From Divorce to Dusk Chapter 9.1

That day was strange from the very morning.

It was raining, and there was thunder and lightning.

As if annoyed that it couldn’t torment the sun whenever the sky tried to clear up, heavy clouds covered it and roared noisily.

And his stomach had been hurting since morning.

Having suffered a miscarriage once, Jaekyung took extra good care of his body, enough that someone might have called him overly fussy.

Even so, he didn’t feel any great affection for the child.

He just felt he had to be careful, so that he and his family could survive…

So he was desperately cautious.

Whenever the slightest unusual symptom appeared, he would run to the hospital.

And that day was no different.

The day was gloomy, but his stomach hurt with a stabbing sensation, so he visited the hospital.

Anxious about the pain, which felt different from before, he asked the doctor urgently, but the doctor, who had finished all the examinations, smiled and said:

“Both the fetus and the expectant father are healthy.”

Unconvinced by the doctor who spoke so nonchalantly, saying, “It’s past 12 weeks now, so you can rest easy. You might have that kind of abdominal pain sometimes.”

He was told it would be fine soon, but the pain, as if a knife was stabbing his stomach, simply would not subside.

He asked the doctor again, but the answer was still that he was healthy.

Was he being too sensitive?

Was he worrying too much?

He dragged his weary feet out of the hospital and got into the car.

Asking the chauffeur to drive to the gallery, he was resting his body when Jaeyoung called.

It was a call from his younger sister for the first time in a while, so he forgot the momentary pain and answered happily.

“Oppa! Have you been well?”

“Jaeyoung. I’m doing well. How about you?”

“I’m doing well too. Thanks to you, Oppa.”

“How is your body?”

“It’s healthy. It’s getting healthier and healthier. I can fly to Korea before long.”

“That’s a relief. If you’re healthy, that’s enough.”

Jaekyung thought that if he was a little bit struggling and his younger sister was healthy, that was enough.

“I am”, finishing his short phone call with his younger sister, he arrived at the gallery before he knew it.

As he got out of the car and walked into the gallery, cold sweat kept pouring.

His vision grew dizzy, and the strength drained from his legs, making it difficult for him to barely support his body as he was about to collapse heavily.

Gallery security guards saw him from afar and ran over to Jaekyung to ask if he was okay, but he couldn’t hear any sound.

It’s strange.

It’s strange.

“Oh my, goodness! Jaekyung!”

Director Ji’s voice was heard.

He should have greeted them and said he was back, but he didn’t even have the strength to lift his head.

The trembling Jaekyung eventually had to lean his body on the security guard.

Director Ji ran over, his face turning pale.

At the same time, Jaekyung felt a strange sensation from below.

A damp feeling.

Feeling something leaking from his pants, Jaekyung lowered his head and was shocked.

Drops of blood were falling onto the floor, tap, tap.

And at the sensation of a clump sliding down from behind, Jaekyung stopped breathing.

Oh, lord.

Oh, lord.

Oh… lord.

◆

“It is reported that NI Company has set out to acquire Kal Motors’ Vietnam factory. Currently, NI Company is showing a move to acquire an 80-percent stake in Kal Motors and dip its toes into the automobile industry, and in response, Managing Director Han Taesuk of NI emphasized that he hopes to produce and supply future-oriented electric and autonomous vehicles, unlike conventional automobiles, serving as a major leap forward for future technological development.”

The doctor and nurse were saying something to Jaekyung, but he couldn’t hear a thing.

Yet, strangely enough, how could the TV news sound so clear and sharp?

Having ultimately suffered a miscarriage, Jaekyung just sat there numbly.

No one came to his hospital room.

Director Ji hadn’t visited the hospital room since letting out a deep sigh on the first day.

With no leisure to convey the news to his mother and father, Jaekyung was alone in the hospital room right now.

To top it off, he was scheduled to be discharged tomorrow.

Han Taesuk had gone on a business trip abroad two months ago and had remained abroad ever since.

Judging from the news and reports filtering in here and there, it seemed he had achieved what he set out to do.

Han Taesuk’s appearance on TV was very unfamiliar.

Had they truly been strangers, he might have admired him.

To accomplish such a thing at a young age.

However, right now, as the father of his lost child, as his partner, only resentment arose: wouldn’t it have been at least a little more reassuring if you had stayed by my side?

At the most crucial time for alpha pheromones and a partner’s pheromones, he had promised to do his best as the child’s father, only to leave for abroad.

He had spent two months alone in anxiety inside his womb, protecting the child, but everything had come to nothing.

And he had become a sinner.

So futilely.

“Park Jaekyung!”

“Eek!”

The nurse who had finished administering the injection to Jaekyung and was heading out collided with a man who burst the door open and stumbled, falling to the floor.

While a woman who had entered right behind, trying to restrain the man, looked startled and helped the nurse up, the man stormed in and struck Jaekyung across the cheek with his fist.

“You useless wretch!!”

“Ho, honey!”

