Thrilled by Madness - Chapter 94

“You must be really happy, right?”

-Yeah. I’m happy.

“Oh, my stomach! For some reason, my stomach hurts.”

-You’re doing it again. Making me feel bad for no reason.

“Hehe, I’m just kidding. There will be fewer eyes watching in Canada than here. Have lots of lovey-dovey time with Tae Seo Jun there, and receive lots of love from your parents too, actress!”

-Yes! I’ll keep that in mind, manager!

“By the way, when are you coming back?”

-The day after tomorrow.

“Great! Let’s meet at the airport that day.”

It had been about a week since So Yeon left for Canada. After talking on the phone with her friend who was completing an imperfect love after a few days, Do Soon felt strangely excited. It was So Yeon’s much brighter voice that made her feel that way.

I was the one who liked Tae Seo Jun first, so it was a bit annoying that he became my friend’s man. But it was only affection born from being a fan, and I had been in unrequited love for so long that I had no regrets left.

As soon as the call ended, the music she had been listening to earlier started flowing through her earphones again. Nodding her head to the music, Do Soon left the manager’s office and walked briskly down the company hallway.

But just as she was about to pass by an empty conference room, her body was suddenly pulled in somewhere by someone’s force.

“Oh, whoa!”

The one who suddenly grabbed Do Soon as she was passing by and pulled her into the conference room was none other than Gu Won Hoo.

“Mr. CEO! What are you doing?”

“I have something to say. What can I do?”

“Even so, you’re scaring people like this?”

“Even if it’s urgent?”

Do Soon took out her earphones, plopped down in a conference room chair, crossed her long legs, and said:

“Call me when it’s urgent. If people happen to see, it’ll just be troublesome for you in various ways, Mr. CEO.”

Won Hoo also pulled up a chair and sat across from Do Soon.

“You were on the phone, weren’t you?”

He seemed to be referring to when she was talking to So Yeon.

“Does that mean you came running over?”

“How did you know I ran? Did you see me?”

She had just said it offhandedly, but it turned out to be true.

Won Hoo had been running, but when he saw Do Soon walking alone, swaying her body as if in high spirits, he had hidden around the corner of the conference room as if lying in ambush.

“Mr. CEO, you have quite an impatient personality. You don’t look like it.”

“Is that a complaint? I understand. Then let’s talk later.”

“Ah, nooo… If you just leave, I’ll be curious! What’s so urgent?”

Do Soon grabbed tightly onto Gu Won Hoo’s jacket sleeve as he was about to leave the conference room, stretching it out long, and urged him with wide, eager eyes to tell her quickly.

“This Saturday, let’s go together.”

As if to say ‘I knew it’, Won Hoo smiled lightly and sat back down in the chair, getting straight to the point.

“Saturday… You mean So Yeon’s engagement party?”

“…”

As Do Soon asked with blinking eyes as if dumbfounded, Won Hoo nodded his head resolutely, crossing his arms.

“We’re both attending anyway, so why bring it up now?”

“It’s a secret engagement party. Most of the invited guests will be relatives, so I think it would be smooth to announce there that we are in a relationship. Given my parents’ personalities, they won’t do anything to lose face in front of family.”

“Ah…”

Now understanding what he meant, Do Soon slapped her knee and laughed with an unimpressed expression, as if it wasn’t surprising at all.

“Look pretty that day.”

“What do you mean ‘look pretty’?”

Do Soon’s voice was sharp, taking it to mean she wasn’t pretty now.

“Because you’re my partner.”

“P-p-partner?”

Do Soon’s face flushed rapidly, but she didn’t realize her ears had turned red too.

Won Hoo stared blankly for a moment at Do Soon’s face, which revealed her thoughts like a glass box, then cleared his throat and said:

“Ahem, we’re business partners for at least 3 months, aren’t we? I’m asking for your cooperation.”

We both know our relationship is only for 3 months, so why emphasize it…

“Well, let’s do it!”

Though she answered boisterously on the outside, Do Soon was secretly sharpening her knife.

I get told I’m pretty when I dress up too, you know?

Let’s see if you fall for me that day or not!

[This is the timeline separator]

Three days before the engagement party, Professor Eom and his wife, who had returned to Korea a few days later than So Yeon, stayed in Dogok-dong as of yesterday.

Eom Eun Hyuk’s thoughts were somewhat complicated as he set foot on his homeland for the first time in 10 years since moving his life to Canada.

“Yes, have a good day, Dad.”

“Alright.”

“Oh, you didn’t forget about dinner with Hyun Woo’s dad and So Yeon this evening, right?”

“Of course not. I’ll be back before then.”

As his second daughter So Rin, who had come from Jeju to Seoul, followed him out to the apartment entrance to see him off, Eom Eun Hyuk got on the elevator with his characteristic gentle smile.

