Chapter 27: A Familiar Fragrance in the Midst of a Fever

The next day, I awoke with a splitting headache. I thought it would subside if I just endured it, but the pain only intensified.

Clutching my head, I writhed on the bed before rushing to the bathroom to repeatedly empty the contents of my stomach. I truly felt as if I were dying.

‘I’ve never been like this before.’

No matter how much beer I drank, I never suffered from a hangover the next day. Cocktails, it seemed, were a different beast entirely. Had I known, I wouldn’t have guzzled them down just because they tasted good. Regret, belated and sharp, washed over me.

For what felt like an eternity, I lay sprawled on the bed, feeling as desiccated as a piece of dried jerky. As the sunlight that had streamed through the window faded, giving way to dusk, someone opened the bedroom door and entered.

“—Seo-jin-ssi.”

“……”

“—Yoo Seo-jin-ssi.”

From a distant, hazy place, someone was calling my name. I struggled to open my eyes, but my blurred vision revealed nothing.

After blinking a few more times, something warm covered my eyes. It was someone else’s hand.

Had I unknowingly opened the door for someone? Even sifting through my hazy memories, nothing came to mind. Who, then, was standing before me? Just as anxiety began to surface, the other person spoke again.

“Are you alright?”

“Han… Jung-woo-ssi?”

As I called out to the owner of the voice, a curt “Yes” immediately returned. Although I had no recollection of opening the door for Han Jung-woo, the mere fact that he wasn’t a stranger allowed my body, rigid with tension, to finally relax.

I could finally feel at ease.

“You boasted about your high tolerance for alcohol, yet here you are, laid up all day with a hangover.”

Han Jung-woo muttered to himself, loud enough for me to hear. While I felt wronged, never having experienced this after drinking before, I lacked the energy to argue, so I remained silent.

Han Jung-woo sighed deeply, then removed the hand that had covered my eyes. The mattress, which had been slightly tilted, returned to its original position, and the lingering presence by my side soon vanished.

‘He left.’

If he was going to leave so quickly, I couldn’t fathom why he had come in the first place. Perhaps he had come merely to gloat, to mock me for being so miserable after I had boasted about my high alcohol tolerance.

With Han Jung-woo, such a possibility was entirely plausible.

“That rotten bastard.”

I repeated the insult several times, though there was no one to hear it. Then, the door creaked open again, and I heard footsteps returning. A moment later, a cold, damp towel touched my feverish forehead.

‘So refreshing.’

As the cold compress drew away my body heat, the dizzying chaos in my head began to subside. Yet, the towel, having absorbed my warmth, quickly grew lukewarm.

“It’s not too cold, is it?”

Too weak to reply, I simply nodded. Han Jung-woo let out a small chuckle. He remained by my side, and whenever the compress turned lukewarm from my body heat, he would re-wet it with cold water.

This routine continued for quite some time.

‘He’s more practiced than I’d have thought.’

Han Jung-woo, adept at nursing someone, seemed both fitting and entirely out of character. Even if his ‘nursing’ only extended to placing a damp towel on my forehead, it was still a bothersome task.

‘Hyung, do you know? They say colds get better if you pass them on to someone else.’

‘So, you want me to give it to you?’

‘Yes, I’d rather be sick instead of you, Hyung.’

A conversation I once had with you resurfaced in my mind. It was shortly after we had confirmed our feelings for each other, and I had fallen terribly ill.

Unlike before, he had been overjoyed, claiming he could now ‘legally’ nurse me. He canceled all his appointments and practically moved into my home.

However, despite his overflowing enthusiasm, his nursing was utterly clumsy. When I, annoyed by his constant blunders, told him to go home, he had simply kissed me, declaring that colds could just be passed on to someone else.

After that, he would constantly find excuses to kiss me, claiming he was ‘taking my cold.’ Ultimately, he caught a terrible cold instead of me, and the nursing duties fell to me.

Though I grumbled a lot, I secretly cherished those moments. After all, you were the one who taught me that I didn’t have to silently endure my pain alone.

“Are you feeling a little better?”

Han Jung-woo’s voice, pulling me back to reality, roused my muddled mind. After a moment of contemplation, I nodded.

Of course, I wasn’t entirely well yet, but I could definitely feel my fever had subsided.

“How… did you get in?”

