PHUW 13

“Hey, Ahn Haeri-ssi?”

Jeong Mok gently shook his forearm.

“N, no… it’s not me… I don’t… I don’t know… I d-don’t knoohhh… ugh…”

Instead of waking up, Ahn Haeri thrashed like someone being chased by a ghost and screamed.

It wasn’t the time to worry about his back or leg injuries. Jeong Mok grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

“Ahn Haeri-ssi!”

“Ugh… hah!”

Startled, Haeri’s flailing arm struck Jeong Mok’s jaw.

“Ah.”

A short sound of pain escaped him. When he saw Jeong Mok frozen in place, Ahn Haeri immediately froze up.

“S-Sorry…”

His wide eyes looked up at Jeong Mok with fear. His stiff posture and barely moving lips made it feel like he wasn’t even seeing Jeong Mok, but someone else entirely.

“Ahn Haeri-ssi. It’s me.”

“What?”

“It’s me. The one who brought you out of the homeless shelter.”

Jeong Mok straightened his upper body and placed both hands against the car’s ceiling. As the bright light came into view, Haeri finally seemed to realize where he was and who he was with. He let out a low sigh.

“You were having a nightmare?”

“Probably… I think so.”

Still staring into space, Haeri nodded.

“It looks like you’ve developed trauma. First, we’ll treat your back, and you should also start seeing a psychiatrist.”

At Jeong Mok’s words, Haeri nodded again. He tried to catch his breath and leaned out of the car, but the seat was too low, and he couldn’t get up easily.

“Wait a moment.”

Jeong Mok grabbed his arm. As Jeong Mok pulled, Haeri stumbled forward and barely managed to get up. His legs were weak, and he swayed backward again. Jeong Mok had to catch him by the waist with both arms.

“Hold on tight.”

With no strength left in his legs, it was hard to move him just by supporting him.

“This won’t work. Get on my back.”

“What?”

Jeong Mok bent down and turned his back toward him. Haeri hesitated, but when Jeong Mok urged him with a quiet “Hurry,” he climbed on reluctantly.

Fortunately, the emergency room was almost empty.

The doctor frowned as he examined Haeri’s back, then immediately hooked him up to an IV and added a painkiller. Since he had walked in, it didn’t seem like anything was broken, but they still needed a CT scan. He had a recent brain surgery on record and had just hit his head on a cabinet. The doctor warned that shock could set in, so a guardian needed to stay with him in the ER until the IV was finished.

After the CT, Haeri came back and lay down on his side. He couldn’t lie on his back. Once the painkillers kicked in, his tense face began to relax. The groans turned into regular breathing. While he slept, Jeong Mok sat beside him in the uncomfortable folding chair, not leaving once.

A nurse came to check the IV. While Jeong Mok stepped aside to avoid getting in the way, his phone rang. He quickly silenced it and checked the screen.

‘Professor.’

His expression darkened.

The professor rarely called at this hour. Clearly, someone had reported something through some channel. He couldn’t ignore it. Jeong Mok moved to a quiet corner and picked up.

“Yes.”

–Mok-ah, where are you right now?

A gentle middle-aged man asked carefully.

“I’m at the hospital. In the ER.”

–What happened? Are you hurt?

The professor sounded worried, his tone as warm as ever.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry. But how did you know to call?”

–The hospital called earlier. They said you were there. They didn’t say you were injured, but I thought I should check.

Jeong Mok glanced around the ER. Someone must have reported it to someone higher up. He had asked the professor, who was close with the chairman of the hospital board, to arrange for Haeri to be admitted to a VIP room. It was a natural connection, but it still made him smile bitterly.

“I’m fine. Someone else got hurt. I might need to stay for a few days.”

–Is it that same person?

“Yes.”

–Ah… another accident?

“It wasn’t just an accident. It was more like a case. Something happened.

–Do you need to report it to CEO Shin?

“Yes. I think I should. I had to use my fists while trying to rescue someone.”

When Jeong Mok admitted it, the professor sighed.

***

Someone touched the IV. The needle in the back of his hand shifted, and it throbbed in pain. The smell of disinfectant told him it was a nurse.

“Ahn Haeri-ssi, I’m going to take your temperature.”

She spoke in a gentle but firm tone as she placed the thermometer in his ear. His body felt heavier than when he came in, but the painkillers had dulled his headache.

“Your fever’s still high. Keep receiving the IV, and we’ll move you once a room is ready. Hang in there.”

