To the question of where he had been all this time, Jaeha, who had been leading me, said he had been sitting in a chair.

“Why didn’t you answer the phone at least once? You could have made one call.”

As I looked at Jaeha’s back heading to his original seat, I asked.

Before my question, Jaeha, who had been walking, turned around.

Although he had said he wasn’t seriously hurt, I couldn’t help but notice the bruises on his face.

Looking at the wounds on Jaeha’s face, which had been flawless until now, my heart became heavy once again.

“I don’t have my phone right now.”

He looked at me with an empty gaze, raising both of his empty hands.

“I was getting X-rays and various tests done on the way back. At first, I was fine, but the pain came later.”
“Is it okay for me to move like this? Admit me right away.”

I was surprised at the mention of pain. How could he be walking around like this when he’s in pain now?

“Forget about admission; it seems like I can be discharged. Moreover, it’s quite a crucial time now, so leaving the seat empty is awkward.”

In a moment, emotions overwhelmed me as I witnessed Jaeha worrying about work even after the accident.

For the first time, I thought Jaeha seemed regretful.

“Is it the time to worry about that now? I’ll go through the admission process right away.”

“Wait…! Ugh.”

At the moment I tried to turn away from him, Jaeha reached out and grabbed my wrist.

However, he soon lowered the painful arm that had held me, letting out a painful groan.

In surprise, I supported the disheveled Jaeha, his face distorted in pain.

“What’s wrong? Does it hurt?”

In response to my question about his pain, Jaeha nodded.

If he groans in pain with just a slight touch, how can he be discharged?

“Look at this. If I’m in this much pain and don’t get proper treatment, is it reasonable to be discharged?”

In the end, Jaeha got a cast on his right arm.

“It’s just a sprain, but do I need a cast?”

The doctor said he had wrapped his body around to protect himself when the car hit the wall.

It was fortunate that it wasn’t a fracture.

Jaeha muttered discontentedly at the prescription that he had to wear a cast for a while.

“It’s better to listen to the doctor. They said it’s necessary, right?”

“The cast on my right hand is uncomfortable. And isn’t admission a bit excessive? Admission for a wrist sprain.”

Jaeha, sitting in the admitted room, showed me his casted arm.

It turned out I had forcibly admitted him against his will, despite his insistence that discharging would be fine.

In response to my arbitrary decision, he looked displeased with a stiff expression.

“The doctor said it’s better to be admitted and observed. It’s not a minor accident. Do you know how scary the aftereffects of an accident can be?”

“Even so, this is a bit much.”

Jaeha sighed as he looked at the rows of rings attached to him.

He was so lenient with himself when it came to his affairs, unlike with mine, no matter how small they were.

Looking at Jaeha, who seemed like he might follow me home like this, I approached him.

“Lie down.”

I gently laid Jaeha’s body on the bed, despite his ability to endure even my light touch.

“If Jaeha is a patient now, you know patients need stability, right?”

“Pfft.”

Jaeha, lying on the bed due to the wave, burst into laughter.

“I told you it’s not a laughing matter.”

I had to watch over him so he wouldn’t get up.

I pulled a chair and sat next to Jaeha, locking eyes with him.

“Now tell me the story. What happened? I heard the rough details from the detective who came. He mentioned a brake malfunction.”

“Yes. Brake failure. No matter what I did, the brakes wouldn’t work, so even when I turned off the ignition, the speed wouldn’t decrease.”

“The speed wouldn’t decrease even when you turned off the ignition…?”

Jaeha’s straightforward words froze my heart in chilling horror.
He too, as if sensing something from my changed expression, slowly nodded his head.

After that, he added quietly, “It seems like someone manipulated the brakes.”

“Probably someone targeted you, Yeo Jin. Since I happened to drive the car instead.”

He stood for a while, holding onto the sink in the bathroom.

Jaeha’s words about someone manipulating the brakes echoed in my mind.

‘Who could it be? Why would they do such a thing…’

Since I don’t drive frequently, my car is parked in the parking lot most of the time.

What would someone gain by sabotaging the brakes of my car, which I rarely drive?

Even Jaeha only drove occasionally, usually when he had busy schedules.

Even then, he was often driven by a secretary.

If there hadn’t been a promise with Serin on the outskirts of Seoul today, there would have been even less reason for him to drive.

After pondering, I left the bathroom.

“Strange.”

I couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling that there was something I was missing.

As I turned the corner to go to Jaeha’s room, I spotted a man in the distance.

A man wearing a black hat that didn’t suit the hospital.

When passing by that man, I noticed a large mark on his face.

An unforgettable face flashed through my mind.

‘That person…!’

When I turned again, the man had already disappeared from view.

At first, I thought I might have seen it wrong, but the mark on his face was too distinct to be a mistake.

The man who almost killed me.

Certainly, on the day of the divorce with Ji Han, he was the one driving the car rushing towards me in front of the courthouse.

And he used to be Ji Han’s confidant, often sought out during his messy affairs.

From the moment I realized this fact, my heart trembled with fear.

‘Why is that person in the hospital…’

It felt like he had been watching us.

As my thoughts reached that point, my mind became confusingly entangled.

Surely…

The scattered puzzle pieces seemed to come together into one cohesive picture.