Chapter – 19
“Honey, take some digestive medicine and get some rest.”
This is bad.
Gaeun felt anxious.
Chairman Joo’s face overlapped with the image of her late father.
“Doesn’t it feel like someone is squeezing your heart? Like tightness in your chest?”
“Just give me a glass of cold water.”
Chairman Joo ignored her words and gulped down the water the helper brought him.
Even if she disliked him, saving a life came first.
Gaeun believed that even if you weren’t certain, you should go to the hospital if there was even the slightest suspicion.
“Father.”
When no one listened to her, Gaeun grew impatient and slammed both hands on the table with a loud bang.
“Please trust me just this once and go to the hospital first.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re in danger right now.”
Chairman Joo looked at her sideways with an incredulous expression.
Should she really keep insisting?
Seeing the contempt in his eyes made her lose whatever affection she had left. But she still couldn’t abandon someone who might face the worst possible outcome.
No matter how much she disliked him, a human life mattered more.
“If you go to the hospital and they say you’re perfectly fine, I’ll cleanly call off my marriage with Seokjin.”
“Gaeun?”
Seokjin called her name, surprised she said something they hadn’t discussed beforehand.
His eyes had turned cold, his face stiff.
Gaeun was afraid of how he might blame her later, but right now her only thought was getting Chairman Joo to the hospital.
“Call it off completely?”
“Yes. So please go to the hospital… right now.”
Apparently liking her condition, Chairman Joo slowly stood up while clutching his left chest.
“Make sure you keep that promise.”
“Yes. Unlike some people, I don’t go back on my word. So please stop worrying and go to the hospital.”
With Chairman Joo suddenly heading to the hospital, dinner ended anticlimactically.
After putting on his coat and stepping outside, Chairman Joo suddenly turned around.
“Seokjin, come with me.”
“Father, I’ll go with you.”
When Chairman Joo called Seokjin instead of him, Taejin hurriedly stepped forward.
“Why are you coming? Joo Seokjin, you lead.”
“Father, I’m the eldest son, so something this serious should—”
“Yes, Father. I can’t go. I have to buy Gaeun beef.”
“What?”
Even though Seokjin said something provocative, Chairman Joo’s narrow, fish-like eyes strangely turned toward Gaeun instead.
Why use beef as an excuse…
Gaeun wanted to tell him that wasn’t helping her at all.
But thinking about it, Seokjin was trying to achieve their shared goal of stopping the marriage.
Chairman Joo’s face gradually turned red at their clueless behavior.
He might actually be a patient…
“Seokjin, go with him.”
“Then what about the beef?”
“Forget beef and fish—both of you come!”
“Why me…?”
“Didn’t you say you’d break up if I’m fine? I’ve seen plenty of people go back on their word. You’re coming too.”
This was the older Joo Seokjin.
Another suspicious Joo Seokjin, afflicted with distrust.
Gaeun followed Chairman Joo in resignation.
Though they said they’d go separately, Chairman Joo forced Seokjin into the passenger seat and made Gaeun sit beside him.
Gaeun worried she might suffocate before they even reached the hospital.
“How much were you paid?”
“Excuse me?”
Was Chairman Joo above even President Joo?
Did he already know their plan?
“You thought I wouldn’t know someone took photos? Photos don’t just turn out that good by accident.”
“Oh, Father. The two of us just look good together. The key to a good photo is the face.”
Gaeun sighed in relief.
He hadn’t figured it out after all.
All this over some good photos…
“Even you must admit it’s strange that this guy who never cared about women suddenly wants to marry.”
“Father, that hurts my feelings. I’m overflowing with charm. Right, Seokjin?”
“Gaeun is the woman who shook my soul.”
Gaeun doubted her ears.
Seokjin delivered that line like something from an old black-and-white movie with a completely calm face.
His greasy line made her stomach churn.
“Ugh.”
“!”
After a small gagging sound, Gaeun waved her hand quickly at Chairman Joo, who looked shocked.
It was just Seokjin’s cheesy comment combined with the earlier tense meal that upset her stomach.
“That’s why you shouldn’t have served noodles…”
“Joo Seokjin!”
“Gaeun will get startled.”
“You—you—you brat!”
Chairman Joo’s suspicion deepened.
He had already suspected a shotgun wedding, and Seokjin saying Gaeun might get startled only reinforced it.
“I’m not pregnant.”
“No?”
“Want to bet 1 billion won?”
“Then bet your shares in Jooshin Retail with me.”
“If the people involved say no, why even bet…?”
