Ignites
The Great Escape (Thirty)
“Lee Enzo, what are you doing here? If you haven't been picked up yet, you better wait inside.”
Enzo turned his head back and found his class teacher looking at him with a worried look. The little boy shook his head slowly and insisted on waiting for his father to come in front of the gate because he did not want to trouble his father who had to go into the school to look for him if he waited inside.
“I will wait for daddy here, soon he will come pick me up.”
“Indeed where is your aunt who usually picks you up?” the teacher asked curiously. Enzo then recalled his conversation with Jaekyung yesterday. The long-haired woman yesterday told him that for the next three days he could not accompany Enzo because he had to finish his work out of town, so that for a while he will continue to be picked up by his father and will live at home with his grandmother who happens to be in Seoul.
“Aunt Jae is having a job out of town. Soon daddy will be coming, miss Song need not worry.”
The shoulder-haired lady nodded in understanding and stroked Enzo's head slowly before she walked away to enter the school which looked quite deserted.
After his class teacher left, Enzo resumed his activities by daydreaming while watching every car that passed in front of him. Although it was ridiculous, but at least facing the car that passed in front of him slightly reduced his sense of boredom due to waiting for the father for so long. He knew that his father was very busy, and he would wait until his father picked him up. This morning when his father came, he was so happy that he wanted to be delivered directly by his father to school. And fortunately his father immediately agreed to his wish because the father apparently also felt quite guilty because it had been several days
this left it at home. But before he entered his school this morning his father had told him he could not promise to pick him up on time because he had so much work to do. He also nodded his head is okay to the father because he quite understands the work of his father who is super busy at the headquarters.
Suddenly Enzo felt hungry and thirsty. He stood up to go to the mini market across the street. Coincidentally the school hours have been completed since an hour and a half ago, so the atmosphere of the street in front of him is not too crowded. Only a few private cars occasionally flashed in front of him. He began to stand on the side of the road to cross. After feeling the road was quite quiet, his small footsteps slowly walked across the asphalt that stretched in front of him. But suddenly a red sedan drove quite fast from the east and made Enzo surprised. The little boy reflexively stopped his steps and pecked at the spot with trembling legs. Both of his legs were glued to the asphalt and he could not move them in the slightest. With resignation Enzo closed his eyes and just imagined the face of his long-gone mother.
Ciiitt
Faintly Enzo heard the sound of a tire squeaking against the asphalt in front of him. But his eyelids did not dare to open his eyes at all because the shadow of the red sedan that would bully him kept swirling inside his head to make him feel horrified and only able to peck on the spot while closing his eyes.
“Jeez, you're okay son. Are you hurt?”
A group of pedestrians led him to pull over across the street. A young mother thrust a glass of water at Enzo to calm him down in shock. Without saying anything, Enzo immediately gulped the water up to the toilet with a breath that was still panting a few times.
“Excuse me, is he okay?”
Enzo lowered his plastic cup and confronted the driver. The blonde haired lady looked at the worried Enzo as she scanned his body to make sure that Enzo was completely unharmed. But suddenly Enzo jumped from his seat and immediately hugged the woman until he
almost swung back due to Enzo's strong push.
“Mommy..”
All the pedestrians still in Enzo were whispering quietly when Enzo hugged the impactor, who they thought was Enzo's mother.
“Sorry, I'm not your mother.”
“Mommy... I miss you.” Enzo said again without heeding the words of the foreign woman he embraced. One of the young mothers who gave Enzo a glass of water patted the shoulder of the sluggish impactor while exclaiming softly.
“Why don't you acknowledge your own son, look he's so scared.”
The woman then decided to let Enzo hug her while waiting for the pedestrians to leave from where he was standing because he felt quite strange about their sudden presence showering her with cynical looks because they thought she was an evil mother who almost hit her son and did not admit the child she almost hit as her son.
“Hey, are you okay? I'm not your mother, where is your mother now? I'll take you to your mother.” said the woman slowly as she pushed Enzo's body slightly away so that she could look directly at Enzo's face. At first glance the woman found a longing and sadness that was quite concentrated from the little boy's eyes. But he chose to ignore it because all the sadness felt by the little man was none of his business.
“Where is your mother? I'll take you to your mother.”
“You look like my mommy. Mommyku is dead.” said Enzo lightly. The woman felt stunned by Enzo's words with a strange feeling that suddenly infiltrated her heart. Suddenly he felt an invisible hand pinching his heart and squeezing it until he felt pain when the innocent boy said he did not have a mother. And by the way about mom, she doesn't have it either. So they're the same.
“You didn't go home?” ask the woman a little softly. He decided to take his place next to Enzo while looking at the little boy with his gentle eyes. The gentle eyes that he had never shown to anyone in his lifetime. Only on Enzo did he show his gentle side that had been buried deep in his soul.
“I'm waiting for my daddy. I thought you were my mommy, I miss her so much.”
Krystal stroked the top of Enzo's head gently. He doesn't really know what to do to calm Enzo down. Because he has no experience with children.
