Chapter 7: A Muted Cry

The weight of losing her memory made the reality of the pregnancy feel surreal. It was fear, not joy, that took root first.

What did the doctor say during the OB/GYN examination? She couldn’t remember clearly; the situation had been too chaotic.

Even when she heard the baby’s heartbeat through the ultrasound a week ago, it hadn’t fully registered. The sound of the heartbeat was so loud, yet she couldn’t quite fathom that the child was actually growing inside her.

The hand resting on her stomach trembled violently. Her legs felt like jelly, as if she would collapse at any moment.

“Seohee.”

The gentle, familiar voice was Leehyun’s.

She glanced toward the door, then turned back to the mirror, seeing only her terrified reflection biting its lip.

I’m scared. She dragged her unsteady legs to the door and opened it, and Leehyun approached as if he had been waiting the entire time.

“I…”

Her lips wouldn’t move, as if someone had sealed them shut with glue.

He didn’t press her. He simply waited patiently, one hand resting on his hip.

Her face was deathly pale, and her lips were quivering; it was clear something was wrong, yet Leehyun’s expression didn’t change as he watched her.

“My stomach hurts.”

As Seohee muttered this while standing in front of the bathroom, Leehyun’s brow furrowed. He reached out and scooped her up carefully.

“And… there’s brown blood, too.”

Her mouth went bone-dry, and her body shook.

As she bowed her head, unable to continue, Leehyun calmly pressed the nurse call button and laid her down.

“It’s okay.”

She couldn’t tell if he meant the baby was okay, or if he was saying it was okay no matter what happened.

Unlike Seohee, who was shivering, Leehyun’s expression remained monotonous.

Once the nurse arrived, Leehyun barked fiercely for the OB/GYN professor to be brought in immediately. Everything after that moved with lightning speed.

Although it was the middle of the night, Seohee found herself facing one of the doctors she had seen earlier that day.

“You must have been very startled. Let’s start with an examination.”

The doctor, who introduced herself as Professor Park Jiyeon, was kind. Seohee glanced up at Leehyun standing by her side. As she blinked, he covered the hand he had been brushing against.

It had been a signal for him to leave, but Leehyun, apparently perceiving her anxiety, moved closer.

“It’s cold.”

Seohee gasped at the sensation of the gel, and Leehyun brushed her forehead with a look of worry.

“You can see the gestational sac here. The thickness of the uterine wall is good, and it’s well-positioned.”

Jiyeon explained, pointing at the ultrasound screen.

Seohee, who had been listening in a daze, held her breath as she met the pitch-black pupils looking down at her.

Jiyeon’s explanation continued.

Heavy blood pooling in the uterus or the lining peeling would be a problem, but looking at her current state, it seemed like implantation bleeding had finally flowed out.

Hearing that it was rare but possible, a sigh of relief escaped her.

“Would you like to hear the baby’s heartbeat?”

Thump, thump, thump. Seohee gasped at the powerful sound. As she turned her gaze to the monitor, she saw a small, round shape. A jelly bean. That was the first thing she thought of.

Leehyun’s gaze, which had been fixed solely on Seohee, shifted. The moment he saw the white shape on the monitor, his black pupils deepened. His lips, which had been pressed into a line, parted slightly.

“The heart is beating well. It looks healthy.”

Seohee couldn’t say anything other than nodding. When she had listened to the heartbeat alone, she had only felt fear, but now, there was a… she couldn’t define the ticklish, fluttering feeling inside her.

“Ah, I heard you were in an accident.”

Jiyeon, having wiped away the gel, turned to face Seohee. At the sudden remark, Leehyun’s eyebrows curved in displeasure, but Jiyeon didn’t seem to mind.

“……Yes.”

“You are now 8 weeks and 1 day pregnant, which means the surgery was roughly 4 weeks ago, in your 4th week of pregnancy.”

Seohee responded with an, “Ah.”

“Since the umbilical cord hadn’t connected yet, you can think of it as the medicine or alcohol you might have consumed without knowing not having had a major impact.”

Jiyeon added that every OB/GYN might have slightly different opinions.

She suggested that they would check if the surgery had affected the fetus as they proceeded with the NIPT and amniocentesis tests.

Throughout the explanation, Seohee only nodded. Soon, tears began to stream down her cheeks.

So this was what had been bothering me. Even though she had pretended otherwise, she had been deeply worried about whether it was okay to have surgery while pregnant and if the baby was alright. Hearing the answers to the questions she hadn’t dared to ask made her eyes hot.

“How about we do a blood test while we’re at it?”

At Jiyeon’s suggestion, Leehyun wiped the tears from the corners of Seohee’s eyes with one hand and nodded.

As soon as they sent Professor Park out of the room with the ultrasound machine, saying they would do the rest of the tests at dawn, Seohee felt nauseous. She swallowed hard.

