Chapter 37
— “Is she unconscious? Did she get hurt?”
“Well… I don’t know… Maybe. It’s so cold outside…”
Heeju’s speech was getting slurred. Sa-eon shouted in panic, “Stay awake!”
“I- If you g-guys can hurry and come over… in a crevice beneath this cliff…” Heeju’s teeth started clattering in the cold. “Below the summit, under four or five trees… there’s a cave between the cliffs…”
— “…406..4 0 6!” Sa-eon was panicking.
Suddenly Baek Sa-eon’s voice started cracking. Is the device malfunctioning or is it her… Heeju wondered.
Her head was spinning. She wanted to call Baek Sa-eon by his name, but couldn’t. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry…
“…H- Hurry…”
These were the only words she could say. Then a high-pitched voice scratched her ears.
— “Alright, so don’t hang up.”
“……!”
— “Don’t hang up until I get there.”
“…….”
— “Please.”
The moment I heard those words, I felt choked. This was the man I had tried so hard to divorce, and now this voice assured me that I wasn’t alone.
— “Search the northeast direction again. We’ll report our movements as we go. Don’t hang up. And…”
He paused momentarily, regaining his composure.
— “If there’s anything you can think of, let me know. Don’t worry.”
“…!”
— “I’ll be there soon.”
Bang!
At that moment, red flares lit up the sky.
— “406, you might not be able to see it, but we’re on our way right now.”
Even with her blurred vision, she could see the bright flames rising into the sky. Her weak lips curved into a faint smile.
— “There’s chocolate in Heeju’s bag. I wonder if she found something to eat.”
“…I- I don’t know…”
— “In the zipper pocket, I left a first-aid kit. There’s a portable flare at the bottom. You can light it by striking the top cap. I hope Heeju noticed it. What do you think, 406?”
His rushed words tumbled out incoherently, most likely he was on his way.
“…What?” Her slurred response barely made it out.
— “I’m asking because 406 knows Heeju well.”
“If she’s conscious… she’ll probably search for something… won’t she?”
Her dimming vision pulled her down like quicksand. Desperately, Heeju tried moving her toes.
— “Are you scared?”
“…!”
Heeju hesitated, then replied evenly, “What’s there for me to be scared of…?”
— “Is that so? Because I’m scared to death right now.”
“…!”
His voice, usually so monotone, betrayed a confession-like quality. That very fact made Heeju’s heart race.
Pushing past her pain, she rummaged through her bag again. When her hand found the small first-aid kit, rather than the physical pain, the gathering tears made her feel sadder.
“I thought you didn’t care whether she lived or died.”
— “…”
“Things did appear like this back then. This is why Hong Heeju felt so mistreated.”
— “Did… she cry because of that?”
He naturally slipped into informal speech, but his usual stiffness made her barely notice.
“I don’t remember.”
Finally, Heeju lit the flare. A bright signal burst into the sky, met almost instantly by another flare from above.
Woof! Woof!
She could finally hear dogs barking in the distance.
For the first time, the darkness wasn’t so suffocating. Heeju smiled faintly and spoke with teasing defiance.
“If you don’t hurry, I’ll spill everything. I’ll expose just how two-faced you really are.”
— “….”
“I’ve gathered some real dirt on you this time….”
— “Fine.”
“What?”
— “Threaten me again like that tomorrow.”
“….”
— “Call me, without fail.”
What in the world was Baek Sa-eon saying? Even as her consciousness faded, she couldn’t help but wonder.
“Quick…”
— “406, can you hear me?”
“….”
— “406!!!”
***
‘”Dehydration and hypothermia are severe! Start an IV immediately! There’s a head injury, so take her for a CT scan as well!”
Rescuers lifted Heeju out of the cliffside crevice and rushed her to a hospital via helicopter.
The grueling four hours finally came to an end.
A man who had remained stoic in the face of mangled corpses now trembled as he saw Heeju covered in blood. For the first time, his ghostly expression twisted into something unmistakably human.
“Fortunately, there’s no severe brain damage. The patient had 10 stitches on her head, seven on one arm, and eight on the other. We believe her loss of consciousness is due to shock from dehydration, but we’ll run further tests once she wakes up.”
