CH 65.1

The moment he couldn’t see anything, there was Yoo-hwa in the middle. She was standing still under the streetlamp, her whole body facing the cold breeze, and looking towards the direction he was coming. Yoo-ha smiled lightly, wondering if she had met his eyes.

He wondered sometimes.

About how that was possible for her.

How could she look at someone who she didn’t know when they would be coming, someone who wasn’t sincere, without swaying like that?

He couldn’t ask, and he didn’t hear an answer either, but now he knew. The cold, the waiting, and why she was in the middle of a confusion that could not be covered by those kinds of things.

Excitement, sorry, worry, longing, sometimes inexplicable joy and expectation. She was consistent from beginning to end, like she was suffering from the intensity of the emotions that rushed in like a wave. To the point where it felt like the cold was nothing.

… She endured this ridiculous feeling well. But he couldn’t endure it at all.

Woo-hyun’s body swung wide from side to side. The world tilted as it became blurry. The door, which he could see faintly until just now, was far away.

Perhaps he hit his head when he collapsed; his head tingled. His chest was hot, as if blood was leaking, and a suffocating chill rushed in from behind his back. His lips trembled at the feeling that someone was pushing his back with death.

Even though he was experiencing a terrifying chill that prevented him from even screaming, he tried to focus on her eyes like a habit. Even though he knew it was an illusion he had created himself.

“Because they don’t wither.”

You, saying that calmly with eyes that seemed about to cry.

“Woo-hyun.”

You, calling me.

“I was lonely.”

You, making a desperate confession.

… I wanted to see you like this.

Woo-hyun’s lips twitched.

Yoo-hwa.

He wanted to call her name, but only a sigh escaped his open mouth. At that moment, something hot poured out from his chest, and his vision faded as if it was filled with fog.

***

As Jun-kyung stood in front of the hospital room, the men standing guard on either side of the door greeted him politely and stepped aside. After examining his outfit before pushing the door, he couldn’t hold back and let out a low sigh.

If only he had checked it a little earlier.

The regret that he never forgot after Woo-hyun lost consciousness came to his mind.

Ahead of the dinner with Executive Director Kim in the Chinese restaurant, Woo-hyun gave orders not to come in until he gave a signal. Jun-kyung, who expected him to shake off Executive Director Kim of his remaining debt, carried out the operation outside the room without complaining.

As the sly Executive Director Kim said he would invite him to his lair, as Woo-hyun said he would, the staff would be filled with his people. Since he calculated it in his head and subdued them in advance, he was able to quickly sort it out without getting hit in the back of his head.

After clearing the outside, Jun-kyung waited with a tense face as he planned to suppress Kim once he came out alive. He heard a loud noise inside the room. Soon, he heard someone scream, but it was stuttering with the words ‘Director Sin’, so it seemed to be Executive Director Kim.

Whether things had been sorted out, the inside of the room became quiet after a little fuss. But even though quite some time passed, Woo-hyun didn’t come out.

Jun-kyung, who sensed something strange, broke Woo-hyun’s order and opened the door of the room. The first thing that rushed in was the smell of blood. Beyond that, there was Woo-hyun and Executive Director Kim, who had both collapsed covered in blood. Without having to look into it in detail, he could quickly notice that Woo-hyun had fallen on his way out after brutally trampling on Executive Director Kim.

Why?

Even at that moment, Jun-kyung questioned it. Executive Director Kim was a man of knives who rolled around in this world. So, even though Woo-hyun could have gotten hurt, he wouldn’t have gotten injured like this with Kim as his opponent. As long as he didn’t forget that he himself was injured in a state of complete irrationality.

After being taken aback for a moment, Jun-kyung immediately took Woo-hyun to the hospital. The wound on his chest was deep and there was excessive bleeding, but fortunately, he was operated on safely, and it wasn’t life-threatening. Nevertheless, Woo-hyun had been unconscious for several days.

If he had found him earlier, would the result have been different?

After a brief remorse, Jun-kyung felt the eyes of the members staring at him and knocked on the door of the hospital room.

“I’m coming in.”

Woo-hyun was unconscious, but Jun-kyung was polite to the end. He knew he had to keep his focus in this situation.

After carefully opening the door and coming inside, Jun-kyung’s steps stopped. Woo-hyun’s head was tilted towards the window. There was no way the nurse had put it like that, and Woo-hyun himself had never done so either.