Chapter 51
After lunch ended, Han Chasu headed to the rooftop with one member of the medical staff. It was the place they had chosen because Gi Taeyeon had kept telling him to be careful around water until the very end.
“There are more people than I expected.”
“That’s because there are a lot of people from other headquarters. The Third and Fourth Headquarters don’t have enough beds, so they often come over here.”
The medical staff member named Bak Seongjin had quite an affable personality. Perhaps because Han Chasu had been seeing him since his first day at the medical center, he felt a certain familiarity with him.
“Would you like something to drink?”
Bak Seongjin said, pointing toward where people were gathered. Han Chasu had wondered why there were so many people on the rooftop, and it turned out there was a small café off to one side.
It was a café that sold coffee, various fresh fruit juices, herbal teas, and snacks filling enough to stave off hunger. Judging by the small standing sign, employees seemed to get a discount as well. ‘They must do pretty good business.’ Maybe I should open a café when I quit. While having such idle thoughts, Han Chasu took his place at the end of the long line.
As he quietly watched the line grow shorter, Bak Seongjin spoke with a look of sudden realization.
“Ah, you can’t have coffee. Because of the antidote, it’d be a big problem if you consumed caffeine.”
“Fresh fruit juice is all right?”
“Yes. Oh, may I get a stamp on my coupon?”
“Do as you like.”
It was a drink being bought with Gi Taeyeon’s card anyway. When Han Chasu nodded to say it was fine, Bak Seongjin’s eyes sparkled.
After glancing around to see if there was anyone he knew nearby, he subtly lowered his head.
“Thank you. And… ahem. I’m glad you’ve gotten so much better.”
Han Chasu stared at Bak Seongjin with fresh curiosity. He wondered why the man was saying something he said at every checkup yet again.
But this time, something was different. Bak Seongjin, who had been moving his lips hesitantly, widened his eyes as if he had made up his mind.
“If I get caught saying this, I’ll be scolded… but honestly, when you were first brought in, everyone thought that just keeping you breathing would be half a success.”
“Pardon?”
“You have to keep it a secret. Absolutely. Understood?”
“…
Understood.”
Having secured his promise, Bak Seongjin snorted through his nose and poured out everything he had wanted to say.
About the moment they saw him being taken out of Baekdam’s arms looking no different from a corpse. About how they activated a treatment device that had only just finished clinical trials, and how they ran around all night trying to stop the unending bleeding. ‘It really was chaos.’ The employees at the medical center had truly suffered a lot. Their minds would be more at ease if he was discharged even a day sooner.
Han Chasu felt sorry for them. ‘Is increasing my contact time with Gi Taeyeon the only thing I can do right now?’
His body was in the middle of being treated by the regeneration skill on its own while conserving energy, so the only thing he himself could do was quickly remove the bizarre abnormal status called spirit-body transformation.
The problem was that, in order to remove it quickly, he needed to spend more time in contact with Gi Taeyeon…. ‘If skin contact is necessary anyway, wouldn’t it be better to build stamina and relieve stress instead of just sitting still and holding hands?’ Han Chasu had not given up on his dream of one-sided sparring. ‘If I move around hard enough, I might be able to ignore that strangely ticklish feeling too.’ As if it hadn’t been a lie that it gave him strength, when his skin touched Gi Taeyeon’s, he sensed an alien energy. It was a contradictory energy, cold yet surging hotly.
If he had to compare it… yes. It felt like watching the heart of some enormous deep-sea fish sleeping in the depths of the ocean beat.
The problem was that the energy it emitted was just as enormous as the size of that heart. When Gi Taeyeon’s hand had overlapped the back of his own, Han Chasu had been inwardly shocked beyond words. ‘It was enough to send a chill down my spine.’ The energy, cold as seawater, swept through his body like a wave in an instant. The eerie sensation of each and every strand of his blood vessels being washed clean…. Just recalling it made goosebumps rise on his skin. ‘I really do end up experiencing all sorts of things.’ To think he would experience having his bundles of nerves washed just because he had possessed a villain. No matter how he thought about it, there was no life as harsh as this one.
“So when you opened your eyes, Mr. Han Chasu, all of us really nearly cried.”
But the people who had been whipped by S-ranks in order to save a villain were pitiable all the same.
Han Chasu was just about to offer words of comfort.
“After doing nothing but cleaning up after those foul-tempered Management Bureau guys, the thought that we had saved someone like you, Mr. Han Chasu, someone who was truly… truly helpful to the world, made my heart swell.”
What did I just hear?
Han Chasu stopped the hand he had been about to raise to pat the man’s shoulder. His gray eyes looked at Bak Seongjin with a grave light.
Bak Seongjin had long since sunk into his own world.
“When I thought about it, I couldn’t even remember the last time I felt rewarded while working. That’s when I realized it. Ah, I had fallen into mannerism…! Saving lives was such a rewarding and meaningful thing, and I had forgotten that until now.”
