Home Sweet Home
“You have a rather careless disposition, don’t you?”
Before I could even recover from the shock of learning I actually had a girlfriend, I was back in my hospital room. The doctor was already waiting, rod of reprimand raised and ready to swing without mercy.
“It hasn’t even been a full day since you regained consciousness. And yet you went out for drinks?”
“I… made a poor choice under the mental strain…”
“Your test results were generally fine, but brain injuries can still produce delayed aftereffects. You need to be careful.”
“Yes…”
There was nothing I could say. His logic was sound, and the authority of his profession backed every word. Besides, anyone could see I was in the wrong. A patient who wakes up in a hospital and immediately goes out drinking with a friend? You could reasonably wonder why a suicidal alcoholic would even bother checking into a hospital in the first place.
In truth I hadn’t drunk a drop—that rough-looking man had forced the glass to my lips and I’d only touched it. But there was no point offering excuses to someone who wouldn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow.
“And for the sake of your recovery, I will be restricting visitors other than your guardians for the time being.”
“Guardians?”
I dropped the penitent posture and shot the doctor a sidelong look.
“Why are you only telling me now that I have guardians?”
This was ridiculous. He’d asked my name, whether I knew what year it was—dug straight into my wounds—yet never once mentioned something I obviously needed to know?
The doctor remained unmoved.
“You had only just regained consciousness. Confirming your condition took priority.”
It wasn’t an unreasonable explanation. He was still an irritating human being, though. I’d been lying here wondering if I even had family left, all because no one had told me a thing. The frustration leaked out before I could stop it.
“Did you contact them? That I woke up?”
“Yes. That’s why they came.”
His indifferent tone, as if he bore no fault whatsoever, grated on me—especially the content of what he said next.
“I understand you’ve already received visits. All three of them.”
“What…?”
What the hell was he talking about?
The doctor flipped through the chart in a completely flat voice.
“Cha Seeun, Yu Chae-a, Seo Arin. Those three.”
“So… all three of them are my guardians?”
“Yes. All three are registered as such in the system.”
The gap in the conversation only widened the longer it went on. I pressed my fingers hard against my brow.
“Is that even possible?”
The doctor simply stared at me with the air of a man who couldn’t believe he was expected to explain something so basic. In that moment I became certain: this person had zero interest in my life. Reprimanding my behavior and restricting visitors were merely the inertial motions of a doctor’s creed—or professional habit, whatever it was.
Looking back, it fit. The first words out of his mouth to a man who’d just woken up, delivered without the slightest consideration: “You have amnesia.” A handful of half-hearted tests after that. He hadn’t even told me my own name; I’d had to sneak a look at the chart.
There was a limit to how indifferent a person could be. And they kept a doctor like this on staff?
“Ha…”
No. Without the hospital’s tacit approval, that kind of behavior would never be tolerated. Which meant the problem was me.
As if confirming it, the doctor spoke again in the same unchanging tone one might use with a child.
“Every one of those guardians was registered by you yourself, the patient.”
Was this actually a psychiatric ward instead of a VIP suite? Had they stuck an even stranger person here as both doctor and warden just in case I did something weird?
Whether that was true or not didn’t matter. The moment the thought crossed my mind, the correct move was to get out of the hospital. Why should a man who could walk around perfectly fine be stuck as an inpatient? Staying here when nothing was even broken was already torture.
More than anything, I had far too many questions. What kind of accident had been so bad I’d left my memories behind? Who had I been inside those lost memories? What kind of relationship had that past me shared with those three women?
Above all, I wanted to know who my girlfriend was. More precisely, I wanted to know whom I should believe.
Things I would never learn no matter how many days I spent lying in a hospital bed.
Which meant the first thing to do was obvious.
“I’d like to be discharged.”
“Excuse me…? Why are you telling me that here…?”
I went down to the lobby desk and started whining. My target was the staff member who already looked exhausted from dealing with the thug named Lee Junho once already.
What do you expect me to do about it?
Her eyes were treating me like a problem customer.
“I’m sorry, but the ward you’re in is managed directly by the hospital director. We don’t even have the authority to discharge you.”
The unspoken pressure was clear: if I understood that, I should quietly fulfill a patient’s proper role and lie there like a corpse. I leaned in closer.
“I want to leave and you’re saying I can’t?”
“Please step back a little. And if it’s about going out, you already left and came back just a while ago.”
True. It wasn’t as if I were locked up. If I wanted to walk out, nothing was stopping me.
“Except I don’t have an ID or a phone.”
Nothing except the lack of confidence to bolt out into the world empty-handed.
“Where are my belongings?”
“There’s nothing listed on the inventory… Could you have lost them?”
I eyed the flustered staff member with suspicion. Was she in on it too? Then again, the idea that this entire massive hospital was colluding just to deceive one man was a stretch. My earlier fantasy that I might be rich had simply been demoted to pure delusion.
“Could you give me my guardians’ contact numbers?”
The staff member’s furrowed brow answered for her—why are you asking me that? She hurriedly scribbled a note and held it out like a talisman.
“Will this do?”
I snatched it and headed back up to the room.
