Chapter 136: Beginners’ Romance (4)
The next morning, Kim Si-woo and Lee Hae-soo woke up in the same bed. They stayed curled up under the blankets, cuddling and lazily getting ready to start the day.
“Oppa… do you have any plans today?”
“Nope, nothing.”
“Then let’s sleep a little more.”
“Should we?”
Lee Hae-soo burrowed deeper into Kim Si-woo’s arms, clearly intending to go right back to sleep.
They ended up sleeping another two full hours before finally climbing out of bed. After that, they brushed their teeth together, ate breakfast together, and spent the morning just enjoying each other’s company.
“You finally look a little better…”
“I’ve been fine since last night, though?”
“Oh… really?”
“Yeah. From now on, let’s only talk about good things.”
“Okay. So where should we go play today?”
Kim Si-woo noticed that Lee Hae-soo seemed strangely calm and composed, as if she had already sorted out her thoughts. He found it a bit odd, but he brushed it off, assuming it was just the aftereffect of everything that happened the day before.
After that day, Lee Hae-soo became incredibly busy.
She was busy reclaiming what was rightfully hers.
She could no longer stand by and watch everything hide behind the name of “family.”
“Sigh… Where do I even start…?”
It felt overwhelming, but with enough time and effort, it wasn’t impossible.
“First, I need to block the cards and accounts.”
She felt a slight pang of guilt toward her younger siblings who had no idea what was going on, but right now, her own sense of injustice was far stronger.
Lee Hae-soo immediately transferred all her money to a different account through internet banking and completely cut off Kim Mi-yeon’s access.
“Now I just need to deal with the apartment…”
Because the loan was in Lee Hae-soo’s name while the apartment was registered under Kim Mi-yeon’s name, Lee Hae-soo had unknowingly been saddled with an enormous debt.
That realization only made her resolve even firmer.
A few days later, the effect of blocking the money turned out to be far more powerful than expected.
As soon as Kim Mi-yeon realized the money had been cut off, she immediately called Lee Hae-soo.
—Hae-soo! Think about your siblings! How can you suddenly take all the money like this without any responsibility! Don’t you remember? How we almost starved to death together? Are you trying to make your siblings and your mom starve again now?
The moment the call connected, Kim Mi-yeon raised her voice, immediately bringing up the siblings. Lee Hae-soo’s mind went ice-cold.
If this had been the old Lee Hae-soo, she would have folded immediately out of guilt for the younger ones.
But not anymore.
“Then get a job.”
If Kim Mi-yeon had been the type to regularly transfer the money into her own account, the situation might have been more complicated.
But because of Kim Mi-yeon’s lazy personality—and because Lee Hae-soo had never once rebelled or disobeyed her in all these years—the money had always stayed right where it was.
—Hey!!! You think that’s your money? How do you think you even became a lawyer?! How dare you—!!
“Me? I studied like crazy and became a lawyer. You never once helped me get here—if anything, you only held me back. And now you’re saying I can’t spend the money I earned with my own hands? Oh, and by the way—I found out you took out loans in my name too? And used that money to buy an apartment? In your name.”
—Huh? Th-that’s not—
“What? You thought I wouldn’t find out?”
—No, Hae-soo…
“Mom, I’m a lawyer. If you don’t want to see me in court, sell the apartment right now and pay back every cent of the loan you took out in my name.”
Click.
Lee Hae-soo hung up without listening to another word.
After that, Kim Mi-yeon’s calls flooded her smartphone nonstop.
“I should block her.”
Once she blocked Kim Mi-yeon, the calls started coming from her siblings’ numbers instead.
Only after blocking them one by one did her phone finally fall silent.
“Sigh…”
Letting out a heavy breath, Lee Hae-soo picked up the stack of documents in front of her and buried herself in work again.
Because when she focused on work, at least for a little while, she could forget about reality…
After spending the day busily, when quitting time finally arrived, this time the call came from the second-oldest sibling—who hadn’t contacted her in a long while.
“Hello?”
—Noona, what’s going on?
“Ah… Hae-shin-ah.”
—What happened that Mom’s crying and making a huge scene? She even asked me to convince you.
The second sibling, Lee Hae-shin, was currently serving in the military.
And he was the only younger sibling who shared the same mother and father as her—and the one who had always genuinely worried about her.
In a way, he was also the reason she had kept holding on to ties with the family all this time.
