"Inviting me to her wedding?"

Seulgi covers when she notices the gaze around her, lowering her volume as she speaks into the phone. "Are you sure Seungwan said that?"

"I am positive. In fact, she asked me to ask you." Joohyun chuckles on the other end of the phone. "Unless you don't feel comfortable?"

"No- I am totally down for it." Seulgi smiles as she glances around. "Please send my regards and thanks to her."

"You got it.."

After hanging up her phone, Seulgi watches as Minsoo and Mr Baek come out from the ward, standing up while pushing her phone into her jean pocket.

"What did the doctor say?" Seulgi asks as she walks to Mr Baek and holds his arm.

"What could he say other than me being strong as ever?" Mr Baek chuckles. "I could even hold onto this body for another twenty years."

Seulgi chuckles, turning to Minsoo as she signals him to speak the truth. "Doctor said no more fighting in two months."

"Two months?" Seulgi is surprised by the duration. "I remembered you only have to rest for three weeks when I just joined you."

"The doctor is just jealous of me being able to maintain this body at this age, I tell you." Mr Baek coughs. "He just told me to rest longer simply because he thinks I am old."

"You are old," Minsoo snickers. "No one believes you really just fell off from a treadmill. Doctors can tell why these injuries occur."

"He won't even know if you guys didn't just let the whole ward know we are a gang!"

Everyone turns around, and Seulgi exchanges a look with Minsoo. "Now the whole hospital knows."

"I swear to god, you guys embarrass me." Mr Baek quickly walks towards the elevator, with the other two following him while chuckling.

After taking the elevator to the lobby, Minsoo heads off to complete the discharge procedures while Seulgi and  Mr Baek wait for him.

"Hey, I have deposited some money into your account." Mr Baek suddenly speaks up.

"Why the sudden money?" Seulgi turns to Mr Baek with her eyes widened.

"You little brat, do you still remember your own mom's birthday?" Mr Baek sighs. "Use that money and get her a cake."

Seulgi falls silent, so Mr Baek speaks up again.

"You really forgot?"

"I could never," Seulgi stares afar as she answers. "I am just...not ready, I guess."

"If you put it that way, you can never be ready." Mr Baek turns to her. "You have left your mom alone for as long as you started following me. Do you realize how long that is?"

"...Nine years."

"And that's nine years of a mother staying alone without her child."

"Maybe she has forgotten about me."

"I am sure she never does. Not a single mother would have done so." Mr Baek frowns. "Look, I know you joined me so you could give your mom a better life. Even when you hated your dad for joining the gang, I tried to fulfil his part and take care of you as much as I can. But as you can see, I am also getting older, and we are not doing much of the fighting work now, although I heard Red Men is doing dirty work for other people now..."

"Are they giving us trouble?" Seulgi asks with a frown.

"Not so far from what I have heard, they are just doing paid work. If someone pays to give someone a lesson, that's what they are best at." Mr Baek explains before switching back to the topic. "But it's not what you should be worrying about. Even if you insist to stay, I no longer have anything to offer. Trust me, nothing could be more saddening than to have a daughter who is alive but acts like she is dead. Do you want your mom to live the rest of her life alone like that, especially with that eyesight of hers?"

"What if she is disappointed at me?" Seulgi sighs, wavering even more after listening to Mr Baek's words.

"Then stop all this disappointing behaviour before she gets even more disappointed." Mr Baek huffs. "When my mom died, I finally told her that I joined a gang and became a gangster. You know what that means? You thought you have a son who is doing a great job in office work but turns out he was too bored by it and joined the gang just to enjoy the thrill of fighting. I always had to change my clothes before going home, and she would tell everyone that I am doing well and earning money for the family. She wouldn't even believe when some neighbours already saw me fighting in the streets."

"And I was only brave enough to tell her the truth at the last moment in her life, that I joined a gang and fought other people and all that money I earned was actually rewarded to me by my boss, who was at the exact spot I am in. Do you know what she told me?"

Seulgi looks up at Mr Baek, expecting something along the lines of she was disappointed at him. "What did she say?"

"She said she knew all along, because she had seen me fight before other people saw it." Mr Baek sniffs slightly and squeezes out a smile as he recalls of the scene. "But she never spilt it. She never came to ask me if I was really fighting, she just decided to give me time to tell her myself. Which I did. In the end, she said if I really want to fight, fight for the people I love. Protect them with your might. It is exactly why I took you in. I knew why you wanted to join even if you hated your father and this gang, even if you didn't say it yourself."

As if her deepest secret has been pried open, she holds back the emotions that came along with the memories inside her head. "Can I still change all of it?"

"It is never too late to change, girl. At least your mom is still alive and she needs you."

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