Chapter Text
Jungwon wakes up startled and for a moment he is confused to where he is or why was he sleeping in an uncomfortable chair. But then looks at Sunoo looking at him worridly, he looks around to see nurses and doctors rushing around and it comes back to him.
His phone suddenly ringing admist a meeting, the hospital telling him that his father had collapsed on the sidewalk, finding out that his father has been terminally ill for the last year.
"Taking into account his condition, we are not sure surgery is an option at least not until he wakes up " the doctor said grimly
"Wh-what condition?" Jungwon asked, confused.
The doctor looked at him for a moment as if he had asked a really stupid question but proceeded nonetheless.
"Mr Park had been diagnosed with stage 4 blood cancer 6 months ago, Mr Yang"
Jungwon had been at loss, unable to reply as the doctor told him about his father's decision to not undergo treatment. Jungwon did not have the best relationship with his father, they had fought more than they had loved. Hell the last time they had spoken was a year ago, when his father had called him to congratulate on his engagement.But when he looked at that the aged man, lying in the hospital, the beeping of the heart moniter being the only proof that there was still life left within him. Jungwon had sat at empty stool beside his father's bed the whole night.
"You should go back home and change." Sunoo said, his voice bringing back Jungwon to the reality.
Jungwon looks at his father. He probably should go home, take a shower, change into more comfortable clothes. His work clothes feels sweaty and gross and he hasn't eaten anything other than the shitty hospital coffee since last night. But he can't leave his father alone.
"What if he wakes up?" Jungwon asks.
"I will be here, you need to go home Won" Jungwon looks at his bestfriend gratefully, the man has been there for him through thick and thin. They have been friends for as long as he can remember and Sunoo's presence in his life is unchanging and constant.
Jungwon's drive to his apartment his long and quiet. He tries to quieten the innumerable thoughts flagging his brain. His apartment is empty, cold as it had been for the last 3 months, ever since Niki went to New York. Jungwon has learnt to live his dream and Jungwon won't be the one to hold him back. Their break up had been hard and Jungwon still finds himself unable to return the Engagement ring that sits on his dressing table, a constant reminder of his failed relationship.
He did not tell his father about the break up, not wanting to add another layer into the pile of how he has disappointed him but Jungwon knows he knows.
He quickly takes a quick shower, calls the company where he works as a producer to tell them that he won't be coming in today and hastily makes something to eat.
He would have to go back to the hospital soon or later but Jungwon doesn't want to. He absolutely hates hospitals, it reminds me of when he was seven, the hospital visits with his aunt and image of his mother, frail and weak lying on the hospital beds. His father had been absent, choosing to immerse himself in his work. Jungwon still does not know whether it was heartbreak or ignorance that kept him away.
His father, Park Jongseong, Ceo of South Korea's one of the most popular broadcasting channel, NBS. His grandfather had started the business and his father had taken it to the level it is today. He had expected Jungwon to follow his footsteps but Jungwon has been more on the creative side. It's not like he would not succeed if he tried, but Jungwon loved music, lived and breathed it. So he had gone against his father's wishes and chose to study music production and had later gotten a job at Hybe labels. They had fought a lot, his father refusing to pay for his college. There had been a time when Jungwon had stayed with Sunoo's family and when his father had not budged, he changed his surname from Park to Yang (his mother's), used the inheritance she had left him ( which was quite a lot considering she was the only daughter of high ranking government official) and leave his father behind.
Jungwon decides to stop by his father's place on his way back to the hospital. The doctors had told him that they had given his father his diagnosis report and he should go through them to understand his condition better.
He knocked on the door and greeted Mrs Min as she opened the door. Mrs Min although being the in-house cook, was more like a grandmother to him. His own real grandparents had been stiff, cold and always formal towards him. They have never been rude but they haven't been loving either. But Mrs Min had been welcoming, taking Jungwon to parks, sneaking him snacks before dinner, making him seaweed soup on his birthday. She had been the warmth Jungwon lacked in his childhood.
"Jungwon-ah my boy, look at you, you have become so big" Mrs Min said embraced him in a hug.Jungwon let himself relax into the familiar warmth. "It's good to see you too Mrs Min"
"How's your father?" She asks.
Jungwon doesn't know what to reply, he himself doesn't know the answer. "He's alive"
She nods her head in understanding and Jungwon wonders if she had known, that her employer has been slowly dying with each passing day.
"Will you be staying here, Jungwon-ah?" She asks.
"Ah no, I just need to find some documents" he replies.
