Chapter 67: Unveiled

“I wanted to show you too.”

“…”

“That way you’ll listen to me.”

Yoon Heesung no longer hid it.

Hid what? I couldn’t explain it well myself, but it was probably his true nature.

For some reason, until now he’d concealed his real self behind a soft voice and gentle actions. Now he was slowly letting it out. Like this.

He wanted to heap guilt on me without hesitation and twist me around. And I let myself be twisted.

Then the car stopped at a red light. Yoon Heesung suddenly brought his hand to my face.

“…!”

It had to be his right hand. I stayed frozen and let him touch me.

Yoon Heesung toyed with my hair and said.

“Your hair has grown a lot.”

“Ah… has it?”

“Why does it look so long all of a sudden? We only missed a few hours.”

A firm but delicate hand touched my forehead.

…It was the first contact since that incident.

I rolled my eyes nervously. I swallowed dryly. I stayed as still as if my limbs were bound.

Yoon Heesung seemed to be thinking something similar. He muttered as if amazed.

“You can stand being touched now?”

“…”

“I wonder how far you’ll go.”

The muttering that followed was ominous, but I kept my mouth shut.

How far would I endure? I didn’t have any choice but to endure. If I stopped, who knew what Yoon Heesung would do…

The car started moving again. Yoon Heesung continued the conversation casually.

“How’s your brother?”

“…He’s still unconscious.”

I muttered gloomily.

The loaded phone call with my mom had been forgotten for a while because of Yoon Heesung’s eccentricities. I had completely forgotten it while anxiously staying by his hospital bed. Then a few days ago, my mom called again and we talked.

Back then, I’d even forgotten that my mom had been crying, so I agonized over whether to answer. It was Yoon Heesung who pushed me. “Answer quickly,” he said, and pressed the call button for me. I ended up taking the call with a bitter taste.

‘Yunwoo… your brother…’

Her voice was shaking badly, but I figured it was nothing serious. At most, I thought Lee Sunwoo had caused some trouble and my mom was struggling to deal with it, as usual. I thought she’d called to vent. All I felt was a desire to hang up. My head was about to explode, so I half-listened.

But then the content.

‘Your brother is unconscious. He was hurt badly. Even after surgery, he won’t wake up… that’s how he is.’

‘…’

‘Why did he have to go to a place like that… He’s just like his father in that way…’

She said he’d gotten into a car accident. More precisely, someone had hit Lee Sunwoo and run.

‘He lived a bit recklessly. I should have helped him more. It’s all… my fault…’

Naturally, Lee Sunwoo’s car had no dashcam. The accident site was a mountain highway with no CCTV and few people. If Lee Sunwoo had been found quickly, he might have been fine. But he wasn’t found until a full day later. The chance had already passed, and even after surgery, he didn’t regain consciousness. My mom kept crying, saying that never mind catching the culprit, he might never wake up.

‘…’

I couldn’t say anything. My mind went blank.

It was Yoon Heesung who helped me then. While I was on the phone, he stared at me blankly, then quietly took my phone.

“Yes, ma’am. Hello.”

After a few more words, he expressed sympathy with a blank face.

“Oh, that happened. That’s too bad…”

Then he readily made my mom an offer.

“I think I can help.”

He could move Lee Sunwoo to a hospital with a leading specialist in that field. Through the phone, I caught fragments of my mom’s voice. She seemed to be thanking him. Yoon Heesung still had a blank expression, but his voice held a smile.

“No, he’s Yunwoo’s brother. It’s only natural that I help.”

Then he looked at me and tilted his head.

“Ah. Yunwoo can’t go anyway, he’s busy these days. He’s helping me out. Because I’m hurt. Without Yunwoo, I can’t even eat.”

As he said that, he wasn’t wearing his usual blank face. He looked like he was having the time of his life.

I didn’t feel like going to see the hospitalized Lee Sunwoo. Not because I was worse than a stranger to him, but because it didn’t feel real back then. That someone I knew had collapsed and lost consciousness. I didn’t understand what it meant to lie in bed, unable to do anything.

So this morning, when Yoon Heesung told me to go see Lee Sunwoo as if doing me a favor, I was a bit taken aback.

