17 Chapter Seventeen ~ One Day You Will Tell Me Your Past

It's a nice sunny weekend afternoon and Ivan has the day off. He wants to take Jae out to have some father-son bonding. He paces back and forth, trying to figure out where he should take Jae. Mona walks out her her room and Ivan instantly runs over hoping he can get some ideas from her.

"U..um." Ivan clears his throat. Mona turns over to look at Ivan. "What's the matter?"

"I was wondering if you can help with some suggestions on where to take Jae. I have this weekend off."

"Well, I'm not from here and the only places I been to are the Bear Museum, Seoul Tower, and Lotte World." Mona excitedly says, "let's go to Lotte World! I'm sure any kid would love that place. Besides, I didn't really get to do everything there the last time I went." Mona heads over to the couch dragging her feet. "I had a great time with Hee Joon." Mona mumbles. Ivan looks over at Mona. "Huh? What did you say?" Mona lets out a sigh. "Nothing."

"Alright, let's go to Lotte World! I just purchased the fares we need but one more thing, can you help me convince Jae to go?" Mona smiles, "Of course I'll help you. Don't worry! You guys will have a blast!"

They have finally arrive at Lotte World, and the place is huge and gorgeous. Jae pulls Mona with him to go inside while Ivan follow behind.

"Let's look at the map and see where we should go." Mona suggested.

"Hm.. you want to go explore the hot spots or just start with anywhere?" Mona excitedly turns to Ivan and grabbed his hand. Ivan looks at Mona and lets out a big smile. Jae pulling onto Mona's other hand. "Lets go ride that boat over there." He points over where a giant boat was. Swinging people back and forth ad suddenly it goes all the way up turned upside down and pauses before going back down.

Mona looks at the boat ride, "U..uh, that looks scary." Mona tries to turn the other direction. Ivan signals Jae to pull Mona together to get her on to the ride. They both dragged her onto the boat. The whole ride, Mona had her eyes closed and screamed so hard Ivan and Jae learned their lesson not to let her on a ride like this ever again.

"What's next? What's next?" Jae jumps up and down waiting for Mona to answer him. Mona walks over to the rail to hold herself up. "Let's go to the ice skating ring." Mona points over the rail. "Look! It's just right underneath us."

Both Ivan and Jae looked at each other. And they both said, "Boring!!!" Jae pulls Mona away from her sight of the skating ring. "C'mon! Let's go get on that water ride!"

"Now I'm all wet!!" They got out of the ride and walked themselves into the sun to try to dry their clothes. "Why are you even worried about that? Let's just go there and get even wetter!!" Ivan pointed over to the pool.

"Swimming?" Mona opens her eyes wide. "No, please! I really don't want to. How about you two go on your own? I think I can just stay here." Jae shakes his head. "No, we have to go together!" Jae winks at Ivan. "But I forgot to bring my swimming suit." Mona nervously says. "Let's go to the shops and buy one right now." Jae Points over to the stands.

After the pool, they get ready to head out. While heading back to their car, Jae has spotted a popsicle shop.

"Oh, my god! That one is so cute!" Mona points out to the raccoon popsicle. Ivan walks over to pay for the popsicles that Mona and Jae picked out. "Are you guys ready to go home?" Ivan looked at both Mona and Jae.  Then Jae yawns, "Yea I think its time to go."

As they were leaving, they turned around one last time to look at Lotte World. "Wow.. it looks gorgeous at night. " Jae and Ivan nod their head at the same time agreeing with Mona.

They got on to a boat to see the night view of Lotte World. Jae is falling asleep, his head falling onto Mona's shoulder. A thought had just popped into Mona's head. "Is this how it feels to have a family? If only ken was still alive, we would be here, we would probably be like this in a few years." Mona looks over at Ivan,  his eyes closed resting his head on the glass.

When they got back on land, the assistant is waiting for them in the car.

During the ride back, it was so quiet. Everyone was asleep. The phone suddenly rings and the assistant looks at the caller ID. Ivan opens his eyes. The assistant whispers to Ivan, "Sir, the call is coming from America. Would you like to take the call?" Ivan reaches his hand over to get the phone. His expression changed once he heard the voice on the other end of the line.

"What do you want?" Ivan asked angrily. "No, I'm busy. I don't know if I have time for that." There was a silent tension when Ivan listens to the mysterious person on the other line. "Fine! I'll have my assistant pick you up tomorrow." He hangs up the phone.

His assistant looks in the back view mirror to see if Ivan was ok. Ivan turns to look out the window, letting out an annoyed sigh.

Mona wonders who the caller could be. "Is everything alright?" she asked. Still, in his annoyed state, he replies back quickly, "Don't worry about it." Mona is pushed back by the aura of his words. "I wonder if it's something serious." She thought to herself. She looks down at Jae sleeping on her shoulder and gently strokes his hair. Ivan turns to look over at Mona. His temper subsides once he sees her kind nature to his child. "I'm sorry." He apologizes. Curious, she looks up at him. "That was his mother..." he said in a soft voice. "Jae's mother..." she thought. "She wants to come here and... talk about some things." "Is your relationship with her, that bad?" she asked. Ivan sighs heavily. He leans his back on the seat and closed his eyes. "Just thinking about her puts me in a terrible mood. I'm too tired." Mona slowly accepts his response as she too leans her back on the seat. 

"I've been completely immersed with my own painful past that I forgot that Ivan also had a life, a story before we met... I hope someday, he'll trust me enough to tell me..."