Chapter 71
Another day passed without anything out of the ordinary. Finding something special in the fact that nothing happened wasn’t strange to me. I made sure to savor these moments as much as I could. After all, special things don’t happen often—that’s what makes them special.
“Ugh.”
I quickly covered my nose with my hand as drops of blood splattered onto my textbook. I’d thought my chest had been burning since morning, like I was coming down with something, but this wasn’t it. Go Hankyul, sitting next to me, jolted and patted the back of the guy in front of us to grab some tissues. The nosebleed, which I’d assumed would stop quickly, kept flowing relentlessly until the entire wad of tissues was soaked crimson. Hankyul’s face paled as he stared at the pile of blood-soaked tissues stuck to the desk. In the end, I had to raise my hand to call the teacher.
After the teacher told me to go straight to the infirmary, I walked down the empty hallway and descended the stairs. Yu Hyunjae’s worried gaze lingered on me until the very end, but there was nothing I could do about it. My head spun for a moment. As I staggered on the stairs, someone rushed over and grabbed my shoulder.
“What the hell? Did someone hit you?”
Lee Joohyun stared at me in shock, his face filled with concern. My face and uniform were splattered with blood, so it was understandable. I forced a smile, lifting the corner of my mouth as if it were a joke.
“Do I look like the kind of guy who’d get hit by someone?”
“Then why are you like this?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I studied too hard.”
“You’re bleeding way too much for that.”
In the end, I leaned on Lee Joohyun and barely made it to the infirmary. The nurse, who initially thought it was just an ordinary nosebleed, was shocked when she saw the amount of blood. My skin had already turned pale from the blood loss.
“You should go to the hospital.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Why are you being so stubborn? Your face is as white as a sheet. If you lose any more blood, it could be serious.”
“Yeah, the nurse is right. Do you think you’re invincible just because you’re Rank 1, Yu Chanhee?”
Lee Joohyun, who had followed me into this mess, chimed in. I slowly shook my head. I knew better than anyone what was causing this excessive bleeding. My head started to spin again. My vision blurred, then flickered. This was bad. I was going to pass out.
***
When I came to, I kept my eyes closed for a while. I wanted to get a sense of the situation through sound before I opened them. Aside from the sound of footsteps and murmurs, there wasn’t any other noise. The faint smell of medicine told me I was in a hospital. If this was a hospital, they wouldn’t bring up my mana levels unless they were deliberately running tests. I thought up an excuse about stress as I opened my eyes. The sudden bright light made me squint.
“You’re awake.”
Someone was standing in front of me. A man with a tired, irritable expression, wearing glasses. He was dressed in a white lab coat, but I quickly realized he wasn’t a doctor.
“Your recovery is impressive.”
“Who are you? Where is this…?”
“Ah.”
The man continued speaking without any change in expression.
“This is the National Mana Research Institute.”
“The National Mana Research Institute? The government’s mana research facility?”
The man gave a concise, matter-of-fact reply as he continued jotting something down on the chart he was holding. On the left side of his coat, there were three characters embroidered—likely his name: Jeon Jeongwoo. A name I’d never heard before. I stared at him with a guarded expression, not saying another word.
“Yu Chanhee?”
“…”
“Your father is the Chief Security Officer of the Combat Division. You recently ranked as a 1st Grade in the ranking matches. In other words, a born golden spoon and an incredible prodigy.”
Jeon Jeongwoo recited my information as if he were reading from a textbook, his tone dry and detached. While this level of information wasn’t exactly classified, hearing my personal details from the mouth of a stranger wasn’t exactly pleasant.
“You’re not even asking why you’re here instead of a hospital. Are you not the cautious type?”
“No. I just didn’t ask because I figured you wouldn’t answer.”
“Is that so? There’s nothing to hide, really.”
“You look pretty suspicious right now, you know.”
“I hear that a lot. It’s just my face.”
Jeon Jeongwoo responded mechanically, as if this were a common occurrence.
“So.”
“…”
“Why did your mana suddenly amplify to this extent?”
