MDWR 04

Chapter 4

Lit by the dawn light, Eun-jo hovered around Troiple, gazing blankly at the ambulance driving away with her body inside. She was utterly lost.

Where is it going? Will they perform a proper autopsy? No, there is no way Kang Jin-woo would allow an autopsy. He can’t let drugs be detected in the body.

“No, my body was so completely shattered that there isn’t even enough left to perform an autopsy. It will probably go… straight to the funeral hall.”

Getting into a taxi, Eun-jo headed straight to the Yeonhui University Medical Center Funeral Hall.

Kang Jin-woo would hold her funeral there. Since CX Soft donated large sums of money to that center every year, it would be much easier for him to control things in many ways.

Arriving at the funeral hall like that, Eun-jo greeted the morning in the courtyard.

It was mid-September, and while the morning air was cold, it was not unbearable.

Rubbing her arms with both hands, she couldn’t bring herself to step inside the funeral hall. Instead, she watched one familiar face after another enter the building.

Every single one of them was dressed in black, bearing somber expressions.

College classmates, upperclassmen and lowerclassmen, fellow artists from the same gallery, apartment neighbors, CX Soft executives…

Curled up sitting near the flowerbed, Eun-jo closely examined the faces of the people visiting her funeral hall.

A strange feeling washed over her.

Rather, it didn’t feel like reality at all.

Even though she had seen her own tattered, unrecognizable corpse with her own eyes, she still couldn’t believe it.

Even the white blouse she had been wearing before falling was soaked in blood, making it look like it didn’t belong to her.

Nothing felt like it belonged to her, yet they were roughly gathering it up, insisting it was her, and holding a funeral. It was so unbelievable that not even tears would flow.

She wasn’t even angry. She just felt blank and somehow hollow.

Still, seeing her classmates and figures from the art world weeping for her made somewhere deep in her chest ache.

On the other hand, a sense of nausea surged at the sight of the CX Soft executives leaving the funeral hall with sorrowful expressions. They were bat-like people who had attached themselves to Kang Jin-woo as soon as her father died.

“Abominable human beings.”

As she muttered curses while watching the executives’ backs, a taxi blocked her view of them.

A familiar face stepped out of the taxi.

With a shocked expression, her bare face without a trace of makeup looked remarkably pure. It was a sight that stirred a protective instinct in any man, making them want to embrace her.

However, to Eun-jo, she was nothing but a demon. It was Kim Na-in, Kang Jin-woo’s mistress who had driven her to her death.

Stepping out of the taxi, she covered her face with a pre-prepared handkerchief and sobbed.

“Sister… Oh no… Sob…”

Continually wiping her red-rimmed eyes with the handkerchief, Na-in stumbled forward. Drawing all the attention of those around her to herself, Na-in disappeared into the funeral hall.

Eun-jo was simply dumbfounded by the utterly despicable display.

“Crazy…”

Unable to bring herself to spew curses out loud, she bit her lip until it nearly bled.

It was at that moment.

A tall shadow fell over her face.

The heavy sound of slow footsteps tapping against the ground echoed deeply.

“Na Eun-jo?”

Na Eun-jo.

Was it because they shared the same name?

Even though he wasn’t calling her, her eyes moved on their own.

At the end of her gaze stood someone looking down at her with the sun at his back. He was a tall man with long legs.

Slowly lifting her head to face him, she narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t see his shadow-draped face clearly.

“Who…?”

The moment she asked the question, she immediately regretted it.

What difference would it make if he told her who he was?

Tightly closing her lips, she simply scowled and waited for the awkward answer the man might give.

“Na Eun-jo, are you sick somewhere?”

The man moved slightly, stepping into the shade. As he did, his features—which had been hidden by the reflected light—gradually became clear.

As the man’s face came into view, her expression froze as well.

It was a familiar face.

“Park… Ju-heon?”

Though his vibe was slightly different, the man talking to her right now was unmistakably Park Ju-heon.

Her father’s favorite student back when he was an adjunct professor at the engineering college of Hankuk University, and her first love… who had learned painting from her.

