Unlike my wish, the fight between the two continued into the next scene.
“Can you even call yourself an S-class esper when you can’t protect one person?”
“Does this bastard think words are candy? Then why didn’t excellent you protect them? When did you run away without listening twice, and now you’re throwing a fit?”
As Haewon and Ihyeon growled as if they’d soon fight, Hyeonseok separated the two.
“Why are these bastards acting like this? Pull yourselves together. Since when has Esper Department 1 been this soft? You should be thinking about figuring out the case and handling it.”
At Cha Hyeonseok’s sharp words, the two separated. But they couldn’t withdraw their sharp gazes toward each other.
“Is there anything else you found out besides the video and what you reported earlier?”
Nam Ihyeon withdrew his gaze that had been looking at Kim Haewon as if to kill him and looked at Cha Hyeonseok.
“Before Guide Han Miyeon died, she said sunbae Park Geun-yeong’s name.”
“Geun-yeong hyung?”
Cha Hyeonseok said in a voice full of puzzlement. He touched his chin and continued speaking as if he couldn’t understand at all.
“Why did she say a dead person’s name?”
Haewon was silent. Park Geun-yeong. He was the name of the runaway esper that Haewon had killed with his own hands.
I couldn’t help but be surprised. Park Geun-yeong was the name of that sunbae Kim Haewon had directly dealt with? How did Han Miyeon know about him, and what connection did that person have to this case? After blinking in surprise, I shook my head and regained my senses.
First, I had to find his case in the list of espers who died in the line of duty and check a bit more. Then when Nam Ihyeon and Kim Haewon came to visit, I had to investigate more details about Esper Park Geun-yeong.
As I was writing down what to do in order in my notepad, the nurse who entered the hospital room screamed.
“Patient Park Garam! You shouldn’t be up!”
“Huh?”
“You’re not in a condition to be on your phone right now, you know? It’s absolute rest!”
The nurse snatched my phone and put it in the nightstand, then recited my condition at length, asking if I even knew what kind of treatment I received in the ICU and fiercely pressing me about how someone who came back from the dead could be so unaware. I felt my shoulders shrinking.
At her pressing, I obediently lay down on the bed. She administered a sedative to me and emphasized several times that I was a ‘special protection target.’
“I’m sorry.”
“If you’re on your phone again, I’ll report to the higher-ups!”
At the mention of higher-ups, Director Ham Minho’s face came to mind. His face would already be bright red with anger because of this incident. I wanted to avoid giving him good bait to attack me. I told the nurse in charge several times that I absolutely wouldn’t use my phone.
She gave a kind threat to rest well and left the hospital room. I looked once at the nightstand where my phone was and exhaled.
The nurse’s words were right too. Today I had witnessed Jeong Sanghyeop and Han Miyeon’s deaths before my eyes. Unable to do anything, I had sent off the two people powerlessly. I had even tried to give up my own life.
Weakness had spread throughout my entire body like the poison that invaded it. In this current state, I would only be able to watch someone else’s death again.
“Let’s go slowly, slowly.”
I closed my eyes while pulling myself together like that. Even though I slept like that, drowsiness was coming over me again.
* * *
This dream was strange. As if I had become a CCTV, I was looking down at the inside of the abandoned hospital room from the ceiling. It was a darker hospital room than usual.
Moonlight poured through the darkness. When the moonlight that crossed through the crack in the broken window illuminated a broken glass fragment, a girl reached out her hand. The light filled the girl’s hand completely.
It was literally being contained. The light pooled in her small hand and became rippling water. The girl let the water drip. Water fell onto the glass fragment.
Behind her, a person wearing a protective suit came and stood. The X mark was clearly written on the front too. The girl turned her body and looked at the person in the protective suit.
“Teacher.”
“……”
“The moonlight is really pretty.”
The girl smiled. I couldn’t make out the expression of the person in the protective suit. Was this voice the voice of that girl who saved me? I couldn’t tell because it wasn’t a shouting voice. However, I instinctively felt it seemed to be her.
The girl with long bob hair touching her shoulders wore white hospital clothes top and bottom, and was wearing a black cardigan. The slightly oversized cardigan covered the back of her hands a little. The girl repeatedly contained the moonlight and discarded it. Then she withdrew her smile and asked again.
“You don’t think it’s pretty?”