“You useless wretch!! What is so hard about conceiving and protecting a single child! What is so hard about it that you’ve already had a miscarriage twice!! Other people give birth just fine, why is that one thing so hard for you!! It’s not like your mother gave birth to you lacking anything! Why are you missing a screw like this, why are you lacking something every time?!”

“Honey! Stop it!”

Despite the pouring verbal abuse, Jaekyung stood limply and stayed still.

His head spun wildly.

They had said that since he lost a lot of blood, he would have anemia and needed to take stable rest for a while, and it seemed that was true.

How could his head hurt and spin this much just from being hit once by his father?

“How am I supposed to look Managing Director Han in the face from now on! How am I supposed to talk big to Managing Director Han?! There is still so much we are supposed to receive from that side, how could you mess things up like this just because you couldn’t endure ten damn months?! What is it that you do?! What is it that you can do, born as the eldest son of Jaewang Group?! I went to all this trouble to trade cars and receive electronics technology. In the end, you only did favors for NI!”

“Honey!! What crime did Jaekyung commit?! Why are you doing this to a child who is already struggling?! You were the one who handed over the cars to Managing Director Han, it wasn’t Jaekyung who handed them over! You were the one who made a deal using an unborn child! Why are you blaming Jaekyung?!”

“Who would have thought he couldn’t even give birth to a single child?! And!!”

It’s noisy.

His father’s shouting failed to pierce his ears and floated around him in circles.

Like tinnitus, no sound could be heard properly, and it only grated on his nerves.

Not expecting it to go away either, Jaekyung simply lay down on the bed and pulled the blanket all the way over his head.

His father cursed again and exercised violence against Jaekyung.

Fortunately, his mother and the doctor stopped them, so he didn’t get hit many times, but it still hurt and tears fell.

It felt as though everything in the world was telling him it was his fault.

It would have been better if he could just forget.

Unlike the first miscarriage, he hadn’t forgotten the second miscarriage.

Because he remembered every single moment he had carried the child without missing a thing, it was all the more painful and agonizing.

A month passed like that, and Managing Director Han, having gotten his hands on absolute perfection, returned to the country, and Jaekyung greeted him, utterly withered.

“You’ve arrived?”

“Yes.”

He was still imposing and dazzling.

Unlike himself, who had grown infinitely shabby, he seemed to have walked up hundreds of steps ahead and gone off to a place that could no longer be reached.

He hadn’t separately conveyed the news of the miscarriage.

However, he would know.

Director Ji or someone else would have informed him.

However, Han Taesuk said nothing and told Secretary Oh to take his bag up to the second floor.

Taking off his coat and heading to the second floor right after, he suddenly stopped in his tracks as if remembering something.

“Take this.”

He took something out of his pocket and held it out.

What is this.

Receiving it with both hands, it was a tiny thing, small enough to be grasped in a single hand.

Han Taesuk went upstairs, and Jaekyung unfolded what he had been given.

It was a very small sachet pouch carrying a lavender scent.

What is this.

Is it a gift?

And the next day, he received another gift from Director Ji.

“Get a divorce.”

It was words he should have heard sooner or right away, perhaps.

Actually, he thought he would hear it immediately upon miscarrying, but if they let him recover his body for a month, had they waited a long time?

Jaekyung rather felt that what was bound to come had come.

“You know the reason, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Still, you were Managing Director Han’s partner for four years, so I will help you with one thing you want.”

He would have nothing to say even if they told him to wipe away everything as if it never happened, but since they were being generous enough to help with one thing, should he say thank you?

Jaekyung thought in his head.

Should he ask them to help the crumbling Jaewang Group?

Should he ask them to save Jaeyoung?

He would have to choose the company for now, but even if they performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation in this state, as long as his father was around, the company was bound to collapse all over again.

Under the circumstances, he had no choice but to save Jaeyoung and hope Jaeyoung would revive the company.

If Jaeyoung permitted it, he would help her from the side, however feebly.

“Please help Jaeyoung. I beg of you.”

“I will. I will take responsibility and make your younger sister healthy.”

“Thank you.”

“Meet the lawyer tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

He had been told that he no longer needed to step foot into the gallery, either.

In a word, he was cast out.

Jaekyung greeted Director Ji and left the gallery.

A chauffeur was waiting, but he politely refused and went for a walk in the park.

How long had it been since he took a walk like this?

“NI Company Managing Director Han Taesuk–”

News drifted out from a TV inside a passing shop.

Amidst NI Company’s stock prices soaring day after day, his footing had grown a bit more solid.

Thanks to that, although he had returned to the country yesterday, he seemed to be pestered by reporters continuously from Incheon International Airport until now.

Being his partner, yet watching him like this on TV.

How laughable.

Now it would be even more so.

Watching him on TV, reading about him in internet articles.

Or perhaps he might live completely unaware of his news.

Then how would that be different from now?

Thinking about it, there was no difference.

Not at all.