Chapter 4
My fingers twitched involuntarily at that word, reacting on their own. I couldn’t move because my arm was tightly trapped in a hard cast.
I felt the weight of my hand being moved somewhere.
I rolled my eyes to follow the movement, and then I saw something I couldn’t believe.
I had always been lean, with barely any excess flesh, but my lower belly was slightly swollen, as if something had settled inside.
“Don’t worry about anything. The baby will be fine, just like you.”
His words made no sense, and the sharp pain in my head intensified, as if it were about to split open.
What is all this? Everything feels so unfamiliar, and something sharp and relentless keeps stabbing at my mind, stirring it up.
The swaying shadows. The rope of death hanging limp on the floor.
That’s right…
I had hanged myself.
So why are my limbs broken like this? Why is there pain coursing through every part of my body?
None of this makes sense. Even Kang Yeol-Jin, standing before me, feels eerily unfamiliar, like encountering a strange creature. My jaw trembled uncontrollably in fear.
Who are you? You said I’ve been unconscious for four days? Everything I knew seems to have vanished in that brief time.
How can this be? It’s as if I’ve been dropped into a bizarre, alien world. My mind couldn’t process any of it.
“Lies.”
Even worse…
“You’re telling me I have a baby?”
Does that even make sense? I’m infertile, that’s why… that’s why I was never welcomed in that house, never fully accepted or cast aside, living like a stray dog.
But to have a baby means I must have had… a relationship? How? None of this computes. Did everyone just lose their minds? Or maybe… maybe it’s me who’s gone mad.
“Are you okay?”
It was paradoxical that the one to pull me out of this suffocating mire was Kang Yeol-Jin. Instead of yanking my hair, he gently cupped my cheek. Those rough, savage hands, as if he were holding something as precious as a diamond.
You waited for me, didn’t you? You missed me, didn’t you?
“Baby, it’s me. Look at my face.”
His voice was as sweet as honey, melting like sugar. But over that, I could still hear the crude, vicious words he once hurled at me.
‘Won’t you lift your head? Acting all high and mighty while you leak like a broken faucet….’
“K-Kang Yeol-Jin…”
You always looked at me like I was less than a dog. So why… why do you seem like someone else now?
“Why… why are you doing this to me?”
Everything felt wrong, utterly incomprehensible. I wanted to reject it all, to thrash and struggle against it, but my body refused to move, devoid of any strength.
“I… I clearly hanged myself… so why are you telling me I was in a car accident…?”
My teeth began to clatter uncontrollably, the eerie sound filling the room.
“And what do you mean by ‘our baby’?”
Kang Yeol-Jin’s thick eyebrows furrowed deeply.
“…Baby?”
“Why would we have a baby…?!”
Kang Yeol-Jin’s large hand, which had been gripping mine, suddenly slammed into the blanket. The blind, desperate expression on his face left me breathless, dizzy with disbelief.
Why do his eyes look so empty, yet filled with that maddeningly tender gaze? It’s as if he’s lost something precious beyond words.
“Baby, don’t you remember?”
Then came his chilling, sharpened words.
“We’re married.”
This felt more surreal than anything I had faced since waking up. My mouth fell open as if something had lodged in my throat, preventing me from forming a response.
And what is this strange sensation?
Again. My stomach began to throb once more. What is this unfamiliar feeling? It’s as if… something really is inside me.
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