Emergency Blind Date - Chapter 65

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#Episode 65

“Yes, it’s me. It’s okay. Everything’s fine, so breathe slowly. Yes, look at me like that.”

Kang Hyeok was looking into Da-som’s eyes, telling her that everything was okay. So it really did seem like everything would be fine.

Da-som’s throat was sore and she couldn’t speak, but she forced herself to say the words.

“I, I don’t want to meet that person, *sob*.”

Then Kang Hyeok nodded, turned around, and held out his hand to stop the woman.

“Please leave.”

“No, I need to meet her and talk.”

“We’ll contact you. Please leave.”

Kang Hyeok spoke to the woman in a tone so firm it could freeze over, then turned back to Da-som.

And he gently embraced Da-som and led her somewhere.

“…Da-som, I’ll wait here.”

The woman’s voice came from behind them. It was a calm tone, clearly different from the desperate voice that had been calling for Min-chan.

She thought there must be a reason why she couldn’t come to see me.

She thought there must have been unavoidable circumstances that kept her from looking for me for over 20 years.

Thousands of times, tens of thousands of times, she had imagined her mother coming to see her.

Saying she missed her daughter, saying she was sorry, saying she loved her, so let’s live together from now on.

But now she wants to meet me?

Her body trembled with anger and her breathing became constricted again.

She was walking somewhere with her feet on the ground, but her body was stiff as if it was beyond her control.

“Da-som, it’s okay. Everything’s okay.”

She walked while relying on Kang Hyeok’s gently whispering voice.

But even while being taken into the elevator and going somewhere, Da-som felt like she was wandering in deep water.

Click.

Entering a space with just the two of them, Kang Hyeok pulled the trembling Da-som tightly into his arms.

“It’s okay, everything’s okay.”

Da-som entrusted her body to his touch as he stroked and comforted her back, slowly exhaling.

“Yes, you’re doing well. Just breathe slowly like that.”

Relying on Kang Hyeok’s embrace as he continuously stroked and comforted her stiff body, Da-som repeatedly took deep breaths in and out.

Even when tears welled up, she shook her head and swallowed them back. She gritted her teeth and swallowed them. Because he wasn’t even worth crying over.

“Da-som, you can cry. If you want to cry, cry. I’m here.”

“*Sob*…”

The tears she had been holding back burst forth.

Even though she swallowed and swallowed her tears until her throat ached, at Kang Hyeok’s single word, tears poured out like a bursting dam.

Da-som cried sorrowfully, having had no chest to embrace and cry against like this, having to wipe away her tears alone with her small fern-like hands.

“That… that person… is the mother who gave birth to me. The mother who abandoned me and left.”

Da-som poured out the tears she had held back for over 20 years in Kang Hyeok’s embrace.

She had endured year after year, thinking that if she came back even now, she would forgive everything, understand everything.

The despair of having no strength left to do so anymore, ultimately having to give up and resign herself, tore at her heart.

“How long I waited…, I prayed that I would be happy to die if I could just see her once…, and now she appears. Now.”

When the woman who had wailed and fainted on the emergency room floor upon hearing news of her 21-year-old son’s traffic accident left 6-year-old me behind, had her feet moved so easily then?

After crying in Kang Hyeok’s arms for a while, Da-som came to her senses somewhat.

When she lifted her head, Kang Hyeok cupped Da-som’s face with both hands and wiped around her eyes. He pushed away the tears and kissed her forehead comfortingly.

“I’m sorry.”

Kang Hyeok’s deeply sunken eyes gazed into Da-som’s two eyes.

“For what.”

“Just… Professor, your shirt is all wet.”

“What’s the big deal about that.”

Kang Hyeok smiled gently and pulled Da-som into his arms. Da-som, embraced against his broad chest, closed her eyes while taking a relieved deep breath.

With just this broad chest, it seemed like everything would be okay no matter what happened.

Da-som, who had thought she was alone until now, gained strength from Kang Hyeok’s comfort.

She was truly fortunate to have Kang Hyeok.

Unable to cry in Da-som’s place, and having never seen Da-som cry like this, Kang Hyeok could only comfort her with words that everything was okay.

There was nothing else he could do.

Watching Da-som cry with her already delicate body shuddering was nothing short of heart-wrenching pain.

He seated the somewhat calmed Da-som on the sofa and looked into her bloodshot eyes.

That smile, forcing itself to appear on a face that looked ready to burst into tears again, made his eyes ache.

She must have lived hiding her tears with smiles whenever she wanted to cry like this.

“I won’t leave.”

“…”

Tears hazily welled up in Da-som’s large eyes.

Kang Hyeok wiped away Da-som’s tears and said once more.

“I’ll stay by your side for life.”

So that I won’t leave and hurt you, I’ll stay by your side for life.

So please accept me in that empty place.

“…Professor.”

Da-som’s eyes widened.

“…I love you.”

The tears flowing down Da-som’s cheeks seeped into Kang Hyeok’s heart.

“I love you.”

“…Me too.”

At Da-som’s tearful confession, Kang Hyeok squeezed his eyes shut and opened them.

