HOUSE OF CARDS || VKOOK

Chapter 52: Not everyone gets the chance to start over life

- 4 years later -

The beeping noise of a heart rate machine resonated inside the quiet room. It was sunny outside, the golden rays of the early morning peeks through the thin white curtains and falls over the man laying on the king-sized bed.

A nurse was standing beside the bed, writing down something on her file at the same time the door of the room ajar opened, and walked in an elderly man. The nurse immediately turns around and bowed her head due to show her respect. "How's he?" The man asked while heading closer to the bed.

"He is doing well. There's nothing to worry about." The nurse informed with a smile. The elderly man nodded his head and signaled the nurse to head outside. She bowed her head again before walking out to give the father and son some private time.

Mr. Kim sighed and looks to his side, his eyes fell over a stool. He dragged the stool closer to the bed and sits over it. The elderly man looks at the sleeping guy, his eyes then trail down, noticing the same pulse oximetry biting on the tips of his fingers, observing his heart rate.

Mr. Kim leans forward and placed his own hand gently over the back of his son's, "Taehyung." He called softly, watching the said guy suddenly move in his sleep and deliberately flutter his eyes open.

Taehyung turns his head to his right, coming across the view of his father's smiling face. But he didn't smile back, his chest heaved up and down when he took a deep breath and looks away. Taehyung stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes of silence before he looks back at his father again. "So I'm still alive?" That was the first thing he said after waking up, his voice rough and deep from not speaking for too long.

"You certainly are." Mr. Kim responded, narrowing his eyebrows when Taehyung looks away again with a heavy frown and shook his head in disappointment. "I saved you." Taehyung snapped his head towards Mr. Kim again, but this time in a state of shock.

"You saved me? How?" He asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"Well, if we put logic in it, I really didn't save your life. It was a miracle rather. The day after your accident, I got a call that some fisherman found you." Taehyung listens to his father attentively while laying on the bed, his head was held up by two fluffy pillows and he was in hospital attire as well. "First I thought everyone was informed that you've been found but then I got to know except for me and the fisherman, no one knew that you've survived." Mr. Kim's face then changed drastically after saying the last sentence and he avert his gaze from Taehyung.

The elderly man took a deep breath and looks down, he placed a hand over the roof of his own thigh, "And I—I took advantage of the situation," He confessed, later raising his gaze to see Taehyung's reaction who was holding an even deeper semblance of disarray.

"How so?" Taehyung asked.

"When I found you, I immediately sent you to Daegu, here. . ." Mr. Kim trailed off as he looks up at the ceiling and stroll his gaze around the room before speaking, "In your late grandparent's house. Since then our private doctor, a nurse, and some servants are taking care of you. I also tried to visit you here, sometimes but not often to not raise any suspicion."

"Since then, I've been hiding you here in your grandparent's house. No one knows that you survived, not even your mother." Mr. Kim finished his explanation. Taehyung tilted his head upwards, slowly starting to understand the whole scene.

"So everyone knows I'm dead?" Taehyung asked, earning a nod from his father. "You still didn't answer how my death advantages you?" He then raised his unanswered question again.

"The media got silent." Mr. Kim answered shortly, watching Taehyung letting out a scoff and averting his gaze from his father with a bitter smirk. "Y'all never going to lose an opportunity to use me, even my dead body." He stated while peering to the opposite side of his father, venom lacing his tone.