When Your Pain Becomes Mine

“He’s as healthy as I am. Thank you for worrying about him.”

The reporter giggled at Gyeonhui’s confident response and nodded his head.

“It’s an honor to interview the president of Consencio. I hope your yearly physical goes well.”

The reporter left the room after Gyeonhui’s impudent smiles.

“Woop.”

As soon as he heard the door was shut, Gyeounhui grabbed his stomach and started moaning.

“Gyeounhui, are you okay?”

His assistant Ojae ran into the reception room and looked at him. After Gyeounhui took his jacket off, his back was so sweaty, and his wound was slightly bleeding.

“The anesthesia wears off faster than I thought.”

After he took off his shirt, he was so exhausted that he just leaned on the couch.

“I told you we should postpone the interview. Why do you overdo it so much?”

“Can’t you lower your voice? Do you want everyone to know that I’m injured?”

Ojae covered his mouth quickly after Gyeounhui’s words.

The health condition of elite families could have an impact on the stock market.

“Hu…”

“By the way, what is this? It looks like a tattoo,” Ojae said as he looked at the red spot on Gyeonhui’s chest. It looked like a flower with five petals or a starfish at a glance.

“I said I don’t know.”

Gyeonhui knitted his eyebrows, his voice filled with annoyance. It was neither a scar after the surgery nor a tattoo. It appeared on his chest on the day of the accident. When he recalled that day, he recalled her, too. Gyeonhui looked at his phone. There had been no calls or texts from her for days.

“Ha.”

Gyeonhui, all alone, tilted his head and sighed toward the ceiling.

“… I’m so irritated.”

He couldn’t bear the frustration, so he picked up his phone.

“Hu…”

Sun came back to her office and deeply sighed in her seat.

“How did it go? Did Mr. Choi like it?”

Ari, with an anxious face, came to her and asked.

“Yes. Fortunately, I think he originally wanted to go to Europe.”

Sun answered Ari with an exhausted tone of voice.

“You did great, though.”

“No, I’m fine. Please don’t tell Eunyoung about this.”

“There is no secret here.”

At this time, Eunyoung’s voice was heard from behind them.

“Hey, you are here.”

Sun awkwardly smiled and looked at Eunyoung.

“Didn’t I tell you not to allow Mr. Choi to overuse his power on you?”

“I just helped him.”

“Bullsh*t.”

“Anyways things went well.”

“You…”

As Eunyoung began to speak, her cell phone rang.

“I need you to talk with me later, okay? Hello?”

Eunyoung walked out with her phone to her ear.

“Hu…”

Sun smoothed her shirt and sat in her seat. She blankly looked at her desk, the rejected itinerary of Doya lake coming into her eyes.

“Let’s come back later.”

She recalled his unconcerned voice and how he looked overall. She shook her head because of these clear memories of him. At this moment, her cell phone rang.

“Gyeonhui.”

Her face was hardened after she saw the name on the phone. Does she still want to

listen to his voice? Her fingertips trembled as it moved toward the button to answer.

“Can I forget him…”

When she tried to push the green button to answer unwittingly, Eunyoung came to her.

“Who is it? Why do you not answer?”

Eunyoung’s face was also hardened after she saw the name on the phone. Sun didn’t say anything and blankly looked at her black laptop monitor. As she touched the mouse by mistake, the monitor that was in sleep mode, turned on brightly. A long, seemingly endless, brown clay road cut through a grass field. There were people walking with backpacks. The view of Santiago came into her eyes. She was lost in thought for a while before she flipped the phone slowly over and put it on the desk.

“… Eunyoung.”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to leave.”

Eunyoung was surprised at her words.

“I have a place where I would like to go, no… where I have to go.”

Sun moved her eyes to the monitor again. The people were walking somewhere with backpacks. Sun was already following them in her mind.

Episode 3. I know you’re not okay

10 days later. The VIP room in the hospital.

“Consencio? The Amazon of Korea?”

Gyeonhui, who was reading his interview online with his phone, knitted his eyebrows.

“Wow, now the Consencio is big enough to be compared with Amazon in the USA!”

“Do you like this?”

“Isn’t it something good?”

His assistant Ojae was embarrassed because of Gyeonhui’s cold voice.

“I have come along to be a unique business model. But this… this is like I’m an imitator.”

Gyeonhui had a very serious face because he didn’t like this at all.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to think that way…”

“Is this an interview that the marketing team confirmed?”

“Whoever it was, fire the person who allowed this interview to be online.”

“What? It’s too dramatic to fire someone because of this…”

“You want to lose your job instead?”

“I’ll fire him. Not me.”

Ojae answered very quickly, as if he dropped his tail down.

“This unqualified scumbags…”

Gyeonhui pushed the home button on his phone to get out of the online news, and his eyes moved to the recent call list on his phone. There were still no calls for him at all.

“Ha.”

Ojae lifted his head slightly after he heard Gyeonhui’s sigh.

“Still no message from her?”

“I don’t know. I’ve blocked her.”

Gyeonhui lied to him and put the phone down carelessly.

“Would you like me to find her?”

“Why would we find a girl who walked away on her own free will? Do you have nothing better to do?”

“I mean, I thought you were waiting for her.”

“Who is waiting for her? How about the president of D&BM, did you find him?”

“Not yet…”

“Get out of here and find him.”

His assistant got so nervous that he quickly left without answering him properly.

“Hurumph.”

When Gyeonhui sighed, Ojae came back into the room again.

“What now?”

“Madam Shin would like to see you in 30 minutes.”

“What?”

Madam Sukjin Shin,his mother, was the vice president of the Lasung Group.

“Why did you tell me that now!”

“I-I only received the call just now.”

Ojae quickly disappeared to avoid more trouble.

“Huuu.”

