Revenge's Embrace | Taejin

One

When Kim Seokjin heard the cries of his newborn, he experienced a range of emotions. The unstoppable salty tears that ran down his cheeks clouded his eyesight, much like the condition of his thoughts, which were cloudy and unstable.

"It's a boy." The doctor announced, bringing the baby close to Seokjin; he asked, "Do you want to hold him?"

In the midst of his sobs, Jin nodded and hurriedly wiped away his tears. He remained there with his arms outstretched, and they soon became heavy with the weight of his newborn.

The tears he had wept earlier were nothing compared to the ones that came when he held his son; the whole experience seemed unreal. He had spent the previous nine months trying to picture himself in this same situation, but nothing had prepared him for it. He couldn't believe this infant was part of his flesh and blood. Then, a devastating cry emerged from deep within, attracting everyone's attention in the room.

They were all frightened that something had happened and had crowded around him out of worry; their worries turned into questions, but his screams buried everything spoken.

The frightened newborn cried in his arms, but even then, his tears didn't stop. The pain he experienced was far too much for him to handle; life was cruel and unjust, but so was love and everything else that was mixed up with it.

As the hospital room doors opened, loud heels clicking on the tiles could be heard. The staff members moved aside to make space for a lady elegantly dressed in red as she went up to where Seokjin lay. She welcomed him with a cheery expression and said, "I heard delivery went well, and a little boy has joined us."

Jin looked at her with tears and a pleading expression, saying, "Please, I-I can't do this."

The lady sighed, indicating that she was impatient and frustrated. She glanced around the room at the employees and asked them, "Allow us a moment."

After receiving nods of acknowledgment, the room emptied, leaving only her, Seokjin, and the baby.

She drew closer to Seokjin, peeked at the baby, and then looked at him and said, "You are not qualified to care for him. You will abide by the terms of the agreement we had previously reached. You can hold him now since I gave you permission to do so. It goes above and beyond what any other person would have done in this situation."

With her fingers, she swept away some strands of Jin's hair as he continued to look at him, "At some point in the future, you are going to remember me, and you are going to be thankful that I relieved you of this responsibility.

You have been given a second chance at life, in which you do not have to care for a child. Make something positive out of it, and use it as a reminder never to lose sight of where you are in the grand scheme of things in life. You have never been significant to this world and never will be.

Be thankful that your offspring won't have to go through anything you did. He will be cherished, and his needs will be carefully attended to."

As Jin held onto his son and wept even more, he was at a loss to comprehend how and why the world had been so unkind to him. In his wildest dreams, he never dreamed that he would have to endure such unbearable pain.

"An abortion would have been a better choice, but I presume you needed the money, so this works out better in terms of the benefit."

"I don't want your money! I never did." Jin screamed.

The woman rolled her eyes and sighed, "If only those words were real. I have seen many people like you, and you would probably have been successful if you were someone; nevertheless, when you are a nobody, you are easily disposable since nobody cares about you. I hope that you accept this money and use it to at least make an effort to become someone, and if you can't do that, at least attempt to pull yourself out of poverty."