Chapter 4 – “Old and New”:
Both of them, out of habit, referred to Lee Jun as Executive Director Kang and to the grandfather as Chairman.
Despite being close blood relatives, the relationship between Lee Jun and Chairman Kang was as distant as the formal titles they used.
“It’s because he takes after me. One day, you’ll understand too. Even if someone’s emotions run deep, it takes a long time to recognize them. You might not be satisfied with him… but still.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Be kind to him. What else can we do? You’re a better person than Lee Jun, after all.”
As Lee Jun approached, Chairman Kang pressed his lips together, embarrassed to have asked his granddaughter-in-law to look after his grandson.
Yooa, who had stood to fetch some drinks, caught sight of her aunt changing Sejin’s clothes.
“Auntie.”
“Oh, don’t mention it. A friend of mine bought some clothes for Sejin at the department store, so I brought them.”
Yooa had intended not to thank her, but to question why she had undressed Sejin right in the living room.
But without even glancing at her, the aunt waved her hand like shooing away a bug and continued:
“You’ve got no sense, so Sejin ends up looking grubby. Don’t dress him in cheap cotton shirts like this—he should wear crisp blouses and jackets, even normally. That way, he won’t look awkward when he attends formal events later. I figured you didn’t know, so I’m teaching you.”
As she busied herself dressing Sejin in branded clothes, claiming they were of a higher standard, she also praised her absent friend’s taste.
When she buttoned Sejin’s shirt up to the collar and fitted a snug jacket on him, his face turned red and he squirmed. The stiff collar irritated him, unlike his usual soft shirts, and he scratched at his neck.
“It’s itchy, Mommy…”
“Sejin…”
As Yooa approached to undo a button or two, a faint herbal scent wafted from Sejin’s shirt.
“……?”
When she tried to remove the jacket, the aunt shoved her aside and shook Sejin’s shoulders back and forth.
“Bear with it! A child who’ll inherit the Taekyung Group shouldn’t be fussing over something so small! You can’t take it off, Kang Sejin! You remember how scary Great-Auntie is when she yells ‘You rascal!’ right?”
Then, glaring down at the fallen Yooa, she snapped:
“I’ll take care of Sejin. You check if your father-in-law needs anything. He must’ve been hurt when you insisted on moving out, even if he didn’t say anything.”
Speaking as if she knew exactly what Chairman Kang felt, the aunt narrowed her cold eyes. Yooa felt a wall between them—solid, unmoving.
A wall that couldn’t be broken—or perhaps didn’t need to be.
An invisible yet insurmountable wall called class.
“Yes… Aunt.”
The people of the Taekyung Group were untouchable, while Yooa was just the daughter of a chauffeur, someone to be looked down on.
Her aunt’s favorite saying had always been: “Old things should be thrown out. Of course new things are better.”
At just 28 years old, Yooa was already being treated as something old and unwanted.
Did Lee Jun know this?
“…Even if he does, nothing would change. There’s nothing between us anyway.”
That phrase, repeated like a spell, had settled deeply into Yooa’s heart.
And because she believed it was the truth, she stopped trying to see anything else. She shut her heart.
*
“Eek!!”
The scream startled the birds perched on the jujube tree, sending them flying.
Sejin had said he wanted to bury a time capsule under the tree—something he’d made in his elite prep school for children of the wealthy. He’d gone out solemnly with a small trowel, declaring they’d dig it up in ten years.
When his aunt’s high-pitched scream pierced the air, Yooa’s heart pounded.
Had he hurt himself digging?
“Oh my god! What’s wrong?! Sejin? Kang Sejin, wake up!”
Her normally elegant aunt sounded frantic.
Yooa didn’t remember how she got there. A high-pitched ringing filled her ears, and the distant shouting of the staff blurred into noise.
“…Woo… Yooa… stay… awake…”
In her spinning vision, she saw Sejin’s limp body and Lee Jun carrying him, running toward the car.
