Love Born of Pity Chapter 99

He was one step too late.

Faced with the empty house Kwon Jiho had left, Do Yeonjae couldn’t contain his surging nausea and anger, and he wrecked the living room. Chief Kim waited near the entrance for the commotion to stop.

“So, Chief Kim, you just stood by and watched, is that what you’re saying?”

“……It’s not that I just watched; I did try to stop them. However, the Chairman brought many people with him.”

It was true. Who would have thought he would bring seven personal bodyguards when visiting his grandson’s house? If it had been one or two, he might have been able to block them somehow, but it was beyond his control. Chief Kim didn’t beat around the bush and confessed honestly.

“I also told him he couldn’t, that the Director would be arriving soon and it would be best to meet him before leaving, but it didn’t work out. I apologize.”

In any case, letting Kwon Jiho go was clearly his fault, so Chief Kim bowed his head. His absence was a genuinely unfortunate event for his boss, but he refrained from saying more as he could understand Kwon Jiho’s feelings in following Do Seungtae.

“Let’s go.”

“……Pardon?”

“I need to go to the main house.”

Chief Kim, after a quick glance at the disastrous state of the completely shattered living room, bowed his head and led the way. It was because he hadn’t heard Chairman Do Seungtae firmly state to Kwon Jiho that Do Yeonjae would absolutely not cross the threshold of his house.

Even before the rear door of the waiting vehicle could be opened for him, Do Yeonjae jumped in. He even snapped at Chief Kim, asking why he wasn’t going faster.

“It seems I’m the only one in a hurry.”

“……I apologize.”

“Ha.”

He was burning up inside. The heat couldn’t escape, making his chest feel tight. It wasn’t relieved even after letting out successive breaths. His mind was filled entirely with thoughts of Kwon Jiho. Why did he follow him? Weren’t we doing pretty well lately? I was even planning to let him meet Kwon Heeyeon soon. What on earth is the problem?

Do Yeonjae couldn’t understand in the slightest why this situation had occurred.

As he got closer to the main house, his anxiety doubled. Do Yeonjae’s posture, which was usually never discomposed, crumbled. A large hand covered his face as he let out sigh after sigh. Only after passing the quiet, familiarly high walls and reaching the estate where his grandfather and parents resided together did the searing heat subside, if only a little.

“Director, we’ve arrived.”

“Fuck……”

Kicking the rear door open as he got out, Do Yeonjae stepped onto the landing of the main gate. The gesture of pressing the doorbell was filled with irritation and urgency. The sound of the bell didn’t connect properly, cutting off just like when he had pressed the motel doorbell in the past. It made an unpleasant noise, beeping erratically: Beeeep, bee, beeeeeep, beeeee—.

After several refusals and retries, the only thing that came through the connected intercom was a calm voice saying they could not open the door. The call ended without yielding to his livid threats to open it at once.

“……Director.”

“Shall we try climbing the wall? It’s something I never did even in my school days, but since they’re giving me the cold shoulder, I have no choice.”

Do Yeonjae, smiling with an expression that fully revealed his anger, pushed back his disheveled hair and stepped away from the gate. After walking for a good while, tracing the uniformly high wall with his fingertips, he finally found a spot that was slightly lower. Chief Kim hadn’t actually thought Do Yeonjae would go through with the act of climbing the wall, but his expression was utterly serious.

“Are you just going to stand there and watch?”

“……Pardon? Ah, no, sir. To h-help… wh-what should I—.”

“What do you mean, what? Drive the car up here.”

He planned to climb the wall by stepping on the car’s body. He knew he must look ridiculous, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to see Kwon Jiho right away, and they weren’t letting him in; it was driving him crazy.

As Chief Kim hurriedly parked the car right up against the wall, Do Yeonjae stepped on the hood and lightly hoisted himself up. It was then. The main gate, which wouldn’t open no matter what he did, swung open with a heavy clank.

“Look at that, that, that crazy bastard.”

At the deep, resonant voice, Do Yeonjae’s eyes turned toward the source of the sound. Do Yeonjae, who was about to step onto the car’s body, jumped down lightly and strode toward his grandfather.

“I’ve come to get Jiho.”

“I told you not to visit like this. Did the message not get delivered?”

His piercing gaze was directed at Chief Kim, who stood close to the car. He suppressed a sigh and bowed his head low.

“I don’t know why you’re getting involved, but we will handle our own affairs.”

