공유

Chapter 3

작가: Flip Harmonica
Hugo didn't come to see Grandma even once during the following week.

He only messaged me twice on WhatsApp to ask how she was doing. After I replied, "She's okay," he didn't say anything else.

Grandma's test results didn't look too good. The doctor recommended keeping her in the hospital under observation for a few days while preparing for her upcoming bypass surgery.

Every day, I went back and forth between the hospital and the apartment. I settled into a busy routine of making soup for Grandma and washing our clothes.

One night, I went to the pantry at the end of the hallway to fill the thermos. As I passed the nurses' station, I overheard two young nurses working the night shift whispering to each other.

"Did you guys see Lorelei's livestream today? It was insane."

"I did. I never would've guessed that stuttering girl who acts so helpless all the time was actually so disgusting."

"I heard that stutter is completely fake. She pretends to have it to make men feel sorry for her so she can keep them wrapped around her finger."

"And the worst part is her grandmother. Apparently, she borrowed a lot of money from relatives back in their hometown years ago and ran off to the city with it."

"How does someone like that even have the nerve to stay in a private hospital room? She's using stolen money to pay for medical care. That's unscrupulous. "

The thermos slipped from my hand. It hit the tile floor with a loud crash. The glass liner shattered into pieces, and scalding water splashed across my lower legs.

The two nurses jumped. When they saw me, they shut their mouths diffidently before hurrying away.

I didn't have time to worry about the burning pain in my legs. With trembling hands, I pulled out my phone. I quickly opened the livestreaming app and found Lorelei's profile to watch the replay.

On the screen, Lorelei sat in a luxurious apartment, her makeup perfectly done as she chatted with her followers. Someone asked if her injured foot was feeling better.

She smiled and replied, "Of course it's getting better quickly with him taking care of me."

Then, her tone suddenly changed. She sighed and put on an expression of helpless resignation.

Lorelei said, "I have a close friend, and honestly, I feel terrible for him. He's been emotionally manipulated by a woman pretending to be sick for years. That woman has been faking a stutter since she was little, just to make people feel sorry for her and make him feel like he owes her.

"And her family isn't exactly respectable either. One of her relatives used to scam hardworking people in their hometown out of their money. Now, they're using that money to live it up in a major hospital."

Comments flooded in right away. Many of them were insults aimed at that "shameless stuttering girl" and her "deadbeat grandmother". Someone even dug up photos of Grandma and me from behind while we were paying our hospital bills.

My mind went completely blank. My breathing became rapid and shallow.

Clutching my phone, I slipped into the stairwell and dialed Hugo's number.

It rang for a long time before he finally answered. The background was noisy. People were toasting each other, and it sounded like he was in a private room at an upscale restaurant.

"What's wrong, Andrea?"

My tongue trembled uncontrollably. I forced every ounce of strength I had into pushing out a few broken sounds.

"On… Online…"

"Did you see Lori's livestream?" Hugo asked instantly.

He sounded exasperated, as though he thought I was making a big deal out of nothing.

"It was just for entertainment. Lori was trying to get more views, so she made up some gossip. She didn't name anyone. You need to stop being so sensitive.

"Why do you keep assuming everything is about you? Besides, there was some controversy surrounding the money Grandma borrowed back then, wasn't there?"

My heart sank to my stomach.

If there was anyone in this world who knew the truth about Grandma, it was him.

Years ago, some of my awful relatives had spread rumors that Grandma had borrowed money and refused to pay it back because they wanted to seize our family's property back in our hometown.

Hugo had been 22 then. He'd stood in front of me and Grandma, using the evidence he'd gathered to drive those relatives away.

And now, with one casual remark about there being "some controversy", he'd condemned Grandma to public disgrace.

"Take… it… down…" A faint metallic taste of blood spread through my throat.

"Alright, Andrea. I'm having dinner with Lori and the sponsors. Don't make a scene. Be good."

With that, he hung up on me.

The stairwell's motion-activated light finally went out when the silence stretched out for too long.

In the darkness, I finally accepted the truth. The young man, who had once stood before me and protected me against the world, was gone.

