I Saved You
When I lifted my head, I saw a dog burrowing into my chest, trembling all over. A dog?
“…….”
I was so dumbfounded that words failed me.
Every thought that had filled my head only moments ago vanished at once.
With its whimpering and relentless burrowing, the dog was pushing me clean off balance.
“What on earth….”
―Whine….
“Do you have an owner? Where did you come from?”
Was this even a normal dog? No, of course not—it had come flying out of nowhere over there just a minute ago.
I lowered my eyes, swimming with confusion, to the trembling ball of white fur. When I carefully gathered it up and peeled it away from me, I found a pair of glistening, dewy eyes staring back.
Whimper after whimper spilled endlessly from its mouth.
Though the dog was clearly a total stranger, an oddly familiar feeling washed over me.
“……Angae?”
At my quiet murmur, its tail began whipping in every direction at once, as if it had understood me perfectly.
Between eager yips of “Yip! Yip!” it lavished my hand with licks, and I couldn't help sounding a little grudging.
“Is that really you, Angae?”
―Yip!
“……What happened to you?”
Given how the space had brightened the moment the dog appeared, and everything else I'd speculated, the odds were high that it was Angae. But Angae had always appeared in human form—even back when it used to transform into a blackboard, it could still talk—so seeing it act like an actual dog now felt deeply strange.
“Can't you change your appearance?”
―Yip!
“You can't talk either?”
―Whine….
Thankfully, it seemed to understand what I said. It couldn't answer, but whenever I asked a question, it would nod or shake its head.
I had no idea how it had ended up like this, but for now, all I could do was soothe the poor thing as it wept and wept.
My heart ached watching the tears pour down its face.
I'd never petted a dog before, so it felt awkward at first, but after a few strokes, it was no different from touching a person's head.
After stroking it for a long while, the trembling finally stopped, and the dog slowly stretched out its body. A warm ball of fur spread loosely across my lap.
“Sleepy?”
―Whine….
I brushed a hand over its drowsily fluttering eyes, and then a certain detail caught my attention.
“Huh. Just one of your paws is black.”
At my offhand remark, the languidly sprawled dog flinched. It wriggled its right paw up and tucked it away inside my arms.
Not that it helped—looking down from above, I could still see everything.
It was an unexpected reaction, but there was no point pressing a creature that couldn't talk, so I let it be.
After another long stretch of silent petting, the dog began to purr—gurrr, gurrr—and drifted off to sleep.
“…….”
Having done nothing but move my hand diligently, I felt an incongruously drowsy warmth steal over me. I wondered if I was allowed to laze around like this, but then again, there wasn't exactly anything else I could do….
And with that rationalization, I closed my eyes.
“Jinbae!!”
“……You're here.”
Ahn Jinbae, seated on a chair in the corridor, turned his head numbly at Lee Jeonghyeon's call. He must have sprinted over the moment he heard the news—his usually immaculate hair was a complete wreck.
Lee Jeonghyeon had a hundred questions, but he didn't let himself be hasty. Instead, he went first to the woman sitting beside Ahn Jinbae, her face crumpled with grief.
“It's been a while, Director Yu.”
“It has, hasn't it….”
He patted the shoulder of Director Yu of Morin Orphanage, whose eyes were rimmed red as she barely held back her tears, then stepped over to Ahn Jinbae and asked in a low voice.
“What's the situation? With Yeonjae?”
“They say the back of his skull was fractured. Thankfully there's no brain hemorrhage, so the surgery shouldn't take too long—the problem is that he lost so much blood….”
He tried so hard to keep his voice level, but in the end it shook. Lee Jeonghyeon patted the back of Ahn Jinbae as the man covered his face with his hands.
Lee Jeonghyeon tried to hide his own anxiety, but the hand patting that broad back trembled faintly.
“It's my fault. I should have gone to pick him up.”
“How is that your fault? Don't even think like that.”
Lee Jeonghyeon had been driving home after finishing a radio appearance when the call came, and his heart had nearly plummeted through the floor. He'd frantically turned on his phone to check, only to find words like Lee Yeonjae dead and Lee Yeonjae traffic accident trending at the top of the rankings.
Video footage shot at the scene showed a child who seemed to have been sucked under the dump truck, only part of his body visible from the outside. Alongside a pool of blood spreading across the asphalt.
Barely a minute after Lee Jeonghyeon saw it, the video was reported and taken down.
“He'll be okay. Don't worry.”
Lee Jeonghyeon murmured it as if talking to himself.
Several hours must have passed before a doctor with an exhausted face approached them.
“The surgery went smoothly, and we've moved the patient to recovery. He should regain consciousness within a day or two. I'll fill you in on the details a little later—for now, please rest easy.”
At those words, Director Yu sank into her chair as though her strings had been cut. Lee Jeonghyeon was no different.
Ahn Jinbae, who couldn't settle even after the doctor's reassurance and had paced for a long while, only let his expression soften after he laid eyes on Lee Yeonjae lying peacefully in the hospital bed.
The news had apparently leaked, because the front of the hospital was swarming with reporters on the hunt for a story.
Lee Jeonghyeon sent Director Yu off first through his own manager, and then—standing in for Ahn Jinbae, who had stepped away to make calls—took a seat beside Lee Yeonjae.
“Haa….”
A sigh escaped before he could stop it.
Lee Yeonjae lying there looked immaculate, without a single wound on him.
It was hard to believe the doctor's words—that the blood loss had nearly been catastrophic, that if they'd been even a little later, the boy might have slipped into brain death.
As he gazed silently at Lee Yeonjae's face, Ahn Jinbae returned from his call and quietly sat down beside him.
“What's the company saying?”
“That they'll handle the press thoroughly and we shouldn't worry about it.”
“And the kid who shoved Yeonjae? Are they taking care of that too?”
