# Chapter 113
By the way, if he’s injured, where was he hurt? How did it happen? Did he get into a fight with someone? But even if he fought, it wouldn’t be easy for Kwon Dojin to get hurt. Not when he’s ranked second for nothing—
“Ji Haecheon.”
Yeah, if he fought with him, he could have gotten hurt. Baek Han once mentioned that Kwon Dojin and Ji Haecheon don’t physically fight each other, but hasn’t the situation changed a bit now?
Dojin might have fought with Ji Haecheon because I said I was tired of him. It sounds narcissistic, but it’s not entirely wrong.
“How badly are you hurt?”
I became anxious with the woefully insufficient information. I paced around my small room in circles, raising and lowering my phone repeatedly. Dojin’s text message only contained five characters including the period: “I’m hurt.”
What more information could I extract from this? I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.
“I should reply, right?”
But what should I say? How should I respond? Should I ask if he’s badly hurt? Or where he’s hurt? Or if he’s been to the hospital?
Various responses came to mind and then faded away. Unrefined thoughts floated around, making my already complicated mind even more muddled.
Ngh— A pained sound escaped my lips involuntarily. I pressed the phone against my forehead. First, I took a deep breath to regain my composure. Then, I carefully chose each word one by one to craft a reply and typed it into my phone.
[Are you badly hurt?]
It was a simple sentence, but it took me 10 minutes to compose it. Thanks to that, I had a brief moment of existential crisis, wondering if my language skills were this poor despite my dislike for Korean class.
[Mmm, a little.]
A little? What does “a little” mean by Dojin’s standards? Since everyone’s standards differ, I couldn’t tell. Strictly speaking, even a broken bone could be described as “a little hurt.”
After debating whether to inquire further, I decided to ask about the most important thing first, since I still had many questions.
[Where are you hurt?]
They say the first step is the hardest, but the next is easier. This time I was able to compose a sentence and send it to Dojin more quickly than I expected. If it were the usual him, he would reply soon, so I stayed in the chat room waiting.
[Face]
“Oh my god.”
As soon as I understood his swift response, raw, unfiltered words escaped my mouth without passing through my brain.
His face? Why would anyone touch that beautiful face? How could Ji Haecheon do such a barbaric thing with eyes in his head?
For a brief moment, I genuinely wondered if Dojin’s injury might have come from something other than a fight with Ji Haecheon. But since I desperately needed someone to curse at the moment I found out Dojin’s face was hurt, I simply ignored that possibility.
What’s important is that those two characters Dojin sent filled me with anger. My thoughts had been a jumbled mess until now, but suddenly everything cleared, leaving only one thought.
[Where are you.]
I needed to see with my own eyes how badly Dojin was hurt. Right now, I didn’t care about anything else; that was the only thing that mattered.
* * *
After learning he was at home, I immediately texted him that I was coming over. He readily agreed, so I hurriedly finished preparing and left home.
Normally I would have taken the bus, but being so anxious, I hailed a taxi without hesitation. Fortunately, having stayed home for so long had left my pockets rather full.
My legs trembled with anxiety. I’d never experienced this before and didn’t know my legs could shake uncontrollably like this. Even when I noticed and tried to stop, before I knew it, they’d start trembling again.
Figuring it would be easier to just give up trying to control it, I let it be. Haah, I sank deep into the backrest and fixed my gaze outside the window. When would we arrive? I wish we’d get there soon.
As if hearing my inner thoughts, the driver smoothly increased his speed. The roads weren’t congested either, so we could arrive earlier than expected.
Using the passcode Dojin had left in his message, I passed through the main entrance and reached his home without hindrance. In the past, I would have stubbornly pretended not to notice, but today I didn’t have the mental capacity to care about such things.
Standing before the firmly closed front door, I took out my phone again. I opened the keypad and carefully pressed each unfamiliar number, one by one. With the arrangement being unfamiliar, my fingers moved slowly until I finished, and then with a pleasant sound, the door opened.
I went in, practically throwing off my shoes, and headed to the living room. At the end of the not-so-short corridor, I could see someone sitting on the sofa.
“Kwon Dojin!”
As I hurried over to him, Dojin lowered his head deeply. Despite knowing I had arrived, he wouldn’t show me his face, which frustrated me so much that I plonked down in front of him.
“…You came?”
“Yeah. How badly are you hurt?”
Dojin, who knows painfully well how much impact his appearance has, kept turning his head this way and that to avoid my gaze.
“Kwon Do-jin—”
It was frustrating that he was avoiding me like this when until recently, he would approach me even before I could approach him. Growing increasingly impatient, I tugged at the hem of his clothes, and when he continued to evade me, I had no choice but to grab both of his cheeks.
