Chapter 2: The Scarred Legacy

The world was upside down when I opened my eyes to the sound of an ambulance siren.

My body was hanging upside down, held in place only by the seatbelt. The shattered glass on the overturned car’s ceiling caught my eye, and blood was slowly flowing toward me.

“Hyung… Young-seok hyung?”

The manager didn’t respond. Was he unconscious?

“Hyung…”

Suddenly, the surroundings became noisy.

“This is the paramedics. We are opening the car door.”

The door opened, and my seatbelt was cut. Someone’s hands pulled me out of the wreckage.

The touch was uncomfortable, but I had no strength in my body, so I simply closed my eyes.

I was laid onto a stretcher.

“What’s your name?”

Someone lifted my eyelids and shined a flashlight into my eyes.

At that moment, the scene of the accident replayed in my mind—our car spinning sideways. Two people were sitting in the front seats.

A man’s and a woman’s screams. A child’s voice.

“Lee Young-ah!”

“Mom!”

Who was that?

★★★

When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.

I quietly checked my body.

A needle was inserted into my left arm for an IV drip, and I was still wearing a sleeveless shirt and performance pants.

At least I hadn’t been reincarnated or possessed. A ridiculous thought crossed my mind as I moved my arms and legs. No serious injuries.

How much time was left until the live music broadcast?

I wanted to check the time, but my phone was nowhere in sight.

“Code Blue, Code Blue.”

The surroundings became chaotic. Peeking through the curtain around my bed, I saw doctors in white coats rushing toward another bed.

“CEO?”

Our company’s CEO was standing next to that bed.

‘Why is he by someone else’s bed?’

Soon, most of the gathered doctors dispersed, leaving only one behind. Then, a death was pronounced.

The name they called… was my manager’s.

“Young-seok hyung?”

At my voice, the CEO bit his lip and approached me.

“What the hell happened…?”

★★★

“It was a hit-and-run.”

The CEO’s explanation was brief.

A truck crashed into the driver’s side of our van and then sped away. The license plate was fake.

The police were tracking it through CCTV, but it was unlikely they would find it.

My manager’s skull was crushed, his left shoulder shattered, and his lower body was trapped in the wreckage.

The fatal injury was a broken rib puncturing his lung.

He had only been a manager for less than two years.

When he said the job didn’t suit him, I convinced him to hold on a little longer…

‘Was it because of me?’

I begged him to stay, and now he was dead.

The news covered the accident in detail.

They analyzed CCTV footage and speculated on the whereabouts of the runaway truck.

They reported that my manager died because he shielded me—swerving at the last moment, ensuring that he took the hit instead of me.

People praised his sacrifice.

There was even footage of me unconscious on the stretcher, my hair littered with glass shards, an unfamiliar scar exposed on my shoulder.

“Young-ah, just rest for now. I’ll take care of everything.”

The CEO tried to stop the release of accident photos and videos, but it was too late.

The accident had happened right in front of a broadcasting station, witnessed by many.

The images had already spread everywhere.

★★★

The funeral was small.

Since my manager was from the same orphanage I had grown up in, only the company’s management team, a few group members, and some orphanage friends attended.

The CEO, the orphanage head nun, and I stayed by his side.

“Young-ah.”

The nun called me, but I couldn’t answer. She took my hands in hers.

“It’s okay.”

“I regret it.”

“I was the one who recommended this job to him. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. Grieve for a little while, but then do what you need to do.”

What I need to do?

My manager died to save me—what could I possibly do?

Would catching the hit-and-run driver count as revenge? Would that ease this guilt?

My breath became short, and my mind clouded.

★★★

When I opened my eyes again, I saw another unfamiliar ceiling.

An IV needle was in my wrist, and my clothes had changed into a hospital gown.

Was it a dream?

I looked around as the door opened and the CEO entered.

“You’re awake?”

He pressed the nurse call button by my bedside.

“…Hyung?”

“You collapsed and were unconscious for a day. Young-seok… we sent him off properly with the nun.”

So it wasn’t a dream.

If I hadn’t convinced him to stay, he wouldn’t have died. But then… someone else—either another manager or me—would have died instead.

In the end, he died in my place.

The door opened, and a nurse entered.

“You’re awake? Let me check your blood pressure and temperature first.”

“Is the doctor coming?”

The CEO asked the nurse.

“They’ve been called. They’ll be here soon.”

As soon as the nurse left, the CEO slumped down onto the guardian’s bed. He was biting his lips anxiously.

“Do you have something to say?”

“No, um…”

It was strange to see the CEO hesitating. He was usually someone who spoke his mind freely.

“Did something else happen?”

“No, it’s not an accident…”

What could it be for him to act like this?

“Someone came looking for you.”

“Who? Is it someone related to the accident?”

I was about to climb down from the bed when the CEO stopped me.

“No, it’s… she says she’s your maternal grandmother.”

“What?”

My grandmother? But I’m an orphan.

The earliest memory I had was the ceiling of a small room in an orphanage.

