Chapter 145
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 145
I was fucked.
My gaze fell unconsciously, landing on my trembling hands gripping the sink.
He said he was leaving, so when the hell did he come back?
Even in a moment like this, my mind was habitually assessing the situation.
Did Kang Yi-chae see the blood? Yes.
Was there an excuse that could fool him? He wasn't the type to fall for it.
What if I told him the truth about the system penalty? I’d just end up with an extra stop at the psych ward.
Knock him out and give him amnesia? I’d probably die first.
‘No matter what I do, I’m going to look like a lunatic….’
The back of my head prickled.
Thinking I had to say something, anything, to clear the air, I turned off the faucet and opened my mouth.
“Yi-chae, first of all…”
Just then, Kang Yi-chae stepped down from the doorway and entered the bathroom.
Splash, splash. The sound of his slippers on the wet floor made my hearing sharpen for no reason.
Ignoring the fact that I had stopped talking and was staring at him, Kang Yi-chae walked over to the toilet, confirmed its contents with his own eyes, and then pressed the lever with his finger.
Whoooosh…
“……”
Once the sound of the flushing water died down, silence descended.
It was painfully obvious he had deliberately cut me off.
“There are a few things I want to check before I call an ambulance.”
Kang Yi-chae’s gaze moved from the toilet to the sink, and finally, to me.
‘What do I do about this?’
Not only had all traces of humor vanished from his face, but though he feigned composure, his eyes glinted.
I could understand him making a fuss over a sick member, but I didn’t think it was something to get this angry about.
‘…Did I cross a line somewhere?’
This was a guy whose speech was half jokes and banter, whose lips had never known a frown. Seeing him like this, I honestly felt a little intimidated myself.
“Do you have some major, untreatable disease?”
“…No.”
“Then do you have some kind of trauma related to hospitals?”
“…Nothing like that, either.”
“Then why?”
Kang Yi-chae’s eyes shot up to meet mine.
“Why are you holed up in here right now?”
A red warning light flashed in my head.
I tried to quickly add something to head off his thoughts.
“Kang Yi-chae, wai—wait a second… Cough. Ahem.”
At that moment, a cough burst out, and the blood I’d been holding in my mouth sprayed forth. The atmosphere in the bathroom grew even colder.
“…It’s, it’s not what you think.”
I squeezed my eyes shut once, then opened them, having sorted out the situation.
I’d already been caught, I had no decent excuse, and this would all be over if I just stalled for a little more time. Since it had come to this, I felt the best course of action was to talk my way out of it as best I could, buy some time, and somehow smooth things over by insisting it was no big deal.
“Sorry for startling you. The truth is, I have a weak stomach. It acts up like this sometimes when I’m tired or not feeling well. I’m already seeing a doctor for it back in Korea.”
“……”
“I’m on medication, too. What if I get another prescription and it has a bad reaction? Besides, it’s not a big deal, so going to the hospital will just lead to a bunch of useless talk, you know?”
Going to the hospital would be a disaster.
Even if I could somehow stop the news from breaking in Korea, the real problem was that while I had the symptoms, my body was perfectly healthy.
One wrong move and a ridiculous rumor could start, painting me as an idol with some unknown, incurable disease, like the protagonist of a drama.
I decided to put as much strength as I could into my hands and act like I was fine.
“……You get it, right, Kang Yi-chae?”
But Kang Yi-chae just stared at me blankly.
“Are you done?”
“……!”
“Then I’m calling now.”
Shit, was he really going to call an ambulance?
I scrambled to grab Kang Yi-chae’s hand as he calmly raised his phone.
My long-winded excuse hadn’t worked at all.
“Hey, wait a minute.”
“What.”
‘Dammit.’
On one hand, I had thought it was a relief that it was Kang Yi-chae.
I’d figured he would be easier to get past than the stubbornly principled Kim Seong-hyeon, who wouldn’t listen to reason; Seong Ji-won, who would ignore me with a smile and drag me to the hospital; or the maknae, Jeong Da-jun, whom I didn’t want to see me in this state.
But looking at him now, I was completely wrong.
‘He’s fucking pissed.’
One of his eyebrows was cocked at an angle, and he was radiating a fierce intensity.
The blood that had gotten on my hand from my earlier cough now stained his wrist.
Knowing it was a cheap trick, I bowed my head anyway.
