He Came Back Crying

At the sight of Beomwoo shedding tears, Haejin had surpassed the point of being unable to speak and seemed to have frozen in place, his entire body petrified.

……Had I ever seen this person cry before?

In my past life, he was the kind of cold person you could stab and not a single drop of blood would come out, and while I had seen many new, more humane sides of him since coming into this life, I had never seen him cry.

Yet, here he was, suddenly apologizing and crying, which left me feeling even more bewildered.

“What? S-suddenly, what’s…? I mean, Beomwoo?”

Just moments ago, Haejin had been hesitant to even greet him, citing reasons like being in a cold war or things being awkward.

But faced with his crying face, Haejin found himself flustered and at a loss.

Haejin abruptly sat up from the hospital bed, grabbed a box of tissues from the nightstand, and walked over to him.

It felt like he had to somehow calm him down.

He wanted to wipe the tears away himself, but that seemed too forward, making him hesitate.

Instead, Haejin pulled out a tissue and offered it to him, but Beomwoo merely accepted it without wiping his flowing tears.

Just watching him cry like that, Haejin understood what it meant for one’s mind to go blank.

He didn’t know what to do and felt utterly panicked.

Haejin could only stare at his face, doing nothing, before finally asking him belatedly.

“You went out because you caught the hit-and-run driver, right? So why, all of a sudden…”

“That’s precisely why…”

That’s precisely why?

That incident had nothing to do with Beomwoo, so it didn’t seem like something he should be apologizing for and crying over.

If it were about the pain of being a hit-and-run victim and getting into an accident, that would be one thing, but he was already mostly recovered and on the verge of being discharged.

Crying like this now seemed out of place.

When Haejin looked at Beomwoo with a face that showed he didn’t understand, Beomwoo hesitated as if struggling to speak, tightly closed his eyes, and spoke with difficulty.

“That accident… It was something my older brothers orchestrated.”

“What…?”

What did I just hear? Older brothers…?

At the unexpected words, Haejin couldn’t immediately grasp their meaning.

Only belatedly did he confirm if the meaning was what he thought it was.

“S-so, you mean… the hit-and-run driver was Jeongyeon and Hyeonnam?”

“To be precise, my older brothers hired someone to do it.”

Haejin asked, suspecting his own ears, thinking he must have misheard.

But Beomwoo nodded his head with difficulty, confirming that he had heard correctly.

The one who hit me with the motorcycle… was something they planned?

Back then, in the supermarket underground parking lot, as the motorcycle sped toward me without swerving, I did think it seemed intentionally aimed at me.

But the world is full of crazy people, so I just assumed that was the case.

I never imagined it was something they had deliberately planned.

I definitely thought Jeongyeon might retaliate against me, so why hadn’t I considered that he might cause an accident?

It was because of that fear that we had lived together, and even went to Busan together…

Feeling utterly dazed, I wondered if this was what a lack of safety awareness felt like, regretting why I hadn’t suspected even once.

The shock of learning it was something they had done was immense, but it was equally shocking to realize that despite sticking close to Beomwoo for that very reason, I hadn’t harbored a single suspicion.

Was it perhaps that I used anxiety as an excuse to justify wanting to be with Beomwoo?

It felt like I had been hit hard over the head.

Haejin wore a bewildered expression and froze, but Beomwoo, as if understanding that Haejin was in shock, managed to stop his tears with effort and tried to explain the situation as calmly as possible.

“Do you remember last time, when Hyeonnam found out we were living together and came to the house?”

“……Yes.”

“At that time, Hyeonnam backed off without even knowing the reason, but afterward, it seems Jeongyeon approached Hyeonnam.”

“He completely covered up his own misdeeds and told Hyeonnam that we were meeting and planning to get married.”

“He said we couldn’t just be left alone like that.”

When Haejin nodded, indicating he remembered, Beomwoo began explaining how things had come to this.

As if still finding it absurd even in retrospect, Beomwoo steadied his breath and continued.

It seemed Jeongyeon, having had his plan to assault me thwarted by Beomwoo, failed and, as we expected, held a grudge and sought revenge against us.

It seems he thought it would be difficult alone and wanted to enlist Hyeonnam’s help.

“The day Jeongyeon approached Hyeonnam happened to be the day we didn’t come straight back to Seoul from Busan but stayed at the villa instead.”

“It seems they received word through the caretaker that we spent a day there.”

“……Ah.”

At Beomwoo’s following words, Haejin let out an unconscious sigh.

We had sent the villa caretaker away, but it was a villa used by his family.

It seems they were notified by the villa caretaker that we had stayed over.

Jeongyeon had told Hyeonnam that our relationship was unusual, and hearing the news that we had stayed at the villa, Hyeonnam likely believed it to be true.

Of all the ways things could have gotten tangled, it had to be like this…

For a moment, I wondered if going to the villa that day was the problem, but there was nothing strange about two people who were fond of each other forming a relationship.

As Haejin could only sigh over something that couldn’t be blamed on Beomwoo, Beomwoo continued.

“If Hyeonnam had looked into it just a little, he would have known Jeongyeon’s words were false, but of all days, it had to be that day.”

“Also, it seems Hyeonnam’s hostility toward me was so great that he fell for it.”

“……”

“Having been so fixated on the inheritance, it seems they concluded it would be better to… just eliminate the other party.”

“It seems Jeongyeon found the person to carry it out, and they planned it together.”

Beomwoo said, of all things, it had gotten tangled up like that.

He spoke with a guilt-ridden voice, saying that because he took me to the villa that day, it seemed his brothers became even more blinded and chose the extreme method of disguising it as a motorcycle accident with the intent to kill.

