Chapter 19:

"An excellent performance, Tempo,” Mithra Jin said in a happy voice. “With more practice, I believe that you could be as good as your father one day.”

Tempo was flushed with pleasure and pride, both in his accomplishment and in Mithra Jin's words of praise. He returned to his seat, where Tempo heard someone cleared their throat very softly beside him.  Tempo turned, startled to see Harang and Haru looking at him.

"That’s a great performance for a kid like you.”  Haru said formally while Harang felt irritated by Haru’s praise.

“Haru, stop praising. It’s getting on my nerves." Harang warned before he leaned his back against his chair.

Haru rolled her eyes, making Harang felt even more irritated by that response.

“I just couldn't help it. No doubt, he is indeed TOP’s son. It’s rare to see such outstanding rap from a kid like him." Haru's smile grew serious. "But all praise aside, I actually wanted to ask you a question, Tempo."

Tempo was not certain that he was comfortable with being approached by someone he scarcely knew, let alone asking him questions. But Haru was the first person to clap after his rap performance.

“What?” Tempo asked quietly, before he moved his body forward, ready to hear Haru’s question.

“Who is your mother?” Haru asked curiously while Harang looked sidelong at Tempo, waiting to hear Tempo’s reply.

Tempo felt his ears flushing crimson at the mention of his mother. The question wrought an immediate effect, and Tempo felt his stomach shrivel.

“I don’t know,” Tempo said softly. He was beginning to feel rather cornered, though he wasn't sure why.

“You don’t know?”  Echoed Harang as he spun around to face Tempo. “Seriously, you really don’t know?”

Tempo nodded mutely, wishing the floor would swallow him up. Harang looked shocked by this revelation and Haru had a surprised look on her face.

Haru shook her head, unknowingly. “Did you ever ask your dad about your mother?”

Somehow Tempo managed to nod.

"I asked my dad once when I was really little. But, it made my dad unhappy. So, I …”

Tempo left the sentence unfinished and hung his head. Though neither Harang nor Haru said anything, Tempo thought he could feel them exchanging a salient look. He could not help but wonder if they were starting to pity him.

"Well…" Haru did not move, but her whole posture seemed to change. Suddenly Tempo felt very much as if he was on trial, and Haru was indeed presiding over the court that would decide his fate.

 "Have you ever seen how your mother looked like in photos?”  Haru asked, voice dropping to a sympathetic whisper.

Tempo nodded miserably. This confession was as painful as any he had yet been forced to utter. He was ashamed, ashamed to have the others know that he did not know who his mother was. And fearful, for if once they knew they might pity him.

 “I have seen it once in the drawer…” Tempo whispered.

The silence between Haru and Harang made him more uneasy until Haru snapped her fingers insistently, her eyes filled with determination.

 “Tempo, do you want to know more about your mother?”

Silence met the end of Haru's words. Both Tempo and Harang were looking at Haru as if she was mad.

"How?" Tempo asked, feeling a rush of eagerness despite his doubts. For as long as he could remember, he had not made his father unhappy. Finding more information about his mother from other people did not fall into that category.

Haru dug her hand into her bag and fished out a smartphone.

“There’s a thing called internet.” Haru replied, looking smug.

***

"No, not her," Tempo repeated, feeling tears threatening to spill from his eyes in disappointment as Haru’s fingers sifted through the screen of her smartphone.

Why is it so difficult to find more information about his mother?

"I don't get it." sighed Harang, scratching the side of his head. "Maybe we should change our approach in this search. Why don’t we try searching about TOP sunbea nim’s rumoured women that appeared maybe ten years ago?”

Haru looked like she was insulted at the assumption that she had overlooked something as important as this. However, she answered in a calm way.

"It’s worth the try…." Haru replied, shifting through the screen of her smartphone once more before showing the results to Tempo.

The moment Haru showed Tempo the screen of her smartphone, Tempo found himself staring at a picture of a woman totally similar to the one he saw in his father’s drawer.

Tempo did not really hear Haru's words. He was staring at the picture of his mother, happiness welling up within him as he hungrily drank in the image as if he could not bear to look away.

"Tempo" Harang said impatiently. "Is she your mother or not?"

"Yeah," Tempo, unable to keep the awe from filtering into his voice. "She’s my mother.”

When Tempo looked up, he saw that Haru and Harang looking at him in shock.

Haru looked around the room at the dozens of trainees listening to Mithra Jin’s lecture before she refocused her attention on Tempo. “Are you sure that she is your mother?”  Haru’s voice spoke softly, a mere whisper.

“She is Shin Min Ah, one of the top actresses in Korea.”

Tempo did not reply Haru as the name, Shin Min Ah, kept repeating several times in his mind. A warm affection he never know before blossomed for her, like gentle waves, it overflowed him, and he felt as if he was sinking into an endless lukewarm lake and he had no longing to struggle up to surface and breathe again.

But, the question on why such a pretty, sophisticated looking woman like her would leave his father and him surfaced in his mind as Tempo imagined how life would have been like for his father and him, if his mother had not left them.

“Why would my mother leave us?”

The question had burst from Tempo before he could stop it. He must have been thinking out loud. Harang looked at Tempo, his brows furrowed in puzzlement, as though he thought he hadn't heard right.

Haru offered a feeble smile and started shifting through her smartphone before she came to a stop and she raised her eyes to look at Tempo.

Haru hesitated, wondering whether she read it out before Haru decided to read it out after short pause.

“Hyun Bin and Shin Min Ah, who were both part of AM Entertainment, will establish their own agency called O& Entertainment…” 

Tempo listened, hardly daring to breathe as he continued to listen to what Haru was reading. “The two are currently working out the details of this new arrangement and plans of breaking into Hollywood…”

Haru stopped as Harang sighed.

“To summarise everything, Shin Min Ah sunbea nim left TOP sunbea nim because of Hyun Bin sunbea nim am I right?” Harang summarised the entire situation for Haru, bitterly.

Haru’s only response was a sad and sympathetic smile.

“No!” Tempo cried. Panic that sprung from the knowledge that he so easily might sent him rocketing to his feet.

 “No! My mother is not that kind of person!” There were tears in his eyes now as Tempo replied tearfully before he ran swiftly out of the room, leaving Mithra Jin bewildered at Tempo’s sudden behaviour.