“……The will I showed you…….”
Certainly, it belongs to the young lady.
Yang Hye-in tried to say that, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak those words.
The reason was simple.
She couldn’t fully believe it herself.
Come to think of it, Yang Hye-in realized she knew almost nothing about Sara.
Even though she thought she had faithfully assisted Sara for the past three years, she hadn’t known that Sara was self-harming.
She hadn’t known that Sara had written such a will, or that she had somehow obtained sleeping pills.
She didn’t even know Sara had attempted suicide.
Despite being right there at the hospital, she hadn’t realized a thing.
And it had been her who pressured the doctor who reported child abuse and drove out the police who responded to the call.
……She had thought it was only natural.
After all, she was a maid who earned a high salary.
…….
Was it really just that?
Was she truly cooperating simply because she was being paid?
No, it wasn’t just because of the money.
One of the perpetrators of that “child abuse” was her.
Money was just an excuse for the role she played.
If the authorities began rounding up those responsible for Sara’s abuse, it was obvious she would be implicated.
That’s why she acted.
Until Sara’s attitude changed, Yang Hye-in had done nothing for her.
She simply did her job, repeating the same tasks every day in exchange for money.
……How Sara studied, what hobbies she had, what she thought about—
If asked to talk about those things, Yang Hye-in wouldn’t have been able to answer.
Because she genuinely didn’t know.
Even after being by her side for three years.
Her chest tightened with guilt.
“Are you sure Sara wrote it?”
“…….”
Yang Hye-in bit her lip.
She wanted to say it was true.
After all, the will had been found in Sara’s room.
Only a few people, including herself, had access to that room.
To be precise, it was just her and Sara.
Technically, the Chairwoman had access too, but she rarely entered the room.
“Then, let me ask a different question.”
Yoo Ha-neul, who had been staring at her impassively, took a deep breath and asked.
“Is it possible that you wrote this will, Miss Yang?”
“……That’s not true.”
At least she could answer that question right away.
Whether Yang Hye-in truly felt remorse for her sins over the past three years, even she didn’t know.
The fact that Sara hadn’t blamed her directly was something she had clung to.
She was afraid.
If Sara, or rather, if the young lady began holding her accountable for her sins, and demanded legal punishment…
Could she accept that calmly?
She doubted she could.
So, she cowardly wished for the forgiveness of that young girl, all while remaining silent.
Telling herself over and over, ‘I am doing this for her.’
“…….”
Yoo Ha-neul gazed silently at Yang Hye-in for a long time.
Neither of them touched their coffee.
After a suffocating moment passed, Yoo Ha-neul let out a light sigh.
“Honestly, I can’t fully believe what you’re saying.”
It was understandable.
There had never been enough trust between them.
Not just Yoo Ha-neul, but all of Sara’s friends felt the same way.
Yang Hye-in should have been grateful that it ended with just a lack of trust.
There were plenty of reasons to suspect her more.
“But, I’ll listen to what you have to say. At least I don’t feel like you have any malice toward Sara.”
It was a sentiment that might seem too lenient to some, but to Yang Hye-in, it was a relief.
She tried to recall.
Why had she believed that the will was written by Sara?
First, the will had come from Sara’s room.
The only people who could enter that room were herself, the Chairwoman, and Sara.
Could the Chairwoman have secretly registered someone else’s fingerprints?
She wanted to say no.
……But she wasn’t sure.
She really didn’t know anything.
She had simply been a machine, doing what the Chairwoman ordered.
“Ah.”
But it wasn’t that she remembered nothing.
That day, in Sara’s desk drawer, there hadn’t only been the will and sleeping pills.
There had been a thick notebook, seemingly written by Sara.
“There was a notebook. One that looked like the young lady’s writing….”
“A notebook?”
At Yoo Ha-neul’s question, Yang Hye-in nodded.
“Yes, in the lowest drawer of the young lady’s desk, along with the will. I’m certain the handwriting in that notebook matched the writing in the will.”
“…….”
Yoo Ha-neul fell into thought for a moment, then asked.
“Are you sure Sara wrote that notebook? If so, can you explain why?”
“…….”
Yang Hye-in was certain the notebook had been written by Sara.
