A Gentle Intruder - Chapter 45

Perhaps you are worried about your well-being.

That could be the case.

You might be more concerned about the low-grade scandal that will befall you than Yoon Da Jung’s wounded heart. You abandoned the illusion that his heart was similar in size to yours long ago. Da Jung decided not to hastily judge his heart.

“I mentioned once before. That it seemed like someone was around the pension.”

So, please watch over your precious well-being yourself.

“Take care.”

Da Jung opened the door. The man called out once more, but she left the room without looking back.

Lee Jae Ho’s perfect world crumbled.

One truth that Da Jung should never have known surfaced. A crack formed in this happy fairy tale where one meets their favorite person, loves them beautifully, and gets married. If the fact that he was Kim Sung Hyun was also revealed, the fairy tale would ultimately shatter to pieces.

His mouth went dry. He absolutely could not be found out. Anxiety overwhelmed him, making it hard to breathe, wondering how she knew and how much she knew.

**

The expression of Manager Jung, receiving a report from his subordinate, was serious. He nodded several times, looking at the documents before him again and again.

“I thought this would be another dead end, but……”

“There’s quite a possibility.”

Min Hyun Soo, the most outstanding employee among the guards, took out a photo tucked between the documents and placed it in front of Manager Jung. It was the photo with the closest face shot among the CCTV footage they found.

The quality wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either. It was adequate enough to confirm a person’s appearance.

Deep wrinkles formed between Manager Jung’s brows as he alternately looked at the composite sketch hanging on the office wall and that photo.

“It’s similar.”

“The small stature, not exceeding 170cm, is also very similar.”

“But why is he wearing patient clothes? Is he injured? Have you checked nearby hospitals?”

“There are no other hospitals nearby, just one old psychiatric hospital.”

Tok. Tok. Tok.

Manager Jung nodded, tapping his fingers on the desk. While they couldn’t jump to conclusions, if this person was really Ha Jae Woo and a patient in that psychiatric hospital, assuming he had been hospitalized for a very long time, it somewhat explained the lack of life responses.

“But, could someone be hospitalized for over ten years?”

“With the guardian’s consent, it would be possible.”

“But Ha Jae Woo has no family.”

“That’s correct.”

Suspicious. His keen instinct sensed something wasn’t right. What to do? If he really was Ha Jae Woo and a long-term inpatient, it probably wasn’t by his own will. Who would want to live confined in a hospital?

And he disappeared again.

“Explain it to me one more time.”

Min Hyun Soo opened his mouth.

“About two years ago, our guys distributed the composite sketch to violent organizations all over the country. Someone must have remembered that face drawing. Well, in fact, they probably remembered the reward money more than the face.”

“That’s right.”

It was as much as 1 billion won. Manager Jung smirked. Jae Ho’s money antics were always something else.

“Anyway, that person seems to have quit the organization life and is now living in Gangwon-do, hunting wild boars. That day, he came out early in the morning to climb the mountain, and he met Ha Jae Woo at the supermarket at the foot of the mountain.”

“Met? Did they talk?”

“He asked how to get to Seoul and if he could give him a ride. But since he was on his way up the mountain, he refused, and after a while, he thought that face looked like the composite sketch from back then and reported it.”

It was a remote mountain area with not many CCTVs. Just one at the supermarket intersection at the entrance of the hiking trail. Ha Jae Woo, who had been loitering around there, disappeared without a trace an hour later.

“He wanted to come to Seoul.”

“Yes.”

“If he was very lucky, he might have made it to Seoul.”

“Well, in these days, it’s not easy to give a ride to a suspicious person. Especially since he was wearing patient clothes.”

Min Hyun Soo indirectly conveyed that he probably failed.

Manager Jung’s gaze fell back on the documents. Pointing at the hospital located in the center of the map, he said.

“What did they say here?”

Manager Jung asked, naturally expecting that they had visited the hospital.

“About that……”

Min Hyun Soo’s expression darkened.

“We couldn’t even get in at all. They say visitors without appointments are not allowed.”

They could have infiltrated secretly if they wanted to, but judging it wasn’t that kind of situation, he rushed to report to his superior. Manager Jung praised him for not acting independently.

“Well done. We can get into the hospital gradually later. But what funny guys. How can that run-down hospital be appointment-only? It’s the same as saying they won’t take any patients at all.”

“Yes. I think so too. Their non-aggressive approach to business is very suspicious.”

A psychiatric hospital. And Ha Jae Woo.

He felt he couldn’t just let this go.

“Starting with the hospital director, let’s thoroughly investigate this hospital. Deploy all personnel here.”

“Understood.”

**

The drama was on an upward trend day after day. Particularly, praise for Oh Chae Won’s beauty and acting was noticeably increasing. It had been quite a while since positive comments outnumbered negative ones. She should be feeling good, but Oh Chae Won wasn’t smiling.

Today was the final episode, but she didn’t even want to monitor it. Everything was irritating.

“Team leader, is this really true? He went to a hotel with a woman?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“That woman. The seaside pension. Yoon Da Jung.”

“Yes.”

Ha. A wry laugh escaped her out of bewilderment.

