Chapter 9: Appa

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It was currently twelve midnight as I stepped off of the last bus, I was supposed to step off the bus that came in two hours before but I had unfortunately missed it as that weird moment from the elevator still occupied my thoughts.






The walk to my house was long but I honestly didn't mind, it is a refreshing and nice walk. It was the kind of walk where you could just take your time and think about things, and breathe just exactly what I needed after the day I just had. The walk helped me clear my mind, especially from the time where I had misunderstood that man calling me "misu" when he might've said "miss" instead. Yes that's right it makes more sense that way.






It has been a rough first day but I'm pretty sure it would only get better as the days will pass. It's what I need to tell myself.

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Well, turns out today is only going to get worse.





"Sorry madam, I have to leave for my hometown... to settle some family issues,"





Lhee told me before leaving to go for the rest of the week.




The thought consistently went through my mind as I lay my back against the soft mattress while caressing my little angel's head to sleep. He was tired from crying all day for apparently missing me too much.





Now that Lhee is gone, what am I going to do with Jungwoo? Mother is not here at the moment. What other options do I have?





We're a bit too short on money as we had already spent too much moving here to just go right ahead and send Jungwoo to a daycare, eomma is going to be out all week to settle some paperwork, and now Lhee is gone.





I then figured that maybe I can contact my old friends from high school, maybe they can help...





I went and grabbed my laptop and placed it on my beside me, being careful not to wake my little angel up.





It felt weird as soon as I logged into my Facebook account. I haven't used this for nearly four years now, or to simply put it, I have not been in social media for four years now, honestly, motherhood has been keeping me busy.





As soon as I logged in to the account, I found myself clicking on to the last picture I had posted... It was a picture of Jungkook and me on our graduation day.





Our faces filled with happiness and glee, who knew that only a day later, our expressions will show the total opposite...





"appa!"





I heard a little shriek come from my sleeping angel.





His expression showed excitement, matching the expression in the picture in front of him which he was observing the man in the picture while letting out another "appa," pointing at him.





I didn't know what to do, I couldn't deny the fact that yes, this handsome man is his father.





Jungwoo clicked on another picture using the mouse pad.





I didn't realize the angel continued to go through more pictures as I was too busy trying to keep the tears from escaping my eyes, but I obviously failed as I felt the tears trickle down my cheeks.

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This is so frustrating! It turns out I no longer have friends living here anymore so I had no choice but to bring Jungwoo with me to work. I have to be flexible this is what motherhood is.





Jungwoo seemed to have enjoyed the view from the window as he faced it and pressed his small palms against the glass looking quite mesmerized by the busy city of Seoul.


Whenever he saw something that had caught his eye he had jumped in his spot, infecting the whole bus with his waves of excitement that didn't annoy the passengers but only caused them to have an amused look in their faces. I guess it was an unusual morning commute for them.





I was too caught up on my schedule to pay too much attention to what seemed to have entertained the small one.





Apparently, I have some more training about the company, as an assistant I know that I must know everything for whom I will work for starting on but why do I need to know everything about the company? For who am I actually going to be working for?





My thoughts were disrupted from Jungwoo's continuous laughter and jumps that gone too far, finally gaining my full attention.





I was taken aback when Jungwoo suddenly let out "appa!", as this was already his second time using it, I didn't pay too much attention to that as I felt a bunch of stares directed towards us.





Now it seems I wasn't the only one who had my full attention on my loud kid, others on the bus had seemed to have a surprised look on the kid.





I was embarrassed but Jungwoo didn't seem to give two shits at all.





His shrieking only got worse when he started to point outside, he seemed a bit annoyed as I didn't follow his little request for me to look outside as I was still too busy looking at all the different looks everyone was giving us.





The next thing I knew it, I felt a pair of soft palms on each side of my cheek forcefully turn my head towards the direction of the window surprising me with the amount of strength this little man had managed to keep in him.





He successfully pulled my head towards the direction he was pointing at earlier.





"Look eomma!" he demanded and as I followed, I saw...





a billboard screen featuring a women's shaving cream ad.






...I sighed in exasperation.





"Has my son already grown this much?" I thought as I lifted Jungwoo from his position where he somehow had a confused look in his face as he stared at the ad as I placed him on my lap, looking me in the eye still having that confused look.





"Jungwoo, sweetie, we already discussed this, I know you're too young to understand those ads, those ads are for shaving creams I'll explain a little bit more when you're older okay."





I said to the little one, whispering it to him whose face only had grown even more confused.





