Chapter 20: Stay With Me

Ah, it f*cking hurts.

I bit down on the lips that were letting a groan escape and squeezed my eyes shut.

I had hit my knee not on the floor, but on the corner of the side table.

Since it was a spot that had already been recently injured, the pain was severe enough to make my bones ache.

I crouched for a moment, my forehead on the cold floor, clutching my knee.

I wanted to stay down a little longer, but contrary to my will, my upper body was forcibly pulled up.

“Are you okay?”

Hyung, who grabbed my shoulders and lifted me up, made me open my tightly shut eyes.

He forcibly pried open my eyelids to make eye contact and even shook my shoulders.

He must have thought I had fainted.

“Look at me. Are you looking?”

“Yes, yes…. I can see. I can see you clearly.”

I patted Hyung’s arm to let him know I was fully conscious.

Hyung’s stiff legs were splayed out haphazardly, as if he had rushed off the bed.

“Get up. The floor is cold.”

My hand automatically went out at the sight of Hyung’s bare feet on the chilly floor.

Thankfully, I managed to stop my hand just before it touched his foot and looked at Hyung.

I had almost made contact without permission again.

“I’m… perfectly fine.”

I mumbled, feeling intimidated by Hyung’s piercing gaze.

Hyung, who had been scrutinizing my face from my forehead to my eyes, nose, and mouth, didn’t let go of my shoulders even after I had fully sat up.

“Where does it hurt?”

“Nowhere. It doesn’t hurt.”

I quickly shook my head at Hyung’s low voice.

It hurt, but not enough to kill me.

And it seemed there was no problem with the bone this time either.

Just hoping that Hyung would get back on the bed quickly, I fiddled with the cold floor.

I was constantly worried about Hyung’s bare feet, which weren’t even wearing socks.

Hyung, who was carefully examining my arms and legs after my face, didn’t seem to have any intention of moving.

The shoulder he was holding tightly started to hurt a little, so I gently touched the back of his hand.

The moment I tapped the back of his hand, meaning to tell him to loosen his grip a little, my gaze dropped.

“This, why is this…”

I was wondering why the back of Hyung’s hand was wet, but then I saw that bright red blood was streaming down.

Blood drops, flowing down the prominent veins, even formed on his elbow and dripped down.

I blinked rapidly, wondering if I was seeing things.

“Blood…. Hyung, the blood…”

“Are you sure your knee is okay? Can you move?”

“No, your hand, the blood…”

“The IV needle came out. How is your knee?”

IV needle? I tilted my head and examined Hyung’s blood-stained hand, then belatedly noticed the overturned IV stand.

I thought I had knocked something over, and it was the IV stand.

“Hy-Hyung, I’m sorry. I, what should I do about this? There’s so much blood.”

I babbled incoherently, not even knowing what I was saying, and tried to gather the blood on the floor with my hands.

If only I hadn’t grabbed the IV stand when I fell, Hyung wouldn’t have been bleeding.

The IV needles made for Espers were twice as thick as regular needles.

It was only natural for there to be so much blood when such a terrifying needle was suddenly pulled out.

“It hurts, right? Hyung, I’ll go get a doctor. W-Wait.”

I pressed down on the punctured back of his hand and looked around, and a surge of anger welled up.

I was the one who had knocked over Hyung’s IV stand, but the rude guy was the one who had pushed me, so in the end, it was all his fault.

“That son of a b*tch…”

If he was going to throw me, he should have thrown me against a wall.

I moved my head frantically, looking for the rude guy who had made me fall in the direction where the IV stand and guiding machine were.

He had been right in front of me before I fell, but now he was nowhere to be seen.

The tip of my chin, which was shaking back and forth as I searched for the rude guy, was caught by Hyung.

Hyung, who had lightly grabbed my chin instead of my shoulder, said that the rude guy had suddenly disappeared right after I fell.

I let out a short, hollow laugh, then quickly focused back on Hyung’s hand and shifted my bottom.

I tried to call a doctor, but I couldn’t get up because Hyung was holding my chin.

“What are you going to do if he’s right in front of you?”

Hyung didn’t let go of my chin and took out a tissue from the first drawer of the side table.

The sound of the light blue tissue box hitting the floor with a thud coincided with Hyung’s voice.

“Bite him again?”

Hyung let go of my chin after that, but this time my legs wouldn’t move.

It wasn’t because my knee hurt, but because my legs had given out seeing Hyung’s angry expression.

Chul-soo Hyung seemed angry.

Very angry.

“Sit there.”

Hyung, who had pulled out a wad of tissues and wiped my blood-stained hands, pointed to the wheelchair that was pressed right against the wall.

It was in a position where I could reach it if I stretched out my hand.

“Your hand…”

“The bleeding has stopped.”

Chul-soo Hyung showed me the back of his hand, where blood drops were no longer forming, and waited until I sat in the wheelchair.

When I didn’t take my eyes off the back of his hand, he pulled out more tissues and wiped his own hand as well.