In response to Lee Hae-shin’s question, Lee Hae-soo poured out all the emotions she had bottled up for so long, along with everything that had happened this time, and told him she was done enduring it.
Surprisingly, Lee Hae-shin took her side.
—Good. This is the perfect chance for you to live the way you want, noona. You’ve done more than enough. Just make sure to invite me to the wedding. You need at least one family member there, right?
“Yeah…”
At Lee Hae-shin’s words, Lee Hae-soo’s throat tightened with emotion.
In the past, Lee Hae-shin had always followed Lee Hae-soo more than their mother, Kim Mi-yeon.
Even though Kim Mi-yeon favored Lee Hae-soo the most, he could have ignored her because of it—but he never did.
Back then, too, Lee Hae-shin had told her to abandon them, but Lee Hae-soo could never bring herself to do it.
The thought of dumping the heavy burden she carried onto her little brother—who was three years younger—had always stopped her cold.
—I never thought you’d actually go through with it while I was away in the military… Sigh… Are you okay, noona?
“No, I’m not okay.”
—Still, that’s a relief. The old you would’ve said “I’m fine” even when you weren’t… Sounds like your boyfriend is a really good guy?
“Yeah. He’s so good to me, it almost feels like more than I deserve.”
—Anyway, I’ll be out on leave soon. Let’s meet up and talk face-to-face then. I’ll give Mom an earful for you.
“Okay. Take care of yourself and come see me when you’re on leave.”
After ending the call with Lee Hae-shin, Lee Hae-soo’s mind became even more tangled.
If she really abandoned the family, wouldn’t someone else—starting with Lee Hae-shin—end up shouldering the burden again? That worry crept in.
She had sworn just moments ago that she wouldn’t let it bother her anymore… but one phone call with Lee Hae-shin was already shaking her hardened resolve.
The next day, while working as usual, the office phone rang.
“Yes, this is Attorney Lee Hae-soo of Blue Law Firm.”
—Attorney Lee Hae-soo? Um… there’s someone at the company entrance claiming to be your mother. She’s here to see you.
“Tell her I’m out on business.”
—Ah… the thing is, she’s causing quite a scene right now.
“Just a moment. I’ll call the police, so please ask the security guards to assist.”
—Understood.
After hanging up, Lee Hae-soo immediately dialed the police, then slammed her desk.
“Sigh… How far are you planning to drag me down into misery?”
Only after receiving confirmation that the police had taken her away did Lee Hae-soo finally breathe a little easier.
But Kim Mi-yeon didn’t stop.
The next day, she started bringing the younger siblings one by one.
“Fuck!”
A curse slipped out of Lee Hae-soo’s mouth—something she almost never did.
That was how much stress Kim Mi-yeon’s daily visits were causing her.
In the end, Lee Hae-soo went down to the first floor to confront her.
“Let’s talk somewhere else—not here.”
“Hae-soo-ya, Mom was wrong. Mom was so wrong.”
The moment she saw Lee Hae-soo, Kim Mi-yeon dropped to her knees. With everyone’s eyes turning toward them, Lee Hae-soo hurriedly pulled her up.
“Ah! Seriously! Get up!”
A short while later, at a nearby café, Lee Hae-soo looked at the pitiful figure of Kim Mi-yeon sitting across from her and felt a flood of thoughts.
Among them, the strongest was this: the enormous figure of “Mom” who had weighed so heavily on her all these years… was actually nothing at all.
“Sigh… What do you expect me to do now?”
“Mom was wrong. So please… at least for the sake of your siblings…”
“Siblings? Mom, do you even remember when I was seven and so hungry I begged for food on the street? In elementary school, I ate every day at those free meal stations on the street. I filled my stomach with tap water. I never once went on a trip like everyone else… Fine, whatever, let’s say that’s understandable. But tell me this—did you ever, even once, do anything for me?”
At Lee Hae-soo’s words, Kim Mi-yeon dropped to her knees right there in the café.
“Mom is sorry…”
Seeing Kim Mi-yeon kneeling and apologizing, the worry Lee Hae-soo had that her heart would waver turned out to be completely unfounded. Instead, it went ice-cold.
“But when it’s for the siblings, you come all the way from Ilsan to Seoul? No—when it’s for yourself, right?”
Lee Hae-soo had made up her mind.
She would return to the siblings who had ignored her, and to Kim Mi-yeon who had neglected her and treated her like nothing more than a cash cow—everything they had done.
