#189

It was Monday morning, and the bookstore was quiet on a weekday.

“Ji-hye, look at this.”

So-jin beckoned Ji-hye over. Ji-hye, who had been lingering in the children’s book section, quickly ran to her.

Jeong Eun-hee watched the two girls with a pleased smile.

The children were truly admirable. They were polite and thoughtful while still retaining their unique innocence. Eun-hee thought that whoever their parents were, they had raised them very well.

Yoon Ki-beom, was it?

The the man Lee Seon-jae had fallen in love with.

Looking at the the child, she could see why. Eun-hee had fallen for Ji-hye in just a few days.

Eun-hee had a nephew. Her dead sister’s son. She hadn’t given birth to him herself, nor had she raised him with devotion in her sister’s place. Eun-hee’s parents had raised the the child like their own.

When Eun-hee returned from the United States five years ago, she met her nephew, who was already an adult, for the first time. The grown-up nephew treated Eun-hee, who resembled his Mother, quite affectionately. Eun-hee wasn’t old-fashioned, and her nephew was affable, so they quickly became close. During those five years, short if short and long if long, Eun-hee began to think of her nephew as her own son.

‘You’re not just a nephew to me, you’re a son, so keep that in mind.’

She had even said things like that.

‘Just treat me like your aunt. My grandmother is like a Mother to me.’

He had said, making Eun-hee feel a little hurt.

‘You do that. I’ll think of you as my son.’

She had insisted.

But a little while ago, Eun-hee had abandoned her own the child and chosen Lee Seon-jae.

She only called him her son, but her heart was with someone else. Still, tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn’t bear how awful she was for abandoning her nephew, who was like a son to her. The figures of So-jin and Ji-hye blurred.

“I’m such a mess.”

What was she doing in a bookstore?

She quickly wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and approached the children.

“What are you two looking at so intently?”

“Great-aunt! So-jin says her favorite oppas are in this magazine.”

At Ji-hye’s words, So-jin’s face turned red. “Why are you like this,” she said, nudging Ji-hye with her elbow.

“Do you want to buy it?”

“No. I just want to look at it.”

“Buy it if you want. It’s no fun just buying workbooks.”

As Eun-hee encouraged her, So-jin hesitated.

“Just buy it, unni. She said she’ll buy it for you.”

Even Ji-hye chimed in, but So-jin shook her head, feeling too embarrassed. It’s okay, she said.

“Are you going to make your great-aunt sad like this?”

When Eun-hee pretended to be upset, So-jin finally said, “Then I’ll just buy this,” and quietly put down the workbook.

“You have to buy the workbook too. Aren’t you going to study?”

When Eun-hee scolded her and put the workbook back, So-jin’s face turned red.

On the other hand, Ji-hye brazenly handed over two books.

“Ji-hye only picks out fairy tales. What about workbooks?”

“I’m not interested in studying.”

She was so confident that it made Eun-hee laugh.

“Okay. Reading is studying too. Your grandmother was known as a bookworm back in the day.”

Of course, it was a lie, but she pretended to be.

The bookworm was Jae-jin’s biological Mother, Jeong Eun-joo, Jeong Eun-hee’s only sister.

The bookworm who only read books, the Eldest daughter of the pawnshop who didn’t know the ways of the world. No one knew that her life would plummet so drastically. Even the parents who lived with her didn’t notice any signs, so how could Eun-hee have known?

Her tastes and personality were completely different from her sister’s, and Eun-hee had lived in the United States since she was 20, so they rarely met. No news was good news, and they only exchanged occasional phone calls during holidays. Her sister, who was already not very talkative, hardly ever talked about herself and only talked about her son after she gave birth to Jae-jin before hanging up.

‘How’s unni? Is she doing well?’

If she asked, she would just smile.

As a result, it was only 25 years after Eun-joo’s death that she learned that there was an underlying story hidden behind her death.

Her sister, who was stubbornly honest, died because she met the wrong Man.

Even though it had been almost 30 years, Eun-hee still felt her sister’s death as if it had happened yesterday. If she had been a little more perceptive, if she had paid a little more attention to her sister, she wouldn’t have died so meaninglessly.

And the woman Eun-hee had uniquely loved.

