Translator: Elisia
Editor/Proofreader: Wojo
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“Ugh!?”
Startled, I sat up and realized it was night.
It wasn’t completely dark around me.
I could see light coming from beyond the curtains, and there was also a faint light in this room.
I blinked my eyes a couple of times and looked around.
It seemed like I was in a hospital.
…It hasn’t even been half a year since I came to this world, yet I’ve visited the hospital so many times.
When I was a high school student, I hardly had any reason to come to a hospital.
“…….”
…Okay, enough escaping from reality.
‘Yeah, stop running away. You coward, you kissed someone and ran away’.
“…….”
Hearing a voice echo in my head was kind of comforting—
No, it wasn’t like I got up because I wanted to.
Still, it’s true that I woke up from the shock.
“…….”
Damn, I can’t argue with that.
And there’s no helping it either.
I never imagined I would end up kissing Sara at that moment.
I mean, sure, I was the one who leaned in, but Sara was the one who grabbed my cheek.
And I wasn’t the one who initiated it—I was the one kissed.
Honestly, wouldn’t anyone be confused in such a situation?
‘Haven’t you ever kissed anyone in your past life?’
…Damn, once again, I couldn’t argue with that.
Yeah, I’ve never kissed anyone.
In the first place, you need to have a girlfriend to kiss, don’t you?
Throughout my past life, I was single.
Forget having a girlfriend, I didn’t even have a female friend.
‘……’
As I was having those thoughts, Sara, who had been teasing me endlessly, suddenly fell silent.
And at the same time, a certain feeling brushed past deep within my chest—
‘No, that’s not it!’
—Before I could even define that emotion, Sara shouted it out.
‘It’s not! It’s not!’
…Not what?
‘Anyway, it’s not!’
No, you’re the one who kissed me, and now you’re saying things like this, leaving me speechless.
I scratched my head for no reason and looked around again.
It didn’t seem like I was in the emergency room.
The lights in the emergency room would be on no matter what time it was.
I probably came to the ER first and then got moved to a regular room.
My arm felt a bit cumbersome, so I looked down and saw that there was an IV tube in my left arm.
I followed the line upward and saw that the IV bag was almost empty.
It seemed like quite a bit of time had passed since I got here.
…Well, looking at how dark it was outside, that made sense.
I didn’t know exactly what time I had been taken by Choi Na-kyung, but at least the sky had been blue then.
It didn’t seem like it was evening at the time either.
“Mm…”
Hearing a groaning sound, I looked down toward it and saw that Ha-neul was there.
She had unfolded the caretaker bed beside the hospital bed and was sitting there, slumped over onto the bed as she slept.
She seemed to be having a bad dream, judging by her deeply furrowed brow and the groans she was making.
I was just starting to get curious about why she was sitting there instead of lying down when I noticed someone else next to her.
Sitting next to Ha-neul was So-hee.
She wasn’t in her maid uniform.
She was still in her school uniform, having come straight from school, it seemed.
So-hee was slumped over in the same position as Ha-neul, groaning in her sleep.
And next to her, Soo-ah was also in the same position.
…How could I lie down after seeing that?
I thought it was amazing how they managed to sleep in such uncomfortable positions.
No, the reason they could stay like that was probably because they cared so much about me—and ‘Sara.’
I tucked a strand of hair behind Ha-neul’s ear, who was the closest to me, and felt a warm feeling spread in my chest.
Sara had always been openly irritated whenever I got close to other people, but she must have grown attached to these girls during the time she was moving around in my body.
‘Ah, no way! Who said anything about that?’
Never mind, then.
I could feel Sara grinding her teeth deep in my consciousness, but I just smiled wryly and shrugged.
It seemed like Sara sensed that too because she muttered,
‘Just wait until I get back…’
It was a little scary.
I let out a small sigh as I played along with Sara’s grumbling and then looked around again.
Come to think of it, there should have been one more person.
Let’s see…
“Eek!”
Ah, Yang Hye-in.
I saw her still standing there at the far left corner of the room, dressed all in black, and I yelped without thinking.
The room was already dim, and with her just standing there like that, it was like a scene straight out of a horror movie.
