2
# Divorce Made Me Handsome
## Chapter 2: Facial Rehabilitation, Emotional Rehabilitation
Seo Jeong-in, a nurse at Glory Hospital, was walking toward Room 704 with unusually light steps once again today.
“Hmm, hmm\~”
She was so excited that she found herself humming without even realizing it. Her fellow nurses watched her with envy, clicking their tongues in disappointment.
“I’m jealous.”
“I know, right? I wanted to be assigned to Room 704, too.”
“Exactly. Sigh. I should have been the one assigned there. Those light footsteps should have been mine.”
Why were her colleagues so envious of her? What was so special about Room 704? Questions like these began popping up everywhere.
However, the reason became clear sooner than expected.
Room 704.
Whisper, whisper.
“He’s ridiculously handsome…”
“I know, right? His decadent charm is insane…”
“Should we take a picture?”
“Should we?”
The answer could be found in the sight of patients from neighboring rooms huddled together around the small window in the hospital room door. They were curious about one thing in particular: the patient in Room 704.
“Ahem. Ahem!”
“Oh my!”
“Gasp!”
“You scared me…”
“Patients, what are you doing here? This is quite inappropriate. Besides, you know people have the right to protect their own image, right? You can’t take pictures, either.”
“Aw… Fine. Let’s go.”
“Tch.”
At Nurse Seo Jeong-in’s perfectly reasonable words, the patients scattered in different directions. Even so, they continued watching her retreating figure with considerable envy as she headed toward Room 704.
Ignoring their gazes, she hummed to herself and opened the door to the private room. And then she saw him.
A gentle breeze drifted through the open window.
“Ah.”
“…”
The fresh breeze made the pure white curtains flutter. Sitting on the edge of the bed and gazing out at the world was a patient whose skin was exceptionally pale.
Goodness, he’s dazzling…
His double-lidded eyes looked as though he were tired of the world, and his nose was perfectly sculpted. It was astonishing how such well-defined features could fit so neatly into that small face.
The intense charm radiating from him made her heart flutter, while his long, still-untidy hair somehow made her imagine that a pleasant fragrance was drifting from him.
“Gulp.”
“…Ah. You’re here.”
“Oh. Haha. Ahem. Yes. I came to check on your condition.”
“Thank you, as always.”
“W-What are you thanking me for? It’s my job.”
Seo Jeong-in squirmed awkwardly.
The reason was simple. It was the man standing right in front of her.
He really is handsome.
That was all there was to it.
She knew his circumstances quite well.
Three years ago, he had been admitted to the hospital after suffering severe burns.
Back then, his appearance had been horrific. However, thanks to the skills of Dr. Cha Byeon-wook, Glory Hospital’s leading expert in skin grafts and plastic surgery, the patient had been transformed into an entirely new person.
At the time, she had regarded him simply as a patient in terrible pain and cared for him accordingly. But now, three years later, his fully restored appearance was making the hearts of every nurse and female patient at Glory Hospital race.
I knew Dr. Cha was incredibly talented, but… Gulp.
For a moment, she had been so overwhelmed by his irresistible appearance that she could hardly think straight. Quickly pulling herself together, she approached the patient, Baek Man-seok, and checked his condition.
Then she did what the other nurses could only dream of doing.
“H-How have you been feeling lately?”
“Ah… I’m happy because my rehabilitation seems to be going well. It’s all thanks to Dr. Cha.”
“I-I see. Hohoho.”
“Of course, I’m grateful to you, too, Nurse.”
“Hohoho! Oh, honestly, you don’t have to thank me. I told you, it’s my job.”
She examined various parts of his body while attempting to strike up a conversation. Meanwhile, she could feel several gazes directed at her from the small window.
“Arghhh! I’m so jealous!”
“Oh my goodness! L-Look how bold she is!”
“Good heavens…”
The patients and nurses outside were watching Nurse Seo Jeong-in with envious, jealous expressions.
But Nurse Seo Jeong-in showed no hesitation. She confidently continued touching Baek Man-seok as she carried on their conversation, while the women outside could only stamp their feet in envy.
Hehehe. If you’re jealous, why don’t you become a nurse yourselves?\~
A month had passed since I opened my eyes in the hospital.
A lot had changed, and I had no choice but to adapt. I had reunited with my elderly mother and father, and I was undergoing rehabilitation to get my immobile body moving again.
And then there was the most important thing.
Murmur, murmur.
Here they go again.
My face.
I needed rehabilitation for this handsome face, too. I was only human, and I had ears, so there was no way I could remain oblivious to the crowds gathering outside my hospital room and the gazes of the nurses.
It was an excessive amount of attention, something I had never experienced back when I was ugly.
I ran my hand over my face.
I really am handsome.
Dr. Cha Byeon-wook, the man who had performed my surgery, turned out to be one of the top experts in his field in South Korea.
He had apologized to me, explaining that he had reconstructed my face based on the photograph I possessed without properly verifying it first.
He said he had been unable to feel at ease because he felt as though he had ruined someone's life.
But there was no reason for Dr. Cha to apologize to me.
He had even helped me with my hospital bills and looked after me. If anything, I should have been thanking him.
Not only had he helped pay for my medical expenses, but he had also transformed my ugly face into a handsome one.
Who would have thought I would end up with an AI-generated face?
It was truly astonishing and unbelievable.
Rattle.
“Son!”
“Ah, Mother.”
My mother had brought me snacks again today. After making her way through the crowd outside the door, she approached me with a relieved sigh.
“I still can't believe whether this is a dream or reality.”
“…”
“I’m so, so grateful that you’ve come back to us.”
“I’m sorry for making you worry for three years.”
