“Haah. I’m dying. I’m seriously dying.”
Hyedam collapsed in front of the refrigerator and unscrewed the water bottle in his hand without hesitation. After emptying the 500mL bottle in one go, he wiped his lips with his sleeve and crushed the empty bottle while catching his breath.
“This damn meddling…”
Only after his heavy breathing finally calmed down did Hyedam stare at the man sprawled out on the entryway floor.
Is he still alive, right?
When he first discovered him, the man was definitely breathing, and while supporting him to move him, Hyedam, struggling with the weight, staggered and pleaded, “Try to put some strength in your body.” The man would then tense his muscles, showing a will to walk on his own.
After confirming that the man’s thick chest was rising and falling, Hyedam brushed back his wet hair.
Should I have contacted the police station and waited? But his own house was just a stumbling distance away, and although the real cold hadn’t set in yet, the sleet-mixed rain falling on this late November night felt as cold as ice.
Handing him over to the police would be the most ideal situation, but thinking about all the bothersome things that would follow made Hyedam dizzy. And he didn’t have time to waste on such matters.
Taking another deep breath in and out, Hyedam got up from his spot and tossed the crushed water bottle into the sink.
He couldn’t just leave someone unconscious and soaked in rain at the entrance forever.
Letting out a small grunt while looking at the man’s enormous physique, Hyedam first decided to remove his leather jacket.
Excuse me. I understand you’re unconscious, but let’s take off those wet clothes first. When you come to your senses, I’ll give you a warm drink. Then we can talk about this situation.
He managed to unzip the leather jacket and remove both arms, but when Hyedam tried to pull the jacket from under the man’s back, a sigh escaped his lips. The form-fitting leather jacket was wet from the rain, making it even harder to remove.
Later, the man might wake up and act like someone who demands compensation after being rescued from drowning. The rain was getting heavier, and Hyedam had come out to check around the house before bed when he saw the man. Seeing him leaning against the low fence in front of his house, Hyedam’s last bit of conscience stopped him from just walking by.
If this man, whom he would have ignored and passed by, couldn’t wake up and leave on his own overnight, it was obvious that he would face a frozen corpse the next morning. What would follow would be even more terrible and dreadful.
Hyedam, who had come out just for a casual look around, didn’t even have an umbrella. He too was getting soaked in the rain as he crouched down in front of the unconscious man, trying “Hey there” and shaking him, but the man showed no response.
Instead, as his head, which was bowed deeply, turned sideways due to Hyedam’s shaking, Hyedam was startled to see a stream of blood flowing from the revealed forehead, causing him to fall back on his bottom.
Sitting awkwardly on the wet ground, Hyedam could only breathe properly again after confirming that the man’s chest was rising and falling steadily. Relieved that he wasn’t dead yet, Hyedam examined the man carefully.
Seeing his face revealed in the streetlight, Hyedam frowned. A foreigner? Hair color could be changed easily with dye, but seeing the distinctly non-Asian features with strong, bold lines made Hyedam’s head throb.
Moreover, this man was truly enormous. The length of his stretched-out legs and his broad shoulders weren’t a build commonly seen.
Enormous. Rather than simply describing him as big, he was enormous, and Hyedam’s thoughts about this man gradually filled with negativity.
Could he be someone from the underworld? With such looks and physique, he’s likely an alpha.
Mafia? Gang? But why would such a person come to this remote countryside?
That made him even more suspicious. Young people had all moved to the city, and while there were ten households living here until Hyedam was little, now, after his grandmother had passed away, there were only four people living here besides Hyedam.
- In an era of drone taxis, this place alone seemed stuck in the early 2020s. Whenever he came to his grandmother’s house, he always felt a peculiar sense of traveling back in time.
Even the four grandmothers who were still guarding this place were all elderly, so it was obvious that the village would disappear if they left too. The only people coming and going were those working in the cabbage fields, and the only incidents were puppies being born among the village dogs. A foreigner collapsed with blood on his head didn’t fit in at all in this village.
A hit-and-run? But it was a neighborhood where cars hardly passed through. Besides, in a car or motorcycle accident, wouldn’t one typically injure their legs rather than their head?
Feeling the need to confirm the person’s identity before doing anything, Hyedam repeatedly said, “I’m sorry. But I need to check,” as he searched through the man’s clothes. However, he had nothing that could identify him—no mobile phone, wallet, or anything that could tell who he was. The only thing the man was wearing, without a necklace or earrings, was a watch.
