570

 [Chapter 154]

[One Day at a Time]

After the day Lee Yucheon formally introduced his younger sister,

Eunha would leave his hospital room to visit Lee Yoojung whenever he had the chance.

His mother who visited every day would even click her tongue seeing the empty hospital room.

"─This is why there's no use in having children... Does he like that girl more than his own mother?"

Including his mother,

While his family thought he was incorrigible, they also worried about Eunha.

Because it was rare for Eunha to show this much interest in someone else.

But unaware of his family's concerns, Eunha went to meet Lee Yoojung right after eating lunch today too.

"─Did you eat?" "Ah, welcome. I just finished eating. How about you, Eunha?"

"I ate on the way here too."

"...Oh... Eunha, you came again?"

When Eunha opened the hospital room door and entered,

Lee Yoojung as well as Lee Yucheon happened to be in the room.

While Lee Yoojung greeted him happily, Lee Yucheon received him with a somewhat disgruntled look.

It was understandable.

Yucheon who visited her almost every day was seeing Eunha almost every day too.

Above all─

"─Can't you let me be alone with Yoojung..."

"What more do you want when you were here before I came? And aren't you busy? Don't you have work?"

"What does work matter when Yoojung is in the hospital?"

Lee Yucheon had sister complex.

He seemed to dislike having his time alone with his younger sister interrupted by Eunha.

Moreover, his eyes were full of suspicion.

"Eunha, you're not..." "Huh? What?" "...Nothing. I believe you're not. I just hope you're not. You mustn't be. No matter how much of a benefactor you are, this is a different matter."

"What are you saying..."

With a somewhat desperate face,

While also putting strength in his eyes,

Lee Yucheon spoke to Eunha with fierce eyes.

Eunha who received Lee Yucheon's glare as soon as he entered asked back with an uncomprehending face.

"Anyway, I believe in you. You know?"

"I don't know."

Incomprehensible words.

Eunha responded indifferently.

Then ignoring Lee Yucheon's words from the side, he approached Lee Yoojung and held her hand.

At that moment, Lee Yucheon's gaze flashed.

"Eunha. If you hold her hand like that, Yoojung can't eat. Let go of that hand quickly."

"Can't you let go instead, hyung? You came first..."

A situation where they were both holding Lee Yoojung's hands.

The two had a battle of nerves with Lee Yoojung between them.

Lee Yoojung smiled bitterly as if now used to it.

"Why do you fight like this every time? I'm fine holding both sides, so please don't do this too much."

"Yoojung, you shouldn't indulge Eunha like that. If you do, Eunha will keep grabbing your hand..."

"But what were you eating?"

Lee Yoojung gently admonished.

Lee Yucheon tried to persuade her.

And Eunha quickly changed the subject to divert her attention.

"Oppa brought donuts. I was just about to eat them when you came. Let's eat together."

"He brought something delicious. I'll enjoy it." "I'll prepare Eunha's portion separately so this is just for Yoojung..."

"Oppa. You shouldn't be mean about food. And I can't eat all this by myself."

"Ugh..."

Lee Yoojung giggling softly.

Eventually Lee Yucheon opened the box on the table.

Appetizingly decorated donuts.

Eunha's eyes sparkled, and Lee Yucheon nodded with a resigned face hearing her words.

"Then something to drink..."

""I'll do it.""

"No, I'll do it. Please sit down, you two." ""..."" 

"Ah, thank you, unni."

The hospital room had a kitchen attached.

The attendant who made way for Eunha and Yucheon poked her head out and spoke.

While the attendant brought drinks,

The two looked at each other sullenly with displeased expressions.

"─Here you are."

"Ah, thank you. Please have some too, unni." "No, I'll just accept your kind thoughts."

Soon the attendant brought drinks suited to each person's taste.

The three faced a problem.

Lee Yoojung had no hands free to eat donuts.

"Eunha, let go. Yoojung can't eat."

"Really?"

"Ahaha..."

As she laughed awkwardly,

Lee Yucheon launched a preemptive attack first.

Eunha, as if he had anticipated this level of attack long ago─

"─Then I'll feed her instead. Yoojung, say ah."

"..."

"Hey, hey. Put that hand down right now? No matter how much of a benefactor you are, this is...!"

Eunha holding out a small piece of donut cut with a fork to Lee Yoojung's mouth.

Lee Yucheon finally burst out in anger.

And she─

"─I'll eat well..."

"Y-Yoojung...!"

Carefully opened her mouth.

In the end, Lee Yucheon wailed loudly seeing Eunha's fork enter her mouth.

"Why are you making such a fuss over this, hyung?"

"Such a fuss... How can you say this is just making a fuss!?"

"Both of you, please don't fight. Um... oppa, can't you give me just one bite too?"

"Of course!"