He didn’t have the energy to respond, so he just blinked. That seemed to be enough, and the nurse pulled the curtain and hurried to another bed. He thought the IV would be it, but it seemed he’d be admitted again.

“I hit someone.”

Even with all the noise in the ER, he could clearly hear that deep voice. It came from near his feet. Lying on his side, Haeri’s gaze naturally shifted toward the sound. A large shadow moved behind the curtain.

“I stepped in because someone I knew was being beaten. I still don’t know the full story. But there’ll be criminal charges from this side too.”

The calm voice continued.

“This side is in worse shape. The diagnosis will probably be at least six weeks. He had brain surgery not long ago. If the person who hit him is the one in charge, the facility could be shut down. And there’s a record of me calling 119 from my car.”

Jeong Mok was explaining the situation to someone.

‘So he can talk that gently too.’

Even as he said things like criminal charges and shutting down a facility, his soft baritone sounded almost like ASMR. If he hadn’t been describing Haeri’s misery, it might’ve been soothing.

“Yes, I understand. Thank you again, Professor. No, please don’t come here. And don’t tell the Chairman yet. I’ll speak to him myself.”

Now a chairman was mentioned after the professor . Haeri had guessed Jeong Mok was rich, since he had pulled strings to get a VIP room through the hospital board chairman. But calling someone “Chairman” this casually?

‘Is he really a chaebol heir?’

Don’t heirs usually walk around with secretaries? Wearing suits and titles like Executive Director or CEO, with sharp faces and fancy shoes? But Jeong Mok wore a loose T-shirt, cargo pants, and worn-out work boots.

He clearly had money, but everything about him, from his sturdy build to his calm presence, screamed field worker, not office guy. The only thing chaebol-like was his car. That deep navy luxury car looked ready for a magazine cover.

‘If he were really rich enough to speak to the Chairman, he wouldn’t be this free.’

Was he the black sheep of the family?

‘Or maybe an illegitimate child.’

A modern-day Hong Gil-dong¹, the hidden son who can’t even call his father “Father.” Maybe the professor was the one who raised him. With his size and look, maybe he was the fixer who handled the Chairman’s dirty work. Maybe out in some remote construction site, there were bodies buried under concrete for crossing the Chairman.

An ominous though flashed through his mind.

‘What if I saw something before I lost my memory? Something bad about the Chairman? And now they want to get rid of me, for good?’

Just then, Jeong Mok finished his call and pulled back the curtain.

Haeri instinctively shut his eyes and pretended to sleep. His heart pounded from the scary thoughts.

Jeong Mok sat in the chair beside the bed and didn’t move for a long time. If he had even shifted a little, Haeri would’ve used that moment to pretend to wake up. But he didn’t budge, his posture like a stone statue. He considered sneaking a look through half-lidded eyes, but gave up. The weight of that presence was too strong.

Even without checking, he could feel it. Jeong Mok was staring at him. Scanning him, head to toe, like a biometric scanner verifying identity and components. And when the scan ended, instead of looking away, he just kept staring at Haeri’s face. His cheek tingled.

‘I should’ve turned the other way.’

Why had he laid on this side? The position that felt fine before suddenly became unbearable. His legs ached. His back hurt. Every bit of exposed skin tingled like bugs crawling over it.

He debated a hundred times whether to turn over or not.

“Are you feeling uncomfortable?”

The other party spoke to him as if he were doing it to someone who was awake.

“Should I call the nurse? Do you need anything? Water?”

It was obvious now he knew. But Haeri kept still, pretending to sleep. Whatever he said, he wasn’t going to answer. Then came movement. A shadow loomed over him. Even with his eyes closed, he couldn’t ignore that weight. The pressure of Jeong Mok’s presence settled over him.

“Are you really asleep?”

The whisper came right beside his ear. The husky, low voice brushed his eardrum and sent a chill running down his spine. He flinched and opened his eyes.

Jeong Mok met his gaze and let out a small laugh like he’d known all along. Then he sat back down.

“I knew it. You were awake.”

“How did you know?”

“Your eyeballs were rolling under your lids.”

“…”

His face burned.

1. Hong Gil-dong jeon” (The Tale of Hong Gil-dong), written during the Joseon Dynasty, most likely in the late 17th or early 18th century. The story is considered one of Korea’s first novels. Hong Gil-dong is the illegitimate son of a nobleman. Because his mother was a concubine, he cannot legally call his father “father” or his older brother “brother,” due to rigid class rules. ↩︎