How does that Park Ju-heon know Na Eun-jo? How?

“Na Eun-jo.”

Ju-heon’s voice was sharp.

With a deep vertical crease between his brows, he said coldly:

“Even so, wouldn’t it be polite to at least use a title of respect for an investor in your agency? I’m not your friend, am I?”

In an instant, her mind went completely blank.

She was at a loss for what to do or what to say.

While she stood there flustered without saying a word, Ju-heon spoke again.

“What brought you here?”

His voice was still sharp.

“Are you… here to meet me, by any chance?”

Ju-heon’s gaze briefly shifted to her funeral hall before dropping away.

Then, his dry eyes coldly scanned her up and down.

A cold, brief silence flowed, and Ju-heon spoke again.

“If it’s because of what happened last time, we already finished talking about that. Didn’t you understand when I said I have nothing more to say?”

The words he spat out were as sharp as a well-honed blade.

“If you keep acting like this…”

“I’m also…”

She couldn’t know for sure how Ju-heon knew the owner of this body.

However, one thing was clear.

The VIP building of Yeonhui University Medical Center Funeral Hall. Today, there was no other funeral parlor here besides hers.

“I also know the deceased.”

In other words, Ju-heon had come to offer his condolences to the late Lee Eun-jo—her.

“I also…”

Eun-jo, who had uncurled her slouched body and stood up, answered without meeting Ju-heon’s eyes.

“I know her too.”

At that moment, it felt as though a cold wind blew from Ju-heon.

With his jaw tightly set, he looked at her without even blinking. His gaze was so sharp that she felt suffocated even without making eye contact.

“You… know her? Na Eun-jo knows Lee Eun-jo?”

Was it just her imagination? The edge of Ju-heon’s voice as he swallowed her name seemed subtly cracked.

She was curious.

Is Park Ju-heon truly mourning Lee Eun-jo’s death?

Lifting her eyes, Eun-jo faced Ju-heon. But she immediately regretted it.

Because the swirl of emotion inside Ju-heon’s black eyes felt like it was about to swallow her whole.

Quickly dropping her gaze, she opened her lips while looking down at her toes.

“That’s right, we knew each other.”

For no apparent reason, a lump formed in her throat.

“I came to pay my respects after hearing the news…”

A single teardrop fell onto the sneaker she was wearing.

“Because my clothes are like this.”

She couldn’t say any more.

She couldn’t hide the stiff, uncomfortable sensation in her throat, as if something was stuck in it.

“I’ll be going now.”

So Eun-jo fled the spot as if running away.

Leaving the hospital behind, Eun-jo couldn’t figure out where she should go.

She could no longer return to Seoul Forest Troiple under her name. Because Lee Eun-jo was no longer a person of this world.

Then do I have to go back to the home of Na Eun-jo, the owner of this body?

‘Do I even know where it is?’

A hollow sigh broke through her teeth and escaped.

Running out of Na Eun-jo’s house early this morning, she hadn’t thought she would have to return there. No, she hadn’t had the peace of mind to think about that.

Confirming her own ruined corpse was not an easy thing to do, after all.

Besides, she didn’t even know the address of Na Eun-jo’s house.

The sound of the ambulance siren when she ran out of that house, and the high-rise apartment complex in Seoul Forest rising between the buildings.

Having run all the way in one breath to reach Troiple, all she knew was that it was somewhere in Seongsu-dong.

She could recklessly go to Seongsu-dong and try to trace her memories, but she had already spent all the money she had on taxi fare to get here.

Letting out a long sigh, Eun-jo covered her face with both hands and collapsed to the ground.

‘What am I supposed to do now?’

They asked if I wanted to interfere with fate and I agreed, but if things are like this, how am I supposed to interfere with fate?

Then, a sudden thought crossed her mind, and she snapped her head up.

‘That’s right. They asked if I wanted to interfere with fate.’

Because she had been out of her mind, she had completely forgotten about it. the only existence that could explain this overwhelming reality to her.