# Chapter 38
As soon as Raon slowly opened and closed his eyes, he realized he was lying down and abruptly sat up. With his expression hardening at the white ceiling and the smell of disinfectant he saw upon opening his eyes, he lowered his legs from the uncomfortable bed. The moment he saw the slippers with the ‘MK Center’ logo embedded in them, his left chest ached.
Urgently clutching his chest due to the unfamiliar pain, Raon followed the line extending from the back of his hand with his eyes. The line connected to an IV bottle with a little fluid remaining.
MK branch underground isolation room. Jaehwi falling to the floor with a dull sound, and he had embraced him in front of it… With the severe headache that followed the chest pain, Raon cradled his head in both hands. His current situation was leading to only one conclusion.
That can’t be right. Surely Jaehwi’s wounds had healed under his touch. So the bizarre and frightening quiet outbreak…
“Hey, you crazy bastard!”
Raon quickly raised his head at the curse that came with the sound of the door swinging open.
“Wow. A truly amazing lunatic. I knew you were crazy all along, but bringing a stabilizer in and then trying to Guide? A C-grade trying to Guide an S-grade? Even a passing dog would laugh.”
Hyukjin, who was openly cursing in a loud voice, checked the IV fluid and then flopped down in the chair next to the bed.
“…Failed.”
Although he didn’t feel any energy at all, he had wanted to Guide. If he could heal Jaehwi with his abilities, he was willing to do anything. But as Hyukjin said, a C-grade trying to Guide an S-grade? And an Esper in an outbreak state at that…
“Where’s Jaehwi?”
He didn’t want to believe it, but if it was reality, he had to accept it.
“At the Center…”
“Where in the Center?”
“The training room. Do you know how much happened while you were unconscious? Nox came out of the dungeon carrying you in his arms, and I had a hell of a time covering that up. You seem fine now, so why don’t you just get up?”
Raon lowered his hands, which had been holding his head, at Hyukjin’s words that he couldn’t understand.
Training room? Jaehwi is in the training room now? What about the outbreak? Did he not have an outbreak? He doesn’t know what’s what, but did it calm down? So he’s alive and in the training room?
Raon, who had jumped out of bed and was heading for the door, paused briefly at the pain on the back of his hand. Then he tore out the IV needle and went straight out the door into the corridor.
“Young master!”
He had no time to worry about Jay’s urgent voice calling him or the clothes being draped over his shoulders.
“Kang Raon!”
Walking quickly along the corridor, Raon checked the elevator floor number and turned his body toward the stairs. Raon’s breathing became increasingly ragged as he ran down the stairs urgently. The slippers, larger than his foot size, flopped around, but this was not a situation to consider such things.
Jay and Hyukjin seemed to be shouting something as they followed him, but Raon didn’t stop descending the stairs, even as he staggered as if about to fall. He couldn’t distinguish whether his wildly beating heart was due to the sudden movement or something else.
He didn’t even feel the pain in his lower lip, which he had bitten in anxiety, and as his vision kept becoming blurry, which was annoying, he held the stair railing with one hand and roughly wiped his eyes and face with the other.
As he continued down the stairs, his breathing became more rapid and his head spun, and the floor numbers he saw gradually decreased.
Staggering, Raon opened the door leading from the stairwell to the corridor and urgently looked around.
Huk. Huk.
Looking for where he needed to go and turning his body in that direction, Raon gasped for breath at the force that grabbed his arm.
“Young master.”
“Hey… you crazy…”
Confirming it was Jay who had caught him just before he fell, Raon looked at Training Room X at the end of the corridor. Jaehwi always used that training room. And judging by the people gathered in front of the training room, it was clear that Jaehwi was there.
Even as time passed, Nox received attention from everyone. They wanted to see his abilities with their own eyes, and it was everyone’s dream to train with him. Even when he was using the training room alone, Espers and Guides with spare time would visit to watch Jaehwi’s training.
“What’s wrong with you!”
At Hyukjin’s urgent, breathless questioning, tears fell from Raon’s eyes. Raising his hand to wipe his face, Raon shook off Jay’s hand. Supporting himself against the wall, Raon approached the training room and stared blankly at the space beyond the window filled with light mist.