Hearing the report, Baek Sa-eon collapsed in the seating area. After rubbing his face, he silently gazed at Heeju, who lay motionless.
He hadn’t gone through all this to become a grieving widower. He didn’t withstand this pain only to face such torment.
“Let go of the delusion that we’re married.”
Those words were a blade aimed at himself, a guard for his brittle pride. Now, even that had disintegrated.
Knock! Knock!
A sharp knock interrupted his thoughts.
“Please wait there for a moment,” Baek Sa-eon responded sharply.
He opened the door himself and stepped out. Standing before him was his aide, Park Do-jae who was holding Heeju’s dirtied bag.
“Sir, I received this from the firefighters. Sorry for the delay.”
Baek Sa-eon immediately overturned the bag, spilling its contents onto the floor. Do-jae was startled to see Sa-eon act like this.
“Sir…!”
Empty bottles, chocolate, a first-aid kit, a towel, a dead phone… His eyes scanned every item, narrowing with urgency.
“Is this everything?”
“Y- Yes… Are you looking for something specific?”
“Another phone! Was there another phone?”
“A phone? I didn’t see one….”
Without further explanation, he diverted the topic. “What about the analysis?”
“Ah….” Park hesitated.
“Park Do-jae.”
His tone left no room for patience.
“The result was 79.35 percent. Not definitive, but it suggests a strong possibility that the two voices match—”
“That’s enough.”
Baek Sa-eon’s darkened gaze turned resolute.
“I’ll confirm the rest myself.”
After dismissing everyone, he returned to the quiet hospital room, where only the beeping of machines remained.
Kneeling by her side, he briefly touched the back of her bandaged hand.
“I need to hear your voice.”
His icy eyes settled on her still figure.
“So you can’t run away, Hong Heeju.”
***
Heeju had lost more than her voice. She had also lost something else… something only she remembered- her birthday.
“Stop hovering around me! You’re so annoying!”
Smack!
Her cheek stung as though struck by a flint.
“Get out! Leave!”
Her mother had days when she sank into deep despair, and today was one of them. It was the memorial day of her youngest son and Heeju’s birthday.
The child, always sensitive to her mother’s mood, lingered nearby out of concern. In response to her efforts, she was met with a slap and had to get out of the house.
She had nowhere to go. The only thing she could do was hide in an alley and bury her face in her knees.
When did it start?
It wasn’t after her brother’s death that her birthday went uncelebrated. No, it had begun the moment they moved into the mansion.
Her mother had claimed there was no point in celebrating the birthday of someone else’s child. After remarrying, she hadn’t once acknowledged Heeju’s birthday.
No one else ever asked about it either.
While elaborate parties were thrown for her older sister and her baby brother’s first birthday, Heeju’s birthday remained unnoticed, perhaps reflecting how she was treated as an outsider.
“Woof! Woof!”
Startled, the dejected child looked up. She could hear barking in the distance.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
“Stop, you r*scal…! Somebody catch him— no, please, don’t run! Don’t run away!”
The desperate shouting caused young Heeju to panic. She hurriedly dusted herself off and stood up.
The barking grew louder and fiercer as though the dog was closing in.
“Grrrr… snarl…”
A beast appeared with red eyes glinting against its black fur and drool dripping from its bared fangs.
Before she could think of something else, Heeju turned and bolted in the opposite direction.
“Woof! Woof!”
The excited dog pursued her relentlessly. Her legs were on the verge of giving up.
“Ahh—!”
The guard dog’s teeth grazed the back of her leg.
She poured every ounce of her strength into running, but her energy quickly faded. Terror widened her pupils to their limits. Just as she felt she couldn’t go any further, someone suddenly grabbed her under her arms and lifted her off the ground.
“Aaaaaaaaaa!”
A piercing cry rang out.
Her line of sight quickly moved upward. Instinctively, she clung tightly to her rescuer’s neck.
“Haah… haah…”
She looked up to meet the eyes of her savior.
“…!”
But instead of a kind stranger, she found herself staring into the hardened face of the boy next door.
Love reading it!❣️