Reason for Marriage - Chapter 15
She prefered to play fast songs when her head was cluttered. Minju was playing MacDowell’s ‘Witches Dance’ to escape from last night’s memory.
Her fingers kept twisting, adding to her irritation, as she put a lot of effort into her hands to suppress her anger.
She was trying to get her breath together and start all over again, but the home phone rang. She was not supposed to be in this house. So she should not answer the phone.
Minju ignored the phone to keep the principle that she should hide her existence.
However, the ringtone, which did not stop, particularly scratched Minju’s nerves and eventually made her answer the phone.
“Hello?”
“Madam, this is the Shilla Hotel Fitness Club.”
“You’ve got the wrong number.”
“Isn’t that Seo Hye-ryeong’s house?”
Minju’s face suddenly changed when she heard ‘Seo Hye-ryeong’.
“Yes, but…?”
This was the real chance to find out who Seo Hye-ryeong was.
“It’s been a while since your membership expired, but we couldn’t reach you, so I’m calling home. Would you like to extend the period? Or you will have to empty your locker.”
Minju took out the catalog of the hotel fitness club, that was in the mail with Seo Hye-ryeong’s name, out of the recycling bin in the living room.
“Oh, I forgot about it. I’ll stop by later.”
“Can you do that please? Then I’ll be waiting, Madam.”
The person who lived before might not have changed the address after moving out, but what was the probability that the phone number remained the same?
This had never been a mis-delivered mail.
The name of President Seo who came last night was Ji-hee, not Hye-ryeong. Then Seo Hye-ryeong was another person…
Minju ran straight to the music room. It was to find the note on Mozart’s Requiem sheet music.
She carefully examined each and every sheet of paper but she could not see any notes.
She was in a bad mood. HR’s passionate confession that she loved him to death had disappeared.
Unless it was dream, she could not have erased the letters herself. So he hid it on purpose? Why? For what? HR was Seo Hye-ryeong’s initials?
A question mark began to grow exponentially in Minju’s head.
Refrain from going out as much as possible. Ask me for my consent before you go out.
The second part of her promise with Sang-yeon completely lost against the vastly expanded question mark.
And the helper happened to be away. Minju prepared to leave in a hurry.
She wanted to call a taxi, but to go quickly and quietly, she pulled out one of the cars parked in the garage.
It was her first outing in a month since she entered Sang-yeon’s mansion.
Minju, who had never been near such a luxury hotel in her life, was very nervous that she would not fit in. In order to imitate the naturalness of those who lived their daily lives here, Minju’s eyes constantly looked around.
She did not know why such pride was triggered, but she wandered in the hotel alone for 30 minutes because she was reluctant to ask where the fitness club was. Then she found a middle-aged woman with a swimming bag and managed to get to the fitness center after following her.
Although she had to go home quickly after finishing her business, Minju approached the reception staff with as much leisure as possible to play the upper-class that she had seen and experienced in the hotel for 30 minutes.
She did not speak in a high or excited voice, but in a gentle and confident tone, without hesitation.
“I received a call this morning. I’m just going to empty the locker without extending my membership.”
“May I have your name, please?”
“Seo Hye-ryeong.”
Minju introduced herself as Seo Hye-ryeong with a straight face.
“Yes, wait a minute.”
The employee checked the computer system and handed the key of the locker to Minju without any doubt.
“Please return the key when you leave.”
When the employee treated her as Hye-ryeong, Minju felt like she had become the real one.
She stretched her shoulders confidently, took the key and went inside. She put her shoes in the shoe closet and found a locker with the same number.
In fact, Minju had not hesitated on her way here. She had just been driven by the curiosity triggered by the woman named Seo Hye-ryeong and had run recklessly.
But when she stood in front of Seo Hye-ryeong’s locker, she was scared.
Why was she curious about Seo Hye-ryeong? Was HR really Seo Hye-ryeong in Mozart’s Requiem sheet?
What did Hye-ryeong have to do with Sang-yeon? Why was she so curious about a woman who was already in the past, even if the two used to be in love?
When her thoughts reached this point, Minju lost confidence.
Her desire to know the past of the man she loved and her low self-esteem, which she could not help, mixed together and overwelmed Minju.
Even if she turned back, it would be terrible either way, but now that she had come this far, she could not just go back.
Let’s open it up and check, and one thing will be solved.
She opened the locker hoping that there would be nothing inside, so that she could leave all of this in question forever.
In the locker, there was a pretty large luxury bag. Minju hesitated for a moment, but soon took out the bag and left the fitting room.
She returned the locker key, held the bag in her arms, and walked to the parking lot as if someone was chasing her from behind.
Her high heels that seemed to be piercing the floor echoed through the parking lot. Minju quickly hid herself in the white Mercedes-Benz that she had driven.
Lord, I stole. I lied, too. But I couldn’t help it. I’ll take the punishment later.
She was only turning to god when committing a crime. After a short repentance, Minju began to shake off the bag she had stolen.
