The Choice Was Not Wrong
Lee Jeong-eun looked at Kim Seong-ho standing before the operating room and spoke as though the whole thing were some curious spectacle.
"How can something like this happen right when he's in for a health checkup?"
"That's why it's such a blessing, isn't it? There was even a neurosurgeon right there. If they hadn't recognized the symptoms immediately, it would have taken so much longer… I can't even begin to say how fortunate we are."
"Fortunate, sure… but still, it's strange."
Lee Jeong-eun turned away from Cha Yeong-su, who had called it a blessing, and glanced over the rest of the family seated around the waiting room.
From the very back, arms crossed, Lee Tak-hyeon spoke with a scowl.
"So what you're saying is you don't like it?"
"It's not that I don't like it. I just find it odd…"
"If you're going to talk nonsense, go home."
"Father."
Lee Tak-hyeon kept his arms folded and fixed Lee Jeong-eun with a hard stare.
"Your youngest sister is fighting for her life in that operating room, and you—her older sister—are standing out here running your mouth. It's grating on my ears. Just go home."
When Lee Tak-hyeon told her, in so many words, to get out of his sight, Lee Jeong-eun twisted in her seat, ready to retort.
At that moment Cha Yeong-su hastily apologized toward both Lee Tak-hyeon and Kim Seong-ho.
"Chairman. She only said it because she was so astonished—she meant it in a good way. Brother-in-law, please don't take it the wrong way. She only wants her sister to be healthy."
"I don't misunderstand. I know she's speaking out of worry."
Cha Yeong-su shot Kim Seong-ho a grateful look for accepting the apology, then took Lee Jeong-eun by the arm and pulled her upright again.
Lee Jeong-eun shook his hand off and sat properly, her eyes full of resentment.
Lee Tak-hyeon watched the little scene in silence, then asked Kim Seong-ho,
"What do you plan to tell the press?"
Still standing before the operating room, eyes on the surgery clock mounted above the door, Kim Seong-ho turned to answer.
"We'll say she left the country for meetings with representatives of European fashion brands, and while she was there she planned to tour several European countries. We'll have the story ready to distribute to the media."
"It wasn't a previously scheduled trip. People will find that strange."
"We'll explain that the European side moved the schedule up, so the meetings had to be arranged on short notice."
"Hmph…"
The cover story did not entirely satisfy him, but Lee Tak-hyeon knew there was no better option under the circumstances. He said nothing further, which amounted to permission.
Just as the brief exchange between Kim Seong-ho and Lee Tak-hyeon ended, Lee Mun-jong and his wife entered the family waiting room.
"Gyeong-eun!"
Lee Mun-jong called his sister's name in a raw, anguished voice and rushed toward the operating-room doors.
His face was twisted with grief; he looked ready to fling the doors open and charge inside.
"Hyung-nim."
Kim Seong-ho blocked him, wary of any sudden move.
Lee Mun-jong only cried out more desperately against the restraint.
"Gyeong-eun! What is this? Why are you having surgery? Why!"
"Hyung-nim, please calm down. They're operating right now."
"Kim Seobang, what on earth is going on?"
Lee Mun-jong turned on Kim Seong-ho.
Kim Seong-ho soothed him as best he could, glanced once more at the operating room, then repeated to Lee Mun-jong the same explanation he had given the rest of the family.
When he finished, Lee Mun-jong's legs seemed to give out; he swayed on his feet.
"Thank heaven. Thank heaven. If it had happened anywhere else, it could have been a disaster. It's a blessing she was already in the hospital so they could act quickly."
His shoulders sagged with relief. He stood in front of the operating room and simply breathed.
Lee Jeong-eun, watching from her chair, snorted as though she could not believe her eyes.
"Why is Oppa making a bigger scene than anyone?"
"My goodness, how can you say that? Of course he's worried—he's her older brother."
Lee Jeong-eun turned her head and looked up at Bang Hyeon-ju, who had leapt to her husband's defense.
"Did Unnie come straight from a makeup artist? That face looks ready for an awards ceremony."
Bang Hyeon-ju, her makeup heavy, covered her face with one hand as if embarrassed.
"What do you mean heavy? I only put on the basics in case I ran into people."
"If you were really worried about Gyeong-eun, you should have arrived looking like that."
Lee Jeong-eun pointed at Oh Min-yeong, who sat beside Chu Suk-ja with a dry, unmade-up face.
Chu Suk-ja frowned at Bang Hyeon-ju's painted face, then looked at Lee Mun-jong still swaying near the doors and gave a short, contemptuous laugh.
