The Devil’s Father

Ji stood in the middle of the house that had brought him far too many destructive memories. In his hand were the documents that sealed his sale of this property and as though a big blockage had been dislodged from his throat, he was now finally able to look at the house without all the hate that had built up inside of him.

It was, now fully restored, a truly wonderful home for his mother had cared for it well in spite of the terrors she might have experienced inside it during the time she was alive. Not being the one to own it brought Ji a somehow different perspective of it and he was relived about that.

On his other hand was a bag that contained mementos owned by his Father. They were found in the vault in the Library – things that the Real Estate Agent deemed very personal to the family and should not be up for sale.

Ji couldn’t have cared at all but he was not willing to let the Real Estate Agent take a peek into his emotions.

Breathing in the atmosphere of the house one last time, he hoped that the next owners would erase the grief and anger that had griped its previous residents.

He walked towards his car and headed back to his cottage – noting that his cousin’s house was bathed in warm light. As a kid and even now as an adult, he envied Seunghyun his family.

“You can have the same thing” that voice inside him reinforced itself but Ji was confused and far too welled up by his feelings that he wasn’t sure at all what he should do or even… what was he really feeling.

He walked down the cottage’s porch facing the beach, sat in the comfort of the old wooden swing, and decided to look into the bag. He frowned upon seeing an old charm bracelet and a few envelopes.

Names were not written on the envelopes to indicate who might have written them or to whom they were sent to so he opened one and was surprised to see they were letters to his Father.

He hesitated whether to read them or just burn them since he was sure the old man won’t appreciate him reading his personal letters but his eyes caught sight of the phrase “We will never be” and he felt his curiosity well up.

Ji inhaled deeply and prepared himself. Did his old man have a mistress? It would explain why he was cranky all the time with him and his mother – the prick.


“Love…Today is a very sad day.Forgive me if I was not able to come last night. I cannot elope. I cannot break my Father’s heart. He had been nothing but kind to me and to you and I do not want him to feel like we have both betrayed him.

Please understand that as much as I love you… this is one thing that I cannot do.Your mother has come by the house and told me to stop running after you for you are now betrothed to the daughter of your father’s friend. Do not worry. She was not mean to me and I wish she was for it might have been far easier for me to hate her.

She told me we were both young and what we have was brought to us by our raging emotions.

I don’t know if that is true for all I know is that I love you but maybe… maybe we cannot be together because both of our lives have already been planned out.

I live for New York very soon for my studies and you must go to Seoul to be a Lawyer.

I know I’d rather stay here but I cannot. I’m very confused and I don’t really know what I want to ask of you but for both our sakes… please forget me. Forget this summer. Forget our walks to the beach. Forget that very first kiss and forget the last.

I will try to do the same. I will teach my heart to forget and go back to how it all was before this summer… you were my high school class mate who has just graduated from college and was being betrothed at an engagement party two months ago… I am just your old classmate who has nurtured a crush on you since you tutored me in Math.

There is nothing else for us… we will never be.

Soo Jin”



He frowned at the name and felt his head begin to dig up where he had heard it before. So his father had fallen in love with another woman right after his engagement with his mother (for he was sure it was his mother who was the daughter of his Grandfather’s friend).

He had been told the story so many times of how his Grandfather saw the young girl and instantly felt she would be perfect for his only son. A marriage was immediately arranged and right after his Father’s graduation from college, an extravagant party was thrown by their family.

He opened another letter and noticed it was in the same handwriting as that of the first letter. Before proceeding to read, he opened all of the letters and saw that they all came from this Soo Jin.

They were in no chronological order but the more he read… the more Ji understood how their relationship had begun and developed.

His Father had talked to Soo Jin during the engagement party because he was feeling stuffed by the guests.
Walking out on the beach, he had seen another guest walking along the shoreline and had decided to say hello.

From the letters, his father seemed like a totally different man from the one he knew. He seemed to jest a lot and make fun of the fact that ever since he was a young man, everything he did was what his Father wanted. He liked the woman they had engaged him to but she seemed more of a friend for him than the lifelong companion his parents wanted her to be.

“You told me you dreamed of becoming a doctor when you were younger… I look at you and see your compassion for wounded animals and think it wouldn’t have been too hard to imagine you being a doctor” Soo Jin wrote in one of her letters and Ji felt a fist squeeze his heart.

“What a goddamned @sshole” he muttered tersely and folded the letters before bowing in controlled tears. So he had suffered a lot… so he had lived with the pressure of a father who put all of his dreams on his only son and a mother who was not able to protect him from all that but it didn’t mean he had the right to do it to Jiyong too.He punched into the wall and let out a scream into the ocean. “You rot in hell you @sshole!!!”

A squeak behind him made him turn and he saw his cousin with a very concerned expression. He immediately wiped at his tears and asked in a gravelly voice, looking away and cursing at himself for not being able to know that another person was in the cottage, “What do you need hyung?”

“Bom cooked dinner for you. It’s in your table” Seunghyun answered after a while, and putting a hand on Ji’s shoulder as he got nearer, he asked “Something bad happened?”

“I just sold the house.” he replied curtly.“Something you should have done a long time ago” his older cousin squeezed his shoulder as a show for support but he still refused to look at him.

“The Real Estate Agent gave me mementos by the mean-spirited fellow that was hidden in his vault in the Library” he related and felt Seunghyun let go of him and turn towards the letters he had been reading.

“Love letters?” Seunghyun asked after reading the first paragraph of one of the notes.Ji nodded.“Uncle had an affair?”

“It’s a little hard to explain” Ji told him “but he apparently fell in love with a girl named Soo Jin during the time he was engaged to Omma. They didn’t end up together, though.”

“Soo Jin?” Seunghyun exclaimed.

“Yes… Do you know her?” Ji asked.

“You should too” Seunghyun answered – awe evident in his voice “It’s unbelievable but she’s the only one who fits this name who is also a classmate of Uncle’s.”

“Who are you talking about?” Ji prodded him impatiently.His eyes glistening is disbelief, Seunghyun looked at him dumbfounded “Your father was in love with Park Soo Jin… Dara’s mother.”