Chapter 35: A Tangled Fate of Three Hearts.

It was only then that Yoojun regained his senses, looked at Sayoung, and spoke.

“Does it still hurt a lot if you don’t use the crutches?”

“……? Oh, no. It’s not that, but I’m being careful just in case I push myself too soon and my condition worsens.”

“Ah….”

“Because there shouldn’t be any issues with the audition.”

Only then did Yoojun feel his spirit jolt, as if someone had smacked him on the back of the head.

Managing his body was, when it came down to it, strictly his individual responsibility.

Whether he became disadvantaged in the audition because he couldn’t fully heal his leg, or whether he withered away without realizing he had an ailment because he failed to look after his own health—none of that was Yoojun’s business to worry about.

Realizing just how ridiculous his thoughts had been, Yoojun gripped the steering wheel tightly.

Suddenly, an emotion akin to shame surged up, making his face burn hot.

Even though he knew it couldn’t be true, his heart raced at the thought that Sayoung might have read his mind.

Unless he was possessed by something, there was no way he would be acting like this.

It reached a point where he suspected Sayoung might be willfully releasing pheromones.

His head knew it was an absurd suspicion.

Not only was Sayoung perfectly controlling his scent as always, but since he was outside the car, there was no possibility of his pheromones affecting him.

“…Mr. Yoojun?”

In the meantime, noticing Yoojun’s unusual state, Sayoung called out to him cautiously.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I am fine. Let’s depart.”

Yoojun answered as if nothing was wrong, pretending it was nothing, and hurriedly started the car.

Occasionally, Sayoung looked at him with a puzzled gaze, but he pretended not to notice.

That was the only way to survive this embarrassment.

“Let’s go to the hospital.”

Without stating a reason, Jaewoo called Eunseong to his house early in the morning.

And to Eunseong, who arrived at the instructed time without a word of complaint as always, he said just that.

Surprised, Eunseong asked.

“Are you sick?”

Jaewoo answered while massaging his neck and shoulder with somewhat exaggerated gestures.

“My neck, shoulder, and back hurt so much that I think I need to see a doctor.”

“Ah, then shall we go to a nearby place?”

The reason Eunseong, who had asked nonchalantly, paused his movements was due to the look in Jaewoo’s eyes.

Those sharply glinting eyes were definitely demanding something from Eunseong.

Even if he didn’t express it in words.

In an instant, his heart began to beat fast.

Whenever Han Jaewoo made silent demands like this, Eunseong felt a pressure that seemed to shorten his lifespan.

Han Jaewoo opened his mouth.

“I want to go to a place that’s actually good… find a decent one.”

At that moment, Eunseong realized what day it was.

It was Choi Eunseong himself who had found out when Sayoung’s examination appointment was and informed Jaewoo.

The heart that had been pounding as if it would explode slowly began to stabilize.

Once he figured out Han Jaewoo’s intention, the tension tended to dissipate, regardless of how tiresome things would become later.

Eunseong replied with a composed expression.

“Yes. There is a place that celebrities visit frequently. I will take you there.”

“Really? That worked out well.”

“Are we going right away?”

“Yeah. Bring the car around to the entrance.”

“Yes.”

Eunseong turned around, offering an answer that would satisfy Jaewoo with a perfectly natural attitude.

Later on, he would be the one criticized for choosing that specific hospital out of so many others—asked if he had a brain or not—but this was the only solution, so it couldn’t be helped.

****

“Does it not hurt?”

Yoojun asked with his brow furrowed so deeply it was visible at a glance from afar.

If anyone saw him, he looked like someone who was truly angry and about to yell right then and there.

However, Sayoung, who was actually receiving that gaze, seemed either unaware or unbothered as he answered while solely checking the condition of his leg.

“Yes. It doesn’t hurt at all. I think it’s really gotten better.”

As Sayoung pressed his injured leg firmly against the ground while saying this, Yoojun, wearing a look of horror, hurriedly spoke up.

“Why are you doing that? Anyway, you haven’t put weight on it or walked around for a while, so you shouldn’t strain it. Didn’t you hear?”

“Ah, I just stepped on it lightly….”

“Lightly or not, please be careful.”

“Yes.”

Despite Yoojun’s fussy reaction, Sayoung answered obediently without much suspicion.

He thought that since a setback in the plan would occur if his condition worsened or the injury recurred due to carelessness, Yoojun, who had gone out of his way to help, might react a bit more sensitively.

But Yoojun, seemingly unsatisfied with that, continued to grumble even as they walked out of the hospital side by side.

“I mean, no matter how much of a goal you had, who throws themselves at a running bike?”

Although Yoojun’s exact intention wasn’t clear, to Sayoung, those words sounded like a reprimand asking why he had recklessly intruded into his life.

Sayoung lowered his head slightly as he walked and answered.

“…I’m sorry. I knew it was a terrible thing to do to you, Mr. Yoojun, but I was too desperate. If I didn’t go through you, I had no way to exact the revenge I wanted on that person….”

“No. No, that’s not what I meant…!”

