Chapter 16: A Patient Who Wants to Escape

“You should really talk it over properly. No matter how I think about it, that outfit was a terrible choice. And also… You need to go back now.”

“Uh… it’s already that time?”

“Yes.”

At the stiff reply, Si-hyeon patted his knees regretfully before standing up.

He lightly waved toward Julia and smiled brightly, showing his teeth.

After leaving a short goodbye, promising to see her again, Si-hyeon immediately returned to his hospital room with the bodyguard.

Sitting on the bed in a familiar posture, he rolled up the hospital pants he was wearing and waited for the doctor who would come to check his condition.

Swinging his feet while staring out the wide window, Si-hyeon pouted.

“I told them I’d be fine even without treatment….”

“Oh? You don’t want treatment?”

At the unfamiliar voice, Si-hyeon lifted his head and saw a woman who appeared to be middle-aged.

Despite the warm season, she wore a thin sweater.

The moment their eyes met, the corners of her lips lifted gently.

“Nice to meet you. From now on, I’ll be the one in charge of Mr. Bae Si-hyeon’s care… hmm…”

She dragged out the end of her sentence before finally recalling what she wanted to say.

“My name is Go Hye-young. Most people simply call me Doctor Go. You can call me whatever is comfortable.”

Startled by the sudden introduction, Si-hyeon blinked repeatedly.

He had been wondering why a new doctor suddenly appeared.

Standing there blankly for a moment, he hurriedly climbed down from the bed and bent at the waist in a deep bow.

“Hello, I’m Bae Si-hyeon. Ah… you speak Korean… Thank you so much. Honestly, these past few months I thought I was going to die because of English.”

“I should be the one thanking you. Go ahead and sit down.”

‘Why is Doctor Go thanking me…?’

The question briefly surfaced in his mind, but Si-hyeon obediently sat down.

The moment his backside touched the bed, Doctor Go’s hands began moving all over his body.

She pricked the tip of his finger with a needle and collected the bead of blood on a thin stick.

‘These tests are really strange…’

Muttering inwardly, Si-hyeon snapped back to attention when the previously silent Doctor Go suddenly asked a question.

“Why did you say you didn’t want treatment?”

“Uh… well… it’s just… they keep saying I’m sick when I’m actually healthy… And the injured part is my leg, but they keep drawing blood… At this rate, I feel like I’ll collapse from anemia.”

Feeling awkward under the doctor’s steady gaze, Si-hyeon rubbed the back of his neck and laughed sheepishly.

“This really is part of the treatment process, right? Um… could we maybe do a little less of it? I’m really healthy.”

Doctor Go let out a small snort at Si-hyeon’s blank smile.

She had heard he was young, but his behavior was truly childish as well.

Bae Si-hyeon, who had lived his life as a beta, possessed an innocence appropriate for his age.

Maybe scaring him a little wouldn’t hurt.

After reaching that quick conclusion, she spoke gently.

“If you don’t get treatment, we’ll have to cut off your leg. Is that what you want?”

The tone carried the implication that she would do exactly that if he wished.

Si-hyeon jumped up in shock and waved both hands frantically.

“No! Why would my leg be cut off?! The boss said it would get better if I got treatment! Why would you amputate it? My limbs are perfectly healthy! It’s not like I have a terminal illness!”

There were still too many things left for him to do before dying.

He still hadn’t watched the sunset from the Manhattan Bridge.

He hadn’t seen the autumn leaves in Central Park either.

Granted, he didn’t have enough money to stay in New York until autumn anyway, but still.

At least he had seen the Statue of Liberty.

Even putting all that aside, who in the world wished to die?

Even if you had to roll around in a pile of manure, living was still better than death.

Counting the remaining days of his stay, Si-hyeon anxiously bit his nails.

More than half of his time had already been wasted in the hospital because of treatment.

“That’s right. If you receive proper treatment. Well… if you hate it that much, we could just give you some painkillers. Like you said, the leg will eventually attach itself anyway.”

“But I’m really fine….”

“That’s your opinion, Mr. Bae. I’m the doctor here, and I’m saying no. So why insist?”

“I really need to go outside…. Is there any way?”

“Mr. Bae Si-hyeon.”

Doctor Go pressed the tip of her pen firmly against the chart as if punctuating the moment.

She looked at Si-hyeon, who was still fidgeting with the ends of his nails.

All ten of them were ragged and torn beyond recognition.

“As far as I know, your current situation started entirely because of the Vice President’s consideration. Usually, when someone receives help, wouldn’t they be the one to accommodate everything?”

It was such a valid point that Si-hyeon couldn’t easily refute it.

