Chapter 19 – Healthy Jealousy
A stunned silence fell inside the room as the doctor made his announcement.
The implication of the doctor's words hung in the air as everyone pondered on it. Yi Jung stared down on the floor in silence with an unfathomable expression on his face. Ga Eul looked around with a stunned expression on her face as she held Han Byul. And everyone else were pretty much shocked at the onset of the revelation.
Amongst all of them, Ji Hoo seemed to be the only one not stunned as he pondered on the announcement.
"Y-Yah…" Song Woo Bin was the first one to break the silence as he looked at Ji Hoo. "Yoon Ji Hoo, you didn't tell us you were such a… ladies' man. How the heck did this happen without our knowledge?" He asked.
For all they knew, Ji Hoo could have met some woman behind their back. After all, although Ji Hoo may look like someone with a world of his own, he's still a very prime example of masculine virility who's merely a subject to the will of his hormonal nature. In short, he may look harmless but Ji Hoo was still very much a man.
"Then- what happens to baby Han Byul…?" Jan Di raised the question as she sat beside Ga Eul. "Yah… Yoon Ji Hoo, who will take care of her?" She asked, clearly concerned for the welfare of the little bundle of joy in Ga Eul's arms.
"She needs a complete family to take care of her…" Jae Kyung seconded. "And clearly, Ji Hoo can't provide that…" She added objectively.
Ji Hoo sighed. "We better discuss this in my office." He announced and turned to the other doctor in the room. "Doctor, I hope this news remain in this room." He said, his face passive – not giving away anything and betraying his own inner feelings.
Leading the other F4 and the three women altogether, Ji Hoo brought them to his spacious office where they could discuss everything in private. He sat behind his desk without a word, leaving the others wondering about what was currently running inside his mind.
"I knew that this was coming." Ji Hoo quietly announced.
"SO! You admit that you had a woman we didn't know about, huh?" Woo Bin immediately accused. An incredulous expression shadowed his face. "You didn't tell us and you call us your friends?"
"That's not-"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk…" Jun Pyo shook his head in disapproval. "Where did my childhood friend Yoon Ji Hoo go?" He asked while raising one eyebrow.
"Yah… More than a doctor and more than a friend, Ji Hoo is by nature a man." Yi Jung added in his two cents. "… And a man, of course… has needs." He expressedly stared at Ga Eul to make a point. "One way or another, he has to fulfill these needs." He said quietly.
"Yi Ju-"
"Aish… And here I thought Yoon Ji Hoo was a different kind of man compared to the likes of Yi Jung and Woo Bin…" Jae Kyung pouted.
All the while, Ji Hoo was trying to say something but was always getting interrupted by the judgmental opinions of his friends. He exasperatedly sighed and was getting a wee bit ticked off by the minute.
"Can you guys please shut up and not talk like I'm not here?" Ji Hoo raised his voice a notch higher to catch the attention of his friends.
"Just saying…" Jae Kyung shrugged.
"Han Byul is not my child." Ji Hoo declared. "She's my freakin' sister."
"HA?" Everyone simultaneously chorused.
"The doctor only declared that I matched Han Byul's DNA. Did he declare that I was her Father? No." He pointed out. "Secondly, I have been expecting some sort of scenario like this for years due to the reason that before my parents died, they were planning to conceive another child through scientific means because my Mother had some problems in conceiving… And when I mean scientific means, I mean in-vitro fertilization through a surrogate mother. They even went as far as to have my Father's sperm collected. However, they never got through the plan because they died."
Seeing as a pause was in order, Ji Hoo momentarily allowed his friends to digest the information he just revealed.
"And since my parents died, my Grandfather made it a point to keep my Father's sperm in a sperm bank with an indistinguishable label privy only to the records officer. To say the least, it is accessible to anyone who wishes to have a child. And since my Father was connected to the F4, rumors might have arisen as to the source of the sperm…"
"Aaahhh…" Woo Bin smiled sheepishly. "Then, it was all a misunderstanding…"
With a blank face, Ji Hoo turned to all of them and spoke, "I'm a doctor. Why the heck would I allow myself to father a child when I know ways to avoid it?" He rolled his eyes and slumped back on his seat.
"Wait." It was Ga Eul's turn to speak. "If what you say is true, then, it's possible that Han Byul's mother is not the only recipient of your Father's sperm… right?"
"I can't know that for sure… But at least I have access to the sperm bank. With Han Byul's appearance, I can trace my Father's sperm and have it removed from there."
