“It appears he has lost the memory of the last three years.”
Mrs. Jang asked for the attending physician’s opinion.
“Three years? You mean my son’s memory is stuck at twenty-three?”
“That is correct.”
“Is there any chance his memory might return?”
“It’s possible. However, the patient may find it distressing, so try not to stress him out. His stability is the priority.”
“…….”
“There may be issues in other areas as well, so you will need to monitor him for a long time.”
At the doctor’s advice, Mrs. Jang’s pulse throbbed wildly.
*It is a pity that my son lost three years of his life.*
*But if it’s only the last three years… if that’s all there is to it.*
*Perhaps it could be for the best!*
The only things that happened to my son in the last three years were his military enlistment, his discharge, and that short relationship with that girl, Jeong-o Lee.
If it’s just that, wouldn’t it be fine to lose those memories?
He had only completed two semesters of university during those three years, so he wouldn’t be falling too far behind his peers.
Mrs. Jang calculated busily in her head.
*Let’s completely erase the traces of my son’s past, especially the traces of that girl, Jeong-o Lee. Let’s go back to the time before he knew her and start over.*
This is an opportunity for my son to be happier.
“Yes. I will look after him well. Thank you, Doctor.”
Mrs. Jang greeted the physician and stepped out of the examination room.
Eun-Bi was standing outside with an anxious expression.
“Mother.”
The daughter of Judge Seobok Chae.
Having recently returned from studying in the U.S., she had diligently kept watch over Ji-Heon’s hospital room.
It might have been out of a sense of duty as a witness to the hit-and-run, but it also seemed like she quite liked my son.
A girl well-raised in a good family.
If she’s going to be my son’s partner, she should at least be of this caliber.
“Yes, Eun-Bi.”
“What did the doctor say?”
“He said the memories of the last three years are gone. We don’t even know if they will return.”
Mrs. Jang told Eun-Bi the truth and sighed deeply.
“……Then, does he not remember me either?”
Eun-Bi’s expression was full of worry. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
“Ji-Heon oppa used to dote on me a lot.”
“Oh, did he?”
“He even said we should date once I returned to Korea. It was obviously a joke, but he probably won’t remember that either.”
The moment she heard Eun-Bi’s confession, Mrs. Jang instinctively grabbed her hand tightly.
“It’s alright! You can just start over.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Of course. Absolutely.”
As she gave her encouragement, Eun-Bi smiled shyly, looking truly lovely. Mrs. Jang genuinely began to picture a happy future.
How wonderful it would be if a girl like this became my daughter-in-law one day.
After parting ways with Eun-Bi, Mrs. Jang returned to the hospital room.
Ji-Heon, who had been asleep, was now awake, staring blankly out the window.
“Are you awake? How do you feel?”
“Just so-so.”
To Ji-Heon, who replied in a dry, monotone voice, Mrs. Jang spoke again, hoping to breathe some vitality into her son.
“You saw Eun-Bi, right? While you were lying there unconscious, she went through a lot of trouble. She came to visit you every single day without fail.”
“Eun-Yeop’s younger sister?”
“Yes. She must be busy, having only returned from studying abroad a few days ago, yet she took such good care of you.”
“…….”
“Oh, do you remember this? You must have been very fond of Eun-Bi. They say you mentioned it before she went abroad—that you two should date when she returned to Korea.”
“Is that so? That’s strange.”
“…….”
“Eun-Yeop’s sister isn’t my type.”
Ji-Heon said coldly, as if he felt nothing at all.
His expression was hollow, as if there were a massive hole in his chest.
It seemed that with this accident, my son hadn’t just lost his memories; he had also severed the strings of his emotions.
Watching this, Mrs. Jang felt a pang of pity and gave a weak smile.
“Well, it might have just been a polite remark.”
“…….”
“But the child is truly kind and pretty. She’s bright and smart. She was so good to me, too. You must have thought she was adorable and doted on her.”
*No. I don’t think he would have said such nonsense even as a polite remark. He wouldn’t have doted on her.*
Ji-Heon wanted to refute it, but he didn’t feel like saying anything, so he stayed silent.
*What happened during the three years I lost?*
*The military… Was life in the military that hard? How could I have no memory of it at all?*
He wanted to recall something, even if it was just a tiny detail, but it was useless. As Ji-Heon’s brow furrowed, Mrs. Jang asked with a worried look.
“What is it? Is your head hurting again?”
“I’m fine.”
“…….”
“It’s just… I feel like I’ve forgotten something very important.”
The more he tried to recall his memories, the more his head felt like it would shatter.
However, the tears didn’t flow from his eyes; they seemed to be flowing from his heart.
*
Jeong-o could not bring herself to go to the hospital.
