beta
so many of the comments here are completely insane. i truly do wish life was as simple as some of you seem to see it, but for your sakes, i hope none of you are ever put in the position hyeonji and haebom would have been in because i know me and my mother had been and i know what it's like to stew in such bottomless grief. watching a family member waste away in both body and mind didn't do anything but leave my mother in a gaping financial hole and leave the both of us with long lasting trauma.
should hyeonji have still been given a chance to have a say? perhaps. but let's not sit here and pretend like haebom's father is some awful and evil person for not wanting to force someone he loved to watch him suffer and wither while she was helpless to do anything for him. he left without a word because he knew she would have followed him otherwise, regardless of what he said. a 40 year battle to full recovery is not a miniscule amount of time spent, no matter who you are, and the struggle would have been the same with or without hyeonji and haebom there, yet the misery would have been tripled if they had been present. no one has to like it, and even haebom's father is still saddled with immense guilt, but he made a decision many people would have and currently do make to spare the people they love of suffering any further than strictly necessary. that's not cruelty; that's kindness.