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Bomi immediately ran to the lobby after Chorong drove through the driveway of the hospital. The latter parked her car and caught up with the distressed brunette by the information center. After talking to the nurse-in-charge, they instantly paced through the hallway and found themselves at Room 104. A sharp sound rang at their entry as Bomi’s wife was already receiving CPR from the doctor.

“The patient is having a cardiac arrest! Bring the defibrillator!” The nurses pushed the machine beside the bed. “Set it at 200!” The doctor held on the paddles. “Clear!” The flatline remain unchanged, making the doctor continue the compressions.

“Mom, what’s happening to Eomma?” Bomi was extremely disoriented she didn’t even notice her confused daughter on the side.

“I don’t know, Minah.” She hugged her daughter tightly. Never had she felt scared like that in her entire life.

“Is she going to die?” her daughter asked, but Bomi remained mum and hoped for the best.

The doctor grabbed the paddles again. “At 200! Clear!” He glanced at the screen and continued giving compressions. “Again at 200! Clear!” Without stopping for minutes, he gave his best to revive the woman, but all of it was in vain. He wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead and shook his head. “Time of death…” The doctor read his watch. “12:47AM.” 

One of the nurses wrote the time on the information sheet.

“I’m sorry…” the doctor said as he bowed in regret. His assistants lifted the white cloth, covering Soyou’s bloodied body. Soon after, the doctor and nurses left the room.

The redhead stood still as her eyes followed Bomi.

“How… could… you?” Bomi uttered in suppressed breaths as she tightly held on her dead wife’s hand. “How about Minah?! How could you leave our daughter?!”

The door slammed open as Soyou’s parents came in. The father glanced at his dead daughter’s body. Clenching his hair out of anger, his mind went blank after seeing his daughter’s wife. The brunette tumbled on the floor after he landed a fist on her face. “What did you do?!”

Bomi remained on the ground, sobbing loudly. Soyou’s father was about to kick the woman when his wife held him back. “Honey, please stop!”

“Grandpa, stop hitting Mom!” Minah stood in between her mother and grandfather, spreading her arms and acting as the wall between the two of them. Her eyes were already b, but not one tear she allowed to fall.

“If my daughter wasn’t married to you, she would have lived a good life!” Soyou’s father shouted at the top of his lungs before his wife forcefully led him out of the room. “You head! You useless !”

You useless ! His father-in-law’s words repeated like a broken record in her mind. Lying on the floor, Bomi huddled her legs and weeped under the bed.

The redhead who witnessed everything was silent in the corner of the room.

-----

For the longest time, Namjoo had already prepared for several interviews in the past to which she all got rejected miserably. If what Hayoung said was true, then she had an equal leverage with her competitors this time around. She will not allow this opportunity to slip away from her hands that easily.

“Kim Namjoo-ssi, please enter the room.”

The nervous woman stood up and masked a smile as she confidently strutted into the room.

The interview went well, even better than Namjoo had actually expected. After presenting her certificates, one of the interviewers said that it was enough for her to get one of the vacant secretarial positions.

“We will be calling you before lunch for the news.” The interviewers nodded in agreement with each other. “However, I do have a question. How come you have many part-time jobs at once? Would you be fine if you joined our company?”

“Ahh… yes…” She couldn’t possibly speak about the massive debt that her father left her. “The contracts for my morning jobs are about to end in a week, but I’ll be keeping my night job so I can pay for my tuition when I go back to university,” she said as a lopsided smile formed on her lips. What she said was partially true anyway.

The interviewers formed a silent ‘o’ with their mouths. “Then that’s very hardworking of you. That would be all.”

“Thank you very much!” Namjoo bowed to her interviewers. After leaving the room, she heaved a sigh of relief. “That went well… Good job, Namjoo!” She patted herself in the head.

Just when the blonde woman was about to leave the building and find herself a place to stay, Hayoung spotted her right before she walked out of the door.

“Namjoo-ssi!” Hayoung called out the woman who was by the exit.

“Oh, Hayoung-ssi.” Namjoo bowed with great respect.

“It’s good that you came for the interview.” Hayoung said. “How was it?”

“I think it went well,” Namjoo replied smilingly. “I’m just gonna look for a place to stay while waiting for the call.”

“How about I treat you to brunch?” Hayoung offered.

The favor of getting invited for a job interview was overwhelming enough, but the thought of receiving more was already too embarrassing for Namjoo.

“Thank you but there’s no need for that.”

“But I insist,” Hayoung replied a bit disappointedly. She pouted her lips, making the blonde woman sway and take her words back.

“Hayoung-ssi, I have already received enough from you,” Namjoo said. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“Well…” Hayoung leaned towards the woman’s face, wearing a