Chapter 71: Treatment

Tae Hwan, who had stubbornly insisted he didn’t need treatment, sprang up at a single sharp glare from Bodam and followed the doctor.

Min Ji Oh, weakened by accumulated fatigue and lack of guiding, had fainted, still embedded in the wall.

Seeing Ji Oh, who was embedded up to his knees because an S-class Esper had thrown him with full force, the barrier Espers asked if they should call someone, but Han Seung Ho indifferently grabbed his ankle with one hand and pulled him out.

Fortunately, Min Ji Oh, being an Esper, didn’t die.

Seung Ho, who handed Ji Oh, bleeding profusely, over to a teleport Esper, asked Bodam.

Bodam, curious about the fate of Min Ji Oh, who had been severely slammed into the wall, was standing behind the barrier Esper, watching.

“……”

In the ensuing silence, the barrier Espers glanced at Bodam.

Bodam, confirming that Ji Oh was still breathing, let out a short breath and turned around.

He walked straight towards the hospital room without giving Seung Ho a single glance.

Only the rhythmic footsteps of Bodam walking down the long corridor filled the silence.

His confident footsteps were followed by the precise sound of the door opening and then closing.

Bodam treated Han Seung Ho as if he weren’t there from beginning to end.

***

Tae Hwan’s tattered left shoulder was healing on its own.

New flesh began to grow from the torn area.

It was the astonishing recovery ability of an S-class Esper.

The doctor, who was injecting an antidote, carefully observed the wound healing on its own.

It was truly a monstrous body.

“Still, it would be better if you received a painkiller injection.”

“You’re not insensitive to pain, are you?”

Tae Hwan’s attending physician said worriedly.

Although he had received guiding, the problem was his physical body, not his wave.

She was diligently recommending sleeping pills and methods to reduce pain, so he could at least be forced to rest.

“I said no.”

However, Tae Hwan firmly refused.

His reason was that feeling pain stimulated his recovery ability and made wounds heal faster.

He was a monstrous Esper, not just physically but mentally too.

While his flesh was being stitched without anesthetic, he sweated profusely, yet his expression remained largely unwavering.

Anyone looking might think he was just closing his eyes as if receiving a slightly stinging injection.

“It’s going to hurt…. Why don’t you just take it….”

“Ah, I said no.”

“Don’t move!!”

Tae Hwan, who instinctively waved his arm at the sound he hated to hear, gasped.

The doctor, holding an Esper-specific treatment needle designed to pierce steel-like skin, was horrified.

As much as Esper Lee Tae Hwan moved, the painstakingly stitched wound tore open.

Even the new flesh that was healing was torn again.

“Oh my! Please! Please!”

The doctor, clucking her tongue, slapped Tae Hwan’s back repeatedly.

She had been in charge of Tae Hwan’s treatment and regular check-ups ever since he entered the Center.

Tae Hwan, receiving back slaps that reminded him of his older sister, only scowled.

The doctor, whose long hair was tied up in a bun, was fearless even when dealing with an S-class Esper.

“Wow. The doctor just hits people.”

“Your injury is severe.”

“Don’t move a muscle today, and rest.”

Of course, she hadn’t started by hitting the back of a monstrous Esper from the beginning.

At first, her hands would tremble during Tae Hwan’s regular check-ups, and she would even lose sleep the night before.

Aside from him being an S-class Esper, his impression was so fierce that she was afraid he would bury her if she accidentally botched an injection.

But now.

“Finish quickly.”

“If you stay still, it will be over quickly.”

“And stop shaking your leg.”

“f*ck, I could stitch it faster myself.”

When he cursed like this, it was a little scary, but her hands didn’t tremble.

Esper Lee Tae Hwan had never acted as roughly as he looked.

He was an easier patient to handle than to worry about.

Though that might be because there were many Espers of much worse quality than him.

“Auntie. If your hands are stiff, put the knife down.”

“It’s taking forever, seriously.”

The doctor, ignoring Tae Hwan’s grumbling about whether she was tearing his flesh only to reattach it, focused on stitching and closed her mouth.

Even though this young man spoke curtly, had a rough mouth, and was truly ill-mannered, she had grown used to it after six years of being his attending physician.

Most of all, the barrier between them crumbled because he listened when she hit him, just like a younger brother.

The first day she hit Esper Lee Tae Hwan’s back, she thought she was a dead woman.

It was the day the twenty-year-old, who had no field experience yet, recklessly entered a gate and went wild, returning with his body tattered.

Her habit of slapping her husband’s back resurfaced when he refused treatment.

‘No… I, I didn’t mean to hit him… my hand just….’

She still remembered the atmosphere that had become as quiet as a mouse.

Esper Lee Tae Hwan, who had been causing a scene, floating all the medical tools to the ceiling with his psychokinesis, had, surprisingly, calmed down after being smacked on the back.

