Chapter 21- Scammers and Deceitful Students (8)
“What? What is it, sir?”
“Your father is here, and he is waiting in the reception room. You may find him not on the door that you have seen earlier, but go out to the hallway on the left side, and in the end, you may find a room. Then, go ahead and enter it.”
“No way, why does my father come here now? I thought he was very busy with his business.”
Hence, Clayo’s face crumpled.
“Is the guest inside of the dean’s office Baron Asser?
The idea of Baron Asser visiting his son at the dean’s office didn’t appear in the last edition of the novel. However, Baron had suspected of being an anonymous donor who financed Arthur during the civil war. But it was hard to come up with more reliable information to corroborate this allegation.
Well, a father should look into his son. Jeongjin thought.
So, Clayo left the dean. He was running and circling the blasé corridor. Then, he gently opened the door at the reception room. Such an act, he might regret after a few minutes.
Flip-flop-
There was no time for him to say hello to his first-time “father.” As soon as he entered the room, he got a slap and rolled over the floor again. The skinny boy was flying away, for he was light and unable to withstand the power of an adult man. But thanks to him, it didn’t happen.
No, his biological father never beats Clayo.
In truth, he has yet to identify his father.
What kind of drama is this? Jeongjin thought.
He was speechless and felt funny rather than sick. Amid his delusion, the smiling Clayo came back to his senses with a thud of clothes. His clothes were already wet and dirty, and the stained of blood have rendered them no longer usable.
“Have you been well, father?”
Baron coldly answered, “Nevermind. Do you think it’s a question you deserve to ask me?”
Finally, facing Baron Asser has a few things similar to Clayo, contrary to Jeongjin’s expectations.
I wonder if Clayo’s mother had been unfaithful to him because he was treated well as a child. His father has neatly combed brown hair, hazel colored eyes, slightly dried cheeks, and high cheekbones. It’s genetic, but why does his father look like a movie star, and Clayo looked malnourished?’ Jeongjin thought in ridicule.
The taller Baron Asser has a horrible cold countenance while the young Asser looked miserable and could not even utter a single word to sit down.
“It took me 2,000 dinars to match your ruined school uniform. Such a uniform has buttons engraved with your initials. It has fabric linen that made of wool, and the ties are silk.”
***
Clayo looked refresh and clean after wearing his new uniform. Indeed, it has buttons on sleeves, and initials of CA engraved.
How did Baron get along so well with his skinny kid?
“I paid 780,000 dinars and 20,000 more for welfare. Your tuition fee is 50,000 dinars per semester. I already paid 200,000 in advance for all four semesters. Here, I’m not exaggerating to say that your day-to-day hours were extracting with gold!” Baron said.
It was a reverberating detail of the amount of money that could allow Clayo, who was currently standing roughly with his legs, to be decent. Thus, Jeongjin, with his Korean ego, would like to appear from within and blame everything to Clayo.
“No, but if you end up winding with a single cheek, you’ll be merciful than you look. It seems you don’t recognize me!”
“Clayo Asser, I ask you again. Is everything all right here?”
“Well, it’s enough. Do you think its just somebody else’s business? You jumped into the river in the middle of the night, didn’t you?”
“…really, it was an accident. The road was dark when I walked….” Clayo was equivocating in answering his father.
Right now, he felt humiliated because his father has criticized him for not being a man who could look directly in the eye.
I’m sorry. You’ve spent millions of dinars and poured them in school. Now, how could I say that I jumped into the river because my life was a piece of shit?” Jeongjin thought.
“It was your mother’s dream to get you into this school. Your mother, Thelma, wasn’t afraid to lose her life after getting you out of trouble. What would she think if she might see you like this?”
Clayo, who used to be a sharp-witted boy, was speechless. The word mother struck him. Though he was a boy who could easily quit school because of a hard time, he was thinking about his mother. But Jeongjin couldn’t help it because it was already part of the story. He knew it was a painful story but ended up quickly with a sore conclusion.
The late Mrs. Thelma Asser had undoubtedly decided to let her son enter this school. It seemed she did it for the best of her son.
As Clayo regained into a rather polite manner, Baron sat down to a chair with his son. The father, who appeared to be in his early fifties, seemed to be seething with a complicated mind. He had an ambivalence of both love and affection, hatred, and anger.