The Weight of Unspoken Wounds
The grandmother’s hand shot out with shocking speed, seizing Yeo-won’s arm in a vise-like grip. Despite her paper-thin frame, her strength was formidable.
Yeo-won drew in a sharp breath as she met the old woman’s twisted face. Never before had her gaze been so clear, so vivid with unmistakable fury.
Startled, Yeo-won staggered backward. The envelope slipped from her fingers, and the rice cakes inside scattered across the ground like discarded trash. She instinctively reached for them, but the grandmother’s furious shout froze her hand in midair.
“Just what the hell have you been doing?!”
The sudden roar made Yeo-won flinch violently.
“What do you…”
“What were you doing in town yesterday?”
The old woman’s pupils trembled wildly, as if desperately trying to make sense of the situation.
Yesterday? If she meant yesterday, then Yeo-won had clearly been wandering around town looking for a place to stay…
“Ah.”
“Ah?”
When Yeo-won let out a short, realization-filled sigh, the grandmother laughed in disbelief. Flustered, Yeo-won quickly added, “No, Grandmother, it’s a long story, but there are circumstances—”
“Circumstances? What circumstances? What possible excuse could you have for going from one inn to another with that man?!”
Her sharp interrogation cut off as she glared at Shin-wol with venomous eyes.
“There is such a thing as having shame.”
At the grandmother’s blatant rebuke, Shin-wol’s smile only deepened. The laughter bordering on mockery made Yeo-won hurriedly step between them.
“Grandmother, I understand that you’re shocked, but please calm down. This person and I are not in that kind of relationship—”
“Then why,” the old woman cut in coldly, “did you go into an inn room together if you’re not in that kind of relationship? How disgraceful!”
“That’s…”
Yeo-won’s face crumpled in distress. She had no idea where to even begin explaining.
Should she start with how she had ended up bringing Shin-wol here? But that, too, would be equally difficult to justify.
How could she possibly make her grandmother understand that he had followed her to protect her from ghosts?
If the old woman had been the type to believe such words, she would never have gotten so angry about Yeo-won seeing spirits in the first place.
While Yeo-won struggled to find the right words, the grandmother spoke first.
“Do you have any idea what I’ve been hearing all day? The whole village is buzzing about how an unmarried girl came out of an inn room with some scrawny bastard! Do you know how humiliated I was?!”
At the word “scrawny,” Yeo-won nearly burst into bitter laughter. Who in the world could possibly call Shin-wol scrawny? She glanced sideways at him. He was merely smiling faintly, showing no sign of anger. Yeo-won let out a small breath of relief and tried again.
“That’s because the bus accident made me arrive in Inwol so late that I had no choice but to—”
“Shut up. If you’re just going to spout nonsense, keep your mouth closed.”
The icy tone made Yeo-won flinch, her shoulders stiffening. An unpleasant sense of déjà vu gripped her entire body.
The voice that announced her displeasure, the cold stare. Yeo-won knew this feeling all too well.
The sensation of being thrown back into the past made her breath catch in her throat. Unable to meet the old woman’s eyes, her gaze dropped to the ground. Her lowered lashes trembled, and her tightly pressed lips hardened like stone.
“You’re embarrassing the whole neighborhood. Get inside.”
Despite the obvious terror on Yeo-won’s face, the old woman paid it no mind and dragged her by the arm.
Though she could have easily shaken her off, Yeo-won followed limply, looking like a child who didn’t know how to rebel.
She opened her mouth in confusion, but the stubborn profile of her grandmother made her close it again in defeat.
She knew that no matter what she said right now, the old woman wouldn’t listen.
She didn’t find it impossible to understand her grandmother’s shock, so she had been about to accept it as usual when a low voice came from behind.
The calm, even tone—neither loud nor soft—made her heart sink. When she turned her head, Shin-wol was standing there motionless. Even amid the commotion, he watched her with a perfectly serene expression, as if nothing unusual was happening.
He stood silently, gazing at her as though he would remain in that exact spot forever if she didn’t stop him.
Seeing his still-calm demeanor suddenly made her own tension feel ridiculous.
As soon as she thought that, the breath that had been trapped in her chest began to flow again, as if by magic.
He smiled quietly.
