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# Chapter 213: Father’s Name
Kang Riou arrived at the hospital at 7:11 AM.
Seyah knew it. She hadn’t checked her phone, but she knew. The fluorescent lights in the corridor flickered, the elevator bell chimed, footsteps echoed. Those were Kang Riou’s footsteps. Quick, unsteady, moving purposefully toward a destination. Seyah recognized them. They were the same as her own footsteps—because they were Kang Riou’s.
He must have stopped outside the hospital room. Seyah could sense that too. That moment when he raised his hand to knock, then lowered it. Hesitation. Fear. Or perhaps guilt.
The door opened.
Kang Riou stood at the entrance. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in thirty-six hours. Dark circles shadowed his eyes. Stubble roughened his jaw from missing his morning shave. And his hands—Kang Riou’s hands were trembling. Like hands about to play a piano. Or hands that had failed to grasp something.
Seyah rose from the sofa, setting down the folder.
“Come in,” she said.
Kang Riou entered slowly, as if stepping into forbidden ground. Which it was—forbidden ground. The space where their mother had lain for fourteen days, where Seyah should have been holding her hand but instead had been reading documents.
Kang Riou approached the bed. He looked at their mother.
Their mother was still awake. Conscious for about two hours now. After the medical team finished their tests, she had quietly opened her eyes. And looked at Seyah. Without speaking. Simply looking. That gaze said everything.
Now she looked at Kang Riou.
In that instant, their mother’s eyes changed. Something registered. Something understood. And that understanding transformed into fear.
“Sister,” Kang Riou said. His voice was barely audible, as if afraid of waking her.
Their mother’s hand moved on the bed. Her fingers trembled, as if sending a signal. Or pushing something away.
“Mom,” Seyah said, moving to her mother’s bedside. She took her hand. It was warm. Beneath that warmth lay fear. Seyah could feel it.
“It’s okay. It’s Kang Riou.”
“Kang Riou?” their mother’s eyes widened. Her voice emerged—the first in fourteen days. Fractured. As if something were tearing through her throat.
“Yes,” Seyah answered.
Their mother looked at him for a long time. A very long time. As if searching for something in his face. And she found it. Seyah could see it in her mother’s eyes. Recognition.
Slowly, their mother raised her hand. As if it pained her.
Kang Riou stepped closer.
Their mother didn’t take his hand. Instead, she touched his face. With her fingers. Along his cheekbones. Along his lips. As if confirming he was real.
“My son,” she whispered. Her voice fractured further.
Kang Riou wept. In that moment, pressing his face against their mother’s trembling hand, he wept.
Seyah watched. Her mother and her brother. A word that still didn’t feel real. Brother. Older brother. The fact that Kang Riou was her blood. And now he cried beneath their mother’s hand.
“I’m sorry,” Kang Riou said.
“I’m sorry. I really am. I made you wait too long. Even though I could have—”
Their mother didn’t answer. She simply continued touching his face.
Seyah looked out the window. 7:15 AM. Seoul was waking. Cars flowed past Gangnam Station. Morning rush hour. Someone was waking, someone was sleeping, someone was realizing something just like they were.
“Seyah,” her mother called, releasing Kang Riou’s hand.
Seyah came closer.
“There are things I need to tell you,” their mother said. Her voice had steadied slightly, as if she was reclaiming it through speech.
“You can tell me later. You need to rest now,” Seyah said.
“No. I need to tell you now.”
“Why?”
“Because I might fall asleep again. Before that happens, I need to tell you.”
Her mother’s eyes held urgency. As if time were running out. The desperation of someone who’d broken fourteen days of silence and wouldn’t waste another word of her recovered voice.
“Who is my father?” Seyah asked.
Their mother didn’t answer. Instead, she looked at Kang Riou.
“Kang Riou, would you leave?”
Kang Riou moved back. Toward the door. But he didn’t fully leave. He walked toward the exit, but he didn’t step outside. As if he knew this was something he needed to hear too.
