When Your Pain Becomes Mine

70. Might have waited

"... Let's stop here. Please."

Her expression seemed bold, but her voice contained unbearable pain. Gyeonhui clenched his teeth increasingly harder, focusing all his strength to his lower jaw.

"Sun..."

"Gyeonhui! The vice president is here!!!"

Then, from downstairs, he heard Ojae's urgent voice in need.

Hearing the word 'the vice president,' Gyeonhui's face suddenly hardened. Sun also knew about the vice president, so her eyes widened as he looked at him.

The sound of Mrs. Shin's footsteps were getting closer as she approached them.

There was only one exit, so she couldn't escape. Gyeonhui bit his lower lip quietly. If Mrs. Shin found out anything about this situation, he wasn't sure what she would do to Sun.

He was still dizzy, and his body felt heavy, but he struggled to stand up from the bed.

"Gyeonhui..."

He quickly looked around the room. The room was spacious, but this open space did not have enough space for one to hide. There was also no place to hide underneath the bed since the bed frame was a robust and stable platform made from one piece of wood.

"... Lie down here for now."

He looked at her with a gesture to lie down on the bed while lifting up the blanket.

After reading his sunken expression, she had no choice but to do what he said. He covered the blanket over her head and quickly made the bed.

Luckily, it was a thick winter blanket, so at first glance, it looked like a wrinkle.

"Hah…"

He had suddenly become dizzy from his feverish condition, but he blinked and caught his breath to pull himself together.

"You look okay."

Then, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

Mrs. Shin, who had an expressionless face, was looking at him.

"What brought you here?"

He slowly positioned his body to conceal the area where Sun was hidden.

***

"Hmm..."

When Eunwoo returned to the hospital, he was locked in his thoughts while looking at his cell phone.

Eunyoung and Ari's reaction indicated that they did not know what had happened to Sun.

"If she kept it a secret even from them…"

He nodded slowly with a shallow sigh.

There was only one person she would meet without talking to Eunyoung and Ari. Eunwoo pulled out his phone with his sunken face and looked at Gyeonhui's phone number on the phone screen.

Suddenly, he remembered the conversation he had with Chaekyeong.

'You also know that Gyeonhui's interested in DNBM. Honestly, he wants it desperately. You should use that to your benefit.'

'If I do so?'

'If Gyeonhui gives up on number sixteen, wouldn't it be good for you and me? Isn't that called a win-win?

'That's just your way. I'm different than you. I'm going to approach her with all my might, as always.'

'So, you want to lose everything again? As always?'

Her cold, hardened face still lingered in his mind.

"Hah…"

Eunwoo leaned back on the chair and sighed deeply while looking at the ceiling.

Looking back at his phone, he called her, not Gyeonhui.

***

Gyeonhui looked at Mrs. Shin with his sunken eyes.

"I don't think this is a place where the vice president should come."

Despite his cold tone, Mrs. Shin's expression remained the same.

"It is one of my duties to make sure that the heir of the Lasung Group remains healthy."

"It sounds like you wouldn't have come if I wasn't the successor of the group."

"Let's say that you're partially right about that."

Hearing her reply as if that were obvious, Gyeonhui's eyes sank darker.

"I've heard you've been drinking heavily recently. Stress is also a cause."

"I just didn't feel good."

"It's also your duty to take care of your own health."

Gyoeonhui started speaking slowly while he was looking at her with his eyebrows furrowed.

"Did you come here to see me or to rebuke me?"

"Both."

She responded like it was apparent once again.

Mrs. Shin walked inside the room slowly and looked around.

"I don't think you drank so much because of the merger with DNBM. Is it because of that girl? Did you say her name is Cheonsun?"

He sneaked a look toward the bed where she was. Gyeonhui started speaking again with a firm expression.

"... It has nothing to do with her."

"Yes. I hope so. It's not going to be good for you or for her if she caused all of this."

"Are you threatening me?"

"No, just advice. Pull yourself together. You're no longer a child. Stop playing like a boy."

Gyeonhui's eyes started glaring upon her rebuke with a smile.

"... You've never let me do so anyway."

Hearing his angry voice, Mrs. Shin slowly turned her head and looked at him.

Mrs. Shin slowly started talking while staring at his eyes.

"For the successor of the great Lasung Group, such stupidity is unacceptable."

Her cold voice was pierced in his heart like a dagger.

"Get some rest. There will be a lot of work to be done to prove your value later."

Mrs. Shin tried to turn after the end of her words.

'Bzzzz,'

Then they heard the cell phone vibrations somewhere in the room.

Mrs. Shin stopped and turned her head again. The sound of vibration was coming from the bed. Reading her gaze toward the bed, Gyeonhui bit his molars tightly.

***

Sun in the blanket, couldn't even breathe properly but was closing her mouth tightly. It seemed like her pounding heart would ring from outside of the sheet.

"Get some rest. There will be a lot of work to be done to prove the value of yourself."

She also heard Mrs. Shin, and it seemed like the entire thing was about to be done. Sun sighed with relief quietly while thinking it was all over.

'Bzzzz.'

Then, the cell phone began vibrating in her pocket.

Sun, who had no idea what was happening outside of the blanket, still didn't move even an inch. In order to answer the phone, she had to move. Mrs. Shin would have caught her if she was still in the room.

'Oh, my… please...'

She hoped that the caller would hang up with her eyes closed tightly.

Fortunately, the sound of the vibration stopped, but at the same time, the door closed with a loud bang.

She then heard footsteps coming towards her.

'Tamp. Tamp'

The closer footsteps came, the more her heart pounded faster.

Her back was sweating, and her lip color had even changed because she bit it so firmly.

The footsteps finally stopped right beside her. For a moment, there was nothing but silence ensuing around her.

It was only a few seconds, but for her, that short time felt like it lasted forever.

Moments later, the person who owned the footsteps reached out and slowly took off the blankets that were covering her.

'Oh...'

Her body hardened without even opening her eyes because of fear.

"... Hey, Sun."

Then a familiar voice called her name.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and saw Ojae looking down at her.

"They're still downstairs."

Ojae lowered his voice.

When Sun understood the situation, she exhaled a long breath that she had held.

"Stay here for a moment, okay?

She nodded slowly, exhausted.

Ojae calmed her then and turned to leave the room again.

'Bang.'

Because of her nervousness, she had to plunk down on the floor in exhaustion.