Chapter 223.2: Am I Upset? (1)
Buzz, buzz, buzz. Buzz, buzz, buzz. Buzz, buzz, buzz.
Kang Chan wondered why he kept getting calls.
“Hello?” Kang Chan answered.
- This is Assistant Manager Kim speaking. Your father is waiting for the sushi. He will be arriving at the hospital in about thirty minutes.
“Got it. Take into account that we have agents stationed over here too,” Kang Chan said.
- I’ve already contacted them.
“Thank you,” Kang Chan responded. After the call, he went to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes were still dangerously glinting. The spite that had simmered up inside him during his most recent battle still hadn’t left his eyes.
I wonder how he learned about it.
Did Kang Dae-Kyung really recognize him from the broadcast? Kang Chan probably wouldn’t have even recognized himself on the screen.
Kang Chan walked back out of the bathroom, sat beside the bed, and looked outside the window again. Time continued to pass by as if nothing was happening.
Creak.
The door then slid open, and Kang Dae-Kyung entered with Assistant Manager Kim.
“Hi, Father,” Kang Chan greeted him with a smile as he stood up.
“How are you?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked as soon as he saw his son’s legs. Meanwhile, Assistant Manager Kim set down the carryout bags on the table.
“They say I’ll make a full recovery in three days,” Kang Chan answered assuringly.
“I see.”
“Father.”
Kang Dae-Kyung glanced up and looked at Kang Chan.
“I’m sorry,” Kang Chan apologized, causing his father’s gaze to reflect the complex mix of emotions that he was feeling deep down.
Kang Dae-Kyung stared at him for a bit longer before nodding. “Come on, let’s have some sushi.”
“Okay.” Kang Chan grinned.
Assistant Manager Kim poured them some water and set it on the table.
“Didn’t you say there was someone with you who eats a lot?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked out of curiosity.
“He left to go eat dinner first.”
“Ah, darn.”
Kang Dae-Kyung walked over to the chair that Assistant Manager Kim had prepared for him.
“You should sit down and eat with us, Mr. Kim,” he urged.
“I’ll eat with my colleagues outside,” Assistant Manager Kim refused with a smile.
“You probably won’t have enough, then. Take this with you,” Kang Dae-Kyung insisted.
“No, thank you, it’s fine. Please don’t worry about us and just enjoy your meal. We’ll just order more if we need more,” Assistant Manager Kim politely declined, then hurried out of the room. Only then did Kang Dae-Kyung finally sit down and pull out the sushi takeout containers from the paper bag.
“What about mother?” Kang Chan asked.
“I told her I had an important dinner appointment. I keep lying to her these days,” Kang Dae-Kyung jokingly complained.
“I’m sorry,” Kang Chan apologized again.
“You punk!” Kang Dae-Kyung joked. He extended his arm to stroke Kang Chan’s hair. The corners of his eyes turned red again.
“Ahem! Let’s dig in,” he said, quickly suppressing his emotions. He opened the lid of the takeout box.
“You have some too, Father,” Kang Chan said, opening the bowl of doenjang soup and setting it in front of his father.
“Let’s see. Do you want to try this one?” Kang Dae-Kyung picked up a thick piece of sushi and offered it to Kang Chan.
This was a first. In the past, whenever Yoo Hye-Sook gave Kang Chan some fruit on a fork or cut a slice of cake for him, Kang Dae-Kyung would only ever watch on with a smile. Now, however, he was holding a piece of sushi with his chopsticks and moved it closer to Kang Chan’s mouth.
Kang Chan opened his mouth and accepted the sushi.
“Is it good?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked, sounding quite hopeful.
“Yup! Hurry and have some too, Father!” Kang Chan insisted.
“Yeah? Let me try a piece, then. ” Kang Dae-Kyung picked up the piece of sushi in the corner of the box and ate it. Afterward, he commented, “The place I bought this from has really delicious sushis.”
Kang Chan picked up his chopsticks and put another piece into his mouth.
“I feel sorry for your mom now.”
“Me too. Why don’t we save a box? You can give it to her later,” Kang Chan suggested.
“I’ll just get some for her tomorrow. She’s probably already had dinner, so if I bring some home for her tonight, we will probably just end up throwing them away,” Kang Dae-Kyung answered.
Kang Chan continued to eat sushi to show his appreciation.
“Take your time to chew.”
“I can’t help it. This is so tasty,” he replied.
Kang Dae-Kyung couldn’t seem to stop either. He wasn’t hungry, and although the sushi did taste great, he was more worried that Kang Chan would also stop eating if he did.
“Father?” Kang Chan called after they had eaten to their heart’s content.
“Yes?” Kang Dae-Kyung answered. He took a sip from the bowl of doenjang soup and then looked at him.
“How did you figure out that it was me?” Kang Chan asked abruptly.
Kang Dae-Kyung looked extremely flustered, seemingly not expecting to hear such a question. A brief moment of silence enveloped the room.
“Did you really think your own father wouldn’t recognize you?” he finally answered.
“So you really caught on just by watching me on TV?”
The edges of Kang Dae-Kyung’s eyes reddened again. “I caught on when you ran next to the truck. It was the same way you ran next to the van a while ago.”
