Unrequited Love Thresher-Chapter 63: To the One Who Was Twisted

Ha Ilwoo, Lee Mihyun, and Ha Dohoon walked around the hospital grounds, half out of their minds.

Their heads were filled entirely with thoughts of Ha Giyeon. The fact that they were only now thinking about a child they had never spared a thought for before was absurd enough to be laughable. Yet since he’d woken up, they couldn’t stop thinking—not even compared to when he hadn’t opened his eyes in that hospital bed.

The words Ha Giyeon had said, the tired expression on his face, his cautious movements, the sunken look in his eyes.

It didn’t take them long to realize those were different from before. The automatic apologies were the same, but the feel of them had changed completely. It wasn’t the frightened kind of apology. It was the kind of apology that said he truly believed it was his fault and was ready to take responsibility for anything. And in those cold eyes, what they felt was not pride, not acknowledgement, not indifference.

What they felt was fear.

He looked at them not as family, but as strangers—and it terrified them. Why did he keep saying he was fine? Why did he blame himself and apologize again and again? They couldn’t understand a single thing.

There was nothing Ha Giyeon needed to apologize for. Even if he’d woken up cursing and throwing things, it would have been a situation where they could only sit in silence. It was all their fault. They hadn’t even known he had an allergy, had made him force food down, and topped it off with threats and verbal abuse disguised as discipline.

In the end, Ha Giyeon had collapsed while trying to voice his grievance. Ha Ilwoo, who had watched it all happen in a daze, knew there was nothing he could say even if the boy resented him. In fact, he had hoped he would.

But Ha Giyeon didn’t say anything. Didn’t even get angry.

For the first time, Ha Ilwoo felt a stinging regret. And he didn’t know what to do to get rid of it. All he could do was walk out of the room that made him feel so uncomfortable, the room where Ha Giyeon was.

He could have just gone to the office at that point. Ha Giyeon would probably have preferred that.

But for some reason, even though he had work, he couldn’t bring himself to go to the company. He couldn’t focus, and more than that, it felt like abandoning his child for real. He just couldn’t leave the hospital.

It was the same for Lee Mihyun.

Even with her schedule full and urgent work piling up at the office, her feet wouldn’t move. If she took her eyes off that frail, skeletal body, it felt like he might crash down again. If she left this place, it felt like she would lose the chance to apologize forever.

She tried to retrace the past—her past with Ha Giyeon. But the only memories that came clearly were from recent years.

Every time she saw him, she scolded him. Told him he was spending time with low-class friends. Always told him to keep quiet. And in the end, the answer she got was:

“I don’t have any friends.”

The boy’s lips had trembled as he said that. She didn’t know whether the tremble came from being unwell, or from the shame of having to say it aloud. Maybe both. But the only thing that mattered was that she had pushed him to the point where those words came out of his mouth.

Those words haunted her, keeping her from sleeping. She repeated them over and over in her head, thinking back to what kind of expression and movements he had when he said them. And then, suddenly, something struck her as strange.

Would a kid worried about hospital bills really spend so much money on clothes at a department store? She thought back to the day she’d first seen him arguing with Ha Dohoon—how she’d seen the pile of shopping bags and assumed it was wasteful spending, how she’d taken his card away.

She couldn’t remember his face, bowed low. She had only thrown out harsh words without ever asking why they had argued. She had simply assumed it was Giyeon’s fault.

“You don’t believe me when I tell you anyway.”

Only now did that certainty begin to crack. Anxious, Lee Mihyun grabbed Ha Dohoon and asked,

“That time... why were you and Ha—Giyeon fighting?”

“When...?”

There had been so many arguments with Ha Giyeon lately that he had to think before remembering the time she walked in on one. When he did remember, it barely even qualified as a fight.

It had been him yelling and cornering Giyeon one-sidedly.

“We didn’t really fight. That day, Choi Mujin gave Ha—Giyeon a bunch of clothes as a surprise gift, and I got mad about it...”

“What? Clothes...?”

Lee Mihyun came to an abrupt stop. So then the clothes hadn’t been bought by Giyeon?

She knew Choi Mujin well—he was Dohoon’s friend and lived in the same neighborhood, and she’d met his parents at various parties and gatherings. He was rough, the opposite of someone like Kwon Jongseok, and not known for having a good personality. So why would ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ someone like him be giving clothes to Ha Giyeon?