Only then realizing that Sayoung had understood his words completely differently from his intent, Yoojun was startled and hurriedly cut him off.

Yoojun had been referring to the act of Sayoung throwing his body without concern.

Revenge or whatever aside, he was simply displeased that he had executed such a plan without caring that he could be seriously hurt.

But hearing the answer, Sayoung was apologizing for the act of jumping into that situation and dragging Yoojun into his affairs.

“Mr. Yoon Sayoung, I mean….”

Yoojun tried to explain quickly.

However, perhaps because he was quite flustered, his words didn’t flow smoothly.

Honestly speaking, what Sayoung understood wasn’t entirely wrong either, but strangely, Yoojun didn’t want to leave it at that.

But in the end, Yoojun couldn’t properly explain his intention.

At that moment, a literal ‘uninvited guest’ appeared in front of the two.

“Sayoung-ah.”

The voice calling out intimately was terribly grating.

Yoojun’s gaze, which had been looking at Sayoung, turned toward the owner of the voice.

Standing in front of the two with a rather troubled expression was Yoon Sayoung’s ex-husband and the target of his revenge, Han Jaewoo.

****

As for Han Jaewoo, he was a figure who had mastered the art of decorating himself before the eyes of others.

Throughout all that time, while he oppressed, abused, and manipulated Yoon Sayoung to his taste inside the house, causing him harm, on the outside, he was the man who had perfectly realized the image of a ‘perfect’ husband.

Since it was publicly known that Han Jaewoo had fallen in love at first sight and expressed his interest in Sayoung first, he thoroughly maintained that image even when Sayoung wasn’t present.

His eyes when speaking about Sayoung always sparkled as if they held the stars, and every language he used to describe him was beautiful without being overly dramatic.

He was a meticulous man who never let his guard down in front of others.

Even when he got dead drunk at drinking parties and inadvertently spilled stories about how Sayoung attacked him or hurt him as if it were a slip of the tongue—while claiming he still loved him and absolutely didn’t want to break up—he wasn’t, in fact, drunk at all.

Han Jaewoo was a capable actor, and he lived his life perfectly showing off his innate acting ability not just in his works but in his daily life as well.

The only time he relaxed his guard from decorating himself and stayed in a state relatively close to his true self was, at most, when he was alone with his manager, Eunseong.

Even when alone with Eunseong, Jaewoo didn’t reveal his entire self.

In other words, it was truly a rare occurrence for Han Jaewoo to utter unintentional, vulgar curses in a place where other people were present.

Such a Han Jaewoo spat out a curse in a place with others, no matter how quiet his voice was.

It was the very moment he discovered the figures of Kim Yoojun and Yoon Sayoung walking out side by side in the distance.

He could literally feel what it was like for his blood to rush backwards.

Thinking about it, it was strange.

Even though he was the ex-husband, he had not a speck of affection for Sayoung, and while he had an interest in Yoojun, it wasn’t a significant enough emotion to be called unrequited love.

Yet, he couldn’t understand why anger surged so intensely in that instant.

Was it that he actually held Yoojun in his heart much deeper than he thought?

Or had his ill feelings toward Sayoung deepened?

Without finding a distinct reason, Jaewoo barely managed to calm his mind before the two approached right in front of him.

Even if he was boiling inside, he didn’t want to show it in front of them.

Instead, Jaewoo expressed his unpleasant emotions by softly calling his name, ‘Sayoung-ah.’

He knew that his kindness would rather shake Sayoung’s heart more violently and make him more despairing.

Sayoung had already stiffened his body before even lifting his gaze to look at Jaewoo.

He had recognized who it was solely by the voice and reacted immediately.

Seeing him still seemingly conscious of him even with Yoojun by his side made Jaewoo’s mood, which was steeped in displeasure, feel a tiny bit better.

It seemed clear that Sayoung had chosen divorce as a final struggle to somehow win his heart.

The assumptions that filled his head whenever Sayoung did something incomprehensible seemed to be correct.

Perhaps he had intentionally approached Kim Yoojun.

If the intention was to make Jaewoo feel jealousy, then who else would be as appropriate a partner as Kim Yoojun, who was currently called the best actor in Korea?

Jaewoo let out a short breath, hook, and relaxed his hardened expression.

He wore a look of embarrassment at the unexpected encounter, as anyone would see, but he didn’t forget to give the impression that he felt a slight gladness at meeting Sayoung.

Although there weren’t many people because it was the VIP ward, one had to be prepared for every situation in a public place where no one knew who might be watching from where.

Facing Sayoung for the first time since the divorce, he seemed to have lost a bit more weight than before, but other than that, his face didn’t look particularly bad.

He had expected signs of much greater suffering, but that wasn’t the case.

Jaewoo found that incredibly displeasing.

However, he didn’t have the luxury to stare at Sayoung’s face any longer.

Because right now, there was someone in front of Jaewoo who required far more attention than the likes of Yoon Sayoung.

Jaewoo offered a greeting to the man who was terribly irritating standing next to Sayoung, a man far too outstanding to be with him.

“Hello, Mr. Yoojun.”