The Name He Dropped

Outside the operating room.

"Dad, don't shake. The surgery is going to go well."

"Seol-hee, you're the one shaking. Calm down."

With trembling hands, Seol-hee gripped her father's thick, calloused fingers tight.

"You're right. Whew… why am I the one shaking?"

Song-geun did his best to soothe his nervous daughter.

"I'm going to come back healthy. Don't worry—go wait in the hospital room."

He was worried his daughter might spend the entire long surgery waiting helplessly outside the doors.

Seol-hee forced a smile, squeezed his hand hard one last time, and let go.

"Go get 'em, Dad!"

Lying on the mobile hospital bed, Song-geun raised his right hand in a triumphant fist.

She watched as the nurses wheeled him through the double doors. Even though this was the second time, the nerves were no different.

If anything, she was more worried now than she had been in her past life. What if she'd made the wrong choice? What if she failed to save him this time too? The thoughts gnawed at her, making her restless.

It's surgery to save his life. This time, I can save him.

Cold sweat seeped out between her clasped fingers.

A nurse who noticed her pacing came over and explained the procedure. She told her to wait in the patient's room during the surgery, but her feet refused to carry her there, and she ended up hovering outside the family waiting room instead.

Only when the screen flashed In Surgery beside the name Woo Song-geun did she finally drag herself away.

Seol-hee tried her best to think only good thoughts, but the anxiety refused to lift.

She took the elevator down to the floor with her father's room. She had just passed the nurses' station and was heading deeper into the ward when she saw it—a familiar silhouette pacing back and forth in front of her father's room.

No way. A crease formed between her brows.

A man loitering suspiciously, dialing someone on his phone over and over.

"Jin Dong-chan?"

He, too, had just crossed paths with her and stopped short, then shouted.

"Hey! Woo Seol-hee!"

The unwelcome voice made her irritation flare up in an instant. Her expression twisted beyond all hope of hiding it.

Dong-chan strode toward her where she stood frozen.

"Seriously. Did you really think I couldn't find you just because you moved hospitals?"

Seol-hee was dumbfounded. A muttered word escaped her lips before she could stop it.

"He's actually out of his mind."

A bitter laugh spilled out of her. Her father's surgery day—and he'd tracked her down to a hospital she'd never even mentioned. And then he had the gall to act like he was the victim, raising his voice at her. The rage boiled over.

This was beyond too much. He'd crossed the line ages ago.

"Hey, what did you just say to me? Seriously. You're supposed to say thank you when someone comes looking for you. Your manners are going straight down the drain…."

"Shut your mouth and follow me."

Seol-hee turned away without another word. Her sheer momentum made Dong-chan falter for a moment.

But that was all it lasted. He just started grumbling louder instead.

"You get ruder by the day. Hey! Hey! Woo Seol-hee, are you listening? I said, are you listening?!"

He stalked after her retreating back with furious strides.

Seol-hee scanned the hospital's first-floor garden. Amid clusters of people chatting here and there, a few patients ambled along on their walks.

Worried about causing a scene, she herded Dong-chan toward a corner.

"How far are you planning to walk?!"

Ignoring him, she squeezed the phone in her pocket once and let it go. Once she'd found a suitably secluded spot, she turned to face him at last.

"How did you know I was here?"

Dong-chan looked down his nose at her.

"You can struggle all you want. Did you really not know you're in the palm of my hand, Jin Dong-chan?"

In that instant, a memory flashed through Seol-hee's mind—the housekeeper's story about a suspicious man hanging around.

"You've had me tailed."

She glared at him with narrowed eyes. Caught dead to rights, he coughed awkwardly.

Seol-hee squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again.

"First you steal my email, and now you're hiring people to run background checks on me?"

"Do you have any proof I did that?!"

"The mail logs are still there. Trace the IP addresses that logged into my account, and it'll all come out."

Seol-hee couldn't believe it. Apparently it hadn't occurred to him until now—Dong-chan's face went slack and stupid.

With contempt in her eyes, she strode straight at him. He flinched and stumbled backward, then exploded.

"Well, who told you to wreck the wedding and move your father's hospital!"

The surging irritation made Seol-hee clench both fists.

Blaming others again. The moment he causes something, the cause flies right out of his memory.

Refusing to take the bait, Seol-hee pressed on to the point.

"So it's true, then—you had someone tail me. Since when? Tell me straight."

"Does that matter? Every choice you make is so idiotic, that's why I have to. You canceled a surgery that was nearly impossible to get, and now you're holed up in some hospital no one's heard of. If your father's surgery goes wrong, it's all on you. Your fault. You killed your father. You!"

