Chapter 155 - Parents Love

"Eomma, I know I've asked this a few times, but what do you know about my biological family?" Eun Ha asked Madame Jung, while saving all the food that her mother had brought for her and Ye Rim. The day had been exhausting, and her mother was traveling back home the next morning. Eun Ha was taking the time to have a 'mother and daughter' moment. She missed that.

Madame Jung sighed,

"Did this matter come back to you for a special reason, Eun Ha?"

"Ah ... Mom. Sometimes I wonder how you couldn't know ... Knowing me since I was a little girl," the young fairy said, trying to study her mother's face. Madame Jung gave a small smile,

"Mothers always know, Eun Ha."

"So did you know that I wasn't 'normal'? When were you sure? And why didn't you tell me?"

"Mothers always wish to do everything for their children. And I thought the more you struggled to adapt, the easier it would be for you. If you don't feel entitled to be different, I mean. People tend to be very mean with everything they don't understand," told her foster mother, staring at her daughter as she handed her another plastic container for Eun Ha to put in the fridge. "There were already too many rumors and too much malice, for you to deal with self-doubts. After all, I didn't know how else I could help. Our town's special people, your mother Myung Hee and your father Jeong Hyuk, were no more."

Eun Ha looked at his mother in shock,

"The way you speak ... It seems that you knew them. Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"Ah, I always wondered what our conversation would be like, daughter. And how would I justify myself for not having told you before? I cannot say that I regret it. It was certainly due to the weakness of a mother who loves her daughter very much. I wanted you to be my daughter and not theirs. If I said that they were special, you would give more importance to them than to me. That's the kind of petty person I am. The story of your life with me would be less important than the story of the life you never had with them. It was nobody's fault they died. But you were my daughter, then."

Eun Ha was silent, feeling her face flush with emotion and confused feelings. Then she dropped the pots and closed the refrigerator, and went to her mother for a long hug.

Mother and daughter hugged silently as thick tears streamed down their faces,

"Thank you so much, Eomma! For taking such good care of me!"

°°°

Ye Rim, who was entering the kitchen, returned silently where she had come from, not wanting to interrupt the conversation between mother and daughter she had just overheard 'unintentionally'. What did they mean by 'being special'?

After the chaotic events, and having encountered supernatural beings close to acquaintances, Ye Rim felt she was becoming a little paranoid, 'Maybe I shouldn't have listened to that sad excuse for a shaman.' She went to the living room balcony, where her father was, watching the neighborhood and drinking beer.

"Appa! You could stay a little longer, couldn't you? "

"Madame Jung drives like a Formula 1 racer and has no idea. If I don't take her back she'll kill herself on the road," he mumbled. "But the important thing is that I saw that you are doing well. Eun Ha made her dream come true and you… You are following your dreams too, aren't you?" He sounded doubtful, and she felt like justifying,

"I know it's taking too long. For a moment I doubted it. But maybe I lacked maturity, earlier."

"Ye Rim, we have discussed a lot in the past, before you left the house. Today you are an a.d.u.l.t woman. I just wonder if I didn't do something wrong, letting you do everything you wanted to do."

"Do you think trying to be tough on me would work?"

"I was just afraid to break you. To be too hard. To hurt her in a way that would never come back, "said Ye Rim's father, which made her eyes fill with tears. "Damn, are we on family conversation day ?!"

"Yeah, I think we are. The two are in the kitchen having their moment. Don't be so tough and tough, Mr. Nam Jeong Geun. You raised me to be a strong and independent woman, but you also let me be a girl. I have nothing to complain about. It must have been difficult, actually."

"Hm. It sure was, since you are terrible! I think I will have good karma, after all," he ended up smiling at his daughter, patting her head with his calloused hand.

"Well, I'm glad you think so, Dad. I know you've always been concerned about it. Because of my mom," she leaned on his shoulder, enjoying the moment. "Lately I've been thinking about her. Whether people were right about it or not. If she had a correct diagnosis. If she was telling the truth, in the end."

Nam Jeong Geun pulled the air to his lungs thoughtfully.

"My convictions always came and went, about your mother. I thought I was doing my best for her, and for you, many times. And I often thought I should have tried to believe it. You don't remember, I know, after all you were very small. I just didn't want her to hurt you. I wanted her to stop saying strange and scary things to you, which upset you so much. But I couldn't understand it, in the end. If it was a disease, or if she was in fact a shaman or something, I feel like I wasn't a good husband."

Ye Rim stroked his father's back, trying to cheer him up, "Well, I know you tried your best. Sometimes we just are not prepared to deal with things. But about the things she saw, what did she say? I don't really remember."

"Ah, well… On the day of your birth, when it all started, there was a strange incident. The more I think, the less it makes sense. I've relived that day a million times in my mind, but I couldn't understand it. As I already told you, your mother had gone to that farm behind pomegranates, without worrying about the fact that she was almost at the end of her pregnancy. She created a situation where I would just have to pick her up there at dusk, after leaving the mechanic shop where I worked at the time," he stared at her to make sure she followed his narrative. Jeong Geun was a very pragmatic and reserved man, who detested nonsense. He and Madame Jung never got along, despite their daughters living close together, because he considered her an 'illogical and irrational' person.

His daughter just remained silent, waiting for him to continue, and Mr. Nam spoke again,

"Night fell fast that day. I saw low flashes, like lightning, on the horizon behind the trees in the orchard. Imagining that it might be the serious problem with power lines, and knowing that his mother was there, I accelerated the truck. I found her on the road, breathless and shaking as a reed, talking about returning to the property because a woman was being attacked. I don't know what I thought. First, I thought of wild animals, then of assailants, but none of that made sense. When I got to where she wanted to take me, I found Eun Ha's mother lying on the floor. She looked like jelly when I took her in my arms. She weighed very little, was malnourished and sick. And there was a wound in the chest ... a wound as if he had been stabbed. His mother was acting out of control. She looked at the sky while holding her belly. I didn't know it yet, but she was giving birth, right there. But she kept looking at the sky as if she saw horrible things floating in the air. But we couldn't wait any longer, and I had to deliver you in that house…" he smiled, showing his hands.

"Thank you so much, Dad, for saving our lives."

"Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to save Eun Ha's mother. When we arrived at the hospital with you and her, your mother said nonsense. She said that a large monster made of shadows had killed and devoured Eun Ha's mother. She also said that she had been attacked by shadows, in the orchard. "

"This part ... do you remember in detail what she said?"

"Unfortunately, yes, daughter. But why do you want to know that so much? "

"Lately ... I've been dreaming about these things, dad," Ye Rim knew that if she said she was seeing these things for real, her dad would be very worried. And she didn't want that.

He reported everything he remembered, forcing the memories to be as exact as he could. He asked.

"Did you dream about these things again?"

Ye Rim nodded. She just remembered her dream about the star eater. Was the monster she dreamed of manifesting the things her mother had told her when she was too young to remember? But if it were just things on her mind, why would she have seen it now?

"I don't remember what I dreamed of when I was a child, father. I only know that I have dreamed of creatures made of shadow. And also like the Big Mouthed Monster."

He made a worried pout, and kissed her hair,

"Maybe it was time for you to look for your mother, don't you think?"