His gentle brown eyes asked her a silent question.
Is it really okay to go like this? Will you keep enduring it like a fool?
Yeo-won looked down at her grandmother.
The grip on her arm was quite strong, but the force pulling her forward was pathetically weak. The back that had once seemed so imposing now looked frail and small.
The stiffness in her body gradually melted away, and her frozen mind began to function rationally again.
He reached out with a casual gesture and smiled smoothly.
The sweet voice that seemed to caress her ears made Yeo-won stop dead in her tracks. At the same time, the grandmother’s eyes sharpened like blades.
“I’m not going.”
“What?”
Having regained her composure, Yeo-won continued in a calm, measured tone.
“I don’t understand why you’re this angry. What’s the problem with an adult booking a room? If anything, the people gossiping about it are the strange ones.”
“……”
Her words must have been shocking; the grandmother’s eyes widened to their limit. It was the first time Yeo-won had ever seen her so flustered. She held back the urge to laugh and spoke again.
“I’m sorry for bringing him without saying anything, but I’d appreciate it if you refrained from rude remarks like calling him scrawny.”
Suddenly, a memory from the past flashed through her mind.
You… don’t go around saying things like that. It’s already embarrassing enough for the villagers. I don’t want to hear that my own granddaughter is crazy on top of it!
It had been the same back then. Embarrassing. Whether in the past or now, the grandmother had always cared only about other people’s opinions and ignored Yeo-won.
It was no different now. And yet, instead of speaking for herself, Yeo-won had tried to make her grandmother understand.
Only now did she realize how foolish that effort had been.
The grandmother’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly before her face turned deathly pale. She pressed a hand to her forehead, her thin body swaying slightly as she muttered in disbelief.
“Do you even know what day it is today? How can you… aren’t you ashamed in front of your grandfather?”
“What does Grandfather’s memorial have to do with this? And I’m not ashamed. I’ve never done anything to be ashamed of.”
“You… are you saying you’re going to marry that bastard?”
The grandmother pointed at Shin-wol with a trembling hand. He continued to watch the scene with that same faint smile, as if enjoying a play.
If she answered ambiguously here, it would only backfire. Since denying it would obviously lead to the same accusations, Yeo-won answered with a resolute expression.
“Yes.”
A soft chuckle came from behind her, but Yeo-won pretended not to hear it and kept her face composed.
Just thinking about how Shin-wol would tease her for this later already made her feel exhausted.
Still, in this situation, she judged that this was the best answer.
She thought that speaking so clearly would at least bring the matter to a close for now.
But the grandmother, who had lowered her gaze in confusion, suddenly hardened. Her face returned to its usual blank expression, yet her cloudy eyes were filled with blatant contempt.
“Go. I called you here today because it’s your grandfather’s memorial day, not to introduce you to some stranger. And I have no interest in whoever you plan to marry, so don’t bother coming again.”
Leaving only those cold words behind, the grandmother turned away without hesitation. Yeo-won stared blankly at her retreating back, her eyes slowly closing and opening again.
The unexpected rejection brought a wave of devastating emptiness that quickly turned into sorrow.
Her face twisted in grief as she continued to watch the figure growing smaller in the distance.
In the past, she might have simply let it go. She had heard far worse words than these countless times.
But that didn’t mean the wounds didn’t hurt. Pain was intricately woven together; even the smallest trigger could set off a chain reaction.
A single thread of expectation had become the trigger, and the heart that had been turned away felt utterly miserable, as if it had been slammed into the mud.
Yeo-won clenched her teeth and grabbed her grandmother’s arm, forcing her to stop.
It was the first time she had ever held the old woman’s thin, frail arm. When the grandmother slowly turned around, her eyes held only quiet rage. Yeo-won hesitated for a moment before speaking with determination.
“What exactly is it that you dislike so much? How long are you going to keep treating me like this?”
She put strength into every single word. If she relaxed even a little, the tears would fall. She had no choice but to grit her teeth.
“Do you know with what feelings I came back here again…”
Her voice choked as overwhelming emotions surged up. She hadn’t expected to end up pouring her heart out like this, but perhaps it was for the best.
She didn’t know how much longer she would live, and her grandmother was her only remaining attachment. She was tired of simply enduring it.