That day, seeing the motorcycle speeding toward me recklessly, it overlapped with the truck that hit me in my past life, and I thought I was going to die.

Turns out, they really were trying to kill me.

It was them who did the insane thing, not Beomwoo’s fault…

That thought rose to my throat, but Beomwoo’s words weren’t finished yet.

“When I found out it was something they orchestrated, I went to see Hyeonnam…”

“He was utterly brazen.”

“At first, he wanted revenge on me, but since that wasn’t easy, it seems he used the inheritance as an excuse to eliminate the person I was building affection with.”

“Haejin-ssi, an innocent party, got caught in the crossfire.”

“……”

I had already been dragged into their madness of forcing a relationship and trying for pregnancy to get the inheritance, but to go as far as trying to kill…

I thought only Jeongyeon was crazy, but it seems Hyeonnam was just as insane.

Clearly, the late chairman, wishing for the child of his most trusted right-hand man to live well, must have tied the inheritance to this marriage.

And because of that, I ended up entangled in an incident where I was nearly assaulted and almost killed.

My situation felt so absurd, ridiculous, and… unjust.

No matter how bad the relationship between brothers is, how could they conceive of killing the other party without even considering the will’s intent?

I wanted to argue, but it wasn’t Beomwoo who caused this.

Frustrated, I could only keep it bottled up, unable to say anything.

Just as Beomwoo’s voice seemed to be calming slightly, it trembled as he continued.

“Even if Haejin-ssi doesn’t forgive those people, I at least wanted to make them apologize.”

“……”

“I saw everything—losing consciousness, being in such pain, struggling to even move your limbs properly…”

“For them to put an innocent person through such hardship and not even reflect on it… It’s too brazen.”

Even though Beomwoo had burst into tears the moment he entered the room, he was trying hard to remain calm to explain the situation.

But recalling how brazenly they acted despite causing this, in contrast to Haejin who suffered so much, it seemed difficult for him to maintain his composure.

His shoulders shook as if he were about to burst into tears again.

Just seconds ago, Haejin had been dazed, unable to even imagine they had caused the accident.

Hearing they tried to kill him, he felt unjustly victimized, thinking, ‘Why did this have to happen to me when I did nothing?’

But seeing Beomwoo on the verge of tears again, all those thoughts completely vanished.

His heart ached as if being wrung.

All he could think was that he wished Beomwoo wouldn’t cry.

“This isn’t your fault, Beomwoo… It was resolved without major incident, right?”

“How is this ‘without major incident’? It already happened, and Haejin-ssi was harmed!”

Without realizing it, Haejin ended up trying to soothe him, saying he didn’t need to apologize or cry.

But even at his words, Beomwoo didn’t seem to calm down, raising his voice as if asking how he could speak of it so lightly.

He had lost consciousness in the accident, suffered physical pain for days, and was hospitalized…

As Beomwoo said, it wasn’t something that could be brushed off lightly.

Haejin often thought of himself as having weak mental fortitude whenever he looked back.

He had thought countless times that getting involved with Beomwoo and ending up here after the regression was because he constantly wanted to rely on someone.

So, with this incident, he could have been greatly shocked and fallen apart, but contrary to expectations, he didn’t.

When he was betrayed by people he had hoped in—like his aunt and uncle who were like adoptive parents, or Beomwoo—the world seemed to crumble.

But having his body hurt and being targeted by people he never even had expectations of was, surprisingly, more bearable.

Right now, more than anything, the only thought that came to mind was that he wished Beomwoo before him would stop crying.

Feelings of betrayal over him deceiving me, the imprinting, all those things had long since melted away like water-soluble ink in his tears.

Haejin offered a faint smile and spoke to him.

“I’m not saying it’s okay. But… My body is almost healed, and they said I could be discharged tomorrow.”

“……Really?”

“Yes, the doctor on rounds said so this morning.”

“And to be honest, it’s unfair to get caught up in something like this over an inheritance that has nothing to do with me, and it’s infuriating that they don’t reflect…”

“But Beomwoo-ssi will make them pay the price, won’t you?”

“That’s… right. I will make them pay, no matter what.”

Upon hearing the news of the impending discharge and Haejin’s words acknowledging that Beomwoo would pursue them relentlessly even if they didn’t apologize, the agitated Beomwoo calmed down slightly.

A faint hint of relief even showed on his face at the news that his body had recovered enough to be discharged.

It was a very subtle change, but Haejin, who noticed every sign of him calming down, continued in a lighter tone, as if brushing it off.

“And since this didn’t happen because of you, Beomwoo, you don’t need to apologize.”

“That’s not true. If only I hadn’t turned the car around and taken us to the villa that day—”

“You know that’s just an excuse. Those people would have caused trouble no matter what we did then.”

“And back then… I was happy too. It wasn’t like I was forced to accept something I disliked, right?”

“……”

Beomwoo, who seemed to be calming, was about to get heated again at Haejin’s words that it wasn’t his fault.

But before he could, Haejin cut him off and interjected, saying that if that were the reason, then he shared responsibility too.

Back then, I was happy too. It wasn’t forced…

At that time, I agreed without knowing he had also regressed, and our hearts were so genuinely connected that an imprint even formed without my realizing.

Bringing this up in the current situation was difficult.

Even as he spoke, Haejin felt doubt—‘Is it right to say this?’—and thought he might be saying something unnecessary.

But his desire to calm Beomwoo down, even to the point of saying such things, was greater.

Despite having hated him so much and been filled with betrayal, he found himself swaying back and forth to an extent he couldn’t understand his own desires.

Normally, he wasn’t the type to have significant emotional fluctuations, being more like a calm lake.

But whenever it involved Beomwoo, this happened.