But why had she been so sure of that, even though she didn’t truly know Sara or her handwriting?
There was only one reason.
“The writing in that notebook had no purpose.”
“Purpose?”
“Yes, purpose. It didn’t seem like it was written to convey something to someone or because it was needed for something. The notebook was filled with just… stories.”
Stories that seemed to be made up by Sara herself.
She hadn’t read the whole thing.
It was longer than she had expected, and especially in the earlier pages, there were constant signs of revisions—crossed out sections, erased words.
Yang Hye-in thought that it wasn’t a story written to show someone else.
It was a story written simply because Sara wanted to write it, because she wished to write it.
No one would ever see it, but that made her pour even more care into it.
Yang Hye-in thought it wasn’t something someone could easily imitate.
“…….”
Yoo Ha-neul gazed at Yang Hye-in again, trying to gauge the sincerity behind her words.
“……Alright.”
And then, she nodded.
“But there’s still a lingering question.”
She looked down at the borrowed notebook again.
The sharp, scattered writing filled the pages.
It was very different from the refined yet rounded handwriting in the will.
“……Sara is Sara, both then and now.”
“…….”
“But could her handwriting really change this much?”
Neither of them were handwriting experts.
But even to an untrained eye, the two handwritings didn’t seem like they belonged to the same person.
“That’s…….”
Yang Hye-in trailed off.
“You said before that you were sure Sara took the drug, right?”
Yoo Ha-neul raised her eyes and looked intently at Yang Hye-in.
Yang Hye-in nodded.
The night Sara had screamed in the middle of the night.
The day she had been taken to the hospital, suspected of being abused.
Even if it wasn’t that exact day, Yang Hye-in thought it was shortly after.
Either she had taken the drug and it caused the event, or she had taken the drug and failed to die from it.
It was one of the two.
“……Could the drug have caused some damage to her body?”
Like, for example, to her brain.
Yoo Ha-neul didn’t say that part out loud, but the implication was clear enough, and Yang Hye-in couldn’t answer.
The doctor had said Sara was fine except for some external wounds.
If the drug had been detected, or if brain damage had been found, they would have had every reason to keep her in the hospital.
But the doctor, unable to resist the pressure, had sent Sara home.
……What if there had really been a problem?
What if Sara had been sent home before they could even check for issues because of her actions?
And what if that caused some major problem in Sara’s brain?
Could the Sara she thought had “changed” actually be something else entirely?
…….
“Is the Sara you know still the same Sara you’ve always known?”
At Yoo Ha-neul’s question, Yang Hye-in couldn’t say a word.
*
……The Sara I knew might not be the real Sara at all.
Even as Yoo Ha-neul left Yang Hye-in and headed home, that thought weighed heavily on her chest.
The Sara who had been the only one not to ignore her when she was isolated at school, who had simply treated her as a friend.
The Sara who seemed sharp but was a bit clumsy, who was thoughtful yet childish in unexpected ways, and who, despite having plenty of money, didn’t let it define her.
That ‘Sara’ might not be the original Sara.
“What should I do……?”
Without realizing it, she muttered to herself.
She really didn’t know what to do.
No, does the current Sara even know who the original Sara was?
Is she aware?
Does she want to return to how she was?
If the current Sara regained her past memories and wanted to return to her old self……
Of course, she would help her.
If that’s what ‘Sara’ wanted.
But if Sara truly regained her old memories and became different from the Sara Yoo Ha-neul remembered—
Would she still be able to love Sara the way she did now?
She stopped walking.
Taking a deep breath, she let the cool night air fill her lungs, clearing her head a bit.
She slapped her cheeks with both hands.
Passersby glanced at her curiously, but she didn’t care.
Worrying like this wasn’t her style.
“Yeah, what am I even worrying about?”
There’s someone she loves.
If the person she loves wants something, it’s only right to help them get what they want.
As someone who loves them.
Isn’t that enough?
Right, there’s no need to complicate things.
No need to overthink it.
Simply help Sara get what she wants.
Make it happen.
First, she would need to ask Sara directly.
Yoo Ha-neul took another deep breath and exhaled.
Her mind was clear now.
With the direction she needed to go decided,
All that was left was to keep moving forward.