At Lee Jeonghyeon's question, Ahn Jinbae's face crumpled in an instant. Without seeming to realize it himself, a fierce aura rolled off his deeply furrowed brow.
“He said he'd handle that one personally. He's already contacted the family.”
Watching the huge hand clench and unclench over and over, as if the mere thought made his blood boil, Lee Jeonghyeon clicked his tongue inwardly—and then conjured up the image of the little idiot currently sitting in a police station.
Tch. Kid, your life just got ruined.
Lee Jeonghyeon had been planning to mobilize every connection he had to wreck the boy's future himself, but if Ahn Jinbae's family was stepping in, there was hardly any need.
With any luck, the thought will occur to him to emigrate.
Unfortunately, at under fourteen, no sentence could be handed down—but the kid would find it nearly impossible to plant his feet anywhere in Korea from now on.
Lee Jeonghyeon offered a moment of mourning for the brat's future, feeling not the slightest shred of pity.
“You should get some rest too, Actor-nim. I'll call you tomorrow.”
“I'm fine. I'll stay with him. I wouldn't be able to sleep at home anyway.”
The horrific scene from the video was still vivid behind his eyes. It was far better to wait here, checking with his own eyes that Yeonjae was whole.
He'd taken a discreet look online, and the internet was already in an uproar. The boy had been a hot topic since his Mission Clear appearance, and news this extreme—too much even for the stoutest of hearts—had set people ablaze. With no official statement yet released, social media and the community boards were buried under an avalanche of unconfirmed rumors.
Oblivious to the chaos of the outside world, the child slept on in peace. Lee Jeonghyeon slowly smoothed the boy's hair.
“I hope he's having good dreams.”
“……Me too.”
The spacious private room filled with the sighs of two men.
“Yeonjae.”
“……Mm.”
“Yeonjae, wake up.”
I frowned at the sensation of my shoulder being gently shaken. At that, someone carefully smoothed out the crease between my brows.
Just as the soft touch was lulling me back to sleep, I heard a faint “You shouldn't sleep anymore….”
The voice was deeply familiar. The moment I realized who it belonged to, my eyes flew open.
“Dir—ahem. Director Yu?”
Clearing the sleep from my throat with a cough, I answered in a scramble.
Why am I cradled in Director Yu's arms?
My brain short-circuited at the unthinkable situation. The first thought that surfaced—that I mustn't be a nuisance—jolted me upright.
“I'm so sorry. Why am I—”
“Yeonjae. What's wrong?”
I was too flustered to meet her eyes and stammered out an apology, but the Director cut me off. When I lifted my head, I found her wearing an expression every bit as bewildered as mine.
The downcast brows, the helpless air about them—it felt like the Director I knew, and yet….
“……Angae?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Haa, you scared me.”
I really had been startled.
As I let out a long sigh of relief, I sensed the figure before me floundering, unsure what to do with itself. So it really was Angae.
No wonder something had felt off. Angae had a distinctive way of speaking that made it recognizable no matter what form it took, but right now that voice was completely drained of strength, and I hadn't caught it right away.
“This is the first time I've seen you wearing the Director's face. Sorry I didn't recognize you sooner.”
“It's fine….”
“Anyway—was that puppy earlier really you?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Why couldn't you talk, then? You talked fine when you turned into a blackboard that one time.”
I fired off the questions I'd been dying to ask earlier but couldn't. Being able to converse with Angae like this felt strangely wondrous all over again, and a peculiar wave of affection rose up in me, drawing out a laugh that didn't quite fit the situation.
But even to my gently phrased questions, Angae just hemmed and hawed, dodging the answer.
“Well… you see….”
“…?”
That cowering posture was so unlike it. It sat with its neck drawn down into its shoulders like a turtle, as though someone had just chewed it out within an inch of its life.
Watching its eyes flicker faintly, I spoke up carefully.
“Is it something you can't tell me?”
“…….”
The face before me hesitated a moment, then nodded.
I see. Fair enough.
And yet, without warning, my mood sank. I could feel the corners of my mouth stiffening.
Angae froze at my expression, startled—but I was the more startled of the two of us.
Why did this bother me so much?
I closed my eyes and thought it through rationally. Did I have any reason to be angry with Angae over this, or to reproach it? I didn't. No matter how I turned it over, there was nothing remotely justifiable about hardening my face like this.
Therefore, this was an emotion I needed to deal with and dispose of on my own.
I clenched my fist tight and smoothed my expression away as quickly as I could.
“Okay, I understand. Then can I ask why I suddenly ended up here? Am I… dead?”
“No! Why would you be dead! I saved you!”
The moment I asked, forcing a smile, Angae—who had been hovering nervously—shouted out all at once, as if someone had pressed a button.
“Yeonjae isn't dead! I saved you!”
“You did?”
“Yes!!”
Angae, back to its usual manner of speaking, jounced in place and launched into the story.
Its shoulders popped with every word, like a jack-in-the-box. According to Angae, when I left school with Noh Bihyeok, it had been watching me as always when a sudden, uneasy energy began emanating from the Black Stone.
Startled by an energy it had never once felt before, it had frozen in place watching—and then, seemingly spawning out of the Black Stone itself, something sticky and reeking of rot had materialized beside me. The instant it appeared, the misfortune factors scattered on the ground latched onto my body in a heartbeat, and within mere seconds, my misfortune had been reset.
“So you're saying Oh Seunghyun shoving me wasn't part of the scheduled misfortune?”
“No…. It's the first time I've ever seen anything like this, so I was slow to respond. I'm sorry….”
“Why are you apologizing?”
It wasn't Angae's fault this happened, so why apologize?
When I asked back in puzzlement, Angae glanced around nervously and forced out the rest.
And at those words, I could only stare in shock.