Yeo Dowoon felt he could understand Kwon Jeonghoo’s feelings a hundred times over as to why he didn’t want to let a professional caregiver into the hospital room. He cried out in pain throughout the dawn, covered in blood.
“Kgh…! Huff!”
“Captain, Captain…! Are you alright?”
“Hnngh……”
“Just hold on a bit, okay? I’ll go out and bring Woomin hyung…!”
Thin and thick blood vessels were ferociously raised on his forehead. They pulsed and writhed ceaselessly with each labored breath.
His strong neck was drenched in cold sweat, clearly visible even in the darkness—so thoroughly soaked that even pulling out tissues to wipe it had its limits.
“Keurgh……!”
Kwon Jeonghoo clutched at his own throat like someone abandoned in the middle of a desert, facing a thirst that felt like his esophagus was burning. His mouth must have been drying up completely, as his lips were stuck together, terribly parched.
Yeo Dowoon’s mind raced rapidly. Shim Woomin, he had to bring Shim Woomin.
He wasn’t unaware that what Kwon Jeonghoo craved at this moment wasn’t his unprepared nursing and care, but the warmth of a guide who could rescue him from this terrible hell.
But Kwon Jeonghoo, seemingly unbothered by the streams of blood flowing down like rain, stopped Yeo Dowoon once again.
“Just…, haa. Just stay by my side.”
Perhaps because the window was wide open, the temperature in the hospital room felt twice as desolate. Yeo Dowoon couldn’t shake off the hand that desperately held onto him. His gesture looked far too desperate.
“What do you mean just stay?”
It also looked precarious. To the point where leaving him like this would make him feel guilty, as if he’d done something unforgivable to a dying person.
Shim Woomin would come to the hospital room when it was time for guiding anyway, so Yeo Dowoon couldn’t understand what made him so reluctant to show such displeasure.
Did he think he’d be showing a shameful side? Was he afraid his pride would crumble?
“…Captain, you’re in so much pain right now. I’ll be right back. Just wait a moment.”
Damn it! When he himself was on the verge of dying, where was the time to maintain pride?
“Just stay, you punk….”
But Kwon Jeonghoo only shook his head side to side. Even that simple movement looked extremely taxing, so Yeo Dowoon sat back down on the orange chair, clasping his cold hand to calm him down.
The cushion wasn’t soft at all. It was so hard and uncomfortable that his tailbone ached, and his body couldn’t relax even after sitting down.
“Ugh……”
The intermittent noise from the air purifier mixed with Kwon Jeonghoo’s groans to create a strange harmony. His hand was worryingly hot. His wrist, forearm, and face were all the same.
“Captain, are you really sure you can endure this?”
He suffered from high fever all night with thick veins standing out on his neck. Even so, he never let go of his hand, so Yeo Dowoon had to wait while biting his lips until Shim Woomin arrived at the scheduled guiding time.
He even opened a water bottle and poured water for him, but it wasn’t enough. Kwon Jeonghoo instead coughed harshly and spat out all the water that had filled his mouth.
“……Your superior is really admirably tough. I’ve never seen anyone grit their teeth and endure the aftermath of berserk like that. Even if it’s dawn, I would have come if he’d called. What’s the big deal?”
Shim Woomin, who had arrived exactly at the scheduled time and hastily finished guiding after being informed of the situation, spoke without hiding his groggy state.
Dark, hollow circles hung under his eyes today as well. Wearing a loosely draped khaki hoodie zip-up and a black cap pressed down, he looked similar to Espers who had just finished overnight training.
“He still suffers from the aftermath even though he fainted before going berserk?”
So the joke about guides and Espers being a survival community wasn’t just empty talk after all.
“Is that even possible?”
Yeo Dowoon asked while rolling the energy drink he’d just gotten from the vending machine in his hand. His gaze kept going toward Kwon Jeonghoo’s hospital room.
“Yeah. He cut off his consciousness, not the berserk itself. He just postponed the timing.”
The cold drink can bumped against Shim Woomin’s cheek. Yeo Dowoon, who replied “I see,” playfully slid the can down to his nape.
Shim Woomin laughed goofily at the cool chill spreading faintly. But soon he made a tearful expression.
“When do you think he’ll be discharged?”
Yeo Dowoon thought Shim Woomin’s expressions were changing quickly today. Unlike how he usually went around with his eyes drooping in a dumb and relaxed manner, he was properly making a dejected face now.
Shim Woomin sighed “Heugh” and pulled his hoodie zip-up zipper all the way up to his neck as he spoke.
“Your Captain needs to hurry and go through the discharge procedures so I can rest easy too.”
While everyone else was laughing and planning their vacations, he must have felt quite wronged at having to stay up until dawn stuck in a hospital.