‘Finish quickly.’

After saying this, he returned all the medical tools to their original places and sat squarely on the emergency room bed.

After that, there was another commotion when he refused anesthetic, but the treatment was successfully completed.

Since that day, he seemed to have opened up to her, his attending physician.

“I have someone I like.”

She agreed with the rumor that his personality was strange.

She couldn’t grasp at what point he had opened his heart.

“I said I have someone I like.”

“Yes… yes?”

The doctor, who had been concentrating on stitching the wound, was about to give a vague answer but was startled and asked again.

“You mean Guide Yoon?”

“…How did you know?”

The doctor, giving Tae Hwan—who was wide-eyed with sharp eyes—a look that said, ‘How could I not know that?’, pulled out the last needle and finished up.

“You talked about your dedicated guide every time you came.”

“f*ck, I did?”

“Yes. Alright, it’s done, so go back to your accommodation and get some good rest today.”

“Come back tomorrow for another disinfection.”

“Your wave levels aren’t bad, but you might want to get additional guiding.”

The doctor, who had many other patients to treat besides Tae Hwan, busily organized the used tools.

“But he said he hates me.”

Tae Hwan, who pulled the hem of the doctor’s gown with psychokinesis as she tried to rush out, mumbled.

He spoke as if clinging to the doctor, who had noticed his feelings for Yoon Bodam even before he did.

She was an auntie who reminded him of his older sister.

“Esper Lee Tae Hwan. I’m going to be completely honest with you.”

“Don’t get angry.”

Before leaving the private emergency treatment room provided for high-ranking teams, the doctor turned around and spoke firmly.

She, who had never been called ‘auntie’ outside, delivered a blunt truth with a pleasant voice.

“Well, if your impression is bad, you should at least speak nicely, but Esper, your mouth is rough, isn’t it?”

“Who would like someone who constantly curses?”

“Don’t you agree?”

“And you probably never properly took care of him, and you just constantly badmouthed him.”

“Right?”

“Seeing how spectacularly Guide Yoon resigned, he doesn’t seem like a thoughtless person either.”

“He must have endured it all, right?”

Tae Hwan, frozen before his attending physician who asked, “Right?”, lost his ability to retort.

“If he didn’t hate you, that would be weird. Very much so.”

The doctor, having gathered all her tools, quickly opened the door and bolted after her final words.

Left alone, Tae Hwan almost let out the word ingrained in his mouth.

“Fu—”

Tae Hwan, unable to finish his curse, closed his mouth.

The unfinished word of the curse, ‘f*ck,’ which couldn’t be vomited from his throat, echoed ‘ck-ck-ck’ as it lingered within his body.

The words he had just heard from the doctor sharply hit the ‘f*ck’ tightly packed inside him.

Having grown up in a household where cursing was common, he wasn’t even aware that he cursed a lot.

He generally knew his language was rough, but he had never considered it a problem.

“Ha…”

Tae Hwan, reflecting on himself, roughly dragged his hand down his face.

The doctor auntie was right.

Yes, it was obvious.

It was natural for Yoon Bodam to dislike him.

“Ha.”

The hand stroking his face paused at his eyes.

Soon, he pressed his lips together, seeming to swallow the surging emotions.

His own appearance like this was truly messed up.

Even clinging to someone who seemingly hated him enough to go crazy, using his injury as an excuse.

Ziiing.

Tae Hwan, who had been lying face down on the pillow in bed, lifted his head at the vibrating sound.

Thinking he might have misheard, he immediately pulled out his phone from his pocket.

A notification window indicating a new message was displayed on the bright screen.

He even flipped it around to make sure it was his phone.

It was indeed his.

It was also a message from Yoon Bodam.

Tae Hwan, who had only kept message notifications on for Bodam’s number, sprang up into a sitting position.

He felt no pain in his shoulder whatsoever.

Just the vibration from Yoon Bodam’s text made him feel like his head was touching the ceiling.

Moreover.

“Wow, I’m going crazy…”

[Are you okay?]

Recalling the angelic Yoon Bodam, even the content of the message made him truly bang his head against the ceiling and fall back down.

Even after banging his head with a thud, he must not have come to his senses, as Tae Hwan hurriedly replied.

Even though he had embraced that face just minutes ago, he wanted to see him.

His stomach fluttered with the desire to at least hear his voice.

[Can I call you?]

Only after sending the message did regret wash over him.

‘Ah, I sent it for nothing.’

“Ah… ah… Lee Tae Hwan you son of a b—.”

Tae Hwan, forgetting his shoulder injury and rolling on the bed, clamped his mouth shut, preventing a string of curses from spilling out.

His hasty message had caused Yoon Bodam to read and ignore him.

‘Ha, damn.’