To escape this situation…
“…Hey, Kang Yi-chae.”
I decided to try an emotional appeal.
“I’m a little hurt. Don’t you trust your hyung? You’re probably just shocked because you’ve never seen this before, but this is more common than you think. If it were serious, I would have been the first one to run to the hospital… Cough! Hack!”
“……”
“…I would have been the first… Urp.”
“……”
“Hk, ugh…”
“……”
But Kang Yi-chae remained expressionless.
Even as my vision blurred and my head spun, I mustered my transcendent mental fortitude and managed to string my words together.
“…I’m fine.”
I even forced myself to swallow the blood pooling in my mouth to appear as composed as possible, but Kang Yi-chae just tilted his head and asked.
“Is this fun?”
Fuck.
I turned my head and spat the remaining blood into the sink.
“You persistent bastard… I’m your hyung. Can’t you just let it slide?”
I wondered how I could get out of this, whether I should faint again, but I immediately deleted that thought. If I did that and really got carted off to the hospital, it would be even more dangerous.
I wanted to ask the system window for help, but of course, there wasn't a peep from it at a time like this.
Kang Yi-chae let out a small sigh and pulled his wrist from my grasp.
“I don’t get it…”
“……”
“The reason I’m even asking you instead of just dragging you to the hospital after seeing this mess is out of respect for you, hyung. I was wondering why someone so sharp would be acting so foolishly.”
The Seo Ho-yun who ate three square meals a day and always had a red ginseng stick in his mouth was this sick but wouldn't go to the hospital. It made him wonder if it was an illness that was beyond a hospital’s help.
But since I’d said that wasn’t the case, Kang Yi-chae had no reason to just stand by and watch me suffer foolishly in a hotel room.
“But the excuse you’re giving me right now is, well, pretty pathetic.”
Kang Yi-chae rubbed the blood on his wrist, then lifted his head to look at me.
“…Hey.”
I took a deep breath.
Enduring the splitting headache, I reached out and snatched the towel hanging next to him.
“I’m not going.”
“……”
I roughly wiped the blood from my mouth.
To be honest, I didn’t understand why he was so pissed off…
‘No.’
That wasn’t what was important right now.
“I understand your position. And honestly, I know it was a pathetic excuse, but if you just leave me alone for about half a day, I’ll get better.”
“…Half a day?” Kang Yi-chae murmured under his breath.
That damn system window. It said I was getting better, but the pain was still washing over me.
My brain wasn’t working anymore, and to calm that crazed bastard down, I decided to reveal the bare minimum of truth.
“Yeah. See? My complexion is already a little better, isn’t it?”
Of course, the mirror still reflected a pale, sickly man.
At my shameless words, Kang Yi-chae ran a hand through his hair, a look of disbelief on his face. In front of him, I spoke with even more brazen conviction.
“If you really want to go to the hospital, then wait half a day… no, just three hours.”
“……”
“You know me well. I don’t do reckless things. So just trust your hyung this once, huh?”
Kang Yi-chae stroked his chin for a moment.
“You’ve got to be…”
His eyes swept over the bloodstains scattered around the bathroom, then landed on me with a wavering gaze.
Just a moment ago, he seemed like he wouldn’t back down an inch, but now, something in the torrent of words I’d just spewed seemed to have caught him, and he softened slightly.
His eyes, filled with suppressed emotion, closed for a second, and a hollow laugh touched his lips.
That’s when I knew.
Whatever happened, Kang Yi-chae was going to listen to me.
“Thanks.”
Thinking I’d somehow managed to smooth things over, I quickly turned to escape the bathroom, but Kang Yi-chae’s eyebrow twitched, and—
SLAM!!
“……!”
…he kicked the bathroom door shut.
“One hour.”
Goosebumps rose on my skin as the wind from the door grazed my nose.
The man who had violently slammed the door shut cocked his head to the right. He already looked like a delinquent, and acting like this, he looked fiercer than anyone.
“Make it one hour.”
“……”
“If you’re not better by then, you’re listening to me, hyung.”
…Could I even get better in an hour?
Ding!
[…If it’s one hour, there’s a 17% chance.]
As if it knew exactly what I was wondering without me having to ask, the system window chimed in with a timely addition.
‘Are you fucking crazy?’
No matter how I thought about it, an hour was too short.
