=========================================
SERIES: An Impure Reunion
CHAPTER: An Impure Reunion Chapter 22
=========================================
22.
It must have been a few months after her wedding to Taejun, seven years ago.
At Daesik’s insistence, Jian was practically dragged to an OB-GYN appointment.
“She’s a much better match for Taejun than you are.”
Because of those words from Daesik before she arrived, Jian was thoroughly intimidated.
Jian knew full well who the most renowned doctor at this hospital was.
And she also knew that doctor was Taejun’s ex-fiancée.
She entered the examination room, tense.
“Oh, you must be Ms. Jian, right?”
The woman she met, Taejun’s ex-fiancée Yuri, was a very easygoing person.
Yuri’s personality made Jian unwittingly let her guard down.
On the day the results were due, Daesik insisted on going with her.
Seeing Daesik accompany her, Yuri looked between him and Jian, looking troubled.
Seeing her hesitation, Daesik grew angry and raised his voice.
“What is it? Just tell us the results already.”
“It’s our policy to only disclose the results to the patient herself….”
“Now that she’s part of my family, I have every right to hear it. And what’s all this formality between you and me, Yuri? Just be quiet and tell me.”
Faced with Daesik’s unreasonable behavior, Yuri hesitated for a moment before finally opening her mouth.
“Given the state of Ms. Jian’s uterus, currently…”
“……”
“It will be difficult for her to conceive.”
Yuri’s apologetic gaze fell on Jian.
Meeting her eyes, Jian hung her head low.
Then, as if he had been waiting, Daesik’s tirade began.
“Just as I thought. You came into this family to end our line. That’s why I told him to marry Yuri, not you.”
Daesik began to spew reproaches at Jian without hesitation.
It had only been a few months since she had become Taejun’s wife, but Jian was already used to Daesik’s rebukes.
Just then, a hand covered Jian’s ears.
“Chairman, please calm down!”
The hand comforting Jian was none other than Yuri’s.
“Goodness, you can’t be stressing Ms. Jian out like this!”
Watching her raise her voice at Daesik on her behalf, Jian’s heart swelled.
“I’m not saying it’s impossible. What’s important is what we do from now on.”
As Yuri quickly added this, Daesik’s expression softened, and he stopped talking.
“What do you mean, what’s important is what we do from now on? Is there some way?”
“Yes, of course. Father, could you please step out for a moment? From now on, I’ll speak with Ms. Jian.”
Daesik looked displeased, but sensing the firm tone in Yuri’s voice, he immediately left the room.
After Daesik left, Yuri placed a medicine bottle in Jian’s hand and said.
“Ms. Jian, you must take this medicine on time, without fail.”
“On time?”
“Yes, and you know to keep your belly warm, not cold, right?”
Jian nodded at Yuri’s words.
Yuri grasped Jian’s hands tightly.
“Don’t be too hurt by what my father, I mean, the Chairman, said.”
“……”
“He has a hot-tempered side, but he’ll soon come to understand you and see you in a good light.”
With each warm word she offered, Jian’s heart quickly melted.
“The most important thing is for the mother-to-be, Ms. Jian, to be at ease. Don’t forget that.”
Since entering this house, all she had heard were Daesik’s cold words and Taejun’s cold actions, providing material wealth but never his heart.
That was why Yuri’s every word and action were more than enough to soothe Jian’s wounded heart.
She had been holding on out of sheer stubbornness, but that one phrase seemed to have brought her to tears.
Yuri looked visibly surprised and pressed a tissue into Jian’s hand.
“It seems you’ve been through a lot, Ms. Jian.”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Ms. Jian, just follow my instructions carefully, and everything will be fine. Don’t cry.”
The words of someone who seemed to understand her were enough to open Jian’s closed heart.
When she left the examination room, Daesik spoke in a somewhat softer voice.
“Do exactly as Yuri says. And that child had better be a son. Do you understand?”
However, a year passed following Yuri’s advice, but there was no news of a child.
Instead, irregular periods began, causing Jian even greater distress.
Whenever Jian grew anxious, Yuri would soothe her, saying that being anxious was even worse for her.
Then, when Jian’s only family, her grandmother, passed away, Jian’s physical condition hit rock bottom.
The accumulated stress had naturally thrown her menstrual cycle into chaos.
The more that happened, the more desperate Jian became.
This was partly due to the emptiness she felt after her grandmother’s funeral.
She had tried everything to fill that emptiness by having a child.
But sadly, no good news came for Jian.
“I knew we shouldn’t have brought in someone with an unknown background.”
