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Chapter 10
“Weren’t you reading yesterday? That’s why I drove more slowly than usual. You don’t like having your reading interrupted, after all.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, in my new memories of yesterday, I really had been reading a book, just as Mr. Song said.
While the new memories were completely replacing my old ones, something Kim Dohwan had said at school today suddenly came back to me.
‘Come on. Who in the entire school doesn’t know you’re weak?’
‘Was it last week? When I saw you running incredibly fast during break time, I thought maybe being bad at sports was just an act. Like you were pretending.’
‘Back then, even when I chased you at full speed, I couldn’t catch you. The gap actually got bigger, and I was completely stunned.’
I think I had found one of the rules behind the memory changes.
When my memories of the past changed, those memories were always from a period before I became aware that I was inside an internet novel.
Also, even if my actions after becoming aware of it were overwritten by new memories, traces of my previous actions remained intact in other people’s memories.
Just as Kim Dohwan was still puzzled by the fact that I had sprinted down the hallway while wearing a Kang Beotkkot name tag and running away from him, changing my memories afterward to make me physically weak didn’t erase the fact that I had previously run through that hallway.
However, there was a problem with my theory when it came to what Mr. Song had just said.
‘Just in case, I put the tablet in the back seat instead of the passenger seat.’
‘Yesterday, you said you were disappointed because you hadn’t finished reading your book yet.’
‘Weren’t you reading yesterday? That’s why I drove more slowly than usual. You don’t like having your reading interrupted.’
Until yesterday, I hadn’t been the granddaughter of the Hwadan Group chairman. I had just been an ordinary person who took the bus to and from school.
Yet he was saying that I had also ridden in a private car yesterday.
I wondered if I had heard him wrong, so I tested it again.
According to my new memories, yesterday I had been holding a tablet and asked Mr. Song to drive smoothly because I wanted to read.
“Mr. Song, please drive smoothly today too.”
“Yes, understood. Are you planning to read again, like yesterday?”
“Yes, I’m going to read. …Like yesterday.”
That conversation made me certain.
Apparently, there was one exception to my theory.
I added one final line to the notes on my phone so I wouldn’t forget.
[However, if the memory change is large enough to alter an entire person’s life, it overwrites the original traces.]
The next day, during sixth period while classes were in full swing, I walked alone across the school field toward the main gate.
It was a perfectly legal act of ditching class, officially approved by my homeroom teacher.
‘I’m sorry, teacher. I suddenly don’t feel well, so I think I need to go to the hospital.’
‘No, I’m more sorry that I didn’t notice sooner.’
If this had been the old me, who had never even caught a cold, I could never have gotten permission to leave school because I was sick.
I wasn’t sure whether it was because of my newfound frailty or because I had become a third-generation chaebol.
‘Did you contact your father? If he’s busy, should I tell him for you?’
‘Ah, no! It’s okay. Really. My dad worries way too much. I’ll tell him myself after I come back.’
It would certainly have been convenient to ask Mr. Song to pick me up after school as usual.
But then the news that I had gone to the hospital would probably reach my father too.
Of course, there was nothing wrong with that.
But considering what had happened three days ago…
‘Beotkkot, are you okay? Oh my God, you’re bleeding! Let’s go to the emergency room right now.’
‘No, Dad, I’m fine…’
‘It’s three in the morning, so I can’t call Song. Let’s just take my car for now.’
‘Dad. It’s just a nosebleed because I’m tired…’
‘Dr. Kim, this is Kang Hanran. Can you talk right now? My daughter is bleeding, so we need to go to Hwadan University Hospital immediately. Please prepare in advance.’
Thanks to my father, who had even called the hospital beforehand, I ended up visiting the emergency room of a university hospital over nothing more than a nosebleed.
Thankfully, by some miracle, the emergency room happened to be quiet.
Obviously, I didn’t even need the stretcher the medical staff had prepared for me in advance.
I got out of my father’s car with a tissue stuffed against my nose.
It was embarrassing enough simply walking to the hospital’s main entrance, where the doctors had already come out to meet us.
But my father supported me, saying,
‘You’re a patient right now. You need to save your strength as much as possible.’
My nosebleed stopped within ten minutes of arriving at the hospital.
Honestly, I might have felt less embarrassed if I’d at least lost a lot of blood.
At one point, my father had to step away briefly to take a call from his company.
I lowered my head in embarrassment and couldn’t even bring myself to look Dr. Kim in the eyes.
‘I’m sorry for bothering you when you’re busy. My father is completely doting on me.’
‘Not at all. The bleeding is minor, so I’m actually the one who’s relieved.’
‘…….’
‘And I hope you won’t be too hard on President Kang. He’s not the kind of person who would act without a reason. At least, that’s what I’ve seen from personally being around him.’
