HEART LIES

PLAYED

"Otoké appa, mom is dying?"

The words kept ringing in In-Sung's ears; how could she?

How could Sa-rang be dying?

Confused thoughts collided in In-Sung's mind:

Did Sa-rang just find out about her illness?

How long has she been aware?

Why did she not tell him?

No, it was impossible; Sa-rang could not die, In-Sung was aware of the cancer history in her family, but this could not happen to her.

In-Sung was in total denial as he turned the key to his house door that night. Despite the hurt, Sonmi said she preferred finding a way to be with Sa rang though she had cut ties with her. Sonmi felt guilty, and she refused to live with it; reconciliation was the only option left for her or In-Sung. They had to put their pride aside.

"Oh, honey, you are home early," In-Soo said as she came to kiss him, "waéguré, why the grave expression?"

The woman grasped In-Sung's face with both hands. The man's visage looked like someone had buttered some extra years on it.

"In Soo-ya."

"What? Why are you like this In-Sung? You are scaring me?"

"In-Soo-Ya," the man repeated without realizing he cried until he felt In-Soo wiping his tears with her hands.

Yes, Sa-rang hurt and humiliated him, but she was the woman who gave birth to his child. And the woman he had almost spent two decades with. In-Sung had loved Sa-rang, and at this instant, perhaps he loved her still.

In-Soo's facial expression became filled with empathy and concern, oh, jaegi wae?"

"She-she is sick," In-Sung muttered while In-Soo wiped his tears with her fingers.

"Who?"

"She's dying, In-Soo," In-Sung said in a trance.

"Nugu?" [who]

"Sa-rang, Sa-rang is sick. She has stage 4 cancer."

In-Soo stepped back in shock; tears filled her eyes as her mind raced as it immediately linked the dots of the enigma surrounding Sa rang, a sickening feeling filled In-Soo.

In-Soo ran to the toilets, where she vomited while she cried tears of frustration and anger. Sa rang's state did not occur overnight. The woman knew, and this was the reason she hired In-Soo to be In-Sung's painkiller. Sa-rang placed the pieces on the chessboard. There was nothing uncalculated by the woman who meticulously organized those around her.

The pregnant woman loathed Sa-rang and herself for having been so cupid and blind jumping on the bone Sa rang left her like a scavenger. She who dreamt of a better life did not hesitate one second to grasp the experience the woman offered.

In-Sung followed his fiancée, "In-Soo-Yah, are you okay?"

In-Soo's gaze turned to the man whose face harbored the stigmas of the shock. Guilt burned inside In-Soo's stomach as she turned away once more for a second salve of intensive puking. A dreadful thought came to mind; she wished she could vomit her baby out.

How could she give birth to a child conceived in such circumstances?

Hence now more than ever, In-Sung was not to know the truth about her deal with his ex-wife. The news would break the man if not destroy him.

Every one of Sa-rang's words came to In-Soo's mind. The woman's disease was at least one year old. In-Soo imagined how Sa rang must have fought to conceal such a thing from her family.