Jian gradually withered away.
A short while later, Daesik stormed out of the entrance hall, fuming.
Watching his retreating back, Jian sank to the floor.
Jian’s hands were trembling.
As she tried to still the shaking in her hands, her heart began to pound violently.
Once it started, her heart showed no signs of returning to its normal rhythm.
“Haa…”
Perhaps because of her abnormally racing heart, she soon found herself struggling to breathe.
Her breaths became erratic, and an unbearable tightness began to build in her chest.
Jian managed to get to her feet, hurried to the kitchen, and grabbed a bag, breathing into it repeatedly.
Only after a long while did she regain her composure, slumping back down to the floor.
‘Being born from the womb of a mother with no background is a big enough flaw, but what? An outsider's child? Get her out of here. Now! And you get out too!’
There was little difference between Daesik’s reaction when she brought her daughter home and his reaction when he was told the girl was not of this family’s bloodline.
“Get her out if she’s of this family’s blood, get her out if she’s not.”
A hollow laugh escaped Jian’s lips.
After her confrontation with Daesik, Jian decided to abandon any hope that revealing Seol-ah’s identity would improve the situation.
‘If I do, Seol-ah’s life will just be turned upside down by these people.’
All she could do was wait quietly for the moment Seol-ah could leave this house.
Even if it meant her own heart would be torn to shreds in the process.
On a quiet afternoon, at a women’s hospital in the most expensive part of Seoul.
The doctor seeing patients in the finest office was none other than Yuri.
“I’ll see you next week, then.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
A woman cradling her swollen belly gave Yuri a warm farewell and left the office.
As the woman left and the door closed, the smile on Yuri’s face vanished completely.
Her smile gone, she quickly stood up and threw off her doctor’s coat.
The patient who had just left was her last one for the day.
And today, Yuri had someone she absolutely had to meet after work.
Having finished her preparations to leave in the blink of an eye, she immediately exited her office.
“Oh, Doctor, are you leaving already?”
A nurse who was just about to enter her office seemed surprised to see Yuri’s attire.
At her words, Yuri forced the corners of her mouth up.
“Yes, I have something important to attend to. Could I ask you to wrap things up, Nurse Yun?”
“Ah, yes. You can go, Doctor.”
The smile Yuri had forced onto her lips vanished the moment she passed Nurse Yun.
As she left the hospital, she was grinding her teeth.
“Reporter Hwang, that fucking bastard.”
The moment she got into her car, a string of harsh curses flew from her mouth.
It was a completely different demeanor from how she treated her patients and hospital colleagues.
Tossing her bag onto the passenger seat, she pulled her phone from her pocket and checked the screen.
[Reporter Hwang: This is quite a shame. The higher-ups blocked the article. There's nothing I can do.]
Sensing Reporter Hwang’s dismissive attitude from the text, Yuri threw her phone onto the passenger seat.
“This is so annoying. So annoying!”
After receiving the photo from Reporter Hwang last time, Yuri had manipulated him.
She used the photo as leverage to make him publish a slanderous article about Jian.
As a result, she had managed to briefly stir up malicious public opinion against Jian.
But it was only for a moment.
Thanks to the rebuttal article Taejun released the next day, the story she’d planted was buried without a trace.
It had backfired on her completely.
Yuri’s hands on the steering wheel began to tremble.
Naturally, her mind drifted back to a time when Jian had dealt her a major blow.
‘Ha Yuri, you asked, didn't you? Why it was someone else and not you.’
And as she watched, seething, Taejun had said from beside her.
His voice, which seemed to mock her, filled Yuri with shame.
‘Whatever I do, Heo Jian doesn't even bat an eye. It's easier that way.’
Outwardly, he said he liked her indifference, but Yuri felt she knew the truth that day.
The reason Taejun chose Jian over her stemmed from his feelings.
She was furious.
He had never once accepted her feelings, always keeping her at a distance, yet he had opened his heart to Jian so quickly. That infuriated her.
That fact seemed to make Yuri even more desperate.
That was probably why she had gambled everything when Jian was dragged before her by Daesik.
“I thought she’d run away for good, but she’s back?”
Rage flickered in Yuri’s eyes.
A moment later, Yuri quickly grabbed her phone.
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’ll just stand by.”
Author: Donggeurami (Son Yoon-seo)
Publisher: Toonplus
Email: [email protected]
ISBN : 9791157738274
© Donggeurami (Son Yoon-seo), 2022
※ This e-book is published by <Toonplus> under contract with the copyright holder. Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution are prohibited. Violators may be subject to legal action.
0 Comments