“……”
It seemed there was no need to pity him in particular. In his heart, Han Chasu congratulated Bak Seongjin on recovering his motivation to work.
In the meantime, the line had shrunk by half. The menu board was now close enough to see, so Han Chasu focused. ‘What would be good?’ There were three kinds of fresh fruit juice sold at the café. Strawberry, banana, and kiwi. Judging by the people receiving their drinks, strawberry seemed to be the most popular.
“Fresh strawberry juice and strawberry-banana juice are ready.”
Just then, someone received a drink that wasn’t on the menu.
“Strawberry-banana?”
Han Chasu’s gaze fixed on the man wearing glasses.
And their eyes met. At those widened black eyes, Han Chasu felt awkward. When he silently lowered his head slightly, the man smiled and lowered his head in return. ‘He has a kind face.’ He was a man with a gentle impression. Dark brown hair and soft eyes. Thanks to the corners of his lips being slightly upturned, his face looked as though he were smiling even when he merely blinked.
Someone who gave off an air of goodness just by standing still must refer to people like that. ‘Unlike Han Chasu.’ As he quietly lamented his own situation out of envy, Bak Seongjin sidled up beside him. A voice full of curiosity rang in his ear.
“How do you know the professor? Did you already know each other?”
“Pardon?”
“You greeted each other just now.”
“…
That man is a professor?”
“Uh, yes.”
Bak Seongjin tilted his head and continued.
“He’s a professor of psychology who comes to our medical center as an advisor… You didn’t know each other? I thought you greeted him.”
“Our eyes met by chance, so I just greeted him out of courtesy. More importantly, this is the first time I’ve heard of a psychology professor coming to the medical center as an advisor.”
“We made a psychological counseling center a few years ago, remember? He’s someone who’s been helping us with that since the early stages.”
Apparently, the Awakened Management Bureau’s medical center had a separate psychological counseling center.
Unlike Awakened affiliated with guilds, who mainly dealt with monsters, Awakened affiliated with the Management Bureau often dealt with people, and that was why it had come about.
“I see.”
As Han Chasu mulled over Bak Seongjin’s words, he felt realization flash through his mind.
Come to think of it, on the day he opened his eyes in the medical center, hadn’t Jeong Iheun recommended counseling to him? And that wasn’t all. ‘Even on the day I returned the earring to Geum Myeonggyeol, the medical staff called Jeong Iheun out, saying they had something to say about counseling.’ So they had been trying to get him to go to the psychological counseling center inside the center. Han Chasu swallowed a hollow laugh. ‘Then that man they call professor might know about me too.’
It was now certain that Jeong Iheun had talked with the medical staff regarding counseling. There was a high chance that the professor, who was supposedly an advisor, had participated in that conversation as well.
“Hmm.”
Was that why he had smiled when their eyes met earlier? Han Chasu subtly turned his head and stole a glance at the man called professor.
The man sitting on a bench beyond the small fence was with companions who appeared to be employees of the psychology center.
“Will you be ordering?”
“Ah. I’m sorry.”
He had forgotten it was his turn. After much deliberation, Han Chasu asked the employee.
“Is strawberry-banana juice possible?”
“Yes, what size would you like?”
Without hiding his delight, Han Chasu pointed at a cup.
“Please give me the largest one.”
He felt a little embarrassed, as though he were copying that man. But he could not defeat instinct.
And it was an extremely satisfying choice.
“Your strawberry-banana juice and iced Americano with three extra shots are ready. Enjoy!”
“Thank you.”
The moment he took a sip of the juice, Han Chasu understood. Why the professor had ordered something that wasn’t even on the menu.
“It’s good, isn’t it?”
Han Chasu nodded and wordlessly focused on drinking his juice. How much time had he spent enjoying that leisure?
“Ah, the weather’s nice. I could stay here all day… ugh.”
Bak Seongjin suddenly groaned and twisted his body. A red light was blinking from the device on his wrist.
Bak Seongjin’s face turned pitch-black with dread. After letting out a deep sigh, he said,
“My mouth is the problem. Haah… Mr. Han Chasu, I think I need to go downstairs for a bit. What will you do?”
“I’ll stay a little longer before I go.”
“Uh, will you be all right alone?”
“With this many people around, what could happen?”
Still, Bak Seongjin did not seem reassured.
“Sujin will come in my place. If anything happens while you’re waiting, contact us immediately.”
Bak Seongjin even pressed a pager into his hand before leaving. The way he kept glancing back from time to time even as he went made Han Chasu think the man was truly making a fuss.
“Hmm, should I have one more?”
After mindlessly sitting there in a daze and drinking, he had already emptied the entire liter. Just as Han Chasu was staring at the empty cup with regretful eyes—
“Hello.”
A gentle voice stirred the air. Han Chasu raised his head and blinked.
Chestnut-brown hair and black eyes. The man who seemed like the very model of goodness was looking at him and smiling.
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