Finding You

SPECIAL CHAPTER: AN ODE TO HAE WON

Author's Notes: Contains themes which may not be suitable for some readers (implied drug use and violence). Please proceed with caution.

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If Kim Ji Won was twenty-seven, it would not have been a challenge to spot the person he was supposed to welcome home in the sea of faces at the arrival area. Alas, thirteen years already went past since he drove his father to the airport and said their goodbyes. He was forty; his tapered hair was showing a few streaks of silver on the sides and his eyes required the assistance of contact lenses for him to be allowed to drive.

Still, he was able to recognize the man he was waiting for when the latter approached him.

“Welcome back, Kim Tae Pyung,” he greeted the man with a mischievous grin.

His father – a handsome man whose clock froze at the age of thirty-six – snorted and retorted jokingly in accordance with their agreed pretense, “Nice to see you again, hyung.”

Ji Won shook his head as he stifled a laugh, then pulled his father into a big, bear hug. He never realized how sorely he missed his old man until Tae Pyung ruffled his hair in the same endearing way. Funny but it seems that regardless how modern technology greatly helped in making the distance irrelevant in all those years they spent apart, it was undeniable that his yearning for the only family he had was something he was not able to get over with.

“Did you have a hard time moving out of the city, buddy?” Tae Pyung asked when they were in the car.

“Not really, Dad. One of my former bosses recommended me to the company I am currently employed with and the salary is practically the same as what I used to get from my previous job – minus the stressful environment of the metropolis, if I may add. So, it is definitely a win-win situation for me,” his son shrugged. “I was also hired as a part-time instructor in a university, too. I teach Photography during Saturdays.”

“Wow. I did not know that my son is a busy man.”

“I was raised by workaholic parents who were living double lives, remember?”

“Indeed, you were,” Tae Pyung agreed. “By the way, where did you say the house is located?”

“It’s in Gangwon,” Ji Won replied, the corners of his mouth turning up in a smug way as he smoothly weaved through the traffic. “We live in a small village five to ten minutes away from Jeongdongjin Beach. I sent you the pictures last week.”

“Yes and they were stunning – particularly the one with the red sunrise,” Tae Pyung recalled. “I cannot wait to see it for myself.”

“You would love the place,” Ji Won remarked a little too excitedly. “We have this miniature library, a spacious garden at the back, a balcony… Mom would’ve had a field day designing and redesigning the interiors if she was still around.”

Tae Pyung nodded in somber acknowledgement, subtly hiding the sad smile lingering on his face by diverting his focus on the fleeting landscape outside the window of the passenger seat.

“I need to take a quick side trip to a nearby town, though,” Ji Won segued. “I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course,” Tae Pyung said. “Where to?”

For a while, Ji Won pressed his lips together in a tight line as he deliberated with himself whether to inform his father about his recent endeavors or not. Without any doubts, his dad would be pleased to know that he was able to learn a couple of things about his origins. However, keeping him in the loop would likewise bring a touch of reality to it, that the casual search for answers was somehow turning into a pivotal one.