Affectionate Obsession - Chapter 35

As evening fell, Yeonhee sat in the hospital lobby with a swollen face.

Miyeong, unable to bear watching her cry incessantly, nudged her to go eat something.

In the end, she couldn’t refuse her and came down here, but she had no appetite for anything.

She planned to kill some time before going back up.

She had guarded the ICU entrance for a long time, but there was no way to get any news about Yeonjeong.

It was only after a considerable time had passed that she met Yeonjeong’s doctor.

‘Fortunately, her blood pressure is stable, but it’s not yet a cause for relief. We will do our best.’

That was all the doctor said.

She hadn’t sat in the same spot for hours, waiting and waiting, just to hear words like that.

That she had thankfully regained stability. That she could be moved to a regular room soon. That she didn’t have to worry anymore.

Yeonhee wanted to hear those words. But nothing was going her way.

The doctor disappeared back into the ICU, and Yeonhee sank into the chair with a dazed expression.

If it weren’t for Miyeong’s insistence, she would have stayed there for days until she heard that Yeonjeong was better.

“Haa……”

An unidentifiable sigh escaped Yeonhee’s lips for the umpteenth time.

Yeonhee couldn’t bring herself to lift her head, which was bowed low.

It was all her fault.

Yoon Sera was certainly capable of causing something like this, and she had overlooked it.

The pain and shock she had to endure were too great to consider that.

Her mind was so focused on her own pain that she failed to consider other possibilities.

Yeonhee couldn’t bear the guilt of that fact.

Ultimately, it was as if Yeonjeong had fallen into a coma because she hadn’t been careful enough.

“Haa, Mom, please……”

Please don’t leave me like this.

Just a little longer, please stay by my side.

Yeonhee repeated her wish for Yeonjeong with all her heart.

If Yeonjeong were to leave her side like this, she truly wouldn’t be able to bear it.

The only reason she had been able to endure her difficult life, which had been anything but easy, was because of Yeonjeong.

It was possible only because Yeonjeong was by her side.

No matter how many times she thought about it, Yeonhee couldn’t let Yeonjeong go like this, not yet.

At that thought, the tears that had stopped began to flow again.

Yeonhee buried her face in her palms.

“Yeonhee.”

Just then, Junhyeok’s voice was suddenly heard.

Yeonhee lifted her head as if by instinct. Then she saw Junhyeok standing right in front of her.

Just that alone made her heart flutter, and an overwhelming sorrow washed over her, as if everything she had felt until now was nothing.

Tears fell relentlessly.

Junhyeok wordlessly held Yeonhee tightly in his embrace. He tightened his grip on her shoulders and, as if to let her rest a little now, kissed the top of her head.

“I’m sorry, Yeonhee. I was too late.”

Junhyeok whispered into Yeonhee’s ear, filled with apology.

After giving instructions to Secretary Kim, he had wanted to rush to Yeonhee immediately, but he couldn’t.

To bring down RM Foods decisively, if he were to file a complaint involving the ‘Bonheur’ issue, it would impact not only RM Foods but also HN Department Store.

He didn’t care if he himself was tarnished. However, tarnishing HN Department Store would be a blow not only to him but also to the countless employees who worked hard for the department store.

He had to minimize the damage to the employees at the very least.

Because of that issue, he couldn’t come to Yeonhee right away.

He had rushed here after overseeing the preparations that needed to be made hastily and confirming the report of RM Foods’ corruption with his own eyes.

Knowing that she was going through a more difficult time than ever before, the fact that he couldn’t immediately rush to her side and offer his shoulder weighed on him with an unspeakable sense of guilt.

Junhyeok tried to comfort Yeonhee, pouring all that apology into his efforts.

“Junhyeok, sob. Yoon Sera visited Mom. It’s all, it’s all because of me. Because of me, Mom, Mom.”

Yeonhee sobbed so heartbrokenly that she couldn’t even speak properly. Junhyeok continuously stroked her lower back.

“I know, Yeonhee. I know everything. So, you don’t have to say it if it’s hard.”

He moved his lips almost automatically to soothe Yeonhee, but with every word he uttered, Junhyeok felt like his heart was being torn apart.

As much as Yeonhee suffered, he suffered too.

The more he felt that way, the more Junhyeok gritted his teeth.

He wanted to destroy the woman who had done this to Yeonhee, no matter what.

“I’ll take care of everything. With my own hands, I’ll make sure that woman bows her head and apologizes to you. I will draw out tears from Yoon Sera’s eyes, many times over, for the tears you shed today. I will do it by any means necessary.”

Junhyeok’s voice, filled with rage, continued one after another. But Yeonhee, buried in her own sorrow, couldn’t properly hear any of his words.

Yeonhee came to her senses not because of Junhyeok’s comforting words, but because of the announcer’s voice coming from the TV hanging in a corner of the lobby.