“I love you, Professor.”

Kang Hyeok embraced Da-som as if to crush her. He held her delicate body and exhaled an overwhelming breath.

A moment later, Kang Hyeok brewed coffee and placed it in Da-som’s hands. Da-som, receiving it, smiled faintly.

“…Drink.”

“Yes, I’ll drink it well.”

Kang Hyeok sat next to Da-som and gently embraced her shoulders. Da-som leaned her head against his shoulder and spoke in a quiet voice.

“I went to the family home and happened to see that woman’s photo in a photo album. But the moment I saw that face today, I recognized her.”

“I see.”

Kang Hyeok decided not to mention that he had already guessed.

After hearing that the woman had called Da-som, he went to find Kim Min-chan’s hospital room the next day, but couldn’t meet the woman.

However, seeing Kim Min-chan lying in bed, Kang Hyeok could be certain once more.

Ironically, Kim Min-chan resembled Da-som quite a lot.

“Even if I see her again, I don’t think I’ll react like today.”

“Will you be okay?”

“Yes. I can just live as if she never existed from the beginning. I don’t want to think about her anymore. To me, she’s no different from a dead person.”

Perhaps for Da-som’s sake too, it seemed much better to think that way.

Not all parents are the same kind of parents.

He only hoped that Da-som, wounded by this incident, could recover safely.

It wouldn’t be easy, but Da-som would surely overcome it.

“I won’t even be curious about why she came looking.”

“Yes, think whatever is comfortable for you. I don’t like you being hurt for any reason.”

“Yes, I will. But I should go down to the emergency room, everyone must have seen, right?”

“It’s okay. Why worry about such things.”

“Still…”

“There probably weren’t many people who saw. But if you’re really worried, I’ll go down first to check and contact you. Okay?”

“Would you do that?”

“What’s so difficult about that.”

The rumor had probably spread throughout the emergency room.

Quite a few people had passed by as Kang Hyeok carried Da-som away from the emergency room.

Everyone must have noticed by now.

“But will you be able to work? You don’t have to push yourself.”

“No. I’ve already caused enough trouble. I want to go work.”

Kang Hyeok smiled and gently pinched Da-som’s cheek.

“So stubborn. Then come down in a bit. I’ll call you.”

“Okay.”

Kang Hyeok pressed his lips to Da-som’s forehead for a brief kiss before getting up from his seat.

Leaving behind Da-som who was trying to smile, Kang Hyeok left the research lab.

A heavy, dull pain arose in his chest as if it were bruised.

If that woman was still waiting, he would drag her out immediately.

Da-som’s resignation when she said the person was as good as dead was stabbing at his heart.

Click.

The door closed and Da-som, now alone, took a sip of warm coffee. The stinging pain in her throat disappeared.

After crying, she felt relieved inside, but instead her forehead was hot and a headache was coming on.

Da-som leaned her head against the sofa and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Her thoughts flowed without order.

Father who had suddenly called to ask how she was doing.

Father who told her to turn off the TV because it was noisy.

Now it all made sense.

Right, that’s what it was.

She was living well, but that woman was trying to break this peace and ruin it again.

Disappearing or appearing, everything seemed easy for her.

Buzz.

Da-som’s phone vibrated briefly.

She took her phone out of her gown pocket and checked the text.

It was from Kang Hyeok.

“She’s gone. There’s no problem here, so get yourself together and come down.”

“Get yourself together” meant to collect her emotions before coming down.

Since she said she would work, it was also advice that she needed to do that if she wanted to work.

Da-som sent a text saying she understood, then pressed the call button for that woman’s number.

As soon as the ringtone sounded, the woman’s urgent voice could be heard.

—Da-som.

Now she was openly calling her name.

An incredulous laugh escaped her.

“I don’t want to see you. Whatever or whoever you are, I won’t meet with you.”

—…Da-som. I’m… sorry.

How simple and convenient. Thinking she could get absolution with just one word of apology.

“The person who gave birth to me is dead. So don’t contact me. My mother is living well taking care of Father.”

—Can’t we just meet once to see each other’s faces and talk?

“If you come to the hospital and interfere with work, I’ll call security. If you don’t want to be humiliated, don’t show up. I didn’t want to see you or miss you. I’ve never thought about you once in my life, so don’t get the wrong idea and just live the way you were living.”

At the kindergarten talent show, at elementary school graduation, at middle school graduation, at high school graduation—if you had come to see me even once during any of those times, if you had given me even one bouquet of flowers, I might have forgiven everything.

You probably went to your son’s graduation, the one you desperately called out for until you fainted.

You probably dressed up nicely and went to congratulate him while being treated like an elegant lady.

Does that woman know about me, who was grateful just to get a bowl of jajangmyeon on graduation day in the house she abandoned?

She pressed the end button while firmly suppressing whatever was churning at the back of her throat.

And immediately blocked the phone number.

“Well then, let me pull myself together and go to work.”

Leaving the research lab, Da-som headed to the emergency room with her usual smile on her lips.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————