Shwaaah—!
Ha Giyeon stood frozen, staring at the torrential downpour that ca crashing down as if a hole had been torn in the sky. Contrary to what he'd been told—that Secretary Kim would be waiting in front of the hospital—he had yet to show, even though nearly thirty minutes had passed.
Giyeon blankly stared down at the pavent, where the rainwater pooled and flowed. The rough drops pounding the ground and collecting into puddles felt eerily like his own mood—sunken and heavy.
“...?”
Bzzzz, the phone in his pocket vibrated. The caller was Secretary Kim. As expected, the mont he picked up, he heard the irritated voice on the other end.
—Why aren’t you coming out?
“I’m standing in front of the building right now—”
—You’re supposed to co to the hospital entrance. How am I supposed to get all the way in there... Honestly.
Secretary Kim’s tone was strange.
The front of the hospital building was directly connected to the parking lot, making it easy to get picked up right outside. Even where Giyeon was standing, other cars were pulling up to pick people up.
But the official hospital entrance was far—it required walking a long way past a garden trail. Especially in weather like this, it was difficult to reach.
“I don’t have an umbrella...”
—I don’t have one either. So what? You have to run.
“What...? All the way from here?”
—Yes. Hurry up and co.
Click. The call ended abruptly, and Giyeon stood there, staring into the heavy rain with the phone still in his hand. The intention to make things difficult was so blatant it couldn’t be missed.
“...Haah.”
He let out a deep sigh. He wasn’t carrying much—just a small bag. He had no umbrella, nowhere to buy or borrow one, and he didn’t even have his wallet. His condition wasn’t great, either. His throat still hurt, and if he took the full brunt of this rain, he’d definitely catch a cold.
Giyeon quietly looked up at the hazy sky, then let out a hollow laugh.
‘As if I ever cared about stuff like this before.’
He’d been eating better, dressing better, and living more normally lately—and suddenly he was acting like getting sick was a big deal. It was laughable. Before the regression, he hadn’t even wanted to spend money on an umbrella and had gotten by with cardboard or plastic sheets.
What was there left to damage in this body anyway?
Without a second thought, Giyeon threw himself into the downpour. Splish—the rain-soaked pavent splashed against his shoes, and raindrops fell and soaked into his clothes and hair. Wrapping his arms around his bag, he ran toward the hospital entrance.
His clothes and body were quickly drenched. His throat ached, and it was hard to breathe, but he forced himself to keep going. Maybe it was because he’d been lying in a hospital bed for days, but his stamina felt worse than ever.
Panting heavily, Giyeon approached the black sedan parked at the hospital entrance. After confirming the license plate, he reached for the rear door handle.
Click.
“...?”
For so reason, the door wouldn’t open. After tugging it a few more tis, whirrr, the window rolled down. From the driver’s seat, Secretary Kim looked him up and down, then let out a mocking laugh—clearly amused.
“You okay? I thought you were soone else for a second.”
“...Please open the door.”
“Ah, sure, sure.”
With a mocking tone, he unlocked the car, and Giyeon pulled the handle again. But just as he was about to get in, he stopped at the sight inside. Plastic sheeting had been laid across the seat.
“I put that down because the seat would be hard to clean if it got wet. Hurry and get in.”
“....”
The setup made it feel like he was being treated like a germ, or an insect—deliberately ant to humiliate him. The intention was clear. It was a kind of degradation he’d experienced countless tis while working.
He’d been treated worse than this plenty of tis. This was nothing. Without reacting, Giyeon sat on the plastic and closed the car door.
Raindrops stread off his body and dripped onto the plastic, then pooled and collected on the floor beneath him. ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) He quietly stared at the growing puddle. Under the seat, a black umbrella was visible. Clearly, the car always kept one in stock.
And showing it so brazenly, without hiding it, was a deliberate display of hostility—clear mockery.
Giyeon thought back, wondering if he’d done sothing to get on Secretary Kim’s nerves. Then he closed his eyes. There was one thing. The card he hadn’t accepted from his mother. It seed like this was his way of retaliating for that.
‘Even if he keeps this up, I don’t plan to take the card anyway.’
Shivering from the cold, Giyeon curled up tighter. Despite how chilly the car was, Secretary Kim didn’t bother turning on the heater, which he usually would have. Clutching his freezing hands together, Giyeon looked out the window. The rain battered the glass relentlessly. It showed no sign of stopping—even when they arrived at the house.
The mont the car stopped, Giyeon grabbed the door handle to get out. That’s when Secretary Kim handed sothing over.
“Looks like I found an umbrella. Go ahead and use it.”
It was the black umbrella he’d seen earlier. Secretary Kim offered it as if he were doing Giyeon a favor. It made sense—if soone like Ha Ilwoo’s personal secretary or Lee Mihyun’s assistant happened to see Giyeon getting out of the car without an umbrella, it could cause a scandal.
