Having thought that far, Yi-hyeon started walking along the road. While choosing the words he would say once he met Han Jun, he wiped the beads of sweat forming on his forehead—and that was when the building of Korea University Hospital came into view.
After checking the message he’d received from his homeroom teacher, Yi-hyeon went inside and stepped into the elevator. When he got off on the floor with the VIP wards, he cleared his throat—ahem—to steady himself.
So Han Jun is here……
Just as he stopped in front of a door far more luxurious than the other hospital rooms and tried to calm his nerves, Han Jun’s voice—slightly sharp—leaked out from inside.
“So I’m saying, I’ll just get this put on and come back, okay?”
Hearing Han Jun’s voice for the first time in days made Yi-hyeon happy. At the same time, the agitation in his tone intimidated him, and Yi-hyeon worried that someone he wasn’t even close to might end up turning him away at the door.
Yi-hyeon began to step backward, one step, then another.
“The Assemblyman ordered it, so I don’t have a choice either.”
“Assemblyman, Assemblyman—so you betrayed my mom and stuck with him, and now you’re even squeezing the life out of me too?”
“What kind of talk is that?”
“Are you disappointed? Yeah, well, so am I. You’re saying it’ll only take thirty minutes, but you won’t even let me go?”
“Your father told me to keep watch so he doesn’t cause any more trouble.”
“I’m the one who got hurt. In Secretary Kim’s eyes, does it really look like I caused trouble when I’m lying on a hospital bed with a bandage plastered across my forehead?”
“Who caused trouble isn’t important. Can’t you just quietly go abroad and live like you don’t exist until the Assemblyman runs for president? It’s hard for me too, constantly telling you what to do.”
Yi-hyeon clenched the handle of the envelope so tightly he nearly dropped it.
No way… Is Han Jun going abroad to study?
If this was going to happen, he should’ve built a relationship sooner. He’d only just begun to understand Han Jun, and the thought of having to let him go before they could even become friends left a deep sense of regret. At the same time, the title Secretary Kim didn’t sound unfamiliar. Yi-hyeon recalled the person he’d heard speaking on the phone with Assemblyman Han not long ago.
He called him Secretary Kim then too. Did he used to work with Han Jun’s mother and then move over?
The word betrayal that Han Jun had used lodged itself in Yi-hyeon’s mind. Immediately after, Han Jun’s voice followed again, irritated, as if he were about to explode.
“Why do you keep telling me to go somewhere? If you wanted to toss me out of sight, you shouldn’t have made me in the first place. I’m already so messed up I could die—what the hell are you even saying?”
“Jun, your voice is loud.”
“So what? It’s always loud!”
Not only Han Jun’s voice reached Yi-hyeon—he could even hear the man’s breathing between words. It was a deep sigh, thick with suffocation. Thinking he’d chosen the wrong timing, Yi-hyeon continued backing away, and in the end, he had no choice but to turn around.
***
Yi-hyeon sat on a bench in the small park attached to the hospital, debating whether to just leave or wait until Han Jun’s mood improved and see him face-to-face. The apple mango could be delivered tomorrow without issue, but he also wanted to see Han Jun’s condition as soon as possible. If he left like this, it felt as though Han Jun would be left alone to sink into his gloom.
It might not mean much for someone who wasn’t even his friend to show up, but with Louis gone too, leaving Han Jun alone weighed heavily on Yi-hyeon’s heart.
If only dogs and humans could go back and forth freely.
Then he could’ve gone back to being Louis and comforted Han Jun himself. As Yi-hyeon sat blankly on the bench, an unpleasant phone conversation drifted into his ears.
A sturdily built man had just come out through the hospital’s main entrance, talking on the phone—and Han Jun’s name kept coming up. Yi-hyeon guessed that this was Secretary Kim, the man who’d been with Han Jun just moments earlier.
“Yes, Assemblyman. It looks like we’ll have to go somewhere on the outskirts. Since Jun is in his third year of high school, there aren’t many major schools willing to accept a transfer. Isn’t that actually better? It’s the countryside, so there won’t be a single Korean student there. Ah, yes. That matter’s already been taken care of as well.”
A black imported car pulled up in front of the man called Secretary Kim.
After timing exactly thirty minutes from the moment the car drove off, Yi-hyeon headed back into the hospital. He felt like he absolutely had to see Han Jun’s face today.
“Go back.”
A man in a black suit—looking to be around 190 centimeters tall—blocked Yi-hyeon’s path. His curt tone and cold gaze as he looked down at Yi-hyeon were intimidating. Momentarily cowed, Yi-hyeon hesitated before pulling out the flyer from his bag.
“I came to give something to Han Jun…… It’s an errand from our homeroom teacher.”
The man tried to snatch the flyer from Yi-hyeon’s hand. It was obvious he planned to take it and then kick him out. Yi-hyeon quickly hid it behind his back and told an awkward lie—that the teacher had specifically said it must be handed directly to Han Jun.
