Chapter 1
Chapter 1
My eyelids felt incredibly heavy. My body was completely limp, as if I had stayed up for several nights and then fallen asleep. Where was I? Why did it hurt so much?
In the darkness, faint and jumbled images repeatedly appeared and disappeared. Flashing red and blue lights. The sound of sirens faded in and out of my ears. My body swayed.
The sensation of lying on something hard and moving quickly. Streetlights rapidly passing by. A ceiling... another ceiling... constantly changing ceilings.
Urgent voices. Incomprehensible shouts and commands. Many hands touched me. The sound of clothes being cut. The sound of cold metal. Clanking mechanical sounds. My body was moved again. The rattling sound of a door opening and closing somewhere.
Numerous faces under white lights. All of them were women's faces. Startled expressions, hurried hands. Glances examining my body from all sides. The sensation of something being attached and connected to my body. More unfamiliar mechanical sounds began to be heard. Beep- beep- beeeep-
These images appeared and disappeared, fragmented and jumbled like an old projector film. I couldn't understand where I was or why I was seeing these scenes. I felt dizzy and confused.
And at the end of that chaotic panorama... one scene became vividly fixed.
A dark night road. Approaching from afar... an overwhelmingly huge, white light. It was the light of headlights. That light instantly rushed towards me as if to swallow me whole.
Screech! A sharp tire screech.
Crash!!! A dull, heavy collision sound.
The sound of shattering.
Extreme pain, as if my entire body was breaking apart. A floating sensation. And...
Darkness where nothing could be seen, and nothingness.
Along with that terrible impact, a fragment of my last memory struck my mind... And a moment later... with a gasping sound, as if something was waking me up and I was about to lose my breath, I was able to open my eyes.
"...So, it's a hospital..."
An IV drip in my arm and a white ceiling... It was unfamiliar, but I roughly knew where I was.
"I didn't die..."
Even recalling it now, the dizzying accident made me shudder. My last memory was starting off with a green light and then being hit by a truck that ran a red light and sped towards me.
I cautiously wiggled my fingers. They moved smoothly, without any creaking sensation. Then my toes. Again, the sensation was vivid.
Just in case, I tried to raise my upper body, but no crushing pain or scream burst out.
(This can't be...)
A truck definitely slammed into me from behind. The image of that massive radiator grille, which had completely filled my rearview mirror with black, was still vivid in my mind.
The probability of me, who was just riding a motorcycle, surviving after being hit by a truck was virtually zero. But by some miracle, I was perfectly fine now.
Not only was there no cast, but not even a common bandage was wrapped around me. I didn't even feel the chronic back pain I'd suffered from before the accident. Instead, my body felt as light as a feather, like someone who had just woken up from a deep sleep.
"Huh, really... Did I save a country in my past life or something?"
A hollow laugh escaped my lips. This was insufficient to explain by simply saying I was lucky. I raised my arms and rotated them this way and that, and even clenched my fists in the air. There wasn't even a stiff feeling from muscle strain. While after-effects of a car accident are said to appear later, in this case, there was no trauma whatsoever to even discuss after-effects.
"Thank you... truly, thank you."
Gratitude, directed at no one in particular, spontaneously burst forth. Whether it was God, my ancestors, or the truck driver who swerved at the last moment, the fact that I was not only alive but also perfectly intact filled my heart with emotion.
To have stepped on the threshold of death and returned without a single scratch. This was the greatest luck and miracle of my life. Immersed in relief, I sank deep into the hospital bed, savoring this unbelievable fortune.
"But isn't this a private room?"
However, even before I fully grasped the fact that I had survived, the hospital room I was admitted to caught my eye. Seeing the spacious hospital room, the kind a chaebol chairman might use on TV, the first thing that came to mind was the hospital bill.
"If I lie here for just a few days, my meager bank balance will surely go into the red in an instant...."
Even if insurance covered it, there would be a limit. Even if it was the truck's fault, this was excessive. I was in the midst of debating whether I should pull out the IV right away and run to the administrative office to ask for a multi-person room, or if I should just secretly escape.
Click.
Breaking the silence, the hospital room door opened. I instinctively flinched and looked towards the door. I naturally expected a doctor or nurse in a white gown to enter and racked my brain for an excuse.
But the person who opened the hospital room door and entered was completely different from what I expected.
