Chapter 32
The old woman's gaze stopped on Yoonji.
For a moment, she narrowed her eyes as if she did not recognize her.
Then both eyes widened at once.
“Yoonji!”
Her voice rose even higher.
Still holding her handbag, she marched toward her granddaughter.
“What are you doing in a place like this?! Are you sick? What's wrong with you?!”
Yoonji flinched.
Eunwoo calmly stood up while watching them.
“Grandma, it's...”
“Why are you here?!”
Yoonji's lips trembled.
Yet she looked at the old woman again.
“Why are you here, Grandma? Are you sick?”
The old woman fell silent.
She herself had clearly announced that she was here to hear her test results, but now that her granddaughter was standing in front of her, the words would not come out.
She awkwardly pulled down the brim of her hat.
“...I'm perfectly fine.”
Yoonji clearly did not believe that answer.
She was about to speak when the clinic door opened again.
“Mother, you're already here. Huh? Yoonji?!”
The shout was almost a scream.
Eunwoo turned her head.
It was Kim Misuk, the real-estate agent who ran Happy Realty in the market alley.
Misuk nearly dropped her handbag before grabbing it tightly.
Then she hurried toward her daughter.
“Why are you here? What about school?”
“Classes are over.”
“Why didn't you tell me?!”
Her voice carried both anger and worry.
“Mother.”
“Why is your daughter at an OB-GYN?”
Choi Yeonok was even harsher with her daughter-in-law.
Yoonji hesitated.
“It's nothing serious.”
Unable to watch any longer, Eunwoo stepped in.
“Hello. I'm Yoonji's friend, Jeong Eunwoo. I'm the student council president.”
She explained calmly.
“Yoonji's menstrual cramps were really bad at school, so the school nurse told her she should visit an OB-GYN. Dr. Im examined her properly, and she'll be fine as long as she takes the medicine.”
Choi Yeonok's anger still had not completely faded.
“Then why did you hide it instead of saying you were hurting?! Enduring pain in silence is the worst thing you can do!”
The moment she said it, Yeonok thought of herself.
She was the one who had hidden her pain all this time.
Ever since she had started taking the iron supplements from this clinic, her dizziness had disappeared.
Perhaps it was the medicine.
Or perhaps she simply felt better after finally speaking aloud about everything she had kept buried.
Either way, she was sleeping better at night, and her appetite had returned.
If I'd known it could be solved this easily, I would've come much sooner.
And now her own granddaughter had hidden her pain and secretly come to a clinic alone.
It felt as if she were looking at herself.
She was an old woman who had already lived most of her life.
But this child was still young.
She still had her whole life ahead of her.
One stubborn old woman in this family is enough.
Yoonji stared at her.
“...It's only been since last week.”
“...”
Choi Yeonok coughed awkwardly and pulled down the brim of her hat.
The three mothers sitting in the waiting room had also stopped talking and were watching them.
The mother with the baby carrier had her mouth slightly open.
The pregnant woman from Incheon had clasped her hands.
GounMom stared with wide eyes despite her exhausted face.
“Phew.”
The woman wearing the baby carrier unconsciously laughed as she patted her baby's back.
The scolding was loud, but the other mothers had clearly been worried too.
Choi Yeonok finally sighed, fiddling with her hat.
“You should've at least told us.”
“I'll listen to Grandma's results too.”
“I thought you'd come here pregnant or something.”
“Grandma! How can you say something like that?! I don't even have a boyfriend!”
The three of them headed toward the examination room together.
Eunwoo put on her schoolbag with a bitter smile.
Yoonji is lucky. She still has her mother.
Eunwoo missed her own mother.
Gain opened the examination-room door and found all three of them standing there together.
Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law stood in a row, with the granddaughter between them.
The student who had just received her prescription had returned.
Gain looked puzzled.
“Yoonji? What happened?”
Misuk stepped forward.
“She's my daughter, Director. Mother came to hear her results, and we happened to run into Yoonji.”
At the end of the sentence, Misuk stood behind her mother-in-law and gave Gain a tiny shake of her head.
It was a silent request.
Please don't mention my treatment.
Gain gave a small nod.
OB-GYN was a field full of secrets.
Just as she had covered for Misuk in front of Yuri on her day off, all she had to do now was keep quiet.
“Ahem.”
Choi Yeonok cleared her throat beside them.
Apparently, having both her daughter-in-law and granddaughter suddenly join her made receiving the results feel awkward.
“Director, so what do my results say?”
Gain smiled from behind the desk.
“Mother, have you been well for the last three days?”
“...More or less.”
“Are you comfortable hearing the results in front of your family?”
“Sure. Doesn't matter.”
“You came at the right time. Let me give you the good news first. The result is benign.”
“Benign? That's good?”
“Yes. It means it isn't something bad.”
Gain softened her voice.
“It's called endometrial atrophy. Simply put, the thin lining inside your uterus has become even thinner and drier. It can recover with medication that you apply locally.”
