The place Ryu Taeha arrived at was an annex building connected to the Center’s main building. This place, which was also connected to the medical center through an underground passage, had no windows and gave off a fortress-like atmosphere.
As medical staff also frequently came and went, a specialized barrier team was deployed and managed strictly 24 hours a day. This building, protected by a powerful special barrier that wouldn’t budge even if a time bomb exploded, had been used as a research facility in the past.
Even now, some research wings remained, but their original function had faded. The annex, which everyone avoided setting foot in, had established itself as a special facility.
Here, they managed espers belonging to the danger class and conducted various tests under the pretext of treating them. This annex was the quarantine facility where espers with a high risk of going berserk were dragged to after struggling desperately.
Dawoon was in an observation room on the third floor of the annex.
The interior corridor of the third floor, where regular medical staff also resided, was brightly lit. Except for the underground quarantine rooms, the upper floors had a relatively peaceful atmosphere, and the researchers also wore ordinary gowns instead of special clothing.
“Sob, urgh… H-Hyuuung…!”
Ryu Jin, who had been crouching alone on the observation room corridor floor crying, jumped up. Unable to stop the tears no matter what, he had come out alone to cool his emotions.
“Why are you sitting on the floor.”
Ryu Taeha lightly brushed the dust off Ryu Jin’s pants and held his hand. Ryu Jin’s face, a mess from tears, was swollen. He had cried so much that even his whites, which were always transparent and white, were red.
“Dawoon is.”
“Inside…. Right now, he’s okay….”
Just the fact that he was in a regular observation room and not a quarantine room was enough to gauge his condition. At least it wasn’t a situation where he would go berserk immediately. That wouldn’t happen anyway.
“Hyung, what do we do…? Guiding… doesn’t work at all. Even when another guide came… there’s no response.”
Ryu Jin barely conveyed the situation while holding back the tears that were about to burst out.
“If this continues… and he goes berserk….”
Ryu Jin’s complexion turned pale as he voiced the terrible hypothesis. Ryu Taeha, cupping his face, whispered in a voice filled with confidence.
“Healers don’t go berserk easily.”
His voice soothing him not to worry about anything was extremely gentle. Ryu Jin, who finally burst into tears, clung to him and sobbed.
“I knew something was… wrong… but didn’t say anything…. The absorption was a bit… slow, but I just thought it was because I, I was inexperienced….”
Ryu Jin, crying while confessing the fact he’d been hiding, trembled like a frightened child.
Ryu Taeha said nothing and stroked his younger sibling’s back. He quietly stared at the observation room door and waited for Ryu Jin’s crying to stop.
At the same time, Dawoon.
“Stop staring already. My face is going to burst.”
Dawoon, sitting on the observation room bed, muttered to Yeoul, who was watching him intently.
From when they were in the guiding room until now when they came to the annex, Yeoul hadn’t taken his eyes off Dawoon for even a single moment. At this rate, a real hole might form in his face.
Beep-.
As soon as Dawoon finished speaking, Yeoul pressed the alert button and said,
“Hyung says his face is going to burst. Call the medical team.”
“No! You don’t need to call them. It’s just a figure of speech.”
Dawoon immediately covered Yeoul’s mouth and shouted toward the window. Though the inside couldn’t be seen from within the observation room, the control room beyond the window could see everything inside clearly.
Dawoon, who quickly covered the alert button that Yeoul kept pressing, glared and warned him.
“Press it in moderation. I’m really getting angry.”
In the one hour since entering the observation room, Yeoul had pressed the alert button five times. Including just now, six times. It was obvious that the people in the control room must be wearing exhausted expressions.
“Okay. At least finish your meal.”
Yeoul, sitting on a folding chair far too small for his build, pointed at the triangle kimbap on Dawoon’s lap. It was food he’d obtained by pressing the alert button because Dawoon’s stomach had growled.
Though he felt sorry for calling them out for just such a reason, his stomach was so empty it was sticking to his back, so he couldn’t refuse the triangle kimbap the researchers handed over. It was natural to be hungry since he’d been running around the site all day treating injured people without eating.
Seeing Dawoon choke while hurriedly devouring the triangle kimbap to fill his hunger, Yeoul pressed the alert button again. That’s how he’d obtained orange juice as well.
“You think this is a call button or something. You heard the explanation that it’s only to be pressed when it’s dangerous.”
“I know.”
Yeoul, with a shameless face as if he knew and pressed it anyway, folded up Dawoon’s sleeves. Dawoon’s body, wearing examination clothes similar to a patient gown, had various pads stuck all over it.
The wireless pads measuring wavelength and heart rate were attached not only to his body but also to his forehead and cheeks, making it quite uncomfortable. He didn’t understand why they were stuck on his cheeks.
“Want me to take them off while you eat? It’s uncomfortable, right?”
