# Chapter 196
“Are you angry?”
“No.”
For someone who answered so promptly, his voice was still stiff. He seemed to have some complaints, but since Lee Hwan had just opened his eyes, he would let it slide as if that alone was something to be grateful for.
“But I can’t abandon you to save myself. You know that.”
When Lee Hwan deliberately added those words, Taesung’s Adam’s apple moved prominently. He leaned back as if to protest.
Lee Hwan quickly wrapped his arms around Taesung’s waist and pulled him back, continuing:
“It’s the same for you too, right? In the same situation, you would have saved me first too.”
He wasn’t trying to argue about it. He wasn’t trying to determine who did right or who did wrong.
Lee Hwan just wanted to say those words.
“Anyway, it seems we’re not very good at preserving our own lives.”
No, that’s not what he meant.
“So… let’s protect each other. I want to live a long time, quite a long time.”
Lee Hwan pressed his lips shut, feeling somewhat embarrassed by his own words. It felt like he’d said something even more forward than his previous confession.
After rolling his eyes to look at Taesung, he saw that Taesung’s face had gone blank again like before.
However, soon he regained his senses and gazed back with dark eyes. Those seemingly bottomless eyes appeared to be swirling like a vortex.
Under that silent gaze directed solely at him, Lee Hwan felt his face growing hot for no reason.
“Why aren’t you answering?”
As he grumbled and pressed for a response, an unexpected situation unfolded. A red flush slowly began to spread across Taesung’s face, which had not yet fully calmed down.
From around his eyes to the tips of his ears and neck, it spread like watercolor paint.
Lee Hwan watched this development from beginning to end and found himself gaping without realizing it.
He had expected Taesung to brazenly say “okay” in response. But after already crying out loud, now his face was turning bright red.
…What was he thinking? Taesung’s hand fiddled with Lee Hwan’s arm wrapped around his waist, then slowly traveled up along Lee Hwan’s arm. To his shoulder, to his neck, to his face.
The passing temperature felt excessively hot, making Lee Hwan tremble slightly.
“I will.”
Finally, he answered.
“Because I’m confident I can do well.”
The hand that had been fiddling with his earlobe brushed against his lips. When Lee Hwan exhaled hot breath, the finger pressed down firmly, as if stamping a seal.
His eyes held heat as if he’d never been upset. As the tantalizing hand play pressed against his cheek and touched his lips while circling around, Lee Hwan ended up biting Taesung’s hand hard.
“If you’re going to do it, do it quickly.”
Lee Hwan squeezed his eyes shut and complained. He couldn’t quite say what exactly he wanted done, and he didn’t have the courage to look Taesung in the eye.
With a soft chuckle like wind escaping, a hot, soft piece of flesh rubbed against his lips.
A tongue entering belatedly. As if it had been waiting, the smooth tip scraped against the roof of his mouth and wrapped around Lee Hwan’s tongue.
At the same time, the hand that had been playing with his lips now cupped his face before sliding to the back of his neck.
Every time he applied pressure with his thumb, rubbing the nape of his neck, Lee Hwan felt tingles running from the top of his head, down his spine, to his waist.
“Mmph…”
As Lee Hwan flinched and opened his mouth wider, an even more stimulating movement grazed and slid inside his mouth.
Through his barely open eyes as he exhaled shallow breaths, he could see Taesung’s face, eyes lightly closed, looking pleased.
His long eyelashes trembled slightly, and his brow was slightly furrowed as if concentrating.
A sudden surge of heat washed over that neat face. The closed eyes, the slightly raised eyebrows, the straight bridge of his nose, and his smooth face—so close it no longer fit into his field of vision—all heated Lee Hwan up inside.
Crazy. Maybe his ability could also set fire inside people. Otherwise, how could his lower abdomen be this hot and his throat so parched?
When Lee Hwan nibbled on the lips pressed against his, Taesung’s right eyebrow twitched once. Then his hand gradually moved down, wrapping around Lee Hwan’s waist, just as Lee Hwan had done to him.
“Huu…”
Something hard pressed against the inside of his thigh as they were pulled together. No matter how much he claimed to never have thought about such things, the volume was unmistakable to anyone with a brain.
But the surprise lasted only for a moment, and a laugh bubbled up inside along with the bewilderment. His heated head spinning, Lee Hwan pretended not to notice and pressed even closer.
The way Taesung’s body suddenly stiffened was quite amusing.
Haa, his lips, briefly separated, exhaled hot and sticky breaths onto Lee Hwan’s neck. The tickling breath on his neck sent electricity through all his nerves.
Lee Hwan trembled and clung closely. At some point, his throat began to burn. His breath was dry. It was like desperately trying to quench an unfulfilled thirst under a dripping faucet.
