Chapter 7: The Secret Is Revealed

"Calm down! Everyone is sleeping," shushed Young-Soo.

"Sorry! Hey! Every photograph is of Ashma, every article is about her too," she screamed again, excited. She kept picking photographs after photographs and articles after articles. Young-Soo tried to stop her but he failed.

"Give it back, ddal!" at last he shouted back.

"Okay, sorry." She kept everything back in the box. For a few seconds she rubbed her chin thinking, then she asked suspiciously, "why do you have so many articles about her, Ahppa? You also have her childhood photograph." Young-Soo started sweating unable to answer. "Aww… That's so sweet. My ahppa is also a fan of Ashma. Yay!!!" She was excited to see that even her father loved her idol. She ran to him and kissed him. She then started walking away from him in direction of her room.

He sighed in relief and started shoving every paper inside the box and then suddenly he noticed Bong-Cha from the corner of his eyes. He immediately tensed up as he saw her suddenly halting in her path.

She came back around and stated, "I am one of her biggest fans. I have posters of her and her designs all over my room but even I don't have her childhood pictures or her graduation pictures. But you have everything, her school pictures, her dance pictures. You even have her birth certificate. No one has those things because she never let them out in the world. She has an amazing PR team. Why do you have these pictures, Ahppa? And why were you looking at them alone at this time of night? And why were you startled just now?" She became suspicious and asked questions after questions to him.

Young-Soo gulped. With much effort, he composed himself and replied, "see you are not her biggest fan; I am. Sorry I hid this from you. I wanted my daughter to have her dress. Don't tell your harabuhji. I hired a private detective to know everything about her life. So that I can win in being a good dad and the greatest fan of my daughter's idol."

Young-Soo kept staring at Bong-Cha for her reaction. He kept praying to God so that she would believe every word he just said. She stood there directly glaring at her father, then instantly she laughed out loud and hugged him. "Ahppa! You are the best."

As Baek-Hyeon's room was on the ground floor, he woke up after hearing the sounds of talking and laughing. He came out of his room while rubbing his eyes.

"What you two are doing, laughing and shouting when everyone is trying to sleep?" he shouted. "We are all tired from driving, just shush both of you." After scolding both of them, he turned back and started going to his room with his eyes still closed.

Bong-Cha excitedly ran to him and hugged him from behind. "Ahppa is also a fan of Designer Ashma. He hired a private detective and he has this whole collection of memorabilia about her, it's so sweet."

"Ddal!" Young-soo threw his hands in the air.

Bong-Cha looked at him and pressed her tongue under her teeth to show guilt. "Oh sorry! I was not supposed to tell you that. Go back to sleep." She started pushing him towards his room.

It was as if the words 'Designer Ashma' and 'Private detective' woke him out of his slumber. "What? Ahppa hired a detective? Let me see." He couldn't believe his ears and wanted to see everything with his own eyes.

Young-Soo tried to resist giving the box to Baek-Hyeon but he snatched the box out of his father's hands. He was about to open and start rummaging around the documents and photographs when his sister's voice stopped him.

Suddenly, Bong-Cha shrieked, "wait! Do you know who her father is? No one knows who her father is. What was the name on that birth certificate?" Young-Soo started sweating. The secret was about to be revealed. "Oh, why didn't I notice it before," asserted Bong-Cha. Young-Soo sighed with relief but was sad. He wanted both his family's secret to be safe as well as his kids to know about the girl in the box. "Please, Ahppa, show me," requested Bong-Cha.

Without any warning, Eun-Kyung appeared in the living room. She also heard all the noise and laughter and woke up. The very next moment she saw the box in her son's hand and panicked.

"What are you doing with the box? Return it to your father right now." She screamed at the top of her lungs. All the commotion woke the whole house up. Slowly, everyone came out of their room. Jong-Woo, Hae-Won, Chin-Sun, Hei-Ran, Yong-Sun and the rest of the park family were gathered in the living room.

Bong-Cha and Baek-Hyeon were startled by their mother's shouting. Bong-Cha explained, "it's ok uhmma, it's just a few articles dad collected about Designer Ashma. He is also a fan. He just hid it from us."

Young-Soo and Eun-Kyung exchanged a look. Baek-Hyeon noticed that look.

"What was that?" he immediately questioned.

"What was what?" his father queried.

"You both looked at each other. What was that?" Baek-Hyeon asked again.

"No, we didn't. There was no look." Eun-Kyung looked at her friends for help.

Hei-ran came to their rescue. "Okay, everyone, go back to sleep. We don't want scolding from shiahbuhji."

Baek-Hyeon was getting suspicious with every passing minute. "Not before I look into this." Baek-Hyeon was determined.

Out of the blue, an authoritative voice resonated in the room. "What is going on? Why no one is asleep?" shouted Young-Jae from the stairs.

Bong-Cha and Baek-Hyeon were already startled by their mother's shouting and suspicious behaviour of everyone and now they were afraid because of the wrath of their grandfather.

