Chapter 88: The Weight of Concern

“Kang Wooju-ssi shielded you. You got a bit hurt because of that, so how could you……”

“H-hyung.”

Jitae hurriedly grabbed Suhan’s arm. Looking down at his own trembling hands, Suhan’s eyes widened.

“Wooju is… Wooju, where is he right now? Huh? Where, how much……”

“…He was getting treated right next to you earlier… but it didn’t seem that serious……”

Before Suhan could even finish his sentence, Jitae bolted up from the bed. Ignoring the shouts coming from behind, he went to the adjacent hospital bed and pulled back the curtain.

But it was empty. Jitae gritted his teeth and ran straight to the emergency room entrance. He didn’t know where he was going, but his body just moved on its own.

As the automatic doors opened, he saw the hallway leading outside. And there, Jitae stopped dead in his tracks. He saw Wooju standing on one side of the hallway.

“Yeah, I’ll send it to you by text.”

Wooju, who had been on the phone, froze the moment he spotted Jitae, who had burst out of the emergency room in a panic.

“…Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Jitae’s eyes darted around busily. He looked at Wooju’s face and then slowly lowered his gaze.

The moment he saw the bandage wrapped around his left arm and the blood splattered on his sleeve, he felt a ringing in his ears and a sensation as if something had snapped.

His mouth went bone-dry, and though it made no sense, he felt a phantom pain in his right shoulder.

“Hey! Won Jitae! Why didn’t you answer when I called you!”

Perhaps that was why he hadn’t noticed Wooju approaching him. Wooju shouted and grabbed Jitae’s face, pulling it up.

The hand that touched his cheek was cold. No, was it his own skin that was cold? With a chilling sensation settling at the back of his neck, Jitae found it hard to even breathe properly.

Jitae had always thought it was good to be with Wooju, to face him, and to touch him, but right now, he was just terrified. When he first heard it from his manager, he had thought it couldn’t be true.

That his hyung must have misunderstood, that Wooju couldn’t possibly be hurt. Yet, the white bandage that kept catching his eye was providing a more powerful confirmation than anything else ever could.

“Are you already allowed to be up? You don’t look well yet.”

Wooju was asking urgently while scanning Jitae up and down. Since Jitae had suddenly run out and was standing there like a soul-less person without saying a word, it was only natural for him to be worried.

“Arm…….”

Jitae grabbed Wooju’s hand, which had been resting on his face, and pulled it down. He slowly traced the bandage wrapped around his left arm. Perhaps sensing that his trembling hands were abnormal, Wooju’s brow slowly furrowed.

“Hey…….”

“You shouldn’t have… you shouldn’t have gotten hurt…….”

Jitae began to mutter the same words distractedly, as if he had fallen into a panic. There was no focus in his eyes. His lips were turned blue, and the areas under his eyes were sunken and haggard.

Wooju parted his lips in surprise. Jitae’s current state didn’t seem to be just because he was physically ill.

“You shouldn’t have gotten hurt… if you end up like me…….”

Jitae gasped heavily, as if he were on the verge of hyperventilating.

Wooju grew anxious along with him. He was genuinely worried that something terrible might happen to a guy who was already sick and had collapsed. Should he call a doctor from inside?

But for some reason, he felt he shouldn’t leave this spot. After a moment of hesitation, Wooju firmly clasped Jitae’s trembling hands. Then, he pulled Jitae into his arms.

“Jitae-ya, it’s okay.”

Wooju wrapped his arms around Jitae and squeezed him tight as if to embrace his entire body.

He didn’t know the reason why, but Wooju shared his warmth without hesitation, as if to convey all his heart—telling him not to be anxious anymore, not to tremble.

He still hated Won Jitae, and he had been hurt by his incomprehensible behavior, but just for this moment, he didn’t want him to be in pain. He didn’t want him to tremble in agony.

“Everything is fine. Just calm down for a second. Okay?”

Whether it was because he found stability within Wooju’s solid arms, the trembling slowly stopped, and Wooju could feel Jitae’s breathing return to normal.

Wooju took the now-calmed Won Jitae back to the emergency room. After getting an earful from the nurse, his manager left to handle the admission procedures.

“My injury isn’t a big deal.”

With no one else around and only the two of them left, Wooju slowly began to explain. In any case, it seemed Jitae had a huge misunderstanding, so he had to clear it up quickly.

“I just got scratched by a box. But the staff members who accompanied me and Dongha to check on the situation made such a fuss that I got treated a bit excessively.”

