Prey (Lee Seohan) - Chapter 173

“S-Suhyeon!”

Oh Kyung-hee, who had rushed over, took off her own clothes and urgently applied pressure to Suhyeon’s wrist to stop the bleeding.

“Why, why did you do this? The blood… I need to call the hospital, the
hospital first….”

Panicking, her hands trembling violently, Oh Kyung-hee heard Suhyeon speak
with a smile.

“Now Seol Hee-nam won’t be able to hit you anymore.”

“You….”

Oh Kyung-hee looked at Suhyeon with quivering eyes. Suhyeon smiled.

“It’s okay now, Mom.”

“S-Suhyeon!”

Suhyeon lost consciousness and collapsed onto the pool of blood she had spilled.

From that day on, Seol Hee-nam never returned to the house.

Fortunately, despite the amount of bleeding, the wound wasn’t deep. She was labeled as someone who had attempted self-harm and had to undergo psychiatric counseling for some time.

The scars left on her wrist weren’t as severe as expected, so Suhyeon was fine.

But every time Oh Kyung-hee saw those scars, her face looked like she was about to cry, and she insisted on long-term scar removal treatments.

Even so, Suhyeon was fine.

Because now, Oh Kyung-hee was safe.

Now, they were free from Seol Hee-nam’s beatings.

But the deep shadow that had long darkened Oh Kyunghee’s face did not disappear.

‘…Did Mom want to die in the sea that day?’

I thought that might have been the case.

Even though I held her back and we turned away from the sea that day, it felt like everything about Oh Kyunghee had been left behind in that ocean, and only an empty shell had returned.

‘Should I not have stopped her?’

Because I held onto her that day, Mom had to endure three more years of Seol Hee-nam’s abuse.

‘Mom wanted to leave that day….’

She couldn’t because of me.

The guilt I had tried so hard to bury came crashing down on my chest.

When we went to Gangneung that day, I had known the truth, even from the bus ride.

I knew Mom was going there to die.

Her blank expression as she stared out the window, the way she didn’t eat her favorite sashimi and just kept looking at the ocean.

There was no fear in Mom’s face as she gazed at the sea. Instead, she wore the expression of someone looking at a savior who would end all her suffering. It even looked peaceful.

I chattered away, pretending nothing was wrong, but when we returned to the lodging, I couldn’t sleep from the constant unease. Each time I woke, I checked to see if Mom was beside me and tightly held her hand.

‘Mom, you can’t leave me.’

Even though I knew Mom was being beaten, I selfishly thought that way.

‘Don’t leave me, Mom.’

Please hold on just a little longer until I grow up.

I clung tightly to Mom’s frail, skinny arm and pressed my small body close to hers, desperately wishing.

Did Mom know?

I don’t know if she realized I had figured it out. Mom that day seemed like a hollow shell, as though half her soul had already left her body.

She had no energy left, staring only at the sea outside the window, as if she had no other thought but to go into it. Even until she fell asleep.

‘Mom!’

The look in her eyes when she turned to me…

The expression in her eyes that day was something I had forcibly buried in my memory.

That look.

The eyes of a woman whose ankles had been shackled at the very moment she was about to abandon everything and finally be free.

The despair of seeing the miserable reality she was trying to escape rushing towards her.

The torment in her gaze as she looked at the child who stood in the way, barring the entrance to her peace, just one step ahead.

‘I’m sorry, Mom… Really, I’m so sorry.’

Countless expressions of Mom’s face flashed through my mind.

Carrying the lunchbox Mom packed, going on outings together, picking out a backpack, clothes, and shoes at the department store with her when I started elementary school, eating dim sum together on the day of my middle school graduation.

The face of Mom, who smiled brightly for the first time in a long while when I got accepted to study abroad at Yale in the U.S.…

At the airport, seeing me off, she looked worried about her daughter living in a foreign land but quickly brushed my hair, saying how proud she was.

‘I’m such a terrible daughter. Mom… I’m sorry. Truly.’

The memories of my selfishness and my poor mother pierced painfully through my heart.

She wanted so much to die… and yet, I ended up letting Seol Hee-nam kill her in the end.

Grabbing her hand at the sea when I was a child, forcing someone who had already been living as an empty shell to continue for another four years—everything was because of my selfishness.

Mom had wanted to let go of this world long ago, but the shackle of being a mother kept her from doing so.

Her body was held back for too long, never able to rest.
Tied down by her selfish daughter.