Electric Love {Minsung}

Chapter 59: Perfect

Timepiece Ranch

After Jisung's practice session with Gervaso, he knocked on his mother's door. She answered, smiling as soon as she saw him. "I was just thinking about you."

"I need to ask you something," he said.

"Of course," she said. "Come in." As he entered the room, she said, "This sounds serious."

"It is."

She closed the door, then looked at him, her arms folded at her chest. "What is it?"

"Is there something going on between you and that Joel guy?"

"Something?"

"You know." He hesitated, and she tilted her head. "Romantic."

She thought momentarily, then said softly, "I don't know."

"What does that mean?"

"Just what I said. We're close friends. I care about him. I don't know where it's going."

He suddenly felt defensive. "You care about him? How long have you ever known him?"

"I've known him longer than you think," she said. "You've met him before, you know."

"I have?"

"When you were four. He helped us move from Seoul to Gimpo."

"How did you know him?"

"Anna, Joel's sister, worked with your father at the hospital. Shortly after your father died, she disappeared. She had told Joel about the Elgen and told him that if anything happened to her, he should help us hide."

For the first time in his life, Jisung realized that all their moving around wasn't just about him. "So you've known about the Elgen since I was born?"

"Of course. It was a company your father was working with. The MEI was something we thought might change the world, not the way Park does, but for the better. Park Jinyoung worked with your father. In fact, we had him over for dinner."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Dr. Park was in our home?"

His mother nodded. "We called him Jinyoung back then. He came over to the house once for a barbecue."

He was speechless. It was like hearing his mother was in a book club with Hitler. "You barbecued with Dr. Park? The man who kidnapped you and tried to kill me?"

"He wasn't trying to kill anyone back then. In fact, you weren't even born. I was thirty-six weeks pregnant when they placed the MEI in the hospital. I gave birth to you the next week."

"Then why didn't you recognize him in the parking lot at PizzaMax?"

His mother smiled. "It had been almost fifteen years. He's changed a lot since then. And he was wearing sunglasses."

"This is unbelievable," he said.

"Believe it or not, Park Jinyoung was a pretty normal guy. He brought me flowers in the hospital when you were born."

Jisung struggled to process this. "What was he like?"

"He was a little insecure but hardworking and very ambitious, which isn't always bad. I don't know why he turned out the way he did. I think he got caught up in something that took him over. The lust for power can do that."

"He's insane now," he said. "And evil."

"Maybe. But he wasn't back then. It's easy to place people in black-and-white categories of good or bad, but the truth is there's a lot of both in all of us."