Only then did Jitae lift his head.

“Really……?”

“Yeah. If you don’t believe me, want me to show you?”

As Wooju made a move as if to unwrap the bandage, Jitae stopped him, saying it was enough.

“And is this the time to worry about me? You heard the doctor, didn’t you?”

“I’m fine, too.”

After hearing Wooju’s explanation, Jitae let out a deep sigh of relief. At the same time, the words that followed were enough to make Wooju feel utterly bewildered.

“A grown man ending up with a body near starvation and you say you’re ‘fine’? Did you lose your mind?”

Wooju shouted. Although he had acted fine to calm Jitae down, Wooju’s own hand, which he had lowered below the chair, was still trembling slightly. The sight of Jitae collapsing still hadn’t left his mind.

The moment he saw that, he couldn’t breathe. He had learned for the first time what it meant to have one’s mind go completely blank. And yet, the fact that the person involved was saying he was fine made him so angry.

“I-It’s true. I’ve collapsed from things like this before, and back then, all……”

“What? Shit, do you even hear yourself right now?”

He had said it to reassure Wooju, but it had the exact opposite effect. Wooju stood up from his chair, seething as if he were about to throw a punch.

“…Sorry.”

As Jitae whispered a small apology, Wooju’s expression slowly softened.

“I actually have a lot I want to say to you.”

Jitae nodded slowly. As if he knew everything.

“But looking at your state right now, I don’t want to. First, do what the hospital said—get your thorough examination and get some good rest while you’re hospitalized for a day.”

As Wooju pushed his chair back in, Jitae grabbed his clothes desperately.

“A-Are you going?”

“…….”

Wooju looked at the large hand desperately clutching his lapel, then shifted his gaze to Jitae’s face. Looking into those droopy eyes, he somehow felt he knew what Jitae wanted to say.

“I’m not going. I’ll stay by your side while you’re hospitalized. I’m going to monitor whether you eat your meals properly or not.”

Hearing him tell him to rest easy and go through with the admission procedures, Jitae’s hand slowly fell away. Soon after, Jitae successfully completed the admission process, following Suhan.

Because of his profession as a celebrity, he naturally had to use a single-occupancy room.

Changed into a patient gown, Jitae underwent various tests as instructed by the doctor. Since he had made quite a loud noise when he collapsed, they couldn’t rule out the possibility of a head injury.

“Hey, how many fingers do I look like I’m holding up?”

After returning to his room from the tests, Wooju held up three fingers and shook them in front of Jitae.

“Three.”

“Then this?”

“One.”

“…What?”

Wooju stared at his open hand with a look of disbelief. That was because he had been holding up two fingers straight.

“You’re lying. It’s two.”

“You little shit…….”

As Wooju made a move to raise his arm slightly, Jitae flinched and took a defensive posture, as if he were used to it. Fortunately, perhaps because he was wearing a patient gown, Wooju didn’t use violence and quietly lowered his hand.

“My head is fine. Besides, you can’t even check for that with something like that.”

“I know. But I’m worried anyway.”

The doctor had said there didn’t seem to be any major problems, but he couldn’t be relieved until the exact test results came out.

If anyone had been by his side when he collapsed, they could have easily caught him. Wooju regretted that he had turned around just as he was about to talk to Jitae back then.

Yet, for some reason, Won Jitae was wearing a silly grin, as if everything was great.

“So, that’s why you shielded me?”

Jitae’s gaze rested on Wooju’s arm. Wooju, who had glanced at Jitae’s face—still clearly unable to shake off his worry—scratched his head roughly.

He really had to avoid getting excessive treatment, no matter how much of a fuss the people around him made.

He had been cut quite deeply by the sharp-edged object in the prop box, but it was certainly not to the point of needing stitches. He couldn’t exactly unwrap it and show him that, though.

“I saw the box falling next to you, how could I just stand there? If I hadn’t, you would have been hurt even worse.”

If the object had fallen on Jitae’s face and caused a scar, it could have been fatal for his career as an actor.

“Still, don’t do that next time.”

It was a cold, firm voice, quite different from before. The gaze he met was nothing short of resolute.

“Because you’re a person who must never get hurt.”

“…….”

“Got it?”

Wooju nodded as if spellbound. For some reason, he felt he had no choice but to agree.

He suddenly snapped to his senses and was about to retort by asking who in the world wasn’t allowed to get hurt, but the conversation was cut off when Suhan entered the room.

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