Like a scolded child, he simply lowered his head and continued picking at his shredded nails.

“Doctor… still… the boss said he would help me wholeheartedly, and that he’d grant what I wanted…”

“Fulfilling a moral responsibility doesn’t mean letting you do whatever you want or taking time out of his schedule to personally help reduce your debt. It means the Vice President understood your situation and extended goodwill.”

His hesitant rebuttal was dismissed immediately.

By now, Si-hyeon’s nails had been bitten down enough that blood was beginning to show.

Only then did he carefully reveal his real intention.

“So… if I at least schedule time with the boss… then I can go out, right?”

“The Vice President has been busy lately and barely has time in the evenings. An outing? That’s very optimistic.”

The response was utterly firm.

It felt as though the money he had scraped together while working at the factory was vanishing into thin air.

The thought was so vivid that Si-hyeon unconsciously rubbed his eyes.

At that moment, something surged up inside him.

Ever since leaving Korea, nothing had gone right.

“Is there really no other way…?”

“If you don’t want your leg to break again, stay still. It only just healed. If you don’t want to end up in a cast again, then behave. Even animals don’t live thrashing around like this. If you’re human, then listen like one.”

“…Yes.”

Still, he had to endure it.

There was nothing in the world that could be solved by crying.

There had been far too many unfair things in his life already.

Like the time he had to sleep in a basement room with almost no heating.

Or when the gruff men at the factory treated him like a kid and dumped all the overtime work on him.

If he started listing every unfair thing he had experienced, there would be no end.

If there was no one to help him anyway, then instead of stomping his feet in frustration, he simply had to accept it.

That was the world Si-hyeon had endured all his life.

“Alright. Then what should I do to receive treatment properly? It’s better if I recover quickly and start running around again. If I do manual labor, I can repay the debt faster, right? I really need to heal quickly.”

At Si-hyeon’s obedient answer, one of Doctor Go’s eyebrows lifted slightly, but only briefly.

Unlike what Cha Hae-jun and Secretary Kang had told her, she didn’t find the omega’s quiet reaction particularly strange.

Most omegas she knew had personalities this gentle.

Even when they tried to be tough, it usually came off as cute.

It was similar to how even a fully grown kitten still looked adorable.

After all, that was how they earned affection from alphas.

You could call it a sign of evolution.

Most omegas had gentle personalities and appearances.

Bae Si-hyeon was no exception.

Even though his trait itself was extremely faint despite his hyper-heat, the genes he had been born with wouldn’t simply disappear.

Doctor Go assumed it was simply his natural disposition.

The sun was beginning to set, and orange light spilled from the edge of the horizon.

The glow streaming through the wide window gently settled over Si-hyeon’s profile.

His pale skin flushed faintly under the light.

His slender frame, sharp jawline, and straight nose were well balanced.

Because his eyes were slightly lowered, his long eyelashes cast shadows over his cheeks.

His well-shaped almond eyes gave anyone who looked at him the impression of gentleness.

He was someone who perfectly suited the word beautiful.

Though his behavior tended to cancel out that elegant atmosphere.

Even now, he was pouting while occasionally trying to tear at his already ruined nails.

‘Still, with those physical traits despite hyper-heat… other omegas would probably get quite annoyed.’

There was no scent at all, so he certainly didn’t feel like an ordinary omega, yet his physical features were above average.

Thinking it would be best to confirm things through a detailed examination later, Doctor Go plopped down on the opposite side of the bed.

The conversation she had just had with Cha Hae-jun before parting resurfaced in her mind.

‘Handle the persuasion yourself. It’s safer if he returns to Korea. He’ll trust your words more than mine.’

It wasn’t wrong.

If Si-hyeon stayed here, there would be plenty of people raising ethical issues before anything could even be done.

“A broken leg doesn’t heal in just a day or two. It requires long observation… and besides, this place isn’t suitable for you, Mr. Bae. In the United States, it’s difficult for Asians to receive medical services tailored to them. Still, the best way to recover quickly is to rest completely instead of wandering around like this.”

“Ah….”

It wasn’t entirely false.

Regardless of the truth, the priority was getting him on a flight back to Korea.

Doctor Go looked firmly at Si-hyeon, who nervously moved his lips.

“You still need to go back to Korea.”

“Um… could I talk to the boss- no, Vice President Cha Hae-jun? There’s something I absolutely have to see in New York, but I still haven’t seen it.”

“…Go ahead.”

At the slow reply, Si-hyeon let out a sigh of relief.

At least he would be able to try discussing it.

Hopefully things would turn out well.

If he couldn’t accomplish the reason he came to New York in the first place, he felt like it would leave him strangely saddened.