Van Gogh Reborn!

266

Art Class (4)

“Why are you so stubborn? You’re making dad’s life harder!”

“Go! Just go! Since when did you care about me!”

There must be some backstory here.

A father who wants to take his son with him and a son who rejects his father.

“I don’t want to go to that woman’s house!”

Jacques pushed his father’s hand away.

The man pointed his finger at his son and said firmly.

“Jacques Vidal. Don’t ever say that again. She’s the person dad loves and she’s going to be your new mom.”

“No!”

From what I heard, the man had remarried.

I don’t know why they divorced, but it must be hard for young Jacques to accept.

“Fine. You don’t have to call her your new mom, but just come with dad for now.”

The man grabbed his son’s wrist, but Jacques twisted his body again.

He resisted stubbornly even after repeated persuasion, and the man’s emotions also intensified.

“This is no longer your home! You don’t have a mom and you don’t want to live with dad, so how are you going to survive on your own!”

Jacques clenched his mouth and glared at his dad.

“Do whatever you want.”

The man left his seat and Jacques collapsed on the street.

Even if they couldn’t communicate, it was no way to leave a kid on the street.

“Hoon?”

As I felt sorry for him and tried to approach him, grandpa called me.

“Why? Do you know him?”

“He’s in the same class as me.”

Grandpa nodded his head and told me to go.

Jacques was sobbing and shaking his shoulders.

I didn’t know the situation well and I couldn’t interfere with his family matters, so I just sat next to him and he turned his head.

“What do you want!”

He recognized me and jumped up, wiping his tears.

“Sit down.”

“Why are you here! This is my house!”

I looked up at the old building behind him. It was a multi-family house.

“I know, but just sit down for a moment. Do you want some chocolate?”

I gave him a piece of chocolate and he screamed louder than he did to his father.

It was noisy.

“Lower your voice.”

“Go! Just go!”

I thought he was only like that to me, but now I see he’s like that to his dad and everyone else.

He’s consistently rude.

“Sit down and be quiet before I buy your house.”

“What?”

“Think I can’t?”

I bit the chocolate into his mouth and forced him to sit down.

“Don’t mind me. I came because I thought you’d have trouble sleeping alone.”

“Mind your own business!”

“Tsk. Stop yelling like that.”

“What?”

“Did that ever solve anything? You only get scolded. If you want to persuade someone, you have to appeal to their emotions or approach them logically. Show them your sincerity.”

“…”

“Have another one.”

There’s a saying in our country that you give an extra rice cake to someone you hate.

I gave him a specially delicious chocolate.

From what I heard, this place was no longer his home, but he was being stubborn.

I could tell by the fact that he didn’t go into the house and sat on the street.

I couldn’t leave him alone in a place where the security was bad, so I stayed with him for a while without saying anything.

He opened his mouth.

“What are you really?”

He sounded scared, thinking he was left alone.

“I don’t know either.”

I couldn’t stay with him forever, so I wondered if I should call the police.

The best thing would be for his dad to come back, but I didn’t see any signs of that.

He lowered his head again, so I handed him another chocolate.

“Hoon.”

Grandpa came over.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think he had a fight with his dad. I’m staying with him because I don’t want to leave him alone.”

I was explaining the situation to my grandfather when I heard an angry voice from a distance.

“Are you out of your mind? What if you leave the kid behind?”

I turned my head and saw a woman who looked Korean, approaching Jack’s father and yelling at him.

She spotted Jack, who was burying his face between his knees, and ran over to him.

“Jack!”

Jack recognized her and got up and backed away. He acted as if he didn’t want to see her at all.

“Are you okay? Huh?”

He didn’t answer, just glared at her. The man who followed her sighed.

“Answer me.”

“No.”

“Jack!”

“Leave me alone! Do you think he’ll listen to you if you push him like that? Why are you doing this to him when he’s already having a hard time? He’s your son, isn’t he?”

The woman crouched down and faced Jack.

“Let’s go home with dad. Okay? I won’t go with you.”

“…”

“Please. You can’t stay here by yourself. You might meet bad people, and it’s cold. And you’re hungry, aren’t you?”

“Don’t act nice! You think I’ll fall for that?”

“Jack!”

The man came closer as if he was going to hit Jack, but the woman stopped him.

The woman looked confused and upset, looking at the sky and then the ground, unable to fix her gaze.

But soon she shook her head and gave a sad smile.

