Ian sat watching his mother on the narrow emergency-room bed for a long while before finally getting to his feet.
The emergency room was noisier than usual. He could hear the nurses talking among themselves; apparently there had been a traffic accident nearby.
Maybe that was why no one was paying much attention to Ian.
Once outside the emergency room, he drew in a deep breath, took out his phone, and entered an eleven-digit number before pressing call.
The ringing went on and on.
No one answered.
Ian frowned, hesitated, then called another number.
Fortunately, this one connected almost immediately.
“This is Seo Ian.”
There was a brief silence on the other end after he introduced himself.
“Where is the vice chairman right now?”
The man Ian was trying to reach was the vice chairman of Haemyeong Industries and his mother's older male cousin.
[You can tell me whatever you need to say.]
The vice chairman's secretary answered without hesitation.
It meant the vice chairman had no intention of speaking to Ian personally.
“We'll vacate the house. But we need some time.”
Ian wasn't sure what good it would do to tell the secretary, but he had no other option.
When his mother had returned home, people sent by Haemyeong Industries had been blocking the entrance.
When she demanded to know why she couldn't enter her own home, they had snapped that unless her husband's debts were repaid, the house belonged to Haemyeong Industries.
The confrontation had ended with his mother collapsing again.
Since Ian was in the process of renouncing the inheritance, of course they would eventually have to leave the house as well.
But they still needed somewhere to stay until he could find them another place to live.
“Even if you're proceeding with the seizure, it's still our house for now. You don't have the right to stop us from going inside.”
The paperwork had not yet been completed. Ownership had not formally transferred.
Haemyeong Industries didn't care.
When Ian threatened to call the police, they had practically dared him to do it.
He had.
The police had actually come, listened to a rough explanation of the situation, then said this was something the parties involved needed to sort out themselves and left.
Their reaction had been so dismissive that Ian couldn't help wondering whether the vice chairman had paid them off.
[I'll pass along what you said. But I doubt it will change much. And he's no longer the vice chairman. He was elected president at today's executive meeting.]
With the position at the top vacant, it had been the obvious next step.
There was only one reason the secretary had bothered explaining it to Ian.
To drive home the fact that there was no place left for him to return to.
The call had achieved nothing.
The secretary had barely listened to him, so Ian couldn't expect his message to be relayed properly. And even if it was, he doubted his mother's cousin would give them any leeway.
A sigh escaped him.
He let out a long breath that made his chest rise and fall heavily, then went back into the emergency room.
What Ian wanted was to have his mother properly admitted again.
The hospital refused.
They gave excuses—that there were no rooms available, that her condition did not warrant admission—but Ian couldn't shake the suspicion that Madam Han had intervened.
He had barely pulled a chair beside his mother's cot and sat down when he heard a low groan.
Ian immediately turned.
His mother was struggling to open her eyes.
“Are you awake?”
At the sound of her son's voice, she turned her head toward him.
Her gaze was unfocused for a moment.
Then her eyes began to tremble, and tears welled in them almost at once.
“Ian… our house…”
Her throat seemed to close before she could finish.
Tears slipped down from the corners of her eyes.
Ian quickly took her hand.
“It's okay.”
“What are we going to do? What happens to us now? Did your father really do something wrong? Is that why we're even being thrown out of our home?”
His mother had spent her entire life sheltered and protected.
As a child, Ian's maternal grandfather had looked after her.
After she became an adult, Ian's father had.
For someone like her, what was happening now was simply too cruel.
“How did you pay for the discharge?”
“I borrowed from Yena.”
Lee Yena was his mother's closest friend, someone Ian had always called Aunt Yena.
Ian had contacted everyone he considered a friend and been rejected by every one of them.
At least his mother, he thought, had fared better than he had.
“I'll make sure I pay her back later.”
It was far from a small amount of money.
At Ian's promise, his mother gave the faintest nod.
“Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere? They said there aren't any rooms available right now. As soon as one opens up, they'll move you upstairs, so just wait a little…”
“Ian.”
She called his name and shook her head.
“I'm not staying in the hospital.”
Ian stared at her without even blinking.
“The hospital bills are too much for you, aren't they? You said all the cards were frozen. The bank accounts too.”
