Actually, It’s a Messy Melodrama Chapter 48

“Have you eaten?”

“Yes. Have you?”

“I ate while I was working.”

“At the convenience store? What, like a lunch box or something?”

“The convenience store lunch boxes are really good these days. You’ve never tried one, have you?”

Taejun shut his mouth. It was true that he hadn’t, but more than that, the more they talked, the stranger he felt.

Taejun had many people whose job it was to assist him, both professionally and personally, so that he could live comfortably. However, apart from Secretary Choi, there was no one who spoke to him so freely.

Was that why? The more he talked with Haeshin, the more Taejun felt as if he were talking not with someone he had hired, but with someone in a much more private relationship. Like, for example, a lover, or a lover, or a married couple, or something like that.

“Ahem, so, did you decide to move your convenience store shift?”

“Yes. Luckily, the boss changed it for me right away. I’ll start working in the mornings from next week.”

“That boss seems to dote on you too, huh?”

“Oh, please, there isn’t a boss who doesn’t dote on me.”

The words ‘What a thing to brag about’ rose up to Taejun’s throat, but he stopped himself, figuring Cha Haeshin would just flash a bright smile and confidently reply, ‘It’s an incredible thing to brag about.’

He had no idea how Haeshin usually treated people to get special treatment at every place he worked. A strange feeling washed over him—he wanted to know, but at the same time, he absolutely did not want to know.

“Um… Mr. Han.”

While Taejun was struggling not to recall the image of Cha Haeshin chatting warmly like a real brother with a high school student who was just a convenience store customer, Haeshin, as if remembering something he had to say, opened his mouth, his voice turning somewhat serious.

“What is it?”

“No, it’s just… thank you so much. And I’ll work hard.”

“…”

“I’ll do my best, thinking of this as a good job that’s more than I deserve. I don’t know how long I’ll be working here, but I’ll work really hard, so that you won’t have any inconveniences, Mr. Han.”

Taejun wanted to say there was no need for that, but he swallowed those words too. Taejun’s intention was to say ‘you don’t need to feel burdened,’ but he thought it might be misconstrued as ‘your efforts are meaningless.’

No one lacks pride because they choose not to show it. There are only people who are forced to pretend they don’t have any as they live their lives.

Cha Haeshin must be the same. Both Cha Haeshin and Han Taejun knew that this job stemmed from Han Taejun’s pity, but nonetheless, he wanted to accept Haeshin’s heart, who said he would do his best.

“Alright. I’ll tell you in advance, it won’t be easy to match my personality.”

“Really? That’s strange. Your personality doesn’t seem difficult at all, Mr. Han. You just listen to everything I say.”

“Are you teasing me again?”

“I’ll go hang this in the dressing room!”

Haeshin replied in a tone that was obviously teasing, then burst into a light laugh and headed for the dressing room.

Watching his retreating back, Taejun suddenly thought. He wished Cha Haeshin would always laugh like that. He wished he would laugh and chat and not lose his lightheartedness, without crying or hurting or groaning in pain.

“Cha Haeshin.”

“Yes?”

At Taejun’s call, Haeshin turned around. He had a face so fresh it was impossible to believe his life had been filled with pain. Taejun wanted to protect that face forever.

“After your work hours change, and after we get your mother settled in the hospital, I’m going to meet Jin Youngmin and tell him.”

What on earth is this earnest feeling for another’s misfortune, when I can’t even sever my own? Holding the unanswerable question that had been added to his life in his heart, Han Taejun continued.

“That Cha Haeshin is my person now, so he should disappear from Cha Haeshin’s life for good.”

Could Han Taejun truly achieve that wish in this round? Would the viciously flowing time of this hell grant him that much mercy?

Hoping dearly that this moment was not the end of this round, Taejun looked straight into Haeshin’s eyes, which were wavering with an unreadable emotion.

☂️

“Haeshin, my son, I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do.”

Haeshin’s mother, Yoo Sunghee, said to her son sitting in front of her, her face full of worry. She had just heard from Haeshin that she would soon be admitted to the hospital to begin treatment in earnest.

“You can’t even tell me in detail what kind of work you’re doing, and suddenly this house, the hospital bills… This isn’t possible through normal means, is it?”

“I know what you’re worried about, Mom. But you really don’t have to be. There’s nothing strange about it, I was just lucky and a very good person is sponsoring me. Okay?”

Haeshin explained as best he could in a way his mother could accept. Spouting things like ‘the CEO of Myungjin Group’ would only raise greater suspicion.