Their firm attitudes finally made Chairman Joo drop that suspicion.
But he still didn’t stop looking at Gaeun suspiciously.
When they arrived at Jooshin Hospital, more than ten doctors were waiting outside.
Gaeun almost laughed.
At a time when every doctor’s hand should be needed elsewhere, why were so many gathered here?
“Chairman, we heard you’re feeling very uncomfortable.”
“I think I just have indigestion.”
“What kind of discomfort exactly…”
While Chairman Joo leisurely talked, Gaeun stepped forward.
“He says his chest feels tight and squeezed. It could be acute myocardial infarction, so please examine that.”
“And you are…?”
“This could be an emergency!”
When the doctor asked her identity first instead of acting, Gaeun urgently emphasized the situation.
The doctors immediately laid Chairman Joo onto a prepared stretcher.
It would be best if nothing was wrong…
Gaeun watched worriedly as he disappeared inside.
“It might just be indigestion. Why insist on coming here?” Seokjin asked.
“You never know.”
Since she wasn’t a doctor, her sudden mention of a heart attack confused him.
“We’ll escort you to the VIP room.”
A staff member guided them inside.
The hospital room rivaled a luxury hotel suite.
Gaeun was amazed.
The only hospital room she’d ever stayed in was a six-person insured ward. This VIP room felt like another world.
“What are you thinking about so quietly?” Seokjin asked.
“I’m definitely getting admitted here someday.”
“What?”
“Even if we break up later, please let me stay here just once.”
“Are you sick?”
“My heart is hurt right now.”
She had heard VIP rooms couldn’t be entered just with money. Since she had already endured so much humiliation, she figured she might as well use it as an excuse.
Emotional pain could be more dangerous than physical pain.
“After we get married.”
“President Joo, I don’t know what brilliant plan you have, but can you really marry despite your family’s opposition?”
“Opposition and marriage are separate matters.”
“But I promised your father I wouldn’t marry if he was fine…”
She had promised to withdraw cleanly.
It wouldn’t be right to go through with marriage anyway.
“Acute myocardial infarction…”
“My father died from that.”
Gaeun remembered that day vividly.
Like Chairman Joo, her father had said he just had indigestion.
He thought it was the dumpling soup from lunch.
Gaeun hadn’t thought much of it.
Only when his face turned dark while clutching his chest did she realize the severity.
By then, it was too late.
“I see,” Seokjin said.
“I lost him because I didn’t know. So now whenever someone says they have indigestion, I just tell them to go to the hospital.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
His sudden apology confused her.
“I made you talk about something painful.”
“I guess you did. President Joo, you’re quite a bad person.”
Gaeun wiped the tears forming at the corners of her eyes and smiled faintly.
If only we had gone to the hospital…
The person beside her now wouldn’t be Joo Seokjin.
It would have been her father.
* * *
Seokjin knew better than anyone how painful losing family was, and he felt sorry toward Gaeun.
Seeing tears in the eyes of the woman who had stood firm even while being openly ignored by his family made his chest ache.
“If it turns out like I feared… doesn’t that make me his lifesaver?”
Her eyes sparkled again.
Seokjin found himself smiling unconsciously.
“In dramas they say ‘You saved my life, ask for anything.’ Why are you smiling?”
“…Miss Oh Gaeun, the more I listen to you, the more interesting you sound.”
He made up an excuse.
Saying he smiled because her smile made him smile would sound ridiculous.
“You never know what might happen, so I should plan ahead.”
“What?”
“What else? If I become his lifesaver, I should get a proper reward.”
Compensation. A big cut. Money.
Words Gaeun loved.
Perhaps because she grew up among materialistic people, she didn’t hide her desires.
He liked that about her.
“What would you ask for?”
“Which subsidiary is the most profitable in Jooshin Group?”
“Right now? Jooshin Retail. It has the most growth potential.”
Originally a construction company, but now retail brought the highest revenue.
Watching her think seriously, Seokjin briefly imagined her taking his CEO position.
Am I becoming delusional after spending days with a dreamer?
“So you were still here.”
Chairman Joo’s voice came as he was wheeled in wearing a patient gown.
It didn’t look like nothing had happened.
“The youngest daughter-in-law practically saved his life,” the doctor said.
Chairman Joo smiled at Gaeun.
She really had become his lifesaver.
Life-saving favor. A life debt.
Beside him, Gaeun’s eyes sparkled even more than before.
“Thank you. You saved me.”
“No, Father. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“I should repay my lifesaver…”