Though it was just a brief return to Korea, looking at the Seoul cityscape while riding in a taxi made him feel strangely as if he were walking down a path from the past.

Someone he would have to face eventually, one way or another.

Somehow knowing this, that person had contacted him and even set up an appointment. Eom Eun Hyuk visited a high-end Chinese restaurant located in Cheongdam-dong.

The high ceiling of the hall was already impressive, but the private room here exuded a luxury that was hard to find even in a top-class hotel.

“Oh my! Welcome, Professor Eom!”

As Eom Eun Hyuk entered the large room, Yang Chan Soo, who had been a doctor in the same surgical ward long ago, jumped up from his seat to greet him warmly.

Perhaps because he had now succeeded his father as the director of that university hospital? Compared to the past when he always fumbled nervously in front of the operating room, his speech and demeanor were now much more imposing.

“It’s still daytime, but we should have a drink, shouldn’t we?”

Yang Chan Soo, neatly dressed in a khaki suit, said as he poured drinks into glasses he had prepared in advance.

“You left Korea as if you would never return. But when I heard you were suddenly coming to Korea, I was so glad. How long has it been anyway?”

“Indeed.”

Eun Hyuk’s tone, despite his gentle nature, was quite stiff unlike before. Flustered by this, Chan Soo forced a hearty laugh and raised his glass.

“There’s a lot to talk about, but let’s drink first.”

“Well, I don’t think alcohol is appropriate.”

However, Eun Hyuk pushed the glass to the edge of the table. Then he questioned with a strong gaze:

“You know better than I that I didn’t come here just to drink, don’t you?”

“!”

Chan Soo’s gaze, quickly raised, wavered aimlessly.

It was 10 years ago. A middle-aged man who had been in a traffic accident was brought to the emergency room in critical condition. As it turned out, he was a promising businessman, and the hospital doctors all treated the barely breathing man as if he were already dead.

Unable to understand their strange behavior, Eun Hyuk performed surgery on the businessman and ultimately saved him. After all, as a doctor, even if there’s only a 1% chance, you must do everything you can.

But during the surgery, Eun Hyuk noticed something strange.

It wasn’t a traffic accident, but severe internal injuries from a beating.

When Eun Hyuk raised this issue, unable to cover up the truth, suddenly one day Professor Eom’s clinic was closed, and even his scheduled surgeries were reassigned to other doctors without any notice.

In other words, despite his outstanding medical skills, Eom Eun Hyuk was suddenly expelled from the university hospital.

That wasn’t the only sudden event. The businessman that Eom Eun Hyuk had barely managed to save also vanished from the ICU, making it impossible to know if he was alive or dead.

If Professor Eom still had the medical records from that time, and if he were to bring up that incident again, it would be very troublesome for the hospital director and everyone involved in that unjust affair.

Yang Chan Soo was already worried about this point and hurriedly called out Professor Eom. And confirming at this meeting that his guess was not wrong, he stammered anxiously:

“Y-you still… about that incident…”

“That’s right. I thought you might know well, with the hospital director as your father. Now that quite some time has passed, I wondered if you might tell me about the situation back then.”

“Come on now, you sure can hold a grudge. That was so long ago…”

Yang Chan Soo drained his glass alone and poured more alcohol into the empty glass. He was buying a little time to erase his embarrassment.

It wasn’t so simple to extract oneself from the entangled relationship between the business world and the medical world. Moreover, it was his own father who had traded a fellow doctor’s reputation for money. That pressure from blood ties completely sealed Chan Soo’s mouth, which might have otherwise been somewhat honest.

“So, you want to know the inside story of the unfair treatment you suffered back then, is that it?”

“I need to know about that patient’s life or death as well.”

“Hah…”

Covering the start of his words with a long sigh, his drawn-out answer was indeed as Eom Eun Hyuk had expected.

“How would I know that? You’re barking up the wrong tree. What wouldn’t I do for you? But it’s such an old incident that there aren’t even records left at the hospital. Unless you happen to have those records yourself, it’s impossible to dig it up again.”

Having sold off even the last shred of his conscience, Yang Chan Soo’s expression gradually turned sour. Though it would be proper to spit in his face, instead Eom Eun Hyuk smiled lightly and turned the topic in a different direction.

“These days, a new medical technology has been developed in Canada. I contributed to that technology. What do you think? If you were to introduce it to Korea first, you could probably build another general hospital in Gangnam and have money left over.”

Yang Chan Soo’s eyes widened at this enticing story.

“T-then, are you saying you’ll provide that connection?”

“Well, that’s right.”

“Yes, please do that for me. Then I’ll… anything…”

Chan Soo’s eyes already flickered impatiently as he swallowed hard.

