CHAPTER 9

“Yerim, do you mind sitting with Joy today? I had a fight with her yesterday,” Seulgi asked Yerim a favor.

Yerim just nodded her head and went to sit at Seulgi’s table while waiting for Joy. It seems like both of them were pretty early that day but of course Wendy was with them in the room.

“Would you both like some hot chocolate?”

The usual question and both kids nodded their head.

“Why are you switching sit with Yerim, Seulgi?” Wendy asked as she busy herself making the drinks for them.

“I had a fight with Sooyoung yesterday,” Seulgi replied.

Wendy knew it’s a serious matter when Seulgi called Joy’s Korean name, Sooyoung.

“Would you like to tell me what happened, Seulbear?” Wendy asked again as her hand moved on to make the last cup of hot chocolate.

“I don’t know where to start, Miss,” Seulgi replied while looking down at her hands.

“Maybe you can start off with what you two were doing that it turned into a fight?” Wendy suggested.

“Right,” Seulgi replied nervously, “Joy was at my house yesterday. We’re supposed to have a sleepover at my house. It was all cool until the part when we watched a drama. We kind of shared some snack but she took too much and at the end we argued and then I called her fat.”

Wendy turned around and brought the cups to Yerim and Seulgi and settled herself down in front of Seulgi, “Did you say your apology to her, Seulbear?”

Seulgi shook her head, “I wanted to but she stood up and ran out of the house so quick that I didn’t get the chance to do so.

“Will you do it if she’s here in a few minutes?”

Seulgi was playing with her fingers now and murmured a yes as her replies.

“Good girl. You didn’t mean to say that to her so don’t worry. She’ll accept your apology,” Wendy patted her head lightly as she stood up, “Now you back to your own seat and waited for them to come before we start our lessons.”

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Irene was now sitting inside the living room of Mr. Kim’s mansion. She had known his family and him through this line of career of hers. She had been managing their financial planning as well as their insurances so she could say she fairly knew them.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Joohyun-ah,” Mrs. Kim said as she walked over to the living room from the stairs.

“It’s okay, aunty. I wasn’t waiting that long anyway,” Irene replied with a smile.

“There must be something that brought you over here. Is this going to be about that adoption thingy?” Mrs. Kim guessed.

Irene nodded as she waited for Mrs. Kim to settle herself down in front of her and gestured the maids to leave them alone.

“Knew it!” Mrs. Kim said.

“Aunty, if it’s not a burden to ask but may I know why Mr. Kim and you decided to adopt Yerim after all these years? I mean you have like 3 kids already.”

“I too have no idea what’s going on in his mind when he told me about adopting a kid. We had heavy arguments at some points until one day I found out why he was doing it. You see, Yerim’s father used to be a close friend to Daehyun. They’re like inseparable. They’re like brothers but coming from different parents though they had the same initial name,” Mrs. Kim said with a laugh at the end thinking about their initial.

“They both had the same dream of being a famous scientist but when he found out the news about Yerim’s parent were killed in an accident, he was truly devastated. It’s like he’s losing his half.”

“How come I’ve never see Yerim’s father around this house when he’s alive?” Irene interrupted Mrs. Kim.

“Because they have their own place of doing their work, Joohyun-ah,” Mrs. Kim replied, “You might think you knew a lot but you’re not. Once he found out about the death of Yerim’s father. Daehyun changed to another person. He isn’t the same like he used to anymore. He’s kind of being obsessed with all those research or whatever he’s doing right now. He never spend most of his time with us anymore. He craved for fame. It just irked me when he suddenly stated he wanted to adopt Yerim but he rarely spent his spare time with his own blood. I didn’t know about Yerim was related until one day I heard him spoke on the phone with someone that he wanted the person to do research on Yerim to see if there’s anything he could get it from here. It’s complicated, Joohyun-ah but I hope you could find a way to help Yerim. It’s not that I don’t want to adopt her but I don’t her to be an experiment for Mr. Kim’s advantage,” Mrs. Kim explained lengthily.

Irene was taking her time to digest everything down as she was learning all the information she got at that moment. It was hell lot complicated like what Mrs. Kim had just said. Why would he be doing that to his friend’s daughter? Oh, right! Fame was what made do this thing.

“I’ll think of a way to drop down the adoption. I’ll try my best, Mrs. Kim but are you alright?” Irene asked as she showed her concern to Mrs. Kim.

“I’m fine. I’m just waiting for the right time to leave him. He’s insane. He doesn’t really care about the kids and me anymore. I’m just hanging around for the kids but I think I’d enough when he decided to adopt Yerim for his own use.”

“Thanks for telling me this and I’m sorry you have to go through all these troubles,” Irene looked at her apologetically.

“Now go. You don’t have much time for this,” Mrs. Kim stood up and ushered Irene to go and not wasting her time around. She just hoped Irene could really drop down the adoption of Yerim.

“Thank you once again, Aunty,” Irene said as she hugged Mrs. Kim before she released and rushed out with the newfound information she got.

As much as she wanted to directly report this to the social care services, she held it in because she wanted to visit Mr. Kim to see what information she could get from him. She wasted no time to go from the mansion to his office and it was lunch time when she reached there. Luckily, Mr. Kim was on his way out for lunch when Irene shouted and waved to get his attention, “Mr. Kim!”

Daehyun looked up from his phone and spotted Irene on the other side of the road and waved back at her and signaled her to wait while he crossover to her, “Irene, what brings you here during lunch time?”

“You got