“More.”
Forgetting all embarrassment, he murmured, and Taesung’s hand somehow lifted his clothes and slipped inside. That thoroughly heated hand now grazed Lee Hwan’s body.
He forgot the time, the situation, the place. With his still-dazed mind, Lee Hwan pushed away an inexplicable discomfort and pulled Taesung’s hand further in.
But then.
“…”
The rising excitement suddenly braked. Taesung’s hand, sliding in, caught on the bandage wrapped around Lee Hwan’s stomach.
At that moment, Taesung stopped his twisting tongue and half-opened his eyes. As if they had just realized they were both patients, his face began to harden again.
Lee Hwan’s face also stiffened a bit. For a different reason. As soon as he became aware of his injury, the pain he had miraculously forgotten began to gradually revive.
‘…Shit.’
How could he have not felt this even for a moment?
No… he had felt it. He thought he had. But his crazy mind had ignored it.
Lee Hwan belatedly realized that the discomfort that kept surging between moments of pleasure was actually pain.
As if paying the price for ignoring all warnings and moving as he pleased, pain slowly crept into his stomach and side. Still with his lips pressed against Taesung’s, Lee Hwan groaned in pain before burying his head against Taesung.
“…Sorry. Does it hurt?”
Had he still not regained his senses? Why did his apology sound strange?
Not understanding what Lee Hwan was thinking, Taesung, as if it were his fault, pulled Lee Hwan’s arm out onto the blanket with an embarrassed face.
Blood was leaking from the needle half-attached to his left wrist.
“This won’t work.”
Taesung, who had been lying ambiguously beside Lee Hwan until then, suddenly changed his expression and abruptly stood up.
He pressed a button on the wall and then went back down beside the bed. Now that he looked, the chair where Taesung had been sitting and dozing looked quite expensive.
‘Why is a reception room chair in a hospital room…?’
The hospital room, which Lee Hwan only surveyed after noticing something strange, was actually a space slightly larger than his apartment. In one corner were a tea table and chairs, and there were incomprehensible picture frames hanging here and there.
Though well-hidden by curtains and thus unnoticed, there was also a large window on the wall. When he reflexively reached out to draw them, Taesung quickly stopped him.
“You’ll be photographed. Keep it covered.”
Photographed…?
There was also a floor lamp beside the bed. When he picked up the remote control on the bedside table and pointed it at the large TV ahead, the screen came on with a click.
—…continues. Meanwhile, Hunter Kang Taesung, who was transported from the scene of the incident, remains unconscious even today, three days later. According to hospital officials, despite his S-class healing ability, treatment and recovery are facing difficulties…
“…”
Glancing sideways, the sight of Taesung standing with his eyes wide open entered his vision. He was not only fully conscious but had even opened the door for the doctor and nurse who had come after hearing the call button.
“Un… conscious.”
As he murmured, the doctor approached and flipped his eyelids to shine a light. Lee Hwan was so dumbfounded that he continued watching the TV through the gap in the doctor’s arm.
He was curious about what other nonsense they would say, and he wanted to know how things were going outside now, three days after the incident.
Click. The channel changed as he pressed his thumb on the remote control.
—…and they even forcibly changed my phone number! They said they were from Naru, and told my mom not to contact Kang Taesung…
—From what I heard, since he was seventeen? Eighteen? They secretly made him enter gates. Minors are prohibited from entering gates…
While the altered voice recited information that might be true or false, the doctor diligently examined Lee Hwan’s condition and wounds without paying attention to what he was doing.
—After Mr. Kang Taesung awakened his S-class ability, opinions and statements have been continuously revealed suggesting that he may have suffered emotional abuse and exploitation from the Kang family. In response, the Hunter Management Bureau will on the 21st…
Click.
—I am now at the entrance of the Korean hospital where Hunter Kang Taesung is hospitalized. This place is crowded with citizens concerned about Hunter Kang Taesung and journalists aiming for coverage, leaving no space to step. Hunter Kang Taesung lost consciousness and was transported after the battle at the Naru Research Building three days ago…
Click.
—…has shocked the world. Dr. Dazor from the UK states that Naru’s experiments that have been revealed so far were not simply using animals and monsters, but as Praxis claims, show signs of human experimentation, expressing deep concern…
Click! Finally, the TV turned off.
“What is this?”
In response to Lee Hwan’s murmur, Taesung slightly raised the corner of his mouth.
“I agreed to stay unconscious until Praxis finishes their work.”
“So what I’m seeing in front of me is a ghost?”
“I’m the guardian spirit of your hospital room.”
He made such an unsettling statement as if it were a joke.
