Chapter 10
Kim Sun-woo, who instantly understood his meaning, asked in return, “I’ll go alone. Shouldn’t you stay by Seo Hyeon-jeong’s side?”
“Her breathing is stable. Let’s rescue the other people first.”
Tae-geon carefully laid Hyeon-jeong down, took off his own coat, and covered her with it. He didn’t forget to crack the car window open a little.
“I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”
His heart thumped roughly as he whispered to Hyeon-jeong, perhaps due to the aftermath of the accident. A young boy who looked to be in the lower grades of elementary school was sitting on the ground crying. Perhaps his face was injured in the car accident, as there were scratches all over his cheeks. The boy, seeming to realize they had come to help the accident victims, ran towards them.
“My mom is stuck in the car and can’t get out. Please help.”
Tae-geon and Sun-woo followed the boy to the car. The boy’s mother was pregnant. Due to the accident, the seatbelt buckle must have bent, making it impossible to unbuckle. Even if she pulled the seatbelt all the way, it would have been difficult for her to get out of the overturned car with her full-term belly. Sun-woo supported the mother’s body while Tae-geon went in from the other side and pulled the seatbelt taut. Luckily, her body wasn’t pinned by the car frame.
After rescuing the boy’s mother more easily than expected, they could still see people trapped in other cars. Feeling unable to just walk away, Tae-geon gathered the people who were just standing around staring and began rescuing people from the wrecked cars with Sun-woo.
Meanwhile, the rescue team and paramedics arrived. Seeing that the fire from the explosion up ahead was mostly under control and the injured were getting into ambulances one by one, Tae-geon returned to his car.
“……Seo Hyeon-jeong.”
But when Tae-geon opened the rear door, he saw the empty interior and felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach once again. He slammed the car door shut roughly and swept back his hair, which was a mess with snow, sweat, and soot. Where could Hyeon-jeong, with her injured leg, have gone? Was she scared because she woke up in an unfamiliar car? No, she had definitely made eye contact and spoken with him before losing consciousness. Then, she must have vaguely realized it was his car.
“Where did she go?” At that moment, his chest, which had been churning with worry for Hyeon-jeong, seemed to be freezing over bitterly.
“Check the car’s black box,” he ordered. Immediately, Kim Sun-woo got into the driver’s seat and started checking the black box footage. What were the chances that Hyeon-jeong had taken an ambulance by herself while he was away? No matter how he tried to calculate it, the possibility was extremely low. Tae-geon, who usually only believed what he saw with his own eyes, felt like his emotions had been running wild as if he were bewitched by something since yesterday. And his anxiety soon became reality.
“Sir, the car’s black box memory is gone.”
“By the way, did anyone see where Jo Jae-seok was earlier?”
“No.”
“That son of a bitch… He abandoned Hyeon-jeong and ran away, and now…” Tae-geon spoke while looking at Jo Jae-seok’s car, which was burnt to a crisp, leaving only the charred frame. The atmosphere felt so dangerously grim that Kim Sun-woo flinched and stiffened.
“Secretary Kim, check all the lines and find out which hospital Seo Hyeon-jeong was taken to.”
“Yes.”
“Also, request to identify the personnel who accompanied the ambulance Hyeon-jeong took.”
The blizzard was gradually subsiding, but the storm inside Tae-geon was growing increasingly violent.
Jae-seok stood mingling among the crowd and looked at his wrecked car.
The woman he had devoted years to was inside that car, crushed in the middle. Trapped with her leg pinned in the wreckage. He wanted to save her a hundred, a thousand times over, but when he heard the explosion from the car in front and the news that the fire was gradually spreading to the rear vehicles, he simply got scared. He could always find another woman, but he only had one life, so what choice did he have? He had to run. He shook his head quickly to dismiss the image of Seo Hyeon-jeong’s face, desperately begging him to save her as she grabbed his arm. For him, the only slight regret was that he had never gotten to hold Seo Hyeon-jeong. He was learning firsthand the meaning of the saying ‘being too sparing leads to loss.’
“Well, if my older brother hadn’t taken an interest in her, I probably wouldn’t have paid her any attention either,” he consoled himself, as if telling himself to stop regretting.
There was a reason he became interested in Hyeon-jeong in the first place. His older brother, Jo Yoon-seok, the heir to Joosu Construction, had had a gleam in his eye when he looked at Hyeon-jeong. At that time, Hyeon-jeong had just become an adult and still looked very young. He thought it was possible because she was quite pretty. However, Jo Yoon-seok already had a fiancée, the daughter of one of Korea’s top chaebol families. The union between a construction chaebol and an electronics chaebol had caused quite a stir in Korea for a while. To Jo Yoon-seok, Seo Hyeon-jeong was probably just a toy he wanted to have. Jae-seok, who understood his older brother’s gaze better than anyone, could read his mind. And he realized. There was one thing he could take from his heir older brother. That thing was Seo Hyeon-jeong.
