Chapter 66
Chapter 66
A Small Guest
“The hospital probably won’t be able to figure it out.”
Jin Su-ho looked like he had many questions, but he didn’t ask any of them, instead keeping watch outside in case someone came. Looking at his back, Yu Yeon-seo re-evaluated his opinion of the man.
‘He’s a pretty good person.’
Even without knowing the full story, he had helped. Yeon-seo decided he would have to thank him later, whether with money or a gift.
“Anyway, thank you. I’ll repay you later.”
“I don’t need you to repay me… but can I really just ask one thing?”
“…If it’s a question I can answer.”
Seeing Yeon-seo’s guarded expression at the mention of a question, Jin Su-ho spoke.
“Do your family members really not know about your condition? Are you worried they’ll be concerned?”
“Well… that’s part of the reason, I suppose.”
Jin Su-ho stared at him intently. Both in ‘Dreaming’ and now, there was something strange about Yu Yeon-seo. He seemed flexible yet stubborn, emotionally lacking in some ways yet highly sensitive in others.
“You have a strange way of talking, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“You talk about your own problems like they belong to someone else.”
Yu Yeon-seo flinched but didn’t let it show. Come to think of it, he’d heard something similar before… wasn’t he told that he was bad at being ‘ordinary’?
“Still, you should tell your family. Who knows what might happen to you.”
“I wonder…”
First off, telling his parents, the doting Yu Geon-min and Choi Yu-jin? All hell would break loose. He couldn’t even fathom how much they would coddle him. His grandfather would probably tell him to quit acting and help with the company while getting treatment. His grandmother? Would she even genuinely worry about her grandson?
And his brother… he was the most reasonable person to confide in, but was there really a need to tell him?
“Your family should know. Or a friend…”
“What would change if I told them?”
“They could help you, like I did.”
“That’s because you’re a complete stranger to me.”
Jin Su-ho chuckled.
“I don’t know, weren’t we kind of friends?”
“Well… I guess you’re an older guy I know.”
“That’s basically a friend.”
“Is it?”
Yu Yeon-seo, who had been sitting down, got up and scuffed his foot over the spot on the ground where he had coughed up blood. Thankfully, it was a dirt floor, so it was easy enough to cover up without tissues.
“Anyway, think about it. I think it’s better than keeping it all to yourself.”
Did Yu Yeon-seo already know about his illness and say the hospital couldn’t figure it out because he knew it was incurable? Jin Su-ho wondered. That might be why he seemed so resigned…
With his rich sensitivity and vivid imagination, which made acting his calling, Jin Su-ho couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for Yu Yeon-seo—a man who had so much, yet had witnessed his mother’s tragedy at a young age and now carried an unknown illness all alone.
“I’ll see.”
The reality, however, was slightly different.
Yu Yeon-seo frowned. Jin Su-ho’s advice wasn’t useless, but his condition wasn’t unbearable yet, so he didn’t feel the need to follow it.
“But why are you worried about me?”
“Wouldn’t anyone be worried if they saw someone coughing up blood? Especially if it’s someone who’s practically a friend.”
“Really?”
Hmm… so Jin Su-ho was a busybody. In any case, it was a relief that the situation was resolved without much fuss. They left the warehouse and rejoined the other cast members.
‘The hallucination… is gone.’
When asked where he’d gone, he just laughed it off.
‘Come to think of it…’
That question, doubting his mother’s suicide. The real Yu Yeon-seo did confide in someone. He just didn’t know who that someone was…
‘This is practically pushing me to continue the memory synchronization.’
Even after coughing up blood, the headache wouldn’t go away.
“Yeon-seo, you rushed off somewhere earlier… did something happen?”
“I’m fine.”
The PD didn’t press further, recalling CEO Han’s words: ‘Whatever he does, don’t bother him by prying too much.’
Having navigated the second hallucination without much trouble, Yu Yeon-seo lay down in bed and fell into a deep sleep. That is, until dawn, when a sense of discomfort woke him up.
“…”
On the ceiling by his feet, two legs and a white skirt swayed limply.
Instantly drenched in a cold sweat, Yu Yeon-seo fought back a wave of nausea and stumbled to the bathroom. He turned on the shower to mask the sound of his retching.
He now understood why the real Yu Yeon-seo never went to a hospital.
‘This isn’t something a hospital can fix.’
A hallucination this vivid… it made his body freeze on sight. Would counseling really help? Medication? He’d be lucky if he didn’t get addicted.
‘Was it already too late?’
Even if he stopped the memory synchronization now, could he prevent the hallucinations that were yet to come?
‘Beta, what do you think?’
<If you wish to resolve this, the only way seems to be to increase the synchronization rate to understand the fundamental cause of the real Yu Yeon-seo’s trauma and solve the problem.>
Beta repeated its advice from the first hallucination, word for word.
‘I know the cause.’
Lee Hui-seo’s suicide or murder.
[Do you really think Mom committed suicide?]
If so, if he could resolve the real Yu Yeon-seo’s suspicions… would this all end?
‘Ah… damn it.’
He was well and truly caught up in something troublesome.
“Did you not get any sleep?”
“Do I look like it?”
Yu Yeon-seo turned around, a knife still in his hand. At the menacing sight, Kim I-jun took a step back.
“Hey, hey… put the knife down.”
“Ah… sorry.”
He dazedly lowered the knife. Looking clearly unwell, Park Seung-hwan gave Yu Yeon-seo a push on the back. Yeon-seo, who usually wouldn’t budge from such a push, swayed like paper today.
“Yeon-seo, you’re done for the day, go get some rest. Just help out later when the guests arrive.”
“Okay.”
Yu Yeon-seo pressed his fingers against his eyes and headed outside. He hadn’t been able to sleep properly.
