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Chapter 39 – Defense Mechanism
“It’s a kind of defense mechanism.”
Adjusting the glasses that had slipped down his nose with a fingertip, Dr. Min spoke calmly.
The expression of Taewook, who was sitting across from him, immediately turned serious.
“A defense mechanism, you say?”
“That’s what I think.”
“…”
“Your wife had a dream last night, and in order to protect herself from the emotional wounds caused by that dream, she experienced temporary memory loss.”
At Dr. Min’s matter-of-fact explanation, a strangled groan escaped Taewook’s lips.
The unexpected revelation seemed to hit him hard. Watching Taewook rub his face with both hands, Dr. Min let out a sympathetic sigh.
“The ground’s about to cave in at this rate.”
“…”
“Well, at least you know now.”
Even after the cautious attempt at comfort, Taewook didn’t raise his head.
Observing him quietly, Dr. Min continued.
“It’s alright. From now on, you just need to stay close to her, keep an eye on her, and look after her.”
“…”
“You need to find out whether she really only has that dream once every few years, whether she actually has it more often without realizing it, or whether there’s some kind of pattern before the dream occurs.”
“…”
“Honestly, if she’s aware of the dreams and considers them a serious problem, then medication or therapy would be helpful. But if they happen rarely and don’t significantly bother her, it might be better not to make her too conscious of them.”
“…”
“Fortunately, it seems she only lost the memories of that one night.”
After speaking calmly, Dr. Min spun a pen around his fingers while gauging Taewook’s reaction.
He took a sip of the coffee that had already gone cold as he watched Taewook sit with his face buried in his hands.
Silence settled heavily over the examination room.
The second hand of the wall clock ticked around three times before Taewook finally spoke, his voice lower than before.
“At first, I thought my brother-in-law’s accident was the reason Winter had such a hard time last night.”
“Your brother-in-law? Ah, you mean Prosecutor Han’s case? Well, that could certainly be…”
“But Winter told me this morning that there had been other mornings before this one when she woke up remembering absolutely nothing.”
“…”
“My brother-in-law’s accident may have been another shock, but it wasn’t the only reason this happened.”
Dr. Min’s eyes widened in surprise at Taewook’s calm statement, but a bitter smile soon appeared on his face.
Setting down his coffee cup with a soft clink, he spoke.
“Looks like you really found yourself a woman just like you.”
“…”
“How about you?”
“…”
“Do you still have those dreams these days?”
Taewook didn’t answer the careful question.
Instead, the faint curl of his lips served as his response.
“Han Gyeoul, would you like some coffee?”
“Coffee?”
“Yeah. We bought a few cups to drink on the way.”
“Oh, sure. Thanks. I’ll enjoy it, Arin. And thank you too, Jinsu.”
As I thanked Arin for handing me the coffee, I also expressed my gratitude to Jinsu, who was driving.
Apparently not expecting it, he blinked his small eyes before breaking into a grin.
“O-Oh, it’s nothing! Please help yourself! There’s lots of food in the car. Oh, would you like some chocolate too?”
“Wow, you have chocolate?”
“Yep. My sister is always talking about her blood sugar dropping, so we’ve got every kind—white, dark, cookies-and-cream, crunch, everything.”
“Haha, then I’ll take dark chocolate.”
At my answer, Jinsu enthusiastically rummaged through the box on the passenger seat.
“Hey! Watch the road! You’re going to cause an accident!”
“Come on, noona. How many years have I been driving?”
“There you go getting cocky again.”
Like a real older sister, Arin scolded him before unfastening her seatbelt and leaning toward the front.
Grabbing the seat, she searched through the box herself and handed me a container of chocolate.
“Here.”
“Thanks.”
After casually nodding at my gratitude, Arin turned toward Jinsu and grumbled in a slightly annoyed voice.
“Hey, didn’t you say everything in that box was my snack?”
“Come on, she’s your friend, isn’t she? That makes it okay.”
“We’re not friends!”
“Huh?”
At Jinsu’s remark, Arin’s face turned red as she glanced at me.
Pouting slightly, she turned toward the window and muttered,
“…We’re teacher and student.”
Embarrassed, she kept her face turned away.
The sight was so adorable that both Jinsu and I ended up chuckling.
“Why don’t you just laugh openly? Both of you.”
As Arin grumbled, Jinsu, who had been laughing, suddenly remembered something and searched through his pocket.
“Oh, noona! That lipstick you said you lost the other day.”
“Lipstick?”
“Yeah, the one you lost the day you went to Prosecutor Han’s funeral. I found—”
“Jang Jinsu.”
“Ah, sorry.”
