Chapter 61
"You need to be able to move your body even after opening this door......"
"He's out of his mind. In this state, he can't even grip a doorknob."
Choi Kangshik's face paled.
"I-Is my little brother's condition that bad?"
"He's lost a severe amount of blood. He could go into shock any second."
"Ah, please......"
Professor Kim Yi-hak ignored the uncle's desperate plea and addressed me directly.
"Doctors don't bring the dead back to life. That's a realm even healer Hunters can't touch—it's God's domain."
"An unreasonable request...... Haah, I...... haah...... under...... please, just do it."
"Damn it."
The professor frowned.
"Seo, what's your blood type?"
"The same as yours......"
I barely managed to answer.
"Remember this. This is just a stopgap. No guarantees he'll survive. Cardiac arrest is coming."
"Un...... der...... stood."
The professor rolled up his sleeve and turned to the uncle.
"There's a Defi in the master bedroom. Bring it here."
"De-Defi?"
What the hell was that?
"Defibrillator. Restarts the heart."
"Ah, right!"
Right after the realization hit, Uncle Choi hesitated slightly. He didn't want to leave just me and the professor behind.
But Uncle Choi was quick to judge situations. I'd fought alongside him at Hangju Bridge, so I knew it well.
"I'll be right back!"
The moment he dashed off, the professor pinched Hemo off the door. He squeezed it out like thread and jabbed it into his own forearm and my elbow. A pathway for blood to flow opened right there.
"Hngh."
The professor held his breath, tensing his arm.
"You told me during our first meeting."
"Hah, hah."
"That you wanted to become a doctor for survival."
The world blurred.
"'Growing up in an orphanage as a kid, surviving was the most important thing. Seeing myself and the other kids unable to get treatment when sick made me realize becoming a doctor was the most direct way for me and those around me to live.'"
"......You remember...... well."
"I thought it was such a selfish motivation. A medical professional needs to put on some hypocrisy, but you're too brutally honest. Disqualified as a doctor."
Gurgle, gurgle.
"I've never once thought you'd make a good doctor. A survival-obsessed guy as a physician? Absurd."
Screeech, screeech, screeech!
"......But as a Hunter, that's different."
The first vivid sensation of red droplets seeping into my body through the tube.
"For Hunters, survival is priority one."
"......!!"
"Keep every word you said in my lab. You might die once in this process, but survive somehow."
An overwhelming sense of exhaustion hit me.
"You damn brat."
I finally blacked out.
An Eternal Pact Contract has been formed with Kim Yi-hak!
In cases of transcendent relationships across time and space, even a small blood exchange yields a high absolute value for the Blood Bond.
* * *
Uncle Choi rushed back, dragging the wires dangling from the defibrillator.
"Here!"
"Set it down there...... for a moment."
"Ah, yeah. Okay."
In just a few seconds, the professor looked gaunt. Clearly, he'd given blood to me.
Even amid it all, the eerie noise gnawed at his nerves—like spiders crawling in his brain.
Worried, Uncle Choi approached cautiously, heading to motionless me.
"......Huh?"
His eyes had lost focus. The pupils blurred into the whites like a cataract.
"No way......"
Passed out standing up?
"Little bro, you......"
He was just barely hanging on earlier!
This is straight-up comatose!!
* * *
Hazy.
Dream or reality? The boundary blurred.
I blinked.
In the low-res vision with smeared edges......
I watched my brother's back as he headed to work. He crouched by the shoe rack, tying his laces, and I looked at his hands.
Shoes whose purchase date was forgotten were worn through. But his hands were even more ragged than the soles.
Hyung, Seo Boseok's dream had been to become a veterinarian.
A vet's hands are as vital as a doctor's.
Maybe even more so.
Animal surgeries were simpler than human ones, demanding far more manual work.
Professor Kim Yi-hak always wore gloves outside of sweltering summer days.
But hyung.
"Eat dinner first. I'll be late today."
Those hands that saved countless lives now hauled factory materials. Used solely to support me.
My chest ached. I'd even resented him at times for sacrificing his youth for me, his half-blood brother with only half his blood.
I wondered if he was tormenting me by planting guilt daily, or if he was just marking debts to collect later.
Just hitting adulthood, I was twisted as hell. The orphanage taught me survival, not affection.
Anyway.
Bottom line: no.
Trust builds over time. As shared memories deepened, I realized his devotion was genuine.
"......What about high-paying tutoring gigs?"
Even at a national university, med school was a money pit. Endless practicals. Damn it all.