"Ah…" Jan Di tentatively raised her hand. "Again, I'd really like to know what would happen to Han Byul…"
Everyone looked at Ji Hoo expectantly, waiting for his answer since he was the one directly related to the baby in Ga Eul's arms. With a resigned sigh, Ji Hoo had no other option but to take care of the matter himself. Han Byul was, first and foremost, his business to take care of. He knew that the mere arrival of the baby had shaken not only his world, but also of his friends. And he just can't let things go downhill from there.
"I'll take care of her." Ji Hoo curtly replied.
"I'd like to know what you mean by saying that." It was Ga Eul's turn to speak. "I know it's not my place to inquire, but she has been with me ever since she arrived, and I'd like to know what will happen to her."
"Well, for now, temporarily, she will be taken cared of by a nanny… I will have to investigate starting with the sperm bank so that I can trace her mother… Those are the only things I can think of right now… But I assure that she will be taken cared of to the best of my ability… I can guarantee you that." Ji Hoo replied.
"What about the kind of family environment she will grow up in?" Jae Kyung inquired next.
It was Woo Bin who spoke to answer Jae Kyung's question. "Whoah, whoah… We're getting way ahead of ourselves. Our top most concern right now is what will happen to Han Byul… As for what kind of family environment will she grew up in, well, that has to be thoroughly deliberated… but not right now."
A thoughtful pause reigned.
"I suggest we all go home for the moment and try to think of what action should be taken next." Ji Hoo dismissedly spoke. "I know that this whole issue has put everyone into such a roller coaster ride. I apologize for whatever chaos it must have caused…" He said this very statement in lieu of Ga Eul and Yi Jung who still looked like they were not nearing patching things up.
"Let's do that…" Yi Jung seconded. "I have a meeting with the President in ten minutes." He added, sounding a lot more detached and indifferent.
Woo Bin and the others could only cringe secretly at his words. They knew that he was being like this because of his wife. After all, So Yi Jung has the tendency to turn to work in order to forget the things that bother him. Well, they all hoped that work was the only thing that Yi Jung turned to… If not, then, that would truly break Ga Eul's heart.
-oOo-
"Omeoni…" Ga Eul bowed low in respect as soon as she entered the office of her mother-in-law.
It was already a few days after the initial pronouncement of baby Han Byul's DNA test result. Ga Eul had broken the news to Kim Young Ran afterwards to inform her of the developments in the mystery of Han Byul's birth. Whether or not she was relieved that her son had been absolved from being the baby's father, was left to be known since her face remained passive despite the revelation.
"You wanted to see me?" Kim Young Ran asked.
"Neh…" She curtly replied.
Ga Eul then took tentative steps forward towards her mother-in-law's desk, and without so much as saying another word, Ga Eul placed a folder on top of Kim Young Ran's desk. It was a white folder containing a handful of documents mainly about the planned re-arrangement of the museum's exhibits.
"That is the result of the first survey we conducted. It's not final but it looks promising." Ga Eul softly said.
"I see… Good then…" Kim Young Ran replied and said nothing more.
"Also…" Ga Eul began with a hesitant tone. This time around, she placed a white letter-sized envelope on top of Kim Young Ran's desk. "That is my resignation letter…" She explained.
A momentarily crease invaded Kim Young Ran's brows as she looked up puzzledly at Ga Eul. "Resignation? But why?" She asked adventently.
"The main reason why I agreed to be under your wing was because I wanted to gain your approval as the wife of your son… I know that the difference in stature between me and Yi Jung could not be easily ignored so I thought I could at least compensate by working hard for you…"
As Ga Eul spoke, she looked down on the floor with crystally eyes, fully-aware that what she was about to do would not gain her mother-in-law's approval. She knew that there was no way she was going to be on Kim Young Ran's good graces by prematurely resigning after just about a few weeks in employment… But she didn't care.
"But I did not anticipate that I would be losing Yi Jung in the process…" She whispered softly, her face a mirror of her wrecked feelings.
"I'm giving you a chance to take your Resignation Letter back…" Kim Young Ran declared instead of showing sympathy.
"But… Omeoni, I don't want to lose my husband…" Ga Eul helplessly pleaded but Kim Young Ran wouldn't budge.
"Take that back now while I'm still giving you a chance." She raised an eyebrow to make a point. "I very rarely make concessions, Ga Eul, so take that Resignation Letter back before I change my mind."
"But-" Ga Eul wanted to argue.
"If you have enough sense, you would listen to me as your mother-in-law this time." Kim Young Ran warned, looking stern and absolutely strict.
Hesitantly, although Ga Eul wanted to protest, when Kim Young Ran acts like a complete dictator as in cases like these, she has no choice but to obey the Queen of the So household. After all, she was still her mother-in-law to whom she must show obedience. So as slowly as she had placed the Resignation Letter on the desk, she also slowly took it and hid it back into her pocket.