Gyeonhui closed his eyes and calmed himself down. Nobody could stop her from coming here if she wanted to. After he organized what to do, he started taking off his patient gown.

***

A luxury Korean restaurant. Gyeonhui and Madam Shin were the only two inside. Only the sound of chopsticks could be heard. Madam Shin was a woman in her early 60s. She broke the silence, and said, “The W department store looks pretty serious. People have gathered to work for him.”

Because of chairman Byeongtaeck Woo’s sickness, things were like a time from Chinese history. People were obsessed to gobble up the company, and Gyeonhui was one of them. However, he was the youngest among the presidents—he had insufficient power, but had strong enemies. The president of the W department store, Mr. Chunduck Choi, was the strongest.

Madam Shin slightly smiled at him and asked, “By the way, how are you feeling?”

“Finally, you ask about me.”

“I heard you’ve broken up with her.”

“You know this conversation between you and I is really odd.”

There was no change to her face even after hearing Gyeonhui’s mean answers.

“You’re acting so insensitively, so I can assume that you are okay. I don’t want to ask further. It’s a waste of time.”

“The real waste of time is that we are meeting here.”

“Your marriage with Chaekyeong has been discussed already, so take care of it.”

Madam Shin continued as if she didn’t care what Gyeonhui said.

“By whom?”

“The parents had the discussion already. Chaekyeong will also come back to Korea as soon as she finishes her degree.”

‘Tak’. Gyeonhui put his chopsticks down on the table with a loud noise.

“Mrs. Vice President, I’ll take care of my marriage.”

Even though she was his mother, it was a long time ago since he called her mom.

“When you become powerful, you can be on your own.”

Madam Shin took a sip of water and spoke these words to him.

“You are just a president of one of our affiliates.”

He couldn’t read any emotion from her voice. It was like throwing a stone down a black hole. That’s how he felt whenever he talked with her.

“I’m not ready to have a family yet. I don’t want to make the mistake of abandoning my own child.

“It wasn’t a mistake. It was a necessity.”

“It’s simple considering it’s an excuse.”

Gyeonhui’s eyes calmed down.

“Because it’s not an excuse. It’s a fact. That’s why it’s simple”

Gyeonhui laughed at her response and poured water in his cup.

“I have to leave. I’m sorry that I can’t listen to you anymore.”

“I was about to leave too.”

Madam stood up from her seat and wiped her mouth with her napkin as if nothing had happened.

“You’re going to see the news online soon.”

As her footsteps went far off in the distance, his serious face was hardened. Gyeonhui, who wasn’t moving at all, suddenly threw the glass of water at the wall. Pieces of glass spread everywhere.

***

Packing her stuff, Sun looked at the picture of her family. It was her high school graduation day. Holding flowers with her father, Sun looked so happy. She had a bitter smile, but soon she felt soreness in her right wrist and massaged it with her left hand. Since the car accident 10 days ago, she felt the soreness once in a while without knowing the reason.

“Hurumph.”

Sun was packing the photo album and then reached her hand out to take down a cup from the top shelf. But at the moment, she felt the soreness in her wrist and dropped the cup.

“Oh my!”

The cup fell down to the floor and broke. Sun reached her hand to pick up the pieces of the broken glasses.

“Gyeonhui, you don’t like to take pictures. So let’s do a caricature at least.”

One day in the year they started dating, she bought a cup with their faces on it after begging him to get it. She looked at their broken caricatured faces. At that moment, Ari came in through the front door.

“What are you doing? Are you done packing?”

“Watch out. A cup is broken.”

“That’s fine. It’s okay to put my shoes on and walk around.”

“Right.”

She started packing in the morning, so she was almost done.

“By the way, why did you not pack the TV?”

“The big furniture will be moved by the movers.”

“Right, your wrists aren’t very strong. Eunyoung will be late. Would you like to watch TV?”

Ari slumped down on the couch. Ari was switching the channels before stopping midway. It was a program talking about gossip among rich families.

“There is a rumor of marriage between the Lasung Group and the Woomyeong Group. Is it true?”

Sun’s hand stopped when she heard the reporter on the TV.

“It seems to be true according to the stock market. There is an ongoing marriage discussion between the grandson of the founder of the Lasung Group, Youngtaek Woo, Gyeonhui Woo, and the only daughter of the Woomyeong Group’s founder, Jin. Especially the illness of the founder of the Lasung Group, Youngtaek Woo could spur on their marriage before his final day.”

“Hum. Hum.”

Ari made fake coughs and quickly turned off the TV. But it was too late. It was after Sun heard everything from the TV.

“Don’t they have any feelings? It’s only been a few days since you broke up.”

Ari couldn’t hide the embarrassment as she looked at Sun.

“… Hey. Are you okay?”

“Sure. Let’s go shopping. I have things to buy.”

Sun stood up and went outside as if nothing had happened.

“Aww…”

Ari stamped her feet, not knowing what to do. She threw the remote control at the couch and followed Sun.

***

The presidents’ room of Consencio. Gyeonhui was patting his nameplate on his desk as he slowly walked toward the window. The office located on the 24th floor was only for the president of the company. The Dosan-main street came into view over the entire glass wall. He recalled the effort and time he had spent to come all the way up here. But he still had a long way to go. There were certain things that he could have only after achieving his goal. Everything, save one, went well; the way he expected.

“Cheonsun…”

His face was hardened after he looked at his phone. She still hadn’t called him.

“This plant needs some water.”

The assistant Ojae spoke while he was looking at the coffee plant. Suddenly, Gyeonhui turned around to the plant, and he looked at it quietly. It was a gift that Sun gave him a long time ago.

“Let it die.”

“What? Ah… okay.”

Ojae put the water cup down as he said it.

“Buzz.” At that moment, Ojae’s phone rang.