Dr. Kim had laughed gently as he said that.
‘Still, isn’t calling the head of a university hospital in the middle of the night over a single nosebleed a little much…?’
I had already gone to the emergency room over a nosebleed.
If my father heard that there was something wrong with my memories, he might actually collapse on the spot.
That was why I planned to make time without telling my father or Mr. Song and visit the hospital myself.
“Please don’t let them find out.”
I left the school’s main gate and walked along the main road until I sat down on a nearby bus stop bench.
It was a bus stop I had become extremely familiar with after getting off there countless times until just a few days ago.
“Haa. I only walked for ten minutes, and I’m already out of breath.”
Just a few weeks ago, I could run for thirty minutes without getting out of breath.
There was no doubt that my stamina had dropped dramatically.
It had definitely started after I was told that I was ‘physically weak.’
‘If this was going to happen, I should’ve run as much as I wanted while I still had the energy.’
I searched for nearby hospitals on my phone, but apparently it couldn’t locate my position properly because it recommended hospitals near Busan.
When it said I could reach one in just one kilometer, I put my phone back in my pocket.
“My phone has gone crazy just like me.”
There were hospitals everywhere in the middle of Seoul anyway.
Just then, a taxi passed by, so I flagged it down.
I leaned back into the rear seat behind the passenger seat and spoke.
“Please take me to a large hospital nearby.”
“A large hospital? Let’s see… Then, Hwadan University Hospital…”
“No! Ah, no. I’d appreciate it if you could take me to a different hospital, not Hwadan University Hospital.”
“…Okay. Then.”
The moment I heard the word Hwadan, I had shouted No! so loudly that it was embarrassing.
After the taxi driver’s awkward response, the stationary taxi began moving smoothly.
The place I arrived at was Hankuk University Hospital.
“Am I being too sensitive?”
For some reason, the moment I got out of the taxi, I felt like people’s attention was being drawn toward me.
I dismissed it as my imagination and entered the building in front of me.
“As I expected, there are way too many people.”
It wasn’t called one of the most prominent university hospitals for nothing.
The hospital lobby was packed with visitors.
I took a waiting ticket and waited for about an hour before it was finally my turn.
“Yes, hello. May I ask what brings you here?”
“I’d like to receive some psychological counseling.”
“Did you make an appointment?”
“Yes.”
When I explained that it was my first time visiting the hospital, the employee handed me a form and asked me to fill in the appropriate information and return it.
My name and phone number were one thing.
But the fact that I could write down the address of Hwadan Tower without hesitation, even though I had never known it in my life, made me both angry and confused.
“Kang Beotkkot…-nim?”
“Yes.”
“Um… May I ask what kind of psychological counseling you’re here for?”
The employee repeatedly looked between my name and me.
Then she raised one hand and covered her mouth.
‘Is my name really that strange?’
I simply assumed that was the issue and opened my mouth.
“Yesterday, my memories suddenly…”
I stopped there.
According to the strange new memories that had entered my head, I was the only daughter of President Kang.
The ‘Hwadan family’ was already constantly the subject of public attention.
If news spread that their daughter had ‘memory problems,’ it would cause a huge problem.
“I’ll discuss the details of the counseling separately with the specialist.”
“Ah, yes… Understood.”
The employee seemed to have been expecting me to say something more, because she looked quite disappointed when I closed my mouth.
I waited in front of the reception desk before suddenly turning around.
I saw a huge crowd, everyone busy with their own business.
There was also a group of doctors in white coats walking through the crowd.
For a moment, I thought someone had called me.
But I guess it was just my imagination.
“Kang Beotkkot-nim?”
“Yes.”
“If you go to Building B, third floor, you’ll see rooms numbered 1 through 8. Please go to Room 6.”
“Yes, thank you.”
As I smiled and accepted the paper, the people behind the reception desk silently exchanged glances with one another.
I barely managed to maintain the smile on my face as I left the reception desk.
The moment I stepped away from the reception area, my smile disappeared as if it had melted away.
‘This isn’t pleasant. Being watched by other people.’
On my way to Building B, I let out a hollow laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation was.
“Yeah, I’m strange. I know that better than anyone, and that’s the problem.”
There were some things I had to admit.
My ordinary office-worker father had suddenly become the president of a nonexistent ‘Hwadan Group,’ and I, who had been nothing more than an ordinary extra, had suddenly become a third-generation chaebol.
All of this hadn’t happened over the course of even one day.
It had happened in an instant.
Honestly, I almost wished everyone in this world were secretly playing a hidden-camera prank just to surprise me.
I imagined opening Room 6 and finding a TV program producer sitting there instead of a psychiatrist.
‘Were you surprised? You got fooled!’
But when I opened the door, a doctor in a white coat was sitting inside, waiting for me.