"Good girl." Kim Young Ran smiled in approval. "Now, like I said, I very rarely make concessions, and in that aspect, I'm afraid So Yi Jung has taken after me. He doesn't make room for compromise for just anybody, much less to me… So imagine my surprise when my son suddenly came to my office and volunteered his services to deal with the Ministry of Culture in exchange that I be lenient on you…"
Kim Young Ran's confession suddenly stroked a chord inside Ga Eul's heart as she looked up at the older woman with a surprised expression on her face. The older woman seemed to appear mildly amused while Ga Eul just stood there dumbfounded with a surprised expression on her pretty face.
"Yi Jung- he… He did that?" Ga Eul asked.
"Yes…" Kim Young Ran confirmed.
All along, Ga Eul thought that Yi Jung had been verily wasting his time in things she'd rather not imagine because of anger at her. She did not expect for him to just… bow down to his mother like that in exchange for leniency on her. And he even did this without letting her know… All the while, even though her husband was mad at her, he still very much cared.
Kim Young Ran sighed. "You could call this one of those momentous moments in a family. Yi Jung has long since refused any kind of help or compromise involving me… This has to be the first time in many years that he had acknowledged my authority as his mother…" She stated grimly. "Anyhow, since I have my son by the neck because of you, I will not allow you to resign that easily." With that, the evil smirk was back on the epic mother-in-law's face.
"Uhm… May I know where he is right now?" Ga Eul asked, too overwhelmed to say anything else except that she just wanted to find her husband at that very moment.
"He's finalizing the arrangements with the Ministry of Culture for a Culture Exchange Trip to the Philippines." Kim Young Ran replied.
"A trip to the Philippines?" Ga Eul repeated, fully understanding the fact that Yi Jung was arranging a trip, which meant that he would be away from her.
"Yes, he will be spear-heading the trip as the official ambassador of the Ministry of Culture."
"So… That means he will be away?" Ga Eul asked again.
"Yes…"
"For how long then?"
"Three days… Five days at most." Kim Young Ran replied with an amused smile on her face. "Mind you, there are plenty of tropical beaches in the Philippines, filled with women of different races, and I'm sure that the recipient country is more than willing to accommodate my son's needs as an ambassador, as a guest and most of all… as a man." Kim Young Ran's eyebrow raised up to highlight a point which she oh-so-subtly hinted at her statement.
If ever there was a master of subtlety and suggestion among the Alpha mothers of the F4, it was Kim Young Ran. And that was all the more reason why one should never mess with F4.
"Uhm… Excuse me, Omeoni, I-I have to go now…" Ga Eul immediately paled as soon as she heard her mother-in-law's subtle innuendos. By then, the overwhelming feeling brought about by Kim Young Ran's admission of Yi Jung's deal with her was instantly replaced with fury as Ga Eul marched out of her mother-in-law's office and went straight to calling Yi Jung.
"Yobosayo?" Yi Jung answered on the other line as soon as he picked up the phone.
"Where are you?" Ga Eul asked without sparing a second to even take a pause.
"Home." Yi Jung replied curtly.
"Which home?"
"Our home."
"Who're you with?" She just sounded like a jealous housewife but she didn't seem to care.
"I'm alone, of course." Yi Jung sounded truthfully surprised.
Upon ending the call, Ga Eul immediately got in her car and drove home. The trip was supposed to take about forty-five minutes at most, but since she was a housewife in a dire rush to meet her former-philanderer husband, thirty-minutes was enough to arrive home from the museum.
As soon as she entered their house, she began looking for Yi Jung, whom she ultimately found sitting by his desk in the library, reading a few documents with his reading glasses on. From the looks of it, So Yi Jung was obviously not in the Casanova-mode since there was not a girl in sight.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going on a trip to the Philippines?" Ga Eul demanded an answer angrily as soon as she faced her husband.
"Ah… So my mother told you, huh?" Yi Jung asked nonchalantly.
"I should at least know! Why didn't you tell me?" She was a bit over-reacting but her expression merely mirrored the perplexed emotions inside her chest at the thought of her husband cuddling with another woman in a tropical beach in the Philippines.
"Why the hell are you upset? It is still in the planning stages. I was planning to tell you when everything is confirmed." Yi Jung calmly explained while seriously wondering what had suddenly spurred his wife, whom he had a fight with, to just suddenly show up in front of him in a rage.
Somehow, his answer calmed her down a bit, but not enough to assure her. "So… So you're really going in that trip?" She asked, still upset.
Yi Jung shrugged. "Yes…" He took off his reading glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose as he took a break from all the reading.
