Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Her House
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Go home
and bring it back for me, right?
I feel bad asking you to get my medicine.
But I can't go outside, so I don't have a choice.
I need medicine that's more effective than what I have now.
I would've preferred to get it myself without bothering anyone, but you're the one stopping me, Han Si-hoo.
Han Si-hoo hesitated after hearing my words.
"I don't just use the medicine recklessly. If I did, I would've died long ago, and there wouldn't be any left at home."
That means you don't need to put it up high or anything.
Even if it's right in front of me, I'll use it responsibly.
The doctor was even surprised that I had any left.
My self-control is pretty remarkable.
If it weren't, I'd already have had my funeral.
"So please, bring it for me. Okay?"
I kept trying to persuade him.
No matter how I think about it, the more medicine, the better.
It would be a huge problem if I couldn't get it and ran out of what I need.
"I'm completely fine right now. I can stay here quietly by myself."
I added, seeing he looked worried.
The medicine I'm using now is the one provided by the Academy.
Its safety must have been thoroughly verified.
I wonder where they sell it.
"I haven't used any dangerous medicine either."
What would count as dangerous medicine?
The kind that makes me want to kill Han Si-hoo?
That's the kind that gets you killed by the protagonist.
Of course, even that kind of medicine had the advantage of making me feel emotions vividly.
Still, it's too dangerous to use.
I don't even know what it has to do with treatment.
It was a strange medicine, for sure.
Back then, I couldn't control my own body.
It was hard to even control my thoughts.
You can tell by how I hated Han Si-hoo for such a ridiculous reason.
I never thought I'd actually attack Han Si-hoo.
I haven't used any dangerous medicine like that now, so there's no problem.
And I have no intention of using it in the future.
"...Alright. I'll go to your house and get it."
Han Si-hoo agreed.
"Yay."
I'm looking forward to it.
He's really going to bring it.
"I need to check anyway..."
Han Si-hoo muttered.
I don't know what he needs to check, but I'm sure he'll handle it.
As long as he brings the medicine, nothing else matters.
"But before that."
Han Si-hoo continued.
"Hm?"
"Aren't you hungry?"
"A little."
One advantage of the medicine is that I don't get very hungry.
Still, if I skip too many meals, my body gets weak.
I do need to eat.
Come to think of it, I haven't eaten anything proper since yesterday.
It would be weirder if I wasn't hungry.
"I'll make you breakfast."
Han Si-hoo said confidently.
It seemed like he was trying to lighten the mood.
He cleared the paper bag off the table and took out some utensils.
"Breakfast?"
"Yeah."
Was Han Si-hoo a good cook?
There was no mention of his cooking skills in the story.
I thought he always just ate out.
"...It's good."
To get straight to the point, it was better than I expected.
I enjoyed the fried rice Han Si-hoo made.
Is he good at cooking because he's the protagonist?
It's definitely a better meal than the canned tuna I had at my house.
[5 hours, 8 minutes]
Although, I'm confident I can enjoy anything while the medicine is still in effect.
Well, it was a good meal.
At least he didn't put medicine in it like the doctor.
"Is it okay?"
Han Si-hoo asked from beside me.
"Yeah."
I'm smiling, aren't I?
Of course it's okay.
Does it look strange that I'm lost in thought?
This kind of peaceful daily life is nice.
Now, if Han Si-hoo just brings back the medicine, it'll be perfect.
"Here, take this."
I took what Han Si-hoo offered.
"A phone?"
"Something like it. It's just called a device. If anything happens, contact the number saved in here. Or press this button."
I know what this is.
Every Academy student has one.
It's how I was able to contact Han Si-hoo when I was looking for him at the Academy.
"Mm-hm."
I fiddled with the device he gave me.
It doesn't look much different from a smartphone, but I know it has various additional functions.
Han Si-hoo had a separate cell phone besides this device.
It's surprising he can just give one away like this.
"Don't go outside until I get back."
