Pay With Your Heart

Chapter 480: Twist And Turns

Life was full of twists and turns, but this twist was the least of Mi-Cha’s expectations.

She had never imagined it at all. She would never have imagined it at all.

There were so many questions in her head that she wanted answers to, and she wondered who she should ask for questions.

Her evil uncle? Or rather, should she say, her evil father. Or should she ask the people who had decided to keep things a secret from her despite how hard she had asked?

She walked back to her car and picked up her phone. She blankly stared at it as her fingers dialed Yong-Gun’s number as if they’d grown a mind of their own.

As the phone rang, she considered ending the call, but she never got to make up her mind before the call was answered.

“Hello,” She heard him say through the phone, as she blankly kept staring at it.

.....

“Mi-Cha, are you there?” He asked again.

Some ruffling sound came from the other side of the phone before he spoke up again. “I know you’re there.” He said, but Mi-Cha still didn’t say anything.

She had called to demand answers from him, but now she didn’t know what to say to him. What should she-

“I...Is it true?” She heard herself ask with a small still voice, but his answer didn’t come immediately as she had expected.

A few seconds of silence elapsed before he spoke up.

“I guess they told you already. Ki-Jun seemed to have some sense after all.” He irritable hissed. “I was beginning to think of ways to tell you-”

“I said, is it true?!” She roared indignantly.

Yong-Gun sighed into the phone. “Yes. You’ve heard correctly. You’re my child.” He affirmed, and Mi-Cha’s heart went off track. She didn’t feel it pound as hard as it did now when she heard it from Dan-Han.

It didn’t even feel as real.

“Why?” Mi-Cha asked as she held her breath. Her neck and chest strained as she desperately held her breath, as that was the only way to keep her emotions from spluttering over her like it was threatening to.

“Why what?” Yong-Gun asked.

“W..why did you do this to me?! How dare you do this to me?!” She roared out, and Yong-Gun sighed.

“You don’t have to ask such questions. You should know I did it for us. I did it for our future. Ki-Jun can’t have everything. We deserve...I deserve what he has.” He drawled over the phone, and his words heavily reverberated through Mi-Cha’s ears.

He deserved. So what was she? A pawn? Something he had birthed to achieve his dirty plans? Was that what she was?

“What am I to you?” Mi-Cha slowly asked.

“What do you mean, what are you to me?!” Yong-Gun snapped. “You’re my child, not Ki-Jun’s. And you should come to me so we can get what’s ours.” He sighed when he realized how loud he was shouting.

“Do you think Ki-Jun loves you? He doesn’t. That brother of mine doesn’t love anybody except himself. He wouldn’t have loved you if his precious little daughter was him. He’d had never cared for you, and neither will he do it now that she’s back. Do not be deceived, Mi-Cha. Haven’t I been nice to you? Haven’t I been-”

“Shut up.” Mi-Cha mindlessly muttered. She wasn’t conscious of herself, and she feared she might lose it more if she kept listening to the rubbish he was saying.

“You...you are evil.” Mi-Cha quietly told him. “You took a child from her mother when she hasn’t done anything to you. You made your family suffer for years. You’ve been using me. You...you had me for your evil schemes.”

“Young lady-”

“Young lady?” Mi-Cha scoffed incredulously. “My name is Mi-Cha!” She snapped at him.

Mi-Cha took calm breaths to calm her quivering hand, which was threatening to let go of the phone it was holding up. “Did you do the same thing to me? Did you take me from my mother? Who’s my mother? And where is she?” Mi-Cha demanded, but all she got was utmost silence.

“I’m asking you! Did you take me from my mother too?! And where the hell is she?!” Mi-Cha yelled. She didn’t know why, but she felt he had also ripped her from her mother’s hands.

She wasn’t sure of anything as she didn’t know anything, but the man had proved highly dangerous, and she couldn’t put it past him.

“If you want to know, you should ask that stupid boy where she is. I have no answers for you. If you’re not going to join me, then you’re useless to me.” He snarled and ended the call.

Mi-Cha felt thunderstruck as she stiffly remained seated with the phone held up to her ear. Her hand trembled more, and soon she could no longer hold onto her phone. It slipped and fell to her thighs.

What was that now? She whispered in her head.

She was useless to him? Did he just say she was...useless? That was something she hadn’t been told in her life before. And the man who was supposed to be her fath...

She slurred on her thoughts.

Tears rolled down her eyes as she stiffly remained on the seat with her eyes lost in space as tears flowed out of them.

Mi-Cha didn’t know how long she had been crying, but her eyes robotically shifted toward the window when she heard a knock on it.

Her misty eyes had a hazy sight of Eun-sun in them.

She didn’t know what she was saying, but she could hear her gesturing for her to unlock the doors, and her hand absentmindedly pressed on the central key, which unlocked the doors.

“Mi-Cha?” Eun-sun cautiously called as she slipped into the passenger seat.

She noticed the girl’s reddened eyes and tears on her face. “A...are you okay?” She gently asked, and Mi-Cha shook her head.

Eun-sun leaned towards her and wrapped her arms around her, and the moment she did that, Mi-Cha’s body began to tremble as she let out a loud wail.

Eun-sun felt her break when she heard her cry so badly. She didn’t know how to comfort her. She didn’t know what to say because there was really not much to say.

Mi-Cha was at that point when nothing made sense, and she had been there before.

Mi-Cha might already be aware that she was adopted, but discovering this twist about her birth was no different from being told she was adopted in the most brutal way possible.

