Chapter 3: The Uninvited Guest

While I was deliberating, I moved the basin of cold water, grabbed clean towels, and brought the first-aid kit. First, I stripped off all his clothes and tossed them into the laundry basket, then carefully wiped away the blood with a wet towel. I couldn’t prop him up because he was in too much pain, but I reached underneath and cleaned his back too.

I think I’m pretty amazing. After a brief moment of self-praise, I opened the first-aid kit and treated him with care, just as I’d learned on YouTube for this very day. After cleaning everything up, I could see he had large and small wounds all over.

Feeling sorry for Choi Taehyuk as he let out pained groans, I blew on his wounds to soothe them as I finished treatment, then groaned and dragged his upper body—now covered in gauze—to the bed.

“Wow, his feet are sticking out past the bed.”

Since he was over 190 centimeters tall, the bed that fit me perfectly was too small for Choi Taehyuk.

Kindly, I pushed a backless sofa against the foot of the bed to extend it. Then I cleaned up the living room and brought in a basin of cold water. His body was burning hot, likely from the wounds.

I pulled the thick blanket up to his neck and cooled his face with a cold towel. Look, I’m wiping your blood, applying medicine, wiping your sweat—all with utmost devotion. If you leave me to die after all this, Choi Taehyuk, you’re the worst bastard in the world!

I clenched both fists and nursed him with even more care.

“Hey.”

A pleasant low voice sounded near my ear.

“Mmm…”

Pleasant or not, I turned away from the finger poking my cheek.

“…Hey.”

But the owner of that finger was quite persistent. This time, he poked my back as I’d turned away. Ah, who is it. I went to bed late last night… Wait, what?!

“Did I fall asleep?!”

The moment I realized the shocking fact that I’d fallen asleep, I was wide awake. I shot up and asked the question, but of course there was no answer. And in front of my eyes was not a face twisted in pain, but Choi Taehyuk’s familiar expressionless face.

“You… Who are you?”

His face and tone were exactly like someone meeting a stranger for the first time. Irritation surged up.

There wasn’t a single hint on Choi Taehyuk’s face of ‘I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere.’

“Is it difficult to explain yourself?”

It’s not difficult—I’m just pissed off! Your memory sucks and your patience is f*cking awful too… I couldn’t say that out loud, so I put on a smile that looked completely harmless to the world. Right, it’s not like yesterday or today that people don’t remember me. Let’s just have the understanding of a Buddha.

“Heh… Haha! Sunbae-nim, you don’t remember me? I’m Kim Jinho—we were in the same club in college~.”

Wow, this bastard. Even saying that, he still doesn’t know. My forced smile was wasted—Choi Taehyuk’s brow furrowed. Even that frown looked handsome because of his face, but what I really wanted to do was give him a good smack.

Ah, f*ck. Can’t be helped.

“Yeryeong’s friend. I was always next to that bastard.”

“…Ah.”

“Haha! You probably wouldn’t know. I’m not exactly someone with much presence anyway. By the way, are you feeling okay?”

I’ll just laugh it off, you bastard. Even after saying all that, Choi Taehyuk still had no idea who I was.

I changed the subject and asked about his condition. When he nodded, I got up from my seat. I’d stayed glued to his side just in case things got dangerous, ready to call 119, but now that he was conscious, I figured I could keep some distance.

Rolling up my sleeves, I told him—who was staring at me silently—that I’d go make breakfast, and left the room. Honestly, I felt like giving him a noogie, but I held back because he was a patient.

“It’s not like I have indigestion, but is porridge okay? Ah, whatever. Porridge is the truth for sick people.”

Muttering to myself, I quickly made egg porridge, put it in a bowl, and arranged it nicely on a tray with kimchi before carrying it in.

Choi Taehyuk, who had been staring blankly at a fixed point in the air as if lost in thought, turned his expressionless head when I entered and announced, “I brought food for you~.”

What a bastard with no expressions. It’s terrifying, really.

“Porridge?”

“Ah, yes. Since you’re a patient… If you’d prefer something else, I can go make that instead?”

His questioning tone made me shrink back, wondering if I’d done something wrong.

What a fussy bastard. Just eat what you’re given. I’d sneakily tasted the neatly prepared egg porridge earlier, and it was amazing. Once he had a bite, he’d want more.

Stealing glances at him, I gently set the tray on the bedside table and sat down beside him. If I’m going to provide service, I might as well go all out and rack up as many points as possible. With that ambitious thought, I picked up the porridge bowl, scooped up a spoonful, and brought it to his lips.

“Here you go.”

“……”

Choi Taehyuk just stared blankly as if to say, ‘What is this?’ Hey. Are you really going to make things this awkward?

“Ah! It must be hot. Blow-blow. Here you go.”