“Is Nox here?”
“Yes. He’s currently training with Team A.”
“When will it end?”
“It should end soon.”
Hearing the conversation between Hyukjin and the management staff, Raon found himself unconsciously biting his left index finger. Until he had rushed down here, he couldn’t think properly. But this situation was familiar.
“Why?”
“He’s been training with teams starting from Team D, but regardless of the team members’ grades, the training time doesn’t exceed 10 minutes…”
As the light mist that had settled in the training room thinned, the back silhouette of the black-clad man standing with his back to the window became gradually clearer.
Raon watched as fine cracks appeared in the training room glass. What had first appeared as a small speck, the fine cracks spread like a spider web. Guides were rushing to the sides of struggling Espers.
And the black silhouette that had been showing its back slowly moved.
Raon’s pupils followed the man’s movements. This situation, this scene. Everything was familiar.
Dressed in MK Center treatment room clothes and wearing slippers, a long cardigan was draped over Raon’s shoulders. This was not the branch but the main Center.
The black silhouette approached him, and the distance between the foolishly standing Raon and the approaching person gradually closed.
“…”
Three steps away. At a distance where an outstretched arm wouldn’t reach, the man stopped, and Raon’s lips trembled palely as their eyes met. Releasing his left index finger, which had been bitten hard enough to leave teeth marks, Raon’s mouth moved, but he couldn’t say anything.
It was Jaehwi with his usual clean skin instead of skin that had burst from being consumed by heat. Reflected in Jaehwi’s perfect, handsome black pupils was Raon’s image.
“Hello.”
In this situation, the word that Raon’s lips painfully formed flowed from him.
He felt the black pupils’ gaze slowly moving from his head to his toes. Then his gaze stopped not on Raon’s face but on his right hand.
Haah.
As he inhaled very slowly, Raon could see his ribcage expand. As slowly as he had inhaled, he exhaled slowly, and his ribcage returned to normal. His hand, wearing a black glove, rose and brushed back his disheveled black hair.
“Team Leader Choi Hyukjin, was it?”
“Ah! Ah, yes.”
“I have something to discuss, could you spare some time?”
Jaehwi passed by Raon’s side and approached Hyukjin. If they had been a little closer, their clothing might have brushed, but there wasn’t even such a small contact, and his expression was indifferent. With just one indifferent glance, as if he didn’t know Raon at all, he erased Raon’s existence and passed by with such coldness that Raon’s hand moved instinctively.
With a force that grabbed Jaehwi’s wrist, which couldn’t be fully grasped in one hand, Raon’s body twisted toward Jaehwi and staggered.
“Hwi-ya…”
With just a slight twist of his wrist and a slight lift of his arm, Jaehwi made Raon lose his grip.
“I dislike being touched, do you have something to say?”
At the voice that was as cold and businesslike as his gaze, Raon’s fingertips, which had been awkwardly suspended in the air, shrank.
Just a few hours ago, this was the person who had whispered that he liked him, loved him. They had mingled their bodies without allowing the slightest gap, kissed, and with his large frame, he had begged Raon to hold him.
He always said he was struggling and asked to be hugged, asked to cover his ears. But now he says he dislikes being touched?
“Min Jaehwi.”
Raon’s voice trembled as he called him. His expression, voice, and behavior toward Raon—none of them were familiar.
“Ah, thank you for your help in the dungeon.”
“Young master.”
Raon looked at Jay, who was lightly grabbing his arm and trying to get his confused attention. Jay’s expression, which was always consistent, wasn’t so good now. Only then did the surrounding situation come into focus. The gazes of many people were all on him and Jaehwi.
“Jay. Let’s go back.”
Lightly touching Jay’s hand that was holding his arm to shake it off, Raon put his hand in his cardigan pocket and turned around. As he walked with his gaze on the floor, one person’s footsteps followed him. Before he could extend his hand, a long arm reached out first and pressed the elevator button, and after Raon entered the elevator, only Jay followed.
“I think we should treat your hand first. Shall we go to the treatment center?”
At Jay’s words, Raon took out his right hand, and his eyes saw the back of his hand stained with blood.