"Hey!"

Seol-hee couldn't hold back any longer and shrieked.

Startled, Dong-chan's eyes went wide.

"My father is alive. And he's not your father—he's mine."

She struggled to steady herself.

"Anyway—having someone spy on me like this is a crime."

"Ugh, seriously. Like I don't know that!"

"So you knew, and you did it anyway."

Seol-hee delivered each word slowly and deliberately, packing them with the fury she'd been holding down. Her head throbbed.

She remembered the nurse telling her to go back to the room and wait, and her urgency grew. She wanted nothing more to do with this man.

"This is all a waste of my time. Don't ever come looking for me again."

She had just turned to leave when—

"You…. How did you end up with that bastard?"

At the completely unexpected words, her footsteps stopped. She didn't even have the energy to be angry anymore. She let out a long sigh and turned back to him.

Who on earth was this "bastard" Dong-chan kept referring to?

"You did the same thing at the Night of Patronage. What are you even talking about?"

Dong-chan was convinced Seol-hee was dodging to the very end. He loomed toward her, menacing.

"How long are you going to play innocent? This was all planned by that bastard! He's trying to steal you away from me. He's the one who seduced you—that's exactly what happened. Yes, that's it. The wedding, too. One minute you were fine in the bridal room, and the next you ran off like something possessed you. Am I right? He ordered it, didn't he? That bastard?"

Madness seeped into Dong-chan's eyes. His voice climbed higher with agitation, trembling at the edges.

Watching him slowly lose his grip on reason, Seol-hee took a step backward.

Instantly, Dong-chan seized both her arms so she couldn't escape.

The grip felt like it would crush bone. It hurt so much she couldn't even scream.

"Tell me. Damn it! What did Do Yi-hyuk say to you, that bastard!"

Seol-hee, who had been thrashing to break free of his grip, went still.

It was a name she had never expected.

"Do Yi-hyuk?"

In that moment, her rage froze over. Her mind went ice-cold and clear.

Seol-hee looked Dong-chan dead in the eye.

"Why does that name come up here?"

Only then did Dong-chan sense that something had gone wrong. There wasn't a trace of recognition in her expression as she echoed the name back at him—nothing to suggest she knew anything at all.

Her reaction to hearing the name Do Yi-hyuk was unfamiliar. Strangely, almost alien.

Dong-chan released her arms.

I slipped up.

Ever since he'd seen Seol-hee at the Shinwol Foundation event, he hadn't been able to function properly.

What if Do Yi-hyuk had found out exactly what he'd done? What if Seol-hee had fallen into that man's hands—was at the Shinwol Foundation now, at Do Yi-hyuk's side?

What if Do Yi-hyuk had orchestrated all of this just to pull Seol-hee away from him?

A thousand suspicions and half-formed theories churned through his skull. He briefly lost his mind to them entirely.

I said something I never should have said.

Dong-chan swept the hair that had fallen over his forehead and took a deep breath, trying to quell the agitation.

But Seol-hee, who had caught the suspicious tell, did not back down.

"I asked why Chairman Do Yi-hyuk has anything to do with us."

It had been strange for a long time. Dong-chan's hostility toward Do Yi-hyuk had always been wildly excessive.

Before her regression, the district where he'd tried to win a party nomination was an area where the Shinwol Foundation's influence ran deep. When he lost, Dong-chan raged and blamed the foundation for his defeat.

She'd let it go at the time—she knew his pathetic habit of blaming everyone but himself. But even so, she couldn't understand why he hated Do Yi-hyuk this intensely.

"You cornered me at the Night of Patronage and hammered at me. Was the person you kept throwing in my face that night Chairman Do Yi-hyuk? Why, though…. Why did you think I was getting help from Chairman Do Yi-hyuk?"

Dong-chan spat out a curse.

"My mouth slipped. Forget it."

Seol-hee didn't back off. She knew Jin Dong-chan better than anyone. Four years of dating, plus the marriage—if you added it all up, she'd spent fourteen years of her life watching that man.

She asked him, dead serious.

"What reason could there possibly be to tie me to Chairman Do Yi-hyuk?"

The day she'd first seen Yi-hyuk at the festival. The day he'd passed her that shoe. Even after she'd come home, one sensation had lingered in her mind—he had been oddly, impossibly familiar.

She'd assumed it was simple coincidence—two people who happened to attend the same school crossing paths.

But now she couldn't shake the suspicion that there was something about him she didn't know.

Seol-hee fixed her gaze on Dong-chan, who was avoiding her eyes, relentless and unblinking.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me the truth."