A rural elderly patient might go home and worry for days if she misunderstood the word benign.
So Gain explained it again.
“Nothing is wrong with you as a person. You've endured this alone for a long time, so it must have been very difficult. From now on, the medicine will help.”
“...A long time?”
Misuk turned toward her mother-in-law.
“Mother, has this been going on for a while? Why didn't you tell me...?”
“What would I talk to you about besides the buildings?”
Misuk fell silent.
Choi Yeonok continued staring at the test sheet instead of looking at her daughter-in-law.
After a moment, she quietly added,
“...I told you now, didn't I?”
Only then did she finally let out the breath she had been holding.
She turned toward her granddaughter.
Misuk gave a small, relieved smile.
“...If I use this medicine, it'll get better, right?”
“Yes. Use it for around two months, and then come see me again.”
Misuk gently held her mother-in-law's hand for a moment.
Yoonji stood quietly beside them, listening.
She clutched her own prescription in one hand while lightly holding onto the edge of her mother's clothes with the other.
Gain closed the chart and looked at all three of them.
Choi Yeonok wore neatly pressed clothes for her outing.
Misuk had come straight from the real-estate office, her short hair carefully brushed back.
Yoonji stood half a step behind her mother in her school uniform, still wearing her backpack.
Yoonji fidgeted with the cuff of her uniform sleeve.
Without realizing it, Misuk began touching the button on her jacket cuff.
Choi Yeonok had been fiddling with the brim of her hat the entire time.
All three had exactly the same nervous habit.
Gain held back a laugh.
“The three of you really are family.”
“Not at all. She's only my daughter-in-law...”
Choi Yeonok waved her hand, then stopped.
Both her daughter-in-law and granddaughter were looking at her.
It was difficult to keep denying it when the three of them were standing so neatly together.
Misuk lowered her head awkwardly.
“I'm embarrassed. I didn't even know my own daughter was hurting.”
“Take care on your way home.”
Gain turned toward the desk.
“Please call the next patient.”
At the front desk, Choi Yuri's voice could be heard explaining the bill.
Yoonji began searching through her bag, but Choi Yeonok immediately waved her off.
“Forget it. I'll pay.”
Yeonok pulled some crumpled bills from her handbag and placed them on the desk.
Then she added another bill.
“And put this toward Misuk's next visit. Use it for her medicine and treatment.”
Misuk stared while still holding her wallet.
“Mother, I...”
“I stayed at your place for three days. You think I wouldn't recognize your kitchen cupboards?”
Yeonok had stayed at her daughter-in-law's house while waiting for her results.
She had spotted a familiar medicine envelope in a cupboard and taken it out, thinking it was her own iron supplement.
Fortunately, before swallowing anything, she realized the pills looked different.
The name written on the pharmacy envelope from beside the OB-GYN clinic was Kim Misuk.
Her daughter-in-law.
Yeonok had quietly put it back and said nothing.
That night, the light in Misuk's bedroom stayed on until very late.
“This is payment for all the years you've managed my buildings. Accounts are accounts.”
Choi Yeonok refused to make eye contact as she collected the change.
Misuk finally understood that this was simply her mother-in-law's way of showing affection.
“If you're sick, say you're sick. Then go to the hospital. Understand?”
Misuk only lowered her head instead of answering.
In the end, all three of them had been doing the same thing.
The mother-in-law hid her illness.
Misuk hid her medicine.
And her daughter secretly went to a clinic alone.
“Yoonji, if you ever need to go to the hospital again, let's go together, okay?”
“Okay.”
Her daughter squeezed her hand tightly.
Misuk smiled when she felt the warmth.
Yeonok put her hat on with a stern face, but her steps were lighter than before.
Eunwoo hurried after them.
“Yoonji, I'll see you at school.”
“Yeah!”
“Yeah.”
Eunwoo headed home.
Her father would have dinner ready and be waiting for her.
For some reason, the scene she had just witnessed remained vivid in her mind.
Jeong Eunwoo quickened her steps.
After the three left, Gain updated the charts.
So this is what a neighborhood clinic feels like.
A warm feeling settled in one corner of her heart.
At that moment, the spring inside her heart gently stirred.
It was the same soft warmth she always felt when a patient's gratitude flowed into her.
Like a warm blanket under the sunlight.
But this time, the amount was enormous.
All three of them?
Gain looked toward the closed door.
She understood the grandmother's gratitude.
But Misuk and Yoonji too?
Then again, perhaps it was not strange at all.
Misuk was grateful because Gain had protected her secret and cared for her mother-in-law.
Yoonji was grateful because Gain had allowed her to decide for herself whether to tell her mother.
All three had their own reasons.
And at the same moment, all three had sincerely felt grateful.
Choi Yeonok had never once said the words thank you.
Yet Gain's divine power had increased enormously.
Did it triple because all three members of the family came together?
Gain chuckled softly.
She was grateful too.