She had discovered her parents, who she had known all her life weren’t her parents, and they tossed her out of their lives with no remorse whatsoever. In contrast, Mi-Cha discovered that her biological father was someone undeserving of love and human sympathy.

He was an evil man.

They had both been in the same situation but under different circumstances.

“Cry all you want, Mi-Cha. Let it all out.” She said as she patted her hair and held her even closer, and Mi-Cha cried even harder.

Mi-Cha had not meant to cry as hard as she was doing, but having someone hold her this way made the dam she had been trying to hold back crumble.

“It’s okay. It’s all going to be fine.” Eun-sun whispered into her ears as she kept hugging her.

“I...I”

“It’s okay.” Eun-sun comforted her.

Both girls didn’t know how long they stayed in each other’s embrace, but when Mi-Cha finally pulled away, she was mortified by how badly she had soiled Eun-sun’s dress.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-” She sniffed.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to apologize.” Eun-sun interjected, not wanting her to apologize. “I know you’d have done the same for me,” Eun-sun told her matter-of-factly.

She might not have been with Mi-Cha or known her for long, but the few times she had been with her, she was convinced the girl had her heart in the right place, and she was nowhere near the biological man who had birthed her.

She pulled out a handkerchief from her bag and handed it to Mi-Cha. “Wipe your tears.” She said.

Mi-Cha blankly stared at the handkerchief before hesitantly receiving it.

Eun-sun saw her phone on the floor and picked it up. “Did you call him?” She asked as she put the phone away.

Mi-Cha looked at the phone and nodded even though she didn’t want to. She was still angry at Eun-sun and Dan-Han, whose car was parked in front of hers.

“How did you know?” Mi-Cha asked, and Eun-sun shrugged.

“I had done the same thing when I found out I was adopted.” She chuckled as she thought back on the day. “I had walked over at midnight to ask if it was true, and I could have walked to the ends of the earth if Dan-Han hadn’t found me.” And saved her, she added in her head.

It was the same night she had almost been shot, and Dan-Han had killed someone for her.

They stared at one another, each thinking of what to say.

“What did he say?” Eun-sun asked, and Mi-Cha’s gaze drifted outside the window, not wanting to look at Eun-sun’s face.

“That I’m useless.” She muttered.

“But you know you’re not, right? You’re beautiful and smart, and nice. Someone like you can never be useless.” Eun-sun told her, but Mi-Cha was unconvinced.

She didn’t know why she felt so, but Yong-Gun’s words had hurt her greatly.

“I...I can’t face them. I can’t face you. He did all that to all of you-” She slurred as tears began to stream down her eyes again.

Eun-sun sighed and cupped her face. “There’s no all of you, Mi-Cha. There’s only us. He might have done many things, but that’s not your sin to bear.”

“Yes, he had birthed you, but blood isn’t the only prerequisite for being a parent. And if you’re basking it on blood ties, aren’t our parents’ blood tied to you?”

Mi-Cha sighed. “You don’t understand.” She pulled her hands away from Eun-sun’s hold.

“There’s nothing to understand, Mi-Cha. It is you who have to know none of this is your fault. You and I are victims of circumstances. We were both stolen from our families. The same way they never got past my loss, so did your mother.”

‘Her mother.’ Mi-Cha’s eyes perked up when she heard that.

“My mother? You...you know her?” Mi-Cha asked, and Eun-sun nodded with a smile.

“Yes. Her name is Soo-Min. She’s lovely, and you look just like her.” Eun-sun told her.

Mi-Cha didn’t know how to respond to that. She didn’t know she’d have another mother. She kept a blank gaze on Eun-sun who sighed and held her hand.

.....

“Mi-Cha, I’m sorry for not telling you, but trust me, I didn’t hide it away with any intention at heart. We just didn’t know how to tell you. I admit I had reservations about you the first time we met, but you proved me wrong. I didn’t just want to see you hurt because I’m familiar with the feeling of finding out something as disruptive as this. I just didn’t want to see you this way.”

“Still, you should have told me. Nothing could have prepared me for it, but I’d have preferred if you had told me, and I didn’t have to find out the way I did.”

Eun-sun nodded in understanding. “We’re sorry. I’m truly sorry. I hope you can forgive me... forgive us and come back with us. Father and mother are truly worried, and there’s so much to do. I don’t think they can do without you.” Eun-sun told her.

Mi-Cha swallowed at the mention of her parents. “Are they still going to accept me? I mean, I’m his child?” She anxiously asked. She didn’t think anyone would, not with the amount of danger done.

Eun-sun brushed her hand through her hair and tucked a few strands behind her ear. “They’ll always accept you, Mi-Cha. You’ll always be the child they’ve raised all these years and nothing can change that. And I should be the one asking for your acceptance.” She said making Mi-Cha raise a brow at her.

“Will you be my little sister?” Eun-sun asked making Mi-Cha peer at her with tear glistening eyes.

“I know you’re already twenty-three years old, and we can no longer play dress up and princesses, but will have me as you big sister?” Eun-sun asked, holding her gaze as she awaited her response.

Mi-Cha slowly nodded. “Yes, I will.” She said with heart thumping wildly with excitement and joy. It seemed like a proposal.

Eun-sun happily smiled at her response.

“But you must know I can be annoying sometimes,” Mi-Cha told her.

“I know. You already said that before. I’ll create a space large enough to accommodate it all.” She said as she hugged her.

Everything is going to be just fine.” Eun-sun assured her.