Chapter Text
Oh Yeon Joo stared at the name 강철 that was printed on her skin, right where she’d punctured Kang Chul in order to resolve his tension pneumothorax. It looked like a tattoo, but she knew it wasn’t, she’d know if she’d gotten a tattoo.
She knew what this meant, but she still couldn’t believe it.
Surely, it was impossible.
It had to be.
There was no way it could be real.
Fate surely couldn’t be so cruel.
Yeon Joo couldn’t argue with the evidence though, as no amount of scrubbing removed the name from her flesh nor made it fade.
Which could only mean one thing:
She’d found her soulmate.
The only problem? He’s a fictional character in her dad’s manhwa.
One who her father was apparently determined to kill off in order to end the story.
Kang Chul stared at the name 오연주 that now marked his skin on his wrist, wondering why her name was there and what it meant.
He'd tried to remove it, thinking that she or someone else had written it with a pen or marker, but it was apparently permanent - like a tattoo.
Except Chul knew it wasn’t a tattoo, he’d seen plenty of fresh tattoos to know what one looked like.
The skin around the letters would have been red and slightly puffy, attributes which this strange addition to his skin lacked.
So what could it be? Why on earth was her name on him?
Before he’d even seen her name on him, he had already been thinking that she was the key to his life, but now he was absolutely certain of it.
Though everyone had been telling Yeon Joo that what she experienced didn’t happen, that it was impossible, the events still weighed heavily on Yeon Joo’s mind.
She’d saved him, her hand still remembered the feeling of plunging the pen into his chest.
In roughly the same spot as where she now bore his name as her soulmate mark.
Despite everything that Soo Bong and her father had told her, Yeon Joo knew that what had happened was real.
Which was why it continued to bother her throughout the day, hitting a high point when she’d made the run to Bonjour after her co-workers had taken advantage of her state of distraction while focusing on what had happened.
After having gotten the coffee and the tiramisu, Yeon Joo was about to head back to the hospital, having tried to talk herself out of caring about what had happened, but she just couldn’t let it go.
Even though she knew that she couldn’t be with Chul, she felt that she had to at least continue to save him from being killed off.
Deciding to call her father, Yeon Joo brought out her cellphone and dialed his number. Luck was apparently on her side as he was apparently not too busy to pick up.
“Dad? Are you working?”
“Yes. Did anything happen?”
He sounded tired and mildly annoyed, which caused her to infer that she must have been disrupted him.
“I’m sorry for interrupting you,” she responded, “but are you planning to kill Kang Chul?”
Her father didn’t say anything, the silence on the other end of the line causing her to become concerned. She was pretty sure his silence meant he was indeed planning to kill him.
“Why? Why do you need to kill him?”
“Are you now involving yourself in my work now too?” He responded, in a way which seemed almost defensive.
Yeon Joo sighed heavily, “It’s because I feel so empty. Why must he die when he hasn’t even done anything bad? It’s unfair! He even promised himself that he would catch the culprit! Why must the main character die when he was solely focused on finding the culprit and getting revenge for ten years?”
It was the logical explanation to give him, she was certain her father would think her crazy if she told him that Kang Chul is her soulmate.
“Is there a law that says the main character can only die after getting revenge? This is based on what I want to do.”
“However, this isn’t right, Dad! If you were going to do this, then there’s no point in saving him. Don’t you know how you saved him? If you kill him now within just two chapters, how dumbfounded would the audience be?”
“So why did you do something so useless!”
Yeon Joo would have been shocked if she hadn’t already known, but she was surprised that he had finally made some sort of indication that he had been lying to her.
“Dad? What are you saying?”
He had fallen silent yet again.
“You just said I did a useless thing?”
“Nevermind.”
“The useless thing you’re talking about is that I saved Kang Chul, right?” She pushed, trying to get him to fully admit that he had been lying to her.
“What are you saying?”
“You know this too, right? You knew that I saved Kang Chul, right? You didn’t draw me saving him, right?”
“Are you in your right mind?”
The way he questioned her sanity pissed her off, it nearly made her want to declare that Chul was her soulmate and her father wasn’t going to successfully fool her because she had the soulmate mark on her as proof that it had all been real.
Instead, she decided to try to get him to confess that he hadn’t drawn what had happened.
“If not, then please explain! How… How did you draw the outfit I wore that day, from head to toe, accurately? That was the first time I wore those clothes!”
He didn’t have an explanation, as she knew he wouldn’t. There was literally no possible way he could, especially since she hadn’t even taken a picture of herself in the outfit.
