Chapter 10: Scars That Speak

“Ha…….”

In an instant, Su-yeong lost her strength.
She dropped him heavily onto the floor just before he could slip from her grasp, then crouched down in front of him.
She shook his shoulder again.

“Team Leader, Team Leader Baek Si-eon.
Please wake up.”

But a man who hadn’t woken up until now wasn’t about to open his eyes at this point.

‘You can just leave him in front of the door!
Well, once he wakes up, he’ll go in on his own!’

Remembering what Officer Woo had said, Su-yeong frowned as she stared down at him.
Letting out a sigh that sounded almost like a lament, she stood up.
She had done what she was supposed to do.
At this point, she told herself, it was enough.

Brushing her hair back from her face, she spoke through clenched teeth.

“I brought you here.”

Her gaze narrowed slightly as she looked down at him one last time.
Turning back toward the elevator, Su-yeong pressed the down button repeatedly.
The closed elevator doors slid open, and she stepped inside.
Moments later, the doors slammed shut.

“…….”

But with no destination set, the machine didn’t move.

“Ah…….”

If the weather weren’t like this, she would have left him and gone.
Even indoors, sleeping outside would be too cold tonight.
And in such a drunken state, his body temperature would drop rapidly.

And more than anything—

‘Was he worried about me, not saying it out of annoyance?’

‘……It wasn’t worry.’

‘Then was he thanking me?’

He was the man who had saved her from danger.

In the end, she reopened the elevator doors.

Click, click.

The sound of her heels stopped in front of him.
Su-yeong looked down at her hand, still covered with a bandage.

Soon, she leaned forward and struggled to pull him up.
When she boarded the elevator again, she set the destination to the 16th floor—her own.

Beep.
Beep.
Beep-beep.

With the mechanical sound signaling that the lock had been released, she slowly nudged the heavy door open with her foot.
As she dragged him into the entryway, the motion-sensor light flicked on brightly.

“Ah…… ugh.”

Using every last bit of strength she had, she hauled him inside and laid him down on the bed.
Seeing how his large frame nearly filled it completely, she let out a rough breath.

“They say if you’re not smart, your body suffers…
Guess they were talking about me.”

If this was how it was going to end, she should’ve just gone up to the 28th floor in the first place.
At least then, it wouldn’t have been this exhausting.

Su-yeong pressed her palm firmly against her damp forehead.

After taking a moment to steady her breathing, she reached for Si-eon’s shoes.
She forcibly pulled them off and tossed them carelessly into the entryway, then headed for the kitchen, her throat dry.

She washed her hands thoroughly and opened the refrigerator, taking out a small bottle of water.
She twisted the cap off and gulped it down.

Only then did she feel somewhat alive again.
She slipped off the jacket she was wearing and, holding the half-empty bottle, trudged forward.

Stopping in front of the wide-open bedroom door, she saw Si-eon still asleep exactly as she had left him.

“Ha…….”

Letting out another long breath, Su-yeong decided she needed to shower first and headed for the bathroom.

Shaaah—

She stood beneath the stream of water, cooling her overheated body as though she had just exercised.
Then she checked the tightly closed door.

“…….”

Come to think of it, this was the first time she had ever let a man into her home.
Granted, he was unconscious and incapable of doing anything—and their relationship was one in which nothing like that could ever happen.

Su-yeong let out a breathless laugh and tilted her head back into the falling water.

Click.

After finishing her shower, Su-yeong pressed a towel firmly against her wet hair.
Then her gaze landed on the bottle of water she had left sitting out earlier.

After a brief moment of hesitation, she put the towel down and took another bottle of water from the refrigerator.
She also grabbed the first-aid kit from the living room cabinet and headed toward the bedroom.

And then—

“……!”

The man she had assumed would still be sleeping exactly as she left him looked different now.

At some point, he had taken off his shirt, leaving his upper body completely exposed.
Startled, Su-yeong hurriedly dropped her gaze.

Clearing her throat for no reason, she quickened her steps toward the bed.
She placed the water bottle on the bedside table so he could drink it when he woke up.