“Great-aunt, I’m hungry.”

Ji-hye’s voice brought Eun-hee back to reality.

“Already? It’s not even 12 yet?”

“It’s because I didn’t eat rice.”

“You had cereal and toast this morning,” So-jin said, standing next to her.

“That’s just a snack.”

Eun-hee laughed again because she found it funny that Ji-hye called cereal a snack.

“Okay, okay, let’s eat. What should we eat?”

“Tonkatsu!”

Ji-hye shouted.

“You had that yesterday.”

“I still want to eat tonkatsu.”

“What about So-jin? Is there anything So-jin wants to eat?”

“Me too, tonkatsu.”

Ji-hye and So-jin held hands tightly and looked at each other, smiling. It seemed they had already agreed among themselves.

“Thanks to you two, I’m going to eat all the tonkatsu I’ll ever eat in my life.”

She said, leading the children forward.

The children walked briskly, carrying paper bags with books in one hand.

The girls were so pretty.

Were we that pretty too, unni?

Eun-hee asked her.

Her sister’s best friend and Eun-hee’s only love.

One of the two women whose lives were twisted because of her sister’s Husband. Lee Seon-jae’s aunt, Kim Hye-yeon.

Of course, we were pretty.

She replied.

Back then, Eun-hee only thought her love for her was admiration. It wasn’t until she left Korea at the age of twenty and was driven mad by longing that she realized her feelings were love, but there was nothing she could do about it. Eun-hee was a coward, so she thoroughly hid and ignored her feelings. She didn’t even wonder about her sister, let alone her news.

Eun-hee was lucky enough to meet a the man who suited her well, and she married and lived well without envy. Even though her sister had died and the woman she loved didn’t seem happy, she lived a fulfilling life, forgetting about the two women.

These days, Eun-hee often dreamed of her. She knew it was because her mind was troubled, but she liked it for no reason. She felt like she was coming to call her, like she was coming to end her mental anguish, and she was happy. She was only in her mid-50s, still in her prime, but there were many times when Eun-hee felt like she had lived a very long time.

The bell hanging on the tonkatsu restaurant rang. It was an early lunch, so the restaurant was quiet. The children held the door open for Eun-hee, and when Eun-hee passed through the door, they quickly went to sit in their favorite seats. They always ran when they could have walked slowly.

“Great-aunt, come here.”

The children were fast, but she kept feeling like she was late.

She was always one step behind her sister and her. So, she had vowed not to be late this time, and she was confident that she had done so. But the result was not good.

Where did it all go wrong, unni?

This time, there was no answer.

While sitting at the table, ordering wang tonkatsu, and waiting for the food to come out, the children opened the magazine and chattered endlessly. This time, it wasn’t Ji-hye, but the quiet So-jin who was praising her oppa, spitting as she spoke. Ji-hye seemed to like another oppa, but she didn’t show it for So-jin’s sake. She was so lovely she could die.

Eun-hee watched the children and fiddled with her cell phone.

There was no way she would get a call.

Because Jae-jin was that kind of the child.

Bad bastard. Or was she the bad one?

She smiled bitterly.

The one cell phone she had on her felt unfamiliar. For over a year, she had carried several pagers and cell phones, and in the last three months, she had constantly made them ring and ring. But now, all she had was one cell phone in her name.

After her last call with Seon-jae, she got rid of everything. She microwaved them, ground them in a blender, and soaked them in the bathtub. And she had someone cancel the numbers.

The work that the woman she loved had spent her whole life preparing for had ended like that.

She wanted Seon-jae to live. She couldn’t bear Seon-jae, who looked just like her, whose life had been as unhappy as hers.

For Seon-jae, who was no blood relation to her, Eun-hee abandoned Jae-jin. She abandoned the the child her sister had cherished so much, the the child she had valued more than her own life. Because she wanted to save someone else’s the child.

Eun-hee shook her head.

No, that’s not it. How could she save Seon-jae and abandon Jae-jin?

She shook her head violently. It was an arrogant thought.

Eun-hee had only helped them. All the planning was done by the woman she loved alone. She hadn’t received help from anyone, but she had stubbornly poured her life into it, slowly but persistently. Compared to that, Eun-hee had done almost nothing. She had only assisted Lee Seon-jae and Jeong Jae-jin, whom she wanted to protect even at the cost of her life, and helped to punish Lee Seok-doo, whom she wanted to punish.