The oppressive aura radiating from the man was heavy enough to suffocate him. Just like his father, long ago.
“Hand it over and leave.”
When the man crooked his fingers and spoke in that commanding tone, Yi-hyeon’s fingertips began to tremble as trauma tied to his father surged up. His small body shrank in on itself even more, and he was so afraid he could barely breathe, forced to swallow each breath inward.
Seeing Yi-hyeon cower, people around them began whispering.
“Didn’t you hear me say Han Jun is sleeping and to come back later?”
“I know he’s not asleep.”
“Hey, student.”
“He says he’ll just hand over the flyer and leave—why won’t you let him in?”
Even while fearing the man enough that his voice came out barely above a whisper, Yi-hyeon didn’t give up and answered back each time.
As more eyes turned toward them, the man, clearly irritated, forcibly grabbed Yi-hyeon’s upper arm. Pushing his trauma down with all his might until he hit his limit, Yi-hyeon’s legs finally gave out.
Just as he staggered and was about to collapse, the hospital room door opened, and Han Jun appeared—wearing a cardigan over his patient gown.
His face looked thinner.
“Who’s sleeping?”
Han Jun shot a cold glare at the man nearly his height, then grabbed the wrist of the man who was holding Yi-hyeon’s arm.
“Looks like Secretary Kim’s uncle manages my guests now too?”
After roughly tearing the man’s brutish hand away from Yi-hyeon’s arm, Han Jun gently took hold of Yi-hyeon’s wrist instead.
“If Secretary Kim’s uncle was told to keep me from going out, then just stop me. Don’t block people coming in too. You’re getting paid, and you still can’t even do what you’re told properly.”
Han Jun pulled Yi-hyeon into the hospital room. When the man tried to grab the door and force it back open, Han Jun spoke with a twisted expression.
“Should I tell Secretary Kim directly? Or do you want me to make a scene by walking over to the reporters myself, saying your junior keeps provoking me?”
At the word reporters, the man’s face contorted viciously.
As if holding himself back from punching Han Jun in the face, he clamped his mouth shut into a thin line before reluctantly letting go of the door. Han Jun then deliberately slammed it shut with a loud bang.
For a brief moment, the man’s face was visible through the narrow gap before the door fully closed—and it was terrifyingly hostile. Yi-hyeon even found himself worrying whether the man might retaliate against Han Jun after he left.
“I heard you’d been discharged, so I was going to come see you—but something unavoidable came up, so I couldn’t right away. Sorry.”
Knowing exactly what that circumstance was, Yi-hyeon didn’t feel hurt at all. If anything, guilt washed over him for having taken away someone precious from Han Jun.
“Don’t apologize to me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Huh?”
“No, I mean—if you had something going on, of course you couldn’t come. So there’s no reason to apologize. That’s what I’m saying.”
Ah…… Han Jun smiled softly and nodded.
He must’ve hurt his forehead during the accident. A bandage padded with gauze covered his cool, straight brow. For no reason at all, Yi-hyeon felt himself shrink even more.
“Sorry it took so long to say this. Thank you so much for saving our Louis back then. Ah—Louis is the puppy you saved. And my family.”
If Han Jun ever found out that Louis had disappeared because of him, the warmth of Han Jun’s body would probably go cold all over again. Yi-hyeon stared at the large, pale hand still holding his wrist and thought quietly.
“By the way, how did you find out I was hospitalized? Did the homeroom teacher tell you?”
“Yeah. We’re having a school trip. The teacher told me to bring you the consent form. If you’re going to participate—”
Yi-hyeon, who’d been chattering on, clamped his mouth shut.
What he’d been about to say next was that he needed a guardian’s consent and to apply via QR code. Knowing that there was no guardian by Han Jun’s side who could readily give consent, Yi-hyeon couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence, afraid it might burden him.
“You just stopped mid-sentence. But why did the teacher make you do this?”
Han Jun asked as he took the paper Yi-hyeon handed him and casually set it down on the table beside the bed. Usually, wasn’t this kind of thing sent through the class president?
“I said I’d go.”
At Yi-hyeon’s answer, Han Jun tilted his head, looking surprised. When their gazes met, it was Yi-hyeon who looked away first.
“Why?”
“Because you were hurt, so I was worried. You help me all the time, so I thought I should come visit you in the hospital. Oh—this. I felt bad coming empty-handed.”
Yi-hyeon held out the envelope he’d been carrying.
“That’s creative. I’ve been in and out of hospitals plenty of times, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone bring a hospital gift in an envelope.”
At the offhand remark from Han Jun, Yi-hyeon’s face flushed hot.
Was that his way of saying the gift was too shabby? Yi-hyeon quickly pulled the envelope back.
“It’s my first time visiting someone in the hospital. I didn’t know how I was supposed to bring it.”
“Really? Guess you’ve never had a single person around you get hurt, then?”