“…Never mind—”

“Just say ah, come on! My arm’s about to fall off!”

I ended up snapping at him for refusing when I was going out of my way to feed him. I was feeding him directly because he was badly injured and might have trouble moving—he couldn’t even say thank you, but he was frowning? What an ungrateful bastard.

Do you know how much I’ve dreamed of this treatment? I’m the kind of person whose dream is to have someone cook porridge for me when I’m sick—let alone feed me! Do you have any idea how special this is? Just eat it and say thank you while you’re getting it!

With a murderous expression like I might shove it in by force, I pressed the spoon to his lips. Only then did Choi Taehyuk slightly open his mouth. I relaxed my expression, smiled brightly, and laid on the flattery thick—”Tasty, right? I made it!”—while blowing on each spoonful to cool it, and occasionally tearing up kimchi to keep things interesting. I took devoted care of him throughout the entire meal.

The exhausting meal finally ended when the porridge bowl was completely empty. Even after finishing his meal with someone else’s help, the bastard didn’t say a single word of thanks. I told him I’d go wash the dishes and left the room.

What a tiresome bastard. He’d even eaten the portion I’d scooped out for myself.

“Hah… It’s my fault for scooping out extra assuming he’d leave some…”

I’d used up all the rice I’d cooked, so if I wanted to eat, I’d have to start over with new rice. It felt wrong to leave a sick person alone for too long, and looking at the darkening sky, evening wasn’t far off, so I figured I’d hold out a bit longer. I quickly finished the dishes, grabbed the necessary medicine from the first-aid kit, and went back to the room.

“Sunbae-nim, here’s your medicine. It’s supposed to prevent infection.”

Even as I handed it over, the bastard said nothing.

At this point, being taciturn was going too far.

How can a person not say thank you even once? Or maybe he’s not that grateful…?

He took the medicine I’d prepared for him and handed me the empty water glass.

I took the glass, set it on the table beside him, and sat back down on the chair. Then I decided to execute the strategy I’d thought of last night: ‘Subtly but visibly make him feel indebted.’ I needed to make this seemingly indifferent bastard feel at least a little sense of obligation.

“Anyway, I was heading to work early yesterday morning when I saw someone collapsed in an alley. I went to check, and it was you, sunbae—I was so shocked! No matter how much I shook you, you wouldn’t wake up, so I carried you all the way home on my back. I’m not exactly weak, but you’re pretty big, so I couldn’t carry you properly—your pants dragged a bit… Is that okay?”

Ah, shit. Why did that slip out at the end? I recalled the already frayed hem of his pants—I’d just dragged them a bit, really—and glanced at him nervously. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to care.

“Anyway, right after I got home, I was a little worn out—no, I’m not saying it was hard, it’s just that the roads around here are deceptively sloped, so I was a bit out of breath. It definitely wasn’t that tough! Ahem, getting back to the point—I laid you down in the living room and took off your suit, and there was blood… Ugh… Hold on. Ugh…”

Suddenly, the image of all that blood came back and I nearly retched. I hurriedly covered my mouth and caught my breath. Rubbing my chest with one hand helped a little. Hah, trying to show off is f*cking exhausting. I wiped the slight tears forming in my eyes and looked at him again before speaking.

“Ah, okay now. Anyway, everything was covered in red, so I stripped you and did some treatment. I’m not sure if I did it right, but I tried my best, so rest assured. And I figured you shouldn’t sleep on the cold floor, so I moved you to the bed, covered you with a blanket, and then your fever started rising. So I kept cooling you down with towels beside you and ended up falling asleep here. Now that you’ve eaten and taken medicine, you could probably go to the hospital. Given the time, you’d have to go to the ER, though…”

I trailed off, half expecting him to say he’d go to the ER, and waited for his answer. But all that came back was silence.

“If you’re feeling okay now, you could go home first and go tomorrow. I didn’t turn on your phone, but if the battery’s dead, I could lend you a charger. Or do you want to call home using my phone?”

All through my rambling, he just stared at me silently. I felt embarrassed to death and my mouth was getting sore. When someone talks, you should at least react or respond—this was at a level where talking to a wall might’ve been better.

Still, I said everything I needed to say. Now this bastard will think he owes me, right?

“Kim… Jinho, was it?”

“Huh? Ah… Yes!”

Just as I puffed out my chest with a sense of accomplishment, the bastard’s mouth—which had seemed glued shut—finally opened. Since he wasn’t reaching for his own phone, he was probably going to ask to borrow mine. Before he could even speak, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and held it out to him.

“Sorry, but I’ll need to stay here for a while.”

“This is my pho—… Excuse me?!”

After casually dropping that utterly shameless statement, the bastard sealed his mouth shut again. After that, I had neither the words nor the courage to say anything more, so I just got ready for work and went to bed.

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