“No, don’t say that. As long as you’ve returned safely, that’s all that matters. Goodness, look how thin your face has become. Why didn’t you eat more snacks?”
My face had been ugly in the past, but another reason I had become excessively overweight was my parents’ overwhelming love.
My eating habits had been poor, so I had naturally gained weight and become unhealthy. Of course, my own lack of willpower had also played a part.
But perhaps because I had spent so long receiving nothing but intravenous fluids, my stomach had shrunk, and I couldn't eat much anymore. As a result, my body had become as slim as a model's.
Perhaps because I was fairly tall, I looked even thinner.
“I’ve eaten enough. Don’t worry too much. What about Father?”
“He went to work.”
“He should take a break today. It’s the weekend.”
“You know how he is. He keeps insisting that he needs to help pay the hospital bills.”
“…”
My father had continued working after I collapsed. Even though he had been dismissed from his previous job because his health had deteriorated from the aftermath of the fire, he had opened a scrap yard and continued doing physically demanding work.
For three years.
“…I’ll definitely start working again.”
“There’s no need to rush. You just need to focus on your rehabilitation, Man-seok.”
Mother works at a restaurant on weekdays, too…
Damn it.
My parents were willing to do any kind of difficult work for their son.
Seeing them like this made me feel uneasy. I needed to abandon the foolish thoughts that kept me tied to the past. I needed to erase the name Kim Ji-young, my ex-wife, from my mind completely.
I would be discharged soon.
I had finally regained enough mobility to move around properly. As for my skills… the only thing I could still do as well as before was write. But even if I couldn't do that, I wanted to do something, anything.
I wanted to work hard, make my parents happy, and live happily together with them.
My laptop had burned to ashes in the fire, and because I had spent three years in the hospital, my exclusive contract had automatically been terminated. Things were difficult in many ways, but I had been given a new life, so I would do my best to live it.
Life in the hospital and the grueling rehabilitation had been painful. However, what I had seen and experienced there had gradually begun to change my softhearted and naive personality.
Two and a half months later.
Was it because my determination had been so strong?
After spending three years unable to move, I had fully regained my ability to move and was finally able to leave the hospital.
I expressed my gratitude to everyone at the hospital. The nurses shed tears, and Dr. Cha congratulated me once again.
“Doctor, I’ll definitely repay my debt to you.”
“Haha. No, you don’t have to. It’s enough that you eased the burden on my conscience and forgave me.”
“No. I’ll definitely come to see you again.”
“Now, now. You shouldn’t come back to the hospital! What if your words end up coming true? Haha.”
“Haha, you’re right. Haha.”
They were all people I was grateful to.
I hoped that one day I would be able to repay them for everything they had done for me.
After that, I was discharged and headed home.
Our original home in Gyeonggi Province had been completely destroyed by the fire, so we had no choice but to move elsewhere. Fortunately, the government had provided compensation, allowing us to obtain a small home in Seoul.
“Apparently, the arsonist was a police officer.”
“A police officer?”
“Yes. I heard he had been drinking and acted on impulse.”
“That’s…”
“Ridiculous, isn’t it? We were just as shocked.”
My father, who was driving, told me something he hadn't mentioned before.
Surprisingly, the reason our house had caught fire was arson, and the arsonist had been a police officer.
The case had spread widely because of that, even making the news and provoking public outrage.
It was only natural. A police officer, someone who was supposed to protect the public, had set fire to an ordinary family’s home despite having no connection to us whatsoever.
Thanks to the compensation, we had managed to find a place to live, although it wasn't somewhere we could have particularly high expectations for.
It was an old, single-story apartment building.
“We’re here.”
“This is…”
“It’s a little small, but it’s good enough to live in. We’ve tidied up your room, too.”
“Yes…”
It was neither particularly good nor particularly bad, just an average place somewhere in between. Still, my parents were grateful simply to have a place where we could live.
We climbed the stairs to the top floor.
Our newly tidied home. My room.
I could feel the care my parents had put into everything.
Now I had even more reasons to work hard.
I want to succeed. I don't care what it takes. I want to succeed.
“There are six floors, and we're on the top one.”
“…That's nice.”
“Heh heh. Right? It's not bad. Hmm… Of course, there is one problem.”
“A problem?”
“This is an old apartment building, so noise between floors is quite an issue. If you make even a little too much noise while walking, the people downstairs come right up.”
“Ah…”
“The child downstairs is in their third year of high school now, you know. It's understandable that they're sensitive.”
“Tsk. Does making noise mean they can't study?”
My parents said it was fine, but it seemed they had already had a few problems with the neighbors downstairs. I would have to be careful about that, too.
“Go rest in your room for a while. I'll make dinner soon. Our son likes bulgogi, doesn't he?”
“I… like anything. Anything you make, Mother.”
“Hehe. All right.”
“…”
“Ahem. I think I'll watch some TV.”
They didn't show it openly, but my parents were full of energy. They were grateful that I could walk again, that I could speak again.
Thank you, Mother. Father.
“Um…”
“Yes?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
“…”
“…”
They were words I hadn't been able to say for a long time.
I had thought it was embarrassing. I had believed that keeping those feelings to myself was enough. That was why I had never said them aloud. They sounded so cheesy, after all.
But I wanted to change.
So I opened my mouth and said those words to my parents, who still loved me despite the fact that my face had changed completely from what it used to be.
Feeling embarrassed, I quickly cleared my throat a few times and hurried into my room. Then, when I heard their muffled sobs from outside, my own emotions surged, and I began to cry, too.
After spending quite some time sniffling…
A gift for our son.
“Honestly…”
I looked at the farewell gift my parents had prepared for me.
It was a laptop.