NOVEL NEXT chapter 51
Sawon’s eyes were still cold. But the moment Ji Hayeon came into view, the chill melted away like snow under sunlight. Sawon let out a breath.
“Ha… you.”
“…What.”
But Sawon couldn’t continue. Faced with those exhausted, pale eyes, he only swallowed a mouthful of saliva a few times.
“……Forget it. Let’s just get to Medical.”
He started leading Ji Hayeon again.
Just like Mok Geonho had said, the elevator by the Director’s office was bright and open even on the basement level.
Inside the elevator, all the way until they reached the floor with the infirmary, Ji Hayeon kept watching him. More precisely, he was gauging Sawon’s mood. The sight of Ji Hayeon—who looked like he’d be prouder and pricklier than anyone in the world—watching his mood made Sawon deeply uncomfortable.
[Doors opening.]
Clatter. The elevator doors slid open and the two of them stepped out. As they neared the infirmary, it was Sawon who broke the silence first.
“Chief. You know.”
As if he’d been waiting for Sawon to speak, Ji Hayeon answered right away.
“Yeah.”
“I’m still your guard. Are you really okay turning me into someone this incompetent?”
“How are you incompetent…”
“Do you know how many times I’ve had to walk you to Medical with my own hands?”
Normally, Sawon would’ve had to work to keep his mischief from slipping out. Right now, he had to force that mischief up just to cover the anger trying to show through. He tried hard not to put any weight into his tone at the tail end of his words.
“This is basically what Awakened do. All of them.”
Ji Hayeon answered quietly. His voice lacked its usual confidence. Sawon opened the infirmary door and said,
“You know better than anyone that’s bullshit, right? What intellect-type walks around with surgical injuries all the time?”
The medic who greeted them wore an expression that clearly said you two again.
While treating him, the medic shot a glance at Sawon.
“Intellect-type Awakened heal very slowly. You really shouldn’t be coming in hurt like this so often…”
Sawon jerked his chin toward Ji Hayeon.
“See? Apparently this is my fault.”
The medic flapped his hands, flustered.
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
“Just hurry up and treat him. And say one more thing while you’re at it, because this person absolutely refuses to listen.”
Sawon stared so hard at Ji Hayeon on the bed it was like he was trying to burn a hole through him.
“I’m not your kid or anything. What do you mean I don’t listen, I don’t—”
“You just watched me get chewed out and you’re saying that?”
“No, I wasn’t trying to scold anyone…”
Because Sawon kept pressing him, the medic spent the entire treatment sweating bullets. Not that Sawon cared.
“The incompetent guard will be right here watching, so please treat him properly.”
“Y-yes…”
In the end, the medic gave up on trying to explain. Ji Hayeon just stared at his own arm with a sour expression all through the treatment.
***
“Yes, Director. I was just wondering how Hunter Jin Jeonghae is doing.”
While he was making the check-in call, Sawon stayed right beside him, blowing out heavy sighs.
“Haa… if you overdo it like this again and collapse, I’ll become the most incompetent, beyond-incompetent guard in existence. Ahh.”
“…Yes. I’ll come tomorrow.”
In the end, he made him hang up.
It was no different when he tried to go outside.
“There he goes again. Trying to go out when his arms and legs—his whole body—are wrecked, leaving his guard to look incompetent, that intellect-type Awakened Ji Hayeon is trying to go outside all by himself.”
He rattled off that kind of shameless logic until Ji Hayeon’s soul just about left his body. Only after being half-forcibly made to rest for a full day was he finally able to open the door of his quarters. Sawon followed him out and said,
“Even though I’ve become an incompetent person, I can at least shoulder this level of disgrace for the sake of your freedom, Chief. Do you have any idea what kind of feeling that is?”
“Gu Sawon. I’m not going to do anything without you anymore, so please stop saying that.”
“Saying what? ‘Incompetent guard’?”
“That!”
In the end, Ji Hayeon snapped.
Jin Jeonghae had been admitted to a single room.
On yesterday’s call, both Mok Geonho and Director Kim Inhee had said Jin Jeonghae’s condition wasn’t unusual. No strange symptoms, and his body was in the same robust state as always. Even so, there was one thing Ji Hayeon wanted to confirm in person.
On the way to the elevator, Sawon thought back to yesterday.
“But yesterday, that punk Jin Jeonghae really went wild, totally not living up to his name. Was I like that too?”
“No. You just slept quietly.”
“Then does that mean the reaction to the mutated Deater shows up differently in each person?”
“Who knows… I think we should talk to Hunter Jin Jeonghae first.”
The two of them were walking quickly when, a good distance from the elevator, they suddenly stopped.
“Huh…?”
They had naturally headed for the Director’s private elevator. But unlike usual, there was a “Under Maintenance” sign standing in front of it. As they moved closer, a hologram notice projected over the elevator doors came into view.
