Dr. Hanks continued speaking with hollow eyes.
“I had a dream……. Once the children grew up……. I dreamed of traveling around……. visiting African tribes together.”
“It’s not too late for that dream.”
“No. Without me……. what use is the dream I had……. to the children?”
“Please don’t think only so negatively.”
Taesu could do nothing but try to dissuade him.
He felt the limits of his eloquence.
No matter how perceptive or witty he was, in a moment like this, even a single glib remark was difficult.
He even found himself sneaking glances at the hospital-room door, watching for when it might open.
There was, in truth, no sign that Jeong Minsu and Gim Hyeokgwon’s arrival would bring about any sort of reversal.
Even so, he held onto the vague hope that the three of them together might come up with some kind of solution.
That was merely Taesu’s own thought.
Dr. Hanks did not agree with it in the slightest.
Perhaps because of that, Dr. Hanks’s mouth turned downward as his lower lip began to tremble.
“Ahem……. When the youngest turns fifteen……. I said I would go back……. then.”
“D-Did you?”
“I thought……. they would understand……. when the time came……. I planned to spend time with the children from then on……. Ahem.”
Dr. Hanks’s sobbing grew steadily heavier.
Taesu felt heartbroken along with him over the fact that his plans had come to nothing.
“Then just go see them once in a while. Even if it’s only for a little while, once every few months.”
“That’s what I should have done, what I should have done…….”
“Or at least celebrate their birthdays. What’s so difficult about sending a cake or a present?”
“Later, ahem. Later, something bigger……. something more wonderful…….”
Regret streamed from Dr. Hanks’s eyes.
Seeing him like that, Taesu felt as if the pain were his own.
“Why are fathers like this? Why? How are children supposed to understand the feelings of a father they can barely even see!”
“Later, later…….”
“When that time comes, will love suddenly come gushing out? You should have kept the fire stoked before your feelings grew cold!”
“Uhh. Uhhhh, aaah…….”
Thud!
Dr. Hanks clutched Taesu’s gown and burst into tears.
As a father.
He poured out the anguish that was tearing at his heart at that very moment.
It was then.
Creak.
The hospital-room door opened hurriedly.
At the same time, the gazes of Jeong Minsu and Gim Hyeokgwon, who entered together, darted back and forth.
“Looks like something that had festered finally burst.”
“And burst like a waterfall.”
“But what made him burst?”
“No idea. Maybe he got beaten up, or maybe his heart burst from feeling sorry for someone.”
The two exchanged words noisily.
The confusion lasted only a moment.
Both of their expressions hardened as they hurried over.
Tap, tap.
“Excuse me…….”
Just as Jeong Minsu was about to call out, Dr. Hanks sobbed bitterly and poured out the resentment buried in his chest.
“I wanted to see them too……. I really did……. Sob. I wanted to see……. my children……. so badly.”
“Then you should have gone to see them. You should have taken leave a long time ago.”
At Taesu’s words, Dr. Hanks let out a self-deprecating sigh.
“I wanted to show them……. who I was……. what kind of person I was……. Ahem. To the children……. I wanted to show them.”
“You could have called them over during vacation and spent a week together. Why hide it as some big secret? Why hide it at all!”
Unable to merely scold him, Taesu patted Dr. Hanks on the upper arm.
Pat, pat.
Perhaps the touch struck a chord in his heart, because Dr. Hanks began to cry even more sorrowfully.
“Waaah. Hic, waaaah…….”
“Fathers really are idiots. So foolish, honestly!”
Taesu embraced the collapsing Dr. Hanks and gave voice to his own grief.
That was when it happened.
With a sudden rush!
Someone wrapped both arms around Taesu.
Jeong Minsu had somehow filled both eyes with tears and was visibly shaken.
“My father was like that too. He said we’d eat samgyeopsal in the morning, then said we’d have it for dinner……. but he never came home.”
“Minsu, so that’s why you go crazy whenever you see samgyeopsal. I’m sorry. I misunderstood you.”
“It’s okay. Everything’s okay, but my father really loved samgyeopsal, and he couldn’t even eat it. Sob. That’s what makes me even sadder.”
“Oh, you fool!”
Pat, pat.
As Taesu patted him sympathetically, Dr. Hanks joined in.
“Doctor Jeong, since you grew up so well……. Sob. Your father must surely be proud……. very proud of you.”
“Thank you. Dr. Hanks, sob. The children simply don’t know, but you are more than worthy of becoming the best father.”
“Uhh, sob. Just call me Hanks……. Let’s do that. And thank you……. sob. For comforting me.”
“Then call us comfortably too, Hanks. Sob.”
Jeong Minsu and Dr. Hanks seemed to feel a shared kinship, crying as their emotions overwhelmed them.
Meanwhile, Gim Hyeokgwon’s expression as he watched them was ambiguous.
“Is this something I’m supposed to cry over, or laugh over?”
He looked genuinely troubled.
Gim Hyeokgwon seemed completely at a loss as to what to do with the bundle of papers clutched in one hand.
That was when Taesu noticed him.
“Why, sob. Why are you just standing there?”
“I don’t think I should join that tearful madhouse.”
“Then just stay over there.”
“I’d like to, but I have news to deliver too.”
Gim Hyeokgwon casually lifted the bundle of papers to show him.
They looked important.
Wiping away his tears, Taesu handed Dr. Hanks over to Jeong Minsu.
“Minsu, take care of Hanks for a bit.”
“Sob. Got it. Hanks!”
“Doctor Jeong. Sob!”
Thud.
Jeong Minsu and Dr. Hanks clung tightly to each other, overwhelmed with emotion.
They were filled with a bond that would not tolerate Taesu’s absence.
