Chapter 209: The First Experiment (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 209: The First Experiment (1)
Trying my best to remain calm, I scanned Seo-yeon’s body, lying on the stretcher.
Despite her pained expression, there were no visible signs of external injury.
However… the flow of mana around her was rough and unstable.
Just like her ragged breaths.
I followed the supervisors to the infirmary with anxious steps.
After confirming that a waiting doctor was examining Seo-yeon, who had been placed on a pristine white bed, I questioned one of the supervisors.
“What happened?”
The supervisor looked me up and down with suspicion and asked back.
“Do you know the collapsed applicant?”
Dad.
The word I shouldn’t… no, couldn’t use anymore felt coarse in my mouth.
“Hoo.”
I let it go with a single exhale and stated the relationship that now had to be our new reality.
“We’re a senior and junior from the same university.”
That alone wasn’t enough.
I scrolled through my phone’s album and showed him a picture I had taken with her.
Was it the fourth time, or the fifth?
It was a photo taken with our teammates at a dinner after clearing a dungeon.
“We were on the same team for a year. We all took the exam together, too.”
Only then did the supervisor’s suspicious gaze soften.
“We don’t know the exact circumstances. All we know is that she collapsed not far from the entrance and seemed to be struggling for quite some time.”
“The entrance… you say.”
The entrance. Just the entrance.
Another supervisor added.
“Student Son Seo-yeon was not in good condition from the moment she entered the maze.”
At his words, my frayed nerves snapped, and a surge of my aura shot toward him.
Startled, he flinched before quickly composing himself and shouting.
“…Applicant!”
Ah, damn it.
I gave him a brief bow, offering a sincere apology.
“I’m sorry. I lost control of my emotions for a moment.”
The anger on the supervisor’s face subsided at my genuine apology.
“Given the circumstances, I’ll let it slide.”
“Thank you. But… I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“If she wasn’t well from the moment she entered, why was she only rescued now?”
It was the question that had set me on edge.
If she was unwell from the start, they should have taken action immediately. What the hell were they doing that it took a full day to…
“We tried to take action right away, but the applicant refused.”
“Ah…”
My gaze shifted to Seo-yeon, whose breathing was gradually stabilizing after the doctor administered an injection.
So you were being stubborn, even when you were in such bad shape.
The doctor, having finished his examination, ambled over with his hands in the pockets of his gown.
“Are you all done talking?”
“Ah, yes.”
The doctor jutted his chin at me.
“Are you her guardian?”
“…For now, yes.”
“Then come over here for a moment.”
I followed his gesture, moving to stand before Seo-yeon, who was now sleeping with a much more peaceful expression.
“Um… well, the results of the examination are in.”
The doctor trailed off, scratching the tip of his nose.
Was there something difficult to talk about?
“You can tell me, Doctor.”
At my firm tone, the doctor gave a slight smile and glanced back and forth between me and Seo-yeon.
“Aha, so you’re the boyfriend?”
“That’s… um.”
I could neither deny nor confirm it.
I was worried that if I denied it, he wouldn’t tell me what happened to her, but calling myself her boyfriend was… also a bit much.
“Haha, are you two secretly dating? I get it, I get it. She’s the precious daughter of an important family, so there must be reasons. Right?”
The doctor interpreted my vague response to his own liking.
“Tha—…at’s right, yes.”
Let’s just go with that for now.
“Alright, enough joking around. To tell you the results… it’s hyperventilation due to psychological shock.”
“Hyperventilation… you say?”
“Yes. Something inside the exam site must have triggered Ms. Son Seo-yeon’s trauma. The resulting excessive stress in a short period brought on the hyperventilation.”
The only thing to see inside the fourth exam site was pitch-black darkness… Ah.
A memory from the past struck me like a lightning bolt.
“Anyway… your girlfriend has incredible mental fortitude.”
“……?”
The sudden praise snapped me back to reality, and I looked at him.
“Looking at her condition, the hyperventilation must have started a long time ago. But it seems she tried to endure it and overcome it somehow before it got this bad…”
“……”
Come to think of it, the supervisor did say she wasn’t well from the moment she entered the maze.
The symptoms probably started manifesting back then.
She must have fought to keep breathing, trying to overcome the pain and fear of not being able to get enough air.
And she collapsed while trying to force her body to move with what little breath she managed to gasp.
“Anyway, I’ve given her a sedative, so she should be fine after a good long sleep. Until then, her boyfriend should take good care of her.”
“…Yes, thank you.”
After the doctor left, the sound of her soft, even breathing played lightly over the heavy silence.
I pulled a chair over, sat down, and looked down at Seo-yeon’s peacefully sleeping face.
“So you’re still scared of the dark.”
I thought you’d forgotten all about it, but you hadn’t.
When she was young, Seo-yeon was very frail.
