Chapter 15
Episode 15. A Dog of a Day
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Hearing the scream, Taeseo and the restaurant owner turned their heads toward the convenience store.
In front of the convenience store, Ahn Yuna was being grabbed by the hair by a disheveled man.
The moment Taeseo was about to go intervene, the woman who owned Seongwoo Baekban ran toward the convenience store ahead of him.
"Oh, you damn bastard!"
The Seongwoo Baekban owner grabbed the hem of the man's clothes who was holding Yuna's hair.
"Why are you acting up again, why this mess again!"
Even as the restaurant owner tried to pull the man away from Ahn Yuna, the man, still gripping Yuna's hair, shook his head back and forth.
"Hey, you! If you bully someone with no one to rely on, you'll be damned! You should act like a human being, like a human! What is this nonsense you do every day, drunk!"
"She's trying to siphon off the money made from my mother's building! She should be grateful for being raised after being born from her slut of a mother! She doesn't know the grace of being raised!"
"Even if your mouth is twisted, speak straight! What grace! You can't even act like a human, so who are you to raise anyone!"
The more the Seongwoo Baekban owner raised her voice, the tighter the man's grip on Yuna's hair became.
"What's the bank account password! Who are you to change the bank account password as you please! Give me the bank account password right now!"
"I need to pay the bank loan! I need to pay the bank loan with that so it doesn't become overdue!"
Ahn Yuna spoke her mind without showing any signs of being intimidated, even with her hair being pulled. The man, further enraged by her attitude, spewed curses incessantly.
"That dog of a woman tricked some naive old person into building a building. And now she's using it to control people's lives! That dog of a woman!"
The Seongwoo Baekban owner, caught between Ahn Yuna and the man, tried desperately to pull them apart.
"Oh, this scoundrel is going to kill her. This scoundrel will kill her! An Yunho, you damn son of a bitch. Why aren't you stopping your father! Are you going to let your father kill Yuna!"
An Yunho, who had been watching the counter, merely observed as if Ahn Yuna deserved to be hit, and did not step in.
"Give me the money right now!"
"No!"
When Taeseo, unable to watch any longer, started running toward them, the middle-aged man holding Ahn Yuna's hair picked up a soju bottle from under the parasol table.
Before the pale-faced Seongwoo Baekban owner could even try to stop him, the soju bottle, whistling through the air, struck Ahn Yuna's head.
"!"
With a dull thud, Ahn Yuna's body swayed. As she swayed, Yuna touched the spot where she was hit with her hand. Blood flowed from where she touched, beginning to drench her face.
The bright red blood flowed silently, staining Yuna's fair skin crimson. Witnessing the scene before her eyes, the Seongwoo Baekban owner screamed.
"Oh dear, what to do. Oh dear, what to do!"
Taeseo, who had rushed over, supported Yuna by her shoulder. He quickly caught her as her legs gave out and she began to fall, helping her stand.
"Where is the nearest emergency room?"
"If you go to the town, there's Seongsim Hospital. You can go there."
Following the Seongwoo Baekban owner's words, Taeseo walked Yuna toward the car, supporting her. The man who hit Yuna watched them blankly for a moment before turning and entering the convenience store.
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Once in the driver's seat, Taeseo took out wet wipes from the glove box and passed them to the back seat. The Seongwoo Baekban owner fumbled with the wipes and pressed them to Yuna's forehead.
Taeseo watched them through the rearview mirror as he drove.
The white wet wipe was instantly soaked red. The blood soaked through one wad of wipes and continued to stain new white wipes red.
The car, once filled with the scent of sandalwood, was now permeated with the smell of blood. He realized for the first time that the smell of human blood was surprisingly strong.
"If you follow the main road, it's a long detour. Turn right at the rice paddy path ahead instead."
Sitting in the back seat, the Seongwoo Baekban owner pressed wipes to Yuna's head to stop the bleeding and gave Taeseo directions to the hospital.
The navigation system was pointing toward Seongsim Hospital, but the route the Seongwoo Baekban owner indicated was different.
Taeseo followed the path she described. The road the Seongwoo Baekban owner had told him about, perhaps a shortcut known only to locals, allowed them to reach the hospital, which the navigation said would take 25 minutes, in just 15 minutes.
Upon entering the emergency room, a duty doctor with white hair rushed over. The rural hospital's emergency room was nearly empty, so they were able to receive treatment immediately.
The doctor stitched Yuna's skin without anesthesia. The area where her scalp began was torn deeply, requiring multiple stitches.
Ahn Yuna did not even let out a groan, unlike when her head was hit and blood gushed out. Taeseo, watching, found his hands covered in sweat.
Finding it difficult to watch, Taeseo turned and came out of the emergency room.
