When Your Pain Becomes Mine

“Hello?”

His assistant answered the call while nervously covering the phone with his hand.

“What? Are you sure?”

He bursted out in surprise.

“All right. Okay.”

“What was that?”

“Actually, I was looking for her for you.”

“You have wasted your time.”

Gyeonhui furrowed his eyebrows at the thought.

“I’m sorry. But there is something that you have to know.”

Ojae stammered and stopped. A strange nervousness wrapped around Gyeonhui’s body.

“What’s going on?”

Ojae looked at Gyeonhui who was asking with a serious, low voice persuading Ojae to talk.

“She has put her house for sale.”

“For sale?”

Gyeonhui’s eyebrows furrowed again in thought.

***

In front of the Incheon National Airport gate. Sun was carrying the luggage then stopped. Eunyoung and Ari also stopped along with her.

“How far in will you follow me? It’s fine!”

Sun, said smiling as if there were no problem.

“You’re coming back. Aren’t you?”

Ari’s eyes were tearing up.

“Absolutely.”

Sun patted the back of her head caringly.

“But why Spain?”

“Sorry?”

“You said you are going to go to France and Spain. Do you want to find your lost passion?

Ari asked her curiously.

“Because…”

“Why do you keep stalling her so long with your questions?”

Eunyoung jumped into the conversation.

“Take as much time as you want. We’ll leave your desk empty until you come back. Restore yourself. Get your focus back. Got it?”

“Thank you.”

Sun appreciated Eunyoung not asking any questions, even though, she must have had a lot of questions.

“Go inside. You have to at least stop at the duty free shop to truly feel that you’re on vacation.”

“I will. Go home safely both of you.”

Sun smiled at them and turned away from them.

“Ouch!”

Suddenly, Sun hit her knee on her own luggage, and stumbled.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Ari shouted with concerned eyes.

“Yes! I’m all right!”

Sun answered pretending to be ok and walked toward the security gate.

“Oh my…”

“I know that you’re not okay.”

Eunyoung watched Sun for a while out of sympathy.

***

“Arghh….”

Gyeonhui grimaced at his knee while he was touching it.

He couldn’t take his mind off his knee. The pain in his knee felt as if he just hit something with it.

The stranger thing was he had never hit anything with his knee.

“Something is wrong these days….”

These days, he was bothered so much by sudden unexplainable pain. He didn’t care much about it, but this time, he felt the pain when he had not done anything. It was so strange.

“Is this from the accident?”

More exactly, the pain had been happening since the car accident.

“Hmm.”

Gyeonhui sighed, and looked up at the building where Sun used to live.

“Her house has been on the market for sale.”

His assistant’s report was something he never expected.

Gyeonhui went up to the second floor, and stood in front of her door. He put the key in the key hole, and turned it. With a clunk, the key worked as he opened the door.

The house was empty, lonely without her.

Gyeonhui’s face was hardened, and he came into the house with his shoes on.

“Arghhh….”

Gyeonhui was so irritated, and let out a long sigh while he put his two hands into the pockets of his pants.

“Who are you?”

At that moment, an old lady’s voice was heard.

When he turned around, the old lady was looking at him. Only her face appeared to be floating as she looked through the door.

“Are you the new neighbor who is moving in?

“No, I’m not. I’m just here to see a person who used to live here.”

“So, you know Sun?”

“Yeah, sort of.”

Gyeonhui tried not to talk with her, and was about to leave.

“Didn’t you hear that she is going abroad?”

After the lady’s words, Gyeonhui stopped in his tracks.

“Going abroad?”

Gyeonhui asked her again as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Well, she said it’s somewhere in Europe. When you get old like me, it’s hard to remember things.”

The old lady returned her place with a smile.

The wind from the door sounded cold and uninviting. Geonghui’s winter coat rustled in the wind.

“Europe?”

Gyeonhui muttered to himself while he was knitting his eyebrows. He turned his head, and looked at the mirror above the shoe rack.

He saw his own face hardened looking back at him.

Gyeonhui threw the key that he was holding at the mirror. The mirror broke into pieces with sharp clinking sound.

Glaring into the broken mirror, he swiftly turned away. The glass crunched and crackled as he moved away.

***

“Be safe. Take care and remember your purse too.”

After Sun sat on the window side, she saw a text from Ari. She thought Ari was acting a bit out of place treating her like a little girl.

“She thinks that she is older than me.”

But Sun still texted her back saying “I will”.

“You’ve come a long way. The airplane will be taking off soon.”

The announcement came from the speaker.

“I’m taking off now. I’ll see you after I come back.”

After Sun texted Ari for the last time, she tried to turn off her phone.

The phone app “Photo genic” caught her eyes.

She hesitated, but opened the app. She saw a well-organized folder with pictures in order by date.

“I can’t believe that there are no pictures of us together.”

Gyeonhui didn’t want to be seen out in public, so she couldn’t take a picture together with him ever.

Only the red scarf proves their three-year relationship.

She closed her eyes, and turned off her phone.

She decided not to turn it on until she came back to Korea. No, until she totally forgets about him.

‘Vroommm’

The airplane got on the runway, and started speeding up to take off.

“Hurumph.”

She sighed in relief. After a while, the airplane took off safely.

She looked out of the window as the evening was setting in over the airport.

It was a goodbye to everything for a while.

Sun shook her head and removed a travel magazine from her bag.

The unpaved road cutting through the grass field. The endless line of people walking on their pilgrimage.

“Santiago…”

The 800 kilometer road beginning in France and ending in Santiago Spain.

That was the purpose of this trip.

“After I lost your mom, I walked tirelessly. I needed to live again.”

