Prey - Chapter 25
The hospital was located in a quiet suburb. It seemed to operate a relatively large-scale attached nursing home alongside it.
Even as Suhyeon took the elevator to move to the room she had heard about, she felt no sense of reality at all.
‘It can’t be real. Mom wouldn’t, she wouldn’t be someone to make that choice again.’
Despite having reassured herself several times, anxiety rushed in like a sandcastle crumbling at the edges.
Ding—
When the elevator doors opened, a long corridor came into view.
Room 708.
As Suhyeon stood in front of it, she tried to check the patient’s name, but unlike regular patient rooms, nothing was indicated.
Taking a short breath in front of the firmly closed door, her hand trembled as she reached for the doorknob.
“Ah…” Suhyeon paused, looking down at her own trembling hand.
Even though she had run here in a daze without knowing what was going on, she was hesitating in front of the door.
As she looked down at her hand with anxious eyes, Suhyeon bit her lip.
‘I have to check.’
After all, since she had come this far, she had to confirm whether that was a lie or not.
Suhyeon, having steadied herself, turned the doorknob she held.
Creak—
As she carefully opened the door, a dark hospital room came into view. A single bed was placed by the window.
At first, only the foot of the bed was visible, but as the door opened wider, more of the bed came into sight.
Finally, even the face of the person lying on it.
“…Mom.”
A trembling voice slipped out before she realized it.
Suhyeon stood frozen in place, still holding the door open.
The person lying on the bed, eyes closed as if asleep, was indeed Oh Kyung-hee, whom she had believed to be dead.
“Mom. Oh my god…”
Tears instantly filled Suhyeon’s eyes.
With her eyes brimming with clear tears, Suhyeon staggered towards the bed.
With each step she took, the face of Oh Kyung-hee, who was wearing an oxygen mask, drew closer.
Plop.
When she finally reached the bedside, the tears that had welled up dropped onto her mother’s small face.
“…You were alive?”
Oh Kyung-hee had always been of a slender build.
Born with poor health and suffering from nervous exhaustion, she had never even come close to an average weight for as long asSuhyeon could remember.
But now, she looks even more frail than before.
Her body, reduced to nothing but skin and bones, had no trace of color, with her cheekbones sharply protruding from her emaciated face.
…Did you really try to die?
Mom. Leaving me behind?
Why?
Was it because I couldn’t do anything to help you?
Suhyeon blinked several times, trying to clear her tear-blurred vision, and then reached out with trembling hands.
When she carefully held her mother’s pale and thin hand, it was surprisingly warm.
“…Warm.”
You’re alive. Really.
Mom, you’re alive.
Tears endlessly filled Suhyeon’s bloodshot eyes.
Gripping Oh Kyung-hee’s frail hand tightly, Suhyeon’s tear-stained lips trembled in agony.
“If things were so hard that you wanted to jump… If that’s how bad it was… why didn’t you tell me?”
Suhyeon’s face twisted into a mess of grief.
“If you had told me… If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone to study abroad. If I knew things were that hard for you, really, I wouldn’t have gone…”
I studied so hard, went abroad, just so we could live comfortably together, so you could be at ease. But if you die, what’s the point of all of that?
“You should have told me…”
Suhyeon gently caressed Oh Kyung-hee’s face with her trembling hands, sobbing sorrowfully like a child.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know… I really didn’t know, I’m so sorry. Mom… Hngh, Mom. Aahh…”
Crying uncontrollably, Suhyeon collapsed in front of the bed.
The fact that she couldn’t be of any help to her mother in the moments so dire that she wanted to die pierced her heart like a sharp blade.
She had studied relentlessly, gone abroad, all in the desire to make her mother happy by getting a good job.
She thought the bright smile on her mother’s face, when she earned a scholarship to an Ivy League school, was genuine.
But at that time, Oh Kyung-hee had made that choice.
The pain of being the daughter who hadn’t even called once before her mother’s final decision was unbearable.
She wished she had never gone abroad.
She wished she had stayed in Korea.
Stayed by her mother’s side.
Mom, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Mom…
Suhyeon sat on the hospital floor, shedding tears for a long time.
The next day, she returned to the nursing hospital and parked her car.
Sigh.
Resting the back of her head on the headrest, she closed her tired eyes. Her eyes felt gritty, likely from crying all night.
Suhyeon lifted her gaze and looked out at the hospital through the car window. Her eyes welled up with tears again.
She quickly wiped them away and stepped out of the car.
Now that she knew Oh Kyung-hee was alive, she couldn’t leave her in the hands of Seol Hee-nam and Park In-ok.