Not just frail, but so weak that I sometimes worried she might actually die.
She was often sick with minor illnesses, her breathing was unstable, and she would throw up if she ate just a little too much…
Back then, Ju-hee and I were obsessed with the single desire to make Seo-yeon healthy.
Because of that, Seo-yeon had to undergo tests almost every day so we could figure out what the problem was.
You know the kind.
Those cylindrical machines you go into for an MRI.
Seo-yeon hated them.
She said the noise of the machine in the pitch-black darkness sounded like a monster coming to eat her.
As a result, Seo-yeon came to despise the dark—or more precisely, being alone in a dark space.
It was so bad she had to sleep between us every night.
“I thought it would end with her childhood…”
After many trials, Seo-yeon’s health improved, and she seemed to be gradually building a tolerance to the dark.
After puberty, when she was in middle and high school, she actually started to prefer being alone, so I thought she had completely forgotten those old memories.
It seems that wasn’t the case.
“D… da…”
A faint sound escaped from Seo-yeon’s lips as she slept soundly.
It didn’t seem like she was waking up… more like she was talking in her sleep.
I leaned in closer, and a familiar word flowed out.
“Dad…”
“……”
I don’t get it.
Why is the girl who refused to even eat a single meal with me now calling for her dad so desperately?
When I craved her attention so much, she never once looked my way. So why now?
I’m angry.
And yet.
“…Yeah. Dad’s right here, Seo-yeon.”
At the same time, my heart ached.
I thought I had no lingering feelings left.
What is it about being a dad?
That one simple word was enough to easily crumble a corner of the wall I had so painstakingly built.
Perhaps mistaking my voice in her sleep for her father’s, her expression grew even more peaceful.
Her sleep-talking, which had been repeating the word “Dad,” also changed.
“Hold… my hand. I’m scared…”
“Okay.”
I gently took her hand, which was fidgeting under the blanket.
A faint but clearly emotional smile formed on her lips.
It was as if she had just obtained a great power capable of defeating anything.
I watched her smile with a sense of warmth, but then my emotions suddenly plummeted.
With my other hand, I took out my smartphone and made a call.
To her other number, one that even I, her husband, hadn't known about.
After a few rings, a familiar voice came through the receiver.
-What is it?
Unbelievable.
Where did she sell off her phone etiquette to just bluntly ask what I want?
Is it because the rose-tinted glasses are off?
I feel like finding fault with every single thing she does.
Well, fine.
Then I have no choice but to be blunt as well.
“Seo-yeon-sunbae has collapsed.”
-…Where are you now?
“The infirmary at the Hunter Association’s exam site. It looks like she’ll need a guardian… Are you coming?”
-I’m on a business trip in the U.S. for a seminar. It would be… difficult for me to go right now.
You’ve really changed.
You used to be the kind of person who would find a way back from the other side of the world if it was about our daughter.
A sharp tone escaped my lips out of sorrow.
“So should I just leave her here?”
-Another guardian will be there soon.
“Another guardian… You mean Hunter Son Si-woo?”
That would be a problem.
This is a bad time for either of us to run into each other.
-No.
That’s a relief, then.
“Then I’ll stay by her side until the guardian you’re sending arrives. Oh, and there’s one more thing I’d like to ask.”
-Haa… What is it?
“Have you lost interest in me? I believe we were supposed to conduct an experiment, but you never called.”
My mind had changed.
Just yesterday, drunk on my sweet new life, I thought it didn’t matter whether I found out why you had changed so much.
But now, I have to know.
Both you and Seo-yeon.
I feel like I won’t be at peace until I uncover every single reason why you’ve both become so hard to understand.
To do that, I have no choice but to turn your attention to me, one way or another.
“If you’re planning on uncovering my secrets through your own personal experiments, I’d like to tell you it’s a waste of time.”
-…You really are arrogant.
“My body holds enough secrets to make my arrogance worth overlooking for someone like you, Tower Lord.”
For a moment, there was no sound from the other end of the line.
The call hadn’t dropped. Was she speechless at my audacity?
Well, that’s not so bad.
“Well… call me whenever you need my help. I’m hanging up now.”
-Wai—
Ah.
It sounded like she was about to say something at the end there.
“Who cares.”
If it was important, she’ll call back.
I put my phone down and looked at Seo-yeon, who was deep in sleep.
The guardian is coming soon, so I should let go of her hand to avoid any misunderstandings.
“Ah… no… hand… give me your hand…”
Suddenly, she started to whimper.
“……”
The seven years of being sexless, our transformation from lovebirds to a mere show-window couple.
If she had whimpered for me like this back then, maybe I wouldn’t have felt so lonely.
Spite grew thick inside me.
Should I just not hold her hand?
And yet, I took her hand as it fumbled about, searching for warmth.
“…Just for today.”
I told myself, using the pathetic excuse that it was just for today.