In-woo vigorously nodded his head.
Vaguely, he recalled. Honestly, the face was blurry. However, the name ‘Seo Eun-seong’ vividly surfaced in his mind—mainly because it was a name his father had mentioned several times.
“It’s a familiar name, but it’s not a patient my father handled.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I remember the patients my father treated.”
Seo Eun-seong was a child treated by the head of the Pediatrics Department, who had a strained relationship with his father. That’s why the memory didn’t immediately come to him.
However, why was Moon Hyuk-joo suddenly asking about this child?
In-woo was puzzled.
When Hyuk-joo mentioned they had something to discuss when they met, he thought it might be about Eun-su’s medical history. However, he didn’t expect questions about a child who seemed to have no connection with him.
“Mr. Hwang In-woo, your father must have treated this patient.”
“No.”
“…”
Hyuk-joo’s forehead wrinkled deeply. In-woo, looking at his contorted face, brought the cup of Aid to his lips.
Hyuk-joo, lips tightly sealed, seemed shocked.
In-woo wondered why Hyuk-joo suddenly knew this child. He thought Hyuk-joo might inquire about Eun-su’s medical history when they met. But questioning him about a child with no apparent connection was unexpected.
“This child is someone I know personally.”
“Could it be a child you sponsored or something?”
“No, it’s not like that. I heard this person went through pediatric cancer treatment at Sungsim Hospital.”
“Pediatric cancer?”
In-woo’s eyes widened.
“Did this person say they were Seo Eun-seong?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s different from my memory. Very different.”
In-woo let out a wry smile.
He was confident that his memory was not mistaken. He had been good at memorizing things since he was young.
“What does it mean that the memories are different?”
In-woo cautiously looked at Hyuk-joo, who persistently asked. He could roughly guess the reason for this.
Perhaps, Moon Hyuk-joo, who happened to meet Seo Eun-seong, asked her about Eun-su. Seo Eun-seong might have talked about Eun-su’s medical history.
The Pediatrics Department and the Pediatric Cancer Treatment Center were in the same ward.
There had been rumors among hospital staff. Seo Eun-seong and the guardian of that child frequented the Pediatrics Department threshold.
As they went through cycles of admission and discharge, there was a possibility that Seo Eun-seong got to know Eun-su.
‘But Eun-su has never talked about such things…’
In-woo tilted his head. Eun-su, who had no friends, used to tell him everything that happened during his hospital visits.
If Eun-su had made a new friend, she would have shared the news with him first.
No matter how much he thought about it, it didn’t add up.
In-woo stared silently at the face of Seo Eun-seong displayed on his phone screen and then spoke.
“He was a frequent patient at the Pediatrics Department.”
“A frequent patient?”
“Yes. I remember it well because my father had a few disputes with the head of the Pediatrics Department. When my father suspected intentional harm in certain situations, the head of Pediatrics easily provided medical certificates or diagnoses as the guardian of a child named Seo Eun-seong wanted.”
“Intentional harm is strongly suspected. Are you talking about child abuse?”
“Yes.”
In-woo smiled bitterly.
Nowadays, people have become cautious about such incidents, but back then, he didn’t even consider the possibility that a guardian could do such a thing.
Upon hearing about the child Seo Eun-seong through a nurse, In-woo’s father had several conflicts with the head of Pediatrics. After a major fight with the head of Pediatrics, who argued that a doctor only needed to treat patients, his father contacted Seo Eun-seong’s guardian the next day.
However, the call went unanswered, and since that day, Seo Eun-seong did not return to the hospital.
In-woo recalled his father’s darkened face, full of self-blame for not stepping forward sooner.
“How is this child living now?”
“Fairly well…”
Hyuk-joo couldn’t easily say that Seo Yeon-ji was living well. In his view, it was challenging to attach the word ‘well’ to a life built on lies upon lies.
Hyuk-joo felt perplexed. It was a feeling of several entangled threads becoming even more complicated in his mind.
“I’ve heard that the guardian used the child for insurance fraud.”
“They intentionally harmed the child to claim insurance?”
“Yes. Although it’s just your father’s speculation, if you think about it, there’s a very high possibility… Honestly, I’m convinced.”
In-woo drank the coffee.
As he sipped the bitter coffee, it felt like the tangled threads in his head were slowly untangling.
Having intentionally harmed the child to defraud insurance, repeating such incidents, and eventually aiming for a big score might be the case.
‘A child suffering from pediatric cancer.’
His mother’s voice, weakly whispering in his ear, came to mind.
His mother must have said that just believing Seo Yeon-ji’s words.
“Did Seo Eun-seong mention knowing Eun-su?”
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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