I was exceptionally talented.
By my senior year of high school, I was already 190 cm tall, with great athleticism and perfect proportions.
A little exercise was all it took for muscles to form nicely.
And why was my brain so sharp?
A bit of focused study, and I'd top the entire school.
It probably came from being born to a businessman father and a professor mother.
Our family was loaded.
We had a live-in housekeeper and lived in a three-story standalone house with a yard.
We owned three foreign luxury cars.
Unlike the cliché rich kid, I wasn't arrogant or lazy.
I put in plenty of effort when it was needed.
The result was, naturally, admission to the medical school at Korea University, our country's top national university.
My dream was to become a surgeon.
Not just any surgeon—thoracic surgery.
It was a field medical students avoided, but for me, it was a passion.
I'd been captivated by a documentary about thoracic surgeons operating for dozens of hours straight to save lives.
My parents wanted me to choose a specialty that would let me earn money comfortably, but they couldn't stop me.
They were mature people who respected my decision and supported me generously.
To quickly complete my mandatory military service at a general hospital, I enlisted after my first year and served.
The half-year after returning to school felt like wandering.
They say military service makes a man out of you, but it was the opposite for me.
The clear compass guiding my life before enlistment went haywire, like a magnet had disrupted it.
Adolescence, which I'd thought would never come, hit me way too late.
And during that aimless phase... I met my future wife in a general elective called portrait photography practice.
The goddess of the College of Fine Arts.
She always had crowds buzzing around her.
But she picked me for her team.
"If this photo wins first place, I'll grant you one wish! What do you say?"
I thought she was joking.
But it became reality, and we started dating.
It was a dreamlike time.
When I was unsteady, she held me firm.
She gave me direction to dive back into med school studies.
She made me a true man and helped me relieve my stress.
That was the happiest period of my entire life.
But what goes up must come down.
I never imagined that peak happiness would come tumbling down the slope without mercy.
The hardest time of my life hit during my internship after graduation.
My father's business collapsed.
The impregnable fortress crumbled like a sandcastle.
My parents fled from debt collectors until their car plunged off a cliff.
They weren't the type to commit suicide.
Yet it was ruled as such.
I was certain it was the creditors' doing.
But I couldn't prove it.
I had no power to uncover the truth.
After renouncing inheritance and the funerals, I was left with nothing.
I'd been a flower in a greenhouse.
When the glass shattered and cold winds blew in, I withered helplessly.
"Oppa seemed like he could do anything, but now you're beyond saving. Goodbye."
I thought the girlfriend who'd steadied my wandering college days would save me again.
That was a huge mistake.
The moment she confirmed my potential was gone, she discarded me without hesitation.
It was agonizing, enough to want to die.
And I did try once.
Night.
On the roof of the university's main building.
I climbed the railing.
Suddenly, my ex's parting shot flashed in my mind.
-The guy who seemed capable of anything became a hopeless wreck.-
Yeah... that's right.
So why can't I do it now?
Right.
I had talent, but it shone through effort in the end.
With my heart broken, I couldn't put in the work, so I became a wreck.
The students walking below.
They all looked happy.
Why?
Why am I the only miserable one while they're happy?
I want to be happy again too.
It'd be too unfair to die like this alone.
Yeah.
Let's try working hard.
If it doesn't work, then I'll die.
Using the dagger the world had thrust into me as fuel, I seized another chance at life.
I pushed through with grit and malice.
With the mindset that I could overcome anything.
I moved my residence to the hospital.
Live, eat, work, repeat—effort without end.
And I succeeded.
I became a thoracic surgery specialist at Korea University Hospital.
"Sorry, oppa... I didn't mean it."
My girlfriend asked to get back together.
Seeing her beg after ruthlessly dumping me made it feel more like something I'd earned back through my efforts, so I took her back.
The reunited her was different.
She was much more aggressive about sex.
Before, no condom meant no sex, but after reconciling, she allowed bareback with pulling out.
In the end, we went too far.
Pregnancy before marriage.
"Oppa, you don't have money. Let's skip the wedding."
We started married life with just the registry office.
Soon after, our adorable daughter was born.
She was like an angel from heaven.
So I named her Mina.
Even as a specialist, work only got worse.
Thoracic surgery specialists were desperately short-staffed.
With few replacements, they worked me to the bone.
I'd pulled three-day all-nighters at worst.
But I was happy.
Because I had a family.
A beautiful wife.
And a daughter so cute I could poke her eyes out.
"Dada bababa!!"
The sight of her toddling out to greet me, even when I dragged home exhausted, was pure angelic.
