Chapter 5: A Strange New World

“Be careful. The patient is currently in a very agitated state.”

A voice full of concern drifted from behind Yunhwan’s back.

Junseong, standing beside Manager Park, watched Yunhwan with an anxious face.

Despite the surrounding concern, Yunhwan succeeded in parting the thin, unstably swaying curtain with his fingertips.

As the gap opened, a sense of relief washed over him.

He’s in here. For some reason, he’s hidden in here because he’s incredibly angry.

For the past week, this man had kept him on edge, never knowing where he might bolt.

Instead of a trace of departure, Yunhwan found a vivid presence; he carefully parted his lips toward Seonghye.

“…Seonghye.”

The space revealed itself as the pure white fabric was pulled back like a breeze.

Inside was Seonghye, curled up like a wounded animal.

“Why are you staying like that? You need to come out and get treated.”

They were close enough that Yunhwan could reach him by stretching out a hand, but Yunhwan’s eyes scanned Seonghye with extra caution.

Min Seonghye, who had his large frame crumpled up and remained motionless without answering, was still a patient in urgent need of care.

Moreover, judging by the situation just now, he was likely in an extremely sensitive state.

Proving this, the IV needle was gone from where it should have been, and the back of his hand was swollen.

He had likely ripped it out himself during the earlier commotion.

“Why did you take out the IV?”

Yunhwan frowned with worry at the beads of blood forming on the swollen spot.

The tip of his old sneakers pushed in close to Seonghye’s toes.

While Yunhwan felt an involuntary sense of relief at the narrowed distance, the hidden head began to rise slowly, like a sprouting bud.

“…Hurry.”

A low, weak sound leaked from the man’s lips—from Min Seonghye.

It was a voice so precarious, like a thread on the verge of snapping, that one couldn’t hear it without leaning in and focusing all their nerves.

Yunhwan’s breathing instinctively lowered in response to the speaker’s unstable mental state.

Seonghye, finally raising his head fully, revealed pupils that were turbulent with tension.

Was it because the setting was a hospital?

His gaze, which lowered its misty pupils to trace from Yunhwan’s toes to his messy hands and then up his sweat-soaked neck, was filled with tension.

Like a black hole that swallows stars and planets without hesitation, Seonghye’s gaze endlessly consumed Yunhwan.

He seemed like a man busy etching Yunhwan into his mind, as if devouring something.

Faced with that wild and destructive gaze stretching from elegant eyes, Yunhwan paused his movements and checked Seonghye’s condition.

He was flustered by the glistening eyes relentlessly directed at him, but aside from that, no unusual behavior occurred.

At that, Yunhwan’s lips parted cautiously.

“Seonghye.”

Placing his palms on the glossy floor, he closed the distance until he was right in front of Seonghye’s knees.

At the warmth of Yunhwan approaching so closely, Seonghye’s breathing became heavier than before.

Amidst the irregular gasps, a gentle voice flowed from Yunhwan’s mouth, coaxing and soothing the other.

“Do you want to say that again?”

“No one….”

“…No one?”

Perhaps repeating the answer was effective, as the unstable gaze began to slowly circle Yunhwan’s brown eyes.

“…Because no one was here. It was because no one was here.”

Yunhwan paused his breath at those words.

Furthermore, his eyes, which had been curving softly toward the other, froze stiffly in an instant.

“When I opened my eyes, I was all alone.”

‘The way he’s talking….’

Yunhwan muttered to himself unconsciously.

“Why… your, your speech….”

“So I tried to go outside, but a man I’d never seen before came to me.”

“…….”

“And he started getting angry and shouting.”

Yunhwan’s pupils shook at the sense of alienation felt in the tone.

As Seonghye brushed his hand over his face as if frustrated and lifted his head, their gazes met once more in mid-air.

“Where is this place?”

“…What?”

“Who are you, and why am I here?”

Seonghye frowned after spitting out the words.

As the other became increasingly honest in his expression, a sense of panic that could no longer be hidden began to spread across Yunhwan’s face.

Seonghye’s face, met at point-blank range, was still characterized by unchanging precision and elegance, but to Yunhwan, who was watching it, it evoked a strange and chilling sense of dissonance.

“I can’t… remember anything.”

“…….”

The bangs falling neatly above his eyebrows revealed Seonghye’s gaze without filtration.

Beyond those spotless irises, what Yunhwan discovered was fear and a sense of loss that had pushed out the anger.

‘Surely not.’ He bit his lip unconsciously.

…No, that can’t be.

Seonghye’s gaze looked at him as if he were a stranger he had met for the very first time today.

