Chapter 41
Chapter 41
Translator: Penny
Chapter 41
This is a remarkably useful reward.
I paused, my hand hovering over the water bottle cap.
Normally, I would have chugged it down immediately, but now there was another sick guy to consider.
Torn between choices, I stared down at the bottle, lost in thought.
Should I drink it myself to eliminate the System's ticking time bomb and prevent the misfortune of dying before the average human lifespan?
Or should I give it to the member who'd caught the flu just two days before our comeback, unsure if he'd recover by tomorrow, to ensure he could participate in our activities?
From a short-sighted perspective, the latter seemed right, but considering the long term, prioritizing my own health...
[This is a Blood-Coughing Penalty that won't strain your body!]
Just tell me to give it to Gyeon Hajun already.
Clicking his tongue, he carelessly tossed the water bottle onto the car seat.
When they arrived at the hospital where Gyeon Hajun was admitted, he stopped Kim Dobin from getting out of the car.
"Go back to the dorm. Don't risk catching the flu too."
Before opening the door, Kim Dobin grabbed his arm.
There's only one Panacea Potion, you know? If you get sick and bedridden too, it'll be a hassle. Please, just go back to the dorm without arguing.
At his sharp frown, Kim Dobin immediately released his arm and politely offered a box of drinks.
"No, that's not it... I just wanted you to take this drink set..."
"Just leave it at the dorm."
Since Gyeon Hajun would be discharged later that day anyway, the Panacea Potion or whatever it was called would be enough of a get-well gift.
"They say it's impolite to visit someone in the hospital empty-handed."
"Yeah, well, I'll just be impolite then."
I replied nonchalantly, grabbed a single bottle of Panacea Potion mineral water, and stepped out of the car.
I couldn't be bothered explaining the whole story, and even I thought the "Panacea Potion" thing sounded ridiculous. So I decided to just play the jerk.
I strode over to Gyeon Hajun, who was lying in an emergency room bed with an IV drip, and Seo Yehyeon, who was sitting guard beside him.
"Ugh! What the hell? Are doppelgangers roaming around these days?" Seo Yehyeon stared up at me in horror. I glared down at him with disdain and snapped, "What are you babbling about? Did you catch Kim Dobin's nonsense?"
"Didn't I hear just two hours ago that you were taken to the hospital in an ambulance and admitted? Is it even possible for someone to recover that quickly?"
"They said there was nothing wrong, so I got an IV drip and was discharged just now. I'm not fully recovered yet, though."
Sleep deprivation? Just need a good day's rest. Nutritional imbalance? Just need to eat properly.
"Then why did you call the ambulance in the first place?"
"Well, what else was I supposed to do when I suddenly vomited a whole bucket of blood? Not call 119?"
"What kind of person are you? Vomiting a bucket of blood and then walking around perfectly fine two hours later? Are you even human?"
Seo Yehyeon, still rambling nonsense, gestured at Gyeon Hajun, who lay with his eyes closed, his face flushed with fever.
"Manager Hyung is waiting downstairs. I'll take care of him, so you should head back to the dorm first."
"Wait a minute... Is it okay for a patient to take care of another patient?"
Well, it's better than leaving him in the hands of someone who doesn't even know how to wring out a towel.
But since I'm a human with learning capabilities, I swallowed those words for the sake of my Original Intent Score and nodded.
Seo Yehyeon left the emergency room to answer Manager Hyung's call.
Gyeon Hajun, his eyes slightly open, noticed me slumped in the chair beside his bed and blinked slowly.
"...I heard you were hospitalized."
"I was. But I've been discharged now."
"Why are you here? You should have left Yehyeon Hyung to handle this and gone back to the dorm to rest."
The sound of his feverish, hoarse, and cracked voice made my head throb. When I lightly touched his forehead, it burned hot.
Wow, whether it's a Panacea Potion or an Elixir of Immortality, I'm glad I didn't drink it.
If his throat's this bad before the comeback, how's he going to perform live?
"I'm not going to trust that guy with this. What if it gets worse? Drink some water first. Your throat's completely gone."
I naturally handed him a water bottle filled with a liquid that could have been a Panacea Potion or just plain water.
Gyeon Hajun took it without hesitation and, parched, gulped it all down.
I watched his Adam's apple bob nervously until he pulled the empty bottle from his mouth. Then I pounced with my question.
"How do you feel? Do you think you're feeling a bit better?"
Gyeon Hajun stared blankly at me and shook his head briefly.
You're asking that after just one bottle of water? his expression seemed to say.
The forehead I touched with the back of my hand was still burning hot.
Wow, that System bastard really scammed me! What?! A panacea? A P-A-N...?! Panacea my ass! Is it moonlighting as a snake oil salesman now? Is that why it's been so busy ignoring all my inquiries?
I'm such an idiot for falling for that con artist's lies. Aish, what a waste of my Random Ticket!
Ah, I'm screwed. What am I supposed to do about the comeback now?
After ten minutes of tearing at my hair in despair, I heard:
"Hmm...? I think I might be feeling a bit better...?"
The feverish, labored breathing had calmed slightly. His voice was still a bit hoarse, but his condition was definitely better than before.
I stopped cursing the System and awkwardly scratched the back of my head.
Hey, if there's a cooldown, you should've told me sooner!
It was the dead of night when Gyeon Hajun's fever finally broke. After being discharged from the hospital, he returned to our dorm room.
