Unrequited Love Obsession Diary - Chapter 56

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 56

* * *

When Yeon-jae arrived home after parting with Dohan, her mother was sitting on the sofa with a deliberately serious expression.

Hearing the sound of the entrance door opening and Yeon-jae coming in, she deliberately brightened her expression.

“Why are you coming home so late?”

“What do you mean? I told you I had plans.”

“Tell me honestly. You got a boyfriend, didn’t you?!”

“Ah, Mom! I said no!”

At her mother’s words, Yeon-jae shouted like someone who had been caught.

“Suspicious?”

Her mother giggled as if teasing her grown daughter was so entertaining.

Yeon-jae, who was dumbfounded, eventually ended up laughing along with her mother.

When she was young, even during the divorce proceedings with her father, their relationship wasn’t very good. However, as time passed, they had now become quite close as mother and daughter.

Back then, her mother often took out her anger on Yeon-jae. Yeon-jae would also go into her room and close the door, not coming out when her mother was home.

But after the divorce was finalized and they began living together in earnest, their relationship improved noticeably.

Now that she was an adult, Yeon-jae understood her mother from that time to some extent. Her mother was a person with strong pride. Going through something as major as a divorce, she probably had no one to confide in. Moreover, since all the blame was on her father’s side, it must have been difficult to bear that anger alone.

Now they relied on each other. The reason Yeon-jae didn’t feel particularly lonely even without keeping people around her might have been because she lived with her mother like best friends.

“Anyway, what are you doing tomorrow?”

Then her mother suddenly asked out of the blue.

“Tomorrow? I don’t have anything planned.”

“Really? Then go meet your father.”

It was a sudden suggestion.

“…Father?”

More than anything, Yeon-jae was flustered because she never dreamed her father would be mentioned from her mother’s mouth.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“It’s obvious. This guy’s in his 50s now so he must be feeling lonely. Still, he’s your father, so meet him once~”

“Mom, what… you’re talking about it like it’s someone else’s business. When did you used to fight like cats and dogs?”

“That was then.”

“And if you’re so concerned about father, you could meet him instead of me.”

“I’m truly strangers with him now, but you’re still his child so the situation is different. He’s your father, not my husband anymore, right?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m a stranger too. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other.”

“If you don’t want to, then don’t. Oh right. But I already gave him your contact information?”

“Agh! Mom!”

The conversation ended just like that.

Yeon-jae entered her room and slid down to lean against the door.

Then she checked her phone.

Quite a few new messages had accumulated, and Yeon-jae checked the most recent message first.

Did you get home safely?

It was Dohan. Yeon-jae quickly sent a reply.

Yes! What about you, senior?

Next was the classmate group chat.

Anyone want to eat together after Tuesday’s major class>【</p】

And lastly.

Is our daughter doing well?^^

Yeon-jae immediately put her phone far away. She planned to ignore it forever and never meet him.

She disliked uncomfortable situations. Since it had been so long since they’d seen each other, it wasn’t an incomprehensible decision.

But just before falling asleep.

Her mother carefully knocked on Yeon-jae’s room door.

Yeon-jae knew that her mother was having difficulty knowing how to treat her at this moment. Her mother had never been someone who knew how to knock.

“Come in.”

When Yeon-jae gave permission, she carefully opened the door.

Then she bit her lips hesitantly and spoke.

“Yeon-jae. Still, couldn’t you meet your father just once?”

* * *

“Still, as the child he gave birth to, he says he wants to see your face at least once.”

Refusing her father’s request wouldn’t have been difficult.

But when it was conveyed through her mother’s mouth, it was different. Refusing her mother’s requests was always strangely difficult.

Her mother was both the cause of those difficult times and the person who had shared those hardships together through thick and thin. That’s why Yeon-jae’s heart would easily soften only when it came to her mother.

Right, if you’re going to take a beating anyway, it’s better to take it quickly.

Following that logic, Yeon-jae made an appointment with her father for the very next day.

When her parents divorced, Yeon-jae’s custody naturally went to her mother, who had no fault in the matter.

Yeon-jae hadn’t met her father even once during the several years since then. She had never even missed him through photos.

He had another woman and abandoned her mother. The family collapsed due to her father’s betrayal.

During her difficult adolescence, Yeon-jae accumulated layers of hatred toward her father, who had started a new family and no longer looked at her.

And at twenty-two years old.

She could barely even remember what her father looked like anymore.

The gap in time had made her feel awkward around the existence called father, so she worried whether an unbearably awkward situation would unfold.

In such anxiety, Yeon-jae headed to the restaurant where she was supposed to meet her father.

‘At first he suggested I come visit father’s house, but…’

Yeon-jae had refused that suggestion.

She didn’t want to step foot into such an intimate space as a home.

Because if she got close to her father, she might end up understanding the father she was supposed to hate. That was too frightening.

* * *

The restaurant they had arranged to meet at was a casual family restaurant they used to frequent when she was young.

A place where her mother, father, and Yeon-jae would sit around one table to celebrate big and small family occasions like birthdays or Yeon-jae’s entrance ceremonies and graduations.