“Maybe we're just similar, but I'm not your mother. Are you hurt?”
Enzo shook his head slowly as he looked at his hands and feet which still looked fine, without the slightest scuff.
“I'm fine. Your car didn't hit me. Ahh, that's my daddy's car, I have to go.”
“Bye.”
Krystal gave a small smile at Enzo who had run across the street to approach his father's car which had been parked there. For a moment Krystal felt like having a child who would enliven her lonely and boring life. But then he immediately threw away his momentary thoughts regarding a child because he clearly did not deserve it. The dark life he had lived all this time was too risky if he had a child. If he has a child, he will be confused with the safety of his son who will never get a quiet life without violence because all this time he was always surrounded by the black atmosphere. A black atmosphere filled with vengeance, anger, and death.
“Huh, I am indeed silly.”
Krystal grinned bitterly at herself while putting her sunglasses back on to camouflage her face from people who might be eyeing her.
-00-
“Enzo, where have you been? Daddy looking for you.”
Haejun walked quickly towards Enzo while looking at Enzo with concern because he had just entered his son's school but did not find the son in his school yard. But after finding Enzo in fine form, the worry slowly faded, replaced by a sudden feeling of relief in his heart. Since then he continues to imagine various bad events because after all Enzo's life is always in danger since news of his marriage and Yuka's death was revealed to the media.
“Enzo just buy a drink up front there, Enzo also meet with..”.
Enzo turned his head back, but he did not find a woman's car that looked like his mother. With a little confusion he turned to look around to find where the car was. Unfortunately, the car really went from there.
“Who? Who did you meet?”
“Someone who looks like mommy, but it looks like he's gone. Let's go home dad.” take Enzo with a lethargic face while walking slowly towards his father's car. Haejun frowned at Enzo while staring at the entire corner of the mini market that looked lonely.
“You must miss your mommy, let's go see mommy at the funeral.”
Enzo immediately nodded enthusiastically while exclaiming loudly.
“Ayooo.. I want to meet mommy.” The little boy shouted excitedly. Haejun smiled slightly at Enzo's excited behavior. Enzo has grown into a six-year-old boy who has left his kindergarten. How time went so fast after Yuka left them. But life must continue. He must continue to raise Enzo vigorously so that he will become a proud child and Yuka. Enzo is their little angel
that brings a thousand hopes that they want to realize in the future. Although Yuka has now left him, but he still has to realize all those hopes until later he can not make it happen and leave the world.
“Dad, will you stay at headquarters tonight?”
Haejun nodded his head while occasionally turning his head to the side to look at Enzo's face.
“Daddy has a lot of work in headquarters. What's up?”
“No, it's nothing. I just miss daddy. When can we play together like we used to? I want to play a game with daddy again.”
Haejun ruffled his son's hair a few times while chuckling softly.
“So that means asking daddy about it, wait a minute. Tomorrow we will play games all day at home.” said Haejun earnestly. Enzo exclaimed in excitement as he raised both his hands above. Apparently the boy really misses his father until the plan to play games all day at home makes him so happy not to play.
“I really can't wait to beat daddy in all the games we're going to play tomorrow because all this time I've always managed to beat aunty Jae.” said Enzo sounds satisfied. Haejun shook his head slowly with the height of Enzo who sometimes looked so satisfied when he managed to make Jaekyung scream angry because of the actions of the boy.
“Do not like to disturb Aunt Jae, succumb to her.”
“But I like to see aunty Jae while yelling, she looks cute.” said Enzo while giggling amusedly imagining a fierce face or face annoyed Jaekyung when he teased her at home. He admitted that Jaekyung was actually a good and loving woman, but sometimes she was a little noisy and meddled too much in her affairs, making her feel uncomfortable if the woman had wandered around her.
“Come down, let's meet mommy.”
Enzo took off his seatbelt in a hurry when the car his father was driving was perfectly parked inside a public cemetery that looked deserted. Agilely, Enzo walked through the rows of gravestones that lay around him to reach the tomb of his mother who was at the end of the path he passed.
“Mommy, I'm coming. How are you?” said Enzo lightly on his mother's grave while stroking it slowly. The little boy then cleaned his mother's grave from the weeds growing on the sidelines of the tombstone bearing the name Im Yuka on it.
“Yuka, I'm coming with Enzo. We missed you.”
The two of them crouched down in front of Yuka's grave and prayed for the woman who meant so much to their lives solemnly. Haejun clenched his two hands while closing his eyes tightly in front of Yuka's grave. In his prayer he wished all Yuka was always happy up there and lived a quiet life while waiting for her who would one day also catch up with him to leave the hustle and bustle of life in an endless world.
“Mommy, I miss you so much. Live well above, see you. I'll come again to visit you with daddy another time.” Enzo promises while stroking Yuka's headstone once more before she gets up and follows Haejun's steps walking in front of her to leave the burial area. The father and son couple then get into the black car that Haejun is driving in silence with various emotions running through his heart as they both feel a deep longing for Yuka.
