A Taste to Spit Out - Chapter 6

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I couldn’t tell if my anger was directed at Kang Yeol-Jin’s audacity or if it was at myself for supposedly sitting beside him so calmly. All I knew was that I was drowning in confusion.

“I know, baby, I know.”

He buried his nose deep into the nape of my neck, inhaling sharply. The thick, unsettling sound of his breath sent chills rippling across my body.

“It’s okay. Your memory will come back soon.”

My mind wasn’t just confused—it was a storm, a raging whirlwind that twisted and tangled every memory, every thought, into a chaotic mess. Nothing made sense. Everything was out of order, jumbled in my head.

And then his next words drilled sharply into my brain.

“It’s understandable. You’ve been unstable lately. You were really struggling after the congressman passed away.”

“W-what are you talking about…?”

My father… passed away?

My breath stopped. My head spun so fast that I thought I might collapse, but thankfully, I was still lying on the bed. The only thing that kept me from completely falling apart was Kang Yeol-Jin’s solid chest supporting my staggering body.

“It’s okay. There’s nothing wrong between us. We got through it together when your father passed away. We leaned on each other and made it through.”

Is he really dead? The man who constantly drove me to the edge, always giving me ultimatums—either jump or do as he said. That man is gone?

My breathing quickened, and my vision flickered in and out, as if the world itself was fading. What kind of nightmare is this? I couldn’t understand any of it.

Then, a slow, sticky voice seeped into my ear.

“Now, I’m the only one left for you.”

With those final words, my consciousness slipped away, dragging me into the void. My hand fell limp onto the bed with a thud.

* * *

For two weeks, I was practically bound to the hospital room.

Countless syringes, with their sharp tips glinting, surrounded me like a cage. I was watched as though I were a prisoner. I would drift in and out of sleep, drugged into oblivion, and if I refused to eat, another needle would pierce my arm.

Every moment, every hour, under surveillance.

Eventually, I couldn’t tell whether my eyes opening meant I had woken from a dream or if I had just begun dreaming again.

Confusion, chaos…

My mind was a boiling mess, bubbling with unanswered questions. I had only tried to hang myself, but suddenly two years had passed.

I was twenty-four when I hung myself, in the depths of a freezing winter. Now, I’m twenty-six.

The man who made my life hell—my father—is dead, and somehow, I’m married to Kang Yeol-Jin, even carrying his child. They expect me to simply accept the lost two years, to take it all in hand as if it’s nothing.

I, who once tried to throw my life away…

Completely numb, I stared out the window in a daze, fixing my eyes on the rectangular frame. Beyond it, the scorching summer sun writhed.

The last time I looked out a window, before I tried to die, all I saw was the bleak, lonely landscape of winter.

“…Why did this happen?”

Nothing felt real. It was like I had become a ghost, standing there, watching the world from the outside.

“Baby.”

Kang Yeol-Jin, the man who was once my father’s dog, the butcher of men, knelt before me. Kneeling before me, who couldn’t even stand on my own, seated in a wheelchair. He pressed his face against the back of my hand, and I shivered, goosebumps spreading across my skin.

“Let’s go back home.”

Those were the words he spoke. To someone whose limbs were bound, unable to move, he said we should go back. Back to that hellish house.

“I’m never going back to that hell again!”

I tried to thrash, but my arms and legs were trapped in the hard casts. Even if I managed to crawl out on all fours, eyes full of suspicion were waiting outside, watching my every move.

“I warned you, didn’t I? I told you not to come near me!”

“I’ll fix everything. I’ll make it right.”

His words fell on deaf ears, as if I were shouting at a solid cement wall. No matter how hard I screamed or punched that massive stone wall, it wouldn’t budge.

For the past two weeks, and for the 24 years I’ve lived, I had grown accustomed to this powerlessness.

“Really, Hee-Jae, I love you so much. Come back with me, back to our home.”

I’ll make you happier than anyone else ever could.

It wasn’t just me who was lost in this madness.

Kang Yeol-Jin’s gaze was intensely focused on me, but it seemed like he’d gone completely insane. His eyes were unblinking, fixated, as if he were completely consumed. As he uttered each word slowly, with force, I let out a long, deep sigh.

Now that my father is gone, what new kind of hell are you planning to unleash on me in that place?