Chapter 284: How They Met (1)

Kim Han-Gyo’s ‘masked woman’ conspiracy had almost set fire to the entirety of Korea, but Kang Ra-Eun had countered with a scandalous article of herself. Thanks to that, Han-Gyo’s conspiracy had completely vanished from the public’s minds. Even when she searched for them on the internet, the latest articles about it were buried as soon as they were released.

Ra-Eun smirked. Topics could be buried with even hotter topics. Although she had to make a small sacrifice, her plan had gone perfectly. Even despite Ra-Eun and Je-Woon’s agencies both putting out their statements that they were not lovers, the public was still entirely focused on their relationship. After all, there were many couples that had denied their relationship at first, but was then revealed to be true later down the line. Hence, many fans were suspecting that to be the case this time as well.

Due to this, Ra-Eun was questioned about how she felt about Je-Woon wherever she went, even by the high school friends whom she had met after a long time.

“Ra-Eun. Are you sure you’re not dating Je-Woon oppa?”

Choi Ro-Mi kept trying to unveil the truth of the dating scandal. Ra-Eun had lost count of how many times that she had asked just today.

“I already said no.”

Ra-Eun answered bluntly and lightly placed her lips on the straw of her iced latte. Na Gyu-Rin, who was sitting next to Ro-Mi, scolded her to stop.

“She’s saying no, so why do you keep asking her? You’re bothering Ra-Eun.”

“But I can’t help being curious.”

It was no wonder that Ro-Mi was curious, considering how much of a Bex fan she had been ever since her high school days. One of her favorite members was also Je-Woon. She couldn’t let slide the fact that her celebrity crush might be in a relationship with her high school classmate. Ra-Eun quenched her thirst with her drink and hammered the nail in the coffin.

“We’re not dating, so you can be at ease.”

“Uh, I wasn’t really asking because I was uneasy.”

“Then why?”

“Just... out of curiosity. Someone else’s relationship stories are always more fun to hear about, aren’t they?”

It was especially so if it was about famous celebrities. Unlike Ro-Mi, whose eyes were sparkling, Ra-Eun sighed deeply. She had stopped Han-Gyo’s conspiracy with a scandal article of her own, but...

‘Sorting out the mess is a bit annoying.’

Ra-Eun had no choice but to do it. Seo Yi-Seo brought up another topic, likely to change the subject.

“Isn’t it your birthday this coming Thursday, Gyu-Rin?”

“Oh, right!” Ro-Mi exclaimed.

Attention was immediately focused on their high school friend’s birthday. Yi-Seo’s plan had worked, but Gyu-Rin was disappointed by Ro-Mi’s reaction.

“I celebrated your birthday for the entire week before the day, but you forgot mine?”

“Come on, of course not. I only forgot for a short moment. I had it all in my head.”

It didn’t seem very believable.

“Why don’t we all get together for a meal on Gyu-Rin’s birthday? I found a nice restaurant before,” Yi-Seo suggested.

Three of them including the birthday girl nodded to say that they were free, but not Ra-Eun.

“I have plans on that day, so I don’t think I can. Sorry.”

“What plans?”

“Maybe another date with Je-Woon oppa?”

Ro-Mi’s eyes sharpened again. Yi-Seo had tried to change the subject, but it had gone back to square one.

“I told you, it’s nothing like that. I’m gonna be volunteering at an orphanage.”

“Volunteering? Why so out of the blue?”

“Well...”

Ra-Eun recalled memories from one week ago to tell them what had happened.

***

While Ra-Eun had been on her massage chair to relieve the fatigue accumulated from the shoot, she suddenly got a call from Kang Ra-Hyuk out of nowhere.

“Hel— Mmph...”

Her massage chair drummed her slender back at the same time as when she pressed the answer button.

- H-Hello? Wh-What the hell? Why are you moaning like that?

“...I’m getting a massage right now.”

Whether it be with human hands or a machine, the fact that she moaned when she received a massage did not change. Ra-Hyuk felt weird after hearing his sister’s weird moans, so he got straight to the main topic at hand.

- Lil’ sis. You have to help me talk Dad down.

“What do you mean?” Ra-Eun asked in confusion.

- He told me not to tell you, but Dad injured his wrist while he was working.

His job involved lifting heavy objects, so he was always taxing his body. Ra-Eun had told him several times to quit his job and live a comfortable life, but there was no getting through to him. It was times like this when Ra-Eun felt that he was similar to her former father Park Chan-Gil.