Kang Chan was quite surprised. He didn’t expect Kang Dae-Kyung to recognize him through that dizzying camera footage.
“Chan,” Kang Dae-Kyung called, his voice low and solemn.
“Yes, Father.”
“I want to take your place for you.”
Kang Chan couldn’t bring himself to look his father in the eye, so he looked down at the sushi instead.
“It was horribly painful to watch,” he continued.
“I’m sorry,” Kang Chan apologized again.
Kang Dae-Kyung forced down the emotions that were threatening to come out.
“I realized I need to become stronger.”
Kang Chan slowly lifted his gaze. His father was staring right at him.
“I don’t know how or when you became such a capable young man, but seeing the soldiers and hostages following you obediently, I realized that I can’t take your place or stop you from going. It also got me thinking about what else I can do for you, though. That’s when I realized that I just have to become stronger,” Kang Dae-Kyung declared, stealing his resolve.
I’m unbelievably lucky to have him as my father.
Kang Chan was moved beyond words.
“Are all the soldiers okay?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief,” Kang Dae-Kyung softly replied. He stretched out his arm to stroke Kang Chan’s head.
“I can’t believe my son was the fierce commander who annihilated the enemies!” he suddenly started laughing. Kang Chan laughed along with him.
“Don’t worry. Your mother still doesn’t know.”
“Got it.”
“Hurry and have some more.”
Kang Chan was already full, but he brought himself to eat more anyway. He ate another piece of sushi.
“You don’t have to force yourself to eat if you’re already full,” Kang Dae-Kyung reassured him.
“Phew, I’m glad. I already ate quite a lot,” Kang Chan said with a grin. His father returned the gesture with a smile of his own.
“Do you smell cooked meat or is it just me?”
“The pig that I told you about is probably eating meat next door right now.”
“If he’s one of the soldiers who were with you in Afghanistan, you should bring him some of this,” Kang Dae-Kyung suggested, nodding at the two untouched takeout containers.
“He’ll probably finish it all if you just leave it there,” Kang Chan replied, amused by the thought.
“Whew! Anyway, I feel a lot better knowing that everyone is fine.”
Kang Chan tidied the table a little and stood up to make two cups of green tea. He then sat down across from his father.
“How and when did you become so skilled in combat?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked, his expression filled with genuine curiosity. Before Kang Chan could even answer, he had already asked a follow-up question. “You are actually my son, aren’t you?”
Kang Chan had no way of answering those questions.
“Chan,” Kang Dae-Kyung called.
“Yes?”
“I hope someday you’ll be able to give me the answer to questions you can’t answer right now,” he affectionately continued.
Unable to say anything, Kang Chan just looked at him. What would happen if he told him the truth?
“Goodness, you punk,” Kang Dae-Kyung quipped. He seemed a bit more relieved now.
They spoke for about an hour longer before his father stood up, regret evident in his expression. “Get some sleep. I’ll come tomorrow again if I can.”
“Okay. You don’t have to worry about me,” Kang Chan reassured him.
“All right.” Kang Dae-Kyung awkwardly hugged Kang Chan. He then left the room.
Meanwhile, Kang Chan sat back down. His father’s final words before he left echoed in his ears still.
Creak.
The door opened, and the four men in the room next door came in one by one. Afterward, an agent entered with a plate full of beef ribs in hand.
“Come. Dig in,” Jeon Dae-Geuk said.
“Hey, there’s some sushi left. Can I have some?” Seok Kang-Ho asked as he opened the takeout containers. The four men picked up a pair of chopsticks each.
Kang Chan ate a few pieces of meat as well to express his gratitude toward Jeon Dae-Geuk for not forgetting to buy him some.
“What about the agents?” Kang Chan asked.
“Don’t worry about them and just eat up. I ordered more than enough for everybody,” Jeon Dae-Geuk insisted.
Kang Chan ate with the others until they had finished all the sushi.
Once the long dinner was finally over, they spent some more time together before the three finally left the hospital.
Seok Kang-Ho stood up and opened the window. Handing Kang Chan a cigarette, he then asked, “What is it?”
Click.
“Hoo. Father knew. He said he realized I was the special forces team’s commander while he was watching the broadcast…”
Kang Chan told him about Kang Dae-Kyung’s two questions and his final words before saying goodbye.
“You must have been upset,” Seok Kang-Ho remarked.
“About what?”
“You think he’ll stop seeing you as his actual son if you tell him the truth, don’t you?”
How dare this bastard stab me where it hurts?
“Give him a call right now,” Seok Kang-Ho firmly said.
Kang Chan just looked at him, wanting to know why he would want him to do that.
“Do you really think someone who can recognize you through the broadcast alone won’t notice the upset look in your eyes? Your father is probably worried sick, thinking that he said something wrong that made you upset.”
That couldn’t be the case.
“Give him a call. Since you’re receiving this kind of love, you should at least act like a filial son to some extent.”
This punk really has evolved.
“That’s one of the duties of a good child. If you really believe you’re your father’s son, I think you should uphold those duties as well,” Seok Kang-Ho finished.
Kang Chan felt as if he had just taken a blow to the head. Dayeru was helping him… and with this kind of subject, no less.
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