A second battle of nerves between Noh Eunha and Lee Yucheon was about to break out.

Fortunately, Lee Yoojung smoothed things over and it ended up fizzling out.

Anyway, the three spent time like that.

"By the way, Yoojung." "Yes, oppa." "Since when did you start speaking casually with Eunha? You've only used formal speech with me until now..."

"Huh? Ah... that's..."

"Ahem."

When there was one donut left,

The three were eyeing each other over who would eat the last one.

In the midst of that, Lee Yucheon suddenly brought that up.

It was natural for Eunha and Lee Yoojung to be flustered.

"Well..."

Yoojung tries to find appropriate words.

Her nightly secret meetings with Eunha were implicitly taboo between Eunha and her.

So she was at a loss for how to answer Yucheon's question.

At that moment, Eunha stepped in as a relief pitcher.

"Come on hyung, why are you curious about something like that?"

"No... Yoojung uses formal speech even with family. But why is she speaking casually with you..." "It's because we're the same age."

"But she wasn't speaking casually with Hayang..."

"I asked her to please speak casually because I felt uncomfortable. Right?"

"Y-yes... That's how it happened."

"Hmm... Is that so?"

Eunha responded as nonchalantly as possible.

Lee Yucheon didn't seem to agree but didn't try to pry further.

Instead, he brought up something else.

"Then Yoojung. Can't you speak casually with me too? I want to hear you speak casually to me too..."

"Huh? But... I'm more used to this way of speaking..."

"But you use casual speech with Eunha?" "...I'll try to use it with oppa once too."

"You promise?"

Lee Yucheon giggling as if he achieved his goal.

Lee Yoojung burst out laughing.

Eunha also looked at him as if dumbfounded.

A moment later, laughter erupted from all of them.

Right at that moment,

"─I wondered where you went, but you were here again?" "...Huh? Seohyun, why are you..." "Why do you think I came here... I came to catch someone who left home."

Han Seohyun entered right after knocking on the door.

The three had startled faces at her sudden appearance.

And Noh Eunha who was most startled stammered as if caught in the act of a crime.

"I don't know if I came to visit Yoojung or my fiancé. Well, were you having fun?"

"...Want to eat a donut? I was just about to save one for you..."

Han Seohyun asking with a smile.

Eunha who judged he'd be in big trouble if he answered wrong changed the subject.

But Han Seohyun wasn't one to be fooled by his improvisation.

She snorted.

"Okay, give me one. I was lacking sugar right now since I came right after class ended."

"R-really?" "But that's that, and this is this, right?"

"...I guess so?"

As expected, it didn't work at all.

Eunha admitted defeat.

Then she strode over and took a bite of the remaining donut.

"You have one too, unni..."

"I'll enjoy it, Yoojung. Mm, it's delicious."

Lee Yucheon was silent.

While Lee Yoojung looked for a chance to speak,

Han Seohyun instantly ate one and licked her sugar-coated fingers.

Then she glanced at Lee Yoojung.

Finally looking back at Eunha.

"─You worked hard taking care of our child. I'll take Eunha now."

"Yes... unni."

Han Seohyun's gaze was directed at Eunha, but her words were towards Lee Yoojung.

Soon she giggled and looked down at Eunha holding Lee Yoojung's hand.

"─Let's go back now. It's inconsiderate to spend time like this in someone else's hospital room."

"Oh, right. We should go."

They say Eunha couldn't even respond once.

☆

"─Don't you think you're going too often lately?"

"Hospital life is so boring..." "Is that so? Even though I and Hayang come see you whenever we have time, and mother and grandmother come every day, you're saying it's tedious and dull. I see."

"I'm sorry. I guess I spoke thoughtlessly. I just... went to see her because I want to get closer to Yoojung." "It's good that you're honest, but that's an answer without consideration for your fiancée." "..."

"But what can I do if you say that."

Eunha was walking down the hallway holding Han Seohyun's hand.

Han Seohyun walking ahead towards the direction of his hospital room spoke without looking back.

Her voice seemed calm but,

Eunha could tell there was displeasure mixed in her voice.

Her words had thorns too.

"I'm not saying anything."

"..."

You are saying something.

But honestly answering that could upset her mood, so,

Eunha chose silence.

Silence was great.

Because it made her think on her own.

Meanwhile she continued speaking.

"I told you before we got engaged too, I won't mind whoever you meet."

What kind of face was Han Seohyun making now?

He thought while following her who kept showing her back.

Even as he thought that, her words continued.

"Meet whoever you want. Just meet people you can take clear responsibility for. If it's an irresponsible meeting, I can't allow that either." "..."

"You're free to meet however many people, but keep in mind I can't permit a dissolute and promiscuous lifestyle."

