<49>
> [Airport arrival] 09:11 AM
> [Rental car boarding] 09:19 AM
Scrolling up through the chat window, Jaekyung saw that the first message had arrived just after nine in the morning on the day of the accident. Nine in the morning… This was while the injured Yeonhu was already being transported to the hospital by ambulance. He carefully examined the timestamps of the messages as he slowly scrolled down.
> [Please notify in advance if there are changes to the plan] 09:20 AM
Plan? What was this about? If his previous suspicions had been mere hunches, the moment he saw the word “plan,” they transformed from vague feelings into absolute certainty.
Jaekyung forwarded the number to his team’s clerk, asking them to find out who the actual owner was. The clerk was renowned in the law firm for their swift ability to dig up information, so he expected to hear something meaningful by tomorrow, or the day after at the latest.
> [Expected arrival at target point in ten minutes] 09:24 AM
> [Departure] 09:29 AM
The tone of the messages was utterly bleak, devoid of any emotion, as if giving routine work updates. But that attitude only lasted until that point.
After the “departure” message, the unknown sender completely changed their tone, starting with “just ten more minutes of waiting,” and “why aren’t you answering your phone,” then escalating to “a promise is a promise, keep it no matter what,” and “what does that make me who trusted you,” showing increasingly agitated emotions.
> [So you’re just going to keep ignoring me] 11:42 AM
> [Answer the phone] 11:44 AM
> [Fine, do whatever you want. Don’t regret it when I say things to your grandfather’s face.] 11:52 AM
> [I saw the news article. Still, keep your promise. Otherwise, I really can’t stay quiet either. Contact me when you come to your senses.] 2:07 PM
The final message had arrived at around 2:07 PM on the day of the accident. The news about Yeonhu’s accident had been officially published as an article at about 2:00 PM, so considering the timing, the sender’s change in attitude made sense.
Airport, rental car, target point, departure… Several keywords spun dizzily in his head. He slowly raised his head and stared at Jang Yeonhu, who was dependent on a ventilator for survival.
‘Why, already…, not yet…’
“No, Yeonhu. I’m just imagining strange things.”
Jaekyung almost wished he was an absolute idiot who couldn’t even recognize the simplest letter.
“You… You didn’t really have such terrible thoughts, did you?”
Airport, rental car, target point, departure… and Yeonhu’s inexplicable words. The meaning of these puzzle pieces was clear.
Even if there hadn’t been that company worker who suffered a heart attack that day, Yeonhu would never have walked out of the airport unharmed or boarded the plane he had reserved with Choi Eunseong. Yeonhu’s words echoed like fog in his mind—that all he wanted was to live happily without hiding the person he loved. His heart began to pound violently, as if it might leap out of his mouth.
Jaekyung glanced at the Vice Chairman, who was uncomfortably napping with his back against the sofa, then carefully left the hospital room, trying not to make any noise. His immediate priority was to figure out what kind of promise had been made between Yeonhu and this person.
It was almost one in the morning. Not even an ant stirred in the small garden set up in front of the hospital. He called the number using Yeonhu’s cell phone that he had brought out with him.
“Finally woke up? If you’d been any later, I wouldn’t have held back either—”
“…”
It was a man’s voice with a somewhat quick speech pattern. Judging by his voice, he was at least in his fifties. As Jaekyung remained silent and listened to the voice on the other end, the other person seemed to realize that the caller wasn’t Yeonhu. His gruff “Who is this?” revealed obvious tension.
“…This is attorney Han Jaekyung. I’m contacting you as Jang Yeonhu’s legal representative. Mr. Jang hasn’t fully regained consciousness yet, but when he briefly woke up, he conveyed that I should contact you first, which is why I’m calling on his behalf.”
Even as his head was spinning, his tongue moved deftly. Jaekyung casually voiced the lie. He wanted to shout “Who are you?” and “What kind of promise did you make with Yeonhu?” but he knew that would yield no results.
“Ah, I see.”
The man showed considerable relief. Jaekyung spoke in a nonchalant tone, “I apologize for contacting you so late.”
“Due to others being present, I couldn’t receive precise instructions from Mr. Jang. Could you tell me what this is about and what kind of ‘promise’ you made with him?”