“Go ahead and try living in a semi-basement, starving like I did. Feel exactly what I felt. Or ask those precious siblings of yours to take care of it. Lee Hae-do’s about to become an adult anyway—tell him to get a part-time job or something. And if you show up here even one more time, I will sue you for business obstruction and file for a restraining order. Remember that.”
With those final words, Lee Hae-soo turned and left Kim Mi-yeon behind.
A few days had passed since the confrontation with Kim Mi-yeon.
Lee Hae-soo discovered that Kim Mi-yeon had caused far more trouble in her name than she had ever imagined. Dealing with the aftermath kept her busier than usual.
But because she had to juggle it alongside her work as a lawyer, the only thing she could cut back on was the time she spent with Kim Si-woo.
The two of them, who used to meet five or more times a week, gradually went down to four times, then three, then two… until eventually they were seeing each other only once every two weeks.
As the days went by and Lee Hae-soo grew more and more haggard, Kim Si-woo became increasingly worried. Yet she refused to open up about what was really going on, and slowly, unknowingly, he too began to wear down.
After two full months, they finally managed a proper date. Kim Si-woo took Lee Hae-soo to an upscale restaurant.
The moment he cut a piece of steak and placed it on her plate, a firm, decisive voice he had never heard from her before came out.
“Oppa. Let’s break up.”
“Huh? Suddenly?”
“No… I’ve actually been thinking about it since that day.”
“That day? You mean because of your family? If that’s the case, then—”
Before Kim Si-woo could finish saying it would be okay, Lee Hae-soo cut him off and continued.
“Ever since the day I showed you my family… you’ve been too good for me, oppa. All this time, I’ve just been holding on because of my own selfishness…”
At her words, Kim Si-woo looked at her with an expression that clearly didn’t understand, and asked once more.
“I’ll ask just one more time. Do you really want to break up?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, oppa.”
“Okay. I understand.”
Kim Si-woo could tell how much she must have agonized over this decision, so he didn’t ask any more questions or try to hold her back.
Lee Hae-soo wasn’t the type to say things carelessly—when she said they should break up, she meant it.
“I’m sorry. I’ll go first today. Get home safely.”
As soon as Kim Si-woo stood up and left, Lee Hae-soo bowed her head right there at the table and let the tears fall.
“I’m sorry… oppa.”
She swallowed her sobs and cried quietly.
‘I don’t actually want to break up with you. But… I guess I’m still too lacking to deserve you…’
Lee Hae-soo thought back on all the happy memories they’d made together and forced the sadness down.
But in her mind, a woman who had abandoned her family had no right to be happy—so she walked herself back into a dark cave.
And just like that, their relationship came to an unexpectedly shabby end.
***
When Kim Si-woo got home, he lay on the bed without even showering, staring blankly up at the ceiling.
“Sigh… Guess romance really isn’t my thing after all.”
Another failed relationship left his mind tangled and heavy.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong… so why did it end up like this?”
That night, Kim Si-woo tossed and turned with an unsettled heart and ended up staying awake until morning before heading to work.
The next day, the moment people saw Kim Si-woo’s grim expression, whispers started spreading around the office.
“Hey, the writer’s face looks really bad today.”
“Did he fight with the attorney?”
“They’re so close though?”
“You never know. Couples fight over the smallest things all the time.”
“Surely they didn’t break up… right?”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As the Siwoo Film team members chattered among themselves, Lee Yoo-jin, who had been listening from behind, slammed her desk.
“Can you guys say that kind of thing in front of the writer?”
Lee Yoo-jin walked straight over to the team members who had just been gossiping about Kim Si-woo.
“S-sorry…”
“I didn’t realize there were people here who loved talking about others behind their backs…”
“We’re sorry.”
“Please either watch your mouths or at least talk where no one can hear you.”
After Lee Yoo-jin’s sharp words, the office atmosphere turned ice-cold. But no one stepped in to defend the gossipers.
Part of it was because Kim Si-woo treated everyone so well—but more importantly, in Siwoo Film, Kim Si-woo was the king.
Getting on his bad side could get you fired in an instant.
And no one was confident they could find a better place to work than Siwoo Film.
After giving the gossipers a piece of her mind and returning to her seat, Lee Yoo-jin quietly doodled with her pen, lost in thought.
‘Did they really break up? I can’t imagine Hae-soo unnie being the one to suggest it… But it’s also hard to picture the writer being the one to say it first…’
Unable to predict even an inch of what had happened, the ink in the pen Lee Yoo-jin was holding quickly ran dry.