When Your Pain Becomes Mine

"Am I... just a friend of yours…? Sarah…"

"Ojae, I'll get in touch with you later."

Sarah smiled and led the man's arm into the crowd.

"Sarah! Sarah!"

Ojae tried to chase her quickly, but he was pushed back by a group of guests crossing between them. After a while, he could no longer find her disappearing into the crowd.

He pulled out his phone with his trembling hand and made a call, but he only heard a voice message which said that the phone was turned off.

"Hah…" Ojae dropped onto the floor as his legs began to wobble. "How... How could this happen..."

Ojae looked devastated upon seeing this unbelievable situation.

"Let's go. It doesn't seem like they've met each other once or twice."

Gyeonhui tried to raise Ojae's arm, but he held his ground.

"What can you change by doing this? Stand up, let's go."

Ojae stood up and looked at Gyonhui.

"... I've witnessed a woman who I wanted to marry cheating on me. Don't you at least have something to say to me?"

Upon seeing how hurt Ojae was by looking at his eyes, Gyeonhui started speaking in a frustrated way.

"Sarah actually isn't really pretty. You can meet a prettier girl later. Now, are you satisfied?"

"Is that comforting?"

Gyeonhui struggled for a moment with Ojae's resentful eyes.

"Yes. This is a good thing, actually. It's even worse if you're married to someone like that. So let's just go now, please."

Gyeonhui, who looked frustrated, held Ojae's arm.

However, Ojae pulled his arm away from Gyeonhui's grip and looked into his eyes.

"You're such a selfish bastard. Now I understand 100% why Sun said those things to you."

"Why do you even talk about her here? Why are you even mad at me? Did I tell Sarah to cheat on you?"

Gyeonhui was also irritated at him.

Ojae glared at him and started speaking quietly.

"You should know more pain to see how sick you make other people around you feel. You have to be in pain more."

Ojae turned his head and went back to leave the fairgrounds.

"Hey! Ojae! If you leave now, I'll fire you right away!"

Gyeonhui yelled his threats, but Ojae didn't stop.

"Oh, really! What did I do so wrong!? What's wrong with people?"

He cried out in annoyance, but no one listened.

***

"What is this?" Sun looked at a structure that was taller than her by a few inches as she asked.

"It's for cats that love to go high."

"Oh..." She nodded upon hearing Eunwoo's explanation.

She looked around the place for hours, but Eunwoo wasn't getting tired. He was so happy to explain everything to her.

It helped her gain a lot of knowledge overall, and she managed to distinguish between cat and dog items.

"I'm sure Labong will be happy today."

Eunwoo looked at the bag in Sun's hand as he spoke. It was full of snacks and dog toys.

"Oh, my. When did I buy so much?" She playfully stuck out her tongue.

Then her cell phone rang.

It was Ari.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Sun, I'm sorry if I bothered you."

"Why? What's going on?"

"Hah... You know the orphanage campaign."

"Yes, that's tomorrow."

"They said that we have to do it today."

"Right now? Why?"

"We don't know. Eunyoung's going to talk with Mr. Woo, but I thought we should also inform you."

Sun's expression hardened. She was the campaign manager, but Eunyoung wouldn't contact Sun since she was on vacation.

"... Okay. Thank you."

A sigh came out of Sun's mouth when she hung up the phone.

Sun no longer wanted to harm Kids' Fans, so she had a heavy heart.

"I think I have to go back to the office. There's suddenly an issue. I'm so sorry."

Eunwoo nodded with a smile showing his understanding of her.

"I'm sorry. It was so much fun because of you. "

"... I very much enjoyed it too." Sun replied heartily.

"Let's go. I'll drop you off at your office."

"No, I'm okay. The subway is faster here. I saw how heavy traffic was on the way here."

"Then I'll take your bag. I'll put it in the hospital." Eunwoo said while holding her bag.

"Oh, that would be great."

"Go ahead. Don't be late."

"... Thank you. I'll see you later."

Sun handed the bag to Eunwoo and turned around to run.

Eunwoo looked at her with a smile and moved his gaze to the bag in his hand.

It was pretty heavy for a delicate woman like her to carry such a load.

"... You should have shown me that it was heavy…"

Eunwoo sighed sadly.

***

"I'm here."

She said while holding her breath when she arrived at the office.