Three numbers written on the memo. One belonged to Cha Seeun. Another to Yu Chae-a. The last to Seo Arin.
I stared down at the paper for a moment.
All three are my guardians.
People who had somehow been connected to me. The only place a man with no knowledge and nothing to his name could lean on right now.
“Hoo…”
I let out a thin breath to bleed off the pounding in my chest. My heart was racing, but the task itself wasn’t difficult. All I had to do was call, say I wanted to be discharged, that I had nowhere to go, and ask for help.
The real question was whom to ask.
“This is hard.”
It was a garbage-tier dilemma—choosing which stranger’s goodwill to cling to when I barely knew any of them. Still, I had to be careful. I only got one shot. Once I picked someone, I couldn’t just casually announce, “Actually I have another woman, so I’m going to her instead,” and walk away.
It wasn’t about conscience or some human decency. I was simply terrified of getting caught.
Just imagining it made the fine hairs on my arms stand on end. I smoothed them down.
Stay calm. Of course, if I were found out, the wrecked relationships, the social burial, the retribution that would follow—everything would come back at me three times harder than normal. But that was a problem for later.
My judgment wasn’t wrong. If I believed in it, I just had to act. I slowly traced each of the three numbers with a fingertip, then lifted the receiver with a trembling hand.
Ring. Ring.
Two tones. The call connected before I could even finish exhaling the deep breath I’d drawn.
“Speak.”
It was Cha Seeun. What came through the line was less a pair of syllables than a blade honed to a razor edge. Just two syllables, free of any static, stabbing straight into my eardrums. I cradled the receiver respectfully in both hands and spoke in a voice that had somehow grown meek.
“Um… Seeun-ssi. This is Shin Ian.”
I wouldn’t deny I was intimidated. Besides, I was the one who’d decided to latch on. Anything cumbersome had to be thrown away—pride, face, whatever. Things so heavy that just carrying them forced you to abandon everything else, utterly useless.
“The thing is, I’d like to be discharged. But I have nowhere to go and no money right now—”
“I’ll come tomorrow.”
Click. The call ended right there.
I stood frozen like an idiot with the receiver still to my ear before finally coming back to my senses.
“Is she coming to pick me up, or to drag me away?”
Keep it short and to the point—the phone etiquette of busy modern people. At this level, though, it felt less like etiquette and more like compulsion.
Still, I felt a little lighter. She’d said she was coming without a moment’s hesitation.
My master… no, my butler… or maybe my patron? Anyway, it meant she was going to do something for me.
“….”
I abandoned any lingering attachment to the remaining numbers on the memo and threw myself onto the bed. Staring up at the white ceiling, I turned over my decision to choose Cha Seeun.
It wasn’t that I believed she was definitely my girlfriend. It was simply that the tailored suit she wore carried the scent of an expensive price tag, and the sharpness that made you wonder if you’d be cut just by approaching her was crystal clear. In other words, she was predictable, and the conditions matched. Someone with the means to look after at least one extra person, someone who would be fine as long as I didn’t cross any lines and kept her in a good mood.
From a risk-management standpoint it was excellent as well. Getting caught by Cha Seeun while with another woman, versus getting caught with another woman while with Cha Seeun—the comparison was easy.
I’ll have my answer by tomorrow anyway.
The feel of the hospital gown wrapping my body suddenly felt pathetic. This choice was so I could finally take it off.
The color of the window had deepened. I turned off the light and closed my eyes.
……
….
.
Thump.
I shot upright on the bed and scrambled for the door. My fingers fumbled over the handle, but there was no lock.
“Hah… hah…”
I clamped a hand over my ragged breathing and pressed my back into the corner. Holding my breath, I fixed my eyes on the entrance.
The posture was uncomfortable. The floor was cold. Yet all of it felt endlessly futile.
The thought that I might die if I were found out took root.
The click of high heels echoed through the quiet dawn of the ward.
“Is there a particular reason you’re in such a hurry? If there’s anything inconvenient…”
The staff member trailed off. Cha Seeun quietly chose her reply. There was no need to explain, but no reason to be rude either.
“I get anxious leaving him alone.”
“Ah.”
The staff member smiled for no real reason and nodded.
“You must love him a lot.”
She nodded again, looking almost envious, and led the way to the room. In front of the door Cha Seeun lowered her voice.
“You can go back. I’ll take him myself.”
“Yes, understood. Then I’ll leave you to it.”
The staff member bowed and disappeared. Behind her, Cha Seeun murmured to herself as she stepped into the room.
“Where’s he hiding this time…”
The moment night fell he turned into a cat of a man—fond of tight spaces, always trying to disappear.
“S-Seeun-ssi…”
At the sight of Ian curled in the corner, Cha Seeun walked over slowly.
“I-I… I don’t know why I’m like this either. Suddenly my heart just…”
His face was blue from a night spent like that. Beneath it, his eyes trembled violently. Sweat stains were stamped like seals into the cast on his left arm.
Who did this to you?
She had always believed she only pulled out emotions when they were useful.
“I’m here.”
Cha Seeun took his frozen hand.
“Let’s go home.”