I'm calling it: the father is nice at first but will ask Haejoon for money to help pay off the debts.
I mean, what you said is definitely possible, but do you think it would end like that? Remember that this is...close to? Is the actual? Last arc. We're apparently really near to the end.
This shocked me so much, i never thought we'd see Haejoon's dad. And he actually looks like him!! unlike Eunyung's parents....
also i do not like Haejoon's dad. Like not ONE birthday letter?? blaming her taking Haejoon?? DEBT??? hell no
...
No. How? How
could he even send a birthday letter? Look at his words. "your mother cut off contact and left"
How would he have sent any birthday letters or anything at all?
My first reaction was to automatically assume he has some ulterior motives, as that's typically what happens in these situations.
But I started to think about how Haejoon's mom has been portrayed, and his story lines up pretty well with her personality. It also doesnt seem like he completely hates/blames her.
I'm still a bit sus because it shouldn't have taken him this long to reach out. She cut him off, yes but (to me) it seems as if he still had avenues to reach her. But also where was he when she died? How was the court/government/whoever able to find his uncle but not his father? Did he decline to take care of Haejoon? I have no idea how the system works in Korea, so I wouldn't be surprised if I was missing something. Still, I do hope he is genuine.
I'm hinting at this in my other statements, but I'm ultimately reading this in light of 1) the title of this arc, that being Haejoon's home, and 2) the fact(?) that this series is ending soon. In that light, I don't think we would see a super sad ending. That doesn't really seem like a thing this author is going for. Like, the author probably isn't going to kill off all the cast of children and make them ghosts that only Haejoon can see. For the same reasons, I don't think that the author would make this super sad with his father.
I am doubtful of that, of your sus. So, I am very, very, excessively lightly familiar with the system in multiple different countries, and South Korea is NOT one I've dealt with specifically. As such, I am more than happy to be told I'm wrong on this, but I'll give it a shot.
In a lot of countries/every one that I've dealt with, you 1) look at the child's age, and 2) the ready availability of relatives, with an eye to keep the child and family out of the legal system if possible. To elaborate on that, you generally avoid bringing the child to court and/or having a long, drawn-out legal procedure if at all possible.
So here, Haejoon was starting off in his second year of high-school when the series began, so he would have been 17-ish by everyone's age-keeping system except South Korea's (they recently changed their laws, so he would be considered 17 there too; this is a tangent and has no importance, but I just wanted to type it). So a fairly old child, potentially able to be independent. Then his uncle was ready and willing to step up...immediately?
With all that said, I could totally see the legal system being willing to just go with it. Heck, maybe that's how his father got notice in the first place, when the government reached out to him. Then it took a year for him to...I don't know. Grieve the death of his ex-wife and bring himself to meet Haejoon. Doesn't sound unreasonable when I write it like that, but again, I could be completely wrong.