That was what she was told by her father when he was alive.

After Sun gave up on Gyeonhui, she felt the fire burning inside her was extinguished. Her heart, without him, was wrapped in icy coldness unable to feel the slightest change.

The pain of separation was excruciating because her love was so strong. Now she has to walk alone to live without him. This trip will be the first step to stand alone.

“It’s okay. Everything will be alright after I come back.”

Sun moved her eyes from the window to the front.

She no longer needs to look back, only forward.

Episode 4. Maybe.

A month later.

“You said I just need to do nothing. Right?”

Gyeonhui confirmed it again with the doctor.

“Yes. You just need to stay calm, and watch. That’s all you need to do.”

His psychotherapist Joe glanced at the table.

“Hum.”

When Gyeonhui moved his eyes to the table, he saw the haphazard puzzle pieces.

His expressionless face started to harden, and his fingertips were trembling as time went on.

He wanted to put the puzzles together right away, but he clenched his two fists strongly to bare the stress. Soon he picked up a piece of the puzzle and started putting them together in a panic.

The puzzle was put together in an instant.

Gyeonhui was relieved after the puzzle was completed.

“arghhh..”

He let out after he put the puzzle together.

“Your symptoms of obsessive compulsion are very strong and serious.

Doctor Jo said as he put two wooden star pieces crooked on the table.

“Why is it so wrong to pursue perfection?”

Gyeonhui disagreed with him as he matched up the wooden pieces.

“Pursuit of perfection is not always bad, but if we don’t understand the cause it could lead to a bigger problem in your mind.

“Do you mean that I have some problem?”

“We need to focus more on the cause rather than you. Can we talk about your childhood? What kind of parents were they?”

“My father passed away when I was young and my mother is the vice president of the Lasung group.

“Um. Not the occupation. Can you tell me more about how she is?

“…She is a good person.”

After he said that last, he confirmed the time.

“I have a conference, so let’s finish it here.”

Gyeonhui said it lastly and left the counseling room.

***

He got on the car annoyed.

“Oh, you came out early.”

Ojae, who was waiting for him in the car, asked.

“Change the counselor. No, subtract the consultation schedule itself.”

He frowned, seemingly unpleasant.

“Why? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t do that, why don’t you just try a little more? You can fix it.”

“How do you know?”

“Look at your head.”

“My head?”

Ojae examined Gyeonhui’s hair style through the room mirror.

“You’re left-to-right, or you can’t stand it. But you can be better if you look at your head as if it’s not five-five.”

“… You want your fingers to be folded into five folds?”

“Oh, no.”

Gyeonhui looked at Ojae again, seemingly disgusted.

“Cheonsun, did you find her?”

“Well, no. I’m still working on it.”

When Ojae was asked by Gyeonhui, Ojae spoke with a grin.

“You’d rather carry a recorder. It’s annoying to say the same thing every time.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Ha.”

Gyeonhui sighed and looked at the sky.

A month after her disappearance, Gyeonhui tried to find her, but he couldn’t find any trace of her, as if she were a non-existent person.

“… Turn the car.”

“Eh? Where…”

“Where do you think we should go? You can’t be straight, so I have to step up.”

It was only then that Ojae, who realized where he wanted to go, turned the handle.

***

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know.”

Eun-young spoke nervously. It was because of the man sitting across.

“It doesn’t make sense that you don’t know.”

It was him with the cold-settled voice. He looked for her every day, but he couldn’t find even her shadow.

In the end, he couldn’t resist the frustration, and he had no choice but to come to her job.

“I can’t even contact her because she is off her phone.”

“So where is she now?”

“I don’t know. I’ve said it many times.”

Eun-young who was frustrated, let a long sigh out. Eunyoung’s reaction was displeased. He had to say a lot of things, so he had to waste his time.

‘It’s all because of Sun.’

The malaise soon led to him anger.

“… All right.”

With his nod, he suddenly rose from his seat. Eunyoung looked at him with a slight nervous gaze as his sudden change in attitude.

“I’ll help you to remember.”

He pulled out his phone and called somewhere.

“Hey Ojae. Do you know a company called Kids Fan?”

-Kids fans? Oh, It’s a company that has recently started their business with us.

“How much have you purchased in from them?”

Gyeonhui deliberately looked straight into Eunyoung’s eyes and continued the call.

-Well. I don’t know the exact quantity. For what? You want to find out?

“No, I don’t have to. Return all the full amount.”

-What?

“I said, get rid of everything that came from them”

After completing the instructions, Gyeonhui hung up the phone and looked at Eunyoung.

“Oh, Mr. Woo…”

Eunyoung, who noticed his intentions, bit her lower lip.

“Will this help you to remember?”

He smiled and asked again.

“I’m strictly in a contract, can you do it? If I respond you legally…”

“That’s exactly what I want. There are lawyers around me who play and eat with billions.”

Knowing that his words were true, Eun-young’s face was hardened.

“Well, choose. Otherwise, you’re screwed.”

He asked, even if it was a good-looking tone.

“Ha… boss.”

Ari watched from the side, looking at Eun-young with frightened eyes.

Supplying to Consencio was a life-and-death project.

Although they had been delivered to several small retail stores, the volume itself had been incomparable. If the contract with Consencio was cancelled, the blow could make the company’s existence difficult.

“It’s might be hard to answer for you right now, because of your shallow friendship. Make your decision. Discuss with Sun too, but just one thing.”

He rose from his seat and continued.

“I’m not patient, remember.”

After speaking, Gyeonhui left the office.

Iron slugs. When she heard the door closing, the terrified Ari rushed.

“… What about now? Are we screwed?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll stop it somehow.”