He said in a firm voice.
"We're inside the Academy, so it should be fine, but you never know. For your safety."
"Okay."
I had no intention of going out anyway.
Going out would only make the medicine wear off faster.
"I'll leave one syringe. Use it if you need to, and contact me in an emergency."
I don't know how many syringes I'm supposed to use per day.
It can't hurt to have a spare.
"Okay. Be safe."
I saw him off.
***
After Seo-ah saw him off, Han Si-hoo stepped out of the dormitory door.
Seo-ah's condition seemed to have improved.
He hadn't expected Yeon-hwa to visit.
Thanks to her, he learned that Seo-ah was at least capable of interacting with people.
A gift, she said she received a gift for him.
They weren't that close.
He didn't know what Seo-ah was thinking.
A strange guilt pricked at his chest.
The image of Seo-ah saying, "You have a lot of close friends," came to mind.
Leaving Seo-ah behind weighed on his mind, but he had to check.
If he took the medicine she was using to Lee Yoo-ram, he could find out what it was.
He might even get information that could help with her treatment.
Han Si-hoo walked on, lost in these thoughts.
The air was still cold.
He could see people repairing the Academy from yesterday's attack.
"Is the barrier on that side still under repair?"
"Yes. Clearing out the magical beast corpses is slowing us down."
"An attack on the Academy, what on earth..."
He could hear people talking.
The Academy buildings were heavily damaged due to the massive monster outbreak.
Rumor had it there was a traitor on the inside.
Han Si-hoo recalled the image of the doctor dressed in black.
He remembered Yoo Seo-ah standing with the doctor.
A strange anger rose within him, and he bit his lip.
Han Si-hoo pondered the reason why the doctor had made Seo-ah fight him.
He'd barely slept, worrying about it all night.
In the end, he hadn't reached a conclusion.
There was too little information.
Would there be any clues if he went to Seo-ah's house?
He might be able to find out what had happened with the doctor.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd visited.
"Found it."
The neighborhood where Yoo Seo-ah lived was quiet.
For a slum, it was one of the cleaner areas.
Though "cleaner" still meant shabby.
The house was so dilapidated he wondered if it was the right one.
For some reason, it was in even worse condition than before.
Yoo Seo-ah had always taken good care of her living space.
She was a kid who liked to clean whenever she had free time.
*Creeak.*
The door was open.
It seemed it hadn't been locked in the first place.
"Ah..."
The inside of the house was a complete mess.
Shards of broken glass.
Something was smeared on the walls and floor.
Han Si-hoo carefully pushed the glass shards into a corner with his shoe.
The state of the house was worse than he'd thought.
The Yoo Seo-ah he knew would never have let her house get into this state.
Everything was different from the last time he'd been here.
He flipped the switch to turn on the lights, but it only sparked.
"The lights are broken too?"
A few theories were possible.
A burglar broke in while Yoo Seo-ah was away.
Or Yoo Seo-ah hadn't taken care of the house for a significant amount of time.
Han Si-hoo examined the area in front of the table.
"A bottle of medicine... it's here."
It was a bottle containing a blue liquid.
At least it didn't seem like someone had broken in and taken the medicine.
If he were only here to grant Yoo Seo-ah's request, he could leave now, but the house was too much of a wreck.
He had to find out what had happened.
Just thinking about it conjured several horrifying scenes.
What happened to you, Seo-ah?
*-Thud.*
He set an overturned chair upright.
The more he looked around the house, the more anxious he became.
The only things that seemed to be in order were the medicines.
"A box?"
Han Si-hoo found a white box under the desk.
A plastic box meant for holding medical supplies.
Inside were numerous syringes and disinfectant.
A piece of paper at the bottom of the box had instructions on how to use the syringes.
Other than that, there was nothing special.
Han Si-hoo closed the box.
It was time to search the room next to it.
*-Screeeech.*
The sound of the hinges was unusually loud.
The doorknob to the room was broken.
