Love Lies | Chapter 01
pairing: sunghoon x female!oc contains: slow burn, psychological drama, amnesia, morally grey mmc, caregiver dynamics status: chapter 1 (preview)
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Dr. Park Sunghoon was a man who appreciated the quiet. Coming from one of Seoul's most prominent medical dynasties, he had spent his entire life suffocating under the weight of his family's wealth and expectations.
So, he ran. He took a position at an underfunded, unremarkable regional hospital, traded tailored suits for standard-issue scrubs, and buried himself in grueling fourteen-hour shifts. None of his colleagues knew about the untouched trust fund attached to his name. To them, he was just Dr. Park: brilliant, exhausted, and completely dedicated to his work.
Until the night the quiet shattered.
The emergency doors blew open to the deafening wail of sirens. A commercial flight had gone down just outside the city limits. The hospital transformed into a warzone of smoke, ash, and frantic shouts. Sunghoon waded into the chaos, his hands stained with blood as he fought to stabilize patient after patient.
Then, they wheeled her in.
She had no ID, no luggage, and no one to claim her. Her clothes were ruined, her skin bruised and battered from the wreckage. Yet, when Sunghoon pressed his fingers against her throat, he felt a stubborn, fragile flutter of a pulse. Amidst the screaming monitors and the scent of copper, the rest of the room blurred away.
He looked down at her pale, unconscious face and made a silent vow to keep her tethered to the earth.
Two months passed. The frantic aftermath of the crash faded, but she remained entirely still, trapped in a deep coma. No family came looking. No missing persons reports matched her description. To the hospital administration, the "Jane Doe in Room 412" became a financial liability.
"We have to pull the plug, Dr. Park," the chief of medicine told him one afternoon. "She has no guardian, no insurance, and a poor hospital like ours cannot fund her indefinitely."
Something dark and protective snapped inside Sunghoon's chest. He didn't argue. Instead, for the first time in years, he tapped into his family's wealth. He quietly funneled his own money into the hospital's accounts, masquerading as an anonymous donor to cover her life support.
But as two months bled into six, the hospital environment became too risky. People were asking questions. Nurses whispered about his lingering visits to her room. Sunghoon realized that money alone couldn't keep her safe; he needed legal authority.
Sitting in his dim office, he crossed an ethical line from which he could never return. Using his resources and connections, he forged the documents. When he handed the paperwork to the administration, Jane Doe ceased to exist. She was given a name, a birthdate, and a new legal status.
He resigned the next day.
Using his immense, hidden wealth, Sunghoon purchased a sprawling, secluded house in a quiet, coastal province far from the city and the wreckage of her past. High fences, dense trees, and the sound of the ocean insulated them from the rest of the world. To maintain his cover, he took a low-stress position at a sleepy local clinic. It gave him access to the IVs, medications, and medical supplies he needed, without the prying eyes of his former colleagues.
For three years, that house was their entire universe.
Sunghoon's routine became an act of profound, quiet devotion. Every morning before his shift at the clinic, he would bathe her, change her clothes, and brush her hair. He would open the heavy curtains, letting the soft morning light spill across the bed.
"Good morning," he would whisper, pressing a lingering kiss to her forehead. "You look lovely today. The sun is finally out."
He would talk to her about his day, read books aloud by her bedside, and hold her hand until he fell asleep in the armchair beside her. In the complete isolation he had built, the lines of his reality blurred. The forged documents didn't feel like a lie anymore. The ghost he had saved had become the center of his gravity. He had fallen entirely, desperately in love with her.
Then came the night that changed everything.
Sunghoon woke up with a start. The digital clock on the nightstand read 3:14 AM. Out of pure habit, he turned to check the medical monitors, but the rhythmic beeping was gone.
The bed was empty.
A cold panic seized his chest. He bolted upright, his heart hammering against his ribs as he tore out of the bedroom. He searched the hallway, the living room, his mind racing with terrifying possibilities.
Then, he saw the open patio door.
The cool night breeze swept into the house, carrying the scent of salt water. Sunghoon stepped outside, his breath catching in his throat.
There she was.
She was standing barefoot on the cool stone of the patio, bathed in the silver light of the moon. The wind gently tugged at her white nightgown. She looked around with a profound, beautiful confusion, taking in the trees, the ocean, and the night sky as if seeing the world for the very first time.
Hearing his footsteps, she turned.
For the first time in three years, her eyes were open, bright, and staring directly at him. Sunghoon froze. He expected panic. He expected her to scream, to back away from the stranger standing in the dark.
Instead, her shoulders relaxed. As she looked at him, a strange, unexplainable warmth washed over her. She didn't know the face, but the presence of the man standing before her felt undeniably safe. It was as if his very aura, the cadence of his breathing, was etched into her subconscious.
Her brow furrowed as she searched her empty mind for an anchor, finding absolutely nothing.
"I..." Her voice was soft, raspy from years of disuse. "I don't remember... What is my name?"
Sunghoon felt the heavy, crushing weight of reality bear down on his shoulders. He wasn't her family. He was a captor cloaked in kindness, a man who had erased whatever past she had left behind. But looking at her desperate, trusting eyes, he found his opening.
He took a slow step forward.
"Your name is Park Cheonji," he answered softly.
She tilted her head, testing the unfamiliar syllables on her tongue. "Cheon... Ji?"
"Yes," Sunghoon murmured, his voice thick with an emotion he couldn't hide. "It means 'world'. My Cheonji."
A faint, fragile smile touched her lips at the endearment. The deep timbre of his voice wrapped around her like a blanket she had worn a thousand times before.
"Wow, that's cool..." she breathed out, looking back toward the sprawling, shadowed trees and the echoing ocean. "But where are we?"
"We're at home," he answered, closing the distance between them until he was just a breath away.
She looked up at him. "Oh? And you?" she asked, her eyes expectant, filled with an innocent, absolute trust.
In that single, fleeting second, every ounce of guilt, every moral hesitation Sunghoon harbored, completely vanished. The girl he had poured his soul into for three long years was finally alive, standing in front of him, instinctively seeking him out as her only safe harbor. He had saved her life; now, he would give her a new one.
He smiled, a gentle, devoted curve of his lips.
"I'm Sunghoon. Your husband."
[ Read the full book on Wattpad here! ]
Ps: it's still on going
"If you want to go home, just call my name." started: 05/31/26