After briefly debating whether he should bring a strong man with unknown name and age into his house, as the rain started to pour harder, Hyedam literally mustered all his strength to bring (more accurately, drag) the man into his house.
Pushing one shoulder of the man who had crumpled at the entrance of the house, pulling on the leather jacket, and after a moment of struggle, Hyedam tossed the removed jacket aside and exhaled in relief after confirming that the man’s knit sweater was barely wet.
It was so hard just to remove one jacket, and the sweater… Shaking his head, he roughly threw the wet jacket towards the bathroom.
By the way, what does one eat to grow this big? He was confident enough to bet all his remaining fortune that the man’s height was at least 2m and his weight easily exceeded 100kg. He removed the man’s socks. Now what else? It seemed wrong to remove a stranger’s pants just like that, but he couldn’t leave the wet pants alone, so saying, “I’m sorry. I’m definitely not doing anything inappropriate,” he also removed the man’s pants and threw them towards the bathroom.
After much difficulty, he found and put on oversized shorts left by his friend Junseok, then rolled the person lying on the floor to move him to the bed.
“Should I just let him sleep on the floor?”
There was only one bed, and the other person was hurt. In a normal situation, Hyedam would readily offer the bed, but even rolling him here was exhaustingly difficult—the thought of lifting him up made his vision blur.
“…Just sleep there.”
The floor’s warm because the boiler’s on full blast. Only after covering him with a thick blanket and putting a pillow under his head did Hyedam properly notice the man’s face.
He had guessed that he was a foreigner with strong features, but the angular jaw, high nose, and deep-set eye sockets—a face with intensely strong self-assertion—was the embodiment of handsomeness itself.
“Is he a model? Or a movie actor?”
The firmly toned muscles he saw while changing the man’s clothes naturally led to such thoughts. After all, it’s not easy to have such muscles without professional exercise.
A movie actor wouldn’t be wandering alone in the countryside, and why would a model come here? Anyway, Hyedam slightly shook his head at the random thoughts that surfaced and brushed back his wet hair.
He had changed the man’s clothes, and after brushing back his wet hair to check, the blood from the man’s forehead seemed to have come from hitting his head somewhere on the side. Since the body was tilted sideways, the blood seemed to have flowed that way too, but the wound didn’t look too deep, and the bleeding had already stopped.
What to do about this? It’s not just anywhere, it’s the head. Could it be a concussion? Amnesia? After letting his imagination run wild, Hyedam heaved a deep sigh. To go to a hospital, they would need to go to a large one with an emergency room, and the nearest town hospital was 20 minutes away by car. A hospital with an emergency room was at least an hour away.
Since there was no way a taxi would come at this hour, the only option was to literally call 119 or 112 and get help from public offices. Then, as initially thought, he would get entangled in complicated matters.
He looks physically healthy, so what could go wrong? Wouldn’t it be fine to just apply some antiseptic and decide after he wakes up and explains everything? Having completed the process of self-rationalization that started with laziness, Hyedam crawled on all fours to find the first aid kit in the drawer.
Sitting beside the man, he opened the first aid kit, parted the hair to check the wound area, and applied antiseptic.
Thinking the man’s body temperature might have dropped in the cold weather, Hyedam covered him well with the blanket up to his neck before taking out his mobile phone to check the current time. It was 11 o’clock when he had gone out to look around after searching for things to do, and now it was 12:20. The fact that he had struggled with this unconscious man for over an hour made him chuckle.
Despite the accumulated fatigue weighing down his body, Hyedam stood up again. He didn’t know how much wind and rain would blow throughout the night. After carefully checking the old country house’s window frames and anything that might cause damage if blown by strong winds, Hyedam returned and placed his hand on the motionless man’s forehead.
No fever, and he didn’t seem to be having chills. After confirming his peaceful expression, Hyedam climbed onto the bed and lay down. He was neither an omega nor a woman, but a healthy man in his early twenties, so he didn’t think anything would happen even if the other person woke up while he was asleep.
Postponing all matters until tomorrow, Hyedam tucked himself tightly under the blanket. Soon, his heavy eyelids gradually descended. Perhaps because too many things had happened in a short time, everything felt like a dream.
Things will work out somehow by tomorrow morning. Ah! But what if it’s not an external injury but an internal one?
By the way, where is this coffee smell coming from? And it’s the smell of really delicious coffee brewing, not the cold one but the hot one—it would be nice to gulp down a cup.
I also need to organize grandmother’s house…
Though his unconscious mind, mixed with drowsiness and haziness, flowed freely, the chatter in his head disappeared as soon as Hyedam fell asleep.
