Chapter 11: Three Minutes!

The sound of sharp footsteps echoed, and Jihoon, his right hand wrapped in bandages, stepped out as the elevator announced the 19th floor with a “Ding!”

The steps toward the emergency staircase held no hesitation.

The sound of him treading on the stairs was constant, like a set routine.
20th floor.

As Jihoon reached the VIP ward and opened the emergency exit, a burly security guard blocked his path.

“Please identify yourself.”
Jihoon curled his lips into a lopsided smirk at the pathetic attitude.

He lightly poked the guard’s chest.

“Does Leehyun not even teach his guards to recognize his own family?”

Jihoon held out a business card between his index and middle fingers.

The guard cross-referenced it with the access list on his tablet.

“You are not on the list, so you cannot enter.”

There were only two people Leehyun had permitted: Song Yoosun and Jin Heeyoung.

When the guard firmly blocked his way, Jihoon did not step back but instead placed a hand on the guard’s shoulder.

“Go back and ask again.”

Unlike his calm voice, the hand gripping the guard’s shoulder was full of immense pressure.

His bandaged hand must have been in pain, but Jihoon’s expression did not waver.

“Please go back down.”

Typical of Leehyun’s dogs.
Jihoon smiled playfully.

“Go and ask. I won’t say it a third time.”

Tap, tap.

The hand tapping the guard’s shoulder was now bordering on rough.
The guard tried to twist that arm away, but Jihoon was faster.

After kicking the guard’s shin, he grabbed the man’s right lapel and threw him to the ground in a single motion.
Swish.

The other security guards on the floor swarmed in to block Jihoon.
Ding!

It was then that the elevator sounded, and Leehyun appeared, carrying the limp Seohee in his arms.

“Seohee.”

Jihoon murmured, looking at the flickering image of Seohee through the crowd.

His gaze followed her dangling hand upward until it reached her form nestled in Leehyun’s arms.

Why are you still doing that there, Seohee?

I told you it’s dangerous by Leehyun’s side.
Jihoon made a move to step forward, but soon turned his body away.

His steps descending the emergency exit were heavy with force.

“Wait for me, Seohee. I will save you again this time.”

With a sharp light in his eyes, Jihoon walked down every single one of the twenty flights of stairs, ruminating on Seohee’s collapsed face over and over again.

***

The gathered doctors were barely able to breathe in the frigid air.

It was because the menacing aura of the guardian was far more terrifying than the patient’s pale complexion.

“T-the pulse and blood pressure are both normal.”

“Normal?”

Leehyun whispered chillingly.

“Does she look normal to your eyes?”
“You’re the one who said she was normal this morning, yet look at her now. How dare you open your mouth to say anything?”

His pitch-black eyes swept over the line of doctors.

“Pupillary response is also normal.”

Normal, normal, normal.

Every time the word repeated, veins bulged on Leehyun’s forearms.

“I suppose she’s still breathing, at least.”
Leehyun sneered viciously.

The medical staff froze at the tone that asked if they only considered it serious if she stopped breathing before their eyes.

“Next.”
Keep talking.
At Leehyun’s word, the atmosphere in the room turned pitch black, as if splattered with ink.

“…If a blood clot is the issue, we can only find out by performing a CT scan.”

The Neuro-center director spoke after drawing a long breath, as if finally making up his mind.

He couldn’t even bring himself to look in Leehyun’s direction.

“…A CT.”

He roughly brushed his hair back.

‘She will hate it.
She will resent me.’

‘If even this one CT scan has any slight effect on that little one who looks like a jelly bear, Seohee will not be able to bear it.’

Knowing full well she would swallow her grief alone without even getting angry at him, Leehyun hesitated at this simple decision.

‘You are the one who is important to me.’

‘I only need you, Seohee.’

He couldn’t even speak his mind, fearing she would be hurt if she discovered his selfish heart.

Leehyun suppressed his emotions, just as Seohee had once done before him.

“The OB/GYN position is to prioritize the mother over the baby, but…”
As Jiyeon trailed off and looked toward the Neuro-center director, he blinked in a panic.

‘What do you want me to do? Professor Park, how can you throw this at me?’
His eyebrows twitched up and down as he spoke to her with his eyes, but she firmly looked away.