Originally, the room was shared by the three of us: Gyeon Hajun, Seo Yehyeon, and me. But under the pretense of isolating the sick, Seo Yehyeon was kicked out to Kim Dobin and Ryu Jaehee's room.
Thanks to this, I had the rare luxury of enjoying the relatively spacious room all to myself for the day—a small comfort in this wretched basement apartment. Of course, the catch was that there were no sick people to isolate.
Gyeon Hajun was already asleep with his eyes closed, but I couldn't sleep. The image of that damn Panacea Potion kept flashing before my eyes.
I was dying of regret. If I'd just taken it myself, I wouldn't have to worry about the Blood-Coughing Penalty anymore. Why did I give it to Gyeon Hajun...? No, it was the right thing to do, but still...
"Why am I still thinking about the bastard who abandoned me? Ugh..."
My quiet lament drew an unexpected response.
"Still holding a grudge?"
"Whoa, you're awake?"
I turned sharply to see Gyeon Hajun's half-lidded, sleep-glazed eyes meeting mine.
"Stop talking nonsense and just get back to sleep," I scoffed, pulling the blanket up to his face.
"Do you even know what I'm talking about?"
"When I left Newborn... and ignored your calls."
My hand, which had been tucking the blanket over Gyeon Hajun's head, froze at his murmur.
Before the regression, before Gyeon Hajun stopped speaking to me—before he completely severed our ties—his final words echoed in my mind.
I can't keep holding on out of guilt anymore, really. I've done all I can. You wouldn't understand.
At the time, I didn't know what he meant, but hearing Gyeon Hajun's words now, all the puzzle pieces clicked into place. I was so dumbfounded that a hollow laugh escaped my lips.
I sat up abruptly and threw back the blanket. Glaring down at Gyeon Hajun with sharp eyes, I spat out each word with deliberate force:
"Stop acting like a fucking drama queen all by yourself. I've never resented you for any of that shit. Who the hell do you think you are, painting me as some petty bastard?"
Vulgar language detected.
Original Intent Score -2
Can't you just switch to OFF mode when we're having a serious conversation? Stop making me wince in pain and lose face.
"Don't try to keep me around out of some misplaced sense of guilt. That's just manipulation."
My mood plummeted into the depths. How could it not?
I'd just discovered that the guy I thought was my friend had been keeping me around solely out of guilt over something I hadn't even cared about.
And he was a master of deception.
"So, all the times you took my side and looked out for me—was that just because of your pathetic guilt?"
Gyeon Hajun chuckled at my barbed words.
"Who takes care of someone out of guilt alone, Eden? It's true I feel sorry for you, but don't twist our friendship into something it isn't."
Even after hearing his explanation, I still couldn't understand Gyeon Hajun.
"Why are you apologizing for something so trivial? What does Newborn's shitty behavior have to do with you?"
I flopped back down, staring at the ceiling. Gyeon Hajun replied calmly from beside me, "I've just always felt guilty. It's like you threw away your chance to debut with Newborn and ran away because of me... If I hadn't ignored your calls back then and just told you it was okay..."
The calm in his voice began to crumble.
"Saying sorry to you would mean admitting I ruined your future. I was too scared to say those words..."
The memories of my past life, before my regression, when I was really part of a flop idol group, flooded back.
Even though he must have been struggling himself, he never showed it, instead taking care of me like a mother as I grew quieter and more sensitive.
Gyeon Hajun desperately tried to mediate between Seo Yehyeon and me, even though our relationship was already broken beyond repair.
The guilt Hajun carried back then must have weighed on him more and more as we spiraled downward, to the point where guilt and friendship became inverted.
In our relationship before the regression, there were no true victims. We were both perpetrators and victims to each other.
So now that that history has been erased, now that we haven't yet incurred any debts to each other, isn't this the perfect time to rewrite our predetermined future?
I splashed water on my face and deliberately grumbled lightly.
"After seeing the state KICKS is in, you still want to say that? Don't flatter yourself. I didn't leave because of you. I left because it was clear from the moment they started parachuting people into the Debut Team that there was no hope for it."
"Seriously... One minute you're saying you left because no one could sing the guide vocals for my songs as well as I could, and now this?"
"That was about 30% of the reason."
The tension completely dissolved with that casual remark, like a joke.
The misunderstandings between us and the lingering emotions buried deep down also vanished.
It felt like we had finally unbuttoned the first button we'd fastened wrong and rebuttoned it correctly.
"Then where did that 'guy who abandoned me' thing come from?"
"It's nothing much. I just had a dream about you cutting ties with me about seven years from now."
Gyeon Hajun looked at me with slightly deflated eyes before pulling the blanket over his head and mumbling, "You had a nightmare. It must be the stress from the comeback."
"Well... it wasn't entirely a nightmare. Maybe... and thanks to it, we cleared up some misunderstandings, right? That's all that matters."
"Yeah, you're right..."
Hearing his drowsy reply, I slowly closed my eyes as well.
Just before my eyelids fully closed, a sliver of blue dawn light peeked through the gap in the partially drawn blackout curtains.
📝 Translator’s Note:
You may notice that certain lines or phrases in this novel appear both in their original Korean (or Hanja) form and in English translation.
This is intentional — these phrases are classical idioms, divine titles, or poetic expressions that carry layered meanings.
To preserve their original tone and authenticity, the raw text has been kept for reference, while the English interpretation is provided right before or after it. This helps convey both the literal and cultural nuance of the original work.
but if you guys dont want tha raw for future chapters or my future other novels u can just text me on discord and say so discord name Mr.Penny