3 Things I Hate About You

17. Life moves on like a conveyor belt

My father had his head hung low, low enough that the wrinkles on his forehead were apparent. "It was too late before. I... was about to tell you but she has already conceived the lies. That was already bonded into her mind, and we couldn't change it. And I thought it's best to hide it from you, too. "

"What do you mean?!" I rose from my seat and finally felt the slightest dull pain from clenching my knuckles.

His eyes showed grief and anguish. "Your mother and I were only protecting you, Yongguk."

"By hiding this matter? Sooner or later everybody will know." My lips were starting to quiver. "Just how are you going to face her?"

My father thinned his lips. It seemed as if he was reluctant to talk yet his face showed that he wanted to say something; but he did, talked, after a moment or so.

"Once there was a couple who couldn't reproduce... and that couple happened to be the closest friend to me. After Minha was born, I couldn't take it. I just couldn't see their grieving faces - I was too sympathetic for them."

I didn't pay attention to how many times I was blinking, but I had to readjust my composure several times to grasp what he just said. Every. Single. Word. A more detailed explanatory would be nice, right?

"What?"

"They were dying, Yongguk. They have been suffering from a recurring disease for years and years now, but their closest friend happened to be aware of it only at the last couple of stages of progression." My father smiled, yet somehow I could see his eyes glistening.

"It was too late to do anything. The only thing I could give them was a child... just for once so they could experience happiness for the last time."

My heart palpitated tremendously from the words he said. It sounds too much of a cliché but somehow I believed his words since I've never seen him lying with such a grieving face. And he surely was not faking out his expressions.

Suddenly I felt lightheaded for mere seconds before I clenched my fists again - three times already, note to self. I remained stationary, with a sympathetic expression still, and swallowed a couple of times before retaliating... or that was what I thought I was doing, although my voice remained shallow. "...Why was the house burned down?"

"That's still unknown." My father sighed quietly. "But one of the neighbors around told me that it was a thief who did it."

All the things that have been accumulating in my mind suddenly linked together like a jigsaw puzzle, or like a chain - why I have only known her from my aunt, why she was living in my house after the fire happened instead of living in my aunt's house and most importantly, why my father was avoiding her, especially when I start talking about her around my parents. I sure had thought that I was seeing an expression I couldn't put across for a split second every time.

The both of us heard a thud just outside the door, and we were beyond astounded to see who was outside all this time after turning our heads around.

Talk about wrong timings.

"M-Minha?" I staggered. "Wait!"

Minha's POV

I didn't know what was more shocking - that I wasn't living with my real parents all this time or that Yongguk's father was showing the most dejected face anyone could ever made. Whichever way that mattered, I really don't know how I could face them anymore.

Of course, I couldn't just let this slide off of my mind of the fact that I'm predictably going to be taken in to the family. For as long as I could remember, I only had one mother, which erratically turned out to be my step mother; this was the truth that will change my life from now on. I was stuck between feeling relieved and nervous, because it will be one hell of an awkward family reconciliation that will most likely to happen in the future.