Only when they were near the hospital room,

Han Seohyun finally turned around and gave Eunha a piece of her mind.

He quietly looked down at her.

Though she was a head shorter than him,

She spoke firmly while looking up at him.

Eventually Eunha─

"─Aren't you distrusting me too much? Do I look like that kind of person to you, noona?"

"Why don't you put your hand on your heart and think before saying such things." "Ugh..."

"And even if you don't act that way, there's no guarantee the people involved with you or the surrounding circumstances won't. So you need to have a firm core."

Eunha responding with a sullen face.

Han Seohyun finally relaxed her expression.

Then she opened her mouth again and made it so he couldn't properly refute.

"And this is my request..."

In the midst of that, she carefully spoke up.

"Not just when meeting other people, but especially if you're going to meet that child, I hope you won't meet her with a light heart."

"..."

That child, Lee Yoojung.

Eunha realized who Seohyun was referring to.

Naturally his expression changed.

Her voice became heavy.

"I'm sorry to say this but... That child hasn't met many people due to unavoidable reasons from birth, so she's weary of meeting someone, and she's a child whose personality hasn't been sharpened because only good people are around her."

"..."

"I hope you won't hurt that child by meeting her with a light heart. She'll already have a difficult marriage path due to her disability, so if rumors spread about you and her..."

"I know. I know that well enough."

There was no way Eunha wouldn't understand what Han Seohyun was trying to say.

So her words were enough.

He abruptly cut off her words and stopped her from saying more.

"I have no intention of meeting her with a light heart as you said, and no intention of hurting Yoojung. So... I'll be careful not to become an obstacle to Yoojung."

"...In the end, you're saying you'll keep meeting that child even though it's not for such a purpose."

"..."

Eunha didn't answer and stayed silent.

This silence meant affirmation.

"Fine, that's enough. Be careful."

Soon Han Seohyun sighed.

"─I'll say one more thing."

Then she added.

She lowered her eyelids.

"─I hope you won't try to project someone else onto that child." "...!"

"I don't know who you're thinking of, but I hope you won't make the mistake of interpreting that child's heart as you please."

Han Seohyun's advice.

Eunha couldn't help but show momentary emotional turmoil.

Her words struck his head hard like a blunt weapon.

"─That child is that child. Don't you know she's often flustered by your attitude?"

"..."

"Don't try to see her as someone else, and don't try to pity her either. I hope you'll just purely see that child as herself."

Though he had repeated many times that Lee Yoojung living this current life wasn't the Lee Yoojung he knew,

Eunha had been unconsciously trying to find the Lee Yoojung he remembered in Lee Yoojung's actions, speech, attitude, and emotional expressions until now.

Then occasionally as Han Seohyun said, he thought this life's Lee Yoojung would like things the previous life's Lee Yoojung liked too.

In the end without realizing it, he was trying to make this life's Lee Yoojung into the previous life's Lee Yoojung.

That was─

"─That's disrespectful to that child."

Disrespect.

Eunha felt shocked again as if hit on the head.

Han Seohyun's words were right.

It was disrespectful to Lee Yoojung.

"...Thank you. For telling me."

"I should thank you too. For understanding."

Eunha who realized this answered Han Seohyun in a polite tone.

Then Han Seohyun smiled gently.

"And you know."

"...Yes?"

But Eunha's words weren't over yet.

He pulled her hand.

 Without any resistance, she fell into Eunha's arms.

"─I don't think you and Hayang are meeting me with a light heart either." "..."

"I wanted you to know that..."

"What did you just say..."

Han Seohyun blinked her eyes.

She reacted as if she had misheard.

So Eunha repeated it.

Her eyes opened wide.

Soon a strange light appeared in her eyes.

"I'll give you bonus points." "Huh?"

"I guess there is some reward in raising a child." "What are you saying? What child... Am I a child?" "That's what I mean by child. A child who needs to be taught everything from A to Z."

"Why am I a child?" "Put your hand on your heart and think about it."

"I don't know..."

Whatever it was, she seemed to be in a good mood.

Han Seohyun entrusted her body to Eunha and let out a small laugh.

Eunha hugged her with a puzzled expression.

"Let's stop doing this here and go inside. Mother will be waiting."

"Okay, let's do that."

The two reached the hospital room.

Eunha held Han Seohyun's hand and opened the door.

"─Eunha!!"

"Noona?" "I've been waiting for so long! Where have you been and what were you doing? On a date with Seohyun?"

A large cushion named Noh Euna rushed at Eunha as soon as the door opened.

Han Seohyun quickly moved out of the way to avoid becoming a sandwich.

Noh Euna occupied Eunha's arms as if robbing an empty house.

Eunha was very glad to see Euna after a long time.

Han Seohyun who was standing to the side─

"─He was playing in Yoojung's hospital room today too. They seemed very close."