"When is this trip scheduled?" Ga Eul asked, her voice was still a wee bit miffed.
"Two weeks from now… I'm not sure… The Ministry told me to hold this trip as soon as possible." He replied, still sounding sensible compared to Ga Eul who looked like a jealous wreck.
"Okay… But you're not allowed to go anywhere near any beach while you're in the Philippines." She declared, crossing both her arms across her chest for an authoritative effect.
"Why not?" Yi Jung asked, suddenly intrigued about the thoughts running inside his wife's brain.
"Just because I say so!" Ga Eul replied like a petty child.
She couldn't help but remember the time when she, together with Jan Di and the F4 went on a trip to New Caledonia. It was also a tropical beach, and as always, both Yi Jung and Woo Bin had been surrounded by their girls throughout the trip. At that time, she didn't really mind because, So Yi Jung was just a stranger to her then. A stranger who had a strange hobby of following her wherever she went in New Caledonia.
But now, it's totally different because So Yi Jung was now her husband and she won't tolerate any form of infidelity with any other woman.
So Yi Jung stood up from his desk and sighed contemplatively. "I have a feeling my mother didn't tell you the whole detail of my trip…" He said.
"I don't know about the whole detail of the trip you're talking about, but she told me enough to know that there are many tropical beaches in the Philippines, and that of course, equated to a lot of girls… So, if you dare to go on any of those beaches, I swear…"
"You're coming with me." Yi Jung declared while Ga Eul was in the middle of her rant-filled, jealous speech.
"…you're gonna- What? What did you say?"
"I said you're coming with me to the trip… as my personal assistant. Didn't my mother tell you?" A bemused smile was threatening to lift up on Yi Jung's lips as he stared at the dumbfounded expression on his wife's face, but he tried his best not to smile so as not to embarrass her.
If it was possible to evaporate into thin air in front of her husband who obviously had fun at her expense, Ga Eul would have disappeared as soon as she could. She just couldn't believe that her own mother-in-law would say something like that to her to make her think of worthless thoughts about her husband! And she even went to the point of verbally assaulting Yi Jung for something as feeble as a jealous streak! Plus, to think that prior to her whole jealous rant, she and her husband had not been in good terms!
Aaaarrrrgggghhh… She just made a fool out of herself!
"Oh…" Mortified and all, that was the only thing Ga Eul could say. "Um… She didn't tell me…" She finally appeared calm and sensible although she really wanted to just disappear on the spot.
A smile finally broke out on Yi Jung's lips. "So… You rushed all the way here because my mother hinted about tropical beaches and lots of girls?" He was teasing her and she knew it.
They had not been talking for a few weeks already and here he was, teasing her just because of a silly blunder she made. Ga Eul bit her lip at the irony of things, but instead of turning her back on him to hide her embarrassment, she just raised both her hands up with a pitiful expression on her face.
"I got jealous…" She admitted with a pout.
If it was possible for Yi Jung's brilliant smile to widen more, that would have been the kind of smile that showed on his face as he slowly pulled his wife into an embrace and planted a feathery kiss on her forehead. God, he missed her… He missed holding her in his arms, he missed the smell of her hair, and even just her close proximity with him – he missed all of her.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry about that thing with Mr. Valfrid. I'm so sorry about not telling you about it sooner, and I'm so sorry for making you jealous and upset…" Ga Eul said in a muffled voice as she buried her face into her husband's chest.
"Sshh…" He hushed her softly. "Everything's alright now…" He closed his eyes to savor the achingly familiar feeling of having her inside his arms. God… He felt so empty for a while when he didn't have a chance to hold her like this.
For Ga Eul, the mere thought alone of her husband cuddling with other girls made her half-insane yet totally berserk to even make sense, so she had a fairly clear idea how hard it must have been for Yi Jung to be jealous of Mr. Valfrid. She understood him now… And she just felt so overwhelmingly glad to be back in her husband's arms.
"You know what…" Yi Jung began while still hugging Ga Eul tightly.
"What?" She asked curiously.
"We're all alone right now…" A sinfully charming smile crept up slowly on Yi Jung's lips. "Now, how about that overdue honeymoon we talked about?" He suggested.
But, of course, whoever that all-encompassing Being who was controlling fate, didn't even give Ga Eul a chance to reply when suddenly…
DING DONG!
Someone was ringing the doorbell.
Yi Jung's face was like… royally pissed. T_T
Whoever was at the door at that exact moment, was going to be the receiving end of So Yi Jung's sexually-frustrated wrath.
To Be Continued...
Date Written: July 1, 2011
Date Posted: July 2, 2011