Side Story.5

“Let’s go.”  

Eunwoo spoke briefly, took her hand, and walked toward Professor Go. Professor Go also pulled his suitcase and came toward them.  

“Father.”  

“…I’m sorry.”  

Standing beside Eunwoo, Yujin raised her eyebrows as Professor Go, not knowing where to put his hands, kept rubbing them on his clothes and spoke.  

She saw Eunwoo shake his head with an unreadable expression.  

“You’re here now. How long will you stay this time?”

“I have to see you get married, and if there’s a grandchild, I have to see them too… I can’t leave so easily anymore, you know? As I get older, even running away gets harder.”  

Professor Go said with a soft laugh, then suddenly looked at Yujin.  

“You’re that… student from back then, right? Do you remember me?”  

Yujin, who’d been watching the father and son’s cautious conversation, was startled when Professor Go pointed at her.  

The image of the middle-aged man in green scrubs and a white coat, always looking tired, overlapped with the man standing before her.  

Yujin’s eyes grew moist as she remembered, and she smiled faintly, realizing how fate had brought them together again after all these years.  

“Yes, Sir.”  

“Time flies so quickly. This time, I should greet you not as a doctor, but as my son Eunwoo’s father, right?”  

“Hello, Sir—no, Father. I’m Park Yujin, and I’m seriously seeing your son, Go Eunwoo.”  

Trying to lighten the awkward atmosphere, Yujin bowed politely and smiled brightly.  

Professor Go quickly straightened up and bowed back.  

“Nice to meet you. I’m Go Kyungdong, Eunwoo’s father. Thank you for coming all the way to the airport.”  

“Please speak comfortably.”  

“Alright, I will. That was a bit too formal just now. But Yujin… I’ll call you Yujin, just like before. After all, you and I have known each other longer.”  

“Right.”  

Feeling much more relaxed than before, Yujin added, looking up at Professor Go, who was half a head taller than her.  

“Do you remember that, too?”  

“What?”  

Professor Go handed his suitcase to Eunwoo and asked Yujin.  

“That time, you said if I was planning to live off his looks, you’d introduce me to your son.”  

“…Ah! That!”  

After thinking for a moment, Professor Go clapped his hands and burst out laughing.  

“So, do you think you can live off his looks?”

“Yes!”  

At his playful question, Yujin answered without missing a beat, while Eunwoo just shook his head in disbelief.  

***

They left the airport and headed straight to the chicken stew restaurant they’d reserved.  

Since it had been a long time since he’d been in Korea, Professor Go stared out the car window the whole way, taking in the scenery.  

“Did you finish everything up over there?”  

In the silence of the car, Yujin glanced at Eunwoo’s unreadable expression and asked Professor Go, who was sitting in the back.  

“Mm, more or less. That’s why I was two months late.”  

“I heard you lived there for years. You must have gotten close to a lot of people. It must’ve been hard to leave.”  

“I made a lot of good friends. But… in the end, this is my home. Eunwoo’s here, and now my daughter-in-law is here too.”  

At his calm words, Yujin’s cheeks instantly reddened.  

She’d assumed Eunwoo would have explained everything already, but hearing Professor Go call her ‘daughter-in-law’ so openly was still embarrassing.  

“Ah, Yujin, do your parents know that I was… the surgeon back then?”  

Professor Go, who’d been gazing out the window, turned and asked, making Yujin recall what happened two months ago.  

The one most pleased by Professor Go’s return had been her mother, Kim Bangsook. Watching this, Eunwoo had suggested it would be best to explain to her family exactly how Professor Go was connected to them.  

Yujin hesitated, but Eunwoo insisted that if they were going to get married, her parents would have to know eventually, so it was best to be honest.  

In the end, they told her parents that Eunwoo’s father had been the surgeon for both Hajin and Yujin.  

The silence that followed was so heavy, it made their mouths dry.  

Bangsook and her father, stunned by the unexpected connection, sat in silence for a long time before quietly nodding.  

Eunwoo bowed deeply at their response.  

—I’m sorry, Father, Mother.  

—…There’s nothing for you to apologize for. I vaguely knew you were friends with Hajin, but who could have guessed fate would turn out like this.  