Click, clack.
What appeared with the cheerful sound of high heels was a woman. With long, straight hair and wearing a sleek, form-fitting suit dress, she looked to be in her early 30s at a glance, and boasted such dazzling beauty that one would believe she was an actress on TV.
(Who is she? Is she an insurance agent for the at-fault vehicle?)
She was the kind of person I would never encounter in my life's trajectory. I stared blankly at her, only blinking my eyes. But the woman's reaction was strange.
The moment our eyes met, her seemingly haughty eyes instantly welled up with tears. She dropped the luxury handbag she was holding onto the floor with a thud, and her lips trembled.
"......!"
Her expression was as if she had seen a dead person come back to life. I thought she had come to the wrong room and was about to open my mouth.
"Minho!"
She rushed towards the bed, screaming my name. And before I could even grasp the situation, she suddenly embraced my neck.
"Huh...? Ugh!"
"Thank goodness... really, thank goodness... *sob*...!"
The strong scent of rose perfume that wafted over me and the soft touch of her skin. My flustered arms flailed aimlessly in the air. How was I supposed to process this situation, where a complete stranger, and an incredibly beautiful woman at that, was calling my name and sobbing in my arms?
"Excuse me? Wh-who are you?!"
At my single word, the air in the hospital room instantly froze. The strength slowly drained from her arms that had been crushing me in an embrace.
With a face as pale as if she had seen a ghost, she grabbed my shoulders and recoiled.
"You... what did you just say?"
Her voice trembled faintly. She stared intently at my face, as if unable to believe it. Her unfocused, wavering pupils persistently probed my eyes, as if trying to confirm that my reaction was not a lie.
"It's me... it's me. Do you really not know who I am? Minho, you're not joking, are you?"
At her urgent cry, I instinctively flinched and pulled my body back. Her face, right in front of me, was breathtakingly beautiful even upon a second look. But that was all.
In my roughly 20 years of life, no matter how much I searched through the barren and shabby fragments of my memories, a woman exuding such 'nobility' did not exist. I replied with an expression that was as polite as possible, yet awkward.
"Um... I'm really sorry, but did you come to the wrong room?"
The moment my answer left my lips, her mouth fell open blankly. Her hand, which had been holding my shoulder, dropped limply. She mumbled with a dazed expression, like someone who had been hit on the head with a hammer.
"This can't be... how could..."
Her eyes, filled with deep despair, made me feel as if I was the one who had committed a sin, and cold sweat ran down my spine. She was too unfamiliar to be someone I knew, yet her sorrow was too genuine for her to be a stranger.
Just as she staggered and was about to collapse to the floor, the hospital room door burst open again with a loud noise.
"What's going on?!"
Doctors and nurses in white gowns rushed in. They seemed to have rushed over after receiving a call that I had woken up. The doctor alternated glances between the pale woman standing there and me, dumbfounded on the bed, then quickly approached my side.
"Patient-nim! Can you hear my voice? Do you know where you are?"
The doctor urgently flipped my eyelid and shined a penlight into it. The flashing light in front of my eyes made me frown instinctively.
"Ah, it's dazzling.... I know it's a hospital, but why is everyone acting like this...?"
"Consciousness is clear.... Pupil reaction is also normal...."
The doctor sighed in relief, placed and removed his stethoscope, meticulously checking my condition. He seemed to suspect a concussion or PTSD.
After completing the basic examination, the doctor, with a serious expression, clicked his pen and then cautiously opened his mouth.
"Your physical reactions are normal, to the point of being a miracle.... However, there might have been a temporary impact on your brain."
"Huh? I told you I'm fine."
"Then, for confirmation, I'll ask one thing."
The doctor gestured with his chin towards the woman standing blankly beside the bed. The woman was still looking at me with tearful eyes, her gaze full of earnestness.
"Do you really not remember who this person is?"
I glanced at her once more. Her flashy attire, sophisticated appearance—no matter how much I racked my brain, she was a person who did not exist in my memories.
"As I said before... she's truly a complete stranger to me."
At my firm answer, the doctor clicked his tongue in exasperation, adjusted his glasses, and stared directly at me.
"Patient-nim, you might be very surprised, but please listen calmly."
"Huh? What is it?"
The doctor paused for a moment, then dropped an unbelievable bombshell.
"That person is your mother."
"......Huh?"