Eom Eun Hyuk’s story was true. But he had no intention whatsoever of giving him that opportunity. It was just a means to test Yang Chan Soo.

“You’re still the same, Yang Chan Soo. No different from your father who only cares about money.”

“A-are you… now…”

Are you mocking me?

Chan Soo’s face, which had brightened up, suddenly contorted, clearly showing his displeasure. Finding this somewhat satisfying, Eun Hyuk said quietly:

“What? You don’t think I can do it? If I put my mind to it, I can play with people using empty words just as well.”

“Hey now, this guy.”

He seemed to have changed quite a bit.

“We’ll probably meet again later. I should get going now.”

“B-but since we met, you should at least eat before leaving.”

He hadn’t come to eat. He certainly hadn’t come here to catch up with an old colleague after a long time.

He had left this land without looking back, disgusted by the hospital system and people no different from gangsters. But for the sake of his child who would live here, he couldn’t do that. He had to remove the heavy stone he had carried in his heart for 10 years.

“You eat a lot if you’re hungry.”

Realizing clearly that the time was not far off, Eun Hyuk threw a cold sneer at Yang Chan Soo’s face and left that disgusting place.

[This is the timeline separator]

In Nonhyeon-dong, three people were asleep in Seo Jun’s bedroom.

Two adults and one child. They were tangled together on the large bed like wild animals living in a group.

It was around the time when the morning sunlight gently tapped on the window pane. Seo Jun, who woke up first, carefully observed So Yeon and Hyun Woo sleeping so deeply in his territory that they wouldn’t wake even if carried away.

The child breathing softly, deeply buried in the fluffy blanket. The woman preciously cradling her baby with her slender arms even while sleeping. A strange scene that he couldn’t have even imagined just a few days ago was unfolding before his eyes.

Seo Jun’s lips, curled in a small smile, naturally touched the child’s chubby cheek.

Who he took after, Hyun Woo, despite his young age, had adapted well to the changed environment from the first day he arrived at this house, without any whining at all. Of course, it must have been stable with Jessica there too, but he was such a brave child that he naturally accepted sleeping alone in his own room.

But last night’s rain was accompanied by thunder and lightning, so So Yeon kept going in and out of Hyun Woo’s room until dawn. She seemed to keep worrying about whether he might wake up crying alone.

Now he couldn’t be without Eom So Yeon by his side. For that reason, even Seo Jun ended up peeking into the child’s room, and in the process, he found So Yeon sleeping lightly in a curled-up position next to Hyun Woo.

Looking at her youthful face, Seo Jun thought that perhaps Eom So Yeon needed more protection than Hyun Woo, like a young child.

Seo Jun carefully carried Hyun Woo and brought So Yeon to his bedroom because the child’s bed was far too narrow for the three of them to sleep on, even without considering his own large and tall physique.

When Hyun Woo woke up then, he seemed to find it very fun to be in the same bed with mom and dad, and wiggled around playfully. Like that, they played together, rubbing against each other until late at night, and somehow all fell asleep together.

Seo Jun stretched out his arms and held his son and So Yeon together for a while.

My woman, my child, my family.

Though it didn’t feel real yet, this image of himself wasn’t bad at all.

It was the start of an ordinary day with nothing special. With a warm smile spreading across his entire face, Seo Jun moved his hand that had just tapped the child’s tiny nose tip to So Yeon’s face.

It was then that So Yeon, still half-asleep, drowsily opened her eyes.

“…Are you up?”

“Yeah. Just now.”

Seo Jun, responding in a very low voice so as not to wake Hyun Woo, kissed So Yeon deeply on her soft cheek and whispered so that only she could hear:

“Now take care of me too? In that sense, let’s shower together.”

“…!”

What if the child wakes up!

So Yeon mouthed, her face turning bright red, as she looked at Hyun Woo, still sleeping soundly as if it were the middle of the night, and then at Seo Jun.

“He’s still sleeping well, isn’t he? And you’re pretty.”

His seductive dark eyes were intensely alluring.

“Whew, I can’t take it anymore…”

As Seo Jun got off the bed with a relaxed demeanor and extended his hand, So Yeon, unable to refuse, took his hand and left the bed.

Click.

Seo Jun locked the door as soon as they entered the bathroom.

“I feel like I’m about to burst from holding back too long.”

“…!”

Seo Jun impatiently pushed So Yeon against the wall and immediately covered her lips with his.

Their firmly pressed chests thudded loudly. The expression ‘bursting’ was not an exaggeration.

Now he was her man, and she was his woman.

So Yeon, no longer having any reason to hesitate, flexibly hooked one leg over Seo Jun’s waist.

And she raised herself up on her tiptoes.