Chapter 161 – Tae-jun Side Story (7)

A bell rang in the middle of the night, waking him from a good night’s sleep. His wife, who was sleeping next to him, tapped the man’s leg, telling him to answer the phone quickly.

‘What’s going on?’ The lawyer fumbled, looking for his glasses and his cell phone.

“Hello.”

Unlike his sleepy voice, the voice coming from the other side of the phone was very vivid.

“What? Hospital?”

‘All of a sudden? How am I supposed to accept the orders from my boss who calls me in the middle of the night, telling me to go to the hospital?’

“Patient? Is it something dangerous?”

Seeing how serious Tae-jun was, it didn’t seem like a small problem. He felt like he was suddenly fully awake.

‘What?! Was there a shootout?’

It wasn’t often but some of the things they did were quite dangerous. However, what his boss told him was something completely different from what he had expected. First of all, the patient was a tenant of the apartment he recently purchased, and that person seemed to be suffering a concussion from a fall. ‘Why the hell is he caring about all this?’

He went to the hospital early in the morning with a mind full of doubts. And as a lawyer who’s been renewing his billions of dollar salary annually, he handled the work perfectly. He met the woman in the hospital room, explained the situation, paid the hospital bills, and meticulously checked her condition. He, of course, did not forget to make a report to his boss.

“The diagnosis said there are no specific brain abnormalities. When we met in the hospital, her condition didn’t seem bad. Oh, she said she has a slight fracture in her wrist bone. It looks like she twisted it when she fell off the ladder. She needs to be hospitalized for four weeks. Other than that, she’s good.”

“The electrical wiring is old, that seems to be the problem. I was electrocuted while trying to look at the switchboard.”

“Got it, Sir. But may I ask you one thing?”

The lawyer licked his dry lips. He opened his mouth as he couldn’t hold back his curiosity.

“What’s the relationship between you and Miss Yuri Han in the hospital…?”

In the momentary silence, his answer echoed like a wave.

It was a deep voice as if resounding in a cave.

⸙

Having said that aloud, he realized, once again, what she meant to him.

Tae-jun stood still by the window and looked at the night view beyond the hotel window. These days, he kept losing his sense of time. When he would notice an hour had passed, it was already the next day. When he realized three days had passed by, it would be over a week. He knew that something was broken inside him that made everyone around him check his condition, but he didn’t try to fix it. There was only one thought floating in his mind albeit very painfully.

Tae-jun closed his eyes and traced Yuri’s face he saw in the hospital room. There was only one thought that came to his mind as he looked at her face. Unlike now, if something happened to her outside his reach, he probably wouldn’t be able to live on. He thought that the reason he lived and breathed now was that this woman was living well.

Unbelievably, the feeling of holding Yuri still remained all over his body. Her touch, her scent, her warmth… A deep thirst remained as if he’s drinking salt water in the middle of the sea. Perhaps, now he was slowly drying up and dying. He missed the woman he could never have for the rest of his life. This may not be such a bad ending for him.

He woke up to the strong vibrating sound. It was the cell phone on the table. ‘Is it a lawyer?’ He looked at the caller’s name and frowned slightly. It was Roy Jean.

“I’ll be taking a return flight tomorrow morning.”

“If it’s a farewell, I will decline. We’re not even that close anyway.”

When Yuri was mentioned, Tae-jun’s face changed. According to the lawyer’s report, there were no problems with the diagnosis. However, the aftermath of a concussion was unknown. As time passed, abnormal symptoms might have appeared.

He asked urgently, “Is it a serious problem?”.

“No, let’s do it now. I will head over to your place. Where are you?”