I clenched my teeth, trying not to show it. The moment I heard the name “National Mana Research Institute,” I had a feeling this would happen. Sometimes, severely injured or mana-damaged rankers came here instead of hospitals, but it wasn’t for treatment—it was for “fixing” something. Of course. This wasn’t a hospital; it was a research facility. To them, an injured ranker wasn’t a patient but a subject.
“Does the National Mana Research Institute just do whatever it wants to people without their consent?”
“Of course not. If we could, we would’ve figured out the reason before you woke up.”
“You know that sounds ridiculous, right?”
“Does it? I usually just hear that I’m not funny.”
“Forget it. I’ll just leave quickly.”
“You’ll have to wait until your guardian arrives.”
“Guardian?”
“Yes. A guardian. Your parents or the closest legally registered guardian.”
“You don’t need to call my parents. I’ll just go—”
“You don’t need to call them? If you hadn’t been brought here and given stabilizers, you’d already be dead from blood loss in some hospital.”
His expression didn’t suggest he was exaggerating or lying. I sighed, running a hand through my messy hair. The moment my parents got involved, things were bound to get even more complicated.
“Did you already contact them?”
“Of course. Your school did.”
“How did I end up here?”
“Your friend brought you.”
“Friend?”
“Yes. He’s about this tall, kind of sturdy-looking.”
The description was vague, but I deduced it was Lee Joohyun. Why had he brought me here? Another question surfaced, but before I could dwell on it, the noise in the hallway grew louder, and I realized my parents had arrived.
“Chanhee!”
My mother rushed to me, her voice trembling as if she were about to cry. She seemed somewhat relieved to see me in one piece. I had expected only my mother to come, but when I saw my father standing right behind her, I glanced at Jeon Jeongwoo.
“Having the Chief Security Officer himself come is a bit… nerve-wracking for us, too.”
A few security guards in suits were standing outside the door of my private room. My father and Jeon Jeongwoo exchanged slight nods.
“My son caused quite a commotion. Thank you for your concern.”
“Not at all. Thanks to him, we discovered something interesting.”
“Something interesting?”
“Ah, so your father doesn’t know yet?”
Jeon Jeongwoo’s nonchalant response made me squeeze my eyes shut.
“I’ll explain it to him at home.”
“We should leave soon. There’s still some stabilizer left in him.”
My father briefly told my mother to stay and then walked out with Jeon Jeongwoo. I knew this couldn’t be hidden forever, but I hadn’t expected it to come so quickly.
“Why are you at a research institute instead of a hospital? Are you hiding something from Mom and Dad again?”
“I’m not hiding anything.”
“Chanhee… I’ve been so scared lately.”
Even though I had long believed that any affection I had for my parents had vanished, my mother’s worried, furrowed face softened my heart.
“I’m sorry.”
My mother squeezed the hand she was holding as my apology slipped out like a sigh.
“I’m sorry I’m not strong enough.”
“What do you need strength for, Mom? I’m not a kid.”
“Your father is different. If something’s bothering you, talk to him honestly. Consult with him. Okay?”
My moment of weakness turned into self-loathing in an instant. Consult with him? Was that really the solution she was offering? I was overwhelmingly curious—did this woman in front of me truly know that her husband was the kind of man who could kill anyone without hesitation if it served his interests? Whether she knew or not, the fact that the Yu family—and I—deserved to be despised remained unchanged.
“Mom, what did you like about Dad when you married him?”
My sudden, off-topic question made my mother look confused. I genuinely wanted to know—had she really been willing to marry a man like that, knowing his true nature?
“Why are you asking that all of a sudden? I can’t even remember.”
“Really? You don’t remember at all?”
“Oh, come on. It was 20 years ago. How am I supposed to remember? These days, I forget what happened yesterday.”
Even as she said that, her face flushed slightly. Noticing the change, I felt an inexplicably strange sensation. That expression, that reaction.
“You must have… loved him, right?”
My mother avoided answering, as if I were asking something foolish. I also turned away, lying back down on the bed. Seeing her face made me feel sick. Ah, love really was this illogical and irrational. My enduring all this misery for Yu Hyunjae was probably no exception.
