Lee Gojun devoted all his heart and soul to the touch handling me. He seemed to regard me like a glass sculpture that would crumble if touched wrong.
Soon the bandage was unwound, and the red wound that hadn’t completely healed revealed itself. The skin and scab with traces of where the arrowhead had been stuck were hideous if you could call it hideous, and looked a bit disgusting too. But since we’d navigated between fierce battles and injured people, there was no one revealing displeasure at such a wound now.
But in a different sense, they frowned. Though Lee Gojun was seeing the state of my calf for the first time, even the twins who had already seen it several times while changing bandages and disinfecting frowned the same way every time. Though the sight of them crumpling their faces on my behalf as if they were the ones in more pain was questionable, I didn’t quite dislike it.
When I rolled my eyes slightly, Lee Geonwoo stood with an emotionless face unlike the three people beside him. Maintaining a stiff posture, I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be polite or just frozen, his two emotionless eyes were fixed on my calf.
“……”
Thinking there was nothing to be gained by just staring, I turned my gaze back. Once someone went crazy, there was no way to turn them back no matter what means you used.
“…Fortunately it’s been well managed. At this level, I can treat it quickly.”
“Whose wound and whose leg is it, of course we have to devote all kinds of care to managing it.”
Cha Jeoh responded with a sharp tone. At that, Lee Gojun didn’t even react, let alone get scared, and moved his two hands. Lee Gojun covered the wound on my calf with his right palm and overlapped his left hand on top.
Soon a familiar wave of power bloomed centered on Lee Gojun. A deeply emanating golden aura traveled along his hand, crossed the touching skin, and embraced the wound. Warm heat wrapped the wound painlessly. As I entrusted my leg to that sensation, Lee Gojun suddenly muttered low.
“…Gutless bastards. How can they leave an injured person neglected like this?”
When I raised my head to look at Lee Gojun, feeling my gaze, he naturally met eyes and grinned.
“Ah, I heard from Geonwoo. That the auditorium bastards are refusing treatment claiming to express their discontent.”
“Auditorium… ‘bastards’?”
Even at my lukewarm question, Lee Gojun was unwavering.
“Well, they’re bastards. Hayoung-ah, everything that exists in this world except you is no different from mere insignificant creatures.”
“……”
“They’re trivial and worthless things. They don’t even believe or follow you.”
Tsk, the sound of clicking his tongue softly rang out.
“Other injured people aside, how could they do that even to you, Hayoung? What were the twins doing in the meantime? Just watching in a daze?”
“This son of a… Why do you keep provoking?”
Cha Jeoh, who had approached close, stopped his movement after trying to grab Lee Gojun. It seemed he couldn’t rashly pull him because Lee Gojun was treating my calf. Cha Jeoh, who frowned irritably, stuck both hands in his pockets and stood crookedly.
“What do you mean we were watching in a daze? You keep making mistakes, but strictly speaking, me and Cha Woodan are Church of Hayoung believers number 1 and 2.”
“Where are you trying to muscle in? I’m the one who founded the Church of Hayoung.”
“Huh, is that so? The ones serving and caring for Hayoung in the closest place aren’t you brothers but us, though?”
It was a pointless power struggle. Just because we’d spent three days quietly, I’d forgotten this noisiness in the meantime. While I swallowed a sigh and rubbed my ears, Lee Geonwoo, leaving his hyung and Cha Jeoh’s wrestling behind, approached me quietly.
“We’ll take care of the auditorium people, my hyung and I.”
What was this about now?
I threw a fed-up look at Lee Geonwoo, but he didn’t notice my inner thoughts without tact. Or perhaps he was pretending to be tactless and trying not to listen to my opinion.
“So don’t worry. Whatever it is, we’ll resolve it on our end.”
“……”
“While we’re here, should I lock the art room door for you? I can set conditions so other people can’t open and close it freely.”
“…It’s fine.”
As I responded belatedly, I felt the warm heat that had been enveloping my leg moving away. The sensation of the aura that had been swimming inside my skin escaping outside was vivid.
Before long, Lee Gojun, who had finished even the final examination, removed his hands from me. In that place where the cool air permeated due to the disappearance of another’s warmth, new flesh had already risen without ugly wounds. It was a clean and smooth calf where I couldn’t even find the smallest trace.
Lee Gojun admiringly appreciated the skin he’d restored. Clenching both hands tightly and sparkling his eyes, he soon drooped his eyes sadly and turned to look at me.