“Fine. You can think of me like that. But you can trust dad, right? Let’s go with dad.”

The man also took a deep breath and reached out his hand.

“No.”

“Jack.”

“Dad is a liar too. If it wasn’t for dad, mom wouldn’t have died! She died because of you!”

The woman slapped Jack’s cheek.1)

Jack was too shocked to say anything, and the woman was already shedding tears.

“You can’t say that.”

The woman grabbed Jack’s wrist and looked into his eyes.

“Dad is hurting as much as you are. He loves mom as much as you do. Even if others don’t understand, you know how dad feels, right? You know how much it hurts, right?”

Jack didn’t say anything.

“How can you say that to dad? Never. Never say that again. Do you understand?”

“…”

“Answer me!”

The woman scolded Jack while crying like a chicken.

I was surprised to see her do that. She must love him and want to get along with him as the son of the person she loves, but she didn’t hesitate to discipline him when he did something wrong.

Maybe she wanted him to grow up as a good kid more than to be liked by him.

That was true love.

The next day.

I had just finished exercising with my grandfather and returned home when Marso called me.

He said he had to postpone our plan to visit Münster in Germany tomorrow.

I was worried because he wouldn’t delay our preliminary investigation unless it was something serious.

“What’s wrong?” 𝓯𝓇𝘦𝘦𝑤ℯ𝓫𝑛𝓸𝑣𝓮𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓶

-There’s something.

He took the smartphone away from his ear.

He didn’t seem to want to talk about it.

“I see.”

I hung up.

“Grandpa, we’re going to Münster next week.”

“Why? What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

He must have had an important reason, but he should have explained it to me.

He has a bad personality.

“Heh. You sound hurt.”

“I’m not hurt at all.”

I showered and got ready for school.

“I’m going.”

“Okay.”

I went out to the front of the house and the school bus arrived on time.

“Hello.”

As I greeted the knight and got up, the kids welcomed me.

“Over here! There’s a seat here!”

“Hoon-ah! Sit here!”

The kids were calling me from all over the place, telling me where to sit.

I looked around and saw Jack, who was sitting in the back seat and staring out the window blankly.

He must have gone home, thankfully.

He didn’t even acknowledge me and just listened to the class, which made Marso even more annoyed.

When did he ever say he liked me?

He was the one who asked me to stay in Munster for the whole weekend, but he postponed our date without explaining why.

The more I thought about it, the more irritated I got.

“I have to endure it.”

He wasn’t worth ruining my precious lunchtime.

I wanted to eat some dessert to calm myself down, but there was only one slice of cheesecake per person.

Nothing was going my way.

“You didn’t tell anyone about yesterday, did you?”

Jack came over as I was eating my cheesecake.

“Leave me alone. I don’t have time to worry about you.”

I had enough headache wondering why Marso had put off our date.

Jack sat across from me.

“Um…”

He put a chocolate bar in front of me.

“Sorry.”

“For what?”

“For yesterday. For teasing you. … For being Asian.”

I looked back and forth between him and the chocolate bar.

Something must have happened yesterday.

“I can’t just take one.”

“Then?”

He hesitated when he saw the cheesecake. After a few seconds, he pushed it towards me.

“Fine. I forgive you.”

He showed some sincerity, and I wanted him to grow up right, so I accepted his apology.

I continued eating, but he didn’t go anywhere.

“Anything else?”

“Thank you.”

He scratched his head.

“For yesterday. For being with me when I was alone.”

He was kind of cute and childlike now.

“Sure.”

I felt a little better after having some sugar.

I had an art class after lunch, so I hoped I could get over the bad day I had because of Marso.

Jack was still in front of me.

“What now?”

“About what you said yesterday.”

“What did I say?”

I couldn’t remember what I had said.

“About speaking sincerely.”

I think I said that to persuade someone, you have to appeal to their emotions or be logical. Or you have to show your sincerity.

He pointed at the chocolate bar and the cheesecake he gave me.

1)‘French parents who slap their children’ was a headline that often appeared in the news, as France was a country that allowed corporal punishment at home.

Corporal punishment was not allowed at school, but despite the voices calling for a ban on child abuse in Europe in 1998, France had not accepted it for a long time due to the influence of the child discipline law enacted in the Napoleonic era.

It was inevitable that parents would punish their children for educational purposes, and even in the 2010s, there were many cases of slapping children’s cheeks for discipline.

However, as corporal punishment against infants became a problem, France finally banned child abuse in 2019.