The Unbearable Truth
Ji Ya stared at Okhyeon as the woman opened the door to the walk-in closet, a wave of regret crashing over her. They should have covered her back instead of her chest. But it was already too late.
“Mom… that’s…”
Seonwu could never enter this room, so Ji Ya had stopped bothering to lock the door and simply changed her clothes here. The second floor was off-limits to Okhyeon, so she assumed she would never reach it. She hastily yanked her sweater back on, trying to cover her bare back, but Okhyeon had already seen everything.
Her once-pristine Samjeong tattoo was now a faded, ghostly smear. The sight of it made Okhyeon’s face twist with fury. She stormed into the closet, seized the hem of Ji Ya’s sweater, and ripped it upward in one violent motion.
“Mom, please stop.”
“Stop? Did you think I’d ever stop?”
The rough pull tore the sweater away completely, exposing the ruined tattoo once more. Okhyeon leaned in close, her eyes wild. “What kind of wretched ritual did you perform on this amulet? What on earth are you doing?!”
The laser treatments had left nothing but a blurry shadow, as if someone had smeared it with an invisible highlighter.
“You’ve lost your mind. You’re completely insane. How could you possibly do something like this without losing your wits?”
Okhyeon’s palm slammed down on Ji Ya’s back again and again. Each strike was harder than the last, colder than a winter gale.
“You planned to steal Seonwu from us, didn’t you?! How could you erase the amulet you drew just to keep him safe?!”
Every time her hand connected with Ji Ya’s skin, the younger woman flinched, the pain slicing through her like a whip. It should have been a gentle, pampered touch—never used for anything rough—but Okhyeon’s strikes felt merciless, relentless.
“That tattoo cost five hundred million won! Five hundred million!”
Each time the impossible sum rolled off Okhyeon’s tongue, Ji Ya’s chest shrank as if pressed against a hot stove. Ten won of that money had never even reached her, yet she had become the unwilling bride in this contract marriage and now bore that chilling mark as well.
She had been the one exploited, but to the world that five-hundred-million-won figure made her seem unworthy of even loving a man’s heart. The bride purchased for five hundred million won. The money had never been hers, yet it had always left her aching.
“I don’t know what madness drove you to erase it! If it’s this faint now, you must have started laser treatments months ago… How… how could you be so cruel?!”
Frustrated, Okhyeon suddenly began slapping her own chest with the same fury.
“How could you do something like this without telling me?! I took you in, treated you like a daughter, spoiled you rotten!”
Ji Ya, understanding Okhyeon’s rage, lowered her head in shame. What Okhyeon had struck was her own heart—deeply wounded.
Okhyeon’s faith in the shaman’s words had always been absolute. She believed in the ancient conviction that the Samjeong men would die young. She had endured years of rituals, burning money by the handful, to protect her only son.
To outsiders it looked like foolish superstition, but to her it was the gravest matter in the world.
The shaman had struck at Okhyeon’s weakest point—the very spot where her worldview could shatter.
“I was right about what the Bodhisattva said. She told me to keep watch over you because something terrible would happen. It was exactly what she foretold.”
“Grandmother…?”
The shaman who had visited yesterday had spoken of a dream in which the Samjeong tattoo burned. Not every prophecy had come true, yet the ones that did were chillingly accurate. That was why Ji Ya had always feared the woman.
“Let’s go see the Bodhisattva right now.”
Okhyeon grabbed Ji Ya’s arm and dragged her toward the door.
“Because of that tattoo you erased, something happened to Seonwu. Let’s draw it again—now.”
“Mom, please don’t say that. I’ll never get the laser treatments again. Just leave it as it is. Don’t engrave it once more.”
Ji Ya hated the tattoo. The pain of having it inked had been terrible enough, but the mark itself was a grotesque, crimson curse—ugly enough to terrify anyone who glimpsed it. She had worn thick sweaters even in summer to hide it, refusing to wear anything thin enough to reveal the skin beneath. She had never even visited a pool or hot spring changing room because she knew the laser process would be far more painful than the original inking.
She had endured that agony more times than she could count, yet here her grandmother was, demanding it be redone…
“Why are you being so stubborn?! You’re just dying to watch Seonwu die, aren’t you?! Is that why you’re doing this?!”
The next slap landed harder than before, leaving a vivid handprint on Ji Ya’s back.