“Leave. Outside,” their mother said again. This time, more firmly.
Kang Riou left. Into the corridor. Closing the door.
Now only Seyah and her mother remained in the room.
7:22 AM.
“What’s his name?” Seyah asked.
“Whose?”
“My father’s.”
“Kang Min-jun,” her mother said.
Seyah already knew. From the documents in the folder. But hearing it from her mother’s lips was different.
“Why did you have me?” Seyah asked.
“Because… I loved him,” her mother replied.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did he leave?”
“He didn’t leave. I did.”
Her mother’s voice was steady now.
Seyah didn’t understand.
“What?”
“Kang Min-jun wanted to keep me by his side. But I couldn’t go. Because…”
Her mother stopped.
“Because?”
“Because I was a haenyeo. And he was the son of one of Gangnam’s most prominent companies.”
Her mother’s voice quieted.
“We were from different worlds. We both knew that.”
“What about Kang Riou?”
“Kang Riou happened when I met Kang Min-jun too late. He was already engaged to someone else.”
Their mother continued. “And yet… he took responsibility. He acknowledged Kang Riou as his son. But he couldn’t do the same for me. Because of her.”
Seyah remained silent.
“Then I met you. Kang Min-jun asked me again. To stay with him. But this time, I refused.”
“Why?”
“Because I already knew. That it was impossible. And… there was another reason.”
Their mother paused before continuing.
“I was terrified of Kang Min-jun.”
“Why?”
“Because he was one of the most powerful people in that world. And I couldn’t be with someone like that. Because…”
She stopped again.
“Because?”
“Because if you enter that world, you have to live by its rules. And I was afraid those rules would destroy you.”
Seyah looked at her mother’s hand. Still trembling.
“So I left. To Jeju. And I had you. And I raised you alone. Because I thought that was the only way to protect you.”
Tears streamed down her mother’s face.
“But I was wrong.”
“Wrong about what?”
“I couldn’t protect you. In the end. That world found you anyway. And I couldn’t protect you.”
Seyah gripped her mother’s hand more tightly.
“What should I do now?” Seyah asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know, Seyah. I don’t know either,” her mother said.
In the corridor, Kang Riou waited. Leaning against the wall. As if entrusting his weight to it.
“What did she say?” he asked.
“Father’s name is Kang Min-jun,” Seyah replied.
Kang Riou closed his eyes.
“I know. I’ve known for a long time. But I couldn’t tell you. Because…”
He stopped.
“Because?”
“Because it was something your mother needed to tell you. Something I shouldn’t have said.”
Kang Riou opened his eyes.
“And there are other things I haven’t told you either.”
“Like what?”
“Father was looking for you. All along. To protect you.”
Kang Riou said this carefully.
Seyah’s heart stopped.
“What?”
“Father heard your music. Somewhere. And he knew whose it was. And it was dangerous. Because…”
Kang Riou paused.
“Because?”
“Because Father knew what your voice could do.”
Seyah stared at him.
“What can it do?”
Kang Riou didn’t answer.
Instead, he took her hand.
A warm hand. A trembling hand. But a warm hand.
“I’ll tell you everything. But not now. Now your mother needs to rest. And you need to rest. We all need to rest,” Kang Riou said.
“And after that?” Seyah asked.
“After that, I’m going to meet Father. And you’re coming with me.”
7:38 AM.
Seyah felt Kang Riou’s hand.
It was her hand too.
The hand of her own blood.
Feeling that burned through her.
Outside the hospital room, Dohyun appeared. He looked as though he’d gone somewhere in the night and found something. Another folder was in his hands.
“Unnie,” he said.
“What,” Seyah replied.
“Have you seen this?”
Dohyun handed her the folder.
She took it. Another black folder. But not the one Kang Riou had given her.
On the cover of this folder was written:
“JYA Entertainment — Confidential. Do not distribute.”
And beneath it, a single line of memo:
“This is what Father was trying to protect. And what we need to know now.”
End of Chapter 213