「Breaking news. RM Foods, which held an overwhelming market share in the frozen food industry, has been caught distributing products by falsifying food ingredients. The company is known for using domestic ingredients in all the products it distributes, but it turns out that most of the ingredients were imported foreign products at a much lower price compared to domestic ones. This is a report from reporter Kim Mina.」

The news report, with its all too familiar content, flowed out through the announcer’s clear voice.

Soon, the screen changed to show a series of products with familiar brand logos from RM Foods. The reporter’s explanation was concise and easy to grasp.

Fortunately, there was no mention of Bonheur or HN Department Store yet.

However, Yeonhee couldn’t let her guard down for even a moment due to Junhyeok’s voice that followed immediately.

“Now that the food ingredient issue has hit the media, they’ll probably face an investigation. During that process, the Bonheur issue will also surface. I told you I’d leave it to your choice, but I’m sorry for pushing it forward on my own. But I’ll handle this issue myself. I think that’s the right thing to do, Yeonhee.”

Junhyeok’s voice was not just firm, but resolute. Yeonhee felt a sigh rise to the back of her throat.

Her already complicated mind felt like it was going to explode.

She had decided to hide behind Junhyeok and not hesitate to use him if necessary, but this wasn’t how she had envisioned it.

She had wanted to minimize the damage Junhyeok would incur.

She had intended to let this issue explode at a later time.

Everything was a mess.

Yeonhee was so helplessly exhausted that she didn’t want to think about anything at all.

Sera stood by the floor-to-ceiling window of the suite, biting her fingertips with an anxious expression.

She checked the time occasionally, but doing so only made her more restless.

Sera’s expression brightened slightly when she saw Secretary Lee appear with the sound of the door opening.

“Miss.”

“Uh, what happened? What happened to Shin Yeonjeong?”

Sera asked urgently. She knew the words would be shocking to Yeonjeong, but she never expected them to lead to a coma.

“The progress doesn’t seem very good.”

“Haa, I’m really going crazy! Why is nothing going my way!! I asked you to persuade Shin Yeonhee, so why did she collapse, why?!”

Sera stomped her foot hard and clutched her head with both hands.

In a situation where nothing was going her way, she could no longer contain her hysteria.

She had thought visiting Yeonjeong was her last resort.

While she couldn’t reach an agreement through her own words, she thought that if her mother, Yeonjeong, persuaded Yeonhee, things would be resolved smoothly.

Things had gone smoothly even up to visiting Yeonjeong, so she couldn’t understand why this mess had happened at the very end.

“Haa, if it comes to this, there’s no choice but to contact Grandma.”

Sera squeezed her eyes shut. She absolutely did not want to resort to that method. If she asked Sookhee for help, she could secure her position, but she would undoubtedly be under strict surveillance for a while.

It was precisely because she disliked that that she had involved Shin Yeonhee, only to have to walk down that path in the end.

Sera bit her lower lip hard.

At that moment, Secretary Lee, who had been silently observing Sera, moved his lips with a heavy expression.

“Miss, there’s something you need to see before that.”

“What is there for me to see in this situation? I might lose my position to Shin Yeonhee, so what could be more important than that…!”

Before Sera could finish her words, Secretary Lee picked up the remote and turned on the TV.

The news screen immediately appeared.

The report was related to RM Foods.

“Haa, what is this now? What is it that you want me to see?”

Sera glared at Secretary Lee with sharp eyes.

She knew Secretary Lee was not at fault, but the pent-up irritation had no other outlet.

Secretary Lee, as if accustomed to Sera’s behavior, calmly explained the story the news was covering without much reaction.

“It seems that RM Foods’ CEO Kim has been distributing products by falsifying food ingredients.”

“What do you want me to do about that? I’m already stressed to death. Are you asking me to solve this too? Why are you doing this, even you, Secretary Lee!!”

Her voice rose, followed by an uncontrollable shout.

Sera fumed for a long time, unable to calm down. Only then did Secretary Lee’s brow furrow.

After observing Sera’s state for a moment, Secretary Lee added the fact he hadn’t yet conveyed.

“It seems the informant is CEO Jung Junhyeok.”

“Haa, what did you say?”

“It wasn’t difficult at all to find out who the informant was. Unless they intended to deliberately reveal that HN was the informant, it wouldn’t have been possible to find out so easily…”

Secretary Lee trailed off with a troubled expression. This made Sera even more anxious.

Sera swallowed dryly, waiting for Secretary Lee’s words.

“It seems to be CEO Jung Junhyeok’s declaration of war.”

Only after hearing Secretary Lee’s report in its entirety could Sera admit that meeting Yeonjeong had been her mistake.

Her mind raced even faster.

She had to think of a way to overcome this situation.

Just then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, Sera’s phone began to ring.

The name displayed on the screen was that of the person Sera had been trying hardest to avoid: Sookhee.

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