[Huh? What are you sorry for?]
Yudam sounded confused by the sudden apology.
Ian swallowed hard, still looking at Yunhui. The words were proving even harder to say than he'd expected.
Yunhui offered no encouragement or explanation. He simply watched Ian in silence, which only made the pressure worse.
Ian drew a deep breath and looked away.
“Your engagement to Kang Yunhui is going to be canceled.”
Yudam fell silent, apparently bewildered by the seemingly unrelated statement. He didn't seem to understand what Ian was trying to tell him at all.
“But I can't keep seeing you, either.”
[…Seo Ian?]
Yudam was beginning to sense that something was wrong. His voice grew quieter.
“I'm sorry. I've thought about it a lot, but I just… I can't do this anymore.”
Even as everything had fallen apart after his father's death, Ian had never imagined cutting Yudam out of his life.
Yudam had been the only person who hadn't changed, the only one who had insisted that he didn't care if Ian had nothing left.
“I'm sorry, Yudam. Right now, just dealing with everything that's happening to me is more than I can handle.”
[I know. I know better than anyone that you're going through the hardest time of your life. That's exactly why I want to be there for you.]
Ian's throat tightened at his words.
He was grateful for Yudam's feelings, yet this was the only way he could repay them. The most he could do for Yudam was make sure he wouldn't be forced into an engagement he didn't want.
[I'll wait. I'm not asking you to marry me right now. I understand what you said about needing time. So I'll wait until things settle down for you. Okay?]
Perhaps because Ian wasn't answering, desperation began creeping into Yudam's voice.
He tried reasoning with him calmly at first, but by the end, he was pleading like a child.
“I'm sorry.”
Ian couldn't even think of a suitable excuse.
All he could do was keep apologizing.
[You said you weren't thinking of breaking up with me! You said you just needed time. And now you're telling me my engagement to Kang Yunhui is going to be canceled? Then why are you doing this? Huh?]
The more emotional Yudam became, the harder Ian clenched his teeth.
He felt a piercing gaze on him and raised his eyes.
Kang Yunhui was staring at him with such fierce intensity that it seemed he might devour him.
If Ian hesitated now, Yunhui might change his mind.
He hadn't said a word, but his expression made that perfectly clear.
“I…”
The single word escaped on a long, shaky breath.
“I can't handle it. Taking care of my mother and dealing with everything that's happening right now is already more than I can manage. I don't have the strength to look after you, too.”
[When did I ever ask you to look after me?]
“I couldn't run away with you. I couldn't even stop you when you cut your wrist. Right now, there's nothing I can do for you. So let's end it here. Let's break up.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ian felt even worse. It sounded as though he were blaming Yudam.
But he couldn't think of any other way to convince him that they had to separate.
[I won't do it again. I won't ask you to run away with me, and I won't do anything stupid anymore. So please don't say we should break up. Okay? Ian, you know how it is. I can't live without you. I really can't.]
Yudam's voice began to tremble with tears.
Ian's heart ached. Even without seeing him, he could almost picture the anguish on his face.
“You'll be okay once some time has passed. I'm sure you'll find someone better than me…”
Before Ian could finish, the phone was suddenly pulled from his hand.
He looked up.
Yunhui had risen from his seat without Ian noticing. Now he stood in front of him, holding the phone he'd snatched away.
He pressed the button to end the call.
“I can't listen to any more of this pathetic nonsense.”
With that cold remark, Yunhui tossed Ian's phone into the trash.
Ian was so taken aback that he couldn't even ask what Yunhui thought he was doing.
He could only stare at him, blinking stupidly.
Yunhui tossed a small shopping bag toward him.
“What's this…?”
Ian looked inside and swallowed a groan.
There was a brand-new phone inside, the latest model.
“Use that from today on.”
With that brief instruction, Yunhui returned to the seat opposite him.
Ian didn't need to ask why Yunhui was replacing his phone.
It was to prevent him from contacting Han Yudam.
For all he knew, Yudam's number might already be blocked.
“I have my mother's number and a few other important contacts on my old phone.”
He was trying to explain that there was information he needed to transfer, but Yunhui didn't budge.
“Just tell me whose numbers you need. I'll get them for you. I'm sure you know your mother's number by heart, so that shouldn't be a problem.”
Yunhui left him no room to argue.
Ian sighed quietly and said nothing more.