“You need to eat something.”

At Leehyun’s calm words, tears welled up in Seohee’s eyes again. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying, but Leehyun gently smoothed out the creases with his thumb.

“Is strawberry juice okay?”

The corners of her eyes trembled. How did he know? How much does this man know about me?

As the memory of the nights she had spent groaning from stomach acid indigestion flashed through her mind, her throat grew hot.

Her stomach was empty and burning, making her feel like she might vomit, so she didn’t particularly want to chew anything. She didn’t want water, she didn’t want anything. Yet, in the midst of that, strawberry juice kept coming to mind.

Leehyun even produced washed, fresh strawberries—she didn’t know where he had gotten them. Seohee burst into laughter at the look in his eyes that seemed to say, “Surely you’ll eat one of the two.”

Leehyun, who had been watching that laugh as if bewitched, lifted the corners of his mouth the moment she chose the strawberry juice.

“Thank goodness.”

Seohee read many emotions in his low voice. Worry, agitation, anxiety, and finally, relief.

Beneath it all lay a subtle tension.

‘Why would he care this much about my reaction?’

Her gaze rested deeply on the strawberry juice, as if she were falling into it.

The juice, which she didn’t know when he had prepared, looked and smelled as fresh as if it had just been blended. Just looking at it made her mouth water.

As she took one sip, then two, her eyes grew hot. Everything ahead of her blurred. I shouldn’t cry. This isn’t a situation to cry in. Feeling like tears were about to pour out, she stubbornly kept her mouth shut and set the juice down.

When she refused the rest of the juice, Leehyun rubbed his Adam’s apple, looking perplexed.

“Should I get you something else?”

His voice was dry. Why did that voice, which felt devoid of any depth of emotion, sound so cautious? Why did it feel so reassuring, as if he would do anything if she just asked?

Her throat choked at the subtle tension still present in his voice.

Her eyes kept stinging. Her vision blurred, and the tip of her nose went cold. As Leehyun stepped closer, Seohee leaned her face against his stomach.

“Seohee.”

Leehyun looked startled, leaning down to meet her gaze. The shimmering droplets finally streamed down her face. Leehyun gripped her shoulders with both hands.

What do I do? What can I do for you? Leehyun stopped breathing, unable to do one thing or another as he swallowed the words welling up inside him.

In the meantime, the droplets falling from Seohee’s eyes touched his heart. Like ripples on a calm lake, his blood surged.

What did the doctor say?

The emergency surgery stopped the small intracranial hemorrhage, but it seems the blood clot could not be removed. The location is unfavorable.

Moreover, it’s not easy to use medication during pregnancy. The medical team’s consensus is to observe and see if the blood clot disappears on its own.

Recalling Seohee’s condition, Leehyun curled his fists to stifle his surging emotions. He gripped them so tightly his hands throbbed.

They also said you might get dizzy. You must tell us if you have a headache, etc. Everything he heard felt like it was tightening a noose around his neck.

They said to be extremely careful with stress. That there shouldn’t be any emotional ups and downs.

‘They especially warned against crying.’

While high intracranial pressure can cause tears, crying can conversely raise intracranial pressure, so you must refrain as much as possible.

“Seohee.”

She must not cry. Tears must be stopped.

Leehyun brushed her cheeks with the back of his hand to soothe her. He didn’t forget to look into her clouded eyes.

He had only called her name, yet her sobbing intensified. It was on a different level from just letting a few tears fall. Leehyun, who had been stiff, became agitated.

You must absolutely never make her cry.

The doctor’s warning spun around his head. As his hand gripping Seohee’s shoulder tightened, Leehyun loosened his arm.

After deliberating, Leehyun pressed his lips to Seohee’s tears, like a dog soothing its master.

Seohee, who had been sobbing, suddenly opened her eyes wide. It was just when he was pulling his lips away, looking relieved.

“Hic.”

The sobbing she thought had stopped burst out as if her emotions had exploded. Leehyun’s black pupils wavered.

Crying is forbidden. The doctor’s warning rang like a siren. Leehyun gently wrapped his arms around Seohee’s neck.

“They said you shouldn’t cry.”

Touch. Leehyun’s lips brushed lightly against Seohee’s. Her brown eyes widened to their limit.

As the tears that had been hanging from the corners of her eyes finally fell, Leehyun didn’t hesitate to cover Seohee’s lips with his own.

Seohee’s brown eyes were covered by her eyelids. Leehyun, who had been rubbing the edges of her lips as if to soothe her, pulled his face away.

Seohee, unable to close her red lips, stared blankly at Leehyun. Plop. A tear that had been hanging from her right eyelash fell.

“Hoo.”

Leehyun let out a heavy breath and, as if he had no other choice, pressed his lips to hers again. After sweeping across the corners of her eyes, he grazed the tip of her nose and reached his destination—her lips.