Chapter : 8
It was Uncle Hak-su, who shared the same hospital room as her father.
He waved at Yumin when he saw her.
“Ah, of all people….”
Yumin let out a sigh and bit her lip.
Since Uncle Hak-su had caught her, she had no choice but to go see her father.
With no other option, Yumin forced a smile and ran toward Hak-su.
“Uncle!”
“What is it, girl! Why haven’t you come around in so long? Your dad’s been waiting for you until his neck was about to fall off!”
“I’ve been so busy with work lately, haha. You’ve been doing well, right? And my dad is doing okay too?”
“We’re always the same. Hurry up and go! Your dad might get so happy that he’ll get up and dance.”
“That would be nice. Then I’ll go up first!”
Hak-su waved his hand, urging her to hurry.
Yumin bowed her head in greeting, then quickly entered the hospital building.
Phew. Come on, Hong Yumin.
Since it turned out this way, let’s go see him with a good heart.
Maybe seeing the one person in the world who’s completely on my side will give me some strength.
With that determination, she kept walking until she eventually reached the hospital room.
After knocking, she opened the door.
Her father, Junghoon, was sitting propped up in his hospital bed, looking out the window. He turned his head toward her.
He looked even more haggard than the last time she had seen him.
Her heart ached at the sight of her gaunt father, but Yumin kept her expression under control and spoke brightly.
“Dad!”
“Huh?! Yumin! What brings you here without even calling?”
Yumin ran over to her father’s bed, grabbed his hand, and spoke.
“I came because I missed you! Huh? But your wrist looks even thinner than before. Have you been eating your meals on time?”
“Lately, I just don’t have an appetite no matter what I eat.”
Yumin smacked the back of her father’s hand hard enough to make a sound.
“You still have to eat. They said it would be a big problem if your immune system got weaker, didn’t they?”
“I said I don’t have an appetite. Who said I wasn’t eating?”
Junghoon chuckled.
“Makes me crazy,” Yumin muttered as she plopped down onto the chair meant for the caregiver.
Perhaps he was simply overjoyed to see his daughter for the first time in nearly two months, because Junghoon stared intently at Yumin’s face with a broad smile.
“Dad. If you keep staring like that, you’re going to poke a hole through your daughter’s face.”
“Oh dear, then that won’t do, will it?”
Junghoon pretended to cover his eyes with his hand.
“Ah, seriously.”
As if she had forgotten all about worrying over whether she should come see her father, Yumin broke into a wide smile.
Her father was the person who became a ray of light for her, trapped in darkness.
If she cut ties with her extended family and left their household, even that one ray of light would disappear from this world.
As her thoughts reached that point, a gloomy shadow settled over her mind.
Her father had lost all movement in his lower body after an accident during the factory fire.
Moreover, his condition had been extremely critical at the time, and he had suffered multiple organ failure. As a result, his kidneys had been completely damaged, making regular dialysis necessary for him to function in everyday life.
It meant he could never escape from being dependent on the hospital.
No matter how hard Yumin worked after leaving her uncle’s household, it would never be enough to cover her father’s medical expenses.
The family knew that all too well. They were using her father’s hospital bills and the debts incurred from the factory fire to keep her trapped.
“I thought of it as a present for the sacrificial substitute who was going to die in my place, and I figured it was okay, you know?”
“People who are that obsessed with shamanism could do anything to you. That’s what you need to think about. Ah, you understand?”
Even though she knew that her relatives were planning to do something insane to her, the reality that she had no way to escape made it hard for her to breathe.
“…Yumin? Is something bothering you? Your expression suddenly looks so troubled.”
While she was lost in thought, her father’s worried voice brought her back.
Yumin shook her head vigorously and stood up with determination.
“No, Dad! I just feel a little cooped up. How about we go for a walk?”
“It’s still cold outside.”
“We can just walk around inside the building. You must feel cooped up too~”
Yumin brought her father’s wheelchair, which was standing by the hospital room door.
