To Myself, Who Doesn't Love You - Chapter 80

If he was going to warn Yeon-seo to be careful, it would be better to talk it through. After a brief pause, Soo-han finally spoke.

“This is just a hunch of mine, so don’t take it too seriously.”

The oddly deliberate preface made Yeon-seo blink awake, eyes fluttering open as if unsettled by what Soo-han might be about to say.

“Do you really think my accident was just a coincidence?”

Soo-han caught the flicker of surprise on Yeon-seo’s face even in the darkness and asked calmly. Faced with Soo-han’s relaxed manner—almost as if he already knew the truth—Yeon-seo avoided his gaze.

“I… I’m not sure.”

At the uncertain answer, Soo-han pointed it out with a faintly amused tone.

“Say ‘I don’t know.’ Don’t be so stiff.”

Yeon-seo pressed his lips together without replying. From the hospital onward, they had heard it endlessly: there was no evidence anywhere that Soo-han’s accident had been caused by someone else. There was no black box footage, the only witness and victim—Soo-han himself—had no memory of it, and the car had been scrapped as soon as the insurance company reached its conclusion. Unless Soo-han’s memories returned, there wasn’t even room to contest the decision. Still, there were too many things that didn’t sit right for it to be neatly wrapped up as simple driver error.

“Think about it. If I disappeared, it’s pretty obvious who would benefit the most. The way he’s been on guard ever since I started working like I’m halfway back, helping you—it all fits too neatly.”

When Soo-han openly revealed that he was suspicious of a specific person, Yeon-seo looked at him quietly.

“Are you suspecting Joon-oh hyung?”

After another short pause, Soo-han answered.

“It’s not like I have any concrete evidence. But the way he reacted when I tested him really stuck with me.”

Of course, anyone could react sharply when someone says something unpleasant. Telling someone to be careful driving, in a pointed way, could naturally make them tense. Anyone might wonder whether something had been done to their car. Even if they’d never done anything like that before—especially given a relationship like theirs—it wouldn’t be strange to be sensitive. Still, the fact that Joon-oh seemed more wary of Soo-han, who was on leave, than of Yeon-seo, who was actually inside Seo-sangga, felt odd enough that Soo-han couldn’t just brush it off.

“He kept snapping at me, so I poked him a little. He was visibly shaken.”

At that, Yeon-seo’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Does he think I caused an accident or something? Soo-han quickly explained.

“I didn’t say anything serious. He kept asking what I was thinking, why I was acting that way, so I just told him to drive safely and be careful of accidents on his way home.”

It was true that he’d said something unsettling, but it wasn’t so outrageous that someone should react dramatically—especially if Joon-oh had made it home safely. Soo-han casually laid the back of his head on the pillow again and closed his eyes. Yeon-seo stared at him quietly in the dark.

“To Joon-oh hyung…?”

“If someone I already don’t get along with said something like that to me, I’d probably be startled too, wondering if something had been done to my car. But his reaction looked more like guilt than a normal response.”

What had he even been doing on that road that day? Driving along a provincial highway in the middle of nowhere. The topic Soo-han had brought up absentmindedly just before falling asleep ended up drawing an answer he never expected afterward. Yeon-seo hesitated, biting his lip lightly, then began talking about something that had happened ten years ago.

“It doesn’t seem… impossible.”

“…?”

Did Yeon-seo know something Soo-han didn’t? When Soo-han looked at him in surprise, Yeon-seo continued with a stiff expression.

“I heard that my hyung was in an accident once when he was a student. There’s a big age gap between us, so I was very young at the time and don’t remember it clearly… but apparently, on the way back from a family gathering, something urgent came up for his parents, so my uncle was driving him home—and there was an accident.”

A traffic accident itself wasn’t unusual. Anyone living in modern society experiences one or two in their lifetime. What was unsettling, however, was the outcome of that accident.

“Fortunately, the airbags deployed properly, so no one was injured—he was just shaken up. But apparently, in that situation, most people would turn right, not left.”

The accident Yeon-seo’s hyung experienced was an evasive maneuver to avoid a vehicle that had crossed the center line and come straight at them. Would someone normally turn left to avoid something coming from the left? The uncle, who had been driving, had jerked the wheel left, causing Joon-oh to collide head-on with the oncoming car. By sheer luck, the other vehicle had already slowed almost to a stop, so it didn’t turn into a fatal accident.

At the time, the uncle had been waiting in the first lane to make a left turn, with his signal already on, tense and focused on turning. He claimed that he’d simply reacted reflexively, turning the wheel in that direction.

“It’s hard to believe that my uncle was trying to do something to him, though.”

Suspicious circumstances, but no physical evidence. With the uncle’s car badly damaged as well, accusing him of intent or stirring up family conflict would have been pointless. It seemed they had chosen to let it go without attaching much meaning to it. Soo-han nodded quietly in agreement.

“You should be careful too. You’re the one who has to face him directly at work….”