“For now, since the pulse, breathing, and pupillary reflexes are normal, let us observe for a while… longer.”
As the Neuro-center director stammered warily, Leehyun stood with his eyes closed, pressing his temples with his index and middle fingers.

“It seems she has regained consciousness.”
The Neuro-center director explained as he examined Seohee, suppressing his nerves.

He said it looked like she had just fallen into a deep sleep, so they should wait further.

“Get out.”

When Leehyun issued the order to leave without even opening his eyes, the medical team exhaled in relief and turned away.

“Ah, the patient may not remember the situation. In that case, please do not agitate her.”

The Neuro-center director, the last to leave, spoke with his usual professional coldness.
Leehyun slowly turned his head with his arms crossed. It was a gesture for him to continue.

“If she has a severe headache or becomes very anxious, you must call the medical team.”

He added that otherwise, since it didn’t seem the blood clot had shifted significantly or her memory had suddenly returned, she should be fine.

“Representative.”

Seung-ho approached cautiously, but Leehyun’s eyes remained fixed on Seohee.

Stroking the forearm marked with IV traces and covering her cold hand with his own, Leehyun watched her without blinking once.

“…”

Seung-ho was about to turn away when Leehyun suddenly spoke.

“Report.”

“Jihoon visited the VIP ward. He subdued one guard, but fortunately, he did not proceed further… I apologize.”

Seung-ho lowered his head quickly.

The invisible tension in the air felt heavy enough to choke him.

‘Jihoon?’
Leehyun’s pupils reacted instantly.

‘Jihoon, of all people.’

Now that he thought about it, Jihoon was among the last three people who had met Seohee.

Recalling the neatly organized information on his tablet, a vein pulsed on Leehyun’s forehead.

The person who had visited Seohee immediately after he left was none other than Jihoon.

‘Why?’
‘For what reason was Jihoon entering a house where he wasn’t present?’

Leehyun did not dare to harbor filthy suspicions about their relationship.
Seohee had always been clear with her feelings toward him, and in that regard, Leehyun was always the one who was hooked.

The pure Seohee would not have done anything behind his back, but even if she had acted to deceive him, it didn’t matter.

What right does a dog have to talk when the master chooses to do something?

His job was merely to wag his tail to catch his master’s eye once more.

What he found problematic was Jihoon’s purpose.

“Given that he came to the ward, it seems he heard the news that the madam has been found.”

So why, exactly?
Why would Jihoon come running just because he had found Seohee?

“Did you know?”
Seung-ho asked Leehyun suddenly.

Know what? When Leehyun asked with his eyes instead of words, Seung-ho’s lips moved slowly.

“It turns out Jihoon was also secretly moving to find the madam while we were searching for her.”

He had been so focused on finding Seohee that he hadn’t looked that far.

Since Leehyun hadn’t mentioned Jihoon, the secretarial team naturally didn’t track Jihoon’s movements.

Until Seung-ho bowed his head as if it were his own oversight, Leehyun showed no reaction.

“Jihoon… moved?”
It wasn’t surprising since he was one of the three who last saw her, but Leehyun couldn’t shake off the unpleasantness coiling at his feet.

What impact would finding Seohee have on Jihoon?

No clear answer came to him, no matter how hard he thought.

“Jihoon.”
Leehyun muttered his name as if the sound itself were repulsive.

Despite Leehyun and Jihoon being related by half-blood and the fact that their relationship was poor, Seohee had always called Jihoon ‘Brother-in-law.’

Whether that was to solidify her position as a member of the Gayun Group, out of concern for the eyes of others, or simply because she thought it was the natural title, Leehyun hadn’t been curious.

He had simply looked with distaste at Seohee playing the role of a polite daughter-in-law and sister-in-law.

“That day. Did you say you confirmed both Jihoon’s arrival and his departure?”

His voice, emerging late, spread like dusk.

Seung-ho subconsciously flinched.

“Yes. It was confirmed.”

“How long did he stay?”
Seung-ho quickly pulled out his tablet and reported.

“Exactly 15 minutes. Factoring in the time it takes to walk up the stairs, he was in the main house with the madam for about 3 minutes.”

It meant he had left as soon as he arrived. Leehyun closed his eyes slowly.

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