When she was with Ji-Heon, she felt she could overcome anything, but the simple fact that she had lost contact with him had completely broken her spirit.
However, her body was honest. She was overcome with fatigue and chest pains. Even when she sat still, she felt nauseous, as if suffering from motion sickness.
She couldn’t keep putting it off. She couldn’t stay in despair forever.
She had to make a decision.
*Let’s try one last time.*
*Let’s try to reach out to him one last time.*
Jeong-o courageously picked up her phone.
*Beep, beep, beep.* Her heart throbbed the entire time the dial tone played. But the call never connected.
Her heart, which had already collapsed several times, crumbled once more, leaving her mind in such ruins that not even a single brick could be placed.
Just as she felt so hollow that not even a tear could fall, her phone vibrated for the first time in a while.
Unexpectedly, Ji-Heon’s name appeared.
Jeong-o hurriedly answered.
“Hello.”
[Jeong-o Lee?]
It was unmistakably Ji-Heon’s voice. How long had it been since she’d heard it?
“Oppa…….”
She had so much to say. So much. The grievances she had held back exploded.
The tear ducts she thought had run dry filled with moisture once again.
“Why didn’t you call me…….”
She said it like she was sulking. But she couldn’t get too angry.
*Yes. I thought something was wrong, too. There’s no way Oppa would just cut off contact.*
“Oppa, what happened? You’re okay, right?”
However, her resentment didn’t last long. Confirming his condition was the priority.
[I’m fine.]
Jeong-o was relieved by his answer.
*Yes. As long as you’re okay, it’s fine. Now we can solve the other problems together.*
She wanted to say that, but—
[I understand that my mother met with you on my behalf. Didn’t everything end then?]
His cold, dry voice cut her off.
“……Huh?”
[Wasn’t my opinion conveyed through that?]
Words so heartless that she couldn’t believe they were his true feelings reached her.
[It’s burdensome, so could you stop contacting me?]
But it was undoubtedly his voice.
Jeong-o’s expression froze. A darkness, even greater than when the contact had first been cut off, cast over her eyes.
[You wouldn’t want to be an obstacle in someone else’s life, right?]
She felt like she couldn’t breathe.
*I became an obstacle in your life?*
*Why? Because I’m pregnant?*
[You’d better be prepared if you contact me again.]
“……Prepared?”
*Prepared? What kind of preparation!*
[I’ll assume you understood and hang up now. Take care.]
The calm, sharp voice signaled the end.
*Click.*
Without answering her questions, and before she could offer a farewell, the call disconnected.
*It can’t be.*
Her strength drained away, and she dropped the phone.
But she soon shook her head.
*That’s impossible. It must be a lie.*
Picking up the phone, Jeong-o wiped away her tears and quickly dialed Ji-Heon’s number again.
[The phone is turned off, please leave a message after the beep…….]
The automated message, which she had heard dozens of times, rang painfully, as if striking her eardrum.
That was the end for the two of them.
*
“Oppa, our child has turned one.”
“She has started calling me ‘Mom’.”
“I don’t know where she learned it, but sometimes she calls me ‘Dad’, too.”
“Ji-Heon, our child is running around now.”
“She even started going to preschool.”
“She’s very curious and eats well.”
“She loves touching my face and sings songs every now and then.”
“Ji-Heon Jeong. Ye-Na will be an elementary school student next year.”
“She is so pretty, has a good personality, and has many friends.”
“She doesn’t have a father, but you wouldn’t believe how bright she is.”
“I don’t wait for your calls anymore.”
“Come to think of it, you never told me you loved me.”
“Well, I don’t think everything was a lie, though.”
“You liked me well enough, I suppose, just not enough to say you loved me.”
“It’s okay. Now.”
The season I couldn’t let go of for so long remained only as a hard, ball-bearing-like sediment.
And the time it took for the surface of that ball bearing to rust over…
Seven years had passed.
Now, she no longer cries over a departed love.
*
“Mom, why is there a gacha machine here?”
On the way back from the academy, Ye-Na, who had let go of her mother’s hand and run a few steps ahead, stopped in front of the vending machine and asked.
“Mom, why is there a gacha machine here?”
The bright, twinkling eyes of the child, looking up with her head tilted back, tickled Jeong-o Lee’s heart.
Her eyes shone like black pebbles swaying under the current of a clear valley stream.
She was a lovely child, whose cleverness, even when acting curious, didn’t seem detestable at all.
“Mom, why is the gacha machine here?”
“Ye-Na Lee. Are you asking because you really wonder why it’s here, or are you asking because you want to play it?”
Jeong-o Lee asked, squinting.
“Tell me honestly.”
“Because I want to play.”
Having had her inner thoughts seen through, Ye-Na confessed while pouting her chubby lips.
She was so cute I couldn’t even scold her.
