“I’m sorry. I’m in a hurry.”
While Eunyoung was driving on the Gyeongin Expressway. She seemed like she wasn’t happy to leave the office for a while because she had work to do.
“It’s ok. I can go there alone.”
Sun blurted out finally sensing Eunyoung was going out of her way despite her concern for work.
“I’m going to take you to your father’s place now, so I expect you to work hard when you return. That way, I’ll feel less guilty to your father for making you work so hard.”
“Why do you do something that you feel guilty about? Just treat me well.”
“What else can I do better than this?”
“Chi. You’re right. I’m speechless.”
Sun turned her head with in a cute manner.
Eunyoung began to speak standing to Sun.
“Did anybody come to the hospital when we were there?”
Eunyoung had heard a conversation between Sun and the nurse.
“Huh? Oh, I must have heard wrong.”
“Why? Whose voice was it?”
“… No, I must have got it wrong.”
Sun answered with a slightly firm expression. When Eunyoung saw the expression, she asked no more. She knew who Sun meant without having to ask. Eunyoung pulled out her phone as if to change the mood.
“Will you listen to some music? You’ve been gone for three months, so you haven’t heard the latest idol songs out now.”
“…Right.”
Sun smiled and moved her gaze out the window. Eunyoung turned the music on by Bluetooth, after glancing at Sun. Moments later, the car was filled with the latest music.
“… Hwahhh.”
Fortunately, the loud music allowed Sun to hide her sigh.
‘It can’t be him…’
She knew that he would never be there for her. His dimly lit voice must’ve been clearly her illusion.
‘I thought I’d forgotten him…’
She thought she had returned after clearing him from her mind, but she was wrong. From the moment she returned to Korea, his face never left her head. She tried to move her gaze forward. In order not to return, she had to keep moving forward constantly. Then she saw a large shipping truck in her eyes. She noticed the big advertisement on the truck. Consencio conveys happiness. Only the letters Consencio, but it was enough to shake her heart. His face came to her mind.
‘… Can I really forget about him…?’
Is it because of the sorrow and pain that she suppressed in her mind? Suddenly, the area around her stomach became sore. It was a pain that came whenever she tried to not to think about him.
‘No. You have to forget…’
She shook her head vigorously. She could not let her effort be in vain. She clenched her fists as if trying to keep her heart from quivering.
***
“Hmm.”
As he drove with one hand leaning against the windshield, Gyeonhui sighed for a long time. His expression was severely hardened as many thoughts came and went.
‘So, it was the menstrual cramps when I felt pain?’
It was hard to believe, but the circumstances cannot be coincidental. He looked down at his stomach, as the pain had disappeared.
‘And I’m not sick when she gets better?’
It was abdominal pain that wasn’t going to get better no matter how many pain killers were taken. However, the pain subsided whenever Sun was put on IV fluids and fell asleep.
“What a crazy… Hmmm. No, it can’t be true, it can’t be! No!”
Annoyed, he unwittingly stepped on the gas pedal.
‘Buaaang.’
The car started roaring at high speed.
“All right. I can pretend I don’t know anything. It might be okay to bear the pain once a month, and I’ll have to put up with it…”
He remembered the pain that had plagued him up to this morning.
“But how do I do this? Does this make sense?”
He poured out his own words like a madman. Meanwhile, the speedometer was pointing at 150 kilometers. The moment he began to breathe heavily and a stabbing pain was felt in his core.
‘Ugh!’
Surprised by his sudden pain, he stepped on the brakes.
‘Shhreek!’
His car slid on the road, making a roaring noise. Seeing the oncoming guardrails in that instant, he closed his eyes.
‘Tong’.
Suddenly, his body slammed into the steering wheel at the sudden halt.
“ugh. ugh…”
He struggled to breathe and slowly looked up. The car barely stopped right in front of the guardrails.
‘Pang! Paaaang!’
“Hey! Are you crazy! Die alone if you want to die!”
Short and long horns were heard followed by a roar. His veins sprang out on his forehead as he struggled to breathe.
“Whaa. Whagh.”
The deeper he breathed in, the more the pain grew. He barely looked up as he exhaled repeatedly, feeling pain different from menstrual cramps. He had undergone eight thorough examinations in three months because of the strange pain. Only today he confirmed that there were no problems with his heart and internal organs.
“If so…”
I wonder if this pain is hers. It’s not yet clear, but it was likely.
“… I’m going to go crazy.”
He took out his cell phone and called his assistant Ojae.
“Come to the office right now.”
His face was getting pale in pain that would not easily disappear.
8. Stroking the Cheek
“Thank you.”
In the parking lot of the port, Sun got out of the car and looked at Eunyoung and said.
“Thank you. Say hello to him and get inside. You don’t feel good.”
“Okay, I’ll get in touch.”
“Don’t. I’m busy. See you.”
Eunyoung waved outside the window and left the parking lot. After Sun looked at the car, she turned her body.
“It’s dangerous. Come this way.”
At that time, she saw a girl and her dad who came to play at the port. The child’s father held his daughter high as she ran toward the water. Sun, who looked at the them with a warm smile, suddenly remembered the old days.
***
It was Sun’s high school graduation ceremony day. It was on her way home after she had a pleasant meal with her only family, her dad.
“My girl, what do you want for a graduation gift?”
“I have something in mind, but it won’t be easy to find.”
“Hey. Just tell me, I will get it for you.”