“You saw too, right? You saw the living Kang Chul. I saw him. His blood was hot and his heart was racing. The look in his eyes is still fresh in my memory. Kang Chul was definitely alive. But how? How could he be alive?”
Still, her father remained silent on the other end of the line.
“This doesn’t make any sense! How is he alive?”
“That’s why. That’s why I need to end his life right this instant.”
“No! You can’t do that! It’s murder!”
“What did you just say? Murder?”
“No, I mean… I don’t know what’s happening, but he’s alive! Killing him when he’s living, that’s… that’s murder, dad! He’s alive and he’s my soulmate!”
She had gotten so swept up in her emotions, that she had wound up finally admitting it.
“Dad, please talk with me. I’ll go there. Hello?”
There was no answer, the line had gone dead and she had no way to know if her father had even heard the admission.
Looking around, Yeon Joo realized she wasn’t in her world anymore - she was in Kang Chul’s.
With this discovery, she knew exactly what she needed to do next.
She had to go save him.
Yeon Joo raced into the hospital, skidding to a halt at the receptionist’s desk to ask them for the room that Kang Chul was in.
She didn’t know why she had thought for even a moment that this would work, of course the receptionist wouldn’t give her that information. Yet, she still tried, desperate to get to him in order to save him.
When she was, of course, denied this information, Yeon Joo gazed around the interior of the hospital and realized that since this hospital was nothing more than just a rebranding of the one she worked at, she could just go off of her knowledge of where the VIP rooms were and try to find Kang Chul that way.
As she ran through the hospital, Yeon Joo worried that she might not get there in time, that she’d be too late to save him.
A fear that only grew with every obstacle and delay she encountered on her way to him. Especially when she had to slow down behind some other doctors in order to slip past security.
She knew which room he was in based on the number of guards, whom she had to push past to get through.
“You can’t go in there,” they told her, but it was too late for them to stop her.
Spying the nurse administering a drug through the IV, Yeon Joo knew instantly that she was the one she needed to stop.
Leaping into action, Yeon Joo quickly pushed the nurse aside before swiftly yanking the IV from Chul’s left arm.
He looked over at her, seeming to be mildly confused, but Yeon Joo was so in the moment that her brain barely registered it.
“Are you alright?” She frantically inquired, looking at him with concern.
“What are you talking about,” he asked, perplexed.
“This isn’t antibiotics, but potassium, which induces cardiac arrest,” she informed him.
Chul’s attention snapped instantly towards the nurse, as did everyone else’s in the room, though Yeon Joo’s remained on Chul, even as all the security guards ran out after the now fleeing nurse.
She found the syringe that the nurse had dropped and tried to figure out how much of the potassium had been administered to him.
“When did she give you the shot?”
“Right before you came in.”
Letting out a relieved sigh, Yeon Joo nodded, grateful that she’d gotten here just in time.
“It’s okay then. Trace amounts won’t matter.”
“But how did you know?”
Looking at him, Yeon Joo was certain that she looked like a deer in the headlights because she didn’t really know how to explain that.
At least not in a way that was honest and also not make it sound like she had impossible knowledge.
“What? Ah, I was passing by and coincidentally… The nurse seemed suspicious…,” she frantically began as she attempted to piece together an explanation, one which she was pretty sure Chul wasn’t buying, but thankfully the doctor came rushing in at that moment.
“What happened? Nurse Jeong switched the medicine?”
“I think it’s potassium,” she informed him, “and since the doctor-in-charge is here, I’ll be going now.”
Oh Yeon Joo tried to leave, but felt Chul grab her just above her elbow in order to stop her from leaving and spun her around to face him again.
“Miss Oh Yeon Joo,” he said, “Right? You are Oh Yeon Joo?”
“Uhhh, I’m not,” she lied.
He smirked, “Right there it says that you are Oh Yeon Joo.”
He indicated with the tilt of his head towards her lab coat which had her name embroidered on it.
“Oh Yeon Joo? The one from that time?”
The voice was one of the guys who had been in the room earlier.
“We finally meet, Miss Oh Yeon Joo,” Chul said, a slight smirk playing at one corner of his mouth.
As she sat on the chair near Chul, Oh Yeon Joo bounced her legs nervously, desperately hoping that she’d be whisked out of the manhwa at any moment and brought back to her world.
She remembered his name emblazoned on her chest and suddenly worried that he might be able to see it.
Looking down, she saw that the sweater she was wearing thankfully hid it.
At least that’d be one less thing to have to explain.