Unlike how he had meticulously wiped between my fingers, he just swiped his own hand once or twice with the tissue.

“Hurry up and sit. You said the floor was cold.”

“I’m… fine because I’m wearing socks.”

Hyung, who had crumpled the reddened tissue into a ball, let out a sigh mixed with laughter.

His expression was light, but his exhale was heavy.

“Just listen to the patient. I’m already sad because I’m sick.”

Huh? I immediately got into the wheelchair, seeing Hyung raise his eyebrows as if asking a question.

While I was leaning back deeply in the seat, Hyung stretched out his arm, which was much longer than mine, and released the wheelchair’s brake.

He was sad because he was sick. I couldn’t open my mouth, stuck on Hyung’s last words.

Hyung grabbed the footrests of the wheelchair and pulled it towards him.

Even though Hyung was the patient, it bothered me that I was sitting in the wheelchair while he was sitting on the floor.

But at Hyung’s request to just listen to him, I silently stayed put.

“You made a really loud noise when you fell.”

Hyung, who had grabbed my ankle, slowly rolled up my pant leg.

It seemed he was trying to check my left knee, which had hit the corner of the side table.

“I’m really fine…”

I was so focused on Hyung that it didn’t hurt much anymore.

I had walked just fine when I got up to sit in the wheelchair.

Even at my words that I was fine, Hyung, who showed no reaction, just continued to roll up my pants.

It took some time because they were jeans and didn’t roll up easily.

Hyung, who had slowly rolled up my pants, only opened his mouth again when my knee was revealed.

“Were you hurt before?”

I couldn’t answer easily and looked down at my knee along with Hyung.

On top of the purple bruise from falling two days ago, a new red mark had been added today, making it colorful.

“I just fell on my way home.”

I shrugged as if it were nothing and stroked the bruise.

I even tapped it lightly, saying it didn’t hurt at all even when I touched it like this.

“Straighten your knee.”

But Hyung seemed unconvinced.

I immediately straightened and even bent my knee to emphasize that there was no problem with the bone.

Even though I had no fat or muscle, my bones were on the sturdy side.

They didn’t break or sprain easily unless it was something major.

“Alright. That’s enough.”

Hyung’s expression softened a little at the sight of me kicking and shaking my leg in the air.

My drooping mouth also came back to life along with his.

It was nice that Hyung was worried about me, but I didn’t like it when he worried too much.

“You don’t listen to others well, do you?”

Hyung suddenly asked, looking up at my face intently.

I didn’t deny it and just told the truth.

“I listen if you say it, Hyung.”

The word ‘Hyung’ kept popping out of habit.

Afraid he wouldn’t know who I was talking about, I pointed to him with my fingertip.

Even if I ignored what others said, I listened intently to whatever Hyung said.

Everything, from his unfunny jokes to his overly lewd comments, without exception.

“Will you listen if I say it?”

“Yes. Of course.”

I nodded my head repeatedly at Hyung, who was carefully pulling down my rolled-up pants.

Hyung met my gaze squarely for a moment again and then continued his questions as if to confirm.

“I’m not just asking if you’ll listen. I’m asking if you’ll grant my request.”

“Just say the word. I can grant you anything.”

“Even if I tell you not to come see me?”

That…. I just moved my lips without a sound and swallowed my words.

I had said I could grant him anything, but I couldn’t readily answer his first request.

“I guess you can’t do that one.”

No emotion could be felt in his subsided voice.

I bowed my head, avoiding his calm, unreadable eyes.

The distance I thought had narrowed with Hyung seemed to have widened in an instant, and my bowed head drooped lower and lower.

“I’ll, …I’ll do well.”

I clenched my fists, broke the silence, and rattled off a promise Hyung hadn’t asked for.

Clinging to Hyung who was pushing me away was the best I could do right now.

I can’t just leave the sick Hyung to a guiding machine.

“I won’t make a sound. I can be like I’m not even here. I won’t go near the bed at all and will only sit on the sofa. Or I’ll just stand near the door…”

I gathered my shrinking voice and clenched my fists until my palms turned white.

Tears were about to well up just at the thought of not being able to see Hyung while waiting for his memory, which I didn’t know when would return.

“Just let me see your face.”

I had heard that being frequently exposed to and surrounded by familiar things helps with memory recovery.

During the two days I was away from Hyung, I had lived and breathed searches on amnesia and accident aftereffects.

“B-But… if you don’t want me to, Hyung.”

Everyone had also said to be careful of the patient’s stress.

It meant that for Hyung, it was more necessary to get rid of an uncomfortable presence than to see familiar things.

“I won’t come.”

My voice, which had started to tremble weakly, became a whisper and lingered in my mouth.

Proper words wouldn’t come out because I was holding back my tears.

“Guide-nim.”

To me, who was widening my moist eyes to keep the tears from forming, Chul-soo Hyung said just one thing.

That he wasn’t Hyung, but Kim Chul-soo.