Dawoon, who had been eating the triangle kimbap sparingly, glanced at the window and shook his head. Honestly, if it were up to him, he wanted to take off at least the pads on his cheeks, but he held back. He believed that if he wore more, the examination would end faster.
Actually, Yeoul’s gaze bothered him more than the pads on his body. Originally, Dawoon should have entered the observation room alone, but Yeoul insisted and forcibly took up space.
“Eat slowly. Drink water too.”
Dawoon chewed the triangle kimbap thoroughly with an irritated expression. He could have finished off a fist-sized triangle kimbap in two bites, but he chewed slowly out of consideration for Jeong Dawoon’s weak body.
Jeong Dawoon. This pathetic weakling.
Getting fevers and vomiting blood at the drop of a hat wasn’t enough, and now even a guiding problem occurred. It was even more bewildering because it had never appeared in the novel.
Dawoon rubbed his throbbing forehead and swallowed his complicated feelings along with the juice.
“Why? Does your head hurt?”
He grabbed the wrist of Yeoul, who was about to press the button again, and shook his head. Just try pressing it. This time I really won’t let it slide. He left a warning with a rather fierce gaze and tried to withdraw his hand, but Yeoul spread his fingers apart and sneakily interlocked them.
“Hyung, is it because you’ve been eating unhealthy things lately?”
Yeoul’s blue eyes glanced at the innocent triangle kimbap.
It didn’t make sense that guiding wouldn’t work just because he ate convenience store food. If his body was in that condition, Jeong Dawoon would have crossed the River Styx long ago.
“It’s probably just temporary. Let go of my hand.”
Dawoon deliberately spoke nonchalantly and shook the hand that was caught. Then Yeoul stared at Dawoon’s face as if he would really bore a hole through it.
“Aren’t you worried, hyung? Guiding suddenly doesn’t work?”
“Well… worrying won’t change anything.”
Dawoon was naturally worried too, being human. It was an impossible world where espers who didn’t receive guiding went berserk, so there was no way he could be at ease. But he wasn’t the type to make a fuss while being anxious, so he just silently underwent the examination.
Guide Ryu Jin actually showed a more intense reaction than Dawoon, whose guiding wasn’t working.
Dawoon didn’t have time to be flustered because he was busy calming the surprised Ryu Jin. Since he turned even more pale than himself and even burst into tears, thanks to that he was able to maintain his composure.
“Don’t worry about me and go take care of Ryu Jin. If he’s crying, comfort him appropriately.”
He asked Yeoul to look after Ryu Jin, who would be in the control room, out of worry. Even in the midst of this, he emphasized ‘appropriately’ in case the two would make eye contact.
“Go quickly and stay by his side. Ryu Jin is still young.”
“The leader will come and comfort him. Who’s worried about whom.”
“That’s….”
…true.
Dawoon, unable to find words to retort, quietly just bit into the triangle kimbap. It was right, so there was nothing to argue about.
Yeoul gently moved the interlocked fingers and kneaded Dawoon’s hand as if massaging it.
“Besides your head, does anything else hurt? Should I massage your legs too?”
“No, just let me eat.”
“Your hands often go numb, hyung.”
Saying that, he carefully touched Dawoon’s hand. Perhaps Yeoul’s sincerity got through a little, as Dawoon’s uncomfortable expression gradually relaxed. Honestly, it was a bit refreshing.
Dawoon no longer stopped Yeoul, who was pressing down on his gloved palm. He left him alone and tried to finish eating the remaining triangle kimbap, but….
“Huh…?”
The triangle kimbap he’d definitely been holding in his hand disappeared without a trace. The precious triangle kimbap he hadn’t even eaten half of yet.
“Dawoon-ah.”
At that moment, Ryu Taeha, who had opened the door without any sign, approached the bed.
The culprit who made the triangle kimbap disappear must be that bastard. Since he’s a guy who can use all sorts of abilities, hiding an object would be easy even with his eyes closed.
That fucking meal thief.
Dawoon, whose hunger wasn’t even half satisfied, glared at him with an extremely sensitive face. Yeoul also sent an unfavorable gaze toward Ryu Taeha.
But absurdly, Ryu Taeha’s expression was also dark. His sunken mood was clearly revealed on his face, as if he’d been forcibly dragged to this place.
“When you’re sick, you should take care of your body.”
Dawoon closed his mouth seeing Ryu Taeha’s hardened face. Even if he didn’t know the reason, there was no need to deliberately poke at him when his mood seemed very low.
Ah, maybe it’s because Ryu Jin cried.
While Dawoon, who made Ryu Jin cry, was reading the situation, Ryu Taeha approached the bed and looked down at Dawoon.
“……”
Bright golden eyes scanned Dawoon’s entire body without missing a single part. The hand clasped with Yeoul’s, the bandaged feet, even the red bite marks visible above the deeply cut examination clothes.
There were so many places his eyes went that he opened his mouth a beat late.