"What!? You again!!"

"..."

Han Seohyun tattled.

They say Eunha had to take a lot of scolding from Euna.

☆

While Eunha was hospitalized,

The academy's second semester ended.

It snowed on this day.

"─Shall we go see the snow?"

"Okay, let's go."

Jung Hayang who had come to spend time with Eunha from the weekend morning.

She suddenly proposed that when snow started falling outside the window.

Eunha nodded readily, wanting to grant her wish.

"Ugh... it's cold."

"You can raise your body temperature with mana."

"Tsk, you really have no romance... You should quickly tell me to hug you." "Okay, I'm sorry. Here."

There was no one on the hospital rooftop.

Eunha standing at the railing chuckled at Jung Hayang's aegyo.

When he spread his arms like a cross, she burrowed into his arms as if she had been waiting.

As a result, it looked like Hayang was wearing Eunha, and Eunha was wearing a parka.

"How many days are left until you're discharged?"

"28 days left now." "There's still a lot left..."

Looking out at the snowy scenery,

He asked her how many days of hospitalization he had left.

While Eunha couldn't remember,

Jung Hayang remembered very precisely.

"So you can't even be discharged before the year changes..."

"Tsk, who told you to do dangerous things?"

"I didn't do anything dangerous. I was just practicing magic with Uncle Bruno when unfortunately..."

"Hehe, Eunha."

"...Yes."

"You know I'm letting it slide right now, right?"

"Of course. I'm sorry. And thank you."

Since when was it?

Both Jung Hayang and Han Seohyun,

Eunha had been unable to properly defy the two of them for some time now.

Eunha surrendered to Jung Hayang who was poking his nose with the ribbon tying her hair.

Noh Eunha who had committed many sins was just grateful his girlfriend was letting his lie slide without pressing further.

"Come to think of it, in a few days... I'll be 19 years old."

The winter air is cold.

Eunha murmured softly while hugging Hayang tightly.

Next year is not far away now.

Third year of high school academy.

The last year of academy life.

Eunha recalled that and tried to think about what he needed to do going forward.

Right at that moment,

"─Shouldn't we think about something else first?"

"Hm? What?"

Jung Hayang suddenly spoke up from below.

Eunha gently pushed his stomach and looked at Jung Hayang leaving his arms.

She leaned her back against the railing and smiled softly.

"─It's the 365th day today."

"..."

"It's exactly one year."

In a somewhat regretful tone.

And in a somewhat relieved tone.

Jung Hayang said that.

365 days and 1 year.

Eunha knew what she was talking about.

...Has it already been that long?

Time really flew by.

It had already been a year since they agreed to have a contract relationship.

Eunha felt the flow of time was faster than he thought.

""..."" 

The two just quietly looked at each other.

Eunha exchanged glances with her and recalled what happened over the past year.

The year's memories were almost entirely made up of Jung Hayang and Han Seohyun.

Realizing that, a bitter smile came out.

'─Will you break up with me if I say let's break up after a year?'

When did I become like this?

Though I clearly said that a year ago.

Like sleeves getting wet in drizzling rain,

The past year's life made him feel like they were a part of his life.

'You never know. During the time we're dating, you might come to like me so much that you can't live without me and ask to keep dating.'

Recalling what Jung Hayang said a year ago,

Eunha had to admit it.

Yeah─

─I lost.

Hayang, you won.

Though he didn't know how to express this emotion,

Eunha knew this feeling was different from how he felt towards friends.

He couldn't assert if this was the feeling of liking someone romantically─

─I hate even thinking about her smiling at other men.

It might be obsession.

It might be possessiveness.

But the feeling of not wanting to lose her to anyone was certain.

Above all, he wanted her to consider his existence special.

And that─

─I guess I've gone crazy...

It might be selfish.

It could be called greedy.

It really could be possessiveness.

But that feeling wasn't limited to one person.

Two people flashed through his mind momentarily.

Eunha had to admit that too.

But solving the task right in front of him came first.

"..."

Eunha approached Jung Hayang.

He reached out his hand and stroked her head.

She smiled softly while also making a somewhat anxious expression.

I'm now relieved, confident, and overflowing with self-assurance.

Though she tried to make such a face, she still couldn't hide her true feelings.

She's anxious.

Afraid of being rejected.

Afraid it will end like this.

I can't even play a prank like this.

Seeing her eyes waver,

Eunha smiled bitterly again.

He wants to play a prank, but can't bring himself to.

"...!"

In the end, he suddenly pulled her close and hugged her back tightly.

The two pressed against each other.

Eunha bent down to Jung Hayang who was much shorter than him and whispered to her.

"─I want to keep seeing you." "..."

There was no need to hear the answer.

She also gripped him tightly with the hands hugging him.