Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 396

397. Don’t Even Mention the Hospital

“Auntie!”

Kim Yeon-ju, seeing the middle-aged woman with a surprised expression outside the door, frowned. “What are you doing right now?”

“Well, Little Madam, I was just…” The middle-aged woman, a live-in housekeeper of foreign descent, stammered, still looking surprised.

“I asked, what are you doing?”

“Well, I just thought you couldn’t eat properly earlier, so I prepared a little snack of ground bananas and strawberries.”

The housekeeper cautiously held out the tray she was carrying.

“Who told you to make juice for me?”

*Thwack!*

With a swift motion, she struck the tray, causing the juice in the mug to spill onto the floor and splash everywhere.

“I must have made Little Madam uncomfortable for no reason. Oh dear! What a waste.”

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Lee Jae-san, taken aback by his wife’s uncharacteristic behavior, tried to stop her. “She came to give you juice. Auntie, are you alright?”

“I’m alright. Don’t you worry about me.”

“Auntie, I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to be sorry. Not at all.”

“Sorry? Why are you apologizing to her?” Lee Jae-san grabbed his wife’s hand, who was becoming increasingly emotional, and led her into the room. “Seriously, what’s wrong with you?”

“Let go of me!”

“I know it’s hard for you because of Jin-i. But it’s not like you to act like this towards the housekeeper. She’s working for our family.”

Kim Yeon-ju was not the type to get annoyed or angry at others, even when she was struggling to take care of her sick daughter. Rather, she was considerate and warmly cared for the housekeeper who had come to Korea from abroad to earn money.

But at some point, his wife’s attitude towards the housekeeper noticeably changed. Lee Jae-san asked her about it each time, but she always replied that nothing was wrong, so he assumed it was fine. But seeing her today, he was certain that something was definitely wrong.

“Are you sure nothing happened between you and the housekeeper?”

“…”

“Is there something I don’t know about?”

“Honey, I wish the housekeeper would only work until the end of this month and then quit.”

“What! Suddenly? It won’t be easy since your mother brought her here. Besides, how can we tell someone who hasn’t done anything wrong to quit overnight?”

“She hasn’t done anything wrong? She’s spying on us. Is that still not wrong?”

“What?” Lee Jae-san couldn’t readily understand his wife’s words, as they were so absurd. “Spying? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“The day you and I first talked about going to the hospital because of Jin-i’s problem, don’t you think your mother has been contacting us more often than usual since a month before that?”

“Your mother’s calls?”

“Yes. The housekeeper has been reporting everything to your mother.”

For some reason, Lee Jae-san and Kim Yeon-ju’s family were terribly averse to going to the hospital. The extent of their aversion was almost to the point of hating hospitals.

So, even though they had a severely ill daughter, they didn’t even think about taking her to the hospital. Instead, they relied on natural remedies and all sorts of unverified methods circulating online to monitor the child’s condition and continue her treatment. In particular, her mother-in-law strongly believed that the child would get better with such methods.

However, despite all sorts of methods, for some reason, the child showed no signs of improvement, and her symptoms worsened. As the symptoms worsened, the child’s cries of pain and discomfort also increased.

The couple, with many thoughts, were caught up in the idea of whether they should go to the hospital as a last resort.

But there was a problem. It wasn’t easy to tell her mother-in-law, who distrusted hospitals even more than they did, but the couple could no longer back down. But somehow, her mother-in-law brought up the story to her son and daughter-in-law first.

‘You two aren’t thinking of taking Jin-i to the hospital, are you?’

‘It’s not like that, but I was thinking of going for a consultation.’

‘Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? Have you forgotten what happened then? Yeon-ju, did you coax your father to go to the hospital?’

‘N, no. Mother, Jin-i is having a hard time, so we made the decision together.’

‘Are you saying you know Jin-i is having a hard time and still suggesting going to the hospital? San-i! Our eldest grandson! Who died because of whom? Huh! Because of you! Have you forgotten that he died because of you?’

‘……’

‘That time, you took San-i to the hosp…’

‘Mother! Please stop it! It’s not her fault.’

‘Yes, if we have to be precise, it’s because of the hospital. But if Yeon-ju hadn’t taken San-i to the hospital then, he wouldn’t have died.’

‘Mother!’

‘Alright, I’ll stop. But don’t ever mention that hospital again.’

At the mention of taking her to the hospital, her mother-in-law was furious, and that mad fury was directed entirely at her daughter-in-law, Kim Yeon-ju.

The relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was so good that everyone around them acknowledged it. The mother-in-law cherished her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law followed her mother-in-law well.

No matter how good the relationship, there is an unbridgeable gap in the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, but there was no such thing for the two. However, when San-i, the first grandson born with difficulty after marriage, died in an accident, the mother-in-law, who collapsed from the shock, turned all the arrows at her daughter-in-law.

Kim Yeon-ju also couldn’t shake the thought that perhaps it was her fault that her son had passed away so futilely. So, she endured the harsh words of her mother-in-law, which sometimes pierced her heart, without responding.

But now her mind had changed. She didn’t care what happened to herself, but for the sake of her child, she could no longer stay like this. She decided to persuade her mother-in-law no matter what. But strangely enough, every time, her mother-in-law knew all about the couple’s story, and even when Kim Yeon-ju went out for a while, it seemed like she even knew her route.

It was as if someone was watching her. And that suspicion started with the housekeeper her mother-in-law had brought and became certain.

