I Became a Villainous Character with a Limited Lifespan - Episode 95

Episode 95

“I heard your father is looking for you.”

“…?”

They were casual words that should have been easy to understand, but it took time for Tae-sung to comprehend his mother’s words. It had been a long time since his father’s existence was mentioned from his mother’s mouth, but it was also because it was a completely different statement from what she had said before.

‘Your father is dead. Is that enough? He’s a person I don’t even want to think about, so don’t ever bring him up again.’

In his childhood, before entering elementary school, the answer he received when he asked the childish question of why he didn’t have a dad was a chilly response that left a scar on his young heart.

His mother wasn’t usually the affectionate type, but he had never thought of her as scary, but the mother who mentioned his father had frighteningly cold eyes.

As if she literally didn’t even want to think about him, Tae-sung, who was scared of his mother’s terrible expression, had never brought up the topic of his father again since then.

“They were people from his family that I didn’t want to get involved with again. When they told me to live as if a mouse had died…”

“Then, Father…”

Until he saw her nervously biting her nails with a dumbfounded face, he had only predicted that at most he would end up interacting with his father.

It was a bit surprising, but at most, he was in middle school. It was an age when he still had curiosity about his father. What kind of person his father was, why he had abandoned his mother and him. There were many things he wanted to know and ask.

“…From now on, you’ll be living with your father.”

“…What?”

But he had never even thought that he would suddenly end up living with his father. Tae-sung carefully asked,

“Could it be that you two are re…”

“Don’t say ridiculous things. Why would I, with that kind of person…!”

Could they be getting back together? Then could he live with his mother and father now? He had such thoughts, but his mother’s frightened reaction immediately extinguished that hope.

“…Now you won’t have anything to do with me.”

“What…”

“I really thought of your father as a dead person and tried to raise you well. Facing your face that resembles that person as you grew up, taking responsibility for you alone. I thought I could do it all… but I guess I can’t with just my will, in the end.”

“I don’t really understand what you’re saying.”

Tae-sung looked at his mother with a confused face at her incomprehensible words. After chewing on her nails until there were none left, she finally explained the situation to him after a long time.

Tae-sung’s mother said she had met Tae-sung’s father as a regular employee of a client company when she had just started working. She thought there seemed to be something he was hiding, but at that time, her feelings of liking him were greater, so she ignored it and continued dating him for three years.

However, that relationship, which was happy in its own way, shattered to pieces when she became pregnant with Tae-sung. When she told him she was pregnant and asked to get married, Kyungseok made a troubled face and avoided the situation, saying they would talk about it later. And that was the last time she saw Kyungseok.

The threatening men who came to her saying they had something to tell her. That day, she found out what kind of person the man she loved was. Not an ordinary employee of a client company, but the son of a chaebol family who was acting as a figurehead director of an HJ subsidiary due to lack of ability.

Moreover, a man who was already married and even had a child. He was just enjoying playing around with a naive omega who was new to society. From beginning to end, everything was a lie to the point that the only thing he properly told her was his three-letter name.

‘It would be better to get rid of it. In case Chairman Han has any illicit feelings…’

‘No. No. This child is my child. I don’t know who Chairman Han is, and I don’t want to know. So just leave me alone.’

She felt betrayed and it was desperate, but she decided to forget about Kyungseok, thinking that since it had already happened, it couldn’t be undone anyway.

She would think of the child’s father as dead and raise the child alone. The HJ side mentioned compensation as if it were hush money, but she refused.

She thought that if she took that money, the father would have at least a small role in raising the child. This child was hers alone. She raised Tae-sung thinking he had no father.

Although it was painful to see the child’s face because he eerily resembled his father, she still did her best to raise Tae-sung in her own way. Even if she couldn’t become a friendly, friend-like mother, at least as a mother and an adult, she fulfilled her responsibilities and duties, and there clearly existed a family bond between the two.

She thought they could live as an ordinary family like that, but that was not a problem she could achieve with her determination alone.

“…Your cousin. In other words, the grandson your grandfather had designated as his successor was finally diagnosed as dominant. So… since you’re recessive, he contacted me saying he would take you.”

“…I don’t want to go. I just want to stay with you, like this…”

“That’s not something you can choose. Me neither.”

He was curious about what kind of person his father was, but if the situation was like that, he thought it would be better to remain as strangers. But whether he would go or not was unrelated to Tae-sung’s wishes.

“…You probably know how great of a person your grandfather is even without me telling you.”

Even middle school student Tae-sung knew how great a company HJ was. But he didn’t know to what extent a person with such power could change someone’s life.

“…If they come at me fiercely to take you, there’s nothing I can do. And… rather than living a hard life under a powerless mother, it would be better to walk a path with a guaranteed position.”

“I don’t need that. What kind of father is a father I’ve never even seen once? It’s not like he doesn’t have children, and you said he has other grandchildren.”

“…If you weren’t a recessive alpha, they wouldn’t have done this either.”

“What does being recessive or alpha have to do with it…?”

He couldn’t understand why they would take someone they had abandoned like picking an object when they were living well, just because of that.

“…Someone will come tomorrow. And if you go to your father, you won’t have any reason to see me anymore.”

“I don’t want to. I just…”

“I’m sorry. But… I have no confidence. I may not have been a very good mother to you… No, no.”

She tried to say something but couldn’t finish her words and got up from her seat. As she picked up the luggage she had prepared in advance, she said,

“I want to completely break free from that person now too. I’m sorry to you, but I can’t do it anymore either. They said they would send someone in the morning, so just pack the absolutely necessary things and go to that house.”

“Mom. Where are you going…?”

“…I’m sorry. For not being able to take responsibility until the end.”

Leaving those words behind, she left the house. If he had followed her, he could have stopped her, but that apologetic face looked so exhausted that Tae-sung couldn’t follow her in the end.

Although he was told someone would come in the morning, he had no intention of waiting as he was told. Who decided that on their own?

That night, Tae-sung packed his bags and left the house. However, that escape didn’t last long. A middle school student’s runaway without money or skills usually doesn’t last long anyway, but Tae-sung was caught by unfamiliar men before the sun rose the next day and was dragged to a strange house.

“I gave you time to see each other without regrets since it’s the last time, but the woman who’s your mother abandoned her son and left… She loudly declared she would raise you herself, but I guess she couldn’t even play house properly.”

The first thing Tae-sung heard from Kyungseok was not a welcome greeting, but ridicule. As soon as Tae-sung saw his father, he understood why his mother sometimes made a strange face when she saw his face.

They looked alike to the point of discomfort. A face that was a bit older and a bit sharper. Except for the slightly dark eyes and unpleasant atmosphere, he could be sure that his face would definitely look like that when he got older because of how similar they looked.

Tae-sung bit his lip, thinking that his mother must have been reminded of that man’s face every time she saw his face.

“……”

Next to Kyungseok, who was like that, stood a woman with a disgruntled face. Although she didn’t say anything, he felt like he could tell who she was just from the atmosphere.

“…I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call me unless it’s unavoidable in crowded places.”

“You’re too cold. You should practice in advance…”

When the woman glared at Kyungseok, he belatedly closed his mouth. She would definitely be the person who would officially become his mother from now on. Thinking that, Tae-sung sighed.

‘…I want to go back.’

But Tae-sung found out less than a month later that that day was still one of the better days out of the countless days he would spend here.