IWTSDLPF 5

                                                          <5>

“Seol-hee made porridge?”

Song Geun’s face brightened.

He usually did not even want to eat because his stomach was upset. But he happily ate the whole bowl of porridge his daughter had made.

“It tastes like honey. Your porridge is so good that I don’t even want to eat the hospital food anymore.”

He gave an awkward smile.

The surgery costs had not been solved yet.

Seol-hee could tell that her father was indirectly saying that he wanted to delay going to the hospital because of the cost.

It worried her.

He had worked hard his whole life doing construction work.

Because of that, getting a loan from a bank was almost impossible.

He had lived from one day to the next, and the only thing he had managed to save was a small apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, about twenty pyeong in size.

It was everything he had saved during his entire life.

Seol-hee put down her spoon.

“Dad, about the hospital bills…”

Dong-chan had promised to lend them the money for her father’s hospital bills as soon as they got married.

Of course, Seol-hee had agreed to pay that money back after getting a job.

But in reality, he had used the debt to control her and had not even allowed her to leave the house.

“Dad, let’s move out of this house. We can get the deposit back and use that money for your hospital bills.”

“But…”

“I know you don’t want to give up this house. You wanted to leave it to me, so you didn’t want to use the money.”

Seol-hee tried to convince her father.

The thing she needed to protect was not a house like this.

It was the precious person beside her.

“And let’s change hospitals too.”

Song Geun’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Why change hospitals?”

“It’s the hospital Jin Dong-chan recommended in the first place. It’s famous, but I don’t really trust it. There’s another hospital called Naum Hospital. I heard they have a very good doctor in the gastroenterology department.”

“We barely managed to get a surgery date at this hospital.”

“Just trust me.”

The doctor she was talking about would later become famous for stomach cancer surgery.

“He’s supposed to be extremely skilled.”

Song Geun stayed silent for a moment after hearing how confident she sounded.

Then he nodded.

“If you say so… then let’s do it.”

Seol-hee felt a little less worried after hearing him agree.

“But if we use the money from this house for the hospital bills, where will we live?”

Song Geun sighed as if he felt guilty.

“We’re going to SeongX-dong.”

Seol-hee answered confidently.

But her father’s expression became even darker.

“That place is an industrial area. The roads are steep, and the neighborhood isn’t very safe.”

It was not a popular area at that time.

But Seol-hee knew something.

One day, that neighborhood would become extremely valuable.

“That’s exactly why we’re going there. We can use the deposit from this house, and once I get a job, I can also get a loan. It might be difficult, but let’s buy a house instead.”

Seol-hee picked up her chopsticks again.

She removed the bones from a yellow croaker and held the meat out to her father.

She smiled with her eyes as if saying, Just trust me.

Song Geun looked at his daughter with a confused expression.

The fish he had just eaten suddenly felt like it was stuck in his throat.

One Week Later

Seol-hee went to Naum Hospital with her father.

Song Geun went to the CT room for his examination, while Seol-hee sat in the waiting room and checked her email on her phone.

“If this continues, am I going to fail every resume screening?”

She sighed.

She had sent her resume to several companies she wanted to work for.

But she kept getting rejected.

“How can there be not even one place that wants to interview me?”

She had a bad feeling.

And that morning, on her third day back at the convenience store where she had worked before getting married, she received a message.

[Seol-hee, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stop working here from today. The landlord called this morning. He even mentioned your name and said that if I don’t fire you, he’ll raise the rent by 10% starting next month.]

It was obvious who had done this.

Seol-hee sighed.

It must be Yeo In-ok.

She had already suspected that In-ok was behind all her failed job applications.

Now that she had even lost her part-time job, she was certain.

She had never expected them to stop her from even doing part-time work.

“Are they really trying to cut off every way I can make money?”

Seol-hee sent a message to the owner, telling him it was okay even though he kept apologizing.

She had worked there for four years during university.

They were close enough that the owner had even lent her money when she was in trouble.

Actually, she owed him more than he owed her.

Suddenly, she felt exhausted.

What should I do?

She suddenly became afraid.

What if I can never get a job again?

Her throat felt dry.

She got some cold water from the water purifier and walked through the hospital lobby.

Think, Woo Seol-hee!

How did Dong-chan know which companies I applied to?

Then something suddenly came to her mind.

“No way.”

She stopped and quickly checked the login history of her email account.

Her eyebrows slowly came together.

“This damn Jin Poop Car!”

Her grip tightened around the phone.

There were login records from devices she did not use.

All of them were devices Dong-chan used.

Everything suddenly made sense.

Dong-chan had checked which companies she sent her resume to through her email.

Then he had told In-ok.

She had used all her connections to make sure Seol-hee failed the resume screening.

“These people…”

What they were doing was clearly illegal.

Her heart suddenly sank.

Seol-hee slowly took a deep breath and calmed herself.