And luckily for him, Hyeon-jeong’s older sister was Seo Ye-rim, his university alumnus. Thanks to that, he quickly became close with Seo Young-wook, the CEO of Bill Furnisher, and they were able to arrange an engagement between their families. It felt exhilarating whenever his older brother looked at him with envious eyes.
“Ah, so annoying!” He had been looking forward to today so much. He swore out loud, not caring that people were looking at him.
“Damn it, why is it so cold again? When are the paramedics coming?” Worrying that he might freeze to death, he turned up the collar of his coat.
Then he witnessed a strange scene. A tall, well-built man was rushing through the blizzard and rescuing Seo Hyeon-jeong. He was staring with his mouth open when he suddenly snapped out of it. The man took Hyeon-jeong to his car, and soon after got out and started rescuing other people. What kind of fearless bastard is he? Jae-seok muttered to himself as he looked around. Taking advantage of the man being distracted with the rescue efforts, he approached the man’s car. Luckily, the door was unlocked, and Hyeon-jeong was asleep, seemingly unconscious. He desperately wanted to take this car and drive to the villa right now. If it were reported as a stolen vehicle, he could just offer some appropriate compensation money later. Even if it were reported to the police, his family was powerful enough that no police officer would dare touch him.
But then, a better idea occurred to him. He would tell Seo Hyeon-jeong, who had been resisting marrying him, that he was the one who saved her.
She seems unconscious, so she might not know exactly which man saved her, right? If she was saved after losing consciousness, that is. Even if she did know, it didn’t matter. Who would believe her if she said some unknown man saved her? Moreover, Seo Young-wook was on his side. A man full of vanity, clinging to his family, desperate to somehow become in-laws with a chaebol family. He was the easiest person to manipulate.
He pulled the memory card from the car’s black box. Then he picked up the sleeping Hyeon-jeong.
She was so heavy that his back hurt after just a few steps. He resolved to put her on a diet as soon as they got married and waited for an ambulance as far away as possible. He thought enough time had passed since the accident for it to arrive. The ambulance only arrived just as Jae-seok was about to freeze to death. The paramedic who got out assessed the injured and prioritized Hyeon-jeong, who had a leg injury, was unconscious, and had a dropping body temperature. Of course, he went with her.
Thanks to that, they were transported to the hospital faster than anyone else.
“What, what is this? Vice President Jo! No, young master Jo!” Her family had rushed to the hospital immediately upon his call.
“You’re here, Father-in-law. Mother-in-law.” He put on a gentlemanly mask and greeted them.
“We were shocked after seeing the news, and then we were shocked again to get your call. So, how is Hyeon-jeong’s condition?” Anyone seeing this would think their beloved daughter is dying. They were just treating her like an item to be sold off to him.
Jae-seok inwardly clicked his tongue at Young-wook’s exaggerated act before answering politely.
“The wound is deeper than expected. The bones are fine, but they said her ligaments and muscles are damaged. She needs surgery. They said they need the signature of a legal guardian, which is why I urgently called for you, Father-in-law.”
“Okay, okay, you did well. Well done.” He barely even looked at the surgery consent form, just nodded along to the doctor’s explanation, and quickly signed.
“Please don’t worry too much. They said that because I rescued Hyeon-jeong so quickly and provided good first aid, she was able to avoid major injuries.”
“Young master Jo, thank you. Thank you.” Jae-seok gave a bitter smile at the hand patting his shoulder.
Her head was throbbing and she felt nauseous. She could also smell a strong scent of alcohol, but the most uncomfortable sensations now were the chill and the thirst.
Hyeon-jeong struggled to lift her eyelids, which felt as heavy as lead.
“Father, Mother! Hyeon-jeong is awake!” A voice she hated, like the sound of shattering glass, pierced her ears. Feeling as if her ears might start bleeding, Hyeon-jeong frowned and looked around.
“Are you coming to your senses?”
“Hyeon-jeong, oh my world. Thank God. Thank you so much for keeping our daughter safe.”
“Dear, don’t cry. Hyeon-jeong has woken up fine, hasn’t she?”
“Hyeon-jeong, we were so worried. Do you recognize me?”
Four heads popped up on either side of where she was lying. A young woman, a middle-aged woman who resembled the young woman, a middle-aged man, and a young man. Hyeon-jeong blinked her eyes at the four strangers. Her throat was sore and her voice was horribly hoarse.
“…Who… are you?”