The cheerful Jinsu immediately fell silent at Arin’s call, glancing nervously in my direction.
A lipstick?
The day she came to my funeral?
At once, I remembered the woman with long straight hair like Arin’s who had dropped a lipstick in front of my funeral hall.
“Come to think of it, Arin, you said you attended my funeral too, didn’t you?”
The warm atmosphere froze instantly.
Jinsu swallowed nervously as the mood shifted.
Taking his hands off the wheel, he gripped it tightly again.
Watching him glance anxiously at me through the rearview mirror, I turned back to Arin.
She grimaced slightly at the sudden tension before letting out a long breath.
“It was Han Yeoreum’s funeral.”
“…”
“Not Han Gyeoul’s.”
Adding the joke playfully, Arin wrinkled her nose at Jinsu as if scolding him.
Seeing that, I relaxed my stiff expression and smiled.
“Jinsu.”
“Y-Yes? Ah, yes!”
Startled, Jinsu straightened his back as though he were standing at attention.
Keeping my eyes on Arin, I extended a hand toward him.
“Can you show me that lipstick you found?”
“Huh?”
Caught off guard by the request, Jinsu glanced at Arin.
After hesitating for a moment, he took one hand off the wheel and searched through his pocket again.
“Um… I’m sorry. I think I might’ve said something I shouldn’t have…”
“…”
“I wasn’t trying to bring up Prosecutor Han on purpose. It’s just that—”
“I know.”
“Huh?”
His eyes widened again when I interrupted him.
“I know you didn’t mean it. Just let me see the lipstick. It’ll only take a second.”
Looking anxious, he chewed on his fingernail before finally pulling a lipstick from his pocket and passing it back over his shoulder.
“This is it. The lipstick from that day.”
Beep—
The sound of a door lock opening echoed through the hallway.
Jaejin was standing in front of the elevator when a sharp scream rang out behind him.
“Aah! You scared me! Why are you just standing there like that?!”
The woman’s angry shout gradually shrank into a mumble.
Glancing at the dog in her arms as it barked, Jaejin replied in a flat voice,
“The motion sensor seems broken.”
“W-What?”
Indicating the sensor light with his eyes, Jaejin answered.
Only then did the woman wave her arm around.
No matter how much she waved, the light refused to turn on.
Her face twisted with irritation.
“This stupid apartment complex always has something wrong with it!”
Her puffy face contorted unpleasantly.
After silently watching her check his reaction, Jaejin turned back toward the elevator without another word.
The elevator was slowly making its way up to his floor.
Behind him came the sound of the woman clearing her throat before she spoke.
“Um… aren’t you moving?”
Jaejin turned around again.
The woman fidgeted under his gaze before hurriedly adding,
“I-I mean, the sensor lights are always broken and the elevator is so slow. Why don’t you move somewhere else?”
“…”
“And I heard your mother passed away too. Why keep living here? Move somewhere bigger or maybe somewhere smaller!”
“I have no plans to move.”
“…”
“At least not yet.”
Ding.
The elevator arrived and opened its doors.
Watching Jaejin step inside with an expressionless face, the woman clutched her dog tighter and suddenly shouted again.
“If you’re not moving, then don’t cause trouble in our apartment complex!”
“…”
“They’re talking about redevelopment! Do you know how much debt I took on to buy a place here? If property values drop because of you, I won’t let it slide!”
Her shrill voice pierced his ears.
Jaejin’s face twisted in annoyance.
Grinding his teeth at the painful noise, he suddenly grabbed the elevator doors before they could close.
Clunk.
The doors slid open again.
Unable to meet his increasingly dangerous gaze, the woman turned her head away.
“What exactly are you talking about?”
The old elevator emitted loud warning beeps as he held the doors open by force.
The atmosphere became frightening.
The woman instinctively backed away until she hit the wall and slid to the floor.
Even the dog in her arms seemed to sense the tension and burrowed closer against her chest.
“A prosecutor came looking for you recently!”
“…”
“He asked if I knew you, what time you usually got home, and all sorts of things!”
“…”
“He questioned me nonstop like he was hunting down a criminal in some crime drama!”
The woman shouted while clutching her dog tightly.
Jaejin stepped out of the elevator.
Standing with the elevator light behind him, his face was cast in shadow.
The woman’s face turned pale.
“What’s his name?”
“W-What?”
“The prosecutor who came looking for me. What’s his name?”
A grinding sound escaped his mouth as he struggled to suppress his anger.
Feeling as though the atmosphere itself might swallow her whole, the woman hurriedly searched through her pocket and handed over a crumpled business card.
“Kim Won.”
That was the man’s name.