“The treatment is finished… but still, move carefully, Hayoung-ah.”
“Why? Couldn’t you treat it perfectly?”
“No way. Since it’s me, not someone else, there’s no way I’d be satisfied with just roughly patching up your wound, Hayoung. Naturally the treatment ended perfectly successfully.”
Lee Gojun, who smoothly unclenched his clasped hands, couldn’t bring himself to touch my calf, and barely stroked the air with only enough distance for one finger joint to fit.
“I’m worried you might get hurt and in pain again. It’s better to be careful anyway.”
“What…”
“That’s right!”
Suddenly Lee Gojun struck the bed sheet not too hard and raised his voice. He whipped his head toward me and leaned his body close to my upper body, away from my legs.
“You hurt your arm too! To almost forget something this important. Look at my mind…!”
Looking at Lee Gojun who had turned pale as if he’d committed a truly great sin, I needlessly stiffened my right arm that had been supporting the sheet.
The bandage that had been wrapped around my right wrist had already been unwound yesterday afternoon. Though it was a knife, it was just a slight grazing cut, and thanks to being able to obtain ointment for such a wound not too difficultly, it had healed incomparably more than my calf. So I hadn’t even thought about getting treatment from Lee Gojun and had completely forgotten.
“Hayoung-ah, give me your arm. I’ll treat it for you.”
“Why even the arm…”
“What do you mean why? What if you get a scar on your body, Hayoung?”
Cha Jeoh, who had approached close without a sound, plopped down sitting on the bedside. Whether he’d already suppressed his anger toward Lee Gojun, he had a dry expression with settled emotions. Of course, it was a dry expression to others, but the sight of him melting and loosening as soon as he felt my gaze was now familiar enough not to be strange.
Soon Cha Jeoh, who had reached out his hand, gauged my reaction once, then carefully grasped my forearm. Since I didn’t resist and stayed silent, he finally applied faint force and led my arm.
Cha Jeoh’s touch rolled up the sleeve of my school uniform shirt. When the long wound was revealed beneath it, Lee Gojun narrowed his eyes.
“If I don’t treat this, it would definitely have scarred. So from next time, you have to tell me even if it’s a very small scratch. Definitely, Hayoung-ah. Definitely!”
The world had become a mess, so what did a few scars matter? If I brought up those words, it was obvious I’d receive all kinds of annoying rebukes then, so I kept my mouth shut pretending not to know.
Lee Gojun quickly treated even the wound on my wrist. Thanks to it being a much shallower wound than the one on my calf, he finished the treatment at a faster speed. Nevertheless, perhaps uncomfortable in one corner of his heart, Lee Gojun couldn’t withdraw his touch from my arm. Finally, only after Cha Jeoh stepped forward and peeled off that hand did he obediently rise.
“We’ll be going now… It seems like there will be a lot to do from now on.”
I didn’t bother to probe what that thing to do was. Regardless of my silence, Lee Gojun once again gathered both hands as if praying and began to recite an unidentifiable prayer fluently.
Leaving such Lee Gojun behind, Lee Geonwoo bowed deeply as when he’d apologized to me earlier.
“I’ll visit again later.”
“……”
“Messiah-nim.”
…Wait a moment.
“What?”
Without even time to ask anything, Lee Gojun, who had finished his share of prayer, turned his back. Then he gave me a final eye greeting and led Lee Geonwoo.
I couldn’t bring myself to catch the two people moving away and just blinked my eyes helplessly. Even that didn’t last long as my eyes were covered by Cha Jeoh’s palm, blocking my vision.
***
From that day on, strange rumors were conveyed sporadically. That some crazy brothers appeared in the auditorium doing bizarre things. Since it was Cha Woodan who brought that news unable to hold back laughter, the identity of the protagonist crazy brothers was obvious. But since I had no intention of digging into it, I chose to calmly ignore it.
And also, the plan to go outside and try various approaches regarding the ability I’d awakened if my leg was treated after Lee Gojun woke up still hadn’t been executed. It was the twins’ fault for constantly blocking my way saying it wasn’t okay yet.
They seemed scared that I might wander outside and suddenly disappear to an unknown destination. That anxiety intensified after I’d already tried to leave on my own three times, losing consciousness, in the two days that they’d only thought would be uneventful without anything particular happening.