It had been the same when he was marrying Jin Youngmin. His mother had opposed Haeshin’s marriage until the very end. She had said there was no way such an incredible person would marry him with good intentions.

Had her energy not been drained by her already quite advanced illness, she might have opposed it even more strongly until the end. Even while receiving treatment thanks to her son who married Youngmin, Sunghee couldn’t let go of her worries. As it turned out, her worries had not been in vain.

When Haeshin was locked up, forbidden from even visiting his mother at the hospital, let alone taking a walk in front of his house, how must his mother have felt, waiting for a son who never came?

Did she think her son had become absorbed in playing the part of a chaebol’s wife and had forgotten his mother, who had become a burden without him having done anything for her? Or did she worry, certain that something bad had happened?

How did Jin Youngmin, who had locked Haeshin in the house and abused him, treat Sunghee? Did the treatment continue? Forcibly cutting off the chain of thoughts that followed one after another, Haeshin smiled brightly at Sunghee.

“I’m eating and sleeping better than before. Can’t you see my face looks better? I come to see you often, too. I’ll come often even when you’re hospitalized.”

Sunghee quietly studied her son’s face. As he said, her son’s complexion looked much better than before. She couldn’t sense any particular sorrow either.

“Still, this…”

“Whatever I do, do you think I can be at ease if you don’t get treatment? It’s not dangerous, and I’m not overdoing it, so don’t worry and let’s just focus on you getting treated for now, Mom.”

Even as Haeshin repeatedly reassured her, Sunghee still seemed unable to put her mind at ease. Still, it couldn’t be helped. Telling her the truth would only deepen her distrust, not lessen it. This was the best he could do for now.

“I’ll tell you the detailed schedule and what you need to prepare and all that later.”

“…Okay, I understand.”

At his mother’s weak reply, Haeshin bit his lip hard. If he had his way, he would have hugged her tightly and told her it would be okay, that everything would be okay, but his body wouldn’t readily move.

The image of his mother turning away from her young child who was crying, begging her to at least run away with him, flashed before his eyes. It wasn’t that he still held resentment. It was just that he didn’t know how to close the distance that had been steadily building up for a long time.

Haeshin could smile and act friendly to people he was meeting for the first time, even in front of people he didn’t like. But why was it that, in front of his mother, he couldn’t even show a fabricated kindness?

She was his mother, she was much older than her child and had lived longer, so why couldn’t she overcome her own feelings and be the first to extend a hand to her only child?

Swallowing the meaningless question for which he could get no answer, Haeshin stood up from his seat.

“I’ll get going then. Eat well and sleep well until you’re admitted. They say the treatment is more effective that way.”

“I will. You must be busy, so you should get going.”

Standing at the entrance, Haeshin looked at the scenery inside the house, which had improved incomparably from before. His mother, standing in the middle of it, looked smaller and more frail than before, and a corner of his chest stung.

When all of this is over, when the day comes that this curse is broken, will a day also come when the uncomfortably stiffened relationship with his mother can be mended?

This time too, Haeshin left the house without daring to even hold his mother’s hand. Life was always a more difficult thing than death.

☂️

“With me…? A meal?”

—Yeah. As you know, I think I was a little too harsh on you, so. Let’s just have a meal together and smooth things over lightly.

“Harsh… You only did that because you were worried about me, hyung. I don’t have any hard feelings.”

—I know. Still, I want to buy you a meal. That’s okay, right?

Although he had subtly conveyed that there was no need, at Taejun’s unrelenting response, Youngmin rubbed his temples with a tired expression. Of course, no such sign could be detected in his voice over the phone.

“I’d love it if you bought me a meal, hyung. But my schedule is a bit busy these days…”

—Doesn’t matter. I’ll match your schedule, so check it and contact me.

“Okay. I got it. I’ll call you back.”

—Alright. See you soon.

See you soon.

At Taejun’s closing remark, Youngmin silently raised one corner of his lips. Han Taejun, who has lived his life reigning over others, would never know for his entire life that his way of speaking, even if unintentional, could not help but be pressure on the listener.

“Fuck…”

Youngmin waited until Taejun hung up first, and only after the call was completely disconnected did he spit out a curse and roughly put down his phone.

The phone made a loud noise as it hit the desk, and that noise made Youngmin feel even more miserable. It was because he was hit with the reality that Jin Youngmin could only act this way where Han Taejun couldn’t see or hear.