"If you're late, you come in quietly, apologize, and sit down. What's all this theatrics? Don't you care about your youngest sister at all?"
"Mother, we were worried—"
"Enough."
Chu Suk-ja clasped Oh Min-yeong's hand tightly and glared at Bang Hyeon-ju.
The heavy makeup and carefully pinned-up hair made it clear she had not only visited a makeup artist but a salon as well.
"…For the eldest, you two are certainly putting on a show."
Bang Hyeon-ju's face crumpled; she stole a glance at Lee Tak-hyeon.
Lee Mun-jong straightened his bent legs and looked toward his father as well, trying to gauge his reaction.
Lee Tak-hyeon, arms still crossed, did not spare them a glance. He turned instead to Hwang Do-beom.
"Director Hwang, help Headquarters Chief Kim keep the press under control. If word gets out that the entire Ilhyeon family is gathered at Seoul Ilhyeon Hospital, all sorts of strange rumors will start flying."
"Yes, sir. Understood."
Only after giving the order did Lee Tak-hyeon turn his gaze on Bang Hyeon-ju.
He looked at her heavy makeup and clicked his tongue.
"On top of the story that I collapsed, if a photograph surfaces of you looking as if you're delighted to be here, the whole business about the illegitimate child we just managed to put out could flare up again. Behave yourself so that doesn't happen."
Bang Hyeon-ju bowed her head deeply.
Lee Mun-jong walked over from the operating-room doors to stand beside her and bowed toward Lee Tak-hyeon as well.
"I'm sorry. We came as quickly as we could after getting ready…"
"That's enough. Just sit down. You're making a nuisance of yourselves."
Lee Tak-hyeon had no interest in excuses. Lee Mun-jong and Bang Hyeon-ju quietly took seats off to one side.
"I told you we should leave right away."
"No. We might meet the doctors, and someone might take photos. How could I just walk out the door like that?"
"Look at your sister-in-law. No hair, no makeup at all."
"That's because she lives with Mother."
"Honestly, you…"
"Why are you blaming me? As if you got ready any faster. You dawdled just as much."
"The way you talk to your husband…"
Their voices rose; eyes around the waiting room turned toward them.
Lee Mun-jong quickly checked Lee Tak-hyeon's expression, then lowered his head a fraction.
"We'll settle this at home."
"Saying 'we'll settle it at home'—do you think that scares anyone?"
Bang Hyeon-ju refused to yield. She turned toward the stares she felt and found Oh Min-yeong watching her with a faint sneer, arms around Chu Suk-ja.
That little…
The sight of Oh Min-yeong's bare, unadorned face made Bang Hyeon-ju's blood boil. The contrast only made her look more like the guilty one.
She even began to wonder whether Oh Min-yeong—who never usually left the house without makeup—had deliberately come to the hospital looking like that just to put her in a bad light.
Kim Seong-ho, still standing before the operating room, watched the chairs in silence for a moment.
His wife was fighting for her life on the table, yet her family was busy scoring points off one another. His eyes, which had been watching from a step removed, grew sharp.
The way they put their own comfort and image ahead of Lee Gyeong-eun made something burn in his chest.
He swept the seated family with that cold gaze, then turned back to the clock above the operating-room doors.
More than three hours had already passed since the surgery began. The endless waiting continued.
Six hours later, the family members who had kept their posts began to complain of discomfort.
"Mother, we don't know when it will end. Why don't you rest for a little while?"
Bang Hyeon-ju urged Chu Suk-ja to take a break.
"That's right, Father. I'll speak to the hospital director. You can rest in an empty room and come back. How many hours has it been already?"
Lee Mun-jong nodded in agreement and suggested the same to Lee Tak-hyeon.
"If you're tired, the two of you go rest."
Lee Tak-hyeon sat bolt upright, spine straight, and did not unfold his arms.
"Do you think I don't know you're the ones who want to rest?"
"Father, it's not that. Mother needs to rest as well."
Lee Mun-jong, unable to sit still any longer, tried again to persuade him.
Lee Tak-hyeon kept his posture and looked at Chu Suk-ja.
"If you're tired, go rest."
"I'm not tired."
Chu Suk-ja rounded on the children who kept dragging her name into it even though she had not said a word.
"When did I ever say I was tired? Do as your father says—if you're tired, you go rest."
"Mother, that's not what we—"
"I will not leave my child."
Her look promised that one more word about resting would bring down thunder. Then she patted the back of Oh Min-yeong's hand—the hand that had been holding hers without a word.
"You poor thing. You've been through enough. You go rest."
