for her and assumed she felt the same.

Only to be heartbroken when he tried to surprise her in Seoul. He found out she was newly married and was on the cruise alone because her new husband couldn't or wouldn't take time off for their honeymoon.

She told him that she could never leave him as long as her parents were still alive but promised they could meet occasionally."

Jin is listening and so many things are starting to make sense to him now. How his parents were never affectionate or how his mother would go on trips alone several times a year.

"He apparently tried to break things off when he returned from Seoul. But when she came here to see him a couple of months later. She announced that she was pregnant with you. She told him he was your father and though he tried to only be there for you. He said that once you were born and you had the same birthmark as him he knew you were his baby. You stole his heart and he loved you so much.

He still only wanted to be there for only you. But I guess he just fell deeper in love with your mother and they continued their long distance relationship. Do you not remember him at all from your childhood? I was under the impression that you had visited him a couple of times when you were younger."

Jin felt like his knees were about to buckle under him so he went to sit down.

As he thought back on his childhood, he got flashes of being around a kind older man who would let him pick anything he wanted from the store. He can't believe how he could have forgotten about him. And seeing his mother appear so happy. Only to return to her usual, bitter self once back at home.

"Why didn't he just tell me? I thought he was just a kindly old man at my graduation. Now I know why my father... well, the man I assumed was my father. Now I know why he's been so distant from me. And why he always makes an excuse not to see me. He must've found out I wasn't really his."

Hobi moves closer to him and says, "I don't really know what happened. But your father loved you. Your real father.. he was so proud of you. And how you also became a doctor like him. Though he was a GP and you're a.. a.. what's your specialty?"

"I'm a cardio-thoracic surgeon. Top in my class." Jin replies proudly. "I guess there's not much call for a cardio-thoracic surgeon around here, huh?"

"Not really. We handle just about everything here. Physicals, immunizations, cuts and bruises. Whatever walks through that door, we handle."