The Cutting Edge

025

When Hyejin's father regained consciousness, the doctors ran another check on his vitals and concluded that he was going to be fine, save for a ban on all fried foods from now on (which was close to ruining his entire life). They recommended that he remain warded for at least three more days so that they could continue monitoring his condition, after which he could be discharged and be allowed to rest at home if no new complications arose.

When she asked him about why he had suddenly had a heart attack, he would just hem and haw and give some vague reply, but since he assured her he was perfectly fine now she decided to just let him be. Seeing that he seemed well enough to argue with the doctors and nurses over the seemingly "unreasonable" fried foods ban, Hyejin set her heart at ease and returned home to pack some essentials for her father's hospital stay.

The first thing she did when she stepped into the house was to search for any sign of her idiotic brother—but there was none.

"Jerk probably just came back to borrow more money," she muttered.

Walking to her father's room, she began throwing some clothes into an empty bag. It was only for three more days and the hospital pretty much provided everything, but she wasn't sure if her father would be comfortable with hospital provisions so she decided to add in a little of everything, including lunchboxes with homemade kimchi and egg rolls. By the time she was almost done, the hospital bag was bursting at its seams.

When she was done with packing and a much-needed shower, she picked up the heavy bag and headed out. On her way to the bus stop, she bumped into someone familiar.

"Hyejin! What happened to your father? We were so worried when we saw the ambulance!" Mrs Park was one of their old-time neighbours who lived three blocks down. She also owned the nail parlour next to Gongja barbershop.

Hyejin smiled warmly and replied, "He had a heart attack but he's alright now. The doctors just told him to stay at the hospital for a couple of days to monitor his condition."

"Thank goodness!" the plump lady exclaimed. "But did something happen in your family? I mean, the heart attack was so sudden, and the selling of the barbershop—"

"Wait, what did you just say? Selling of the barbershop?"

Mrs Park nodded her head, a little confused by Hyejin's reaction. "You mean you didn't know?" she asked. "The real estate agents came to put up the 'for sale' signs at the shop early this morning!"

Hyejin froze for a second and then she immediately turned and bolted back towards her house, leaving her perplexed neighbour behind. The first thing she did when she reached home was to dash to her father's room and yank open the drawers, flipping through the layers of clothes to search for what she was looking for. After emptying out every single drawer, she collapsed onto the ground in a daze, sitting amidst the heaps of clothes.

It was gone. The deed to the barbershop was gone.

Suddenly everything seemed to make sense. The reason why her father had collapsed, the reason why her brother came back home and why he had been the one to have called for the ambulance, and the reason why she couldn't find him anywhere after that—the bastard had taken the deed for the barbershop and sold it.

An hour and a trip to the real estate agent's later, Hyejin found herself standing in front of the barbershop, staring at that dreaded "for sale" sign that had been plastered across the window. The agent had asked her, "Can you pay for the cost of the shop deed? If so then we could sell it back to you." Her answer had been negative. Where was she supposed to find enough money to buy the shop back? Her savings alone barely came up to a quarter of the amount. If she could, she would hunt her brother down and force him to cough up all the money he taken, but she had no idea where on earth to start searching. The money he received from selling the shop could easily have paid for a ticket to the casinos in Macau.