“It’s really nothing. What was it… He said he needed permission from his family for something, but it was something the adults would never approve of in their right minds, so he just needed to pretend to have an accident to worry them into giving permission. Anyway, it’s unfortunate how things turned out. They say words become seeds—who could have known a real accident would happen that day… tsk.”
Just as he thought. Unpleasant predictions rarely miss the mark. The original plan had been to sustain minor bruises and, with the help of a doctor they knew, pretend to be seriously injured and confined to bed. The condition was to help the man who was under investigation for financial crimes.
“My trial is just two days away. Since I’m not a first-time offender, losing this case would be really troublesome for me. So, what do you say, Attorney? Can you handle it?”
“I’ll give you my office number, so please contact there. Just tell them it’s a case directly handled by Team Leader Han Jaekyung, and they’ll take care of it.”
If things hadn’t gone wrong like this, this might have been Han Jaekyung’s role from the beginning. The “doctor they knew” was obviously Dr. Park Eunhye.
After hanging up, Han Jaekyung collapsed to the ground as his legs gave out. He was dumbfounded. He felt dumbfounded, angry, and pathetic… it was unbearable.
After all that talk about irreconcilable issues, to pull something like this, using the love of the family who cared for him as hostage. Did Choi Eunseong know about this beforehand? No, judging by his haggard appearance as he frequented the hospital, he probably hadn’t anticipated such an absurd plan either.
“Jang Yeonhu, you crazy bastard… you terrible bastard…”
He couldn’t manage to say anything else. And he couldn’t tell anyone about this. What good would it do to tell? Regardless of whether there had been a plan, the person who actually hit Yeonhu with the car wasn’t the one who had conspired with him, and Yeonhu’s injuries were real, not faked.
Now that he knew the situation, he wondered if that’s why Yeonhu had been strangely uncommitted about finding a place to live right away, despite supposedly emigrating permanently. He’d simply thought that since Yeonhu was filthy rich, he’d figure it out himself—a thought that now felt stupid.
He’d said it wasn’t love yet. But the truth was that he probably couldn’t tell Jaekyung because he felt sorry for him, while he was already deeply in love with Choi Eunseong. Otherwise, this insane act couldn’t be explained at all.
Bzzt, bzzzzt.
After sitting there like a madman, just rubbing his face dry for a long time, his phone vibrated. This time it was from Han Jaekyung’s own phone in his back pocket.
“…Yes, Vice Chairman.”
“Jaekyung, Yeonhu, Yeonhu opened his eyes. Yeonhu opened his eyes!!”
The Vice Chairman’s voice was filled with joy. Jaekyung just wanted to burst into tears. He had no confidence in what expression he should wear when facing Yeonhu.
* * *
Fortunately, Jaekyung didn’t need to worry about what expression to show. When Yeonhu opened his eyes that night, as Dr. Park had explained earlier, he had only “opened his eyes” without actually regaining consciousness. Of course, that alone was enough proof that he had nearly completed his journey through the long, dark tunnel, so everyone who had been worried breathed sighs of relief and couldn’t contain their happiness.
“Attorney! Look at this. His, his eyelids moved again!”
Choi Eunseong was one of them.
“Ah, yes.”
“Ah, yes”? Even to himself, the response seemed too bland. It’s not that he wasn’t happy. It’s not that he wasn’t excited. Jaekyung just needed time to process the bomb he had unexpectedly been handed. Unfortunately, it seemed that time was running out.
Three days after Yeonhu first opened his eyes, he now opened them several times a day, no longer staring blankly into empty space with an unconscious, dazed gaze, but blinking clearly while alternately looking at Choi Eunseong, who was kneeling in front of him, and Jaekyung, who was standing a few steps away.
“Doctor! Please, please come here quickly! Hurry!”
Unable to wait for the medical staff to arrive in that brief moment, Choi Eunseong opened the door to the room and stuck his head out, practically squawking. The medical staff rushed in, their coats fluttering, quickly filling the area around the bed, firing off incomprehensible words like machine guns as they examined Yeonhu’s condition.
“Patient! Patient, are you conscious? If you can hear me, blink your eyes.”