Her father spoke to Eunwoo in a heavy voice, and Bangsook, after a long silence, looked up at Eunwoo and began to speak.  

—It took us a long time to accept that accident. Why did it have to happen to our family, to our Hajin… But no matter how much we thought about it, there was no answer.  

—Mother…  

—It was just an accident, and your father was the one who tried everything to save Hajin and Yujin after they were brought in. There’s nothing to apologize for…  

Bangsook, usually so loud and energetic, sounded heartbreakingly gentle for once.  

—I have a sharp tongue, so I’m not good with words. Back then, I blamed that doctor a lot. Why did he keep saying it was impossible… why did he say to save only one… but that was the best he could do. He said if he wanted to save even one, that was the only way… So you don’t have to sit in front of us and say all this so seriously. We’re fine. It just hurts to think of Hajin. That’s all. Nothing else.  

Bangsook, who spent every day frying chicken and whose hands were always rough and cracked, pressed her eyes with her hands and forced a smile.  

That day, Yujin saw her mother Bangsook in a new light.  

She realized how carefully her mother chose every word, worried that her own feelings might create resentment between Yujin and Eunwoo.  

—We don’t want anything now. As long as Yujin… as long as Yujin is happy. Eunwoo, Yujin says she’s happy with you. She laughs a lot. So nothing else matters. Don’t worry about us.  

“Yujin?”  

Lost in thought, Yujin snapped back to reality at Eunwoo’s voice.

Then she turned around and smiled softly.  

“Yes, they know. And they really like Eunwoo.”  

“…Alright then.”  

When Yujin added that, Professor Go, who looked as if he didn’t know what to say, gave a faint smile and nodded.  

The phrase ‘they like Eunwoo’ explained her parents’ attitude toward Eunwoo.  

Professor Go’s words had shown a hint of worry that Eunwoo might be rejected because of what happened.  

After that, the atmosphere in the car heading to the chicken stew restaurant was lively, filled with stories about Professor Go’s life in Laos.  

Even after arriving at the chicken stew restaurant, most of the conversation was between Yujin and Professor Go.  

Fortunately, Professor Go seemed to enjoy the food and ate with a good appetite, which relieved Yujin quite a bit.  

After all, everyone’s taste is different, and what is a famous restaurant to her might not be to Professor Go, especially since he’d spent so much time abroad.  

“I’m going to the restroom for a moment.”  

Once the meal was winding down, Eunwoo left the table, and Yujin swallowed the last piece of meat on her plate.  

“How is Eunwoo… doing?”  

“Huh?”  

At Professor Go’s sudden question from across the table, Yujin put down her chopsticks and straightened her back.  

“I… as you probably heard, I haven’t really been much of a father to Eunwoo these past few years.”  

“…You mean…?”  

Yujin blinked in confusion, and Professor Go, looking a bit awkward, rubbed his beard and continued.  

“Five years ago, when Eunwoo’s mother passed away, I couldn’t hold myself together. I called it medical volunteering, but going to Laos was really just running away. I spent all my time tending to my own wounds, and I didn’t take care of Eunwoo, who had lost his mother.”  

Yujin looked down as Professor Go spoke, and she understood.  

She realized the meaning behind Professor Go’s awkwardness and unexplained apology when he reunited with Eunwoo at the airport.  

Her chest tightened as she watched Professor Go, because she remembered the loss, despair, and darkness she felt when Hajin was gone.  

Human life is finite.  

As a person, one will inevitably lose someone close through death—whether it’s family, friends, or colleagues.  

In those moments, people cope with grief in their own ways.  

For Professor Go, his way of living as someone left behind was to leave.  

Yujin recalled the comfort she felt whenever Eunwoo talked about Professor Go.  

“Five years ago, Eunwoo was twenty-five, right?”  

“Hm?”  

“So he wasn’t a child.”  

Yujin smiled softly and said to Professor Go,  

“They say that to every parent, their child is always a child—whether they’re twenty, thirty, forty, or even sixty. Hearing you talk now… I think that’s really true.”  

At her unexpected words, Professor Go blinked in surprise.