Too much poured out of it when she was hoping that there would be nothing. A luxury wallet with VIP membership cards and credit cards, electronic card keys, medicine bags and paper bags printed with ‘Evergreen Nursery Center’.
Minju opened an envelope with trembling hands.
Council divorce confirmation application
Husband Park Sang-yeon
Wife Seo Hye-ryeong
It was a divorce application document for Sang-yeon and Hye-ryeong to submit to the court.
However, there was no seal next to the names ‘Park Sang-yeon’ and ‘Seo Hye-ryeong’.
The application date was November 12, 2019, just two months ago.
Minju did not cry or get angry. Rather, it made her laugh, thinking that it was the most realistic thing she had ever experienced in the past two months.
When she was looking blankly out of the car window laughing at herself, her cell phone rang. It was Sang-yeon.
“What are you doing at this hour?”
She asked this question with hidden meanings. Sang-yeon almost forgot about Minju after leaving for work. It was extremely rare for him to contact her during business hours, and it was even the first time he was calling her.
She did not like it, but Minju did not say anything about it because she had already learned that she should not ask Sang-yeon for anything.
“Oh, I’m going to be a little late today.”
“I see. All right. Thank you for contacting me.”
“Where are you now?”
Sang-yeon asked. Minju did not even feel the need to tell the truth in this situation.
“Of course at home. And you?”
“In the practice room.”
Wasn’t everything relative? Sang-yeon responded to Minju’s lie with another lie.
In fact, Sang-yeon was home with sushi packed from a sushi restaurant and wanted to have lunch with Minju.
Jerry, who was in Sang-yeon’s arms, suddenly cried out loud. Minju pricked her ears to Jerry’s cry from behind the phone.
“I think I heard a cat…”
“No way, you must have heard it wrong.”
Sang-yeon put Jerry down on the floor. Jerry ran away from Sang-yeon and stopped in front of the door at the end of the hallway on the first floor.
“Then later…”
“Have a nice…”
Minju and Sang-yeon spoke almost at the same time.
“Say it first.”
“Well, make sure you eat dinner and see you at home later.”
“Yes.”
The awkward call ended. If Sang-yeon returned late, it meant that Minju had more time.
Minju, who was at a loss about where to start and what to look for, looked at the bag of medicine from Hye-ryeong.
Evergreen Nursery Center.
Minju’s next destination was decided.
Driving along the Bukhangang River, Minju felt that the landscapes were familiar.
Where did she see them? Was it a dream? She was sure that she had been here before. When was it?
Only after checking the address on the navigation system again did Minju’s question disappear.
This was the same neighborhood as Rock Church, where she went tuning two months ago through the introduction of the preacher.
In other words, the hospital was located very close to the mansion where she first met Sang-yeon.
She felt more impatient when she thought the direction of the investigation was not far off.
Minju stepped on the accelerator as hard as she could to speed up the car to 130 kilometers per hour. She was 11km before meeting Hye-ryeong.
The nursery center, as its name implied, was located deep in the mountains where one could always feel the green nature.
A clean and refreshing-looking hospital building, like a sterile room completely isolated from the dirt of the world, greeted Minju. The excessive cleanliness was so unfamiliar that Minju did not feel that this place was real.
White shiny floors, white-haired old men in white patient suits, white gowns and medical staff in white uniforms.
Minju was forced to receive unwanted attention here, where everything was white. It was like a virus infiltrating a sterile chamber, so people all looked at Minju with a wary eye.
The hospital manager, who was in charge of guidance and counseling, approached Minju. He was smiling but she could not feel any emotion at all coming from him.
He pumped hand sanitizer a couple of times on Minju’s palm and handed her a mask.
Ah… now she just understood why everyone looked at her like that.
“Are you here for hospitalization?”
“No, I’m visiting. I’m looking for someone…”
“What patient are you looking for?”
Minju was not confident to say that she came to meet Seo Hye-ryeong. So she looked around and found a grandmother sitting alone in a wheelchair.
“Grandma!”
She naturally took a step, shouting affectionately. As Minju dragged the grandmother’s wheelchair and behaved friendly, the manager went his way without much interest.
“No matter how much I suffer from dementia, I can still recognize my granddaughter’s face.”
“I’m sorry. I have a situation… If you don’t mind, could you show me around the hospital?”
“Well, let’s do that.”
Minju became the grandmother’s guardian and looked around every corner of the hospital.
The patients were divided into three main categories. People with terminal cancer, elderly people with dementia, and people with mental illness.
What was different from other hospitals was that they were using single-person rooms, so their privacy was kept extremely well.
Judging from the hospital’s facility level and the hospital’s kindness, it was clear that it was a dedicated hospital for upper-class people who could be admitted only if they paid quite a lot of money.
“But are there any young patients in this hospital?”
“There was one.”
She used the past tense.
“Wasn’t she playing the cello…”
“Do you happen to remember her name?”
“Of course, her room was right across from mine.”
The grandmother closed her eyes for a moment as if recalling her past memories.