“Do you work at this hospital,” she heard Chul ask, causing her to snap her head up to look at him.
“No.”
He smirked.
“Ah, yes,” she said, changing her answer.
“But your business card says Myeong Sei Hospital.”
“Ah, that…,” Yeon Joo desperately tried to think of a way to possibly explain that, “I used to work here, but not now. Right now, I work in Myeong Sei Hospital-”
“Such a hospital does not exist,” he cut in.
“Pardon,” she asked, caught off guard by his interjection. Her brain began working as hard as it could to come up with an explanation for that, “it doesn’t exist now. It… it closed.”
“Closed?”
Something about the way he responded made Yeon Joo think that he didn’t believe her, but she pushed on with the explanation anyway.
“Yes, because the hospital wasn’t doing well, it closed. So right now, I am jobless,” she laughed nervously, vainly hoping that he’d buy her story, yet knowing that there was no possible way that he would, especially when she saw him smirk.
“But how did you come here when this isn’t your place of work?”
“What?” She shouldn’t have been caught so off-guard by the question, it was Kang Chul after all, so he would of course ask a lot of questions.
Especially when the circumstances and the “coincidences” were so strange.
“Why, out of all hospitals, in this particular hospital room?”
“Uh… That…,” frantically, Yeon Joo searched her brain for a logical sounding answer, “You looked for me. I saw in the news that you are looking for the witness.”
“You just told me that you came coincidentally…?”
“I saw the nurse who was passing by coincidentally. She looked so suspicious. I didn’t come to the hospital coincidentally. I came here originally to see you, and…,” she didn’t know what else to say at that point and lamely ended her response with, “yeah.”
She looked away briefly, feeling drained from doing all the mental gymnastics required to answer his questions while not giving away the fact that she was from another world.
Kang Chul smirked yet again, if nothing else, he seemed to at least be amused by her.
Right then was when another woman burst into Chul’s hospital room, asking “What happened? I just heard. What about the nurse? Are you okay?”
Yeon Joo recognized her as being Yoon So Hui, which meant the other man in the room was Seo Do Yoon.
“Is this person… Are you Miss Oh Yeon Joo,” So Hui asked, looking at her.
Yeon Joo got up and dipped her head slightly, “Yeah.”
“How are we meeting like this? All this time, I looked so hard for you. Hello, I’m the CEO’s secretary, Yoon So Hui.”
“Hello.”
“You didn’t contact us this whole time… You work at this hospital? Though I searched, I couldn’t find a Myeong Sei Hospital.”
“Ah, I just heard her explanation about that,” Chul informed her.
Yeon Joo was a bit relieved that she didn’t have to tell the lie again, though she couldn’t figure out why Chul had saved her from answering again.
“Oh, really?”
Chul nodded his head.
“But she is a beauty,” So Hui stated.
Yeon Joo cupped her face, feeling a bit surprised that her looks were being brought up.
“She is a beauty,” she continued, “we drew the composite sketch incorrectly because of someone.”
Yeon Joo looked over at Chul, knowing it was him, she’d seen it in the manhwa.
He smiled, “Yes, she is a beauty. Did someone say something?”
“You don’t have to say empty-hearted words. You said that if I’m a beauty, anyone else can be,” Yeon Joo said, removing her hands from her face and swinging them by her sides.
She realized too late though that she shouldn’t have said anything. She’d read that in the manhwa, there was no way for her to know it otherwise since only So Hui and Do Yoon had been in the room with Chul for that scene.
Which is why she wasn’t surprised when they all looked at her in surprise and glances were exchanged between the three.
She really needed to get out of here before she revealed anything else.
“That was towards the CEO, wasn’t it,” So Hui asked, “How did you-”
“Ah, about that,” she didn’t really know what to say, she was drawing a blank and instead decided to change tact, “I-I’m… I’m sorry, but I wish to talk to the CEO alone.”
“Pardon,” So Hui sounded confused and honestly Yeon Joo couldn’t blame her.
“With only me,” Chul asked, repositioning himself as he looked at her.
“Yes, I have something to say just between us,” she could only imagine how that sounded, but she didn’t care because she really needed to get out of here.
She silently pleaded with him with her eyes and the tilt of her head for him to do as she requested.
He smirked, then nodded, “You two go outside.”
“CEO, that’s a bit… We haven’t confirmed her identity yet,” was So Hui's mild protest.
“What do you mean, ‘unconfirmed identity’? She saved my life. What stronger identity verification could you want?”
“The police will be here soon, so you two can talk then,” she said, “Call me when you guys are done talking, I’ll be outside.”