“How bad was he hurt?”

- Not to the point that he needs surgery. He just sprained it a bit.

However, he needed to be careful for the time being. Even the lightest injuries would lead to even bigger ones if one was careless.

“So? You want me to take this chance to help you persuade him to quit his job?”

/p>

- That would be almost impossible. It’s about something else.

“What?”

- He says that he’s going to be volunteering at an orphanage next Thursday. I told him so many times that he can’t go when his wrist is injured and that he shouldn’t go this time, but he wouldn’t listen to me.

Ra-Eun had come to find out only after becoming an adult that their father often volunteered at that orphanage. It was not something that he had recently begun, but it had apparently been long before Ra-Eun and Ra-Hyuk had been born.

- You try to persuade him. He listens more to you than to me.

“Well... Okay. I’ll try.”

Ra-Eun could not guarantee results. She had failed in persuading him back when they had tried to get him to move, so she was unsure if she would be able to persuade him this time. However, she decided to give it a shot.

Ra-Eun called her father after a very long time. He picked up immediately, possibly because it was a call from his precious daughter.

- How have you been, my baby girl?

“I’m doing good, Dad. I heard you’re going to volunteer next week.”

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

- Did your brother tell you? For God’s sake... After all the times I told him not to tell you.

“You’re injured, so you should just rest at home. I’m sure the orphanage won’t say anything just because you missed one.”

Ra-Eun was sure that the orphanage wouldn’t be disappointed in him, considering that he hadn’t missed a day for decades. However, the disappointed one wasn’t the orphanage but their father.

- It’s okay. I won’t be doing anything that taxes my body like my delivery job.

Ra-Eun thought as much. She knew that it would be hard to persuade him, but now that it had come to this, she thought about what to do to change her father’s mind. She tried multiple times, but his mind was unchanged.

Their father was a sucker for his children, especially for his daughter Ra-Eun. He usually did anything that she said, but there were things that he never backed down on. Each of those things had one thing in common.

“Does it have something to do with Mom?”

Their father had given up on moving to a better place because of the memories with his wife at his old home, so Ra-Eun wondered if his obstinacy to keep volunteering had something to do with their mother as well.

Their father stayed silent for a short moment, and then spoke with a heavy heart.

- You can practically read my mind now that you’ve become an adult, my baby girl.

Ra-Eun had been correct. Now that it had come to this, she had to give up on persuading her father since he would never back down on anything that involved her mother. If she couldn’t have the best possible outcome, then she would settle for the second best.

“Okay. In that case, Oppa and I will come with you.”

- Ra-Hyuk aside, aren’t you busy?

“It’s okay. I have a two-week break from film shoots starting next week.”

The schedule had gotten awry due to an error from the production team, so the actors had gotten a two-week break until the team sorted things out. Ra-Eun had nothing to do at home anyway, and since Han-Gyo had not made any moves since the scandal, she did not need to make any preparations either.

- Okay. Let’s go together, then.

Ra-Eun once again let herself be taken by the massage chair as soon as the call ended. She decided to find out for herself what other circumstances their family had.

***

The family headed to the orphanage in Ra-Eun’s car.

“Could you stop there for a second?”

Before they arrived, their father pointed at a supermarket parking lot. It was a bit rude to come empty-handed.

“I want to buy some snacks for the children,” he remarked.

“That sounds good.”

The three of them headed to the supermarket. Ra-Eun covered her face with glasses and a mask to prevent people from recognizing her, but she had underestimated the eyes of middle-aged women.

“My, my! That young lady’s the one that appeared in that drama!”

“Wow, you’re so much prettier in person!”

“Let’s take a picture together!”

Ra-Eun was extremely popular among middle-aged women who watched dramas and films all the time. Her father smiled as her daughter interacted with them.

“She’s my daughter.”

“My, is that so?”

“The dad is tall and attractive too!”

“What about the mom? She must be a knockout, right?”

The father smiled awkwardly and said, “She passed away when my kids were little.”

“Ohh...”

The women were lost for words by the unexpected answer. It was no wonder why they didn’t know, considering Ra-Eun rarely mentioned it on television. She had only mentioned it a few times during interviews for films, so the majority of the public did not know of her family circumstances.

Ra-Eun was not one to go around telling such things to people in the first place, and she also barely knew of them since she was not the original owner of Kang Ra-Eun’s body.

“I’m sorry...”

“We got excited all on our own.”

The father told them that it was okay. Ra-Eun thought that every family had its own circumstances.