“What is this.”
“Habina.”
Dojin called my name with a slurred pronunciation due to his compressed cheeks, but I couldn’t care less. No, more precisely, I was robbed of the ability to respond upon seeing his injury.
“Was it Ji Haecheon? Did he do this?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“No way—”
Huh, I was momentarily speechless because the situation was so absurd.
“How could he have no moral standards! What part of this perfect face should be touched, let alone hit!”
His lip was split, and his cheekbone area was tinged yellowish. This beautiful appearance had been marred with wounds and bruises.
When my voice involuntarily rose as I became upset about such injuries on a face that naturally made me feel good just by looking at it, Dojin’s eyes drooped.
“Do I look ugly?”
“No. You’re still handsome.”
I firmly answered his sorrowful question. Dojin’s handsomeness doesn’t disappear with just this much damage. Rather, it’s just that a sorrowful beauty has taken its place, revealing yet another charm.
Still, the fact that an innocent person had been injured annoyed me just the same, so I roughly ran my fingers through my hair.
“Medicine? Have you applied any?”
“No.”
“Why— Never mind. Do you have medicine at home?”
Dojin dejectedly shook his head. Only then did I realize I should have stopped by a pharmacy instead of coming straight here, and I touched my forehead. I really had been too preoccupied.
“I’ll go to the pharmacy. Wait here.”
As I gathered my wallet and phone that I had carelessly thrown on the floor and stood up, Dojin grabbed my arm.
“Just stay with me, okay?”
“But still—”
“Please?”
He drooped the corners of his eyes like a puppy drenched in rain. The fingers gripping my arm fidgeted and then gradually lost strength. It was hard to refuse when he was being so uncharacteristically timid.
“…Alright, fine.”
Once again defeated by Dojin’s appearance, I sighed and sat down beside him. That’s just how I am. I knew this would happen.
“Besides your face, is everything else okay?”
“Yeah, well—”
The fact that he was smiling and being evasive meant other places were probably hurt too. I wanted to check thoroughly if I could, but that wasn’t possible. If I had wanted to do that, I shouldn’t have been so harsh with Dojin.
“How did you end up fighting? Did he pick a fight with you?”
Wanting to change the subject, I asked something else, and he lowered his gaze. As he blatantly avoided eye contact and refrained from speaking, my mouth gaped open. I had read his silent answer.
“You picked a fight with him first?”
“It just happened—”
“Why would you do such a dangerous thing—”
I stopped mid-sentence, realizing it was a stupid question. Why else? He must have done it because I said I was tired of Ji Haecheon. While that might not be the entire reason, it clearly would have been a significant factor in his actions.
Seeing Dojin’s injured face made me feel dejected, and I buried my face in my hands. I could only think that the conclusion I had reached after much deliberation had ultimately only had negative effects on both Dojin and me.
If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have brought up taking some time apart. I felt upset thinking that Dojin had been hurt because of my unnecessary actions. No, more than upset, I was furious with myself.
“…I’m sad that you’re hurt.”
“Habin.”
“And I feel like it’s because of me, so—”
I had things I wanted to say, but I couldn’t articulate them nicely. My thoughts were already rough, making it difficult to convey their meaning properly, and with my poor way with words added to that, it was hard to even get them out of my throat.
“It’s not your fault, Habin.”
“Then? Then why did you fight? Isn’t the reason you didn’t fight even during the rank determination because there was no reason to? But why this time?”
The words that came out directly without passing through my thoughts marked the beginning of a crack in the dam, which soon burst. My voice, which had been as faint as a sigh, gradually grew louder and became sharper.
“The reason we didn’t fight was because family issues were involved. Even though it was about rank, it would have been troublesome if either of us got hurt while fighting.”
Despite my attitude, Dojin remained calm without showing any signs of being flustered. Looking at him, I was reminded that I wasn’t in a position to be angry, and once again covered my eyes with my hands.
Although I did so because I didn’t have the confidence to face him, Dojin, unaware of this, carefully grabbed my wrists and lowered them. I wanted to resist, but I didn’t have the strength to. After moving my lips aimlessly for a while, I finally spoke.
“…Does that mean it was okay this time?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly, at a timing like this, the statement that the issues between their families had been resolved lacked credibility. I knew it was likely a lie, but he was so resolute that I just wanted to believe him.
“Above all, you don’t need to feel guilty about the choice I made, Habin.”
I leaned my head against the hand gently cupping my cheek. I knew the distance between Dojin and me was gradually closing, but I pretended not to notice and lowered my gaze.
“So you don’t have to worry about that. Just stay by my side. That’s all I need.”
