Chapter 62
by GideonDinner and evening rounds were over. The caregiver smoothed the blanket over Hyewan’s legs.
“You should get some rest too, ma’am.”
“Don’t go out alone without calling me like you did yesterday. Be sure to call if you need anything.”
“I will. I promise.”
After giving Hyewan a stern reminder, the caregiver left the room.
Hyewan was someone who cherished her own space and time. She had even been fine living in the same house as Yundo, because even though they were together, she still had moments to herself. But the hospital was different. After months of her room door swinging open dozens of times a day, she found herself desperate for a moment of solitude.
A knock sounded, and the door opened. See? Here we go again.
Wondering who it could be this time, she turned around to find Yundo standing there. Hyewan’s eyes narrowed. He hadn’t contacted her once since his visit a week ago. If she hadn’t gone out to see him yesterday, she wouldn’t have seen him at all.
And he’s the one who made her wait, leaving her feeling miserable!
Sensing Hyewan’s silent fury, Yundo quickly held up the bag in his hand.
“I brought tteokbokki and chicken feet.”
How shameless.
Yundo repeated the words like a mantra.
Her expression shifted slightly. She was already notorious in the hospital for her poor appetite. Even her attending physician had warned her about organ dysfunction caused by nutritional imbalance and malnutrition, as well as osteoporosis.
Min-suk did her best to cook well, but she never served anything spicy or heavily seasoned. Still, Hyewan wasn’t so shameless as to ask Bora to buy her food.
For the first time in her life, Hyewan surrendered to her appetite.
“Come in.”
His face brightened.
Truthfully, she had missed Yundo. He looked no different from the night before. The dark circles under his eyes remained, and his face had grown so thin that his features were starkly defined. His jawline looked sharp enough to cut if she touched it.
Yundo unpacked the takeout on the bed’s folding table.
“Did you eat dinner?”
“I got scolded for picking at my food,” Hyewan said, shrugging. “Everyone who sees me, morning and night, scolds me. They say I’ll run out of luck if I eat like this.”
“If I had any luck, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Yundo flinched.
Regardless, Hyewan decided to live selfishly from now on. She didn’t care about anyone else; she would pursue her own happiness and peace. That way, people would stop walking on eggshells around her.
Yundo opened the lid without a word, and the spicy aroma stimulated her nose and appetite.
“Eat.”
She didn’t refuse and took a bite of the tteokbokki. She felt pure joy from the worldly taste.
“I bought spicy fish cakes too. Want to try some?”
“Where are they?”
She usually didn’t like fish cakes, especially not spicy ones, but the hospital environment made her crave them.
“How’s work?” Hyewan asked casually, as if asking about the weather, as she bit into a fish cake on a stick.
“The business and economics pages have been buzzing for a while. Is the company doing okay?”
“Thanks to you, it hasn’t gone under.”
The ambulance, dispatched after the guard’s call, arrived just in time. Kang Deok-ho survived. However, a spinal cord injury left him completely paralyzed from the neck down.
Chief Ma was arrested for instigating the murder of President Cha Nam-gyun and orchestrating Hyewan’s car accident. Cheon Gil-woo was imprisoned for fraud. Yet, Chairwoman Kang—the mastermind behind it all—never once appeared in the press.
Everything had been exposed, and everyone had been punished. But the atrocities Chairwoman Kang had inflicted upon Hyewan remained buried. The forced marriage, the drugging, and the coerced abortion were all clear crimes, yet the chances of her receiving a prison sentence were slim to none.
Chairwoman Kang’s legal team, hired with a fortune, was bound to claim that Kang Deok-ho, Chief Ma, and Cheon Gil-woo had all conspired to deceive her—that she, too, was a victim. Besides, her current state was so fragile, her mind half-gone from shock. Even though she’d been found guilty of causing injury through negligence to Kang Deok-ho, it was doubtful she could even stand trial.
Ultimately, there was a strong possibility that Chairwoman Kang would escape paying any price, despite the years she’d spent devouring the bodies and minds of those around her. Yundo was furious and felt the injustice deeply, but Hyewan told him to leave it alone.
The fallout from Hyewan’s case going public was immense. The founder’s wife and current chairwoman had committed an inhumane crime against her own daughter-in-law; Sewon Group’s stock price was bound to plummet. There would be attempts to exclude the owner’s family from management, which would make it difficult for Yundo to defend his control over the company.
Naturally, Min-suk became the target of public gossip.
Even when Hyewan got married, some people at the market had envied Min-suk, saying she’d landed a son-in-law who was far above her station. If they found out Hyewan had been married off as a scapegoat—and had suffered a miscarriage because of it—they would chew her up and spit her out with glee. Cruelly, the greater the jealousy, the more satisfaction they drew from her misfortune.
Hyewan was sick and tired of being the subject of such gossip.
That was why she didn’t want Min-suk to hear the kind of words that would tear her heart out. She knew Min-suk would be furious every time people pretended to be concerned while secretly gloating. She also knew Min-suk would blame herself, thinking Hyewan was suffering for her sins.
She’s already in so much pain. How could anyone dig any deeper into her wounds?
The victim had the right to keep the painful truth unspoken.
“I’m worried Mother will have a hard time, too.”
“She’s struggling, but she’s pretending to be strong for Yun-woo’s sake,” Yundo continued, his voice laced with worry.
“At least Mom is expressing her feelings, but Yun-woo won’t say a word. I’d rather he just scream and rebel… but he loves Mom too much to ever do anything that would worry her. That’s why I’m even more concerned.”
Yun-woo had always been naturally sensitive and soft-hearted. The fear gnawed at Yundo—what if he kept everything bottled up again, only for his heart to suddenly stop like it did last time?
“How about psychological counseling?”
“I’m trying to persuade him. He seems open to the idea, so I’ve scheduled an appointment for next week. I think he’ll go through with it.”
“And his health? Nothing like last time has happened, has it?”
“He’s fine. But just to be safe, we’re monitoring him twenty-four hours a day.”
“You did the right thing. I’m just as worried about Yun-woo as my mother is.”
“Both your mother and Yun-woo feel terrible about what happened to you. Yun-woo, especially—he’s eaten up with guilt because he could never stand up for you. I know it doesn’t do any good to say this now, but I just wanted you to know.”
Typical man, she thought. How was I supposed to know if you never told me?
“I might feel betrayed by your mother, but not by Yun-woo. I know he was just a minor back then, with no real say in the family. I can’t bring myself to resent him for that.”
Her voice was as firm as her conviction.
“If Yun-woo had tried to help me and been punished by Chairwoman Kang for it, I would have been even more heartbroken. Please tell him… I’m grateful he did nothing.”
“You…”
Yundo trailed off, letting out a heavy sigh. “How can you still say you’re grateful after everything you’ve been through?”
“It does,” she replied.
Yes, this was the Ko Hyewan he knew. This was why he had loved her more, felt more guilty, and found it impossible to give up on her.
“By the way, I heard the Chief was the one who noticed something was off and found out about this,” she said.
“That’s right. I gave Dong-yeong a reward to thank him.”
“Are you sure you did it properly?”
“I gave him the watch he’d been eyeing.”
Hyewan frowned. “You gave him a used watch?”
As she stared at him as if he were Ebenezer Scrooge, Yundo felt wronged.
“It’s from my collection, so I’ve never worn it. It’s a limited edition that you can’t buy with money now. I gave him the most expensive one I had!”
“In that case, I’m sorry for misunderstanding.”
Though she said the words, Yundo would have given Dong-yeong anything without regret. Dong-yeong had brought him and Hyewan back to the same table. He would have given him his liver or a kidney if asked.
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