Jeong-o Lee chuckled.
“Pick one. I’ll let you do it just once. If you don’t get what you want, there’s nothing I can do. I’m only doing it once.”
“This one.”
Ye-Na pointed to the bottom-left machine.
“It eats up three 500-won coins. Ye-Na, how much is three 500-won coins?”
“1,500 won!”
I asked to teach her math, but the answer came faster than ever.
It seemed she had already done the math in her head.
Jeong-o Lee handed three 500-won coins to her tiny, cute hands.
Ye-Na deftly inserted the coins into the machine.
Seeing how skilled she was, it must have been a trick she used on her grandmother often.
A seven-year-old kid is quite cunning.
Jeong-o Lee recalled the cunning man from seven years ago.
He was so gently cunning that I didn’t even know I was being deceived.
It was funny how I kept thinking of the child’s father in the strangest moments.
*’But I am not the Jeong-o Lee of the past anymore.’*
Jeong-o Lee had become someone who could chuckle while thinking of her naive self from seven years ago.
Just because I think of him sometimes doesn’t mean I miss him.
It’s just like a farmer reflecting on a year of extreme famine.
It’s just a harrowing past.
I just hope I never run into him for the rest of my life.
“Wow! Mom! I got what I wanted!”
Ye-Na, clutching the capsule, jumped up and down, but Jeong-o Lee felt a sense of futility.
A bouncy ball. It was just a lump of rubber bunched up into a sphere. I felt disgruntled that a mere bouncy ball cost 1,500 won.
“Ye-Na, did you want this?”
“Yes!”
“Why?”
“It’s the color of a Go stone.”
Ye-Na, who had opened the capsule herself, answered.
She liked that this rubber ball, wearing a soccer ball pattern, was the color of a Go stone.
She’s really something.
Jeong-o Lee could only chuckle.
Like the leaves on the street trees this season, her daughter had grown up again before she knew it. She had become a child who knew her own tastes and could express them.
Throughout the walk to the restaurant, Ye-Na’s hand never left her pocket.
The way she kept fidgeting with the bouncy ball in her pocket was plain to see. Her steps were faster than usual, too. I could see her determination to get to her grandmother’s restaurant and take the ball out to play properly.
The two reached ‘Guksun Banchan’ energetically.
‘Guksun Banchan’. The restaurant of Jeong-o Lee’s mother, Guksun Lee.
Although it is a small restaurant with only five tables, it is famous in the neighborhood. It’s so popular that nearby office workers line up during lunch hours.
“Grandma!”
“My baby’s here? Come and eat.”
As Ye-Na shouted upon opening the door, Guksun welcomed her with a big smile. Their dinner was already prepared on the table.
Ye-Na pulled the bouncy ball out of her pocket before even sitting down.
“Did you play gacha again?”
Guksun asked, recognizing what Ye-Na was holding. Ye-Na didn’t answer, looking as if she had been caught.
Today’s dinner menu was bean sprout soup and stir-fried spicy pork.
Ye-Na became sullen at the table, which had neither tonkatsu nor tteokbokki.
Unaware of her frustration, Guksun picked up a side dish of anchovies and placed it on Ye-Na’s rice bowl.
“What is my puppy doing? Pick up your spoon.”
Since Ye-Na wasn’t moving, Guksun’s hand moved to Ye-Na’s spoon out of habit. Guksun scooped rice from the bowl and brought it to Ye-Na’s mouth.
“Mom, let her eat on her own.”
Jeong-o Lee, sitting across from her, said while shoveling rice into her mouth like a laborer.
“It’s because she isn’t eating,” Guksun retorted.
Her daughter and granddaughter were Guksun’s treasures.
Watching her daughter eat a full meal she had cooked, and seeing food enter her granddaughter’s mouth, was Guksun’s joy in life.
As if she could read her mind, Ye-Na looked at her mother and said:
“Grandma, I’m full just watching Mom eat.”
*Pfft.* Jeong-o Lee couldn’t help but laugh while swallowing her food.
Children are a mirror of adults.
They pick up pieces of words adults let slip and make them their own.
That is why Jeong-o Lee also tries to use beautiful words and act properly—to be a role model for Ye-Na.
While eating, Guksun got up several times to serve customers. Jeong-o Lee tried to help, but Guksun doted on her daughter too much.
“Eat quickly and go in. Go home and prepare for work tomorrow.”
“What is there to prepare for work?”
“It’s your first day after changing jobs. You need to prepare your mind.”
As if preparing her mind were a major move, Guksun’s voice was filled with emphasis.
*
The next day.
“Do well. Don’t skip lunch.”
First day at the new company. Jeong-o Lee left home with Guksun seeing her off.
