Hunter's Bold Confession
pOlivia Jiyu Parker shook her head violently, her mind racing in panic. p[No! Absolutely not!]
pHer gaze shifted to Siena seated at the center table. As expected, she shot Jiyu a scowl. p[She said she doesn’t like me. I asked her out and she turned me down.]
pHunter replied casually.
pA heavy silence blanketed the entire table. Chloe’s jaw dropped, followed by a sharp hiccup.
pShocked by Hunter’s sudden reveal, Jiyu blurted out without thinking. p[Hunter! Are you insane?]
pPhilip burst into wheezing laughter, his hiccups echoing like cheers. p[You’re kidding, right?]
pPhilip asked. p[Nope.]
pHunter answered nonchalantly, turning to Jiyu with a weather-related question. p[Do you want to date me?]
pShocked, Jiyu’s face flushed scarlet as she hushed her outburst. pHunter shrugged at Philip. p[See? She turned me down again. This is the second time.]
pHe bit into a chicken wing, then pointed at the friends around the table with his fork. p[The reason she doesn’t want to date me is because she hangs out with idiots like you.]
pJiyu tugged at Hunter’s sleeve, her face burning red. p[Hunter, please stop…]
pHe glanced around, then slammed the table. p[What are you looking at? Show some manners. If you keep staring, you’ll choke on your food.]
pThe students who had been blankly staring dropped their forks and turned their heads.
pJiyu felt mortified.
p[Eat.]
pHunter pointed at the sandwich she had set down in his casual tone.
pShe grabbed the sandwich quickly to avoid another strange remark and took a huge bite.
pThe piece got stuck in her throat and she coughed hard. Chloe slid a glass of water over.
pAfter gulping it down, Jiyu poked at the leftover chicken breast and shook her head at Hunter’s indifferent face. p‘What is he thinking?’
pShe had forgotten that Hunter had been around for months, yet she still choked down food with him.
pFrom then on, Hunter appeared at Astor School’s cafeteria almost every single day. He would locate her and sit beside her.
pHis friends followed. No matter how she denied it, they treated her as Hunter’s girlfriend and greeted her with knowing smiles.
pThe bullying didn’t vanish completely, but its frequency dropped by half.
pJiyu began eating lunch with Chloe again.
pShe had lost everything and been thrown into hell, but only to recover Chloe and turn school life into one long nightmare.
pSoon she started eating at the two-person table with Chloe again. Hunter didn’t approach when she was with Chloe. Slowly, his visits to Astor School became less frequent.
pRelief mixed with disappointment.
pHeartache.
pHunter really did resemble a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
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pAjeong had put the house on the market.
pBuying or selling a home involved a complicated process that took anywhere from three to six months.
pEven when someone wanted to buy, it could take months just to approve the mortgage application.
pAfter the mortgage was approved, legal review of the contract and inspection could push everything back to June or even August.
pWhile waiting for the house to sell, the remaining cash melted away paying bank interest. p[If I had known, I wouldn’t have bought this place. I drained my savings on stocks, insurance, and pensions…]
pAjeong regretted later that she had rushed to gather cash for the down payment.
pIf she couldn’t pay the mortgage and the house went to auction, she had no way to cover the renovation loans, funeral costs, living expenses, or the credit card debt she had maxed out.
pOf course, the life insurance Allan had expected her to collect never came through.
pThe CFO had secretly stopped the insurance payments. The three-month grace period had already passed, so the insurer refused to pay.
pThough her face showed clear shock, Ajeong tried to stay composed in front of Jiyu. p[Don’t worry. Once the house sells, everything will be fine. I’ll pay off all the debts first. Jiyu, remember this: never, ever create debt! It’s a shortcut to ruin your life.]
pJiyu often earned spending money by babysitting Daisy.
pRosaga, the Guatemalan nanny, had retired after going to see her family in Guatemala and asked them to watch the baby.
pWith fewer days for Rosaga, Lauren had begged Ajeong to keep helping until a new nanny could be found.
pDaisy, who had been emotionally fragile lately, was picky, so finding a new nanny took time.
pThe child had grown dependent on Jiyu and loved the way she read books to her, unlike Hunter.
pAjeong had been looking for work too.
pShe had registered as a senior model, taken new profile photos, and even signed with an agency, but no offers had come yet.
pShe had no office experience and poor English, so desk jobs were out.
pSimple labor jobs were hard to come by for someone with no experience either.
pFurniture began to disappear one piece at a time. The round marble dining table vanished one day, the sofa the next.
pAjeong set aside one weekend day and stuffed her designer bags, watches, and clothes into a huge suitcase to consign to a consignment store.
pWith spring arriving, the master bedroom she and Allan had shared now held only a wardrobe and mattress.
pThe opulent gold-framed paintings hung alone in the empty living room.
pOnly Jiyu’s room remained unchanged.
pIf she suggested selling her desk or bed, Ajeong shook her head firmly. p[Don’t say such useless things. Even if you sell your things, you won’t get much money. Just live as the daughter of a rich family until we move. You’ll find out soon enough what poverty is like.]
pThe refrigerator now held two bottles of soju instead of champagne and wine.
pAjeong had sold her most precious one-carat diamond earring and the push gift Allan had given her the night Jiyu was born.
pAs Jiyu was about to go to bed that night, Ajeong pulled out a bottle of soju, sat in front of the Irish flag, and wept into the early morning hours, believing her daughter was asleep. p[Oh my… what a cursed life. My parents had no fortune, so how could I have married a worthless man? Ajeong, your life… it starts over like this again. I’m a dirty, smelly orphan. What did I do wrong to end up like this…]
pRecently plagued by insomnia, Jiyu listened to Ajeong’s tear-soaked laments and pulled the blanket over her head to cry. p‘If I hadn’t let her buy this house, things wouldn’t have been this hard…’
pGuilt twisted in her chest because she knew the house purchase had been forced by their debt. She had just learned about Ajeong’s secret past. She had always thought her grandparents had died before she was born and that she had no family left in Korea.
pJiyu watched the fragile, glittering life she once knew slowly lose its light.
pShe knew the grip around her neck was growing tighter, yet she could only watch it slowly fade.
pThe unfamiliar future felt as terrifying as stepping into a dark cave with no light.
pShe soaked her pillow with tears inside the blanket and finally understood.
pThe time to be afraid had come a little too soon. pShe had been hiding behind excuses of being scared, shy, and unwilling.
pThe protective shield she had used to hide behind vanished with Allan’s death. pNow she had to act even when she didn’t want to, even when she couldn’t.