Women are sensitive creatures, easily shaken by small doubts. Yoon Da Jung had fallen right into Lee Jae Ho’s plan, and now that she knew the truth, she must be feeling utterly miserable. It was obvious without even seeing it.

Yet she still followed him to the hotel…

Did Lee Jae Ho cover up all the truth? How is that possible? The fact that he secretly called her to that pension was true.

Or did Yoon Da Jung decide to stay by his side, pretending not to know? If so, that would be very troublesome.

Oh Chae Won hoped Yoon Da Jung would feel miserable and leave on her own. Unlike other chaebol third generations, she didn’t want a life with separate marriage and lovers. She wanted all of Lee Jae Ho.

She had no intention of watching Yoon Da Jung live in the shadows, playing the role of Lee Jae Ho’s lover.

Usually, this kind of problem could never be solved by pressuring the man. Rather, it would only fuel more love out of resentment.

Her father, who had a hidden lover. Her mother, who constantly nagged that father.

Though they tried hard to act harmonious, everyone knew they were just a show-window couple. Oh Chae Won was just pretending not to know too.

She bit her lip. She would never live like her mother, who could only suffer in silence, unable to do anything about one woman in the shadows.

“How much more miserable do you have to become before you’ll leave? Huh?”

In the end, would she have to reveal herself?

Recalling the plan she had kept as a last resort, she instructed Team Leader Kim.

“For now, please check if they keep meeting regularly. But didn’t you say it was difficult to tail Lee Jae Ho? How did you find out so easily? You’re amazing, Team Leader.”

“Manager Jung, who’s always around him, hasn’t been seen much lately. So we got a chance.”

Maybe he has some busy work.

Well, it wasn’t her business. She just needed to receive reports well. If there were no inconvenient people, it was rather welcome.

“Good work. Please contact me again.”

Oh Chae Won saw him off with a forced bright smile.

**

Narin Nursing Hospital, located on the outskirts of Seoul, wasn’t large in scale but had a long history.

Under the direction of a kind director, there were many long-serving staff members, resulting in high satisfaction among patients and guardians. The meals and rehabilitation therapy were of good quality, so vacancies were rare.

Da Jung’s mother, Cha Myung Sook, was here.

Da Jung drove herself to the nursing hospital after a long time. She had stopped by right after coming up from Taean, but it was just a brief visit, so today she planned to stay quite a while.

“Hello.”

She greeted the nurses at the information desk and was about to press the elevator button to go up to the ward when:

“Oh! Guardian of Cha Myung Sook! You’ve moved rooms, right? The elevator for odd-numbered floors is on the other side.”

“Moved rooms? No. That didn’t happen.”

“How could that be? You definitely moved to a VIP room. Just a moment.”

The nurse checked the computer once more and then spoke again with a confident tone.

“You’ve moved. You can go to room 301.”

Da Jung got into the odd-numbered floor elevator with an awkward smile.

It was her first time coming to the 3rd floor. She thought she knew every corner of this hospital well, but coming here, she realized that wasn’t the case. The VIP floor with its luxurious interior was too unfamiliar to Da Jung.

‘Was there a room mix-up… How much does this cost?’

When she opened the door to room 301, she first saw a spacious living room. Past the bright windows, sofa, TV, and neatly arranged furniture, through an arched doorway at the end of the room, was her mother’s bed.

Near the bed, a humidifier was running, and there was even a flower vase she had never seen before on the Korean Peninsula. Judging by the door at the back, there seemed to be more space.

‘An incredibly nice room… Something’s wrong.’

Her heart raced with worry about the cost. Even if it was a hospital mistake, they had used the room, so charges would be billed, and she knew better than anyone how exorbitant VIP room rates could be.

It was possible to reach millions of won even for just a two-week stay.

Let’s go to the administration office first. To settle the bill…

Just then, a stranger came out of the bathroom door. It was a woman in her 50s with a friendly appearance.

“Oh? Hello. You must be the daughter? I’m the person taking care of Cha Myung Sook during the day.”

“There was already a caregiver…”

Da Jung questioned without even greeting.

“That person now comes at night.”

“Night? I never hired a 24-hour caregiver.”

“Well, I’m just working according to the schedule I received from the hospital.”

“I’ll go to the administration office first.”

Da Jung left the room without properly greeting her mother. As she was about to run somewhere, she met the charge nurse right in front of the room door.

“Someone came and prepaid a year’s worth of hospital and care fees for Cha Myung Sook. With 24-hour care and a VIP room. We received the payment, so we’re providing services accordingly.”

The face of a gently smiling man came to mind. How did he find out about this place too?

Her throat went dry.

She couldn’t accept this too. Her pride was already in tatters from brazenly declaring she wouldn’t pay back the 200 million won.

But she couldn’t get entangled with the man again using the excuse of paying this back. In this situation where she could neither do this nor that, her lips just dried up.

“Don’t you know who it was?”

“I’m not sure. In any case, they said to provide the best environment possible for Cha Myung Sook. If additional funds are needed, they said they would pay more anytime.”

“…Thank you.”

After that, she checked around more, but the answers were the same. They received the money, so they’re providing the benefits. Da Jung trudged back to the room. The caregiver told her about her mother’s condition today and then excused herself to let them talk comfortably.

Da Jung looked down at the note she had received from the administration office.