She turned to leave with the first-aid kit in hand—then stopped.

After a moment of hesitation, Su-yeong returned to the bed and carefully sat down.

Since the injury was still recent, it was better to disinfect it regularly.
She opened the kit resting on her thigh and took out antiseptic and cotton.

Gently peeling off the bandage stuck to her palm, the stitched wound was revealed.
She glanced at him.
He seemed to be sleeping deeply enough that she could touch him without him noticing.

‘He used to be an athlete, right.
He even made the national team.’

‘The national team?’

‘Yeah.
Judo.
National team.’

Given his size, she had already imagined what his body might look like beneath his clothes.
But seeing it directly now, she couldn’t help but think it was nearly perfect.

They said he had once been a promising judo athlete as a child.
His broad shoulders and well-defined muscles seemed to prove it.

Still, it felt like a body that couldn’t be built through training alone.
More like something he had been born with—something fundamentally different from others.

Her gaze moved slowly along the sharply defined muscles, then stopped.

‘They said he retired after an accident not long after being selected for the national team.
Something about a serious shoulder injury, I think…….’

A player talented enough to become the youngest national representative wouldn’t retire overnight without a major reason.
Yet the details of the accident that led to his retirement had never been made public.

“…….”

Frowning slightly, Su-yeong stared at the dark scar left on his broad shoulder.

“…Was he stabbed?”

True to her years as a detective in the violent crimes division, she was familiar with injuries of all kinds.
But what struck her as strange was that the other scars scattered across his body matched the one on his shoulder.

Every wound had been made by the same weapon.
They weren’t the result of an accident or surgery.
They were stab wounds.

That was why she knew immediately.

These scars were the reason he had given up being a national athlete.

“One, two…….”

And there wasn’t just one.
She could roughly guess what he had gone through.

Crime.

It meant he had once been involved in a criminal incident.

Everyone had their own story, but he didn’t seem like someone who would ever get caught up in something like that.
That was why she found herself curious.
What had happened to him?

But Su-yeong lowered her gaze.

“…What good would it do for me to know?”

Unless he was a suspect in a violent crime, it wasn’t her place to pry into someone else’s past.
Her own story was more than enough to bear.

Shaking her head lightly as if to dispel the thoughts, she gently dabbed the scar with cotton soaked in antiseptic.
Then she placed a fresh bandage over it.

She turned his palm comfortably upward and stood.

“…….”

She glanced down at the man sleeping in her bed.
Biting her lip, Su-yeong took a short breath and left the room.

She set the first-aid kit down at the corner of the table and collapsed onto the sofa.
Telling herself not to pay attention to things she shouldn’t, she picked up one of the scattered documents.

Rustle.

Flipping through the papers, she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to erase the lingering image of those scars—then opened them again.

Rustle.

The faint sound of movement made his thick brows knit together.
Before he even opened his eyes, his senses began to wake one by one.

Perhaps because of the alcohol, his head felt like it was splitting apart.

Pressing a large hand against his temple, Si-eon opened his eyes.

“Ha, shit…….”

Blinking several times, the blurred focus gradually cleared.
He was staring up at a stark white ceiling.
When he turned his head to the side, his eyes widened far beyond their usual size.

Startled, he bolted upright, then grabbed his forehead as pain surged.

Squeezing his eyes shut once more, then opening them again, he quickly scanned the unfamiliar space.

– “A forty-seven-year-old man identified as Mr. Jo was found dead in an apartment in Jegi-dong, Dongdaemun District.”

– “Based on the suicide note found at the scene, police believe the deceased took his own life after falling into despair……”

– “The deceased, Mr. Jo, was a member of the Saecheonmyeong Defectors’ Alliance, which filed charges against cult leader Lee Young-se, who received a decision of no indictment last month……”

He remembered watching that news report.
He remembered downing beer after beer afterward.

But he had no idea how much more he’d drunk after that.
Nor did he know where he was now.

One thing was certain.

This was not the home of any of his team members.