In the meantime, the wang tonkatsu came out. The children exclaimed as they looked at the flat tonkatsu, which was about the size of an average adult’s face. They had eaten something similar yesterday, but they were excited as if they were eating it for the first time. Eun-hee watched the children and picked up a fork and knife. She had no appetite at all, but the children’s delicious eating made her hungry.

She cut off a large piece like the children did and put it in her mouth. She didn’t know about the meat juice, but the sweet and salty sauce was quite good.

She was eating tonkatsu as if she was competing with the children when her cell phone vibrated.

It was Father. Eun-hee’s Father, who was eighty-two this year, was the one who had raised her nephew Jae-jin with her Mother, who had passed away two years ago. He was like a biological parent to Jae-jin.

“Father. What brings you to call me first?”

Eun-hee said, happy to receive the call.

Unlike her sister, who was affectionate and obedient to her parents, Eun-hee was assertive and independent, so she had frequent conflicts with her parents from a young age. Of course, she was also a so-called troublemaker, which caused them a lot of grief. Now, she was playing the role of a devoted daughter, acting cute even though it wasn’t in her nature.

Eun-hee.

Her Father’s voice was unusual. Eun-hee’s face also hardened in an instant.

Eun-hee didn’t want to cause the children unnecessary worry, so she quickly picked up the phone and got up from her seat.

“You two, eat slowly. I’ll be right back after I take this call.”

She hurried out of the restaurant.

“Father, what’s wrong? Are you not feeling well? Is your heart hurting again?”

Eun-hee asked quickly.

It’s not that, it’s Jae-jin… our Jae-jin.

As soon as Jae-jin’s name came out of her Father’s mouth, Eun-hee squeezed her eyes shut.

So, it had come.

She prepared herself.

“What about Jae-jin?”

Eun-hee asked, pretending not to know anything.

Her Father had no idea what Eun-hee was plotting with Jae-jin. He knew that the two of them got along well, talked often, and often came home to eat, but he thought it was natural because they were family.

In her Father’s eyes, Eun-hee was a vain and still immature youngest daughter who lived in department stores. He was pleased to see such a daughter return to her homeland late in life and treat her nephew like her own son.

‘I have no regrets even if I die.’

He often said things like that.

Her Father, who had lost his Eldest daughter in an unexpected accident a long time ago and had lost his Mother a few years ago, cherished his only remaining daughter Eun-hee and his grandson Jae-jin, whom he had raised like a son. Eun-hee couldn’t possibly tell such a Father that she was preparing for her sister’s revenge, that she was also preparing for her revenge that her Father also knew about, and that she had asked Jae-jin to join the revenge plot. Even if the result of the revenge was successful, she and Jae-jin had agreed to keep it a secret from her Father until the end.

…I heard he was stabbed with a knife.

Her Father’s voice, saying this, was full of pain. He was hurting as if he had been stabbed himself.

Even though she had prepared herself, Eun-hee was shocked. She staggered, her body swaying.

Chief Park just called…

Father was so shocked that he couldn’t even remember the name of the hospital where Jae-jin had been taken.

Eun-hee steeled herself.

“Father, stay home. I’ll find out and come pick you up right away. So don’t go grabbing a taxi, just stay home, okay?”

She urged him repeatedly and hung up. Then, she immediately called Park Dong-Hee’s cell phone. Because of Father’s persistence, she had entered all the office staff’s phone numbers, and she always made courtesy calls during holidays, so it wasn’t strange for Eun-hee to call.

As it happened, Park Dong-Hee was at the hospital. Park Dong-Hee said he couldn’t believe what had happened to Prosecutor Jeong, and he often lost his words while relaying what he had heard from someone else.

Eun-hee felt the same way. Even though she was hearing it with her own ears, she couldn’t believe it at all.

Park Dong-Hee stabbed Jae-jin. In broad daylight, in front of the Prosecutor’s Office.

The Park Dong-Hee I know? Is it someone with the same name? She even thought that. They say you laugh when you’re too dumbfounded, and Eun-hee barely managed to hold back the laughter that was about to burst out.

