The Hallowed Heart - English Version

Chapter 7

After 2 days, Hyun Bin's father was finally allowed to get out of the isolation room.

From the doctor who treated him, Hyun Bin heard that his father's health condition has developed promisingly.

Hyun Bin himself still has to be hospitalized for the next 2-3 days. The stitches in his stomach still hurt without pain relief, making it difficult to get up and walk, and his body still need to adjust with only one kidney now.

"Hello, are you bored being here all the time?"  Gong Yoo suddenly looked into his room.  "Want to go strolling around?"

Hyun Bin smiled slightly, gesturing for his cousin to come closer.

Gong Yoo knows that Hyun Bin couldn't walk just yet, so he borrowed a wheelchair from a nurse.

His cousin then carefully helped him to get from the bed to the wheelchair, then made sure the IV remained neatly attached to the wheel post.

"I've explored the hallways of this hospital."  Gong Yoo started to push his cousin's wheelchair, "On the right wing there is a descent where we can try to take turns sliding on this wheelchair" he joked.

Hyun Bin smiled imagining the commotion they would cause. "Maybe another time..."

"Okay then... I'm just offering..." Gong Yoo pretended to be disappointed.

A moment later he took a turn into a room. Hyun Bin looked at him questioningly. What else was his cousin planning this time?

"I think it's time for the two of you to  talk. Really talk this time."  Gong Yoo explained while nodding towards the bed in front of them. On the bed, Hyun Bin's father lying dumbfounded at their arrival.

"Hello, appa..." said Hyun Bin resignedly. His ignorant cousin had fleed out of the room without saying goodbye.

"Hello Bin, how are you? Stitches still hurting?"  his father asked kindly.

"Still a little bit..."

"Appa is glad you are here, Bin. Appa has been waiting to thank you."

"No need to thank me, appa. I'm not some kind of stranger."  Hyun Bin replied while pretending to observe his own nails. For some reason it was hard to see his normally healthy and dashing father suddenly lying weakly on a hospital bed like this.

"Appa always makes your life difficult", his father continued quietly.

The sad moments growing up without his father's presence suddenly appear in Hyun Bin's memory. It made his throat choke with emotion.

"I'm used to it." he answered short. His tears threaten to fall any second, and Hyun Bin tries to cover them up again by putting on an emotionless mask.

"Appa knows that life is never easy for you, Bin.. Sorry..." His father continued to say what he had been keeping for a long time.  "Sorry because appa can't give you a complete family, son."

"And what's the reason?"  Hyun Bin suddenly felt the emotional dam that he had built for years just burst off.

"Why did appa prefer them over me and eomma?"  he asked in a trembling voice.

Hyun Bin's father looked at his son sadly, "appa and eomma weren't enough for each other, Bin..."

"As a husband, appa is not good enough for eomma. And vice versa. In the end our expectations that don't match reality make us both hurt each other."

Hyun Bin looked at his father skeptically, "So Ye Jin's mother can live up to appa's expectations?"

With a dreamy look, Hyun Bin's father explained, "Appa doesn't want to hurt you, but with Ye Jin and her mother, Appa's life feels easier to live."