He pressed the emergency button again, and without even thinking of wearing a mask, he gave orders to his colleague.

“Get off now and open the door.” At the blunt command without any pretense, the man across laughed mockingly.

Soon after, as if it was meant to be this way all along, the elevator resumed normal operation.

After confirming with his eyes that the elevator was heading to the first floor, he knelt down on one knee to Na Eun, who had collapsed on the floor, and grabbed her arm to support her.

Na Eun shook her head frantically while clutching her throat and coughing.

“Let… go of this…”

“…”

“Let go… Quickly…”

It wasn’t simply because she disliked it, but a judgment for survival.

At her dying voice, Jae Kyung, who had been staring intently at her, finally let go of her.

Seemingly more comfortable now, she buried her face in her raised knees. As if she didn’t want to acknowledge Jae Kyung standing in front of her. As if she wished he would disappear.

Jae Kyung’s expression hardened as he looked down at Na Eun.

The composure that had been in his eyes until just now was completely gone, replaced by a kind of impatience.

Before he could even realize he had shown this, the elevator doors opened as they arrived at the first floor.

“Ah, it seems to be fixed now… Oh my! Are you alright?”

Several company employees waiting to take the elevator on the first floor couldn’t hide their surprise at the scene that greeted them as soon as the doors opened.

Spotting Na Eun trembling on the floor, one employee hurriedly approached her.

“What happened? Are you feeling unwell?”

“…It seems she was psychologically distressed from being trapped in a confined space.”

Jae Kyung, standing behind, answered on behalf of Na Eun, who was still busy catching her breath.

People seemed to understand, as if anyone could react that way when trapped in an elevator, and everyone whispered considerately about whether they should call an ambulance.

In the midst of this, Han Jae Kyung just stood there looking down at Yoon Na Eun lying on the floor for a long time without doing anything.

More precisely, he couldn’t do anything.

They didn’t call an ambulance.

Even though the crowd that had gathered around her reached out to help, Na Eun didn’t allow any of their hands.

Only after calming down for a long time did her breathing finally return to normal, and she barely made it to her mother’s company, leaning on others for support.

Na Eun pretended with all her might to be fine in front of Soo Hyun.

Her mother was startled by her pale complexion and asked what had happened, but Na Eun purposely acted even more exaggeratedly cheerful, saying it was probably because of the cold weather.

Making up an excuse to her mother about having a tutoring session that absolutely had to be done today, she took a taxi back to her own apartment where she lived alone.

It was a choice made for survival, as she felt she would surely die on the way back if she drove now.

After opening the iron gate and entering, she locked the door and crawled into the house without turning on the lights.

Na Eun, who had been lying face down in the middle of the studio apartment as if dead for a moment, suddenly got up.

The place she ran to was the bathroom. She opened the toilet lid and started dry heaving.

Even though she hadn’t eaten much and nothing was coming out, her insides were being turned inside out, shaking out even the gastric juices.

Only after retching for a long time did Na Eun finally calm down a bit and flush the toilet after closing the lid.

Too weak to crawl back to bed, she barely stood up and turned on the faucet at the sink.

After rinsing her mouth several times with cold water, Na Eun closed her eyes for a moment, leaning both arms on the sink.

Struggling to calm her constantly trembling body and rising breath, she tried her hardest to regain her reason.

She repeated the attempt to find composure several times, catching her breath.

Think. Don’t cry, just think.

Na Eun’s lips trembled.

I should tell them, right? In a situation like this, keeping quiet will only make things worse.

She absolutely had to tell one of the three people close to her that she had encountered Han Jae Kyung at her mother’s client company today, and that he seemed to be plotting something.

But.

‘You have to think of your mother too.’

‘She’s your only precious family left.’

The tears she had been holding back finally burst forth.

What should I do? What should I do? No matter how I think about it, telling them is the right thing to do, but I keep worrying about my mother Soo Hyun.

If it was only her own life at stake, she would have resolved to tell them, but she felt nauseous with fear that they might reach out to her mother as well.

She wanted to die, thinking that Jae Kyung, who seemed to already know that Seo Hee Won was responsible for her safety, might do something to her mother.

“Ugh… hic…”

Unable to do this or that, Na Eun clung to the sink and cried for a long time.

The sound of running water from the faucet covered her sobbing moans.

It feels like the whole world is grabbing me and pulling me down, telling me to be unhappy.

Shedding tears that were more like screams after her moans, Na Eun deeply resented the world for the first time.

When people experience excessive mental stress, the ways they relieve it vary from person to person.

Besides popular methods like finding delicious food to eat or escaping reality, Na Eun chose a somewhat masochistic approach.

Not having experienced such a life-threatening mental panic many times before, Na Eun learned a different side of herself after that day three years ago.

She had a side that became frighteningly calm when faced with truly scary situations or obstacles that threatened her survival and that she couldn’t overcome on her own.