She had changed jobs on the recommendation of a senior who had moved earlier. Although it was a small company, the conditions were good, so her hesitation hadn’t lasted long.
But the senior, who met Jeong-o Lee upon her arrival at the new company, suddenly told her to meet in Gangnam.
Jeong-o Lee waited for the senior at the bank intersection. A while later, the senior arrived.
“Assistant Manager Lee.”
“Senior.”
Jeong-o Lee greeted the senior and asked for the purpose.
“Why did you call me here?”
“The company was sold. To Max Planning.”
An unpredictable life.
Jeong-o Lee couldn’t close her gaping mouth for a long while before asking:
“When?”
“The official announcement was made last night; didn’t you see the news?”
*As if I could have.* Last night, she had gone to bed early, following her mother’s advice.
“It seems things happened very quickly. Still, there is a place for you, Assistant Manager Lee. Only the company building and the management have changed. It’s just a bit chaotic for now, but it’ll be sorted out soon.”
“…….”
“Since it’s your first time everywhere, I’ve arranged for you to join this side directly without needing to sign a new labor contract. I’ll be coming over here soon, too, so don’t worry.”
Now that she thought about it, the place the senior asked to meet was in front of the building where Max Planning was located.
Max Planning was a better company than the one she had moved to, and the location was fine, but it was all too sudden.
“I’ve heard from the HR team. Go on in.”
“By myself?”
“You can do it, Assistant Manager Lee.”
The senior patted her shoulder as if to encourage her.
Intense fear was layered over the excitement and nervousness of her first day.
She felt as if she had been left alone in the middle of a vast ocean.
*Life, after all, is meant to be lived alone.*
Thirty years. The experiences of a life that wasn’t exactly short had, before she knew it, become Jeong-o’s assets. Compared to the despair of the distant past, this level of tension was nothing.
*Jeong-o Lee, you can do this!*
Jeong-o braced herself, putting every ounce of energy into her body, and walked into the building.
A man and a woman were standing in front of the office entrance.
“Jeong-o Lee-ssi?”
When Jeong-o answered, “Yes!”, the man introduced her to the woman.
“Team Leader, this is the new copywriter, Jeong-o Lee.”
The woman nodded broadly and held out her hand.
“Assistant Manager Jeong-o Lee, nice to meet you. I’m Miran Seong, Team Leader of Production Team 2. Let’s do great work together.”
“Yes. I look forward to working with you.”
The team leader’s kind expression put Jeong-o at ease.
Soon after, Jeong-o parted ways with the HR employee and followed Miran.
“I heard about you. I heard you were supposed to join Sang-ah Communications but ended up here instead.”
“Yes.”
“Must be confusing. Things are so hectic here lately that we barely have time to look after anyone. You’ll be able to adapt, right?”
“Yes. Of course.”
Jeong-o replied spiritedly.
Contrary to the description of the office being “hectic,” the interior was as quiet as a grave.
Sensing something strange, Miran asked an employee from the next team as they walked toward their desks.
“Why is it so quiet?”
“Director Jeong is over there,” the employee replied, pointing to the end of the hallway.
Jeong-o turned her head. The man was much taller and leaner than the others. His back looked more like that of a model than someone with the title of Director.
“Is that so? Then I suppose we don’t need to go over and greet him separately.”
Miran muttered to herself, then leaned in close to Jeong-o and whispered urgently.
“Actually, the Director is scarier than the CEO. He’s only been here a week, and…”
“…….”
“He’s the Group Chairman’s son.”
The Chairman’s son. A person from a different world.
Perhaps due to the tension, her stomach churned.
*I have to do well. I have to do well.*
The moment Jeong-o braced herself again, Director Jeong turned around at the other end of the hall.
Life is always unpredictable.
Jeong-o’s face, which had been directed toward the end of the hall, froze.
…That physique, that face.
Seven years. As if the chasm of that time were a lie, she could recognize him clearly, even from a distance.
The father of my child.
Ji-Heon Jeong. It was him.
I never imagined I would meet him like this.
I never knew he was this kind of person.
Jeong-o was so flustered she couldn’t move, yet he walked toward her without a moment’s hesitation, without even a flicker in his eyes.
*Clack. Clack. Clack.*
The sound of his heels landing felt heavy, as if it were clamping iron shackles onto her body.
It felt as though all her air holes had been blocked; she couldn’t even breathe properly.
Only her heart was thrashing inside, so violently it felt like it might jump out of her chest.
He is approaching.
Something she had once awaited like a dream.
But now, she wanted to shake her head and deny it.
While Jeong-o was frantically shaking her head in her mind, he got closer.
The footsteps that had approached at a steady pace and stride finally stopped. Right in front of her.
Her thoughts came to a complete halt.
Before she knew it, she took half a step back, but Ji-Heon grabbed her firmly.