With a feeling of envy, Eun Soo looked out the window.
The falling sleet had suddenly turned into a heavy rain. Suddenly, she wanted to see her mother.
“Mister, can we go somewhere else instead of the art gallery?”
“As long as we’re not turning back the way we came.”
Eun Soo mentioned the name of the hospital where her mother was. The taxi driver seemed half pleased, saying that it was in the direction of his home.
As Eun Soo entered the hospital, she called the driver and told him that he could finish for the day.
The driver showed a surprised expression, but as soon as he learned that Eun Soo was at the hospital, he agreed. After hanging up, Eun Soo took off her wet coat and walked straight to her mother’s room with it in hand.
The principal wife, upon seeing Eun Soo suddenly entering the room, stood up from her seat with a surprised expression.
Seeing Eun Soo, who appeared soaking wet without any notice, the principal wife tilted her head.
“Oh my, you came without saying a word.”
“I just wanted to come.”
“Did you get caught in the rain? Your coat is all wet.”
The principal wife took Eun Soo’s coat and hung it on a hanger. Worried that the expensive coat might get stained with rain, she wiped the moisture here and there with tissue.
“Just leave it.”
Eun Soo grabbed the principal wife’s hand. Taken aback, the principal wife kept rubbing the back of Eun Soo’s hand with her palm.
“Why are your hands so cold? I wonder if you’re catching a cold.”
Eun Soo felt a prick at the tip of her nose at the sight of the principal wife, who was worrying about her as if it was the end of the world. It felt like she was looking at her mother.
If her mother had been healthy, she would have acted just like the principal wife.
Feeling tears welling up, Eun Soo clenched her lips then released them.
“Go home early today.”
“Are you going to stay with the madam?”
“Yes.”
“The weather is bad, you should go with the vice president when he leaves work.”
“That man, he’s probably going to be very late today.”
“Still, if he hears that the madam is here, he might come running despite his busy schedule.”
At the principal wife’s words, Eun Soo simply gave a faint smile.
Seeing Hyuk Joo occasionally stop by the hospital room to hand over a bag or receive a status report from the primary doctor, the principal wife seemed to think that he was a very affectionate husband.
She probably didn’t know that it was due to his guilt towards his wife, who was keeping her side despite having another woman in his heart.
“I’ll take care of it. So, you should leave for the day.”
Eun Soo said, sitting down on the chair next to her mother’s bed.
“I feel guilty leaving this early while receiving such a high salary.”
“You shouldn’t think that way, because thanks to you, I can take care of my mother with peace of mind.”
“I appreciate your saying that. Then, madam, I’ll be leaving first.”
“Yes. Please, be careful.”
After the principal wife left, Eun Soo, who was alone in the room, opened the closet and took out some extra clothes. It was a tracksuit that she wore when she stayed in the hospital room for a long time.
After changing into the tracksuit and tying her hair back, she even washed her face.
She wanted to spend the night with her mother.
She tried to tell Hyuk Joo and contacted him, but he didn’t pick up the phone, probably because he was in a meeting. So she sent a message saying she would sleep at the hospital and leave in the morning.
When she tried to call her motherinlaw, she said that she had already heard from the driver that she had gone to the hospital, and that she should do as she said.
Although it was her mother’s hospital, she felt thankful to her motherinlaw, who readily told her to do so even though she suddenly said she couldn’t go in.
But on the other hand,
“…you knew everything.”
Whenever she heard her motherinlaw’s words, who didn’t hide that she was receiving reports about whom she met and what she did through the driver or the house employees, Eun Soo couldn’t shake off the feeling of being watched.
Eun Soo got up from her seat and looked out the window.
The rain was still heavy, and the sunken floor was full of rainwater, forming puddles.
If the rain continued to fall like this, maybe the world would be submerged in water.
It was strange why she kept having such absurd imaginations these days.
It was probably because the situation surrounding Eun Soo was suffocatingly difficult.
“Sigh…”
As she sighed once, steam covered the window glass in white. Watching the steam fade slowly over time, Eun Soo lightly furrowed her brow.
If she felt suffocated, she should break free on her own.
Eun Soo turned her head and blankly stared at her mother’s face, who was in a deep sleep that wouldn’t break.
After watching her mother for a while, Eun Soo left the room and looked for a nurse.
“Can I check the hospital bill details?”
“We are separately delivering those to Vice President Moon Hyuk Joo every month.”
“I know. But I have something to verify.”
“I see. I’ll check and bring it to you right away. From when to when do you need the statement?”
“Just the last month, please.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Having heard the nurse’s response, Eun Soo returned to the room.
She wanted to check roughly how much her mother’s monthly hospital bill was.
If Hyuk Joo were to ask for a divorce first, she was thinking of asking him to let her continue receiving treatment at this hospital as a condition for separating.
She said she didn’t want to divorce, but that thought could change at any time.
“I can say that I’ll do it first.”
Eun Soo ran a hand over her face.
Her relationship with Hyuk Joo might have already ended. She didn’t even know if there was a beginning to their relationship in the first place.
It was a relationship that only Eun Soo had been agonizing over.
Knock, knock, knock.
At the sudden knock, Eun Soo turned her head.
Through the open door, Hwang In Woo walked in. He was not in his hospital gown, as if he was on his way home from work, but was dressed in comfortable clothes.
“Why are you looking at me with such surprised eyes?”
“Ah… I didn’t know you would come, brother.”
“I came to see Aunt’s condition. You said you wanted me to bring this?”
In Woo handed over the statement of last month’s medical fees.
Eun Soo meticulously examined the statement, checking how much each treatment item cost. But it was hard to know which treatment was essential and which could be omitted.
“But why the statement all of a sudden?”
“I just have something to check.”
“Why? Do you think our hospital is scamming you?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“It’s a joke.”
At In Woo’s words, Eun Soo bit her lip and then spoke.
“Um, brother, can I ask you one favor?”
“What is it?”
“Can you tell me which of the treatments listed here are absolutely necessary for mom and which are not?”
Hwang In Woo, who had been slowly looking over the statement of medical fees, nodded his head.
“Of course, I can tell you. But only if you have dinner with me.”
With his handsome eyes narrowed in a long line, Hwang In Woo smiled.
The Villainous Demon Lord Laid an Egg for Her (Female-Dominated)
Several months after transmigrating into a book, Yu Wu found herself facing the demon lord Li You, who could no longer conceal his dragon horns. With one hand on her aching waist and the other gripping a sharp sword, she stared at him.
The demon lord’s eyes were red with fury:
“This is all your doing! Today, I won’t rest until I kill you!”
Yu Wu rubbed her temples. Putting aside the taboo against bloodshed during pregnancy, wasn’t it this very man who willingly walked into her trap that day?!
Warnings:
- Male pregnancy.
- Height ratios are set to mirror typical male-female height proportions.
- Characters include a foot-loving demon lord and an eldest daughter from an immortal family’s concubine lineage.