“Really? Then I will tell you because I believe you.”
“Sure.”
Dad smiled and responded. Looking at her dad for a moment, Sun paused for a moment and slowly began to speak.
“The gift I want to have is… that you will always be by my side for the rest of my life.”
“What?”
“If I don’t have you, I’m all alone. So the gift I want to have is that you stay with me, but healthily, and for a long time.”
Dad smiled as he saw her smile.
“How healthy should I be to outlive my daughter?”
“That’ why I told you that the gift won’t be easy to get. Can you do it for me?”
“I definitely will. I promise you.”
Dad answered with confidence, petting Sun’s head. She leaned her head over her dad’s shoulder and smiled. It was such a happy moment, but that happiness disappeared so quickly. Suddenly, a high beam poured over them. Then a large truck was running at them at a terrifying speed.
***
‘Bang!’
The sound of the door opening and closing roughly was heard. Ojae was waiting in the representatives’ room. He rose to the sound. After a while, a bunch of hard-nosed faces entered to the CEO’s room.
“What happened to you? I heard you almost had a car accident. Are you all right? Let’s take a look.”
Ojae shuddered as he looked at the front and back of Gyeonhui.
“Stay still. This is serious.”
He sat down on the couch, furrowing his eyebrows. The pain around his core calmed down, but the memory was still so clear.
“Are you sick again? Did you take the medicine?”
Ojae asked, looking at Gyeonhui clutching his stomach.
“I said be quiet!”
He cut Ojae’s words off with his serious face. At his reaction, which was several times more sensitive than usual, Ojae carefully examined his mood. Now it was time to wait a while. Since childhood, Ojae had always been with Gyeonhui, so Ojae knew him better than anyone else. Gyeonhui frowned, his eyes closed, as if his thoughts were not well organized. This was an opportunity for Ojae.
“… What’s going on?”
Ojae again asked him cautiously.
“Urgha.”
He sighed with frustration. He felt the pain of Sun and he didn’t know where to start or how to explain them.
***
‘Krrung.’
In the middle of the ocean, a 55-ton vessel stopped in front of a buoy numbered 17. On weekday afternoons, the only person who visited the sea funeral home was Sun.
“You said buoy number 17?”
The white-haired captain smiled and asked.
“Yes.”
Sun turned her head with an answer and looked at the buoy floating on the sea. She saw the green buoy with the number 17 in white paint.
“Let me know when you are done.”
The white-haired captain smiled.
“Thank you.”
With a light smile, Sun turned her head slowly and looked at the buoy. The buoys were gorgeous green, like emeralds. She recalled her dad, who had struggled all his life for her mother, who had passed away earlier.
“… It’s been a long time. I’m sorry I didn’t come here often. Are you doing well?”
Sun looked at the buoy and talked to him with a calm voice. However, she could only hear the sound of waves hitting the ship, and she could not hear the answer.
“I’ve been very good…”
Sun closed her mouth, unable to keep her talking to him. She grabbed her right sore wrist with her left hand. She bit her lower lip and tried to pull herself together. She had a lot to say, but she couldn’t say a word easily as she stood in front of her dad.
“I broke up with him. Not over something big. It just happened.”
Her dad always worried about her, so she tried to assure him. Three months ago today when she broke up with him. She wandered to Santiago to forget him.
“I’m sorry to tell you all of this when it’s been such a long time since I’ve seen you.”
As she continued, her tears began to well up. She tried not to cry, but it wasn’t easy.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t cry out there. I’m just so happy to be here, Dad. It’s so wonderful.”
Sun quickly wiped away tears. Even as an adult, she was still a child in front of her father.
“Heh. Still, it’s so good to see my dad. I feel much better now.”
Sun looked at the buoy with her tearful eyes.
“Now, I will try to start over. Clean up this mess and try to get up again. Will you help me?”
The buoy sloshed back and forth in the soft waves. As if he were nodding his head. She smiled. The sea breeze stroked her hair gently as she did so.
***
A half-basement office located in a residential area. Ari, who was in the midst of clearing her packages, looked up at the door.
“Wow? Are you alone? How about Sun?”
Ari looked at Eunyoung, who was alone and asked. I dropped her off in Incheon. Sun said it’s going to take a long time for her.”
“What about her body? It seems she didn’t look good this morning.”
“She got an IV and felt much better.”
Ari nodded in relief as Eunyoung told her.
“Oh, Any calls for me?”
Eunyoung asked, as something seemingly came to mind.
“Oh, Mr. Song got in touch with me to meet him at 5 o’clock.”
“Mr. Song at 5 o’clock. Anything else?”
Eunyoung, who took notes of her meeting with Mr. Choi, asked again.
“No. Are you expecting something?”
“No. Just because.”
After stopping for a moment, Eunyoung opened her mouth again with concerned expression.
“In the hospital, I think I saw him.”
“The man? Who…?”
“… Mr. Woo.”
Eunyoung recalled his face as if she had seen him in the hallway of the hospital.
“Oh…The CEO of the Consencio?”
Eunyoung nodded at Ari’s question.
“He had been quiet lately…Watch your mouth just in case. It’s an absolute secret from her that the business with them has been cancelled.”
“… Absolutely. It’s not a good thing for her to know either.”
Eunyoung, after she kept Ari’s mouth shut tight, looked around of the office. Less than half the size of the previous office, there were items lying about haphazard on the stairs. A long sigh leaked from Eunyoung’s mouth.