"Huh? Why did you come back? No, did you contact her telepathically?"

Eunyoung said, quickly figuring out the situation.

"No, she should know. She's in charge."

"Really… hah…" Eunyoung looked displeased.

"Ari's right. Why would I trouble you to do my work? Just give me the doc.u.ments." Sun reached out and received the briefing material.

"Huh? What's this?"

Sun asked while looking at the bag on her table.

"Mr. Woo came here earlier."

"Gyeonhui?"

Sun looked inside the bag, seemingly a little surprised. The bag was filled with chocolates.

"Why does he..."

She couldn't understand it. He had never given her chocolate even on White Day.

"I'm sure he bought them for you." Ari approached and asked.

"For me? Why?"

"I don't know. Didn't he buy them for you because he knew that you're going to have your period soon?"

"... He wouldn't know." Sun shook her head in doubt. "When did he leave?"

"Well, before 12 o'clock?"

It happened before they had an argument at the restaurant. He probably saw Sun in the restaurant after he placed the chocolate bag on her table.

'Why the hell is he...'

Sun was lost in thought upon hearing about his incomprehensible behavior, but she shook her head hard.

'I can't be weak... I need to be stronger.'

Sun took a breath and exhaled.

After a while, Sun opened her eyes and looked at Eunyoung before saying, "... I'm going now."

After Eunyoung nodded and answered, Sun left the office.

Her full stride steadily revealed her determination.

36. Connections

"I'm confident that our Kids Fan characters will bring hope for the heartbroken kids."

After the briefing, she perked her head up.

Gyeonhui and Sun were the only people present in the large meeting room.

She didn't see the assistant Ojae who always stuck to him like chewing gum.

"... Great. I like it."

After the briefing, Gyeonhui nodded.

"Well, then we'll move to the next step next weekend as scheduled."

Sun responded in a clerical tone and began to clean up.

Meanwhile, Gyeonhui stood from his spot and approached her.

"Let's go to the hospital with me."

"Hospital?"

"You're going to have your period soon."

"... How do you know that?"

Sun looked surprised, but she tried to answer with composure as much as possible.

'How do I not know? I'm so sick... because of this.'

He swallowed his words without spitting out what lied within his heart.

"... Didn't you say that your pain is pretty severe? We should have it examined this time."

Sun thought that maybe he heard it from Eunyoung or Ari.

"I don't have to. My doctors already told me that they can't find the cause."

"We're not going to an obstetrician. You might have a problem in another part of your body."

"Haa…" Sun sighed and raised her upper body to look at him. "Why do you suddenly care if I'm sick or not?"

Upon hearing her sharp questioning, Gyeonhui paused for a moment.

"That's because if you're sick... I…"

She was seriously looking at Gyeonhui's eyes as he spoke with a resentful tone.

At that moment, he sighed and slurred the end of his words.

"Why are you suddenly so speechless? Why do you keep doing this to me?"

Sun looked straight at him as if she would listen to his reasonings no matter what it was.

After biting on his lower lip and struggling for a while, he finally started speaking.

"... Okay. I've heard that you get really sick when you're on your period. What if there is some problem with the campaign because you're sick? It's a loss to our company."

He had to create an excuse during this frustrating situation, for it was just a dead-end. However, the lie he spoke popped out of his mouth as if he were ready.

"If I get sick and ruin my work, does that mean I can hurt the company?"

"... Yes." He replied abruptly.

After hearing the explanation, Sun nodded and understood. "Don't worry, that won't happen."

After confirming Sun's reaction, He breathed a sigh of relief, believing that she would finally comply with his suggestion.

"I'll take care of my problem." She tried to turn her body after saying her piece.

"... I'm telling you this because you're not really taking care of it."

"What?"

"It's so bad that everyone around you even knows about it."

"...."

His certain words made her speechless.

She used to endure her pain. However, it was true that, in many ways, the people around her had always helped her cope with it.

"It's not something you should care about, though."

As she tried to turn away, Gyeonhui grabbed her hand.

"No. I do care. Because this could harm me too."

"Let me go!"

She tried to shake off his hand.

However, the more she struggled, the harder he grabbed her wrists.

"Stop fussing!" As Gyeonhui shouted, Sun looked up at him. "... Once you go to the hospital, it's all over. I won't bother you anymore."

He grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the office.