Seoul General Hospital

Seoul General Hospital is a nearby closed-ward facility whose cost shapes In-hye’s search for care for Yeong-hye. Though doctors there saw favorable results and recommended discharge with family support, Yeong-hye’s subsequent relapse leads In-hye to question that advice and her own decisions about her sister’s care.

Setting and Admission

On a bright afternoon in early winter, In-hye remembers first bringing Yeong-hye to Seoul General Hospital. The closed ward was close to In-hye’s home, but its admission fee exceeded what she could afford. After asking around, she chose another hospital, reputed to provide good treatment. Seoul General Hospital therefore enters the story not as the place where Yeong-hye remains, but as an option whose cost narrows the family’s choices.

Discharge Advice and Relapse

At the other hospital, a doctor who wanted Yeong-hye discharged advised In-hye to consider outpatient care. The doctor said that the results observed so far were good, while acknowledging that Yeong-hye might not yet be ready to return to social life and that support from family would help. In-hye accepted the recommendation and had Yeong-hye discharged.

Later, after Yeong-hye’s condition worsens, In-hye tells a doctor that she had heard similar assurances before and now believes discharging her sister was the wrong decision. Her recollection makes the earlier advice consequential: a positive assessment and the promise of family support gave way to a relapse that renewed the need for hospital care.

In-hye’s Retrospective Judgment

In-hye initially explains her resistance to discharge as fear that Yeong-hye might relapse. Looking back, she recognizes another motive: she could no longer bear what her sister represented to her. Yeong-hye had crossed boundaries In-hye herself had remained unable to cross, leaving In-hye to see herself as still constrained by social expectations. The admission decision thus carries both practical and emotional weight; In-hye’s later regret concerns not only the clinical advice but also the limits of her own ability to care for her sister.

The hospital’s brief place in the narrative marks a difficult distinction between observed improvement and readiness to live outside institutional care. Its proximity to In-hye’s home does not overcome the financial obstacle, and the later relapse complicates the reassurance that family support would be enough.