To Be or Not To Be A Family - Chapter 90

Young-Soo knew she was thinking wrong about him and Vidhi. He had no feelings for her other than being her friend. He wanted to help her not fall for again. That happened ages ago. Now, his life was with Eun-Kyung and his two kids. All he wanted from Vidhi was to get to know his eldest child, Ashma. He had to tell her, he had to make her understand.

Young-Jae was happy as Ashma came in between Vidhi and Young-Soo. He did not want history to repeat itself. He never hated Vidhi or their love, he was just concerned about the scandal that would have caused. The firstborn, the only child of Park was in love with an Indian, that would not have sat well with anyone.

Ashma fed her mother with her own hands. Vidhi was disappointed as Ashma came in between and interrupted her plan. No one objected when Young-Soo fed him not even his wife, not even Young-Jae. Little did she know that her own daughter will become her enemy. She was doing it for Ashma but as if she didn’t want that.

After having dinner, Ashma again thanked In-Ho. He smiled at her sweetly. All retired to their room. Ashma was sitting on her bed with her laptop and drawing pad next to her. No matter how many drawings she made, she erased them immediately.

She even searched for inspiration but nothing came to her mind. She looked at her old designs, new designs, but nothing jumped at her. She looked around the room, looked at the art piece still nothing. She groaned in frustration, shut down her pad and laptop and came out of the room in disappointment.

She thought of spending a little time in the fresh air to get rid of her block. She moved towards the terrace. Following the night light, she reached the door, she opened it and first, she looked at the water tank section where she shared a kiss with Yong-Sun.

Her cheeks turned red. Her ears went hot. She blushed hard. She ran her fingers over lips and smiled at the thought of kissing Yong-Sun. They had decided to go on dates and then see what future they might have. She was excited yet afraid to go on date. She had relationships in past but not a serious one

Her every move was scrutinised by the media. Whoever she dated became famous. She hated the fact that many men used her fame to become famous but Yong-Sun was nothing like that. And he didn’t want her fame to become famous. He was already famous. He was an eligible bachelor in Korea.

She went ahead and sat on the swing. The beautiful, green terrace, the cold, sweet air was soothing to the soul. She was staring at the vibrant flowers all around her. Even mother nature was unable to give her ideas. She was busy in her thoughts and didn’t realise that someone was standing in front of her.

“Still think about your work?”

The voice broke her chain of thoughts. She looked up and found Young-Soo to be standing before her. She blinked a few times and stared at him. He moved forward and went and stood next to her. He didn’t sit on the swing this time. He knew she didn’t like him feeding her mother with his hands.

“Ohh, it’s you,” exclaimed Ashma.

“Why are you disappointed? Excepting someone else?” teased Young-Soo with a sweet smile on his face. He tried to break the ice with her.

“No, no,” said Ashma. Her mind went to Yong-Sun. She wanted Yong-Sun to come to the terrace with her.

“What were you thinking about?” inquired Young-Soo.

“About my work,” said Ashma, indifferently.

“What is the issue?” Young-Soo was concerned. He thought there was another problem with her work.

“Nothing you should concern yourself with. I am fine,” snapped Ashma. She was still angry at him for being too close to her mother.

“Just tell me,” pressured Young-Soo.

“I did a big show, and now my work needs to be bigger, else people won’t consider me a good designer. I don’t like failure,” explained Ashma.

“May I help you?” asked Young-Soo.

“No, thanks.”

“Maybe I can be of some help,” emphasised Young-Soo.

“How will you help?”

“You are my daughter it’s my job to protect you no matter it’s from people or your job,” educated Young-Soo.

The word daughter triggered something in Ashma. She stood up in anger and faced Young-Soo. She shouted, “First, I am not your daughter. Second, I don’t need your help. And third, I can protect myself. I had no one to protect me so I learned to protect myself at an early age. My brand is international, yours is local, I doubt that it’s even national. What can you do to help my work?”

Young-Soo was silent. Every word out of her mouth was like a dagger to his heart. He knew he hurt her but now she started hurting him. She was basically calling him good for nothing as his brand was really national but her brand was international. His father made sure of that. He was sad that his father hated him as well as his daughter. That was breaking his heart.

He did nothing wrong, nothing was his fault yet every blame was on him. He was to be blamed because he left a pregnant woman behind. He was to be blamed because his daughter had to grow up without her father. He was to be blamed that he married Eun-Kyung when he was in love with someone else. He was to be blamed that he had another family.

“Say something, nothing? You can’t even defend yourself and you will protect me? How? Please stay away from me and my mother. She is not your doll to play with. Break her heart again and I will break every bone in your body,” Ashma gritted her teeth.

She clenched her jaw, gave him a death stare and ran away from there. The moment she opened the door, Eun-Kyung was standing behind it. Ashma gasped aloud. She knew that Eun-Kyung heard everything. She knew that she was hurt as she insulted her husband. Ashma looked at Eun-Kyung with guilt.

