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Chapter 16
It seemed that communication between Secretary Kim and the hired nurses had not gone smoothly. They had been told only a caregiver would be present, not family, so they had entered the hospital room under that impression.
Taegun worried that Hyun-jung might find herself in an awkward position.
“Don’t worry about Jo Jaeseok. I’ve explained everything properly. But… are you really just leaving like this?”
As Taegun pressed the down button at the elevator, Secretary Kim, who had just finished speaking with the nurse, caught up with him.
“Of course.”
In front of Jo Jaeseok, Hyun-jung had acted like she didn’t know him at all. Perhaps she simply didn’t want Jo Jaeseok to find out about him.
Taegun had once assumed, as his own theory, that she had slept with him in a one-night stand because she didn’t want to go through with the engagement. But maybe it had just been a whim, a reckless escape she wanted to experience.
“This feels filthy.”
“Sir?”
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. She had looked at him with startled eyes as though seeing him for the first time, then asked “Who are you?” right in front of that rat-like Jo Jaeseok.
And yet she had clung to him as though she wouldn’t survive a day without him. Begged as if she couldn’t live without him.
From deep in his chest, angry breaths bubbled up, boiling.
“Phew…”
He understood that she didn’t want her fiancé to discover she’d had a one-night stand. He understood it—but the sense of betrayal was bitter enough to feel unfair.
“Director, are you alright?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be.”
Perhaps it was for the best. Back then, he had tried to take responsibility for her, pitying her after she had proposed to him. Maybe he had been too emotional.
Now, she could go on as if nothing had ever happened.
On a winter morning before dawn, Taegun crossed the parking lot, snow still falling. The cold wind burned in his lungs, but inside, he felt as though he were burning alive.
“Damn it, Seo Hyun-jung!”
Still. How could she look at him like he was a stranger?
He understood the importance of her engagement. But what he couldn’t accept was that she had forgiven the man who had abandoned her in the car instead of saving her.
That was why that rat-like Jo Jaeseok was still at her side under the title of fiancé.
Blood pounded in his head, flames seemed to burst from his eyes. He pressed his hot eyelids down hard with his palms.
“What’s wrong, sir?”
Kim Sun-woo was concerned. His boss was never one to let emotions sway him. To Sun-woo, Taegun was the cleanest, most disciplined person he knew.
But after meeting this woman, Seo Hyun-jung, the man had expressed every emotion under the sun—interest, suspicion, surprise, nostalgia, shock, anger, joy, worry, even relief.
It was astonishing to see so many sides of him within just two days.
Maybe it was from the dizziness of his anger, but Taegun kept his eyes tightly shut for a long while. Then, as if calming himself, he exhaled deeply, gazing up at the snowy sky.
“Phew…”
His white breath dispersed like smoke in the air, heavy with regret.
“I’ll make sure to confirm things properly next time.”
“There won’t be a next time. We’re heading back to Seoul.”
Kim Sun-woo didn’t seem to understand his answer.
“Of course she’d pretend not to know the man she had a one-night stand with—her fiancé was right there.”
“……”
“But the whole filthy situation just pissed me off. At Hyun-jung for pretending not to know me, and at that rat who abandoned her in the car.”
“Seo Hyun-jung pretended not to know you, sir?”
Kim Sun-woo frowned even more deeply than his boss. Thinking hard, he asked seriously:
“That doesn’t make sense. When you rescued her, she looked at you with such affection. Could it be… amnesia?”
“Secretary Kim, you’ve been watching too many movies.”
* * *
“She has amnesia.”
“Amnesia?”
The doctor explained Hyun-jung’s condition with a grave expression. Her family, however, only nodded, as if they had already half-expected it. They didn’t ask many questions—only confirmed it once more.
Her mother and sister clasped hands in relief, grateful it wasn’t a more serious illness. Still, her father, curious about the prognosis, asked again:
“How long until her memory might return properly?”
“We can’t make guarantees.”
As the doctor’s vague answer hung in the air, fiancé Jo Jaeseok interjected:
“So, it could come back tomorrow, like in a drama, or never return at all?”
“Extremely speaking, yes. In cases of short-term memory loss, recovery often happens naturally. But in rare cases, the loss can be permanent.”
“……”
“For now, let’s give it time and continue treatment. The accident was traumatic, after all. She should also receive therapy for the psychological trauma—that will help her recovery.”
“Ah, we’ll take care of that. Tomorrow we’ll discharge her and move her to a larger hospital in Seoul.”
While her family, the doctor, and Jo Jaeseok discussed her as though she weren’t there, Hyun-jung’s mind wandered.
Ever since that man—the tall, sharp, predator-like man—had left, she couldn’t stop thinking of him. His voice was more familiar than Jo Jaeseok’s.
She wanted to follow him out of the room, but she couldn’t. Her right leg had only just been operated on, and a caregiver had come in immediately after. Soon she was wheeled away for further tests. Even as she lay on the hospital bed being taken down the hall, she kept scanning the corridors, hoping to see him again.
But she didn’t.
The disappointment weighed on her. In that fleeting encounter, she had felt something she never got from her so-called family or her fiancé. Comfort. A sense of ease.
While lost in thoughts of him, the doctor shook her gently. He must have thought she was struggling to recall her memories.
“Miss Seo Hyun-jung, please don’t force yourself to remember too quickly. I understand you’re anxious, but sometimes amnesia patients create false memories from what people around them say—and then end up believing those falsehoods.”
“……”
“I hope you’ll continue treatment in Seoul as well.”
At the word “Seoul,” Hyun-jung’s mind snapped to attention.
“What? Seoul?”
She had been too preoccupied with thoughts of the tall man to expect this. She already knew, from the caregiver, that she was admitted here after the car accident on the highway to Gangwon-do, while heading to their villa.
“You’ve had the emergency surgery, and the tests are finished. It’s time to go back to Seoul. Oh—are you uneasy because you can’t remember? Don’t worry.”
Jaeseok stroked her shoulder gently as though to reassure her. But instead of comfort, the touch made her recoil inside. No—worse. It felt like insects crawling over her skin.
No matter what anyone said, he didn’t feel familiar to her in the slightest. He repelled her.
“No. I want to stay here.”
She spoke firmly, turning to her family. How could her so-called fiancé, whom she hadn’t even married yet, decide where she would stay?
She expected her parents would support her choice. But she was wrong.
“Why, Hyun-jung? Jaeseok’s family runs a medical foundation. The facilities there are far better than some countryside hospital. We’ll all feel more reassured if you’re at a university hospital.”
Her mother, Myung-hee, began persuading her, glancing nervously at Jo Jaeseok.
“Yes, don’t worry. The equipment, the doctors, the services—everything will be better there.”
“Our son-in-law will take good care of you, of course.”
“You heard your mother, didn’t you? Hyun-jung, just trust me.”
“Goodness, who else would our Hyun-jung trust but Director Jo? He even saved her from that fire! He’s your lifesaver, after all!”