While waiting for Ahn Yuna's treatment to finish, Taeseo went to the payment counter and settled the hospital bill. The staff member said all the nearby pharmacies were closed and gave him the medicine from the dispensary.
When he received the medicine and went back toward the emergency room, the Seongwoo Baekban owner and Yuna were sitting side-by-side on a long bench in front of the emergency room.
As Taeseo was about to approach them, he stopped at the sound of the Seongwoo Baekban owner's voice.
"Why is your eldest uncle causing trouble again."
"It seems Yunho oppa mentioned that the second-floor studio apartment was rented out."
"So he came to ask you for the second-floor rent? To spend on alcohol?"
"Yes..."
"That damn bastard. He lost even his land because of alcohol, and now he wants to take that money to drink. He should have died in a drunken stupor long ago, but now that he's alive, this is happening. He should have died drowned in alcohol, or fallen into a rice paddy drunk..."
"Still, don't say such things."
"Aren't you heartless? You were beaten and bleeding, and you don't dislike your eldest uncle speaking ill of him? Oh, you foolish thing."
Yuna, who was about to say something, closed her mouth when she realized Taeseo had approached. The Seongwoo Baekban owner, who had been cursing, also fell silent.
As Taeseo stepped forward toward them, Ahn Yuna stood up and bowed her head.
"Thank you."
"The treatment fee has been paid, and this is the medicine."
"Ah, yes. I will transfer the treatment fee to your account."
"Okay."
With that brief, dry exchange, Taeseo passed them and headed toward the hospital entrance. Two women followed him.
The car ride back to the village from the hospital was even more silent than the ride to the hospital.
Ahn Yuna kept her lips tightly shut, as if they were sealed with glue, and the Seongwoo Baekban owner, who had already figured out the whole story of the day, didn't try to strike up a conversation either.
Meanwhile, the Seongwoo Baekban's house began to appear in the distance.
Perhaps it was true that she never left the restaurant to her husband, even for a short outing, as the lights were off despite it being the middle of dinner service.
When Taeseo stopped the car in front of the restaurant, the owner, after earnestly asking him to come eat sometime, got out of the car.
Sensing that it was her nature to pester someone relentlessly until she got the answer she wanted, Taeseo threw out a vague promise to do so and started driving again.
The car entered the single-lane road leading from Seongwoo Baekban to the convenience store. Ahn Yuna remained silent, as if her lips were sealed.
Taeseo, feeling uncomfortable with the silence between them, asked Yuna,
"So I caused you to get hit this time too?"
"You caused me to get hit?"
"Yeah. You said he hit you because he wanted the second-floor rent."
"Ah, yes."
"What do you mean 'Ah, yes.' You idiot."
At the word "idiot," Ahn Yuna let out a small chuckle. Startled by the inappropriate laughter, Taeseo glanced up at the rearview mirror.
A lonely smile flickered across Ahn Yuna's face. No, rather than a smile, it was a weak expression close to resignation or acceptance. It wasn't the kind of expression a twenty-year-old would wear in such a situation.
Taeseo impulsively turned the car and veered onto a country road connected to the single-lane path. At the same time, Ahn Yuna moved her lips.
"I don't know why everything in the world is so unfair."
Taeseo didn't ask why things were so unfair.
He knew what unfairness she felt without needing to ask.
People say you need to pick the right connections, but Kwon Taeseo, having been born with the right umbilical cord, had enjoyed more privileges than others.
He used that privilege more to avoid doing things he didn't want to do rather than to do what he wanted, but he was well aware of the vast difference between his situation and Ahn Yuna's, who had to do everything herself regardless of her preferences.
Yuna asked why they weren't going to the convenience store, even as they drove along the country road beside the stream. Taeseo also drove on without adding any further words, aimlessly.
After driving about 2km along the country road, the stream widened to the size of a river. There wasn't a single house in sight. He stopped the car in a place where only the wide plain, the stream cutting through it, and the lush green rice paddies on either side existed.
The moon settled onto the dark stream. The stream, holding the moonlight, flowed quietly. Occasionally, a large fish from the stream would break the moonlight's reflection and cross the current.
The only things moving were the fish surfacing on the water and the green reeds rubbing against each other.
When the car windows were closed, it felt as if they were cut off from the outside world, and no sound could be heard. But with the windows opened slightly, it became a completely different world. The chirping of insects flew in.
"What is so unfair."
He asked the question he should have asked earlier, much later.
He asked, even though he thought it was natural for her to say it was unfair, given she had been hit hard enough to split her head open just to avoid losing a mere 600,000 won. It was a question he asked even though he knew the answer.
However, an unexpected answer came from Yuna's lips.
