Flashback~

Jeongyeon stared at the woman sitting in front of her and opened slightly, though not a single word was being exchanged between the two of them.

Jeongyeon doesn’t have any idea how long has she’s been staring at her, because to be honest, no one is keeping track of the time ticking anyways.

What happened a while ago was a lot for the younger girl to take in and the other one knows, based on Jeongyeon’s reaction; it takes no brainer to figure out what the girl is actually thinking.

Out of nowhere, dropping the bomb in the middle of her life with not a tad knowledge of her past, and what? It has been 18 longs years and none of these ever came before? How is that even possible?

“What... What are you talking about?” The girl responded at last and upon seeing the first sign of the girl being alive even after the statement she made a few minutes ago, the older woman unknowingly let out a tiny sigh in relief.

Well at least she’s not shouting and screaming at her face, and that’s always a good thing.

“My son is your father.” Madame said simply in return; comforting the girl at this moment won’t make the situation any lighter so the older woman opted to remain honest and straight-to-the-point instead.

‘It’ll make things easier for the both of us.’ Madame thought.

“I have no father, nor do I have a mother.”

“I know.”

“I was an orphan.”

“I know.”

“I was left outside the orphanage centre when I was still a baby.”

The older woman, taken aback by the unflinching tone of the girl, hesitated for a split second before quietly adding, “I know.”

Jeongyeon frowned but her eyes refused to waver away from the face in front of her. Her hands, though tightly gripped against each other on her lap, her feet however remained rooted to the surface of the wooden floor.

She wasn’t nervous, she was feeling a thousand things; shock, angry, confused, sad, disbelief... but she wasn’t nervous, not anymore.

For all its worth, Jeongyeon should be feeling a bit betrayed and hurt. All those time living under the roof of the orphanage home, feeling like an unwanted child every single day, being adopted by families that wouldn’t even care about her even for just a short period of time, and feeling rather unloved for so many years.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, there they are… pure blood and flesh of her own family now came looking for her existence, after 18 long years.

“Why now?” Jeongyeon wondered.

“Because we need an heir.”

‘How selfish of you!’ Jeongyeon wanted to scream. She wanted to cry, but she shouldn’t show any weaknesses in front of this woman; she wouldn’t.

“Tell me everything.” The younger girl ordered, her voice firm and she would not take ‘no’ as an answer; that part is much clearer to Madame’s ears.

‘Don’t sugar coat me,’ is what Jeongyeon meant and the older woman immediately understands. This is only just their first meeting, but if she was in the shoes of the younger girl, she would undoubtedly command for the truth too and that’s why she can understand what the girl is thinking.

“Your father was my only child. He was supposed to be the future heir of the Yoo household,” Madame paused, “He was supposed to marry the Young Lady Dam from the Dam household.”

Upon receiving the absolute silence from the girl in return, Madame Yoo continued further.

“He... fell in love with another woman; the daughter of our maid.”

“My mother.”

“Yes.”

Jeongyeon lowered her gaze to her lap; hey eyes now glistened with unshed tears.

‘My parents were in love’ and that was honestly good enough for the tall girl, even if she wasn’t part of the story at the first place. But knowing that she was born out of love; that was good enough for her.

“My husband and myself included, weren’t particularly happy with his decision.” Madame sighed deeply, her eyes now instead concentrating towards the steams that rose up above the hot cup placed on the uneven tiny table between the two them.

Seeing the hurt behind the younger girl’s eyes make things much harder than the older woman expected. She read about her, looked for her, studied her, and researched her background ever since she was just a little girl. She wasn’t supposed to care about her grand-daughter’s feelings because that wasn’t part of the original plan.

The plan was to recruit the girl, train her, prepare her, and bribe her even to become the CEO of her company.

But seeing the girl up close, Madame couldn’t help but to think and see the situation from the girl’s perspectives instead, and that makes the older woman feeling quite heavy with guilt and even longing.

Madame also couldn’t help but to grasp how much the younger girl resembled her lost son so much and a tiny tug on her heart can be felt.

“What did you do?” Jeongyeon whispered softly, using whatever energy she has left found inside her body.

“You’d have to understand, your mother was not a Young Lady; she was… a regular person with a regular job. They were so young when they met. So we gave them a choice; whether they forget whatever they are having with each other and my son would move one on to become the future CEO of our company… or they could be together, under one condition.” Madame Yoo paused, her eyes now staring back to the younger girl’s face, trying hard to detect any changes of her expressions. “He would be stripped away from the honour of being a Yoo, meaning that he would not get fortunes from us, he would not carry the surname along, and he would no longer be supported by us. He would be gone from our life and he would no longer be as the son of ours.”

“What did he choose?”

“He chose the latter.”

Jeongyeon smiled bitterly, ‘how stubborn’.

“This is ridiculous, you know?” The younger girl scoffed, her finger drumming softly against the top of the table and her other hand went up and caressed her chin, feeling the smooth skin beneath her clammy palm.

“Why should I believe you? You could be lying.”

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know! But it doesn’t make any sense!” Jeongyeon shouted, loud enough to gain attentions of the people from the other nearby tables.

All the older woman could do was to blink her eyes, unaffected by the sudden outburst. It was expected, this type of reaction from the young girl.

“Why would my parents left me?” Jeongyeon insisted, her hands starting to shake; not in fear, but more in anger and regret.

“After being banished, your parents… had quite a struggle to make a living outside the world they were used to having, especially your father. Without having money and proper jobs, they were getting desperate to feed themselves, to feed you.” Madame calmly continued. “Desperate enough to borrow money from bad people and of course that leads them to having tons of unpaid debts overtime.”

“Let me guess, they cannot pay them and that made them in an absolute danger? What is this? A TV drama?” Jeongyeon glared. ‘What kind of rubbish is this?’

“Yes.”

“What?”

“You are right. They cannot pay them back so they were threaten to get killed.”

“How ridiculous.”

“Indeed, that I do believe.” Madame interjected, her eyes observing the shaking movements of the girl’s hands, though it subsided, the shaking was still there and that makes Madame filled with worry.

“They threatened to harm you, most importantly.”

“I was already born?”

“You just turned 1 year old by then.” The older woman smiled, regretting to have missed quite a huge part of seeing her grand-daughter growing up.

“Your parents, they loved you.”

“Yeah right.” Jeongyeon rolled her eyes in disbelief.

“They left you outside the orphanage centre with a single card beneath your pink fluffy blanket.”

“You could’ve found that on the internet.” Jeongyeon shrugged.

“The same night, your parents died in a car accident. Do you think that was a coincidence?”

“Stop.”

“They were protecting you.”

“Please stop.”

“And they did, but they paid the price with their own lives.”

“Stop!” Jeongyeon cried, her tears flowed heavily down both of her cheeks as she lowered her gaze, gripping tightly against the rough skirt of her uniform; her head felt like someone just hit her with a brick.

This is too much.

“Jeongyeon, you know I’m right.”

“No, I don’t!”

“Yes, you do! The card, it says JeongYeon isn’t it?”

“No…”

“You read it; you know that’s what it says.”

“Please…”

“Your name wasn’t supposed to be just Jeongyeon, it was supposed to be Yoo Jeongyeon. Yoo is your family name.”

The girl continued to cry her heart out. Jeongyeon didn’t care who was watching. Her life has been a lie and she deserves to cry.

She wanted to believe how false the story is, but deep down she knows. She knows the woman is telling the truth.

“Why do you need me now?” She asked, knowing that if she doesn’t ask questions now, she would not be able to ask qu