If Giyeon showed up soaking wet, Kim could always claim he’d fallen, and that would be that. Giyeon wouldn’t speak up anyway.
He probably assud that if he offered the umbrella now, Giyeon would accept it gratefully and head inside. But instead, Giyeon looked at it coldly, then opened the door.
“You should use it, Secretary Kim.”
“...Huh? Ah, wait! Young Master! ...Hey!”
Dismissing the voice muffled by the rain, Giyeon walked past the gate and toward the front door. With wet hands, he turned the handle and stepped into the entryway. The light flicked on, and droplets fell from his soaked clothes onto the floor. At the sa ti, he heard hurried footsteps rushing toward him.
“Giyeon? ...Good heavens!”
The housekeeper had co running to greet him upon his return from the hospital, but froze in shock at the sight of him. Giyeon gave her a sheepish smile and greeted her.
“You got caught in the rain? Where’s your umbrella? Didn’t you co by car?”
“Ah... I did, but...”
“This won’t do—co inside. I’ll get you a towel.”
She hurried off to fetch a towel, and Giyeon stayed in the entryway, worried about making a ss on the floor. The housekeeper soon returned with a thick white towel.
“Co on in!”
“I’ll get the floor dirty if I go in. I’ll just dry off here...”
“If the floor gets wet, we can wipe it up. Co on, get inside—hurry!”
She grabbed Giyeon’s arm and pulled him inside. Drip, drip, water splashed onto the white marble floor.
“Can you bend down a little?”
Giyeon bent over and lowered his head just as she said. She gently dried his hair with the towel.
“....”
Feeling that touch for the first ti, Giyeon’s eyes widened, and he froze. The gentle drying of his hair was so warm that he silently closed his eyes.
“I ran warm water for the tub. Go wash up.”
“...Okay.”
“Is there any kind of porridge or snack you want to eat? You should eat well so you can take your dicine.”
With those warm words and gentle hands, Giyeon felt peace for the first ti that day. He’d heard phrases like “the warmth of a parent’s embrace” before. But he had never understood what they ant. His parents had never hugged him—not even once. Never patted his head, not even in passing.
The only warmth he’d ever felt in this house was from the housekeeper, the day he’d been kicked out. When she hugged him then.
That was it.
“No one’s ho, so feel free to wash up in the downstairs bathroom.”
The first-floor bathroom was large, with a big tub. It was used by his parents and brother. Giyeon thanked her and made his way toward it.
Watching his slumped, wet shoulders, the housekeeper sighed. He looked even thinner now than he had before the hospitalization. She never would’ve guessed he’d be taken to the hospital over an allergy. When she’d received that call from Lee Mihyun, asking whether he had any allergies, she couldn’t believe it.
Could they really not know?
Even though she had told them. Or rather—perhaps it was more accurate to say they never listened. Even though she’d always prepared separate seafood-free als for him, they had never even shown the slightest interest in what he ate.
When she heard they were taking him out for a family al, she thought—at last, they’re finally paying attention to him. But this was worse than not caring at all. How could you not know your own child’s allergies?
That phone call from Lee Mihyun had left the housekeeper furious. After all their cold indifference, they had now managed to seriously harm him. It felt like they were determined to drag him all the way down.
Seeing how they treated him broke her heart. He wasn’t even her own child, but she still felt sorry for him. She couldn’t help but think of her own daughter, who had passed away. That’s why, even if she wanted to quit this job, she couldn’t.
Because if she left too, sothing truly terrible might happen to that boy.
She couldn’t do anything more than watch his fragile state—but even so, she wanted to at least be there. Because unlike her daughter, this ti she didn’t want to look away.
The housekeeper picked up Giyeon’s completely soaked bag. It was so wet, it felt like it had been dunked in a bucket. He said he’d ridden in the car—so why was he drenched like this?
Just then, the front door opened and Kim Seunghyun stepped inside. Shaking the rain from his wet hands, he folded up a damp umbrella. When he spotted the housekeeper standing at the entrance, he flinched.
“Why are you here...?”
“Giyeon ca ho soaked from the rain.”
At those words, Kim Seunghyun’s face imdiately darkened. The housekeeper’s expression also turned cold. Unlike Giyeon, whose clothes were soaked through, Seunghyun only looked mildly damp—and he had clearly used an umbrella.
She looked him over, then spoke.
“You brought an umbrella.”
“Ah, yeah! It’s just that Young Master Ha said I should use it... He insisted, said he didn’t want it, so...”
“There’s no need to tell all that.”
“Ah, no, it’s just—!”
“I’ll be letting Madam know that Giyeon ca ho soaking wet. He was just discharged—if he gets sick again, it’ll be serious.”
Before Seunghyun could offer another excuse, the housekeeper turned on her heel and walked away.
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