Even considering their separate circumstances, the two of them were likely the ones who could understand each other most deeply at that moment.
Taesu soon approached Gim Hyeokgwon.
He exhaled, calming his heaving chest.
“Hooou, hooou. What is it?”
“Are you really all right?”
“Yes. Ahem. I’m fine now.”
“Then look.”
Rustle.
When Gim Hyeokgwon unfolded the papers and held them out, Taesu accepted them with both hands.
The papers were printed replies sent by African tribes.
Since each NGO branch had translated and written them in English, Taesu could read them as well.
—To Father’s children, with affection.
Taesu pondered the first sentence before asking,
“Father?”
“Here, ‘father’ is a respectful term meaning ‘a person like a father.’”
“Ah, I remember you mentioning that before.”
“Don’t read everything. Just look at the underlined parts, and you’ll get the gist.”
Just as Gim Hyeokgwon had said, portions of the letters had been underlined here and there.
Taesu quickly scanned them with his eyes.
Even Taesu had to admit that the contents were incredible.
There was an anecdote about carrying a patient thirty kilometers through the night to a hospital because they had no surgical instruments.
Another told of how he had struggled with a mother in a difficult labor for six hours before delivering the baby safely.
There was also a story about digging for groundwater with the villagers to solve the problem of inadequate and contaminated drinking water, among many others.
Several anecdotes filled each page.
And the paper was not thin, either.
It seemed that every tribe Dr. Hanks had visited in Africa had sent a reply.
Even Taesu had to admit that they were truly remarkable accomplishments.
He could understand a hundred times over why people said Dr. Hanks had a reputation within the NGO comparable to James’s.
Yet Taesu’s expression was not particularly bright.
“Whew. What good is any of this?”
“It was useful, which is why I brought it.”
“Can’t you tell by looking at him? What he wants is to be acknowledged more by his family.”
“That’s why I told you to look only at the underlined parts. You skimmed those too, didn’t you?”
Gim Hyeokgwon shot Taesu a narrow-eyed glance.
Taesu wiped away his bitterness and tilted his head.
“I looked at all of it.”
“You read a few lines and skipped the rest because it was all similar.”
“What’s different about the last part?”
Having been struck directly at the heart of the matter, Taesu awkwardly examined the underlined section near the bottom.
It contained something entirely different.
—I’m sorry for taking your father away from you. I’m so sorry that I have no way to make up for all the lonely time you spent.
Taesu read calmly with his eyes, but then he reached the next passage and paused.
“Hmm. Huh?”
“Yes. The part below that.”
Gim Hyeokgwon answered with a kind yet pointed glance.
The truly important content was written below.
—During that time, Father saved the people of our village and kept us healthy. And he always said that one day, he wanted to come back with you and show you our village.
Taesu murmured the next line himself.
“Anthony, Elika, Esmeralda. We will never forget your names……. He knows the children’s names?”
“Of course he does. Otherwise they wouldn’t have written them down. Though the spelling is slightly different at each branch.”
“Why would that be?”
“Because he didn’t write them down—he spoke them aloud. How often must he have talked about the children’s names for villages scattered across the region to remember them even after ten years?”
Gim Hyeokgwon gave him the answer in his usual blunt tone.
It was clearly an answer he had analyzed coolly and without emotion, as a translator.
Taesu trusted him completely on that point.
The letter’s contents were deeply meaningful.
But the problem was that they were now in Taesu’s hands, where they could do nothing.
“What are we supposed to do with these after printing them out?”
“I needed something to kill time.”
“Can’t you tell from the way he looks? This isn’t something that can be dealt with by killing time.”
“We’ve already dealt with almost all of it.”
At Gim Hyeokgwon’s reply, Taesu stared at him in bewilderment.
“What are you talking about?”
“Anthony went to a Boy Scout camp yesterday, so he should be arriving at school around now.”
“So?”
“I know the situation, and Max is waiting to pick him up. The other children should be waiting at home.”
Taesu narrowed his brow at the cryptic words.
“What exactly are they waiting for?”
“For Anthony to get home.”
“Hyeokgwon.”
Piercingly.
Taesu called to him in a low voice, glaring sharply.
Gim Hyeokgwon calmly took out his phone as he answered.
“They said all the children wanted to have a video call together.”
“What?”
“I don’t know the details either. Max suggested it, so that’s what we’re doing.”
“You already knew Max was there…….”
Taesu had been about to press him for more, but stopped.
It was easier on his mind to assume that Gim Hyeokgwon had known all along.
Gim Hyeokgwon, too, responded to Taesu’s reaction with easygoing composure.
“I happened to find out. But will it be all right if he answers the phone after crying like that?”
“It won’t do at all.”
“They aren’t listening to us.”
Gim Hyeokgwon calmly pointed this out at the same time.
Taesu pushed his way between the two men, who were still overflowing with emotion.
“That’s enough. Both of you, enough. No more crying!”
“Taesu, you heartless bastard!”
“Why did you come here, anyway?”
At Taesu’s question, the tears vanished from Jeong Minsu’s eyes in an instant.
There was no way Jeong Minsu, who had entered together with Gim Hyeokgwon, could have been unaware of this.
“Ah, right!”
“And after that, you call me heartless?”
“I got swept up in it without realizing.”
Jeong Minsu awkwardly scratched his cheek and looked away.
Taesu backed away, pushed Jeong Minsu out of the ward, and then spoke to Dr. Hanks.
“The children want to talk to you.”
“……W-What do you mean?”
“We agreed to speak comfortably, remember?”
“Ah, yes. But……. No, really? The children?”
Dr. Hanks’s reaction was filled with disbelief.