“Why do you say ‘your Captain’ like there’s distance between you? You’re also part of Delta, hyung.”
“In name only, Dowoon-ah. Then are all the guides at the Esper base part of Team Delta?”
“You’re different, hyung.”
“No. Don’t say I’m different. I don’t want special treatment. The only guide belonging to Delta is Mr. Cha Haseong. Even if not, let’s just say that’s how it is. ……He’ll definitely be discharged within this week, right?”
Yeo Dowoon recalled the image of Baek Seonwoo deliberating for a long time about whether it was peak season or off-season while choosing a pension.
He’d looked at him with disdain, thinking the guy who’d earned plenty of money was being stingy about cost-effectiveness, but now he speculated that perhaps he’d just been displeased at seeing him happy about a vacation after such a long time.
Seeing how even Shim Woomin’s brightened face was getting irritated like this.
Right, when will he be discharged? Yeo Dowoon pointed out.
“If you want to make a living, you have to shut up and endure whenever the discharge comes. Cheer up, hyung.”
“Are you comforting me or what……”
Only then did Shim Woomin struggle as he put the drink can he’d received into his hoodie zip-up pocket. He felt both proud and pitiful of himself for becoming numb to that nasty way of speaking.
He wanted to ask if he could only be satisfied by talking in such a demoralizing way, but perhaps because it was around dawn, he didn’t have the energy left to argue. His stamina was depleted after even providing guiding.
Shim Woomin spoke, pouring out the emotion he was currently feeling.
“What’s with your temper… even after 10 years, there’s no sign of it changing. Dowoon-ah.”
“Even mountains change, so why wouldn’t my temper change? You probably just didn’t notice, hyung.”
But Yeo Dowoon wasn’t hit at all and smoothly retorted.
“Please try harder.”
At twenty-seven, he was no longer at an age where he could use being young as an excuse, yet what a way with words. Shim Woomin, as if he had no will to exchange more words with him, tried to wrap up the unsatisfying conversation.
“Mm-hm…, okay. I’ll try as hard as I can. By the way, Dowoon, don’t you need guiding?”
But perhaps due to the professional consciousness deeply ingrained in his bones, he naturally ended up asking about Yeo Dowoon’s condition.
Shim Woomin, who had been pressing on his stiff eyelids here and there, was quite surprised at himself. He wondered when he’d become so serious about guide work.
In a way, it was a natural result.
If only considering the possibility of going berserk, Yeo Dowoon should be watched far more carefully than Kwon Jeonghoo, who was being hospitalized.
Being a psychic-type Esper, Kwon Jeonghoo could cut off his own consciousness by his own will if any signs of berserk appeared, but in Yeo Dowoon’s case, unless someone forcibly cut off his consciousness the moment he started to go berserk, there was a high risk of causing a large-scale disaster.
Moreover, he was no longer a super-stable type Esper boasting a 0.02% chance of going berserk. Rather, he was an unstable type approaching 50%.
Yeo Dowoon, who had been lightly scraping the hospital’s cement wall with his fingernails, explained carelessly.
“I got guiding before coming to the hospital.”
“Oh, from Mr. Cha Haseong?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you two said you’d be living under the same roof for a while, right?”
For some reason he didn’t understand, when the topic of Cha Haseong came up, a bright glint immediately passed through Shim Woomin’s eyes too. The sleazy playfulness that couldn’t distinguish time and place seemed to be enveloping him as always.
“It’s just like living together…” Shim Woomin muttered to himself as he suddenly blocked Yeo Dowoon’s path as he tried to enter the hospital room. His cheekbones rose plumply. His lips, which had been stretched in a straight line, were also drawing an arc before he knew it.
“Dowoon-ah, I’m asking because I’m so curious.”
Shim Woomin gently pressed down on Yeo Dowoon’s arm. At that, Yeo Dowoon raised one eyebrow crookedly as if to say ‘Look at this guy?’
Shim Woomin, who had fearlessly blocked his path, asked directly as if conducting a criminal investigation.
“Are you really involved with Haseong-ssi?”
“……What did you say?”
“Are you really……the second?”
Shim Woomin smiled broadly as if he was so happy he could die. He crinkled his face so excitedly that his eye corners seemed to disappear. He exclaimed as if sighing.
“Our Dowoonie is even playing second fiddle?”
“……”
“Yeo Dowoon as a second……”
Shim Woomin, who had exclaimed in a weak tone, soon added “Wow.”
“You really like Mr. Cha Haseong, don’t you?”
It was an unbelievable situation, but on the other hand, it was also an understandable relationship. Wasn’t Cha Haseong a remarkably excellent person no matter when you looked at him?
His face, body, and demeanor were all perfect and neat without a single flaw. Noble energy overflowed from him even when he was just standing still, so proud Espers were desperate to have him as their partner.