The brazen intruder offered no answer, only a faint chuckle. Frustrated, I weakly grasped Han Jung-woo’s collar and tugged at it.

It was an urgent plea for an answer.

“Resting is the priority right now.”

Han Jung-woo gently removed my hand and whispered. His large hand, covering my eyes as if to urge me to sleep, felt warm and carried a faint scent.

It was a familiar fragrance I had encountered somewhere before, but perhaps due to my muddled state, even the memory of it was vague.

“Sleep well, Yoo Seo-jin-ssi.”

With that gentle farewell, I drifted back into a deep slumber. It was a long-awaited, dreamless sleep.

****

It wasn’t until a full day had passed that the fever, which had tormented me so relentlessly, finally vanished. My body felt undeniably refreshed, a stark contrast to yesterday.

As I slowly pushed myself up, the towel that had rested on my forehead, now completely dry, fell onto the duvet. It was proof that Han Jung-woo’s presence beside me hadn’t been a figment of my fevered imagination.

‘When did he leave?’

I recalled hearing him bid me goodnight, but my memory cut off abruptly after that. He must have left while I was asleep.

I never did learn how he managed to open a door I hadn’t unlocked for him. Though, even if I had asked, it was doubtful Han Jung-woo would have given me a straight answer.

Undoubtedly, he’d acquired a spare key card without my consent.

‘Time to get moving.’

Just as I prepared to stir, my stomach let out a timely growl. Having eaten nothing all day yesterday, it was my body’s unmistakable signal of hunger.

‘Was there anything to eat?’

I climbed out of bed and shuffled out of the room. Before reaching the kitchen and opening the refrigerator, I remembered that its contents consisted solely of alcohol.

To find anything edible, I would have to inconveniently venture outside. Regretting that I hadn’t stocked up on some instant meals, had I known this would happen, I opened the heavy refrigerator door, intending to grab some water.

“…What is this?”

However, the refrigerator, which should have contained nothing but alcohol, was packed with food I hadn’t bought. From simple ready-to-eat meals and fruits to even porridge, which was difficult to find here.

It was the first time since living here that the refrigerator was filled with anything other than alcohol. And the one who had stocked it like this was probably—

‘Han Jung-woo… right?’

Han Jung-woo was the only person who could have entered my lodging without my knowledge. After all, I had been confined to bed with a fever; I certainly hadn’t bought groceries and stocked the fridge myself.

I stood there for a long time with the refrigerator door open, only snapping back to attention when I heard a beeping sound. It was a signal that the door had been open for too long.

In a hurry, I grabbed an instant porridge packet nearby and closed the refrigerator door. Turning the cold porridge over in my hands, I headed for the microwave.

“Three minutes…”

Following the instructions on the packaging, I placed the instant porridge in the microwave and started it. While the porridge heated, my mind buzzed with thoughts.

It must be my imagination, but it was as if Han Jung-woo was—

“Han Jung-woo-ssi, don’t you dislike me?”

“Yes, I do.”

I recalled my conversation with Han Jung-woo from two days prior. His feelings toward Yoo Seo-jin seemed unchanged, so why was his behavior so contradictory?

The more I thought about it, the stranger it became. Who would nurse someone they disliked when they were sick, or fill their empty refrigerator?

‘That can’t be it.’

No, this was clearly just a different method of torment. Perhaps he intended to slowly, painfully wear me down by keeping me uncomfortable for a week.

Han Jung-woo enjoying such a sight was entirely plausible. His personality was just as awful as Yoo Seo-jin’s.

‘It won’t be long now, anyway.’

I reminded myself of the limited time remaining. Soon, Han Jung-woo, who kept repeating these inexplicable actions, would become a person I would never see again.

Then, the unpleasant feeling that had haunted my mind would also completely disappear.

‘You know he’s a different person.’

A wave of melancholy, slowly rising from my ankles, threatened to engulf me. Just as I wasn’t Yoo Joon-hee here, you were clearly not here either.

The longing I had desperately suppressed kept trying to burst forth, forcing me to endure and endure. It pressed down on me to my breaking point, like a bomb about to explode.

*Beep, beep.*

The microwave chimed, signaling the end of its cycle. Halting my train of thought, I took out the heated porridge and went to the table.

While eating the hot porridge, I thought of nothing. I simply stared blankly at some empty space in the air.

It was a dull, quiet time.