"Ugh."
Inside the room, a pile of scrap metal, seemingly collected from nearby, was stacked in a corner.
A few rebar rods, a pile of rusty chains, a rope.
"Why on earth is this stuff in the house."
He couldn't even begin to guess what Yoo Seo-ah had used it for.
Maybe Yoo Seo-ah hadn't been the one to use it.
Let's set aside who used it for a moment.
What was it used *on*?
He remembered Yoo Seo-ah saying the doctor used to visit her house.
Then was this the doctor's doing, not Yoo Seo-ah's?
Han Si-hoo felt a headache coming on.
Something was terribly wrong.
"...A mirror?"
It was reflecting light from the stained floor.
Following the trail, he reached the cracked mirror in the bathroom.
A faint, long smear of blood was next to the broken mirror.
"Why?"
Han Si-hoo muttered, looking at the bloodstain on the wall.
What happened here?
The cracked mirror had a piece broken off the edge.
It took Han Si-hoo a long time to properly process what he was seeing.
Even seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn't understand what had happened.
What did Seo-ah do?
Or what was done to her?
*-I got cut.*
*-Why?*
*-I just happened to scratch it on a corner. It's nothing, so you don't need to worry.*
The conversation he'd had with Yoo Seo-ah came to mind.
*Got cut, scratched it on a corner.*
Because of the mirror?
Why?
Because of the medicine?
It was hard to imagine the always-smiling Yoo Seo-ah breaking a mirror on purpose.
Was it the doctor's doing?
If not, a side effect of the medicine?
There were dozens of possibilities.
The surest way would be to go and ask Yoo Seo-ah.
"...Hah."
This is more serious than I thought.
Something is very wrong.
What had Han Si-hoo been doing while all this was happening?
Enjoying his life at the Academy.
Enjoying it.
Yoo Seo-ah had been left unprotected.
Why hadn't he looked after her properly?
He didn't know why he'd just assumed she would be safe somehow.
Of course, it was true that Yoo Seo-ah had pushed him away with hatred.
But regardless of her rejection, he should have checked on her condition somehow.
Han Si-hoo looked at his reflection in the broken mirror.
His expression looked troubled.
He should have thought more.
He shouldn't have assumed Seo-ah would be fine with minimal support.
"Damn it."
He looked around the house a few more times, but no matter how he saw it, it wasn't a place fit for a person to live.
The pile of scrap metal in the room was especially incomprehensible.
The Yoo Seo-ah's house Han Si-hoo remembered had always been well-organized.
To the point where it gave an impression of being cozy and clean.
The gap between the cold present and the cozy past was immense.
"Why..."
Yoo Seo-ah hadn't said anything about the state of her house.
She'd asked him to get the medicine as if there was nothing wrong.
As if she were completely unaware of her house's condition.
Anyone could see the place was a total wreck.
It was a stretch to call this a place where someone lived.
Han Si-hoo sat on a chair and examined the medicine bottle.
About half of the blue liquid remained.
The other half was the amount Yoo Seo-ah had used.
From the beginning, he'd had no intention of taking this back to Yoo Seo-ah as it was.
First, he needed to have it analyzed by Lee Yoo-ram or someone else who could help.
A drawer under the table caught his eye.
*-Click.*
He opened the drawer.
Inside the drawer were a broken hair tie and a black ribbon.
It was definitely the ribbon Han Si-hoo had given her as a gift when she was about ten.
Remembering this, Han Si-hoo took the ribbon.
A gift.
A gift, huh.
In return for the ribbon, Seo-ah had folded him a paper crane.
She'd had a torn origami book she'd found in a junkyard.
The crucial page happened to be torn, resulting in a paper crane that didn't quite look like a crane.
It was a nice gift.
*-Click.*
He opened the drawer next to it as well.
This time, there was a small notebook inside.
Han Si-hoo opened the notebook.
The notebook was filled with Yoo Seo-ah's notes.