“But…”
“I'm fine. It's not as if I'm dying right this minute.”
Her attempt at reassurance made Ian feel as though a heavy stone had settled over his heart.
She wasn't dying right this minute.
But hers was also the kind of condition that could kill her at any time.
Her heart was like a ticking time bomb.
As long as she avoided overexertion and managed it carefully, she could live a reasonably normal life.
But even a small shock could make her condition deteriorate rapidly.
“The people who wouldn't let us into the house… that was Seokhun, wasn't it?”
His mother mentioned the vice chairman by name.
Ian couldn't bring himself to say yes.
He couldn't bring himself to say no either.
They might not have been especially close, but he was still her older cousin.
Perhaps her own feelings were complicated as well, because she said nothing more and turned her head away.
“For somewhere to stay right now…”
“I'll ask Yena.”
His mother cut him off and answered first.
Ian could only nod.
He hated having to impose on someone, but for now, he was grateful they could at least rely on his mother's friend.
“The engagement ceremony has been scheduled.”
Yudam's mother dropped the announcement without preamble over dinner.
Yudam froze with his spoon in his hand and stared at her.
“It'll be at River Hotel. Sanha Group said they'll take care of all the arrangements, so there's nothing our side needs to do.”
“Mother!”
Yudam shot to his feet, shouting.
His mother frowned.
“I'm doing all of this for you. Do you think love puts food on the table? And it's Kang Yunhui. What exactly is wrong with him? You were close to him too. You followed Seo Ian and Kang Yunhui around equally, so why are you making such a fuss about Yunhui now?”
His mother simply couldn't understand him.
No matter what Yudam said, she refused to listen.
Now she had even started telling him that love didn't put food on the table and that Seo Ian couldn't even take responsibility for his own mother, much less Yudam.
Yudam pressed his lips tightly together and clenched his fists.
If words were useless, there was no point in talking anymore.
“The engagement ceremony is next week. Until then, behave yourself. Get your skin treatments, have your formalwear fitted, all of that. You're getting engaged to Sanha Group. We can't have you looking inadequate. We need to keep up appearances.”
Apparently tired of arguing with him as well, his mother simply said what she wanted to say and stood up.
“Someone will come tomorrow morning to fit your clothes. Be ready.”
She left the dining room after one last unilateral announcement.
Yudam let out a breathless scoff and rose from his chair.
The instant he did, the bodyguard standing behind him fell into step.
He couldn't move freely even inside his own house.
They had taken away his phone too, afraid he might contact Ian somehow.
“Why don't you just lock me in an actual prison?”
The complaint slipped out under his breath.
He even shot the bodyguard an irritated glare, but the men did not react in the slightest.
It was like having robots stationed around him instead of people.
“Please contact Kang Yunhui for me.”
Yudam made the request to Team Leader Kim, his mother's secretary, who also oversaw the household.
“Vice Chairman Kang Yunhui is extremely busy and cannot be reached.”
A humorless laugh escaped Yudam.
They wanted an engagement ceremony next week.
He had to be fitted for formalwear tomorrow.
Yet the man he was supposedly getting engaged to was so busy he couldn't spare enough time for a single phone call.
It was absurd.
“My so-called fiancé won't even show his face. Does that sound right to you? Do you really think this engagement is for my sake? Is that what you think too?”
Team Leader Kim had watched over Yudam since childhood.
She was practically a second parent to him.
When he told her to answer honestly, she closed her mouth and lowered her head.
Apparently, even she couldn't bring herself to lie and say that Kang Yunhui was doing this because he liked Han Yudam.
Yudam stared at her expressionlessly for a while.
Then one corner of his mouth tilted crookedly upward.
“You all conspired together to make this happen, so you can deal with what comes afterward yourselves.”
Team Leader Kim tilted her head at the cryptic remark.
Yudam ignored her and went upstairs.
The two bodyguards followed close behind him the entire way.
Yudam glared at them, entered his room, and slammed the door hard enough to make it bang.
Once inside, he went to his desk and rummaged through the drawers.
There had definitely been one in here somewhere…
“Found it.”
A box cutter rested in Yudam's hand.
He stared at the blade and drew in a deep breath.
Everything he was about to do was his mother's fault.