Chapter 06
Hard and Smooth
After searching Woojin’s room and returning, Lee Yeon tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep.
What on earth were those strange drawings?
Before she knew it, morning had fully broken, and Lee Yeon had already finished preparing early to check Oh Jinhwa’s condition. Neatly dressed, she stepped out of her room and suddenly stopped in front of a portrait hanging in the hallway.
She hadn’t noticed before because she hadn’t looked closely, but the painting was done with acrylic paint. Recalling the smell of paint she’d sensed in Woojin’s room, Lee Yeon wondered if the person who had painted this might be him.
Two paintings with strikingly similar styles.
In Oh Jinhwa’s portrait, the tumor on her face was gone.
In Kwon Woojin’s portrait, a tumor that didn’t exist in reality had been drawn.
Only after staring at the paintings for a long while did Lee Yeon come to a conclusion.
Perhaps Woojin’s fear—that neurofibromatosis might be hereditary—was sleeping inside his sketchbook.
Knock, knock.
[Come in.]
“Did you sleep well? How are you feeling today?”
At Lee Yeon’s ordinary greeting, Jinhwa’s expression darkened.
“I wish you wouldn’t ask questions like that.”
“…Pardon?”
“I can’t sleep well because of insomnia, and thanks to that, my mood is always bad. No—more accurately, it’s filthy. Especially when I hear empty pleasantries like that.”
“I didn’t think that far. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
Lee Yeon bowed her head slightly.
“You should take a walk with me this afternoon. It’s impossible to increase your sleeping pills any further. If you start exercising, it’ll help refresh your mood and you’ll sleep better.”
“I told you I don’t need exercise.”
“I even thought about bringing in indoor exercise equipment, but that might strain your joints even more. Taking a walk at your own pace would be better, Madam.”
“Where are your ears? I said I’m not exercising.”
Lee Yeon hadn’t forgotten about her revenge against Kwonseong Group, but as a doctor, she wanted to do her best for her patient. No matter how wealthy the madam was, it was pitiful that she had lived her entire life hiding her illness.
“Then how about taking a walk with your son?”
“…Woojin?”
“The days are shorter now—it gets dark by six. You know what I mean, right? When it’s dark, you can’t really see anything.”
Jinhwa likely avoided going outside because of the grotesque tumor on her face. Lee Yeon thought that walking slowly, step by step, leaning on her son in the wide yard where there were no outsiders, was something she could manage.
After a brief silence, Jinhwa spoke.
“Hey, miss. Woojin hates this house. He doesn’t even show up on holidays. The only time he shows his face is when we change his mother’s attending physician.”
“This is for your health. Surely he wouldn’t refuse.”
Lee Yeon couldn’t read Jinhwa’s expression clearly because of the tumor on her face, but her hesitation suggested a clash between her reluctance to go outside and her desire to be with her son.
“I’ll contact him.”
Jinhwa nodded slowly, as if giving in.
Woojin arrived at the family home less than three hours after Lee Yeon sent him a text.
Having heard that he only showed up when changing attending physicians, Lee Yeon had assumed he wouldn’t come—so she was taken by surprise.
“Exercise for my mother? What are you plotting?”
Despite his sharp tone, his expression was rather bright.
It was something Lee Yeon had never seen from Woojin before.
As his usually expressionless face brightened, his clear-cut features caught Lee Yeon’s eye. She deliberately looked off into the distance and spoke.
“I think the bone growth on your mother’s knee and the large tumor on her face should be surgically treated. It would significantly improve her quality of life. For that, she needs to build up basic stamina and muscle strength.”
“Joo Lee Yeon. Don’t give Oh Jinhwa false hope like that. Surgery, medication—there’s nothing we haven’t tried. Even the so-called top doctors in the U.S. gave up.”
“So you’re giving up too? On your mother?”
“The side effects of the medication are severe, and the tumors that are cut out grow back even larger. I don’t want to see her suffer more.”
“Then why did you come? You say surgery and exercise are both unnecessary.”
“This is my house. The place I lived since childhood. I can come and go whenever I want.”
Lee Yeon almost snapped back that he didn’t even come on holidays—but stopped herself.
Then suddenly, Woojin’s clean nape caught her eye.
The V-neck knit he was wearing emphasized the hard, smooth line of his neck beneath his short, neat hair.
The small bump that had been there just the other day was gone.
A smile slipped from Lee Yeon’s lips.
She felt like she understood why he had rushed back to the family home.
And why he seemed to be in such a good mood.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Did you come to tell me that? That what you had on your neck wasn’t a fibroma, just a pimple or something?”
“Do I look that bored?”
“A little.”
“Stop being sarcastic and admit it. Apologize for recklessly throwing around diagnoses when you’re just a general practitioner.”
“Well. Even if what was on your neck was a minor skin issue, who knows? There could be others like it somewhere on your body.”
The drawings she’d seen in Woojin’s room wouldn’t leave Lee Yeon’s mind.
She wanted to watch a little longer—the struggle of a man terrified of a hereditary disease.
Woojin’s expression turned cold again.
“Is this what you want?”
In an instant, he stripped off the knit he was wearing and threw it aside.
With the clothes gone in one swift motion, Woojin’s well-trained upper body was laid bare.
“What are you doing?!”
Startled, Lee Yeon turned her head away, but Woojin grabbed her by the arms and turned her back around.
“Isn’t this what you were hoping for?”
As expected, his mother’s hereditary illness was clearly Woojin’s trigger.
Lee Yeon didn’t want to back down from his forceful presence.
“If it’s something that needs a doctor’s diagnosis, then gladly!”
Her gaze lingered on the solid muscles of Woojin’s chest.
The broad pectorals flowing from his shoulders and the powerful curves of his arms radiated healthy appeal.
He clearly worked out regularly, and the fibromas Lee Yeon had mentioned were nowhere to be seen.
Still unwilling to retreat, she added,
“You’re right. I don’t see any fibromas. Yet.”
She deliberately stressed the last word.
The onset of neurofibromatosis isn’t fixed.
It could appear suddenly one day.
Woojin seemed to know that too, as his momentum didn’t falter.
As they stared each other down—
“What do you think you’re doing right now?”
At the doorway stood Oh Jinhwa, supported by the butler.
Her gaze, fixed on the two of them, was so sharp and icy that Lee Yeon felt as if a cold wind had blown through the room.
Woojin looked startled when he saw his mother, then picked up the clothes thrown on the floor and walked out.
Lee Yeon looked at Jinhwa and the butler with a complex mix of embarrassment and anxiety.
“I’ll explain everything—”
“That’s enough. I don’t want to know.”
Jinhwa grabbed the butler’s wrist.
Because of the deformed bone growing on her knee, even taking a single step looked painful for her.
Despite Jinhwa’s cold reaction, Lee Yeon raised her voice.
“One lap around the yard. I think that’ll be enough for today.”
Jinhwa didn’t look back, but with the butler’s support, she carefully descended the steps.
Left alone in the empty room, Lee Yeon took deep breaths to calm her still-pounding heart.
Crazy Kwon Woojin.
To suddenly strip like that.
The embarrassment of being caught in such a scene by Jinhwa turned into resentment toward Woojin.
And yet, even in this situation, Lee Yeon couldn’t stop thinking about his thick arms gripping her shoulders and his chest rising and falling with his rough breaths.
She knew that instilling anxiety about a disease in a perfectly healthy person was something a doctor should never do.
Perhaps the one who was truly crazy wasn’t Kwon Woojin—but herself.
