Chapter 54 - Merely a Close Friend part 1

The sun had already begun lowering behind the uneven rooftops by the time Yeon Joo finally seemed satisfied that Lee Hyeom was not going to immediately destroy the bandages she had spent so much effort putting on him, yet finishing his treatment did not mean she was ready to leave. Grandfather Kim needed to be checked once more after nearly collapsing from hunger, a little boy had been coughing through the night and frightened his mother, while one elderly woman insisted she had eaten enough despite the fact that her granddaughter quietly exposed her for giving almost all of her porridge away. What should have been a short visit had stretched through most of the afternoon, and Lee Yeong had followed Yeon Joo through every new problem with the steadily thinning patience of a man who understood that telling her to leave while somebody was suffering was almost completely useless.