Ji Ya was pulled half-naked down the stairs by Okhyeon’s iron grip.
“Assistant Seonwu! Seonwu! Call a car immediately! We’re going to the shaman’s sanctuary—start the engine!”
The servants on the first floor, scattered in pajamas and bras, stared in horror as the naked girl was dragged past them and fled.
“Mom!”
Seonwu, who had been at the car, heard the commotion and rushed inside.
“Seonwu! Look at this!”
Okhyeon seized Ji Ya’s hair and shoved the girl forward, forcing her to bare her ruined back in front of Seonwu. The young man jerked his head away, eyes squeezed shut.
“This wretched creature dared to erase our family’s sacred mark! This is what happened to it!”
Okhyeon raised her hand to strike again, but Seonwu lunged forward and caught her wrist.
“What kind of nonsense is this?! I told you I’d have her thrown out for touching you!”
“Did I look like I was going to hit you? She was erasing the tattoo!”
Even in her rage, Okhyeon couldn’t pull away from Seonwu’s grip. The woman glared at him with pure disgust.
“You… you must have…”
The thought struck her like lightning.
Seonwu, who shared a bed with Ji Ya almost every night, could not possibly not know about the tattoo.
“It was you! You made her do it! You tricked me—you two planned this behind my back!”
“Yes, Mom! I had her erase it!”
At Seonwu’s calm words, Okhyeon staggered, gripping her own neck.
“How… how could this be possible…”
“Think about it, Mom. A twenty-one-year-old woman had an entire back covered in a hideous red mark for nearly three years. She lived like that the whole time.”
“It wasn’t free! I paid her for every single one!”
Okhyeon’s voice cracked with fury. Seonwu didn’t flinch.
“She’s a person! A human being! Not some paper doll you can doodle on whenever you want!”
“You… how dare you speak to me like that… how dare you speak to your own mother!”
While Okhyeon trembled in rage, Seonwu shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around Ji Ya’s shivering body.
“Where do you think you’re going?! I never gave you permission!”
Okhyeon lunged again, but Seonwu pulled Ji Ya close, shielding her completely.
Okhyeon, unable to touch her, could only stomp her front in helpless fury.
“How could you treat me like this?! After everything I did for you!”
“Mom! Please, calm down!”
“I would have done anything for you! But you’re deceiving me!”
At last Okhyeon lifted her hand toward Seonwu—the one person she had never struck in her life.
“Mom, no!”
Ji Ya shoved Seonwu aside and seized Okhyeon’s wrist.
“How dare you!”
Okhyeon’s raised hand cracked across Ji Ya’s cheek instead. The sharp sound echoed as the girl’s head snapped to the side.
Okhyeon didn’t stop there. She grabbed Ji Ya’s hair and slammed her to the floor. The coat slipped from her shoulder.
When Seonwu finally saw the full extent of the damage, his eyes widened in shock. Bruises bloomed across Ji Ya’s fair skin like blooming flowers, so vivid they looked as if her veins might show through.
“Mom!”
His voice was raw, almost pleading as he glared at his own mother.
“I can’t understand how you’ve changed so much!”
At the story’s end, a sorrowful light filled Seonwu’s eyes.
His once-loving mother had begun to change ten years ago, after his father’s death.
She had searched the entire country for a shaman, spending fortunes on rituals, believing any misfortune to Seonwu could be warded off—and any blessing could be granted.
Her distorted beliefs had devoured her sanity, leaving no way back.
“I can’t live like this anymore. As I said, I’m sending Ji Ya away.”
Seonwu turned his gaze from his mother.
He picked up his coat and carefully draped it over Ji Ya’s bare shoulders, covering every inch of skin.
“Ji Ya, can you stand? Do you need help?”
“No.”
“Let’s go upstairs.”
Seonwu slipped an arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the stairs leading to the second floor.
“Seonwu… Seonwu…”
Okhyeon watched her son with disbelief, but Seonwu never once looked back.
***
Seonwu opened the massive suitcase and began stuffing Ji Ya’s clothes inside—whatever he could grab from the closet.
“Head of Division, why are you doing this?”
“I see now. My mother hasn’t changed. If you stay here, you’ll be punished over and over for erasing the tattoo. I can’t watch that.”
“…”
“We should stop this. Now.”