I had been abandoned in front of the orphanage, my clothes stained with blood.

Fortunately, aside from some minor scratches and a scar on my shoulder, I didn’t have any major injuries.

But my memory was a problem. I couldn’t remember anything except my name—Lee Young.

No matter how much time passed, nothing came back. All I could recall was a voice calling out to me, “Lee Young-ah!”

That was when I was about six. Of course, that wasn’t my real age, just an estimate from the pediatrician.

But now, at twenty-three…

“I was caught off guard, so I didn’t get a good look at her. Once you wake up, we can meet her with a lawyer.”

“My grandmother?”

“She wanted to see you.”

“Why a lawyer?”

“We need to confirm if she’s really your grandmother. Even if she is, we have to find out what kind of person she is.”

It wasn’t unusual for celebrities to have to halt their careers due to family issues or legal disputes.

But for a grandmother to suddenly appear after seventeen years, right after I made the news because of the accident? That was suspicious enough.

“Should we get a DNA test first?”

“Please handle it, CEO. I don’t know much about these things.”

Even if she really was my grandmother, I couldn’t help but wonder—why now?

“She said she saw you on the news.”

“Oh…”

Could she really be my grandmother? Did she recognize my face? Had she been searching for me all this time? Was my name truly Lee Young?

“I stopped her from coming to the hospital for now.”

I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. My mind felt a little clearer.

“What about the fans?”

“They’re mourning. They’re worried about how badly you’re hurt.”

The CEO placed my phone on the bed. The screen had a long crack running through it.

“I’ll meet this supposed grandmother.”

★★★

Two lawyers left the hospital room, each carrying an envelope. Inside them were strands of hair—mine and the elderly woman’s sitting before me.

From the moment she entered, she had been crying.

She kept crying even as she clipped her nails and pulled out strands of her hair for the test. She even accepted tissues to wipe her tears.

“You said you saw me on the news?”

She shook her head while dabbing at her tears.

“Someone helped me… They sent me a photo.”

“A photo…? Oh, the accident photo?”

“Yes. I only realized when I saw your shoulder.”

“My shoulder?”

Had my shoulder scar been there since I was little? Is that how she recognized me? If I’d known, I should have shown my shoulder more often in my career.

“I thought it had disappeared forever. I didn’t even know it had been passed on to you. I was such a fool, losing my own child…”

“What disappeared?”

I couldn’t understand what she meant, so I asked again. The old woman glanced around before speaking.

“Could we have some privacy?”

The man who had accompanied her stepped outside. Her gaze then landed on the CEO.

“The CEO can stay.”

“My dear, this is…”

“If the CEO isn’t allowed to hear it, then I don’t need to hear it either.”

“Hkk.”

Moved by my words, the CEO covered his mouth, his eyes glistening with emotion. Seeing this, the old woman nodded.

“Alright. I asked around and heard that he’s the one who made you a celebrity. He’s taken care of you all this time, so I suppose he won’t go around spreading what he hears.”

Was that a warning not to spread this information? Despite her frail appearance, she had an undeniable presence.

“My dear, may I see your shoulder?”

She wasn’t asking just to look at an ordinary shoulder, was she?

I pulled aside my hospital gown, revealing the scar on my right shoulder. The old woman furrowed her brows as she examined it.

“It was transferred in a hurry.”

“Transferred?”

She nodded at my question.

“The spell that was on my daughter—your mother—was suddenly passed on to you.”

“A… a spell?”

The CEO stuttered in shock.

A spell? In the 21st century?

For a moment, I wondered if she was a scam artist pretending to be my grandmother.

But she had come looking for me after seventeen years. I couldn’t dismiss her so quickly.

So I asked, just in case.

“This scar…?”

“It used to be on my back,” she said.

According to her, our family had a sacred relic passed down for generations. When the country faced a crisis, the relic had to be hidden.

A sacred relic? What even was that?

“To protect it, someone had to bear the spell on their body. That was me.”

“On your body?”

“The relic was sealed within the spell. And when my daughter, Yeonju, turned twenty, the spell naturally transferred to her back.”

“…Your daughter’s name was Yeonju?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you that. Yes, Kim Yeonju. And my son-in-law’s name was Song Jungwoon.”

Kim Yeonju, Song Jungwoon.

If she was really my grandmother, then was my name Song Lee Young?

“When Yeonju died, the spell must have suddenly transferred to you. And someone must have figured out that the relic is within you—that’s why they attacked you.”

I stared at the scarred lines covering my shoulder.

So because of this… My parents died, I grew up an orphan, and my manager died too?

“My dear, come with me and live in hiding. Your job, standing in the public eye, is too dangerous.”

She was saying that the people who tried to kill me would keep coming after me. That to survive, I had to disappear.

But…

What about my fans who waited for me at the broadcasting station from dawn, only to be devastated by news of my accident?

What about the fans who were still worrying about me even now?

“I can’t do that.”

I couldn’t abandon my fans.

 “Thank you.”