Come to think of it, there weren't many numbers he needed to save again.
After everything that had happened, he had hardly any friends left. Nor did it seem likely that he would have any further dealings with his former colleagues at Haemyeong Industries or his relatives.
He supposed he could think of this as an opportunity to make a clean break with the people in his life.
Even so, he couldn't quite shake the bitterness.
Without another word, Ian took the phone out of the shopping bag and switched it on.
He was about to save his mother's number when he noticed that another number was already assigned to speed dial 1.
It was Kang Yunhui's.
An unfamiliar number had also been saved under speed dial 2.
“Number two is Park Minjun, my chief secretary. You probably won't have much reason to call him, but I put his number in there just in case. Leave it as it is.”
Yunhui added the explanation as he watched.
Ian nodded and saved his mother's number under speed dial 0.
“Pack your things and move in here.”
Ian looked up at the abrupt instruction.
Yunhui seemed to have no intention of explaining himself. He merely stared back at Ian with an expressionless face.
“Move in here…?”
“It was in the contract.”
Yunhui indicated the contract Ian had signed earlier with a glance.
So that was why he'd warned Ian that he would regret not reading the rest of it properly.
Ian still had no idea just how much Yunhui had meant when he'd told him to become his.
“I can't do that. I can't leave my mother alone. I'm going to keep living with her.”
Yunhui stared at him for a moment before letting out a disbelieving chuckle.
“The place you're staying at now. Director Lee Yena of the Cheonghwa Foundation arranged it for you, didn't she?”
Ian's heart sank at the question.
His mother's friend had indeed found them a place to stay, but she'd said the apartment belonged to her husband's younger brother.
They had deliberately arranged for Ian and his mother to stay in a home belonging to someone one step removed from Yena, hoping to avoid Kang Yunhui's interference.
He hadn't expected Yunhui to have tracked them down so precisely.
Yunhui watched Ian for a moment, then picked up his phone and made a call.
“You said you'd confirmed that one of the sponsorship projects the Cheonghwa Foundation is running exists only on paper for tax deductions, didn't you? Report that to the National Tax Service…”
Ian shot to his feet and urgently snatched the phone away.
He heard someone on the other end calling, “Vice Chairman?” but ended the call anyway.
Then he glared furiously at Yunhui.
Yunhui merely shrugged, looking perfectly unperturbed.
“Do you really have to go this far?”
“You're the one who broke the contract first.”
“Then take it up with me! Why drag Aunt Yena into this when she hasn't done anything…?”
Ian broke off under Yunhui's unwavering gaze.
Whatever the circumstances, he had refused to do as Kang Yunhui told him.
And because he insisted on going back to where he was staying, Yunhui intended to make sure there was nowhere left for him to return to.
Ian let out a frustrated sigh.
He couldn't understand why Yunhui was behaving this way, and the sheer incomprehensibility of it made him feel suffocated.
“My mother isn't doing very well. There's no telling when something might happen, so she needs someone with her.”
Where Ian himself stayed wasn't the issue.
He simply couldn't leave his mother alone.
At that answer, one corner of Yunhui's mouth lifted in a faint smirk.
Then he held out a brochure.
“This is the hospital where your mother will be staying. They have top cardiac specialists on call around the clock.”
It was a combined hospital and residential care facility that Sanha Group had opened recently.
Ian had seen advertisements for it.
It was being promoted as a hospital that went beyond what an ordinary hospital could offer.
The facility combined medical care with residential accommodations for older adults. Its medical equipment and facilities were of the highest standard, as befitted an institution bearing the Sanha Group name.
Rather than confining residents to cramped hospital rooms, it provided individual living quarters, operating in part as a luxury retirement community.
Naturally, the cost was far beyond anything an ordinary person could dream of affording.
So this is where he intends to send Mother.
Yunhui had promised to take responsibility for her treatment, but Ian hadn't realized he meant to arrange something like this.
He'd imagined outpatient treatment or, at most, admission to a nearby hospital affiliated with Sanha Group.
Even considering that the offer was coming from Kang Yunhui, this seemed like far too much to accept.
And the more Yunhui was willing to give him, the more anxious Ian became about what he might expect in return.
Ian was looking down at the brochure when his eyes stopped on the hospital's address, printed in small letters along the bottom.
It wasn't in Seoul.
It was in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province.