CHAPTER 5
“Seolhee made porridge?”
Song Geun’s face lit up.
Despite having little appetite because of his indigestion, he happily finished the bowl of porridge his daughter had made for him.
“It tastes like heaven. Your porridge is so good that I don’t think I’ll be able to stand hospital food anymore.”
He gave an awkward smile.
The surgery expenses had not been settled.
Seolhee was troubled by the way her father was indirectly expressing his desire to postpone his hospitalization because of that.
He had spent his entire life doing hard labor at construction sites.
Naturally, he had never been in a position to meet the requirements for a loan.
Living from one day to the next, the small twenty-pyeong rental home on the outskirts of Seoul that he had managed to secure with his meager savings was everything he had accumulated over his entire life.
Seolhee put down her spoon.
“Dad, about the hospital bills…”
Dongchan had promised to lend her the money for her father’s hospital expenses as soon as they got married.
Naturally, they had agreed that Seolhee would repay that money by working after their marriage.
In reality, he had used the debt to control her, preventing her from taking even a single step outside the house.
“Let’s move out of this house.”
“Let’s get the deposit back and use it for your hospital bills.”
“But…”
“I know you’re attached to this place.”
“And I know you don’t want to spend it because you want to leave it to me.”
Seolhee persuaded her father.
What she needed to protect wasn’t a house like this.
It was the precious person by her side.
“And let’s change hospitals, too.”
Song Geun’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Why the hospital?”
“It’s the hospital Jin Dongchan introduced us to in the first place.”
“It’s famous, but I don’t really trust it.”
“Instead, there’s a hospital called Naum Hospital.”
“I heard there’s an excellent doctor in their Department of Gastroenterology.”
“We barely managed to get a surgery date here.”
“Just trust me.”
It was a doctor who would later become renowned in the field of gastric cancer surgery.
“They say he’s incredibly skilled.”
Song Geun remained silent for a moment at Seolhee’s firm words before nodding.
“If you say so… then we should.”
Seolhee’s anxiety eased slightly at his response.
“But if we sell this house to pay for the hospital bills, we won’t have anywhere decent to go.”
Song Geun sighed as though blaming himself.
“We’re going to SeongX-dong.”
Seolhee answered confidently, but Song Geun’s expression grew even darker.
“That’s an industrial area, and the roads are steep.”
“The neighborhood isn’t safe, either.”
It was an undesirable area at the moment.
But Seolhee knew.
Someday, that neighborhood would be transformed into a place of tremendous value.
“That’s why we’re going there.”
“Once I get a job, I can take out a loan as well.”
“Even if things are tight, let’s buy a place instead.”
Seolhee picked up her chopsticks again, removed the flesh from a dried yellow croaker, and held it out to Song Geun.
As he looked at his daughter smiling reassuringly at him, an expression of bewilderment appeared on his face.
The piece of fish he swallowed felt as though it might get stuck in his throat.
—
One week later.
Seolhee visited Naum Hospital with her father.
Song Geun went to the CT room for his examination, while Seolhee sat in the waiting room and checked her email inbox on her phone.
“At this rate, am I going to get rejected at the document screening stage everywhere?”
A sigh escaped her.
She had sent her résumé to the places she wanted to work.
But she had been rejected every single time.
“How is it possible that not even one place wants to interview me?”
Something felt off.
And on the morning of her third day back at the convenience store where she had worked during college before quitting because of her marriage, she received a text message.
[Seolhee, I’m sorry, but I think you’ll have to stop working part-time starting today.]
[The building owner contacted me this morning.]
[He even mentioned your name and said he’d raise the rent by ten percent starting next month if I didn’t fire you.]
It was obvious who was behind it.
Seolhee sighed.
‘It must be Madam Inok.’
She had suspected that Inok was also behind her repeated failures during document screening.
But after even her part-time job was taken away, she was certain.
She honestly hadn’t expected them to go as far as preventing her from even working part-time.
“Are they really trying to cut off every source of income I have?”
Seolhee sent a message reassuring the owner, who kept apologizing to her.
It was a place where she had worked for four years during college.
She had been close enough to the owner that he would even lend her money when she was in a difficult situation.
In truth, she owed him even more than he owed her.
A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over her.
‘What am I going to do?’
The thought of never being able to find a job if things continued like this suddenly frightened her.
Seolhee’s throat felt dry.
She got some cold water from the dispenser and walked through the lobby.
‘Think, Woo Seolhee!’
How had Dongchan known every place she had submitted her résumé to?
Just then, something flashed through Seolhee’s mind.
“No way.”
She stopped abruptly and quickly checked the login history of her email account on her phone.
Her brow gradually furrowed.
“This damn Real Shit Car!”
Her grip tightened around the phone.
Among the login records, there were traces of access from devices she never used.
They were all devices Dongchan used.
Everything fell into place.
Dongchan had found the companies where she had submitted her résumé through her email and informed Inok, and Inok had used every connection at her disposal to make sure Seolhee failed the document screening.
“These people really…”
It was clearly a crime.
Her heart dropped heavily once.
