It's almost 11:00 a.m., but his sisters have not called him yet. Doyun frowned, glancing at his phone again as the minutes ticked past.
He assumes their mom might still be sleeping, though it's been more than two hours past the estimated time the doctor had mentioned she would wake up.
Instead of calling his sisters again, he decided to stop. He had already called and spoken with them three times earlier, so it was okay.
Still, the nagging worry in his chest wouldn't fully ease. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, glancing toward the hospital entrance as if expecting some sign of news.
There is another person that he was bothered about. He had tried calling this person's line, but got no answer. Frustration crept in as he called three more times before, worriedly, he put his phone back in his pocket.
His fingers lingered over the device a moment longer, reluctant to let go.
He had sent a number of texts since morning, but he had yet to receive any response. His calls went through alright, yet no one answered. The uncertainty gnawed at him.
"Ah, he must really hate me," he muttered to himself dejectedly, the words barely audible, carrying the weight of his unease. He exhaled slowly, trying to shake off the feeling.
Doyun had expected to find his sisters in their mother's ward, but to his surprise, he saw them lingering in the lobby instead. They looked up when they noticed him approaching, faces pale but attentive.
"Why are you two outside? Is Omma awake?" he asked, scanning their expressions for clues.
"Yes, she woke up not too long ago. But there's a woman that came to see her, so she told us to excuse them." The youngest, Hyeri, answered her brother, voice quiet and measured, a hint of concern in her eyes.
"A visitor? Do you know her?" Doyun asked, but his sisters shook their heads negatively. They exchanged a brief glance before responding, clearly unsure about the visitor themselves.
A woman in her late forties, dressed in expensive designer wear, sits beside Mrs. Lee Baram's hospital bed. Her posture is rigid, her expression sharp, as if she is assessing every detail of the room and its occupants.
"You know, you're going to ruin the kids the same way that their father did because of his stupid pride. Now that he is gone and with your current condition, what do you think you can offer them? Haven't you two made them suffer enough?" Lee Young Hee berates Doyun's mom, voice low but cutting, like a scalpel through the air.
Doyun's mom, Lee Baram, stares at her from the hospital bed. She wouldn't mind if only she were being scolded, but why must this woman add her late husband to it too? Her eyes narrow slightly as she braces herself.
"What is wrong with a parent wanting to raise their children themselves? We may not have been able to provide everything they needed, but we tried our best. Can you just tell me your purpose for coming here? It's been over a decade. I doubt you're here to just nitpick on how poorly we raised our kids." Lee Baram retorted back to her former best friend, voice firm despite the weakness in her body.
Knowing how straightforward her ex-friend is and how much she hates it when one beats about the bush, Young Hee decided to tell her the real truth about her visit today. She sighed, shoulders slightly slumped. "It's the old man; he wants to see them."
"What for? Is he intending to convince them to go and live with him because Beom Seok didn't allow it when he asked us all those years ago?" Lee Baram asked, suspicion lacing her tone.
"No. He is not saying they should come and live with him. He just wants to see them. They're his grandkids; isn't it normal that he would want to meet and have a relationship with them?" Young Hee replied, leaning back slightly, her eyes softening.
"I don't trust you or him. He will not be satisfied with just meeting them. He would want to take them away from me, especially now that Beom Seok is no longer here." Doyun's mom said it in a sad and low voice. The thought of her late husband's absence still brings tears to her eyes.
"Baram, sorry if my next words offend you, but I want you to really think this through. I know you would not want to block a good thing from coming into the kids' lives just because of your pride and sentiment. Ten years ago, when I came to see you two about the old man wanting the kids to be raised on the family's estate, I understood why you would refuse. Especially after all we put you two through. But they're no longer kids as they were at that time. They're at an age where they need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes. For now is when they start making decisions about their future lives. I learned that the boy is a freshman at the university while the girls are in their final years of high school and middle school. If you deny them a chance for a better life like this while in your current state, don't you think that you're condemning them to a life of poverty just like you and oppa? Please think this through. I have to go now. But I'll be visiting you again soon." Lee Young Hee said that and got up to leave. Her heels clicked softly on the floor as she turned, glancing at her ex-friend quietly, wanting to say something more, but quickly she turned and left the room.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Doyun sighed, rubbing his temple as he looked at his phone. He doesn't know what to do again. He already has a lot on his plate, and now he just had to make it worse.
The frustrating part is that he doesn't know whether or not the guy made it home safely and doesn't want to answer his calls and texts. Or whether something may have happened to him, and his phone fell somewhere else; that's why his calls and texts are not being answered.
"Oppa, let's go." Hyeri came to call him from where he stood.
"Has the visitor left?" Doyun asked, his eyes following the direction his sister was pointing. From her handbag and clothes, it seems that she comes from an affluent background. The edges of her designer bag glinted in the light filtering from the hospital window.
"Oemma, how are you doing now? Are you feeling pain anywhere?" Doyun asks all the while trying to assist his mom to lie back on the bed.
He adjusts the pillow under her head and smooths the blanket over her legs, careful not to disturb her. She looks so tired from having to sit and talk with the visitor.
"I'm fine. I'm not feeling any pain anywhere. Stop fretting." Baram tried to assure her fussy son. Her lips curl into a faint smile, her hand brushing briefly over his as he helped her.
"I heard you went to the market this morning. Were you able to give out all the pre-orders?" Doyun asked gently, checking her comfort.
Baram was worried about disappointing her customers when she woke up, but she became very happy when she learned that her son had gone to give out those orders. Her tired eyes brightened.
"Mhm, omma. I've finished with them, but I closed up the shop because I wanted to come and see you." Doyun smiled at his mom. Relief and warmth spread through his chest. He is quite glad to see that she is doing better than yesterday. He had been scared shitless when he saw her so vulnerable and unresponsive.