In the girl’s voice was pure doubt. As if asking why this wasn’t pretty. The person in the protective suit said nothing and shook their head.
“Right?”
The girl smiled again as if happy with just that gesture. The person in the protective suit pointed inside with their hand. The girl looked at that person’s fingertips and then took a step.
My gaze reached the girl’s feet. The girl’s bare feet wearing nothing were not dirty. They were clean as if not a speck of dust could stick to them. Even though she was clearly walking on broken glass, there wasn’t a single wound.
It was a bit eerie. It felt like a ghost too. She who was about to leave the hospital room turned her head. Her gaze was directed at where I was. It was a corner of the hospital where a CCTV would be.
“Do you think so too?”
The girl asked me. I was so flustered. My mouth naturally didn’t move. The girl smiled slightly and left the hospital room.
Until now, there had been no one who recognized my existence in dreams. But the girl was different. I didn’t know what to do in my confusion. The problem was that the dream didn’t end.
I saw the moonlight the girl had been looking at. The moonlight was pouring onto the broken glass. And the water she had poured had changed to a vivid green color.
Vivid green. I found a liquid of the exact same color at once. The phthaldomide in the small medicine bottle Cha Hyeonseok had shaken before my eyes. The poison that had killed Jeong Sanghyeop and Han Miyeon.
I looked at where the girl had disappeared. What was the girl trying to tell me? What connection did moonlight and phthaldomide have? No. No. None of it was related.
Who on earth was she?
Perhaps this was a rescue request, someone crying out to me to save them. But I didn’t have the ability to save her. Fear that I would lose again filled me completely.
In this dream, I couldn’t move anywhere. I just stood blankly in that corner looking at the abandoned hospital. Filled with despair.
Miserably, the dream didn’t break and continued for quite a while.
* * *
When I woke from the dream, I felt a fatigue as if falling under the bed. Not only the wound on my abdomen but my entire body was heavy. It hurt as if I had a fever.
My head was hot too, and I was dizzy. I flailed my hand and barely pressed the medical staff call button. The doctor and nurse arrived quickly and checked my condition.
“It seems the poison remaining in your body is causing fever and pain as it’s being completely detoxified. If you rest well, you’ll get better quickly.”
After going through various examinations, the doctor said as if to reassure me. Various medicines including painkillers flowed in through the IV. My eyelids became heavy, but I didn’t want to fall asleep.
Because it seemed like I would be transported again to the abandoned hospital that was full of silence and stillness. I didn’t want to return to that dream again.
But perhaps because the hospital room was upgraded and they used better medicine, I couldn’t hold up my eyelids at all. I repeatedly fell into light sleep and woke up, fell and woke up. Every time I woke, my head hurt as if splitting. As the frequency of waking increased and the intervals narrowed, the nurse also came in and out of the hospital room a bit more frequently.
“Doctor, patient Park Garam’s fever isn’t going down.”
“Let’s move him to the intensive care unit.”
“Are you sure it’s really okay not to notify the family?”
The nurse said worriedly. It seemed the Association had told them not to notify the family. I agreed with that part too.
I barely raised my hand in a state of being completely soaked in sweat. Then I shook it vigorously. It was a powerless gesture like a willow branch swaying in a passing breeze.
Still, I had to express my intention somehow. They must not contact my parents. My parents, who knew nothing, were people who would run out barefoot saying ‘What on earth is going on!’ They were people who believed like rice cakes my words that C-class wasn’t dangerous and was no different from a regular civil servant working at the district office.
The doctor grabbed my hand that was shaking ceaselessly and put it under the blanket.
“Patient Park Garam, don’t worry too much. Nurse Lee. Let’s proceed with treatment first. Right now, even if we try to contact them, the Association will block it.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Let’s just contact the pair esper.”
At the sound of pair esper, my eyes that were about to close snapped open again. No, Doctor. Not that side either. I tried to express my intention again, but I was already exhausted and my body was as heavy as a thousand pounds. When I tried to shake my head, I felt nauseous.
I moistened my dry lips and barely said, “I-I’m fine.”
“Yes, then I’ll contact only Esper Kim Haewon.”
But perhaps because my voice was too small, it seemed they didn’t hear. Damn it. I decided not to try harder. Because I thought that guy would ignore it on his own anyway.
