If he couldn’t go out freely without an escort — that was essentially what it meant. Even without wanting to read too much into it, swallowing the urge to push back wasn’t easy. He hoped he was wrong, but there was a chance that being shut inside this mansion was the beginning of a captivity arc, just like in the original.
So do I need to start working on becoming a first-rate escape artist right now? But what kind of effort, and how?
While Siyeon was turning it over in his head, Chae Yuno’s gaze swept over him once more.
“By the way, babe. Is your leg okay?”
“Oh, my leg…”
“I was surprised when you suddenly disappeared from the hospital. Why did you leave without saying anything? You didn’t even finish your treatment.”
Chae Yuno spoke with a tone that carried a hint of grievance. Siyeon thought about how to respond and decided to give a suitably vague answer.
“I had some things to deal with that day. Thank you for taking me to the hospital. I was able to get properly treated, thanks to you.”
He’d nearly been wrecked after getting injected with a heat inducer — but at least he’d managed to get emergency care for his injured ankle. And he’d gotten away from Manager Kang’s grip, too, when the man had been chasing him like he wanted him dead.
“If you had things to deal with, you could’ve at least left your contact information. I was worried — you just vanished when your body was still in bad shape.”
When Siyeon didn’t give a clear reason, Chae Yuno didn’t press further. But he stepped close — close enough that Siyeon thought, isn’t this a bit much? — and startled him.
“Oh, wait a moment — as you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”
“You had a hairline fracture though. And… I heard there was also a medication issue at the hospital. What happened with that?”
Was that hospital just freely leaking patient information to anyone? Since it was a hospital on Beom Yisu’s side, it would actually be stranger if this couple didn’t know — but he couldn’t help feeling vaguely wronged anyway.
“That — I took medicine, so it’s fine.”
“Medicine?”
When Chae Yuno asked with a puzzled look, Siyeon pulled out the medicine bottle he’d been keeping in his pocket and handed it to him.
Unheat: Omega (Ω) Exclusive Suppressant
Chae Yuno’s expression visibly stiffened with alarm.
“You took this? When — if you took it that day… how many did you take?”
Was there something wrong with this medication? Siyeon was starting to think he shouldn’t have mentioned it — but Chae Yuno looked so genuinely serious about it that the worry started rubbing off on him too.
“I… took quite a few. Around five, maybe?”
“Babe, are you actually insane?”
The moment Siyeon said how many pills he’d swallowed, Chae Yuno went off the rails. Seriously — just how dangerous was this medication?
“You took five of them?”
Chae Yuno had gone pale as he grabbed Siyeon by the shoulders. There was no taking it back now that they were already in his system, so Siyeon could only nod.
“Does hyung know? That you took this.”
“No, I haven’t… said anything yet.”
“Don’t tell him. That man gets extremely particular about anything defective. Ah — I don’t mean you’re defective, so don’t take it that way.”
Chae Yuno firmly warned him not to say a word until his condition had been checked. And he emphasized — multiple times — that he must never take this medication again.
“Should we go to the hospital now? Ah, but then hyung would find out. For now I’ll call the personal physician, so can you rest while you wait?”
His condition still wasn’t great, but it wasn’t enough to warrant this level of fuss. Siyeon reassured him over and over that he was fine, calmed him down, and instead put on an air of even greater nonchalance.
“I’m perfectly fine right now. I really am okay — so can we go inside for now?”
It seemed he’d only just realized they’d been going back and forth in the entryway for nearly ten minutes already. Chae Yuno nodded, his expression slightly complicated — as if to say, this much is enough for now.
“If anything hurts or feels off, you have to tell me. I’ll try to book a check-up as soon as possible. For now, let me show you to your room.”
“My room?”
“Yeah. You’ll need to see which room is yours. You’ll be staying here for a while.”
He pointed down the hallway. Given how large the house was, there were apparently plenty of unoccupied rooms. Only then did Siyeon step out of the entryway and take a proper look around the inside of the house.
“There are lots of rooms, so you can use whichever one you want. Want to see the dining room first?”
Still looking worried, Chae Yuno took the lead. The interior of the mansion had a more austere feel than it looked from the outside — if that was the word for it. The garden had all kinds of landscaping that gave it a warmer impression, but the inside was decorated entirely in achromatic shades.