He goes to his father's room, everything is clean and polished just like the way it had been when he jad left. Jungwon opens the drawers to find the reports. He rummages through the drawers and finally finds the documents in the lower left drawer. He was about to close it when his eyes catches something. It's a picture, of two men. One of them definitely his father in his early twenties and another man. The other man is extremely handsome, his face looks like greek sculpture, his sharp canines visible in the big smile he is sporting .His father has his arms around the other man's shoulder, they are in some beach and his father is smiling in a way Jungwon has never seen smile like that. He looks carefree and relaxed.
Jungwon flips the picture back.
Fall 1991
Jungwon searches the drawers for more pictures. There aren't but he does find a diary. It's worn out and by the design of it, it does not look like something that has been bought in this decade.
Park Jongseong
It's written at the top corner, in beautiful cursive. Jungwon opens it, the curiosity getting the best of him.
7th August, 1989
Hoon took me to a skating rink today.
Jungwon doesn't know any "Hoon", neither does he remember his father having any friends by that name. He continued to read futher
I was absolutely disastrous on ice but he helped me through it, holding my hand like one of those cliché romance movies. It was embarrassing and he would probably tease me to hell and back for eternity. But it did help me take my mind of things. Father has been bugging me about college again, I am supposed to join the NBS during the summer. He is angry for my lack of interest in it, says my guitar won't pay my bills.
Hoon believes otherwise, he believes that my music will change the world, that oneday I will be singing in big arenas like the beetles, that Park Jay will be the biggest name in the music industry.
Wait what? His father? His grumpy ass father who nearly disowned him because he pursued music wanted to be a singer? Jungwon laughs at the crazyness of it.
But he is dreamer, a big dreamer. I wish I had that ability to dream. I watched him skate today, he was as graceful as a prince. No wonder everyone calls him the ice prince. He jumped and spinned and I watched him in awe. He is going to be training to go to the Olympics from next month.
That means more intensive training, more hours in the rink. I wonder if we will be to hang out like before. I will miss him but I want him to win the Olympics, it's been in his dream since he was nine.
We later had dinner with Heeseung and Jake. They were so grossly in love as usual that it made me puke
( Hoon tells me it was the 5 bottles of soju that made me puke but what does he know, he is an idiot )
I wonder if i will feel love like that, to be so immersed in someone to give zero fucks about the world. Hoon believes that I will be the biggest romantic in the world when I do find someone.
But I don't know if I want someone. I am content with my life right now. Having a girlfriend means even less time with Hoon.
He laughed when i told him that and told me to accept the fact that I cannot talk to girls and stop putting the blame on him.
Well not everyone is born with a face like that. Some of us actually have to woo people with words. He has it easy, one smile and everyone will come flocking around him.
Gross.
The knock on the door makes Jungwon quickly close the diary and hide it behind his back.
Mrs Min slowly opens the door and asks "Will you be eating anything?"
"No no I have to go back to the hospital" Jungwon replies as he quickly gets up, putting the diary in his bag.
"Then atleast come back for dinner, you have become so thin" she says
"I will try" Jungwon probably won't but he doesn't want to disappoint her.
Jungwon walks out of the hoise hurriedly to his car. He sees Mrs Min standing in the doorway.
"Take care Mrs Min" he says as he quickly drives away.
He returns to the hospital to find Sunoo outside in the hallway talking on the phone. He gives Jungwon a small guilty smile. "I have to go back to the office Won for some work, I will come by in the evening"
Jungwon nods in understanding. Sunoo has taken Jungwon's place in the Park business. And Jungwon is proud of him, he had always been someone interested in business.
Jungwon goes to his father's room. He still looked the same as the way Jungwon had left him in the morning, not single visible movement. His mind goes back to the diary, the people mentioned there.
He brings out his phone to search for Hoon but a number of results pop out. Hell Jungwon isn't even sure if that's his full name. He remembers the other two names mentioned. Jake is a really common name and it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
He typed in Heeseung's name and a few names popped up.
Jung Heeseung, Min Heeseung, Kang Heeseung
Most of were either too young to have any connection with his dad. He further scrolled when his eyes caught on to a name.
Lee Heeseung-music producer
Jungwon clicked on the name to find a man, somewhat in the same age as his father. There are very few information given. He lives the LA, is a music producer for some company. Jungwon tries to find something that relates him to his father when he finds an article.
Olympic Gold Medalist, figure skater Park Sunghoon marries boyfriend Lee Heeseung in an intimate ceremony in the US.
Jungwon knows or atleast he had heard about Park Sunghoon, the first korean male figure skater to win gold in the Olympics.
Park Sunghoon
Sunghoon or Hoon
The realisation dawned upon Jungwon, his father was talking about Park Sunghoon.
Holy shit, his father was a simp for the Park Sunghoon!