By Zephyria 
Why does he always trip me up even when I suggest we just settle things amicably? He should consider the position of the person doing the blackmailing. Do you know how tiring and disgusting this feels?
“Where do I report this kind of thing? Starting with confinement, and why a mother who couldn’t be met appeared as a vegetable thirty-four years later. It’s too suspicious. Should I report it to the police or the court? Surely not the community center, right?”
―Put Dr. Yoon on.
“Dr. Yoon?”
“Yes.”
As I asked who Dr. Yoon was, an answer came from nearby. I glanced over, and the man who had been the useless attending physician was standing beside me.
“Please take the phone.”
Having intuited who the caller was, the doctor took the phone and listened intently. “Yes, yes. No, sir. Yes.” It seemed the only words he knew were yes and no. After listening to Father for a while, the doctor ended the call and handed back the phone.
“To put it simply, the patient has suffered brain damage and is in a vegetative state. This means there are impairments in motor function and consciousness, but respiratory function, digestive function, and heart rate are maintained. Patient Cha Hee-ryeon is currently receiving intensive care due to complications.”
“Hmm.”
I didn’t understand a single word. No, I understood one thing. That she was in a vegetative state. Since I had already heard that from the caregiver before the doctor arrived, it meant the doctor had been completely useless in helping me grasp the current situation.
“When will she wake up?”
“In cases where symptoms are mild, consciousness is occasionally recovered, but in the case of patient Cha Hee-ryeon, since she is a long-term patient, I believe it will be difficult. While life can be sustained through medical management and guardian care, there is no guarantee of recovery.”
A vegetative state with no guarantee of recovery. At the words that she might just die like this, my gaze naturally shifted to Kwon Yi-kang.
The reunion he had waited thirty-four years for shouldn’t have been like this. Even if it wasn’t a full outpouring of emotions, if they could have just exchanged a few words, wouldn’t Kwon Yi-kang’s heart have been a bit more at ease? I felt a surge of baseless resentment—why did he have to be the one grieving until the very end?
“How long has she been like this?”
“About fifteen years. She has been here ever since.”
“The cause?”
“I understand it was due to an accident. I took over as the patient’s physician six years ago.”
Fifteen years ago, an accident, a vegetative state. I didn’t know what kind of accident it was, but I wanted to ask if the result had to be this.
Why couldn’t Grandfather just leave his child alone? Why couldn’t he let her live as she wished? Was this the result of tearing a mother and son apart according to his own will and locking his child away like a possession? Is Grandfather satisfied with the current result?
“I guess she doesn’t die early like someone with cancer, but does she… have to live like this forever? Without consciousness, unable to recognize her family?”
“A vegetative state is not the direct cause of death. However, many pass away due to complications. It’s similar to AIDS or diabetes. Rather than the condition itself being the cause of death, they pass away from complications. Life can be extended through continuous management, but there is no telling when or how complications will arise. Like now.”
Ah, come to think of it, he did say she was receiving intensive care because of complications.
I clicked my tongue while quietly watching the chest of the woman, who was breathing with the help of a respirator, rise and fall. It seemed that not only her health was being carefully managed; despite being a sick patient, her hair, face, and even her fingernails were neatly groomed.
Not that the woman would be grateful or happy about it.
“…Eh? Then is she in a lot of pain right now? You mentioned complications.”
“We are monitoring the situation, but I don’t know if she will be able to overcome this crisis. There have been several such situations before, but her body is much weaker now than it was then. I only hope that bad things don’t happen all at once.”
As he spoke, the doctor rubbed his hand as if to hide a troubled expression. They say bad luck comes in clusters. Since this family had already suffered two funerals, the doctor was likely speaking out of anxiety, but I also had a bad feeling.
“…Anything else to say?”
“The medical staff is doing their best. If you visit often and talk to her, the patient will find strength.”
She’s unconscious, but she can hear everything. A scene I once saw in a drama came to mind. In dramas, people who had been unconscious for over twenty years sometimes miraculously woke up. Of course, that’s why it’s a drama and not reality.
“So, while we’re at it, we can say our final goodbyes and prepare ourselves mentally?”
“….”
“You’re telling me there’s no hope in a roundabout way, right?”
“It is ultimately a matter of whether the patient’s physical strength can endure…”
“Does Grandfather—no, the Chairman—know? That she… might pass away, the Chairman knows that too, right?”