Seolhee slowly steadied her breathing and gathered herself.
First, she took screenshots of the evidence.
Then she logged out of every session at once and changed her password completely.
‘I have to find somewhere.’
Somewhere beyond their reach.
Somewhere outside the influence of Inok and Dongchan.
There was also a possibility that they could contact the companies she wanted to work for through another route she didn’t know about.
Just then, her gaze sweeping over the hospital lobby bulletin board stopped at one spot.
She walked over and carefully examined a poster.
[Fundraising Concert for Heart Disease Patients at Naum Hospital]
Her eyes traveled downward before becoming fixed on the final line.
[Hosted by Shinwol Foundation]
“Shinwol Foundation…”
Dongchan’s irritated voice suddenly echoed in her ears.
‘Those damn Shinwol Foundation people!’
She remembered.
The district where Dongchan had run in the local elections had been under the influence of the Shinwol Foundation.
It was the largest public-interest foundation in Korea, providing most of the region’s medical benefits and scholarships while maintaining close ties with local residents.
“The original founder of the Shinwol Foundation was opposed to the political party Dongchan belonged to.”
Dongchan had blamed the Shinwol Foundation for his first defeat in an election.
In other words, could this be the only place where neither Dongchan nor Inok’s influence could reach?
“It’s definitely worth trying.”
The Shinwol Foundation would be safe.
If she passed the document screening, she would at least get an interview.
If everything went well, she might even succeed in getting a job.
Seolhee immediately checked the Shinwol Foundation’s website on her phone.
She tapped the recruitment section.
“Please, please… Ah! There’s one.”
There were openings in the External Relations Team and the Human Resources Team.
Calming herself, she slowly read through the qualifications listed in the recruitment notice.
One requirement caught her eye.
[Additional points for a professor’s recommendation letter]
Seolhee thought back to which professors had been particularly favorable toward her.
Then she remembered one face.
“If it’s Professor Kim…”
The application deadline was approaching.
She grew anxious.
—
The next day.
Seolhee went to her university to get a recommendation letter.
It happened to be festival season, and the campus was bustling with students.
Puddles had formed here and there from the rain that had fallen until dawn, but the students were busy setting up booths under tents and calling out to passersby, their lively faces making the scene enjoyable just to watch.
“Ah, I love this.”
“This familiar atmosphere.”
She had been too busy working part-time to participate in much of campus life beyond her studies, but the vibrant atmosphere was exactly as she remembered it from ten years ago.
As Seolhee headed toward the main department building, she recalled the phone conversation she had had with Professor Kim Seok-jun the day before.
Fortunately, he had remembered her immediately.
She had been the only student in his class to receive an A+.
From business plans to setting performance indicators and the logic behind budget allocation, the assignments and exams he gave had been difficult even for Seolhee.
But because of them, she had become one of the students remembered by the notoriously demanding professor.
He had readily agreed to write her a recommendation letter.
“There’s no way I’m destined to fail at everything.”
Carrying a plastic carrier containing Professor Kim’s usual iced sweet-potato latte and a chocolate latte topped with an excessive amount of whipped cream, her favorite, Seolhee hummed as she entered the main department building.
Perhaps because of the festival, the building was unusually quiet.
For a moment, she caught sight of a man’s black derby shoes as he walked down the central staircase.
“Ah! Which room was the professor’s office again?”
She rummaged through her bag, pulled out her phone, and checked the messages they had exchanged as she walked.
The spotless derby shoes of the man who had just passed her caught her eye.
“Hmm, the professor’s office is… Room 201… Ah!”
It happened in an instant.
Her toe caught on the notorious raised step that students called the threshold of the underworld.
It had a reputation for making at least one person trip over it every day.
‘Damn it, I forgot you existed.’
She had thought everything would be easy after ten years had passed.
But that step still mercilessly knocked down anyone who let their guard down.
Seolhee squeezed her eyes shut.
Just as she was about to be helplessly thrown onto the cold concrete floor, her fall suddenly stopped.
Someone had grabbed her arm and pulled her firmly toward them.
Effortlessly.
“Are you all right?”
A low voice suddenly invaded her ears.
Seolhee instinctively raised her head.
She had to lift her gaze considerably before their eyes met.
How could a person look like this?
For a moment, she was completely mesmerized.
There were countless handsome people in the world.
But it was rare to find someone with such neat, refined features paired with such deep eyes.
His dark gray eyes looked directly into hers.
She instinctively lowered her head.
“Ah, thank you.”
The man slowly released the hand that had been holding Seolhee’s wrist.
He gave a brief nod and left without saying anything else.
“Goodness.”
She had nearly been badly hurt.
Her heart was pounding from the shock, and she was breathing heavily as well.
Seolhee climbed a few more steps before suddenly stopping.
Only then did she notice the lingering scent at the tip of her nose.
It was a fragrance she had smelled somewhere before.
Suddenly, she remembered the hooded zip-up the students had lent her.
It had carried a similar scent.
“Is that perfume popular these days?”
Seolhee rubbed the warmth left on her arm where the man had grabbed her and continued climbing the stairs.