"Mother, Youngest Sister is the one who's suffering. All I'm doing is sitting here. There's nothing hard about that. I'm fine—tell the tired ones to go rest. We'll keep the vigil."
Chu Suk-ja looked at Oh Min-yeong with genuine emotion, then clasped her hand tightly and gazed at her without blinking.
Lee Jeong-eun glanced back and forth between Oh Min-yeong and Bang Hyeon-ju with open amusement, then said to Bang Hyeon-ju,
"Just like that, Unnie became the villain, didn't she?"
"Hey!"
Lee Mun-jong barked at Lee Jeong-eun; she only pouted.
"Did I say anything wrong?"
The corner of her mouth twitched with enjoyment; Bang Hyeon-ju's eyes narrowed.
At that moment the tightly closed doors of the operating room opened.
Kim Seong-ho, who had been standing right in front of them, hurried forward as Kim Chang-mu approached, still pulling off his surgical cap.
"How did it go?"
The surgeon recognized the faces coming toward him. These were people whose names appeared on economic broadcasts and the evening news every other day. The most senior among them was a man whose name Kim Chang-mu had heard since childhood until his ears rang.
Yet he paid none of that any mind and spoke only to Kim Seong-ho about the outcome of the operation.
"It was more serious than we expected, so the surgery took a little longer."
"More serious? Did something go wrong?"
Lee Jeong-eun fired the question at him, but Kim Chang-mu did not even glance her way. He kept his eyes on Kim Seong-ho and continued.
"Three blood vessels ruptured at the same time. That is extremely rare. If we had delayed even a little, it could have been catastrophic."
Kim Seong-ho closed his eyes for a moment.
The thought that his choice had not been wrong let the tension drain out of him.
Kim Chang-mu went on.
"We located and sealed all three sites. The operation was a success. Tonight we'll monitor her in the intensive care unit; once she wakes, we plan to move her to a general ward tomorrow or the day after."
"Thank you."
Kim Seong-ho bowed his head to the surgeon.
He bowed deeper still, thinking this man was an even finer doctor than he had realized in his previous life.
Kim Chang-mu raised him up again.
"Because we operated so quickly, there should be no lasting effects on her daily life."
"She won't limp, or lose the use of a hand?"
Chu Suk-ja, still clutching Oh Min-yeong's hand, could not hold the question back.
Kim Chang-mu could not ignore the chairman's wife; he turned and answered her.
"No. We checked with electrical signals during the procedure—everything was normal. As long as she wakes properly, she should be able to live exactly as before."
"Aigoo, Doctor. You've worked so hard."
Chu Suk-ja stepped forward and took Kim Chang-mu's hands.
Unable to pull free from the chairman's wife, he kept hold of her hands while looking at Kim Seong-ho.
"Whether heaven helped us or it was pure chance, the fact that the rupture happened while she was already in the hospital with you, Headquarters Chief, meant we could act at once and get the best possible result. That said, Headquarters Chief, your own health checkup—"
"Given the situation, please don't worry about that."
Kim Seong-ho smiled faintly at the relieved surgeon and shifted slightly to one side.
It was a small gift of gratitude for the successful surgery on Lee Gyeong-eun.
"Chairman, this is Kim Chang-mu, Head of Neurosurgery, who performed Gyeong-eun's operation."
Kim Seong-ho introduced him to Lee Tak-hyeon.
"Doctor, this is my father-in-law, Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon of the Ilhyeon Group."
At the introduction, tension finally appeared on Kim Chang-mu's face, which until then had been indifferent toward the rest of the family.
He could ignore anyone else, but not Lee Tak-hyeon.
"I'm Kim Chang-mu."
He bowed. Lee Tak-hyeon stepped into the space Kim Seong-ho had vacated and took the surgeon's hand.
"Kim Chang-mu, Head of Neurosurgery?"
"Yes."
"You've done well."
"Not at all. I only did what I was supposed to do."
"I'll remember your name."
Color flooded Kim Chang-mu's face.
Even a man who lived only for medicine understood what it meant when Lee Tak-hyeon said he would remember a name.
Lee Tak-hyeon clapped the surgeon's shoulder, expressing his gratitude for the successful operation; the rest of the family offered their own brief words of thanks and praise for his hard work.
Kim Seong-ho, who had stepped back to give Lee Tak-hyeon room, lifted his head with quiet gratitude that his choice had not been wrong.
Then he turned his gaze toward the clustered members of the Ilhyeon family.
One of the things he had come here determined to accomplish was now settled. What remained—revenge—loomed larger than ever in his eyes.