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.