First, she took screenshots of the login records.

Then she logged out of every device and changed her password to a completely new one.

I need to find somewhere.

A place where they could not reach her.

A place outside In-ok and Dong-chan’s influence.

They might even try to contact companies through another way she did not know about.

Then her eyes moved across the hospital lobby bulletin board.

They suddenly stopped at one poster.

She walked over and looked closely.

[Fundraising Concert for Heart Disease Patients at Naum Hospital]

Her eyes moved down the poster.

They stopped at the final line.

[Hosted by Shinwol Foundation]

“Shinwol Foundation…”

Dong-chan’s angry voice suddenly came back to her mind.

“Fuck, those Shinwol Foundation people!”

She remembered.

The area where Dong-chan had run in a local election was under the influence of the Shinwol Foundation.

It was the largest public-interest foundation in Korea.

It provided most of the medical support and scholarships in the area and had a strong relationship with the local residents.

“The founder of the Shinwol Foundation was originally against the political party Jin Dong-chan belonged to.”

Dong-chan had blamed the Shinwol Foundation for his first election loss.

Then maybe this is the only place where Dong-chan and In-ok can’t use their power.

“It is definitely worth trying.”

The Shinwol Foundation would be safe.

If she passed the resume screening, she could get an interview.

And if everything went well, she could get the job.

Seol-hee immediately checked the Shinwol Foundation website on her phone.

She tapped the job listings.

“Please, please… Ah! There is one.”

There were job openings in the External Relations Team and the Human Resources Team.

She calmed herself and slowly read through the requirements.

Then one thing caught her eye.

[Bonus points for a professor’s recommendation letter]

Seol-hee thought about which professor had liked her.

Then she remembered one person.

“If it’s Professor Kim…”

There was not much time left before the application deadline.

She became anxious.

The Next Day

Seol-hee went to her university to get the recommendation letter.

It was festival season, so the campus was crowded with students.

It had rained until early morning, leaving puddles everywhere.

But the students were busy setting up tents and booths and calling people over.

Their faces were full of energy.

Just looking at them made Seol-hee feel happy.

“Ah, I love this familiar feeling.”

She had been so busy working part-time during university that she had rarely taken part in school activities outside of studying.

But the lively atmosphere was exactly as she remembered it from ten years ago.

As she walked toward the main department building, Seol-hee remembered the phone call she had with Professor Kim Seok-jun the day before.

Luckily, he remembered her immediately.

She had been the only student in his class who received an A+.

His assignments and exams had been difficult, even for Seol-hee.

They included business plans, setting performance goals, and explaining how to divide a budget.

But because of those difficult assignments, she had become a student the strict professor remembered well.

He had gladly agreed to write her a recommendation letter.

“Looks like there’s still a way for me to survive.”

She happily walked into the main department building.

In one hand, she carried a plastic drink holder.

Inside was an iced sweet-potato latte that Professor Kim usually liked and a chocolate latte covered with lots of whipped cream, which Seol-hee loved.

Because of the festival, the building was quiet.

For a moment, she saw the black Derby shoes of a man walking down the central stairs.

“Ah! What room was the professor’s office again?”

She searched through her bag, took out her phone, and checked the messages they had exchanged.

As she walked, she noticed the Derby shoes of the man who had just passed her.

They were perfectly clean.

Not even a speck of dust was on them.

“Hmm, the professor’s office is… Room 201… Ah!”

Everything happened in an instant.

There was a step on the stairs that students jokingly called the entrance to the afterlife.

It had a terrible reputation because at least one student fell there every day.

Seol-hee’s foot caught on the edge.

Damn it. I forgot you were here.

She thought that after ten years, everything would be easier.

But that step was still there, ready to make careless people fall.

Seol-hee tightly closed her eyes.

She was about to be thrown helplessly onto the cold concrete floor.

But suddenly, her fall stopped.

Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her up.

So easily.

“Are you okay?”

A low voice suddenly reached her ears.

Seol-hee instinctively looked up.

She had to look much higher than her own eye level before their eyes met.

Can a person really look like this?

For a moment, she was completely stunned.

There were many handsome people in the world.

But it was rare to see someone with such neat and perfect features, along with such deep eyes.

His eyes had a dark gray color.

They looked directly into hers.

Seol-hee quickly lowered her head.

“Ah, thank you.”

The man slowly released the hand that was holding her wrist.

He gave a short nod.

Without saying anything else, he walked away.

“Wow, that scared me.”

She had almost been badly hurt.

Because of that, her heart was beating hard.

She was even breathing faster.

She walked up a few more steps before suddenly stopping.

Only then did she notice the scent left around the tip of her nose.

It was a familiar scent.

She suddenly remembered the hoodie the students had lent her.

It had smelled similar.

“Is that perfume popular these days?”

Seol-hee rubbed the warmth left on the arm where the man had held her.

Then she continued walking up the stairs.