And when it became clear that there was nothing she could do, she had a tendency to push herself excessively.

She immediately increased the number of tutoring sessions from 2 to 4, and extended her part-time academy job, which she only did on weekends when it wasn’t exam period, to weekdays as well.

Then the school exam period came around, and with exam studying and assignments to do, she really drove herself to the point where 24 hours a day wasn’t enough.

She cut off contact with friends she had been meeting frequently, using the excuse of being busy, and absolutely refrained from having any personal conversations with Seo Hee Won, whom she inevitably encountered often due to his personal security duties.

Hee Won didn’t particularly question her becoming silent in front of him again. Na Eun thought that it was because they didn’t have much conversation to begin with, only recently increasing, and he didn’t seem to care much.

Seung Joo and Sun Jin complained in the group messenger chat about why it suddenly became so difficult to meet, but keeping a certain distance from them was a kind of conscience for Na Eun.

You know, there’s that thing in movies.

Roles that are unclear whether they’re villains or allies, who clearly witness a villain about to commit a crime but don’t inform the hero for personal reasons or other reasons, actually complicating matters.

Na Eun felt sorry towards her friends for becoming like that.

But having already lost family once, Na Eun couldn’t help but become a coward, and so she punished herself instead by pushing herself to the limit with an insane schedule.

It had been exactly a week since she started sleeping less than 3 hours a day.

This was the first time since her sophomore year in high school when the pressure about grades was most intense.

When she had been living like this for ten full days, her body finally couldn’t take it anymore and declared a strike.

In the evening while returning home, she lost consciousness and collapsed while walking normally, and Hee Won, who was nearby, took her to the hospital.

It was a phenomenon brought on by a combination of sleep deprivation, excessive stress, and mild malnutrition.

Malnutrition? In this day and age in South Korea? Hee Won’s expression was worth seeing as he listened to the doctor’s explanation.

Looking at Na Eun quietly receiving an IV drip with nutrients, he asked with a stern face.

“Did something happen to you recently?”

Sticking to her like glue under the pretext of personal security, Hee Won quickly noticed that something was off about her recently.

She increased her part-time jobs, which she used to do in moderation, to an excessive degree, and although she was originally serious about studying, she studied as if she would die if she didn’t do well on exams.

She clearly wasn’t getting proper sleep, and she who used to enjoy eating didn’t seem to be eating well these days either.

Her neglected body revealed its condition outwardly, and her increasingly pale complexion and thinning flesh made her look more precarious day by day.

She’ll collapse someday at this rate.

Hee Won, who had to catch Na Eun’s collapsing body in front of his eyes just days after predicting that, had to compose his heart that almost sank several times while rushing to the hospital.

At Hee Won’s serious voice, Na Eun avoided his gaze and answered halfheartedly.

“It’s exam period, you know. I’m just busy studying.”

“Then you should cut down on your part-time jobs. You need to adjust your schedule so it’s not too hard on your body.”

Hee Won furrowed his brow.

“What’s the use of doing well on exams if your body is dying?”

“…There’s a world you don’t know, you who’ve been good at everything since birth.”

Na Eun, who had been lying on the bed just receiving an IV and planning to go home right after, was surprised by the thorny voice that came out of her own mouth, but didn’t show it.

She knew that Hee Won, who was giving worried advice in front of her now, had done nothing wrong.

But her body, pushed to the limit, had lost its original composure and kindness, and the stress of possibly losing family again brought on hysteria.

I shouldn’t go any further.

Even while thinking this inside, her mouth was already spitting out words that weren’t sincere.

“You were originally good at everything, right? You were smart so you were good at studying, not to mention your athletic abilities. You were born with good looks so everyone likes you without you having to try at all.”

Hee Won didn’t say anything in response to Na Eun’s suddenly cold voice directed at him.

Na Eun bit her lip and snapped.

“I wasn’t originally good at everything like you. So I have to work hard. If I just do an average amount like others, I only get average results. I want to do well, but I can’t. There’s a world that only desperate people know.”

She looked at Hee Won and said sharply.

“Why should I even listen to this advice from you in the first place? We weren’t that close to begin with.”

Someone might think you’re worried about me because you like me.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know what kind of wound her words, uttered with a bit of mockery, had inflicted on the other person.

In the crowded emergency room, an awkward silence settled between just the two of them for a moment.

Hee Won was strangely silent, and Na Eun was disappointed in herself for the terrible words she had uttered.

No matter how difficult it was, to say such things to someone who carried me on his back and ran to the hospital because I was sick. And to twist his words of concern like that…

This is the worst. It was like stabbing an innocent person with anger that should have been directed at someone else.

As she hung her head, sinking into self-loathing to the point where her face turned red with shame, it happened.

“I’m sorry.”

Na Eun lifted her head abruptly at the words that suddenly came from Hee Won sitting in front of her.