You're the Bad One (4)
Helping him wasn't hard, but... a vague unease kept me from concentrating all through class. I kept checking my phone for no reason.
Still hasn't read it?
In the end, even after every afternoon lecture had finished, Junhyuk remained completely silent. What had started as irritation at his baffling unread messages had now tipped over into outright foreboding.
He had never been the type to hover over his phone, but his replies had always been razor-sharp. He had never once pulled that asshole move of checking a push notification and answering whenever he felt like it.
Something felt off. I considered skipping home and heading straight to his place, but—
Forget it. What am I, some busybody?
Maybe he lost his phone. Maybe his charger died. There were a hundred reasons he might not be able to answer right away. It wasn't something I needed to worry about.
...I should be putting more distance between us, not acting like I had any right to stick my nose in.
I kept repeating that to myself even as I couldn't stop glancing at my phone, even as I walked past the café we used to frequent and the restaurant where we'd eaten pork cutlets not long ago, thoughts of him trailing after me the whole way.
When I finally reached my front door, I stood there for more than ten minutes debating whether to go check on him. In the end—
"Ugh, why am I always sticking my nose where it doesn't belong?!"
I scolded myself and locked myself inside. Just forget it. Don't think about it.
I sat on the sofa with that resolve, only for my eyes to land on the TV still sitting broken in the corner of the living room.
As if a guy that strong would ever run into real trouble. I muttered the cold words on purpose and crossed my legs.
I was dying of curiosity.
His traces were on the TV. The clock ticking away in this house was one he had bought in the first place. The front door still bore the clear scar of the hole that had once been punched through it, even though it had been fixed. The clothes I had torn while frantically choosing an outfit for a single day with him were still strewn across my room.
There were simply too many of Junhyuk's marks left in this house for me to pretend I didn't care and just get through the day.
I let out a soft sigh and pulled out my phone again. This was truly the last time. One final call, then I would turn the thing off without a shred of regret. It wasn't like anyone else was going to contact me urgently anyway. If I couldn't reach him, there was no point keeping the phone on. Yeah. Obviously.
The dial tone kept ringing. I had no idea how many times I had called today. I had learned with absolute certainty that after the tenth or eleventh ring, the "the person you are calling is unavailable" message would play.
Sure enough, on the eleventh ring I got the same automated voice. The customer is unable to answer the call...
"Argh!"
I hurled the phone onto the sofa. It bounced off the uselessly plush cushions and hit the floor with a solid thud. My heart lurched; I snatched it up in a panic, but thankfully it was fine.
Bzzzt. At the same moment, the phone vibrated in my hand.
"Huh?!"
Incoming call. Yeom Junhyuk.
It was really him!
I swiped my thumb across the screen and immediately unleashed every scolding I had bottled up all day.
"Hey! What the hell have you been doing that you're only calling now? You didn't even read my messages! Oh look, still unread? Why don't you just say you died already? Do you have any idea how many times I called you today? Making people worry like that. Seriously, you—!"
I was pouring it all out when, suddenly—
I felt that Junhyuk's breathing was off, and my mouth snapped shut on its own.
"Hah... hah..."
Intermittent sounds of him biting his lip, as if forcing something down.
"...Hey. Are you hurt?"
The lewd possibility that he might have dialed me by accident while watching something filthy vanished without a trace.
In a voice barely above a whisper, Junhyuk said,
"...Philin."
"Huh?"
"Help me..."
The words left his mouth.
I shot up like a spring and bolted out the door in my uniform, only stopping long enough to shove my feet into sneakers. As if I had been waiting for those exact words from the very beginning. And at the same time—
I should've gone earlier. Busybody or not, I should've just gone and checked!
I chewed on endless regret as I ran.
"You're at home, right? You're home right now?"
"Yeah... home..."
"I'm coming right now!"
I flagged down a taxi at once and started rattling off directions to the driver. The man looked briefly startled when a horned girl climbed in without warning and began barking street names, but he recovered instantly and wove through traffic like a bullet, proving that even if portals had stolen some of their glory, taxi drivers still had their skills.
I was so busy giving directions while keeping Junhyuk on the line that my head was spinning. Yet somehow I managed both—extreme focus letting me guide the driver without a hitch while never letting the call drop. Some instinct screamed that hanging up would be a terrible idea, so I couldn't put the phone down.
"Here?"
"Yes, thank you!"
I had a brief flash of worry that my card would hit its limit at the worst possible moment, but it was baseless. I paid the fare in a rush, scrambled out of the car, and sprinted toward Junhyuk's building.
My lungs burned, but that hardly mattered. The feeling was bad. That prideful guy had actually asked me for help. Maybe he had been toughing out whatever "ordinary trouble" he thought this was, and only now had it gotten bad enough that he finally called.
I raced past the dim playground and into the gloomy entrance of the apartment complex. I pounded on the door, but there was no answer.
"Ugh, what the hell is going on?!"
