A child who looks like me

In the afternoon at the Go academy,

Ye-na sat deep in thought, placing one Go stone at a time on the board.

I’m good at Go.

But my grandma and mom can’t play Go.

Then why am I good at it?

What if my dad was good at Go?

Jeong-oh had never talked to Ye-na about her dad.

Whenever the topic of “dad” came up, Jeong-oh would smoothly change the subject. Naturally, Ye-na’s thoughts would follow her mother’s lead.

She wasn’t particularly curious about her dad and enjoyed the fact that she could monopolize her mom without needing to fight with him. She was content with the idea of being her mom’s eternal companion.

That had been the case until recently, but since becoming friends with Do-bin, Ye-na found herself thinking about her dad more often.

Do-bin was kind and a good friend, but he talked a lot about his family. Stories about his dad came up naturally and frequently.

While Do-bin casually shared stories about his dad, they sometimes felt hard for Ye-na to relate to since she didn’t have one.

As she watched Do-bin, who wasn’t really studying Go but just playing around, Ye-na suddenly asked, “What do you like about having a dad?”

It was surprising for Ye-na to bring up the topic of dads first.

Do-bin, pleased by the question, thought for a moment before responding. “My mom says Dad earns money so we can eat and live.”

So a dad is someone who earns money for what we need?

Since my mom and grandma also earn money, does that mean I don’t need a dad?

Ye-na tilted her head and asked again, “What else do you like about having a dad?”

“Hmm… it’s nice when we go to the swimming pool.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a boy, I can’t go to the bathroom with my mom; I have to go with my dad, like going to the toilet.”

“Then since I’m a girl, I don’t need a dad, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Do-bin nodded, then suddenly seemed to remember something and looked at Ye-na.

“Oh, but there’s more. It’s nice when I go to the hospital because my dad carries me.”

“Your dad carries you?”

“Yeah. When I go with my mom, we just hold hands, but when I go with my dad, he carries me like this.”

Do-bin mimicked holding a doll in his arms.

“Dads are strong.”

Until then, Do-bin’s words hadn’t affected her much, but the mention of being carried stirred something warm in her chest.

So dads can carry you when you go to the hospital because they’re strong.

“Ye-na, when I become a dad, I’ll carry my kids to the hospital too.”

As Ye-na quietly nodded, Do-bin continued to promote himself.

Not really hearing his confession, Ye-na muttered to herself, “Yeah, I wish I had a dad.”

“Should I ask? I can tell my dad to be your dad too.”

“That probably won’t work.”

“It might! My dad said he would do anything for me.”

Do-bin continued to mention his dad’s good qualities.

Ye-na couldn’t easily refuse and told him twice more that it probably wouldn’t work.

After their class ended and Ye-na was taken to the cafeteria,

On their way home, Do-bin spoke innocently to Jin-seo.

“Mom, Ye-na and I decided to share our dads.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Ye-na doesn’t have a dad.”

Do-bin smiled contentedly, feeling proud.

Love is…

Mom and Dad love me and want to give me everything. Do-bin felt the same. He wanted to give Ye-na whatever she wanted because he liked her. He was happy to have something to give to Ye-na.

Jin-seo suppressed a laugh and said to Do-bin, “But Do-bin, you wouldn’t be able to marry Ye-na if you do that. Are you okay with that?”

“Why?”

“Since your dad is the same, you two would become siblings. Siblings can’t marry each other. Didn’t you know that?”

The smile that had been on Do-bin’s face disappeared, replaced by a look of contemplation.

“What should I do? I already promised Ye-na!”

“Well, that’s a big problem.”

At the unexpected response, Do-bin’s eyes widened, as if his whole world had crumbled.

In fact, he hadn’t even had the chance to talk to Ye-na about marriage yet…

Last Thursday, on Ye-na’s birthday, he had prepared a letter and a poem, but he never got to show them to her. When he saw Ye-na crying because her mom hadn’t come home yet, he wanted to make her laugh and ended up performing a silly dance and some magic tricks instead. He couldn’t just cling to his friend who was calling for her mom and say “Let’s get married!”

Love is like that…

Things just happen and lead to unexpected decisions.

He had felt proud of making that decision, but now he didn’t know what to do since he had already made a promise.

.*. *. *. *. *. *.

In the evening,

Jeong-oh and Gi-hoon were having a conversation at their desks.

“Hey, did you hear that someone deliberately planted a virus on your laptop?”

“Well, I don’t know about that. I heard it’s a virus that’s been going around lately, and someone from the planning team has been having trouble with it too.”

“Oh… so it was just a coincidence?”

“Looks like it. But it’s true that someone intentionally deleted the files I uploaded to the cloud.”

“Oh, so there was a culprit after all! I knew it!”

“Yeah. At least it’s been clarified that I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Do you think we can find the culprit?”

“They said they couldn’t figure it out because it was done on a public computer.”

“That’s too bad.”

The office was quiet, so their conversation was easily overheard.

“Ah! Wait! I think we might be able to find the culprit!”

Just nearby, Jo Si-nae from Production Team 1 perked up her ears.

“Really? How?”

“Have you ever heard of a fingerprint recognition mouse?”