Plus, weekly exams kept me chained to campus. No time for part-time jobs.
Hyung chuckled dryly at my suggestion.
"Come on, bro. Kids and I don't mix well."
Saying that, he became a dad in his mid-twenties.
I remember his face holding Naeuni for the first time.
Cliché, but he looked like he owned the world.
"Not just that. Gotta kiss up to parents too. I'm no teacher material."
Few homes hired dropouts over current students for tutoring.
Hunters flooded the era too. Studying wasn't the only shortcut. Elite paths narrowed.
"And I'm A-grade on-site?"
"Not even an A-rank Hunter...... Bragging about A-grade on a construction site."
I grumbled pointlessly.
"A-grade anywhere counts. Rest up. Finals are done—take a break."
Hyung left for the site, striding confidently.
I stood blankly by the shoe rack until the sliver of sky-blue light through the door vanished.
Grip.
My knuckles whitened.
"How long...... do I......"
I'd always lived staring at hyung's back. Never brave enough to face him.
Flip.
The page of the past turned softly.
Years slipped by fruitlessly. Finally, I could face hyung's visage I'd avoided.
In the black-and-white photo, Seo Boseok smiled without a shadow.
Even then, I couldn't greet my late brother. Watched from afar like a mourning stone.
Because I lacked the face to see my sister-in-law and Naeuni.
"......"
I looked around.
Thankfully, hyung's funeral hall wasn't empty. Site workers came to pay respects.
They wept openly. Gripped sister-in-law's hand with their grimy ones, gazed pityingly at Naeuni, stroked her hair.
I didn't cry. Couldn't comfort sister-in-law or care for Naeuni. No right, no courage.
I was furious.
Yet I lacked even the power to break this despair.
However.
"Now."
It's different.
Of course, I'm still weak.
Which means room to grow stronger.
Thump!
I'll get stronger. Strong enough to fix everything I lost.
And no more turning from reality.
Thump!
Even if this resolve is hypocrisy, as Professor Kim Yi-hak said.
In this life, I have.
Great One, you face yourself once more.
Open your eyes.
No right to weakness.
I'll do it without being told.
* * *
"......Hngh!"
I bolted upright like my upper body was spring-loaded.
"I, I."
Muttering nonsense drew reactions from around me.
"Ah, little bro! You okay?!"
"Uncle...... Choi......?"
"You're alive! Alive, I tell ya! Uhahaha!"
Uncle Choi bear-hugged me. I choked, coughing. He quickly let go.
"Sorry, sorry. Thought you were really gone."
"Forget the rest— that was a close one. Feels like my ribs cracked."
"Uhaha! Joking around means you're full of vim and vigor!"
"Anyway."
I scanned my body. My top was off, stickers plastered near my heart, hooked to familiar machinery and wires.
"Where's Professor Kim?"
"Ahh. That guy."
Uncle Choi jerked a thumb over his shoulder. There sat Professor Kim Yi-hak on the living room sofa.
I approached. His drained face was ghostly pale. Nearly checked his pulse on instinct.
"Don't treat the living like a corpse, Seo."
The professor squeezed out words.
"......Thank you."
"Didn't do it for thanks. Only Hunter here is you, and saving you saves me."
"Tch, come on."
Uncle Choi chided the professor, but his eyes gleamed with approval.
"Drew a whole pint to save little bro and now you're griping. Spring fever? Just say it straight."
"Manual labor doesn't mean lacking culture, but odds are high, it seems."
"You bastard!"
"In a way, you two suit each other. This one's culture-deficient too."
"Hey hey hey!"
Screeech.
Jangsanbeom's noise clawed my eardrums amid it all. Normally, it'd drown the professor's weary voice in metallic screech.
Grab.
The professor seized my wrist, pulling my face to his ear.
"Seo, you know my personality well."
"Best I do. I suffered under you most."
"Past tense, but in my prime, congressmen and chaebol alike drew numbers to get my surgeries."
I knew.
"Didn't save you out of shallow mentor-disciple sentiment. This debt's on the books. Waking me from my faint doesn't balance it."
"Yes."
I pulled back, face set resolute.
He eyed me steadily, then spoke.
"A way to save my wife."
It was a plea, not a command.
"......If that's a lie, I'll harass you with everything I've got."
I know.
You're clear on rewards and punishments.
"Anyone else, maybe bluff. But you know I mean it."
My gaze drifted to the back of the professor's hand.
Thick veins bulged over wrinkled skin. Ironically, like the man I respected most.
"Of course."
"Then prove it."