‘I have to accept it.’
The hallucinations would continue, and each time, his body would scream in protest. He couldn’t live like this until he died.
‘If I stop the memory synchronization now, isn’t that just running away?’
He had to face it head-on and find a solution. His uncontrollable body was a concern, but the mind of Kang Jin-hu, who had been through it all, still remained. He would manage somehow.
As he lay in the hammock, eyes closed and lost in thought, he felt someone touch his arm. A child, about five or six years old, was observing his face with curiosity.
“Hello.”
When Yu Yeon-seo waved, the child smiled shyly and waved back.
“Do you speak English?”
The child shook his head.
“Spanish, then?”
The child shook his head again. Yu Yeon-seo tried a few other languages, but the child didn’t understand any of them.
‘They did say this island has its own language, right…?’
Since he didn’t know it either, he gave up and lay back in the hammock. The child kept sneaking glances at him, as if fascinated by his face.
When he sat up abruptly, the child flinched. The child watched with a hint of disappointment as he went inside without a word, then lowered his head and began drawing in the sand with his finger.
“Hey.”
The child jumped in surprise at the cold sensation on his cheek and turned around.
“Want some ice cream?”
The child beamed and accepted the ice cream. The bright smile lifted Yu Yeon-seo’s spirits a little.
“Hey! Hyung! The soup is boiling over!”
“I think our vacuum cleaner is broken?”
“Hey! Don’t touch that!”
Sounds of crashing and someone’s scream came from inside, but Yu Yeon-seo just sat side-by-side with the child, eating ice cream.
“The weather’s nice.”
He could guess without looking that Kim I-jun or Choi Jun-yeong had caused some kind of trouble.
“What’s your name? No, that’s not right.”
Yu Yeon-seo pointed at himself with his hand.
“Yeon-seo.”
After he repeated it a few times, the child finally said his name. The child then pointed to himself and said his name was Raul.
“What’s this, a kid?”
“He must be from around here. You got kicked out again, hyung?”
“I think my hands conduct electricity.”
Choi Jun-yeong, who had been kicked out for breaking something, startled the child with his exaggerated gestures. Even though they couldn’t speak the same language, they communicated with the child through body language.
And so, when they weren’t receiving guests at the guest house, they spent their free time playing with the child, Raul.
Around sunset, two people who looked like his parents approached. From their frantic expressions, it seemed they had been looking for him.
“Did our child cause you any trouble?”
“No, not at all. We all had a lot of fun thanks to Raul.”
At Yu Yeon-seo’s words, the parents’ tense shoulders relaxed slightly. Raul’s mother sold souvenirs to tourists, so she could speak English. His father, she said, worked at a construction site.
Thinking they could get some good footage from the cast members playing with the child, the production team offered to watch the kid if he came by, asking for permission to film it.
“Would that be alright?”
Raul also excitedly asked if he could keep coming here to play, which suggested he wasn’t being mistreated. The parents, who had been worried about leaving their child alone, thought it was a great idea and nodded.
“Please don’t feel burdened. We’re doing this for the show… we’ll also pay a fee for your child’s appearance.”
“Thank you.”
After that, whenever his parents left for work, Raul would visit the ‘Today’ guest house. Not just Yu Yeon-seo, but the other cast members also played with the child whenever they had free time.
“This looks great.”
The PD nodded in satisfaction. Raul, with his bright, alert eyes, was lively and full of laughter. He reminded the PD of a popular child from a parenting variety show, and he could already sense the program’s success.
Raul learned to draw from Lee Yun-jeong and sang songs with Choi Jun-yeong.
“You want to help?”
And without being asked, he would try to help with chores. Raul waddled after Jin Su-ho, carrying a laundry basket. He looked like a little penguin, and everyone burst out laughing.
“Wanna give it a try?”
The child grunted and groaned but didn’t give up trying to help hang the blankets, and the cast members watched with fond smiles, letting him do it on his own.
The production team, having procured them from somewhere, pinned a badge with the ‘Today’ guest house logo onto Raul’s clothes. Raul was so happy he jumped up and down.
“Look over there.”
Yu Yeon-seo also came out to see the child whenever he had a spare moment. A writer, noticing the smile on his lips, struck up a conversation.
“Yeon-seo, you seem to like kids.”
“Kids are cute, aren’t they?”
Even after that, the hallucination of Lee Hui-seo appeared intermittently. Each time, Yu Yeon-seo had to struggle to control his unruly body and spit out blood in secret.
“Writer, does a child’s laughter always make you feel this good?”
“It depends on the person, but I’m feeling good. It feels… healing?”
After a sleepless night, seeing Raul’s innocent laughter felt like it restored some of his frayed mental state.
And so, time at the ‘Today’ guest house passed peacefully.
“This is the best, when nothing happens.”
“And Raul is so cute.”
“That’s right.”
Just as their filming—filled with interactions with various guests and time spent with the adorable Raul—was nearing its end, disaster struck.
“Hyung! Nuna! Somebody come here!”
Kim I-jun’s voice, different from his usual tone, woke the cast members.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“The kid… something’s wrong with Raul.”
“What?”
At the shocking news, everyone rushed after Kim I-jun. Lying on the living room sofa, Raul was clutching his stomach and groaning.
“He has a really high fever.”
After checking the child’s temperature, Yu Yeon-seo snapped his head around.
“Where’s our medical team?”
“The PD went to get them.”
Remembering a small clinic he had seen on his way to the morning market, Yu Yeon-seo was about to stand up when Raul grabbed his hand as if to stop him.
“What do we do…”
As everyone stood frozen, unsure of what to do while waiting for the PD, Lee Yun-jeong’s desperate voice cut through the air.