What had he done to Cha Hohyeon all this time? He had told Cha Hohyeon to imitate Cha Hohyeon. He had forced the perfectly fine Go Yoon to go to a psychiatric hospital.
As Kang Juno froze with a shocked face at the fact that he had inflicted an indelible wound on Cha Hohyeon, Go Yoon spoke to him.
“Kang Juno, run after him right now.”
Kang Juno had been locked in confusion in a daze, but was pulled up to the surface by Go Yoon. Go Yoon looked straight at Kang Juno with a resolute face and opened the door that had been firmly closed.
“I’m yielding to you right now.”
Kang Juno stared at the corridor with a blank face. Employees were busily running around in the corridor, and some raised their heads, conscious of the open door. Among them, Go Yoon spoke low enough for only Kang Juno to hear.
“I’m holding back from wanting to run to Cha Hohyeon myself and telling you this. Because what Hohyeon needs right now isn’t me, but you, Juno.”
“Go Yoon.”
“Run after him right now.”
Kang Juno, who had hesitated for a moment, burst through the door and ran out.
Go Yoon, who had been watching Kang Juno’s back, also left through the door.
* * *
Kang Juno ran and ran with a face pale as a sheet. Kang Juno’s hair was weighed down by the rain, and his clothes were all soaked.
Ka Jerim, carried on Kang Juno’s back, was covered with Kang Juno’s outer jacket to at least avoid the rain, but the jacket kept sliding down as he ran, and eventually through the gaps in the clothes, Ka Jerim, unconscious and motionless, got completely drenched by the pouring rain.
“……No.”
Ka Jerim’s hands weren’t grasping Kang Juno’s shoulders but just dangled and swayed powerlessly. Kang Juno readjusted the slipping body on his back several times, but even that wasn’t easy because of the pouring heavy rain.
Then, a familiar car stopped in front of Kang Juno, who had been running madly along the road. Go Yoon, who hurriedly got out of the car, opened the back door and upon discovering Ka Jerim’s unconscious state, turned as pale as Kang Juno.
“Hey, what’s wrong with him?”
“Yoon-ah, it’s strange…… He can’t regain consciousness.”
“Fuck.”
Seeing Ka Jerim lying limp but intermittently trembling, Go Yoon got a blanket from the trunk and returned to the driver’s seat to take off his outer jacket. In the meantime, Kang Juno laid Ka Jerim down in the back seat.
“Before turning on the heater, take off the wet clothes now and wipe his body with the blanket. Then put my clothes on him. Put the wet clothes in the passenger seat.”
“His body is too cold. What should we do?”
“Kang Juno.”
But Kang Juno kept rubbing the unconscious Ka Jerim’s face.
“……He’s not dead, right? Otherwise, how can he be this cold?”
Kang Juno was so scared of Ka Jerim’s body, which had lost consciousness, become stiff from the cold, and had no warmth at all. Go Yoon grabbed the panicking Kang Juno’s head and pulled his face toward himself. Kang Juno was right in front of Go Yoon’s nose, but his eyes were looking at somewhere far away.
“Shut up. Instead of saying such things, snap out of it and take off Hohyeon’s clothes right now and change him into my clothes.”
Go Yoon’s hands, saying such things, were also trembling from anxiety. Then Go Yoon searched for the nearest hospital and started driving the car, and Kang Juno, fumbling several times, barely managed to remove Ka Jerim’s wet clothes. And seeing the gaunt body, he choked up, hugged him, and rubbed him. With his hands, continuously, continuously.
“……It was Hohyeon.”
“……”
“It was Hohyeon.”
Hoping that if he rubbed like that, the disappeared warmth might return.
* * *
‘Where am I?’
Ka Jerim barely regained consciousness and blinked his eyes slowly while moving his hand. Then Onseol, who had been sitting beside him, noticed first and stuck close to Ka Jerim.
“Jerim-ah, are you coming to?”
“Oh, Seol hyung?”
Ka Jerim, surprised by his own voice that was completely hoarse and horrible to hear, opened his eyes wide. Onseol, relieved that Ka Jerim had regained consciousness, kept saying how fortunate it was, and after that, the rest of the members noisily crowded close to Ka Jerim’s side.
“Hey, you stupid bastard……!”
“Seon Hobeom, calm down. Jerim is a patient!!”
Seon Hobeom’s eyes were reddened, and seeing Ka Jerim’s haggard face after regaining consciousness, he seemed to lose his temper and tried to lunge at Ka Jerim, but Ma Doun, who was standing beside him, held him back and barely prevented a disaster. On the other hand, Park Eden, who had slowly approached without a sound, quietly looked at Ka Jerim’s face and let out a deep sigh.
“Thank goodness.”
The members of Abyss also looked quite haggard. They had heavy dark circles under their eyes and looked considerably exhausted.
“Where is……”
Ka Jerim took his eyes off the members and looked around, but because of the members filling his field of vision, he couldn’t quite distinguish where this was. As Ka Jerim, unable to grasp the situation at all, just rolled his eyes silently, Park Eden noticed and quickly informed him.