〈Due to today’s inspection, the elevator will be unavailable from 07:00 to 18:00.〉
“…Let’s take the stairs.”
Without hesitation, Ji Hayeon turned away. If the elevator had stopped for some other reason, there might have been ways to work around it, but there was nothing to be done about scheduled maintenance. Sawon lengthened his stride and fell in step beside him.
“You’re going to walk all the way there in that state?”
Ji Hayeon didn’t answer. Sawon, careful not to make it obvious, rolled his eyes sideways and scanned him up and down. His face looked blank, but the tightly pressed lips and clenched fists gave away his tension. The way his lips would twitch open and shut now and then ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) radiated anxiety.
So he still hasn’t fully recovered?
Sawon pictured the usual Ji Hayeon. Aside from when he was deeply engrossed in something, he often looked like this.
Maybe… it’s just a personality issue?
Even Director Kwon knew he was a handful—his reputation for being difficult was practically public record. But did everyone also know he was constantly this wound-up?
Anyone who watched Ji Hayeon as closely as Sawon did couldn’t possibly miss it. The previous guards probably knew.
Sawon tried to imagine Ji Hayeon being protected by someone else, in someone else’s hands. It didn’t feel particularly pleasant.
Lost in that string of thoughts, he looked up to find they’d already reached the stairs.
Their destination was the infirmary on the 23rd floor. They had to go down sixty floors. It was nothing for Sawon, but not the same for Ji Hayeon. Even so, Ji Hayeon started down the steps.
He hadn’t gone far when sweat began to bead along the back of his neck. Sawon shoved his hands into his pockets.
“Hm…”
What kind of trauma sticks around this hard. Did he ever try to fix it? Did he try and it just didn’t work?
“I told you to take the elevator.”
Maybe he took the muttered sound as irritation, because Ji Hayeon shot back immediately.
In the Central Hunter Bureau, a skyscraper, almost no one took the stairs while leaving dozens of perfectly functional elevators unused. You could almost say literally no one did.
Thinking that the emergency stairwell held only the two of them made Sawon even more curious. He spoke.
“Can I ask you something?”
“What.”
Ji Hayeon’s breathing was getting rougher. To Sawon, his walking pace felt like a snail crawl.
What’s the reason you can’t ride elevators, bad enough to put yourself through this hell.
“Why can’t you ride elevators? What happened?”
Ji Hayeon’s steps slowed even more, then stopped altogether. From ahead on the stairs, his eye level was lower than Sawon’s.
“If you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to. I just want to know.”
Ji Hayeon clenched his fists even tighter. The spaces between his fingers must have gotten damp, because he kept squeezing and releasing his grip.
If he really didn’t want to talk, he would’ve ignored him and just kept going. The fact that he was standing still, hesitating, meant he had at least some intent to tell him.
By now, Sawon had reached the point where he could more or less interpret Ji Hayeon’s small reactions. He stepped closer.
“You can’t live like this forever. Everywhere we go is high-rise buildings. You’re planning to take the stairs every time?”
Right now, he was here. But what if he wasn’t—what if Ji Hayeon was moving alone, slipped on the stairs, and went tumbling down. Or his legs could just give out and he’d collapse mid-step.
Scenario after scenario of things that could go wrong if Ji Hayeon was alone unfolded in his mind. Ji Hayeon stared straight into his eyes, then dropped his gaze and turned away.
“When I was a kid… I got trapped in a collapsed building. It’s been like this since then.”
He started walking again. Clack, clack. His footsteps echoed through the emergency stairwell.
“So it’s like that in all cramped spaces?”
“Most of them. Other places are a lot better now, but elevators… are still a bit hard.”
“Did you ever try getting treatment? Going to a hospital, trying things?”
“There’s nothing I haven’t tried. I’m on meds, I’ve had therapy, I’ve done counseling, I’ve had Metena purification. None of it worked.”
Sawon thought of the way Ji Hayeon took his pills in secret every night. Or, more accurately, how he thought he was being sneaky, when it was obvious to Sawon.
I thought it was some kind of Metena booster. So it was a different kind of drug, huh.
“Was there any difference before and after all that?”
“…No.”
Sawon sank into thought.
The treatment didn’t take…?
But there was one method he knew for sure had worked. That shock method from when they infiltrated the research institute. He asked,
“But wasn’t it okay that time?”
“When.”
“When we infiltrated the institute. When you kissed me.”
Ji Hayeon’s shoulders jerked. Even from behind, it was easy to picture the look on his face.
“That, that time, it… was just because I was so shocked.”
“…Yeah?”
So it had worked, hadn’t it.
Shock therapy, by definition, was about provoking something unexpected and getting a good effect as a kind of lucky hit. But if that reaction had come from kissing him, didn’t that mean it was worth trying again?
Sawon caught Ji Hayeon’s arm and stopped him.
“Chief.”