“Mujin gave them without asking. Giyeon returned them.”

Her heartbeat began to pick up, fast and loud. Everything she had seen, everything she had decided and said to the boy—it had all been wrong. Ha Giyeon... would he really have hit the brother he liked so much, enough to follow him around? A boy who worried about medical bills because he didn’t want to cause trouble?

With her chest tightening from frustration, Lee Mihyun forced her lips, which refused to move, to finally form words.

“Then... that bruise on your lip... was it from Giyeon?”

“Ah... that was from Mujin...”

Even before he finished speaking, her body swayed. Ha Ilwoo and Ha Dohoon quickly grabbed her arms. Her face looked like it could crumble at any moment. Her chest ached.

She had made up her mind about everything alone. She was convinced that Giyeon was spending time with bad kids just because he came home late, and had even locked the door to keep him out. She believed he had caused Dohoon’s injuries and never even asked what had happened. She just assumed it was all his fault.

That time, when she locked the door—what had he thought as he stood there? Had he pleaded in front of the door that wouldn’t open? Or had he walked away without hesitation? Was that why he no longer expected anything?

Dohoon and Ilwoo helped her to a bench as she nearly collapsed, pale as a sheet. Dohoon said he would get a drink, and Ilwoo stood to call a doctor. Just then—

Lee Mihyun urgently grabbed his arm. Her trembling hands clung to him in desperation, and Ilwoo gently took her hand and asked,

“Are you not feeling well? I’ll get the doctor right away...”

“What do we do, Ilwoo...”

The words slipped from her dry lips.

Ilwoo’s face stiffened. He froze in place, shocked that she had called him by name. Normally, they called each other yeobo.

She hadn’t used his name since before they were married... the fact that she had now—so weakly, so broken—said everything.

It was only after the child had changed that she finally saw clearly.

And that realization was unbearable.

***

“Yeah, that idiot ended up in the hospital for real. One second he’s eating, the next everyone’s jumping up and rushing to the hospital—ugh. The vibe was... seriously disgusting.”

Inside a car, Kim Seunghyun, the chauffeur, was reclined in the driver’s seat, talking loudly on the phone and laughing.

When Ha Giyeon had been taken away in an ambulance, and Lee Mihyun and Ha Ilwoo followed in a separate car, the atmosphere had been the worst he’d ever experienced. He wasn’t their exclusive driver, but he’d worked for the family since Giyeon was in elementary school—it hadn’t been a short time.

Even so, Kim Seunghyun had never seen their faces like that before. The type to sip tea calmly even if the world collapsed—those two had looked half out of their minds, yelling at him to drive faster when Giyeon was taken away in the ambulance.

“Man, I’ve never seen the CEO and his wife freak out like that. They never gave a shit about the kid before, but the second he passed out, they suddenly remembered they were parents. So damn funny. I mean, how do you not know your own kid has an allergy?”

As he kept swearing and laughing, suddenly, he felt something off. Like someone was staring at him.

He turned his head quickly.

“......!!”

Standing just outside the driver’s side window, staring at him, was Ha Dohoon. The window was tinted, but at that distance, Dohoon could definitely see inside.

Kim Seunghyun immediately ended the call and shot upright in his seat.

Click. At the same time, Ha Dohoon opened the driver’s door.

“Looks like you’re having fun. Laughing on the job, lying down like you’re on a camping trip.”

“Ah—n-no, sir.”

Panic-stricken, Kim Seunghyun stepped out of the car and stood in front of Ha Dohoon. Was it possible he’d heard what he said? The thought made him nervous. As he stood there, Dohoon reached out and calmly shut the door. Then, standing crookedly, he looked Seunghyun up and down.

Being looked down on by a kid so much younger than him, Kim Seunghyun clenched his fist tightly.

Ha Dohoon turned back toward the car.

“Secretary Kim.”

“......Yes, sir.”

“How much do you make?”

“...What?”

The question was so out of nowhere that Seunghyun froze. Just as he opened his mouth to answer—

Dohoon’s gaze stayed locked on the car. And then he lifted his foot and kicked the side mirror.

Crack. The mirror snapped and dangled, swaying. Without pause, Dohoon kicked it again—smash—and it shattered to pieces on the ground.

He nudged the broken pieces with the tip of his shoe and said,

“You did this.”