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  • Dumped in the Dark, Saved by Myself   Chapter 10

    After that final confrontation, Hugo disappeared from my life.The owner of the flower shop later told me that the man from the north who had bought flowers every day had looked like a soulless husk when he left.I quit my job at the flower shop and left Nayworth. I moved to an even quieter and more remote town in the southwest.Time was the best medicine for healing everything, as long as one was willing to keep moving forward.Two years later, I passed the exams and earned my teaching certificate through self-study. I became a teacher at a special education school, where I worked specifically with children who had speech and language difficulties.The sun was shining brightly over the playground, and a gentle breeze stirred the treetops. I stood at the front of the classroom with a colorful children's picture book in my hands."Everyone, read it with me. Sun… shine…"My pronunciation was clear. Every word carried the vigor of life, without a trace of the fear that had once hel

  • Dumped in the Dark, Saved by Myself   Chapter 9

    Hugo went to Grandma's grave and bribed one of the cemetery employees to let him in. He knelt in front of her grave for three whole days.During that time, he refused to eat or drink. He endured the wind and rain until he finally collapsed from exhaustion. Expensive imported health supplements and bouquets of white roses crowded the space in front of Grandma's tombstone.On the eve of Memorial Day, I went up the mountain to visit Grandma's grave.The sky was gray, and a light drizzle was falling. From a distance, I spotted the figure lying on the moss-covered stone steps.I walked over and stepped over him. His pale lips moved faintly in the rain as he unconsciously murmured my name.If this had happened in the past, I probably would have cried from seeing Hugo like this. Now, all I felt was bitter irony.He was trying to make my heart soften by deliberately putting himself through misery, as if he was so sure that would be the outcome. This was just like back then, when he assum

  • Dumped in the Dark, Saved by Myself   Chapter 8

    From that day on, Hugo stayed at a small motel across the flower shop. No matter if it was rain or shine, he showed up at the flower shop right on time every single day. He bought all of the sunflowers in the store.Sunflowers had always been his favorite flowers. He used to say I was his little ray of sunshine, the one who could chase away all the darkness in his life.The shop owner was more than happy to let me handle such a generous customer myself.I didn't object. I simply took his orders, handled the payments, and wrapped the flowers as I would for any other customer. After all, business was business.There seemed to be no end to the rain in Nayworth.One evening, the temperature suddenly dropped, and the damp air turned bitterly cold.Hugo stood beneath the streetlamp outside the flower shop without an umbrella. He was soaked from head to toe. His face was unnaturally flushed from a fever, and his body swayed in the wind with every violent cough.In the past, even the sl

  • Dumped in the Dark, Saved by Myself   Chapter 7

    Hugo froze as an expression of shock and disbelief appeared on his face. "You can speak! You… You're not stuttering anymore…"He took a step forward, trying to pull me into his arms.I stepped to the side and put some distance between us. "If you're not here to buy flowers, please don't block the doorway. You're obstructing our business."My voice was calm, as though I were speaking to a complete stranger.Hugo's hand froze in midair. The color drained completely from his face.His voice trembled, and his tone was almost pleading. "Andrea, don't be so cold… I know what happened to Grandma. It was all my fault. I came too late. I punished Lorelei and made sure she was blacklisted everywhere. I ruined her entire career. She'll never be able to return to the country."I also sued the people who spread those lies online. And I paid for the best possible headstone for Grandma…"I listened quietly as he listed all of his accomplishments. Then, I picked up my scissors and continued tri

  • Dumped in the Dark, Saved by Myself   Chapter 6

    Nayworth was a small seaside town with a mild, pleasant climate. Life was slow there, and the elderly people on the streets spoke in local dialects I couldn't understand.I rented a tiny one-room apartment with a small courtyard in the old part of town and found a job at a flower shop at the entrance to an alley. The owner was a kind middle-aged woman who didn't mind that I rarely spoke.In a city where no one knew me, I learned to breathe again.After work, I would lock the doors and windows in my apartment and put on some instrumental music. Then, I would stand in front of the bathroom mirror to practice speaking over and over again.I started with the simplest sounds. After a while, I moved on to words and phrases. Finally, I started speaking in complete sentences.Hugo used to stroke my hair and say, "You don't have to talk if you don't want to. I'll always be here."I'd lost the ability to live independently inside the cage he'd built for me. Now that the cage was shattered,

  • Dumped in the Dark, Saved by Myself   Chapter 5

    Hugo frowned and tapped on the notification. When he read the contents, the color drained from his face.His fingers trembled as he tapped on my chat. His messages wouldn't go through, and my number couldn't be reached.He stumbled toward the parking lot. On his way home, he ran three red lights along the way.When he pushed open the front door, he found the apartment cold and empty. Half the closet was bare. At the very center of his pillow lay the tablet that had been restored to its factory settings.The screen was lit, displaying only one line. "Welcome. Please complete the initial setup."As Hugo stood in the empty home, his mind went blank for a moment. He dialed my number again."I'm sorry. The number you have dialed is no longer in service."He immediately switched to WhatsApp. Every message he'd sent showed only one gray tick below them.On the coffee table in the living room sat a spare key. There wasn't even a note beside it. Everything was spotless, as though I'd ne

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