But the atmosphere wasn't right for asking Kang Yi-chae to extend the time, so I just rubbed the back of my neck and grumbled.
“…Use your words, you punk.”
I pushed past Kang Yi-chae and opened the bathroom door again.
After finishing wiping my hands with the towel I was holding, I flopped onto the bed.
‘Dammit…’
I pulled the covers up and briefly replayed the situation in my mind.
‘Kang Yi-chae is terrifying when he’s angry.’
Right now, I’d be lucky if he didn’t just strangle me.
Kang Yi-chae followed me out, dragged a chair over, plopped down next to me, and crossed his arms.
Bzzzt.
[CEO]
As I tried to ignore the heavy silence pressing down on the room, forcing back coughs and rising blood, my phone rang at the perfect time.
As I fumbled for my phone to answer it, Kang Yi-chae snatched it away and tossed it to a corner of the bed.
“……Hey.”
“What.”
“That was a pretty important call…”
As I rolled my eyes toward where the phone had landed, a weariness and cynicism unbefitting a twenty-two-year-old spread across Kang Yi-chae’s cool face.
“The leak? Or the member shake-up?”
“……”
“Does it have to be right now?”
He was telling me he knew everything, from the cigarette incident to the leak.
Stunned for a moment, I wiped my sweaty forehead with my hand and stared at the ceiling as I asked.
“…Yi-chae.”
“……”
“Why are you so pissed off?”
No matter how I thought about it, I just couldn’t understand that part.
“Because I didn’t tell you guys? Because I was sick by myself? Or because I lied earlier? …I just didn’t want to make you worry.”
I added a hint of vulnerability.
It was partly true, after all.
“It’s not like I have a terminal illness, cough… and the person involved is saying he’s fine. You’re getting worked up over nothing when this is going to get better on its own.”
“What?”
“Want me to say it again?”
I threw the towel I’d been using to cover my mouth onto the floor and drove my final point home.
“You’re kind of overreacting right now.”
Kang Yi-chae just stared at me.
“Overreacting?”
And then he spoke.
“My mom acted just like you, hyung. And then she passed away.”
“……!”
“The hyperventilating, I couldn’t not know about that. It’s hard to hide. But the other things were different. She was always smiling when she saw me, so I never knew.”
‘Shit.’
“By the time I found out, it was already over.”
I’d said the wrong thing.
His calm, steady voice made the words pierce even more sharply.
“Does that answer your question about why I’m ‘overreacting’?”
…I was wrong.
I covered my face with both hands and scrubbed at it.
“…Sorry.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.
After a long silence, Kang Yi-chae sighed.
Soon, a soft texture touched my hand. He had placed a new towel in my hand and spoke in a slightly softer voice.
“It’s okay. I was just taking my anger out on you just now.”
“……”
“I’m acting like an ass now, trying to do for you what I couldn’t do back then, so just bear with me.”
“…But, cough… it’s, it’s really not that serious.”
“While you’re coughing?”
I tried a small excuse, but of course, it had no effect on him.
“If Da-jun were in the same situation as you right now, could you say that?”
“……”
“The guy who would have raised hell if Jeong Da-jun acted like you… now that it’s happening to him, he acts like it’s no big deal.”
Every word was a killing blow.
I didn’t even have the strength to argue, so I shut my mouth.
“But I’ll try to understand. I respect whatever you do behind the scenes, hyung. As long as you’re living a healthy and happy life.”
“…That’s how people should live.”
“Right?”
“It’s possible if you have money.”
At my 100% sincere remark, Kang Yi-chae’s eyes softened, and he let out a tiny smile.
“Yeah, if that’s your happiness. I really like this life right now, including Da-jun and the other hyungs. I want to keep doing this.”
“……”
“So let’s do this together for a long, long time, healthy. And don’t be sick in places I don’t know about.”
After saying that, Kang Yi-chae leaned back, resting comfortably against the back of the chair. His expression seemed much more relaxed than before.
“…Yi-chae.”
I couldn’t miss this timing.
Suppressing my chills, I cautiously watched him, about to suggest we extend the time to three hours, when—
“Ah.”
Kang Yi-chae said in a gentle voice.
“46 minutes left.”
“……”
“I should get ready to call a taxi.”
This fucking persistent bastard…
I sincerely regretted not just knocking him out and giving him amnesia from the start.