Not a ghost story, but more of a suspense thriller where someone comes to your house.
Plus, Yang Hye-in was staring intently at me in that same position.
“…Uh…”
“You’re awake, Miss.”
“Yes.”
For some reason, I felt like I had to answer, so I quickly did.
Then, in a somewhat cautious voice,
“…How long have you been standing there?”
I asked.
“Ever since I returned here.”
…So when exactly was that?
And “returned?”
Where had she been?
I tried to recall the last image I had of Yang Hye-in.
She had been wearing a black hat, her whole body wrapped in black clothes, holding a crowbar as she crawled into the car.
At the time, I’d been so glad to see her, but now that I thought about it, it had been a pretty terrifying sight.
And she had been the one to break the car window.
…No way, she hadn’t gone after Choi Na-kyung and made sure to finish her off, had she?
“Are you okay?”
Of course, I couldn’t bring myself to ask that directly, so I asked cautiously once again.
“Yes, I wasn’t hurt. More importantly, are you all right, Miss?”
“I…”
Well, to be honest, I wasn’t feeling that great.
My legs and arms still hurt.
I was wearing my school uniform, and with a blanket covering the lower half of my body, I couldn’t tell if I had any wounds.
But I was still in pain.
Choi Na-kyung had tied me up pretty tightly.
Honestly, at the time, just moving my body had been a struggle.
Plus, my head still hurt from all the banging against the car window.
…I hadn’t seen it yet, but I was sure there were bruises.
The throbbing pain didn’t seem normal.
It seemed like I had been a bit too rough with Sara’s body.
‘What are you talking about?’
…Huh?
‘We’ll be together for life now, right? So this body is yours too. You don’t need to feel guilty about getting hurt while trying to escape danger.’
But still—
‘It’s fine. The original owner says it’s okay.’
“…….”
I decided to drop the subject since Sara would probably get annoyed if I kept apologizing.
“Where’s the Chairwoman?”
When I asked that, Yang Hye-in immediately bowed deeply toward me and answered.
“I’m sorry. Chairwoman Choi Na-kyung escaped the scene.”
…Was there another car? Or did she steal the car Yang Hye-in brought?
“She fled in a passing car.”
“…….”
Oh…
Was there really a driver willing to give her a ride in that situation?
“The police believe it was just a car passing by, but they’re tracking it down for now.”
“Did the police come?”
“Yes, we called them right after.”
Hmm…
Well, in this case, it would be best to rely on the police.
No matter how much bribery was involved, the police wouldn’t be able to just ignore a case like this.
Unlike child abuse, which can be settled within a family, this was a clear case of kidnapping.
And a kidnapping that had targeted the daughter.
“…….”
Are you okay with this?
No matter what, she’s still Sara’s mother.
Of course, I didn’t want to acknowledge her, but how could I say she wasn’t Sara’s mother when Sara had so many happy childhood memories of her?
The reason Sara called her “Mother” and loved her was because she couldn’t forget those childhood memories.
So I asked Sara.
Is it really okay to proceed like this and have Choi Na-kyung punished?
‘…It’s fine.’
Sara only gave that simple answer.
But I could feel a lot in that voice.
“I understand.”
In that case, I decided to let things proceed as they were.
If the police asked for cooperation, we would cooperate fully.
“Mm…?”
Were we talking too loudly?
Ha-neul, who was sleeping closest to me, groaned and slowly lifted her head, rubbing her eyes.
Her eyes met mine.
“…Sara?”
“Yeah.”
I smiled and nodded at Ha-neul.
“I’m back.”
“…Sara!”
But Ha-neul didn’t respond to my words.
Instead, she threw herself at me and wrapped her arms tightly around my neck.
“Sara…!”
And after that, she couldn’t say anything, just repeating the same words over and over.
“Huh…?”
“Ugh…”
Following her lead, So-hee and Soo-ah woke up almost simultaneously,
“Sara!”
“…Sara…!”
Both of them shouted.
As if they had forgotten how to speak, they just kept calling my name and threw themselves at me.
I couldn’t bear their combined weight and ended up falling backward.
But that weight felt pleasant.
…Ah, I’m back.
Feeling the happiness of their weight, I thought to myself.