“Oh, those exist?”

“Yeah. I can’t remember if it was in Room B or C, but someone once complained to the IT department that the public computer and mouse there were broken. When the IT staff replaced them, they switched to a fingerprint recognition mouse. You know the part of the mouse where your thumb touches? That fingerprint gets saved on the computer. With that info, we can find out who keeps messing up the computer.”

“Oh, really? We should check that out! We need to see which public computer the culprit used.”

Si-nae’s hands trembled with anxiety as she listened.

“Yeah. You should check quickly. Since it’s for security, the information isn’t sent over the network and is only stored on the computer in an encrypted form. We can’t let that information be erased.”

“Right. If the virus that’s going around gets to that, we might never catch the culprit. We need to act fast. But since it’s sensitive information, I can’t guarantee the IT department will cooperate.”

“If it’s too much for you, I can go with you. My colleague works in the IT department.”

“Oh! Thank you so much, Gi-hoon! Let’s go first thing tomorrow morning!”

“Sure!”

That was the end of their conversation.

Jeong-oh and Gi-hoon returned to their work, the sound of their typing ringing cheerfully through the office.

Si-nae cautiously stood up from her seat. Her hands trembled, and her heart raced.

It seemed like the plan to plant the virus on Jeong-oh’s laptop had gone smoothly, but the problem was the public computer in the C printing room.

Si-nae had deleted the files that Jeong-oh uploaded to the cloud last Thursday from that computer. She thought everything had gone perfectly, but she never imagined that the mouse there would be a fingerprint recognition one.

Si-nae grabbed a USB drive and stealthily headed to the C printing room. It was the most secluded area in the office, and since it was evening, she didn’t run into anyone. Still, she tried to keep her footsteps quiet as she approached the room.

It was a tiny space. The computer in the corner was the same as it had been then. The mouse too… or was it? She couldn’t remember clearly, as she had been too nervous at the time to notice such details.

Regardless, the mouse in front of her was definitely a fingerprint recognition mouse. Just as Gi-hoon had said, the part where her right thumb would touch was distinctive. It seemed like it could read fingerprints from that spot.

Si-nae wrapped her thumb in a tissue and turned on the computer. There was no issue starting it up.

But where do I find my fingerprint information?

They said the fingerprint information was saved on the computer. However, Si-nae didn’t know how to navigate the computer very well. As she started pressing various buttons, she suddenly heard a rustling noise from outside and jumped in surprise.

I have to solve this quickly!

There was no choice; she had to resort to her last resort.

Si-nae pulled a USB drive out of her pocket. A friend of a friend had made it for her, and it was incredibly convenient. All she had to do was plug it into the computer, and it would automatically spread the virus inside.

Si-nae plugged the USB into the computer and restarted it. A scene she had seen on Jeong-oh’s laptop flashed across the screen.

“It worked!”

“What worked?”

“Ah!”

Si-nae jumped in surprise at the sound of a woman’s voice behind her.

Jeong-oh and Gi-hoon stood there like grim reapers. Si-nae’s face turned bright red.

“Uh… what are you doing here, sir?”

“I asked you first. Jo Si-nae, what are you doing right now?”

“I was, um, just going to print something!”

“It seems like you’re not just printing; it looks like you’re planting a virus on the computer.”

“What kind of nonsense is that!”

“That’s exactly what’s showing on the screen. That’s the same virus that was on my laptop. Why are you trying to ruin a perfectly fine computer?”

“I’m not doing anything like that! I just turned on the computer and this screen appeared!”

Si-nae shouted, her veins bulging in her neck.

She couldn’t crumble here.

At that moment, Gi-hoon stepped forward and unplugged the USB from the computer.

“What’s this USB?”

“……”

“This USB belongs to you, doesn’t it? Didn’t you say you got it as a souvenir from the wedding expo about a month ago?”

Si-nae was surprised that Gi-hoon remembered such details. She momentarily panicked but quickly insisted,

“Did I go to the wedding expo alone? And I never received such a USB! I got a different one!”

“Alright. I guess the camera will reveal the truth.”

Jeong-oh sighed and pointed to a corner of the printing room ceiling.

This time, Si-nae’s face went pale.

There shouldn’t have been a camera here! When did that get installed?

“So, you were the one who deleted the files I uploaded to the cloud from here, Jo Si-nae.”

“Do you have any proof? I said, do you have any proof!”

“The files that were deleted from the cloud were deleted from this location: the C printing room. You came here to delete that information, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Well, then let’s set that aside. You can’t deny that you planted a virus on my laptop.”

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Your delusions are laughable.”

There was no evidence. The erased past could not serve as proof. If she kept insisting, they would eventually run out of things to say.

But Jeong-oh wouldn’t back down either.

He took the USB from Gi-hoon.

“We can find out what’s going on by analyzing this USB. We’ll see if the virus inside is the same as the one that damaged my laptop. If it’s the same, the encrypted codes contained within will also match.”

A chill ran down Si-nae’s spine.

At that moment, Ji-heon appeared with a few other employees.

“It’s too noisy. What’s going on?”

“Jo Si-nae should explain this herself.”

Jeong-oh said to Si-nae.

She had completely walked into a trap.