She bowed slightly and left with Do Yoon, Yeon Joo watched them as they left, waiting for when the door closed to the room and they were out of earshot.
She returned her attention to Chul, who was smiling.
“What do you have to say only to me?”
She sat down quickly on the stool, “You said that I’m your life saver.”
“Of course.”
“Then you can help me, right?”
“Of course. I will compensate you, for certain too.”
She shook her hands emphatically in front of him, “I don’t need financial compensation. Can’t you just let me leave here quietly?”
He regarded her curiously, so she tried to explain.
“I can’t be interrogated by the police. I can’t testify either.”
He repositioned himself, turning more towards her, “Why is that?”
“With my current status, I can’t do that.”
“If that’s the case, are you an illegal immigrant or wanted by the police?”
“Don’t ask me why. You said I’m your life saver. You can at least help me with that.”
He smiled, she got the impression that he was amused, “Even if you’re my life saver, I can’t do that. I don’t know anything about you, Oh Yeon Joo and the police are even suspecting that you are an accomplice. Agreeing to the police investigation if you want to prove your innocence-”
“You know very well that I’m not an accomplice,” she cut in.
“How do you feel that I would know?”
“By intuition.”
His brows furrowed slightly.
“You know with your intuition.”
He scoffed, “You seem to know well about me and also about the beauty talk from earlier.”
“Yes, I know you very well. You also think I’m a key to your life.”
The expression he gave her made it abundantly clear that she’d said quite enough.
“Who are you, Miss Oh Yeon Joo?”
“If you want to know, just let me go for now. I’ll tell you the next time we meet. It’s because I really can’t tell you right now.”
He smiled, “You’re good at making deals.”
“It’s not a deal, but I’m asking you for a favor. I have a circumstance, please,” she put her hands together pleadingly.
“Hold on,” he said, reaching over and grabbing his phone.
She could hear him type out a message and send it.
As she watched him, she couldn’t help but notice that Chul had a name embellishing his skin as well, right on the inside of his right wrist - and it was her name.
Yeon Joo felt her blood run cold.
Despite knowing he is her soulmate, a part of her had hoped that it was some kind of fluke that she had wound up with Chul’s name, that it might go away. However, seeing him with her name made it all too real and she knew it was probably going to be something that’d he’d ask about if given the chance.
“So you’ll tell me everything the next time we meet?”
She nodded emphatically, willing to agree to anything so long as it got her out of here.
“When is that ‘next time’?”
She didn’t know what time to say.
“I can only let you go if you promise me,” he told her, “I’m really curious about you, Oh Yeon Joo.”
She bet he was. In fact, Yeon Joo was certain that he was full of questions, not the least of which being why her name was on his wrist.
“I’m not sure,” she began, trying to think of a time frame that might be acceptable to him, “When you’re discharged?”
“Fine, when I’m discharged. They said that your phone number is fake,” he said, reaching down and grabbing another phone, which he offered to her, “so take this. I use many phones. I’ll contact you once I’ve been discharged.”
“If this has any tracking device or anything else in it, it won’t work,” she told him.
He laughed, “I don’t do those kinds of things to my life’s saver. You said you know me well. You just have to keep your promise. I’m going to trust that you’ll be able to be contacted, so I’m letting you go.”
“How do you know that?”
He smirked, “Intuition.”
Silence fell between them, broken only by the sound of Chul getting a text.
“You can leave now,” he told her after reading it.
She got up quickly to leave, but stopped when he spoke again.
“Right, I’ll cancel what I’ve said,” he told her, “It was dark that day, so I didn’t really know it, but you are pretty. I take back my words that anyone can be pretty.”
He smiled at her and for a moment she smiled back.
“It seems like it bothered you.”
His tight-lipped smile grew bigger, “Yes, it really did.”
“You’re just saying that, but you’re still thinking that anyone can be pretty,” she told him, “I know you very well, CEO. I know that you give out lots of compliments to girls, even when you don’t have any interest in them.”
He chuckled, clearly amused, “This is getting interesting. I’m anticipating the next time we meet.”
She stared at him, thinking that if she was lucky, she might not see him again. Even if he might be her soulmate, she couldn’t see this working out.
His cellphone made a notification sound and she knew he’d received a message.
“You should leave right away. The police are on their way up,” he informed her.
She turned to leave and only made it a few steps before pausing when she heard him speak again.
“See you next time.”
Hopefully not, she thought to herself before leaving, though it made her feel extremely bad to lie to him.