“This is a hospital, and you’ve just regained consciousness after 4 days.”
“4 days?”
“Hey. Don’t you have anything to say to us?”
Just as Ka Jerim was shocked by the news that he had been unconscious for 4 days, Seon Hobeom pressed Ka Jerim with an angry face.
“Why are you like that again? No, Jerim-ah. Rest.”
“Hyung, move aside. He really—!”
“Seon Hobeom, we can talk after Jerim has fully recovered.”
“No, fuck. How long are we going to live keeping our mouths shut like this?”
Seon Hobeom glared at Onseol and Park Eden, who were stopping him, as if frustrated.
At the suddenly hostile atmosphere, Ka Jerim slowly raised his upper body to stop the two and unconsciously reached his hand to the side, then frowned at the foreign sensation in his forearm.
“Gasp, Jerim-ah, blood!”
Ma Doun, who belatedly saw blood flowing back from the IV in Ka Jerim’s arm, screamed and laid Ka Jerim down. Ka Jerim, not even knowing he had an IV in, was surprised and couldn’t say anything, forcibly laid on the bed by Ma Doun, and had no choice but to place his hands neatly on his stomach.
And after laying Ka Jerim down, Ma Doun walked almost running to Seon Hobeom with an angry expression and hit his head.
Everyone knew Ma Doun’s usually gentle personality, so they expected a light tap, and Seon Hobeom also had a face that said such a Ma Doun wasn’t particularly scary. However, contrary to everyone’s expectations.
Thud—
“What? Was that sound just made by Doun?”
Park Eden and Onseol were so surprised they couldn’t say anything, then Onseol spoke in a dumbfounded state, and even Ka Jerim, who had been lying down, opened his eyes wide.
“Ow, that fucking hurts!”
“I hit you so it would hurt!”
As expected, Seon Hobeom, who was hit, screamed while clutching his head, and Ma Doun stood in front of such Seon Hobeom and continued speaking in a very angry tone.
“How long has it been since Jerim woke up and you’re making a fuss? Do you really have no brain? Are you a udon noodle?”
“……Doun is pissed.”
Onseol held his head as if he had a headache. But Ma Doun didn’t stop talking.
“Why are you getting irritated with someone who just woke up? You’re really such a kid.”
“Hyung, it’s not that—”
“Should I let you sleep forever?”
Though there were no rough swear words, Seon Hobeom became speechless with a shocked face.
When Seon Hobeom calmed down and the hospital room became quiet, Ka Jerim had the leisure to look around. There were many traces of the members left in the hospital room, traces of them staying by his side while he couldn’t regain consciousness remaining here and there.
‘Didn’t they hate me?’
Ka Jerim had thought that even if the Abyss members were kind, they disliked him. Because there were many times they talked excluding him, and he felt quite ostracized, he didn’t even want to be at the dorm.
But seeing the members’ faces worrying about him when he just woke up, and the fact that they had been by his side until he woke up, he realized he had been thinking wrong all along.
“I’m sorry.”
“Jerim-ah.”
“I thought you all hated me.”
Who would go this far for someone they dislike?
“Why would we hate you? Huh?”
“You avoided me even in the dorm……”
Park Eden hurriedly shook his head and vehemently denied it. He kept saying it was absolutely a misunderstanding, asking what part made him feel that way, saying they would fix it. The members, also momentarily flustered, hurriedly stuck close to Ka Jerim’s side and comforted and patted him until sunset.
“We didn’t avoid you. It’s just that you’ve been under a lot of stress lately— so we thought it would be better if you didn’t hear unpleasant stories……”
“R-right. We didn’t even talk about anything special. We didn’t avoid you, we just moved.”
“Maybe that time I had constipation and felt a welcome signal so I rushed to the bathroom!”
In fact, the members had been discussing countermeasures among themselves about Ka Jerim’s sleepwalking, which caused that commotion, but the members came up with all sorts of excuses and acted as if Ka Jerim’s sleepwalking was some big secret, even though no one had told them to.
“That time is webtoon update time. So I had to go to my room quickly—”
“Right. I’m also a fan of that webtoon so together—!”
“What webtoon is it?”
“Th-that is.”
Of course, if the tail is long, you get caught.
Looking at Doun and Eden who couldn’t answer, Ka Jerim finally smiled slightly toward the members. Realizing that these people bickering among themselves hadn’t been trying to ostracize him, he felt relieved.
“……”
“……”
And through the slightly opened door gap they were trying to enter, Go Yoon and Kang Juno saw that scene. Armed with hats and masks, as soon as they heard the news that Ka Jerim had woken up, they rushed madly to the hospital room, but couldn’t bring themselves to step toward the happy Ka Jerim.
“Let’s go.”
Of the two who had been quietly staring inside the hospital room, Go Yoon turned around first and said let’s go. Though Kang Juno and Go Yoon’s footsteps left behind heavy lingering attachment, they couldn’t bring themselves to enter inside.