The only thing with any color was perhaps the enormous floor-to-ceiling window that occupied the entire living room. The greenery outside, seen through the glass, looked like a scene from a painting. And with it came a familiar sensation of déjà vu.
“…Ugh!”
Following Chae Yuno and gazing out the window as if in a trance, Siyeon clutched his head as a sudden headache struck. Through the full-length window — a violent downpour, and then the rumble of thunder.
In the instant lightning flashed, a massive silhouette. What memory is this? Or rather — was it even his memory to begin with? It felt like a scene from a black-and-white film playing on loop. A scene that belonged to him, and yet didn’t feel real.
“Babe? What are you doing over there?”
When Siyeon stopped in front of the window, Chae Yuno — who had been walking ahead — turned around and called to him. Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t caught Siyeon gripping his head against the pain. He’d already caused enough worry with the Unheat situation, and he had no idea what additional tests might be ordered if he admitted to a headache on top of that — so Siyeon forced a casual expression.
“Oh, it’s nothing. The garden just looked pretty.”
“Hyung tends to put quite a bit of effort into the landscaping. Do you like plants?”
“Not bad… I think I like them.”
It wasn’t something he’d ever really thought about. But how many people were there who would dislike a well-kept garden?
If it came down to choosing between liking and disliking, he decided to go with liking.
“You like dogs, and you like plants. What else do you like? Do you just like animals in general?”
“Yeah, I mean… I do.”
Chae Yuno guided him through the sprawling mansion while asking, in considerable depth, about the things Siyeon liked and disliked. Not in a simple way, like if you say you like kimbap, what kind? — but at the level of: does he put carrots in his kimbap; if he likes cheese kimbap, does he prefer the kind with yellow cheese or the kind with white?
Honestly, it was getting a little uncomfortable having questions fired at him this relentlessly. He’d never once in his life thought deeply about the things he liked or disliked. He tended to just adapt to whatever he was given, in a whatever happens, happens kind of way. He was fighting tooth and nail to break free from that now — but regardless, the real Hong Siyeon had been the type of person closest to grey. Colorless. Undefined.
“Meals are eaten here. You can eat separately if you want, but… it’d probably be better to think of eating together as the default.”
“Together?”
Eventually they arrived at the dining room with its remarkably long table, where Chae Yuno emphasized that meals were very much a group affair.
Right — it would be a lot of trouble to set the table twice. Siyeon came to his own reasonable conclusion and nodded without argument. As they continued down the hallway and toward the staircase, the only thing he came to understand was that this space — so neatly maintained — was a home that someone had tended with great care for a very long time.
“This is the study. This is the dressing room. And this is…”
But before they reached the staircase, there was one place where Chae Yuno — who had been enthusiastically showing him around — paused.
“Ah, this room isn’t ready yet. I’ll show you later.”
Not ready… so roughly speaking, off-limits? In stories, the rooms you’re told not to enter are usually where the hardest quests unlock. Absolutely not going in there. Siyeon marked the location of the room Chae Yuno had warned him away from and followed him up the stairs.
The second floor had a layout not much different from the first. At the end of a corridor that felt just slightly too long, Chae Yuno stopped in front of one of the doors. He paused just briefly before touching the handle, then turned back to Siyeon.
“I think you’ll like this one.”
He opened the door and they stepped inside — and it opened into a room so spacious it felt almost like a hotel suite. What he liked most was that the window in the room was enormous, just like the floor-to-ceiling window downstairs.
How much would one night here run? More than a hundred thousand won? Maybe two hundred? What would that even come out to per month in rent? He’d never traveled anywhere before, so he couldn’t even begin to guess.
Honestly, living in the same house as this couple still felt uneasy — but the house was so nice that he momentarily lost himself in it. Aside from the interior being excessively stark and achromatic, this was luxury he couldn’t have even imagined for himself.
As Siyeon explored the room in a bit of a daze, Chae Yuno matched his pace and pressed a switch on the wall. When soft lighting came on, Siyeon’s expression eased just a little.
“Do you want this room?”
“Is that alright?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Or the room next to this one is fine too.”
What’s in that one — why does he have that look on his face? Chae Yuno was wearing a slightly meaningful smile. Siyeon hadn’t responded yet when Chae Yuno spoke first.
“The one on the right is Yisu hyung’s room, and the one on the left is mine. Take your pick.”