After her parents separated, her mother never went to that restaurant again.

However, her father had arranged to meet at that restaurant without any hesitation, so this was Yeon-jae’s first time coming here since entering middle school.

“Oh, our daughter’s here?”

Her father, who seemed to have been waiting after arriving early, jumped up from his seat to greet Yeon-jae as soon as she opened the entrance door.

Her father’s hand reaching for his water glass was trembling slightly.

As soon as Yeon-jae sat down, she bowed her head in greeting.

“Hello. Have you been well?”

“Why are you suddenly using formal speech?”

“…It’s been so long that it feels a bit awkward.”

Yeon-jae spoke more honestly than ever before.

Father himself showed no particular reaction.

Only heavy silence settled over the table.

“Right. It has been a long time. Yeon-jae, what would you like to eat?”

Yeon-jae didn’t even look at the menu properly and chose one dish with a popular sticker on it.

After ordering the food, Father looked at Yeon-jae again.

‘This is uncomfortable…’

Yeon-jae subtly avoided his gaze.

It was like strangers, no, even more uncomfortable than with strangers.

Actually, from the moment Father had chosen a family restaurant as the meeting place, Yeon-jae had been irritated by his thoughtlessness.

No, actually from the very first contact asking to meet.

Why now? What exactly did he want to say?

Moreover, Father’s phone kept lighting up as messages continued to come in.

Each time, what caught her eye was Father’s phone wallpaper – a photo taken with his new family.

Father and Father’s new wife, and a girl in uniform and a young boy.

The girl in uniform looked a bit younger than Yeon-jae, probably a child the new wife had brought.

The young child looked about five or six years old. It seemed to be a child Father had with the new woman.

Yeon-jae tried hard not to pay attention.

“Yeon-jae, have you been well? I heard you’re attending a good university. Right, you were always good at studying.”

“Yes, well.”

That’s when it happened. The phone rang.

Again, her eyes automatically went to the screen.

【Pretty Daughter】

It was a contact name that left no doubt about who it was.

“Oh, daughter.”

Father glanced at Yeon-jae for a moment, then answered the call.

Yeon-jae was beyond bewildered – she was dumbfounded.

Still, his former daughter was sitting right in front of him. She thought he would naturally decline the call. He even said the word ‘daughter’ without hesitation.

Because the call volume was loud, Yeon-jae could hear the content too.

-Dad, when are you coming home? Who did you go to meet today?

“Just a business meeting.”

While saying this, Father glanced at Yeon-jae.

-Come quickly. Minyul is waiting too.

“Yeah yeah. Dad will be right there. Oh, I’m busy right now. Yeah.”

As if belatedly realizing the call content wasn’t appropriate, Father hurriedly hung up.

Yeon-jae was so incredulous she spoke with a barbed tone.

“…You’re really close with your daughter.”

“…”

There was silence.

Yeon-jae held back the urge to ask if he had ever been that affectionate with her.

After that, it was hard to tell if the food was going into her mouth or her nose.

It got to the point where she even felt a bit of indigestion.

While eating, Father kept trying to make various conversations with Yeon-jae.

“Is Mother doing well? Is university life fun?”

Yeon-jae could clearly see that Father was trying his best to keep the conversation going. But that was all.

“Yes, well…”

Warm words just wouldn’t come out of Yeon-jae’s mouth.

‘Why is he suddenly acting like this now…’

During her school years when she needed Father most, he had suddenly left saying he found new love.

While already living well with his new family.

Father’s newly formed family of four looked much happier than Mother and Yeon-jae living alone without remarrying.

Eventually, Yeon-jae even thought that Father was doing this to ease his own guilt.

In the end, the awkward atmosphere continued to a deadly degree until they finished eating.

As they left the restaurant, Father patted Yeon-jae’s back as a gesture of affection.

Yeon-jae flinched and stepped back.

Father also seemed embarrassed by Yeon-jae’s reaction and stepped away with an awkward cough.

“Are you short on spending money?”

“No.”

Father took out his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out several 50,000 won bills to hand to Yeon-jae.

Yeon-jae was quietly looking at Father’s hand.

Meeting after several years and handing over a few bills, even his words were exactly as Yeon-jae had expected.

“If you’re short on spending money, tell me through Mother…”

“…Mother gives me enough.”

She was sick of it.

“Yeon-jae.”

Father, who had been silent, called Yeon-jae in a quiet voice.

“I hope you don’t hate Dad too much.”

Was this something a person who had an affair and abandoned his child should say?

Even his last words were exactly as Yeon-jae had expected.

It was the worst.

* * *

On the way home.

Yeon-jae felt deeply uncomfortable.

She wanted to confide these feelings to someone.

She had never resented her meager relationships as much as now.

Actually, there was exactly one person who came to mind.

The person who had shown not a trace of sympathy when she talked about her past, as if it were someone else’s business.

Hyeonoh from that time, who had treated even the hardships of that period as if they were just a part of life, nothing significant.

Just then, a call came from Hyeonoh.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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