“Sejin! What happened to our Sejin?!”
“Get in. It’ll be faster than waiting for an ambulance.”
Lee Jun gently placed Sejin in the back seat, then returned to support Yooa as her legs kept giving out. If not for him, she might have collapsed into the grass.
“Faster, please—can’t we go any faster?!”
In the back seat, Yooa brushed Sejin’s sweat-drenched hair off his forehead. She loosened the tight collar and saw red scratch marks on his collarbone.
“Hngh…”
The faint but unpleasant herbal scent made her turn toward the window. She reached to open it, then hesitated, worried Sejin might get cold, and withdrew her hand.
In the front seat, Lee Jun was calling the hospital and his secretary.
“Check the CCTV. Send me a copy immediately. Keep the original too. Yes, we’re heading to Hanseong Hospital ER.”
Taekyung Group heavily funded research at Hanseong Hospital. It was where Chairman Kang received treatment and where Lee Jun had occasional checkups.
It was also where Sejin had received treatment for respiratory issues—discreet and reliable.
That was all Yooa thought of it—until now.
Now that Sejin was being rushed to its emergency room, she turned pale.
“No… no…”
“Yooa.”
As the medical staff wheeled Sejin in, Yooa tried to follow, but Lee Jun pulled her into an embrace.
“Only guardians can enter. Please wait outside,” they said.
Trembling, Yooa looked up at Lee Jun, her arms clinging to him, tears filling her eyes.
“Save our Sejin… You can do it… You’re Kang Lee Jun…”
“We’re at the hospital. We’ll find the cause and treat it.”
But his rational words were no comfort at all.
He muttered that Sejin would receive top-tier care from elite doctors.
Yooa pushed his shoulder hard.
Her thoughts raced, cold and sharp.
“Even now… Kang Lee Jun… you’re so composed.”
He’ll be fine. Nothing will happen.
He didn’t give any assurance.
Lee Jun, who always calculated everything based on what he could see and measure. Emotion excluded.
Yooa felt like she might be sick.
“Even if we’re anxious or scared, there’s nothing we can do right now.”
He told her to wait in a VIP room.
That made her feel both hurt and resentful.
With reddened eyes, she looked straight at him.
“All mothers are the same. Even if we can’t do anything, we want to stay by our child’s side.”
That expression…
She had seen it before.
Every time she revealed her true feelings, Lee Jun had looked uncomfortable and said:
“Don’t act so pitiful, Yooa.”
Tears welled up.
Maybe she was just taking it out on him.
But in her state, Yooa couldn’t stop herself.
“What? Does this look pitiful to you too?”
“…Hoo.”
Just as Lee Jun bit his lip, about to deny it—
A doctor approached.
“Executive Director Kang… please come in. You too, ma’am.”
Sometimes, a passing look or a hesitant tone said it all.
Why were premonitions like this never wrong?
Lee Jun, walking one step ahead of her behind the doctor, suddenly stopped.
Yooa, eager to get to Sejin quickly, tried to pass him.
“Yooa.”
A large hand grabbed her arm, veins bulging with the force.
“What’s wrong?”
She tried to look past him, voice trembling.
“Let me go… Sejin will be scared… I have to be with him…”
“Yooa.”
“Let me go, Lee Jun. Sejin is all alone… He gets scared so easily…”
Lee Jun’s hand trembled faintly as he held her.
She didn’t want to acknowledge what she saw.
The white cloth with the hospital’s name… covering Sejin’s face.
“Stop.”
His voice was cold, flat.
“I don’t understand… Move. Sejin’s just sleeping. Kids his age sleep a lot… If I wake him up, he’ll…”
“Yoon Yooa!”
The child more precious than life.
Her only ally in the world.
The reason she woke up in the morning.
Sejin was gone.
Lee Jun added in a hollow voice as Yooa shook her head in denial.
“…It’s over.”
