The Reason? - Yoon Jeonghan

Chapter 43

Ophely couldn't be worried with her parents as they followed her as she worked at the office. Pledis was a busy place when a comeback was to be held. And seventeen was working hard, so had the rest of the teams. The comeback was fixed in January. So it was now that everything had to be ready. At the end of the month the video should be filmed, and so the outfits and other designs had to be taken care of.

So Ophely helped around her as designs had to be validated, updated and other things to be done. Her parents couldn't keep up, only watching their girl as she worked easily with the others and practised the language they could only wish to understand. They watched as she moved around. With ease. It perturbed them. Seeing their girl being in sync with people much older than her, specialists in their fields, and comparing it with how she was at school. Reclused, a bit behind, never forward and always trying to blend in with the background. It did her good. They couldn't deny it.

This was their morning, watching Ophely where she had been for the last three full months. They didn't dare interrupt her when she was at her desk, working through papers. Whether they were official work of revision, they couldn't tell as it was all in Korean.

It hit her father harder than he had thought it would.

Her daughter wasn't his little girl working in her last year of high school anymore. She wasn't little. And he didn't know her that well anymore. She kept them up to date with what was happening in her life. But there was so much more. Subtle differences at first. For example the way she was open and going towards the people around her for advice and other things (he had yet to know what she said to the people). Or how she had changed physically, being out there and not a ball curved on herself, shy and unsure. Here, she was thriving.

Glowing even.

She smiled. Not that she didn't smile before. But he could see that school and her daily life had been heavy on her.

For her mother. It didn't stand out to her as much. She was more aware of her surroundings. They way people acted around each other, different from France. And the way they walked, moved about. As she saw those things, she observed her daughter fitting in. The way they talked, worked and discussed problems between themselves, and how Ophely was there, fitting in.

It really had stood out to Ophely's mother once they had left the building, the girl with her belongings, showing them things around the city as they walked towards a restaurant they had chosen beforehand. And a few paces behind them was one of Seventeen's managers.

Ophely had changed. That was sure. She had been immersed in Korean culture for nearly a year at that point, and barely spent time with people like her. She was with Korean adults, working, talking, and exchanging. Not with foreign teenagers laughing at crude jokes or studying for their exams.

Was she not at her place? Working instead of studying like others her age were doing here in Korea?

They didn't know. Her mother nor her father. They couldn't know. They didn't have the knowledge, nor the culture. She had it. And it was weird.

They observed the little changes all throughout their afternoon with her, sightseeing around Seoul.

That night, her father had realised that it wasn't his little girl anymore, but an independent adult who could make their own choices in life. She had been embedded in the country. She wasn't just French anymore. It scared him. Knowing that she could choose Korea over France at any point. That she could choose this place where she was more at ease rather than where she had been a recluse.