8. The Visitor

It's almost 11:00 a.m., but his sisters have not called him yet. So he assumes their mom might still be sleeping, though it's been two hours more after the estimated time the doctor told them that she would be waking up.

Instead of calling his sisters, he decided to stop since he was already going there. He had called and spoken with them three times earlier, so it's okay.

There is another person that he was bothered about, so he called his line but got no answer. He called three more times before he worriedly put his phone back in his pocket. 

He has sent a number of texts since morning but has yet to receive any response. His calls go through alright, but there is no answer.

"Ah, he must really hate me." He said to himself dejectedly.

*****

Doyun had expected to find his sisters in their mother's ward, but he saw them in the lobby instead.

"Why are you two outside? Is Omma awake?"

"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.

"A visitor? Do you know her?" Doyun asked, but his sisters shook their heads negatively.

****

A woman in her late forties, dressed in expensive designer wear, sits beside Mrs. Lee Baram's hospital bed.

"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.

Doyun's mom, Lee Baram, stares at her from the hospital bed. She wouldn't mind if only she was being scolded, but why must this woman add her late husband to it too?

"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.

Knowing how straightforward her ex-friend is and how much she hates it when one is beating about the bush, Young Hee decided to tell her the real truth about her visit today.

She sighed. "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?"

"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?"

"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. 

She looked at her ex-friend quietly, wanting to say something, but quickly turned and left the room.

******

Beep. Beep. Beep. Doyun sighed. 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 that 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?" 

"Yes. There she is." Doyun's eyes followed the person to whom his sister was pointing. From her handbag and clothes, it seems that she comes from an affluent background.

****

"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. 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. 

"I heard you went to the market this morning. Were you able to give out all the pre-orders?" 

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.

"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. He is quite glad to see that she is doing better than yesterday. 

He had been scared sh*t when he saw her all so vulnerable and unresponsive.