The doctor remained silent, but I think I knew what that silence meant.
This could be the end, yet Grandfather had kept it from the family until the very last moment. If it weren’t for the current situation, if I hadn’t rushed, Kwon Yi-kang probably would have never seen her face until she died. No, after she died, the chance to see her face would have vanished entirely.
What is Grandfather thinking? Is he waiting for a miracle where Aunt gets up from her bed? Does he believe without a doubt that she will find the strength to overcome the illness and return as a doll that only breathes?
I couldn’t understand logically why he had to hide her so thoroughly. No matter how lacking my common sense is, this can’t be normal. Unless there was some part of my lacking common sense that could make sense of this situation.
“I think I get the gist. You may leave now.”
Since it wasn’t a situation where I should hold onto a busy doctor and stubbornly demand he save her, I waved him away. Despite hearing the conversation between the doctor and me, Kwon Yi-kang didn’t budge. His gaze remained fixed on the woman.
I approached the bed and took the woman’s slender hand. I didn’t know how she was receiving nutrients, but her hand was completely devoid of muscle, as if only a sliver of life was clinging to it.
“…Aunt.”
I couldn’t bring myself to call her mother-in-law. She was a woman who had nothing to do with me, but since we were physically blood-related, I tried calling her Aunt.
“Um, I’m your youngest nephew, Cha Soo-kyung. It’s my first time meeting you. If I had known you were here, I would have visited sooner, but I didn’t know the news. Grandfather is a total piece of human trash. I’m sorry for insulting your father, Aunt, but that old man’s personality is still terrible. Even if he is your parent, you have to admit it.”
As if having a normal conversation, I continued speaking calmly in a voice loud enough for the woman to hear if she were awake.
“There’s someone who came with me. Someone… you probably missed very much. You’ll be surprised when you open your eyes. He’s incredibly handsome. So handsome he could make a living just with his face. He must have taken after his father. Seeing that, I guess you had high standards too, Aunt.”
A commonality between the woman and me was created in an instant. We both like handsome faces. Of course, I wasn’t only attracted to his face, but it was a fact that he was monstrously handsome.
“His father is handsome too, but in my opinion, he’s more handsome than his father. He’s the upgraded version. Seeing that, I guess my standards are even higher than yours, Aunt. That’s a joke, but it’s also a bit of a truth. Anyway, since he’s someone you must have missed terribly, please take your time talking.”
Of course, one person would be doing the talking and the other would only be listening. Still, there wouldn’t be a shortage of things to say between a mother and son meeting after thirty-four years. Perhaps it would be hard to start because there was too much to say. But that was not a matter for me to interfere with.
I pulled Kwon Yi-kang’s hand and layered it over the woman’s hand. I ignored the way his large hand flinched helplessly.
“She’ll probably be able to hear everything. I’ve seen this a lot in dramas. She might even open her eyes out of emotion upon hearing your voice, so don’t be too surprised if that happens.”
As I spoke tenderly, brushing back a stray lock of hair, he—who had been expressionless—let out a small, sudden laugh.
“I’ll step out for a bit. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen each other, so take your time talking.”
For some reason, I gently cupped the cheek of the powerless man before letting go. I took the caregiver, who was quietly watching from the sofa, and left the room, closing the door behind us.
∞ ∞ ∞
“That’s why the atmosphere lately has been quite grim.”
The caregiver, who said she had been looking after the woman for three years, sighed and chattered away.
The only people who visited the room were the Grandfather, the Chairman, and the Alpha Father, the hospital director. Aside from them, it was only doctors and nurses, so it seemed she had finally found an opportunity to let out all the stories she had been bottling up.
Thanks to that, I was able to hear quite a few small but significant details. That for three years, the only family members who had visited were the Grandfather and the Father. That she had signed a confidentiality agreement promising not to share the patient’s personal information or anything she heard while caregiving with anyone else.
One might think she shouldn’t be talking like this, but perhaps because I was the first family member to visit with visitation rights, she felt a sense of trust that it was okay to share secrets.
“So, does Grandfather come every day?”
“That’s right. It’s a bit blunt to say, but you never know when someone might pass. Seeing how she’s been like that for over half a year due to complications, it seems recovery is unlikely this time. Even a doctor can’t say such things to the old man’s face, but if you read the room, it’s obvious.”
I thought as much. If there were a guarantee of recovery, they would have given some indication of when she might get better, but the doctor had only said they would do their best.