No matter how tough things were, seeing her melted it all away.
Yes.
I was convinced my daughter could get me through any hardship.
The top thoracic surgery specialist in the country.
The more I poured my body into it, the more money I made.
Luckily, I even became a model for the nation's best car company and shot an ad.
In no time, our family's finances recovered to match my late parents' days.
Work was overwhelming enough, so I left household finances to my wife.
But things started going wrong with her.
I gave her tons of money, but she wanted more.
I couldn't give that.
It would mean going into debt.
My parents had been ruined by debt.
So I'd vowed never to borrow.
I believed it would destroy our family.
Unable to give her what she wanted, our relationship soured.
Marital relations had long since ceased.
Blame poured from her mouth constantly—my fault.
For neglecting home... for not earning more.
Yeah, I thought it was all my fault.
Until I heard the shocking story from a school senior I bumped into.
[What?? You married Ayoung? I heard she broke up with you and shacked up with some other guy... Did I hear wrong?]
No way.
I brushed it off then, but ongoing cold wars with my wife made the suspicion grow.
I decided to confirm it after a massive fight at the amusement park, where she abandoned me and our child to leave alone.
The suspicion that tormented me most was about my daughter, Mina.
Other friends' kids always resembled a parent in some feature.
But Mina had nothing of me except my eyebrows.
I didn't want to suspect.
I hated myself for it.
How could I doubt this daughter I cherished so deeply?
But once suspicion bloomed, it wouldn't die.
It grew wilder.
To kill it, I needed proof.
So... on Mina's 8th birthday, I applied for a paternity test.
I hoped it wasn't true.
I believed it wasn't.
It was just to quiet my nagging doubts.
[Client A, Cha Eunhyuk, and Client B, Cha Mina, do not have a parent-child relationship.]
But heaven once again gifted me insane despair.
It felt like the sky was crashing down.
My daughter wasn't my blood.
What did this mean?
Shock.
Rage.
Mad fury surged toward my wife.
She was no longer my wife.
An enemy.
An archenemy I'd socially destroy.
I hired a PI agency to tail her.
And her secrets came to light all too easily.
My wife was living a double life with a young gym trainer.
I gathered evidence and filed for divorce.
She begged for mercy, hands and feet on the ground.
But I couldn't forgive.
I knew she only sought pardon for the money.
I kicked her out and disposed of everything she'd touched as waste.
After clearing it all, only Mina remained.
The daughter was crying.
"D...Daddy... Scary... Don't do that..."
Even that once-adorable daughter looked hateful now.
So I decided to dump her with her mother.
"Daddy... Where are you going? Huh?"
I didn't answer.
Mina just sobbed endlessly at my harsh demeanor.
I met the wife and fought again.
Take her.
I can't.
She flatly refused.
Probably because a divorced woman with a kid was toxic.
In the end, I didn't get my way.
Fuming as I returned to the car, there was Mina standing beside it.
Clutching her favorite stuffed bear tight.
It was winter.
Her face and hands were red and frozen.
"Daddy... Are you throwing me away?"
Childlike, yet so adult.
Holding back tears, her brimming eyes began melting my frozen heart in an instant.
"Daddy... I'll... do better than Mommy... I'll clean the room good... take out the trash... cook... and give you love too... Please... don't abandon me..."
Her tears were powerful.
Regret flooded in for my insane actions.
"Ahh... Mina... Mina!!"
I hugged her tight.
Tears poured out madly.
"Daddy's sorry!! My daughter!! Mina is my daughter!! I'll never!! Never abandon you!! Forever!!"
"Daddy... Do you love me?"
"I love you!! More than anyone!! The most!!"
"I'll only love Daddy... so never... never abandon me."
Only then did she start crying, having heard my words.
The divorce finalized.
I got custody of the daughter.
I began raising her with utmost care.
For her, I quit the university hospital.
Irregular nights would prevent proper parenting.
Breaking my no-debt vow, I borrowed to open an orthopedics clinic in the storefront by our house.
A desperate measure for a single father without parents.
Business was slow at first, but patients trickled in enough to make a living, with no tertiary hospital ER nearby.
I didn't aim to get rich.
Mina was growing up well.
Top of her class.
Beautiful, just like her mother.
We shared a bed until middle school, but in high school, she declared she'd sleep in her own room.
"Goodnight, sweetie."
"Yeah, Daddy. Thanks for today. Love you."
"Love you too."
After confirming she was asleep, I headed to the study.
An old computer sat there.
On days my ex-wife crossed my mind, I'd always go to the study.
My secret porn folder, hidden away.
I turned on the computer to find it.