One day, after nursing Jin-i as usual, she checked on her daughter, who had barely fallen asleep, and briefly entered the room. At that time, she received a call from her husband, and as always, she checked on the child’s condition, and the couple had various conversations.

After hanging up the phone, she told the housekeeper that she was going to take a shower when the child fell asleep and headed to the bathroom, but she left her cell phone in the room and went out of the bathroom again.

Kim Yeon-ju always had to keep her cell phone in sight because she was always worried about when her daughter would look for her mother. So, she picked up her cell phone and was heading to her daughter, wondering if she had woken up in the meantime.

But the moment she passed the housekeeper’s room, Kim Yeon-ju stopped.

‘Yes, Madam. I clearly heard Little Madam talking about the hospital again. Yes, earlier, she didn’t hesitate to tell Jin-i to go with her mom and dad.’

Through the slightly opened door, the housekeeper was reporting her entire daily routine to her mother-in-law, along with the contents of her call with her husband. This was only a few days ago.

“Is what you just said true?”

Lee Jae-san looked surprised after hearing his wife’s explanation.

“It’s all true.”

“Yeon-ju, are you sure you didn’t misunderstand?”

“What?”

Lee Jae-san couldn’t easily believe his wife’s words.

“I think we’re all worried about Jin-i these days, and everyone’s a bit sensitive. So I was wondering if that’s why you think that way.”

“So, are you saying that I’m making up a story that doesn’t exist? Do you think I’m lying?”

“It’s not that… Honey? Yeon-ju?”

*Clang-*

Kim Yeon-ju, upset by her husband’s reaction, immediately got up from her seat and left the room. Lee Jae-san followed right behind her, and the place where the two arrived was the housekeeper’s room.

*Clang-*

“Little Madam, what’s wrong?”

“Auntie, have you been spying on me and my husband and reporting everything to my mother-in-law?”

“Yes? Reporting? I don’t know anything about that.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Little Madam.”

*Thwack- Thwack-*

When the housekeeper continued to deny it, Kim Yeon-ju started searching the room.

“Yeon-ju, what’s really wrong with you?”

“Let go of me!”

Lee Jae-san hurriedly tried to stop her when he saw her, but his wife did not listen to him with a firm attitude.

“What’s really wrong with you!” When her husband finally raised his voice and asked, his wife said the reason with a miserable expression.

“What’s wrong? I can only take Jin-i to the hospital if the housekeeper doesn’t contact my mother-in-law!”

“……!”

“My mother-in-law even installed CCTV in Jin-i’s room because she’s afraid we’ll take her to the hospital, and she even hired an auntie to monitor us. Is that all? She firmly believes in the nonsense that a con artist fortune teller said that the child will die if she goes to the hospital. Besides, she’s addicted to natural healing and other ridiculous methods… Ha!”

Kim Yeon-ju, overwhelmed with emotion, calmed herself for a moment before continuing.

“Me too! I’m scared and afraid to send Jin-i to the hospital. I’m the scariest of all. I’m afraid that what happened then will happen again. I’m scared of what to do if even Jin-i gets hurt… San-i is telling me to take his younger sibling to the hospital. I didn’t know it earlier, but it seems like San-i talked about the hospital to save his younger sibling. So don’t stop me.”

Kim Yeon-ju, who poured out her resentment, searched the housekeeper’s room. And it was right then that she was taking out the drawers of the desk one by one.

“Look at this! I suspected it…”

In the back of the last drawer, there was a cell phone and a small palm-sized notebook that she had never seen before. It contained how Kim Yeon-ju spent her day at home, what kind of stories she talked about when she talked to her husband, and what kind of conversations the couple had together.

When stories about the hospital came up, she checked it and secretly contacted her mother-in-law with the cell phone she had prepared.

“Am I still being sensitive even with this evidence? Am I still strange?”

“Auntie? Were you spying on us? Why?”

Lee Jae-san, who had only suspected it, was very angry. He couldn’t hide the betrayal that he had been deceived, thinking that she was a kind person who lived a simple and hardworking life and treated her well.

“I, I didn’t deceive you.”

“Are you still denying it when there’s obvious evidence like this?”

“Auntie is also a mother. If you’re a parent raising a child just like us, you’ll know how desperate we are… How can you do this?”

“Are you really not going to tell me why you did this? Is it money? Did you do this to get more money?”

“It’s not because of money. The money I’m getting now is enough.”

“Then why? Tell me why you’re doing this.”

“If I tell you this, Madam will scold me…”

“Auntie!!”

“I, I’ll tell you. So Jin-i…”

The housekeeper, who had been worried about the couple’s continued questioning, finally opened her mouth, and the couple heard an amazing answer.

“I did it to protect the sick child. As you said, I’m also a parent raising a child. So I wanted to protect the child.”

“Wh, what… did you say?”

“The Madam said that the Director [referring to Lee Jae-san] and Little Madam are addicted to a strange religion. She said that saying ‘hospital’ is a code word for the two of you referring to a strange group, so she told me to be sure to let her know if I hear such a sound, and she even got me a new cell phone. I couldn’t help but do this because I felt sorry and sad for that young child. I hope you know that I didn’t do it with bad intentions for any other reason.”

“……”

“……!”

Lee Jae-san and Kim Yeon-ju couldn’t easily understand what the housekeeper was saying. For a moment, they were speechless and didn’t know what to say.

“Auntie?”

Kim Yeon-ju, who had been looking blank, regained her senses and sat next to the housekeeper.

“Yes, Little Madam.”

“So, what you’re saying is…”