After we had that small conversation we stood up and bowed at those who were disturbed from Jungwoo's behavior before the bus had started moving, moving away from the billboard screen that had once again shown the ad of a very powerful, successful, and handsome man showcasing his company Jeon Corp.





I didn't see it as I was back to looking down at my schedule, familiarizing myself for today.





But Jungwoo still had the urge to call out to his mother but he decided to listen to what his mother said earlier and behave and so admired the billboard screen from afar showcasing his powerful father until he could no longer see the billboard.





But it's fine, he'll end up meeting his father sooner or later as they now arrived at their destination.

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Maybe I was right at first, days in the office would only get better.





My second day wasn't as bad as my first day, with no awkward encounters with suspicious people, no messing up my training for assistance, and I just started to get a hang of the company's system.





I had just started my briefing as Jungwoo was already sleeping on my lap from walking around the building this whole morning.





I was too focused on my instructor, Kim Seokjin, to even notice anything that was going on just outside the room, you could clearly see all the ruckus going on outside through the window but I didn't even pay a single glance.

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But one little man noticed the ruckus outside through the window, waking him up from his slumber, he saw some people bowing at the man who everyone else was following, some stuffing all of their piles of random paperwork at his face while the guards right beside him struggled to keep them away from him.





Jungwoo looked up at his mother, she didn't look like the right state to give him an answer whether or not if she could come with him to check out what was happening outside so he decided to behave and just witness it from afar.





The man he wasn't able to decipher before was now standing in front of the room's window, and from that angle, as he saw the man take out his phone, Jungwoo saw the man he saw earlier this morning, the man he had wanted to see again, the same man he met at the train.





Of course, he understood what "appa" meant but he would like to think of this man as his father, little did he know he was his father...





The next thing the little man knew it, he found himself getting up from his position, standing up on his tippy toes to open the door to see the tall figure already walking before him, so he decided to follow.





The little man didn't care about the possibility of getting crushed by the crowds of people on top of him, he only cared about meeting this man once more...





When the tall man was entering the elevator, the guards had held the crowd back, preventing anyone to enter with him, but it seems they have failed as a sneaky little one had managed to enter the elevator with him.





Jungwoo noticed the tall man's expression, he seemed to be in distress as he closed his eyes, containing all of them in the tight fist he made, not noticing the small figure looking up at him confused.





He didn't understand what had all the commotion had been but he understood that because of it, his father was now mad and stressed, just like his mother at times.





"Appa-"





Jungwoo's voice was taken over by the sound of the elevator arriving on its floor, causing the little boy's voice to be inaudible as the tall man made his way out of the elevator along with the little kid, still not completely unaware of Jungwoo's presence.





They passed the huge desk just right next to this huge door that they went into.





Just when they went in, Jungwoo was still looking up at his father whose face grew even more distress.





Jungwoo lifted his short arm to take the man's fist into his hold as he started to grow concerned for the tall man.






But his actions took a halt when the man suddenly threw his briefcase against the floor creating a dent from the impact, ruining the once shiny wooden floor.





Jungwoo trembled in fear.. walking backward toward the door he once passed through regretting his decision to have followed the man.





He soon felt something wet slide down his cheeks while letting out hiccuping sounds that came with the unstoppable rush of tears.





The that came from sniffs coming from Jungwoo filled the once silent room, gaining the attention from the man to turn around and to witness... a small child nuzzling himself against the huge door trying to escape, while his face was stained red caused by the tears that continuously trickled down his face.





The child looked petrified judging by the way he had held himself at an attempt to hide from the man that he now found frightening.





The man's confusion didn't take over him as his once tensed face was now softened, he realized what he had just done in front of the child and so found himself walking up to the kid who soon decided to give up on trying to open the heavy door and ran away deeper into the office.





The little kid didn't know where to go until he spotted a huge desk and hid underneath it, an attempt to keep himself safe from the frightening man. But his sniffs didn't help.





The tall man followed the source of the sound and he saw the small figure hiding underneath his desk while stuffing his head to his knees.





It didn't take long until the little one heard the sound of paper being shuffled, he then heard something tap against the wooden floor, he took a peek and saw a paper frog bouncing toward him...


He looked up at the man whose face was no longer scary, but instead, softened, smiling at him. 



Jungwoo got distracted and found himself crawling toward the frog, taking comfort as he used to play with these whenever his mother made one.




As soon as the paper frog finally bounced to his hand, he saw something written on the frog which he wasn't able to read, but said...



"Nice to see you again Jungwoo,"

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