Chapter 50

“Seeing you like this, even my sister would cry.”

She would cry, lamenting that she raised a crazy guy.

Seojin sat still, not moving, until the nurse came in to reattach the IV and left. Watching him, Sanho shook his head slightly.

“Hold on for at least a week.”

Sanho spoke as if coaxing, looking at his stubborn nephew. He had no choice but to try to persuade him.

His face, sharp from not eating properly, only had bright eyes, as if he was about to cause trouble.

“……”

Leaving his nephew, who didn’t respond, Sanho exited the hospital room. He ended up telling the nurse to leave alcohol swabs and gauze by the patient’s bed.

***

Seojin saw the alcohol swabs and gauze beside his bed and unhesitatingly pulled out the IV.

He had no intention of refusing the tacit permission. Of course, his uncle probably knew he would do this even without permission.

Before blood could flow from his arm, he wiped it with an alcohol swab and stopped the bleeding with gauze, then stood up. Changing clothes and leaving the hospital took no time at all.

Driving, Seojin’s face looked so composed that it was hard to believe he had been a patient in the hospital. It was as if he had just returned from a challenging business trip.

“She must be waiting.”

Driving without hesitation, Seojin arrived at his destination, got out of the car, and entered the building briskly.

He saw the woman he had longed to see. His steps quickened. The twinge from the wound near his chest didn’t matter.

Seeing her was the priority.

“Haji.”

Haji turned her head at his voice, and her expression rippled. Her eyes, which had been watching his face, hardened, and a chill settled in them.

“…What’s going on?”

Seojin’s eyes, which had been cold throughout the journey, finally found their place upon hearing her voice. It felt as if his entire body had regained sensation.

“Didn’t you miss me?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“I didn’t miss you.”

Haji’s cold voice was the exact opposite of Seojin’s gentle tone. However, Seojin’s expression relaxed as if taking a sweet breath. After overcoming a life-threatening ordeal, he couldn’t be hurt by this treatment.

Just having her in front of him made him feel relieved. He was just glad he wouldn’t leave her alone anymore.

“Are you mad?”

Haji bit her lower lip hard at his calmness. The skin around it turned white.

“It hurts if you bite like that.”

As Seojin stepped forward and reached out, Haji retreated as if pushed back by the rebound.

“Ha…”

A small sigh escaped from between her slightly swollen lips. She quickly turned her head, avoiding him.

“Go away. I have nothing to say.”

As expected, she seemed very angry. Seojin nodded at Haji’s cold demeanor. He had no choice but to step back for now.

He couldn’t keep agitating a woman who seemed in worse shape than he was.

Before leaving the café, he signaled to Woobae. Perceptively, Woobae kept his distance and followed him out.

“Hyung, what happened?”

“I want to ask you that. What happened to Haji?”

Woobae frowned, looking at Seojin’s face. Up close, he looked as pale as Haji.

“I don’t know exactly. She moved recently, and since then, she seems to have been unwell. She says it’s a cold, but it doesn’t seem to get better even with medicine.”

“What about going to the hospital?”

“She went a few times because Sehee insisted, but they just said it’s a cold.”

Seeing Seojin’s hardened expression at the news that she wasn’t getting better, Woobae approached him, tilting his head.

“Is that alcohol I smell?”

“Are you a bloodhound?”

“It’s the smell my father always has.”

Being the second son of Sanho, Woobae was quick-witted. He didn’t seem to realize Seojin had come from his father’s hospital.

“What happened?”

“There was a minor accident. I was in the hospital for a bit and couldn’t contact her.”

Seojin, who turned the fact that a rebar had pierced his body into a minor accident, spoke as if everything was his fault, smiling bitterly.

“You two should make up quickly and go to the hospital together. It’s scary watching you both, not knowing when you’ll collapse.”

It was one person until just now, but now it’s two.

Muttering the last words quietly, Woobae turned and went back into the café.

Seojin, who had been rubbing his face, frowned as he looked at the gloomy sky. It was a day with unpleasant weather that reminded him of that day.

“Could this be why she’s sick?”

The mind might forget, but the body could remember that day’s events.

If the weather had been like this since he was hospitalized due to the accident, his guess might be correct.

“Of all times.”

To think I left you alone.

The pain in his heart hurt more than the wound in his torn chest.

Plop, plop, large raindrops began to fall on his shoulders. A shower was preparing to come.

***

Plod, plod, plod.

Small sneakers were followed by larger sneakers on the wet pavement.

Haji, glaring at the shadow following her at a constant distance, suddenly stopped.

“How long do you plan to follow me?”

“Until I see you go in.”

“I’m almost there.”

Even though it was a hint for him to stop, Seojin didn’t budge.

Haji, who had been holding back, turned around to face the man bothering her.

“Why are you doing this after disappearing suddenly and then showing up out of the blue?”

“There was something going on. I’m sorry.”

“What was it?”

What could have happened for you to disappear without a trace and then show up with a perfectly fine face?

“It was a minor thing. Not important. It’s all settled now…”

“…”

“I came back.”

“It wasn’t important!”

Haji’s voice rose. Her clenched fists trembled slightly.

As if holding back a lot, she bit her trembling lower lip hard and took a deep breath, her chest heaving.

“It wasn’t important, and yet you didn’t contact me all this time?”

“You must have waited a lot.”

“Do you think that’s something for you to say?”

She was curious about the intentions of the person who asked her so casually when she had been anxious and suffocating all that time.

It felt like she was the only one who had been sincere to this man.

“I tried to contact you, but it wasn’t easy.”

“How is it difficult when we’re under the same Seoul sky?”

“I was wrong, Haji…”

Haji’s whole body trembled as if it would break. When Seojin approached, she glared at him fiercely.

“Don’t come any closer.”

You didn’t come when I was waiting so desperately.

“You don’t look well.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about me.”

You’ve been pretending not to know all this time.

When she was searching for him the most and waiting, he wasn’t there, and now he was worrying about her, which seemed ridiculous.

“Just don’t worry about me, like you did before.”

“How can I not worry about you?”

“Do you know how much of a lie that sounds right now?”

When did this man become someone who only spoke empty words?

As betrayal, disappointment, and hatred mixed in Haji’s eyes, Seojin let out a small breath.

“Okay. But no matter what you think of me, I have to take you home.”

Seojin closed the short distance between them in a few steps and lifted Haji. Supporting her legs and waist, her body floated lightly.

“Put me down!”

“Don’t waste your energy.”

I’m not going to let go.

Even as Haji struggled and hit Seojin’s chest, he didn’t stop walking.

He only flinched slightly at the punches to his chest but didn’t open his mouth.

“Let go! Let go! Who do you think you are to do this to me?”

Haji shook her head, her body thrashing. The sensation of floating made her dizzy, but she couldn’t calm down because she hated him so much.

When she faced the person she had been holding back her resentment against, it finally burst out.

She was angry to death at the man who was trying to enter her life again so casually. He had broken down her solid world and seemed to take her to a new one, only to leave her alone again.

He was the one who made her realize she was alone after all.

“Sniff, let go, let go…”

No matter how much she pushed him away with her weak arms, he didn’t budge, and her eyes were full of tears, her face a wet mess.

She cried for a long time like that.

She couldn’t tell how time passed as she sobbed, drained of energy, in his arms. She only vaguely realized at some point that his body wasn’t moving

As the sound of her sniffles subsided, Seojin lowered his body and gently set her down on the ground.

“It must have been really hard for you. I’m sorry.”

With his hands patting her as he embraced her, the tears that had stopped began to flow again.