“A man who says he’ll handle it himself gets a child into such a state? Looking at you now, it seems that too will end up being just your own idea.”

At the indifferent reply, only Do Yeonjae’s insides burned. Do Seungtae clicked his tongue, tsk, at his ever-changing expression.

“That child ate his fill and has just fallen asleep. Hyunsu is taking care of him, so you have nothing to worry about. Go back now.”

“Grandfather!”

“Yes, you punk! You’ve called me well. To leave someone you cherish so much alone until now, only to get all anxious at this point! You’re doing all the pathetic things by yourself, yes. You’re trying to climb the wall looking like that?”

The shout echoed over the high walls. Do Seungtae, clicking his tongue and scrunching up his face, added a mutter to himself, wondering who he took after to have grown up like that.

“That child didn’t even know you’d broken off your engagement. He got on his knees right away, begging that if I just let him leave, he would never appear before your eyes again! How could you make a child who has done nothing wrong start by saying he’s sorry!”

Do Seungtae didn’t even ask Do Yeonjae what their relationship had been like. He was convinced that his grandson was unconditionally in the wrong. It was a story not even worth hearing. A child’s attitude wasn’t formed in a day or two.

“What on earth did that young thing do wrong to have to beg like that, you shameless bastard!”

“I didn’t tell him because his health is not good right now.”

“If that was your concern, you should have first talked about getting married! You two made the baby together, does it make sense for only one to act like a sinner? I must have been very, very wrong about you, haven’t I? I thought you were smart, why are you so stupid, why.”

Do Yeonjae’s expression instantly hardened. It felt as if he had damnably found the answer to the moments he had been agonizing over, not knowing what the problem was. It was unpleasant to realize it only after Do Seungtae had pointed it out one by one, but his once-cluttered mind gradually cleared.

“Ah.”

As his grandfather said, he should have first told him that he was going to marry him. Comforting him was the next step.

“I just thought he needed to recover his health first.”

“This punk, still! The apology comes first, the apology! Where did such an incompetent fool come from, honestly!”

Do Seungtae kept sighing and clicking his tongue as he looked at his grandson, who was still giving the wrong answer. He was even baffled, as he hadn’t thought Do Yeonjae could be this stupid. To think he could treat a person so foolishly.

A simpleton who couldn’t even properly understand a situation that required an apology first was standing before his eyes. His mind went blank, thinking that his son and daughter-in-law had truly raised their child wrong. No, was his upbringing wrong? They say children learn by watching their parents; what on earth did he watch to become such a person?

“An apology, you say.”

“Then was driving the situation to this point a good thing to do? Was it?”

“……”

“Do you think this is normal right now? Getting him pregnant without even saying you’ll take responsibility, while he’s all alone thinking all sorts of things, you alone thought, I’ll tell him after he recovers his health?”

Do Seungtae pointed out his faults one by one. Still, he didn’t expect him to realize right away. If he were that kind of person, he wouldn’t have made the mistakes in the first place. And yet that child was walking through his own personal hell.

“You’ve left that young thing out in the dead of winter without even a coat, while you alone are enjoying the spring. Go, I don’t even want to look at you! Don’t come back, come only when I tell you to.”

Pointing a finger with a terrifyingly crumpled face, he shook his head at Do Yeonjae. Oh, for crying out loud, he muttered and turned away coldly. As he strode off, Do Yeonjae followed and tried to force his way inside the gate, but Do Seungtae blocked him, his eyes glaring.

“Know your limits while you can still go back in one piece.”

Do Seungtae was on the verge of calling the personal bodyguards waiting just inside the gate.

“I was planning to take him with me, but I won’t do that. You said he’s sleeping, so I’ll just see his face and confirm it.”

Since he was a man who rarely lowered his attitude and posture, Do Seungtae’s heart weakened. The polite request, made with a bowed head, made his resolve to never let him in the house waver like a reed. But he couldn’t let Do Yeonjae into the house this easily. Do Seungtae steeled his heart, which had begun to lean slightly toward his grandson.

“I made a promise when I brought Jiho here. That I would never let you into my house until he allows it. If I don’t keep that promise from the very first day, that child will truly have nowhere left to trust, nowhere left to lean on.”

“……”

“He needs to have at least one thing to hold onto besides you, don’t you think?”

Do Seungtae turned his body. The open gate closed, leaving only Do Yeonjae standing alone and forlorn outside.