[I… things are awkward with my mom. I feel like I don’t need to go… Mom and Lee Sunwoo won’t be waiting for me anyway. Mom will be busy tending to him…]

When I said that, Yoon Heesung looked at me with sparkling eyes, as if he were seeing something fascinating. Even so, he pushed me forward.

[Still, no. Go see him.]

At his commanding tone, I had no choice but to go into the unfamiliar hospital as he said. For some reason, he said he wouldn’t go in. I should go alone and he’d pick me up in the afternoon.

And when I got directions at the front desk and walked in.

[You came?]

[…]

My mom looked haggard, as expected. And Lee Sunwoo lying on the bed looked like a different person. In the time I hadn’t seen him, he’d lost so much weight that his body seemed to have shrunk to half. His face was gaunt and bloodless, like a wax figure. Wearing an oxygen mask and lying without moving, he looked pathetic.

If I felt that way, my mom must have felt it even more, not less.

Mom was focused on wiping and stroking Lee Sunwoo. I wasn’t in her eyes at all. She didn’t ask how I’d been or whether I got into college. She’d probably forgotten how old I was. But she didn’t fail to bring up Yoon Heesung. She said she was so grateful he’d arranged the hospital transfer, and told me to be sure to tell him thank you.

I’d always held a small place in my mom’s heart, but this time I felt like I’d been completely cast out. Mom would never let go of Lee Sunwoo, no matter what. Not ever, whatever he became.

…At the same time, I got chills at myself for thinking that. Even while Lee Sunwoo was unconscious, all I could feel was that I couldn’t lean on my mom. I only thought that if a big wave ever hit my life, I couldn’t reach out to her. I was only reminding myself that she wasn’t someone who would put me first. I felt like I was facing the dark side of me that I’d worked so hard to hide.

“This road… seems different.”

The place name on the highway sign on the way back was familiar, but it wasn’t our neighborhood. Weren’t we going to the villa? When I looked puzzled, Yoon Heesung answered lightly.

“We’re going to the new house. We’re not going there anymore.”

“…”

“You have to start going to college now, so we can’t keep living there.”

Now I understood why he’d told me to go see Lee Sunwoo. He was going to move me in one go. He needed to take care of things while I was at the hospital. That was why… I gripped my seatbelt for no reason.

“What about school? Graduation is tomorrow…”

“You don’t have to go.”

“…”

He cut off my timid protest in one breath. At that, I realized I would never be able to go back to that neighborhood. Worry about my stuff in the villa came too late. But I didn’t feel like bringing it up with Yoon Heesung. I’d just be throwing an egg at a rock.

Was there anything in this world that didn’t go the way Yoon Heesung wanted?

I got into Seolhan University.

I’d never applied early or regular, but I was accepted through a process I’d never even heard of. The records of my acceptances to other schools disappeared. In the end, it went exactly as Yoon Heesung wanted. At that point, I felt like a complete fool. I shouldn’t have tried to think for myself from the beginning. I should have figured out what he wanted and done that. Then I wouldn’t have felt this thing breaking inside.

As long as I do what Yoon Heesung says, nothing else happens.

“Get out.”

The place we reached after several hours was an apartment where, even on the same floor, you had to turn a corner and walk down the hallway for a long time before the front door appeared. The units were clearly separated.

It had everything inside. Everything was prepared so you could move in right away. There was no way Yoon Heesung had arranged it all in half a day. He must have been filling this place bit by bit for a while now.

While I stood there in a daze, this was what Yoon Heesung had been planning.

“It’s close to school too.”

…Maybe even my college. Already, when I made up my mind, even then…

Yoon Heesung didn’t hide his excitement. “This is the room we’ll share, this is the study, this is…” He looked thrilled as he introduced it.

“Sit here.”

I was pushed around until I sat on the living room sofa. When I curled up on the spacious couch, Yoon Heesung came back with something in his hands and frowned.

“Being shy now?”

“…”

“At this point?”

He brushed the hair off my forehead again, just like in the car. And just like before, I let him without any resistance. Yoon Heesung giggled, as if he found me funny.

…It felt like a layer covering Yoon Heesung had peeled away. This was his real face. The person I’d known was just something he’d made up. To put me at ease, to make me do what he wanted.

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