"What is that?" asked Young-Jae looking at the metal box.

"That is what I intend to find, harabuhji," said Baek-Hyeon calmly. Everyone else was standing there, tensed. Everyone could hear the thundering and lighting that was about to happen inside the house in a few minutes. Either the eldest was going to be mad or the youngest was going to be furious. One way or the other today was the day, the secret would come out.

"Harabuhji! Please don't be mad. Ahppa did this for me." Bong-Cha took her grandfather's hand in hers and tried to pacify him.

"What did he do?" Young-Jae raised an eyebrow.

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While Young-Jae and Bong-Cha were conversing, Baek-Hyeon opened the box and dug around articles and photographs. He was busy looking for the birth certificate but instead, he found a photograph in which a beautiful woman was holding a newborn baby while sitting on a hospital bed. He turned the photograph there it was a date, a date from the past. The date was twenty-eight years in the past. A child was born on 20th September twenty-eight years ago.

Baek-Hyeon's mind was working fast. One could hear the gears turning in his brain. He asked, "when was it that you were in India, Ahppa?"

"Excuse me!" shouted Young-Jae. "How dare you talk about the place? What is that? Show me." He seized the box from Beak-Hyeon's hands.

His eyes turned red with rage. She started spitting fire at Young-Soo, "you saved all this. I told you to never bother with them. What do you want to prove? Why do you want to destroy everything?

Young-Soo fought back. "I am destroying everything? I am? You destroyed everything."

"Soo-na!" shouted Eun-Kyung at Young-Soo to make him realise that he was being rude to his father and was about to bring everything in open.

"No, yuhbo, it's time. Everyone should know. Year after year, he keeps saying that he is with his family, he is surrounded with his family." He turned towards his father and yelled, "are you really with your family? Aren't you missing someone?"

"They were never my family, they will never be my family. This topic is over. Everyone go back to sleep, NOW," shouted Young-Jae in a commanding tone.

Everyone turned to leave when Young-Soo shouted back, "no, no one will move."

"Adeul!" warned Young-Jae.

"I have had enough. I can not take it anymore. 28 years! 28 years! And I don't know my daughter," said Young-Soo. Everyone's jaw dropped. Everyone stood there dumbfounded. Baek-Hyeon, Bong-Cha, Chin-Sun and Yong-Sun stood there confused, they had no idea what everyone was talking about.

Young-Soo continued, "my daughter has no idea who her father is, or that I even exist." Baek-Hyeon and Bong-Cha stared at each other after their father's words. What was he talking about?

"She tells the whole world that her father is dead. I am alive. I am here," finished Young-Soo and fell on his knees, sobbing.

"What is going on? What are you two talking about?" screamed Bong-Cha after seeing her father's pain. "I am right here, I know about my father."

Young-Soo wiped his tears, looked at Bong-Cha and explained, "remember ddal, a few days back you were watching the interview of your favourite idol, Ashma and she told the whole world that she does not have a father."

"Yes"

"Don't you dare, Adeul," warned Young-Jae, again.

But Young-Soo completely ignored his warning and spoke, "I am her father." He looked at Bong-Cha and said, "your designer Ashma is my daughter, your half-sister." He then turned towards Baek-Hyeon and continued, "and your half-sister."

"What?" all the youngsters screamed in unison.

"She is your elder sister. We buried the truth from the world 28 years ago."

"Wait! This is your family matter. We should leave," said Yong-Sun out of respect.

"No need they all know. Just look at their faces," said Baek-Hyeon.

"You all knew?" exclaimed Chin-Sun looking at all the elders.

"Did you all know and were hiding a sister from us?' asked Baek-Hyeon. No one spoke. Everyone kept their head down and avoided looking at each other. By this time even the servants were standing at the kitchen entrance and watching the drama unfold.

"You knew? You all knew I have a sister. Chin-Sun and I have been going crazy about Ashma, Yong-Sun has a crush on her. We kept talking about her in front of you and you all pretended that you had no idea. I have a half-sister, we have a half-sister who is a world-famous designer and no one told us. You have been hiding this for the past twenty-eight years. Oh god! I am hyperventilating. It's too hot right now. Is anyone else feeling hot? No, just me." Bong-Cha babbled everything in a single breath. She started fanning herself with her hands and kept blowing air out of her mouth to calm herself down.

"Sit down. Calm down! Everyone knew you have a sister but that Ashma is your sister, no one had any idea about that," Eun-Kyung forced her to sit on the couch. In-ho ran and brought her a glass of water.

"Thank you Pyo-ssi," said Eun-Kyung and took the glass of water from his hands. She made Bong-Cha drink from it.

After drinking the water, Bong-Cha said, "that's why you were angry when harabuhji said he was surrounded by family. But not every family member was there. You meant she was not with us. Does she know you have a family? Does she know she has a family?"

"What happened? Why? Why did you hide her?" asked Baek-Hyeon.

"I didn't hide her. Your harabuhji did," answered Young-Soo.

"What?" both brother and sister screamed simultaneously.

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