“…”
“Well done. Can you move your fingers? Yes, good. The other hand too.”
“…”
Yeonhu diligently performed the doctor’s repeated requests. Afterward, the doctor spent some time having Yeonhu push against his palm, lift his legs, and checking various performance abilities before turning around with a happy face and saying:
“You can rest assured now. The guardians must have been so worried. He’s lost some strength from lying down for so long, but the patient’s motor functions are good, and there doesn’t seem to be any cognitive issues. I’ll contact the Chairman right away!”
Apparently, despite having left the care mostly to Dr. Park Eunhye, they had been immensely worried about what would happen if the Woojin Group’s eldest son deteriorated in their hospital.
“I’m so relieved… so relieved. I was so scared that something might go wrong with you. Thank you for waking up like this.”
Teardrops like crystal beads had already stained his pale face. Choi Eunseong, disregarding the gazes around him, moved to embrace Yeonhu’s neck. Jaekyung still stood there without narrowing the distance by even a step, reserving judgment.
He wanted to ask if this was really what Yeonhu wanted. If this was what he wanted so badly that he even staged that cheap drama. He wanted to slap that gaunt cheek once, good and hard. But then he also wanted to push Eunseong away, take his place, and cling to Yeonhu while sobbing that he too had been scared and afraid, that he had been through so much pain.
But it seemed Yeonhu had no intention of watching Han Jaekyung stand frozen like that. He reached out his hand first, towards Jaekyung, who couldn’t move due to his confused feelings.
“…Jaekyung.”
His voice, locked away for so long, cracked terribly. He had been holding up well until now. Even while dealing with that horrific accident he never wanted to remember again, even while waiting outside the operating room where time seemed to crawl, he had managed to hold back the childish urge to just cry his eyes out.
But those three syllables—”Jaekyung”—called by Yeonhu, so easily broke him down. His jaw, clenched with tension, trembled uncontrollably. Yeonhu, who had been waiting for Jaekyung while slowly blinking his eyes, opened his mouth once more, as if unwilling to wait any longer.
“My head hurts so much…”
“Ugh…”
“I’m in pain… Come here quickly, Han Jaekyung. Why are you standing so far away?”
Han Jaekyung moved his legs without another word, crying pathetically without even thinking to wipe his face.
Biting his lips firmly, his suppressed breath made his entire chest heave. His eyes burned unbearably. His thin whimpers transformed into childlike wailing sobs as he moved forward.
As he approached the bed, Choi Eunseong tactfully shifted aside to make room for Jaekyung. Yeonhu glanced at Eunseong indifferently, then asked Jaekyung:
“This looks like a hospital, but when was I admitted?”
“How can you, *hic*, not remember that, you idiot. Really, trying to drive someone to death, you bad bastard, shit, really… really the worst bastard…”
“Oh my, our Jaekyung. Who made you cry like this? I’m sorry. You were so worried about me.”
“And you, *sob*, you have the nerve to, *hiccup*, say that now, *sniff*.”
As Jaekyung collapsed, clutching Yeonhu’s arm with its dangling IV lines, Yeonhu naturally planted kisses on Jaekyung’s crown and his temple where veins were visible. Even in the midst of sobbing, Jaekyung sensed something strange and quickly lifted his head to look up at Yeonhu.
“Hey, Jang Yeonhu, what are you—”
“I’m sorry. I won’t worry you again. So stop crying, it’ll give me a headache later. Okay?”
“H-hyung?”
Choi Eunseong was right there beside them, but the actual culprit seemed to have no reservations whatsoever. Eunseong, clearly shocked, called out to Yeonhu while tugging at his hospital gown sleeve.
Thwack.
It was an excessive sound of friction for simply pushing away the hand of the lover with whom he had been planning a future together, even staging a car accident. Yeonhu frowned with displeasure and asked:
“I’ve been wanting to ask since earlier, Jaekyung.”
“Uh…”
As he took in Yeonhu’s sullen expression, Jaekyung felt as though a deafening alarm bell was ringing somewhere, tearing at his eardrums.
“Who exactly is this person?”
It was certain. This strange yet familiar man before him was no longer the thirty-one-year-old Jang Yeonhu that Jaekyung had known.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