As that gaze pierced through his own eyes, Yunhwan’s palms began to grow damp with sweat. He had a bad feeling.

“Se, …Seonghye.”

Even his voice trembled just calling the name.

Yunhwan, who rubbed his clammy palms on his pants, spoke in broken fragments.

“You, do you not remember who I am?”

If you remember even a little bit of the misfortune that befell the two of us today.

Hoping against hope that his intuition was wrong, he swallowed hard.

However, he couldn’t read any current in Min Seonghye’s eyes, which had been wiped clean and emptied.

Faced with the shocking reality at close quarters, Yunhwan couldn’t hold back and began to ramble first.

“Kwon Yunhwan. It’s Kwon Yunhwan. We ate together, slept in the same place, and ran around outside.”

“…….”

“Why are you acting like this? It’s scary. Don’t do that. You got hurt like this because of me. Huh?”

At the repeated plea, a strange aura began to spread across Seonghye’s expression.

“I got hurt because of you?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Yunhwan nodded vigorously. At the quick affirmation, Seonghye rubbed his cheek with a confused face.

“…Is that why I feel so cr*ppy?”

“…….”

‘No, your mood hasn’t been good even once since you came here.’

Yunhwan, barely suppressing the words lingering on the tip of his tongue, shook his head toward Seonghye.

“Your memory… right, the memory loss might be temporary. Of course, we need to get a diagnosis from a doctor… No, first, let’s go outside and get you examined. Can you stand up? Should I support you?”

Yunhwan carefully placed his hand over the back of Seonghye’s.

Worry gathered in the space between Yunhwan’s brows at the body temperature that was lukewarm, bordering on cold, but Seonghye, the person in question, just stared at Yunhwan blankly before whispering lowly.

“What did you say your name was?”

“My name? Kwo, Kwon Yunhwan.”

“Kwon Yunhwan. …Yunhwan.”

A voice much calmer than before repeated Yunhwan’s name.

And what lay beneath it was not a wariness toward a stranger, but a strange curiosity that even Yunhwan himself didn’t notice.

It was just as Yunhwan, unaware of this, was biting his lip with a look of utter dismay.

The sound of bold footsteps echoed from behind, and the curtain shielding them was thrown wide open.

“Wow, what are you two doing right now? Plotting something together?”

The one who appeared, breaking the space between the two conversing people, was Manager Park, who had been waiting in the room; it was obvious he had stepped in because he couldn’t stand listening any longer.

Thick, bright red veins stood out on Manager Park’s neck.

“Min Seonghye. What? Hey, say that again. Who am I? Are you filming a drama by yourself right now?”

Given his temper, Manager Park would have grabbed Seonghye by the collar and pulled him up immediately, but he seemed to be holding back because the other was a patient.

However, as a man with a short fuse and an impatient personality, that waiting didn’t last long.

Before Yunhwan could even intervene, Manager Park’s hand thrust forward.

Sensing the danger, Yunhwan tried to block the path in front of Seonghye.

“Move.”

Instead, Seonghye grabbed Yunhwan’s shoulder and lunged forward like a projectile.

Like a wild animal that had spotted its prey on the vast plains.

But the surprise at that agility was brief; in a split second, Yunhwan’s eyes widened as if they might fall out.

In Min Seonghye’s hand was a large, heavy telephone that could only be used in a hospital room.

He hadn’t even shown a sign of having it while the two were talking.

Startled, Yunhwan shouted urgently toward Seonghye.

“Hey, no! Min Seonghye, hey!”

However, even in the current situation, Seonghye’s physical response was faster than anyone’s.

The arm holding the phone extended elegantly in a curve.

Toward the brightest target right in front of him.

“…….”

The hospital room, after the storm had swept through, was filled with a suffocating silence.

Including the one person lying there as if dead.

Not only had he caused a commotion as soon as he woke up, but Seonghye, who had shocked Yunhwan with his changed demeanor, had been given another sedative and fallen into a deep sleep.

Yunhwan, looking at the sleeping Seonghye, let out a deep sigh.

This was the first time he had seen Seonghye sleeping this closely.

While they were living together, Seonghye, whose days and nights were reversed unlike Yunhwan’s, would lock his door tightly during the day and strictly forbid anyone from entering.

Yunhwan’s gaze began to trace down from Seonghye’s head to his toes.

Passing the thin, delicate line that ran from below the ear, along the cheek, and down to the neck, the hard, angular shoulders below looked about a palm’s width wider than Yunhwan’s.

“Because of a body like this, I had such a hard time.”