He was discovered by fellow prosecutors who were coming out of the sauna and was sent to the university hospital emergency room without delay, and Park Dong-Hee was also arrested at the scene.

That meant Jae-jin had safely escaped Il-gwang’s pursuit and made it all the way to Seoul.

Then what about Seon-jae?

What about that Seon-jae you said you’d save?

Even as her nephew was stabbed and his life was hanging in the balance, Eun-hee thought of Seon-jae.

As soon as she realized that, she wanted to scream. She was crazy. She couldn’t be like this unless she was crazy. How disappointed would Jae-jin be if he knew? And what about Father? It was the kind of thought that would make her deceased Mother jump out of her grave and scold her.

She knew it too. Anyone could see that she wasn’t normal. But even so, she couldn’t stop worrying about Seon-jae.

Eun-hee was afraid that Seon-jae had been caught by Lee Seok-doo, and that his precious body had been cut to pieces. Her whole body trembled.

She had been too hasty. It was a mistake to close the support system after her last call with Seon-jae. No matter how difficult it was, she should have kept her eyes wide open and watched his end. That was the way to help him. But Eun-hee had turned away. She had left everything to fate.

She didn’t even remember how she sent the the child home and took Father to the hospital. When she arrived, it was a hospital, and as she waited, it became dawn.

It was a long, long surgery of 13 hours. Other than the fact that he had been stabbed in the back, she couldn’t understand where he was injured and why he had to have surgery for so long, even after listening to the medical staff’s explanation. Even though they were speaking Korean, it felt like she was listening to a foreign language.

Father just kept saying, “Yes. Yes.” and didn’t ask any other questions.

“So, you’re saying he’s out of danger?”

Eun-hee asked, annoyed, and Park Dong-Hee, who had stayed up all night with her, replied, “For now.”

“For now? Does that mean things could still go wrong?”

Even though Park Dong-Hee wasn’t the doctor who performed the surgery, Eun-hee kept asking him as if she was blaming him.

“Yes. As you heard, we have to watch his progress for another 48 hours.”

“48 hours?”

Suddenly, she couldn’t figure out how long 48 hours was.

“Dad, how many days is 48 hours? I can’t think straight.”

She said, approaching Father.

“Do you know, Dad? How long do we have to wait for 48 hours?”

When she asked again, Father stroked Eun-hee with a look as if he was about to cry. “It’s okay, my daughter.” he said. Eun-hee, who had been holding on until now, collapsed at Father’s affectionate touch.

“Father, what about Jae-jin? What about our Jae-jin?”

She hugged Father and cried. Eun-hee, who had been calm even when she sent Mother away three years ago, felt her heart breaking.

She was the one who pushed Jae-jin into that dangerous place.

After learning about her sister and her secret, she was so angry. She wanted to rush in and kill that Lee Seok-doo right away. But she stopped her. She begged her to wait a little longer, to hold on until she was perfectly prepared. Eun-hee never dreamed that it was a plan that included her death, and she promised to do so. She shouldn’t have, she should have listened more carefully and noticed, but Eun-hee couldn’t do it this time either.

After she died, Eun-hee struggled alone at first to carry out the plan she had made at the cost of her life. But no matter how hard she tried, she was always a little short, and as time went by, it became too much for her. So she brought Jae-jin in. When Jae-jin joined, the slow-moving work picked up speed.

Eun-hee only realized after receiving Jae-jin’s help that Jae-jin was included in her revenge plot from the beginning. She regretted the time she had wasted not understanding her heart, but it wasn’t too late. She had waited her whole life, so why couldn’t she wait just one more year?

In that way, Eun-hee, who had been an ordinary office worker and housewife her whole life, had become an expert in wiretapping and tailing, knew how to freely control the ex-convicts, gangsters, and private investigators she had recruited, and had become a cold-blooded person who could calmly come up with other plans and carry out operations no matter how urgent the situation was. Of course, Eun-hee risked her own life as well.

But the result was terrible.

She had abandoned two young people in their prime trying to avenge her sister and her.

Eun-hee was in despair.

Sisters, I’m sorry.

I’m so sorry.

She had no face to see her sister and her even after death.

190 – Chapter Title Without Number