After Choi Hyeon-myeong left, Yu-yeon did her joint exercises with the caregiver’s help.
Following what Lim Da-mi had told her yesterday, learning today that Optimum Path had been stolen—hearing one blow after another about the betrayal of the lover she had trusted and leaned on most in the world—made love feel utterly hollow.
She ultimately reached the conclusion that the only person in this world she could rely on was herself. Woken to this reality by Choi Hyeon-myeong’s visit, Yu-yeon resolved to recover her strength as quickly as possible.
Right in the middle of her joint exercises, the door to the hospital room opened.
The people who walked through the door were none other than Lim Da-mi’s parents, Lim Chun-gyu and Shin Young-hwa.
It was an unexpected visit, catching her slightly off guard. She had vaguely assumed things would grow awkward with the two of them after what happened with Da-mi, so she had not anticipated they would come to visit her first.
Yet unable to be purely glad to see them, Yu-yeon greeted them evenly.
Pausing the joint exercises, the caregiver tidied Yu-yeon’s bed and asked gently.
Though the question had been directed at Yu-yeon, Shin Young-hwa answered. Yu-yeon nodded in agreement, and the caregiver set out two chairs for the couple before leaving the room.
Shin Young-hwa made a fuss, moving the fruit basket onto the drawers, then over to the mini-fridge.
Instead of sitting down right away, Lim Chun-gyu scanned the room as if inspecting it, then spotted the camera mounted in the corner and stood motionless in front of it for quite a while.
Failing in the end to find a spot for the basket, Shin Young-hwa set it on the floor, then drew closer to Yu-yeon to ask.
Not completely sound…
Hardly surprising. Waking from a coma only to be greeted by such a shock would rattle anyone.
Yet Shin Young-hwa did not seem to mean it that way, so Yu-yeon answered calmly, matching the tone of her inquiry.
Yu-yeon blinked her round eyes, bewildered that Shin Young-hwa would bring up the day of the accident so abruptly.
A sudden blankness washed over her mind, and a halting, unorganized mumble slipped from her lips.
Before she realized it, Lim Chun-gyu had also drawn right up close to Yu-yeon.
Yu-yeon mumbled, faltering.
Looking straight into the face of Uncle Lim Chun-gyu, her father’s closest friend, sent an even stronger surge of emotion through her. Finding the words was difficult.
“…”
Yet was her grief simply too late?
All that came from the two of them was a deflated sigh.
Lim Chun-gyu soon straightened his bent back, clasped his hands behind him, and turned away.
Her brow slightly furrowed, Shin Young-hwa pressed her with another question.
Unable to make sense of Shin Young-hwa’s reaction, Yu-yeon knit her brow and asked back. For someone who had supposedly rushed over after hearing she had awakened from a coma, Shin Young-hwa seemed far more interested in the accident than in her well-being, which struck Yu-yeon as odd.
Lim Chun-gyu chided his wife in a measured voice.
Checked by her husband, Shin Young-hwa rubbed her chest and pulled a sorrowful face.
‘Ah. So he suffered through so much all this time. If that’s the case, their reaction makes sense.’
Subdued, Yu-yeon gave a quiet nod.
Yu-yeon chimed in over the couple’s bickering to offer her heartfelt gratitude.
Seeing that Yu-yeon appreciated her hardship, Shin Young-hwa offered a feeble smile. She pulled Yu-yeon’s limp hand from beside her hip and patted it gently for a long moment.
Yu-yeon returned a faint smile.
Having lost her mother at a young age, Yu-yeon had always seen Shin Young-hwa as far more than just a friend’s mother. She had packed banquets of side dishes every season, and when Yu-yeon had gotten her first period, she had stepped in with the tender care a father couldn't quite provide. Da-mi’s father, Lim Chun-gyu, had treated her with just as much kindness.
So even if she had drifted apart from Lim Da-mi, she couldn't bring herself to build a wall against Shin Young-hwa and Lim Chun-gyu. Yu-yeon was deeply grateful to the couple for rushing over the moment they heard she had awakened.
After asking about everything under the sun, Shin Young-hwa seemed to run out of questions and brought up her daughter. Yu-yeon, who had answered everything readily enough until now, slowed her response.
Yet hearing that apology ‘on her behalf’ stirred a strange feeling inside her. It wasn’t because she had lost her boyfriend to Lim Da-mi. Nor was it because she resented Shin Young-hwa’s apology.
Though she dutifully replied to the gentle apology, she felt hollow inside. Right in the center of her chest, a hole she had barely managed to keep plugged burst wide open in an instant. It felt as though her heart and soul had all drained out through it.
Ah, I’m…
Even Shin Young-hwa’s complaints seemed to drift right through the gaping hollow inside her, slipping away as if nothing mattered.
I…
…I have no mother and father anymore. There are no grown-ups in my corner now.
That stark truth struck her with absolute clarity.
I really am an orphan.
After squeezing in a visit to the hospital between items on his schedule, Hyeon-myeong returned to the company to attend a meeting. It was a tedious meeting, yet he threw himself into it with even more gravitas than usual.
He had received an apology from Hong Yu-yeon, and now he had a clear justification to drop by her hospital room with his head held high.
That alone brought a fresh burst of vitality to Hyeon-myeong’s daily grind.
When he returned to his desk after the meeting wrapped up, his secretary, Kim Gi-baek, delivered a report.
At Gi-baek’s words, Hyeon-myeong checked his phone, which had been set to silent.
— It’s your father. Come see me.
Hyeon-myeong let out a sigh at the dry message, so typical of his father. Because he had a good idea of what the man wanted to discuss, he felt no desire to head over right away.
Still, knowing he ought to call back, he numbly pressed the dial button.
While the dial tone chimed, Hong Yu-yeon’s face—so strikingly different from the day before—flickered before his eyes.
He wished he could just sit there quietly and watch her to his heart’s content as she fought to recover. Praising her if she picked up a spoon, praising her if she managed to eat.
Even as the ring tone dragged on, his father didn’t answer. It seemed his father was the one in a meeting this time.
Hyeon-myeong tapped the end call button and drafted a message to send in response.
Tap, tap, tap.
Even after hearing that her ex-boyfriend had stolen her program, she hadn’t shattered. He admired that inner strength.
Tap, tap.
He felt certain that her recovery would be swift as well.
His mind had been painting such rosy pictures.
Tap.
Hyeon-myeong’s fingers slowed to an abrupt halt just as he was about to add “your father” to the end of the brief message out of habit.
‘Ah.’
A fact he had completely overlooked belatedly surfaced in his mind. He had made a blunder with the woman.