“I am sorry,” blurted out Ashma and ran away.

Her feet took her to the main door. She opened the lock and ran outside. Eun-Kyung ran after her. She was afraid that she might run away again. She reached behind Ashma and grabbed her hands.

“Don’t run away this time,” shouted Eun-Kyung.

“I won’t.”

“You were very hard on him,” rebuked Eun-Kyung.

“I know,” said Ashma full of guilt.

“You should not apologise to me, but to him,” said Eun-Kyung.

“I can’t,” Ashma closed her eyes and shook her head in disappointment. “Why does he get close to her?”

“She is getting close to him, he is not,” snapped Eun-Kyung.

“Excuse me!” yelled Ashma.

“I should not tell you this but your mother is trying to get close to him,” said Eun-Kyung.

“Mumma!” shouted Ashma. She did not like the way Eun-Kyung was pointing towards Vidhi.

“I know it would be difficult to hear it, but your mother is trying to ignite the lost spark, not my husband. And what’s wrong if he calls you his daughter?” explained and asked Eun-Kyung.

“You heard that?” Ashma was filled with guilt again.

“Yes I did, every word,” said Eun-Kyung.

“He had no right to call me his daughter. He abandoned me, he abandoned my mother. Why does he want a relationship now?” shouted Ashma.

“He never abandoned you. He had no idea that Vidhi was pregnant.”

“Excuse me!”

“It’s time that you know the whole story,” said Eun-Kyung.

“Whole story?”

“Whole story.”

Eun-Kyung grabbed her hand and forced her to sit down on the threshold. Ashma followed her lead and sat on the floor hugging her knees. The cold air was playing with her hair. Her face was numb with the cold air now.

“Soo-na and Vidhi met in college. Their friendship turned into love. Your nanaji was very supportive. Soo-na even asked his permission to marry your mother,” Eun-Kyung started the story.

“That much I know. Then he met with an accident,” said Ashma.

“What you don’t know is, Soo-na never met with an accident.”

“What?” shouted Ashma.

“Your father told Shiahbuhji about Vidhi. He came to India, didn’t let him finish his studies, literally kidnapped him and brought him back to Korea,” said Eun-Kyung.

Ashma kept staring at Eun-Kyung without speaking a word.

“For days he was locked up, he had no means to communicate with your mother. When Shiahbuhji was not in the house, many bodyguards were in the house to make sure he never leaves. He was only allowed to go outside to go on blind dates. He was forced to go on them. He was not even allowed to meet with best friends Seo Yu-Jin and Man Jong-Woo. Shiahbuhji suspected that if he was allowed to meet with them they will contact your mother for him.”

Ashma’s mouth was open. She was listening to every word coming out of Eun-Kyung’s mouth. She was shocked that Young-Jae would do that. She started hating him even more.

“After many blind dates, Shiahbuhji had an idea, I was called to go on a blind date with him. We too were good friends, we knew each other from our childhood. He shared everything with me. How he was in love with your mother and wanted to marry her but his father was keeping him on house arrest. I gave him an idea that he should marry a girl who would divorce him later. We then formulated a plan. A plan where we would inform your mother and meanwhile, marry each other to shut shiahbuhji up and regain soo-na’s freedom. I sent my people to get your mother but they were not there.”

“They use to live in Mumbai and shifted to Delhi,” said Ashma.

“Exactly! It was after years that I found you both. But by then we were married. My people tried hard to find Vidhi but there was no result. After a year of our marriage, they found Vidhi in Delhi. None of us knew that she was pregnant when your grandfather kidnapped soon-na and brought him here. Your father and I were discussing about how to send him to India without shiahbuhji finding it out so that he could raise you and be with his love but he heard us and he had a heart attack,” continued Eun-Kyung.

“What?”

“Shiahbuhji had a heart attack after hearing our plan. He was admitted to the hospital and was unconscious for two days. He could never leave his father’s side after that. It seemed as if he was about to die and his dying wish was to see a grandchild. Soo-na promised him that and he became pregnant. Then we found out about you. We could not see you or meet you, but we made sure to learn everything about you, to make sure we did everything to make your life comfortable. We love you. He loves you as his firstborn. He loves you more than Bongie and Baekhyeona because you grew up without him. He missed your childhood, your teenage years, your adulthood, he missed your first tooth, first bump on the head, first heartbreak and trying to compensate for that. Soo-na is not a bad person, he was just surrounded by bad situations.”

Ashma couldn’t understand if she should get angry or sad, tears kept falling from her eyes.

“I just gave you food for your thought. Go back to sleep, dear,” said Eun-Kyung. She placed her hand on her shoulder, stood up and left her alone. Her tears kept falling and falling down her cheeks. Two trails of tears were drawn on her cheeks. She wiped the tears with her fingers and flicked them in the air with anger.

“Stop it, stop it,” she screamed at her tears and commanded them to stop falling from her eyes.. “Why do I say things I don’t mean when I get angry.”