I fretted, chewing a nail, then wondered if the key I had found last time was the emergency spare and he carried a different one. When I lifted the flowerpot, another cockroach scuttled out, but I brushed it away with my hand almost on reflex.
I grabbed the key and opened the door.
"...You came."
Junhyuk lay collapsed on the floor, lips blue, body trembling violently.
"Yeom Junhyuk!"
This was bad. I charged in without even taking off my shoes and desperately cast healing magic. Thankfully the injuries weren't fatal; even at my level I could quickly identify the type and severity of the damage.
Poison. It would take a little time, but it was well within what I could handle.
"What happened to you? Where were you, what were you doing to end up like this?"
Junhyuk still didn't have the strength to answer; he just lay there in silence. The story could wait. For now, treatment came first. I was about to cast again when—
"...What?"
Lim Sowon? Why was she here?
Sowon looked every bit as bewildered as I felt. I had no idea what she was doing here at this hour, but—
"Perfect timing. Grab some water from the fridge and heat it up. You'll need to boil it in a pot."
"Shouldn't we call emergency services first?"
"This is the guy who toughed it out this far because he hates that. I don't love it either, but I can still handle this."
I understood the suspicion in her eyes. From her perspective it must have looked strange that I had shown up at this hour to take care of him.
But that was a question for later.
Sowon seemed to agree that the urgent problem came first; she quickly dug through the fridge, poured water into a pot, and set it on the stove.
"Anything else?"
"Find him a change of clothes. He'll catch something new wearing these filthy ones."
"Where are they?"
"I don't know. Just look."
I snapped the words without looking back. The laser glare she shot at the back of my head was practically scorching, but—
"What? I really don't know."
Did she think I came over to do his housework? Ridiculous. Sowon rummaged around and eventually produced a pair of pajama pants and a baggy sleeveless T-shirt. As she set them beside me I gave another order.
"Start with the pants. Help him change."
"Excuse me?!"
"What? Why the fuss over taking off pants—"
...I cut myself off mid-sentence, startled.
Damn it. The emergency had me acting like I was still in the military. I wanted to complain that twenty-one months of service with nine of them as squad leader did this to a person, but Sowon would never understand that.
"Calling someone a fuss for being embarrassed about taking off pants... is that it?"
I had walked straight into a massive misunderstanding. The last thing I needed was for her to decide I was some drill instructor who specialized in stripping people—or worse, that I was just that kind of girl.
Junhyuk was the one injured, yet cold sweat was pouring down my back. I scrambled for an explanation and delivered it as casually as I could, pretending everything was normal.
"It's a medical procedure. Changing him into clean clothes to prevent infection."
"...Is that so?"
"Obviously. Contaminated clothes hinder recovery."
Still looking unconvinced, Sowon slowly reached for Junhyuk's waistband. A glance showed her fingertips trembling. On top of that she had her eyes squeezed shut, peering through the tiniest slits while huffing deep breaths like she was about to face something horrific.
...I thought she was a silver fox, but she's a total softie. A snort of laughter almost escaped.
Sowon poured every ounce of her strength into changing Junhyuk's clothes. Once the dirt-and-sweat-caked workout gear was replaced by pajamas and a sleeveless tee, he looked far more comfortable and clean.
His breathing finally evened out and some color returned to his face. I carefully tipped the pre-warmed water into his mouth.
He drank it well. Sowon and I both exhaled in relief at the same time.
"Thank goodness."
"Yeah. You did good."
It hadn't been a true crisis, but with poison, leaving it untreated long enough could have become life-threatening. I was glad he had swallowed his pride and called me, even if it was late.
"He still hasn't regained consciousness."
"He needs to rest until tomorrow at least. Fighting the toxin drained every bit of energy from his body."
Once Junhyuk woke up there would be a mountain of questions. What the hell had he been doing? How had he ended up poisoned like this...? Just thinking about the interrogation already stressed me out.
Of course I also had things to grill Sowon about, but that could wait a little longer.
"It's late. You should head home. I'll take care of him from here."
I decided to send her back. He was a bit more stable, but my healing magic was basically the magical equivalent of a 2G phone, so I would have to stay up all night monitoring him and continuing treatment. There was no need for her to pull an unnecessary night shift.
But—
"Just the two of you... alone?"
Apparently that was unacceptable. Sowon volunteered for night duty herself.
And with the most solemn eyes imaginable.
"Miss Philin. I think you're underestimating me. I know exactly what you're planning to do the moment I'm gone."
"What... am I planning?"
I'm going to treat him. Seriously.
Sowon showed no sign of backing down. She plopped down on the floor and fixed me with a stern warning glare.
"I'll be watching all night, so don't even think about trying anything funny."
I had no idea what misunderstanding she was operating under.
But having one more person around to chat or bicker with to pass the time didn't sound bad to me.
"Fine. Stay the whole night then."
I accepted without hesitation.