Then, straining herself, she practically lifted her father and helped him into the wheelchair.
As soon as she began pushing the wheelchair, her father became as happy as a child.
“Dad is so excited! I get to go for a walk with our Yumin for the first time in ages!”
His excited voice made her heart ache.
Dad must feel even more trapped than I do. He can’t even go for a walk unless someone helps him like this….
“Oh, right, Yumin!”
“Yes, Dad?”
“You know your oldest uncle’s birthday is next week, right?”
“…Ah…. Is it already that time?”
“See? You’d forgotten, hadn’t you? Good thing I reminded you.”
“…….”
“At least buy him a present and make him some seaweed soup. Look around you. Do you see anyone else like your oldest uncle? You have to do your best for him.”
Yumin’s hands tightened around the handles of the wheelchair.
“It’s not easy for him to pay off all those debts and cover your hospital expenses for more than ten years. On top of that, he even adopted you and raised you like his own daughter.”
When Yumin didn’t answer, Junghoon glanced back at her.
Yumin forced a smile and nodded.
“…Mm-hm. Of course, I know.”
“Yeah. Since we’re talking about it, if I were your father, I couldn’t have done that much for Suji. He’s my older brother, but still… he really is an incredible man. Yes, indeed….”
Perhaps he had suddenly become overwhelmed with emotion, because the end of Junghoon’s voice trembled.
Yumin asked her father silently, in her heart.
Do you know what the uncle you’re so grateful to is doing to your daughter?
Do you know that because he believes in the superstition that his daughter will die young, he takes money to shamans every day and performs rituals praying for me to die?
Do you know that because of that superstition, he’s forcing me to marry some sleazy man?
And yet you’re still grateful to him?
She asked the same questions over and over.
The words that could never escape her mouth piled up inside Yumin’s heart like sediment, staining it darker and darker.
After walking for a long while, Yumin took her father back to his hospital room, said goodbye, and left the hospital.
Because her father had spent the entire walk giving a speech about how grateful they should be to her oldest uncle, she felt even more conflicted than she had before seeing him.
She even began to wonder whether her father would understand if, one day, she became so terrified and disgusted by her uncle’s household that she finally left.
Her mind in turmoil, she didn’t go straight home after leaving the hospital. Instead, she wandered around the building.
She only stopped when the pungent smell of cigarette smoke pierced her nose.
She had reached the smoking booth inside the hospital complex.
She was about to turn around when something caught her eye, making her stop.
“For those who urgently need cash.
No conditions. No guarantor. No collateral.”
It was an advertisement sticker attached to the side of the ashtray inside the smoking booth.
Normally, she would have simply walked past it, but today, for some reason, the sight of it caught Yumin’s attention.
She bent at the waist and read the words on the sticker once again.
“…If there are no conditions, no guarantor, and no collateral… isn’t this a loan shark?”
As Yumin leaned over the ashtray and muttered under her breath, the people smoking nearby flinched and stepped backward.
“Whoa, shit. You scared me.”
“Geez.”
But Yumin paid them no attention and read the words written underneath several more times.
“How much would they lend for something like this?”
Would five million dollars be possible?
With five million dollars, I could cover my dad’s hospital expenses for several months right away.
“How high would the interest be….”
Rather than being forced to marry Byeongtae and become his sexual plaything, maybe it would be better to work like a dog until I died from overwork….
“How much do you need to borrow?”
It happened then.
Along with a low voice, a cool, grassy scent gently mingled with the air thick with cigarette smoke.
Just as the familiar scent made her head begin to go numb, a large shadow fell beside her.
Someone bent down in exactly the same position as Yumin.
Yumin slowly turned her head.
“……!”
Cold, relentless eyes caught Yumin’s gaze and held it firmly as the man asked again.
“I asked how much you need.”
Yumin’s heart began pounding so violently that she could hardly bear it.
It was Seol Jaejun.
