Upon hearing the words “emergency room,” I felt as if my heart had stopped.

I had assumed he would be heading to our meeting place.

‘How… could there be an accident all of a sudden?’

I hastily got out of the taxi and rushed towards the hospital.

Not far away, I could see the emergency treatment center with red lights.

As I approached the emergency room where Jaeha was, my heart pounded as if it would burst.

During the journey to the hospital, I recalled the call from the detective.

[Dash] This is the assigned detective. Are you Mrs. Seo Jaeha?

“Yes. I am his wife.”

[Dash] Have you heard that your husband had an accident? It was a car accident due to brake failure. It happened near your location…

The news the taxi driver mentioned just moments ago overlapped with the detective’s call.

When we talked in the taxi, I thought it was someone else’s story, but it turned out to be about Jaeha.

‘It’s because of me…’

Since I returned, I hadn’t had the luxury to pay attention to the car.

If I hadn’t discouraged Jaeha from taking the taxi, the accident might not have happened.

A belated regret flooded over me.

“I should have taken it. Why did I stupidly offer to lend the car…!”

Yes, if I had, even if an accident occurred, I would be the one injured.

Thinking of Jaeha being hurt instead of me felt agonizing, like a sharp blade piercing my heart.

I clung to my fading consciousness and entered the medical center.

“As you can see, the emergency room is chaotic right now due to a series of rear-end collisions today.”

I couldn’t hear the voice of the desk nurse explaining to me.

The medical staff moved busily within the emergency room, and witnessing a constant stream of patients made my heart sink.

“Could you please wait for a moment… Guardian?”

Before the nurse finished speaking, I had already moved inside the emergency room.

There was no room for the patience to quietly wait.

I didn’t know how desperately I had begged my parents in heaven for Jaeha’s safety during the journey here.

I begged for him to be safe.

Not long after saying farewell to my parents, the fear of losing Jaeha, too, left me feeling hopeless.

The thought that Jaeha experienced what I was supposed to go through filled me with endless self-reproach.

I bit my lips tightly.

Passing a woman convulsing from dry heaving, I saw a young child crying out in pain.

Every time I glanced at people through the open curtains, I felt as if I were falling into an abyss.

As I approached the last bed, my heart throbbed as if it would burst.

In the distance, a young man moaned in pain with blood splattered, but it wasn’t Jaeha.

“Ha.”

Even though it wasn’t him, my heart writhed on the ground.

“Where on earth is he…”

Tears welled up.

Just this morning, Jaeha had been smiling at me with round eyes.

He had thanked me for lending the car.
Not knowing that it would lead to a life-or-death situation for that man, I shrugged it off in the morning.

“Uh, what should I do…”

I checked all the beds in the emergency room, but I couldn’t find Jaeha.

Thinking about the secretary who was almost at the hospital, I took out my phone.

However, perhaps due to excessive tension, my hands trembled, and I couldn’t even unlock the phone properly.

After struggling for a while,

[Dash] Click.

Someone placed their hand on my shoulder.

“Yeo Jin.”

A familiar voice penetrated my ears.

The moment I faced Jaeha, my legs lost strength, and I sat down.

Every time I saw someone covered in blood in the emergency room, I had worried it might be Jaeha.

But seeing him unharmed, tears poured out.

It’s such a relief…

“Are you okay?”

Jaeha bent down, aligning his gaze with mine.

At the worry-filled voice directed towards me, tears welled up unexpectedly.

Who is worrying about whom now?

The feeling when I realized that Jaeha was the one involved in the accident was beyond words.

The words of the taxi driver, who said he was badly injured, kept echoing in my mind.

“It’s not okay! I was worried. I thought something happened to you, Jaeha.”

Pouring out my emotions like that, I noticed his disheveled appearance.

When he had greeted me this morning, impeccably dressed in a suit, it had been dazzling.

Now, his blood-stained shirt and suit made my heart ache.

It felt as if his appearance at the time of the accident was vividly displayed.

“So, how much did I…”

Because it seemed like my fault.

As I was about to swallow back the words rising to my throat, Jaeha reached out and embraced me.

“Sorry for worrying you.”

He gently swept his back as if telling me to calm down.

Watching Jaeha walking ahead, my heart, still pounding, hadn’t calmed down.

Perhaps it was because I was engulfed in extreme tension.

Even after confirming with my own eyes that he was unharmed, my trembling heart didn’t settle.

‘But at least he wasn’t seriously injured…’

Jaeha mentioned that there was no bed space due to the patients from the rear-end collisions that happened before.