ITDW 41

There are no abnormalities. His vitals are normal. However, there could be internal bleeding. But before that, there is something else to check.

Jungyoon, barely suppressing his bursting breath, twisted and pinched Jaeri’s cheek quite painfully.

“……”

Some time passed after he applied pressure. He put more strength into his hand. It was enough force to leave a bruise.

“…Ugh… mmm, ah.”

Jaeri weakly brought a hand to his sore cheek, forced open his eyes that wouldn’t open, and spoke blankly.

“…Hyung?”

“Ah…”

Jungyoon moved back a little from Jaeri’s side and bent his upper body as if his large frame were collapsing.

He broke down. He clutched his head and let out a huge breath, broken. Jaeri, awakened from a deep sleep, couldn’t grasp the situation and clumsily gathered his removed clothes, put them on, and buttoned them up.

“…Hyung, where are we going? …Are you hurt somewhere?”

“…Turn the car around. Let’s go home.”

He said in a low voice. The end of his voice was torn to shreds.

“…Hyung, are you okay….”

He was silent for a while. Jaeri became aware that the air between them was not comfortable.

He straightened the body he had bent forward.

“Kim Jaeri.”

“…Yes.”

Jaeri tensed up a little at being called by his full name.

“If you did something wrong, say it now.”

“……”

Jaeri shut his mouth. He just fidgeted with his fingers a little and then looked at his face once. An unreadable, complex expression had appeared on his face. Although he couldn’t interpret the meaning of that expression precisely, he felt that he should speak honestly.

“…I took sleeping pills.”

“Where did you get them, how did you….”

“…During the hypomania…. I hid them in my mouth… didn’t swallow them….”

Jaeri said in a voice that trailed off.

“…Why?”

“……”

Jaeri pressed his lips firmly together. As if he didn’t want to reveal and speak of his own weakness.

Jungyoon relaxed his body completely against the seat and leaned back deeply. He raised his tilted gaze upwards and let out a low sigh.

He must have taken them because he was in pain, because he didn’t want to dwell on thoughts that dug up the wounds in his heart. To do that, there was no other way but to sleep, so the hypomanic Jaeri must have prepared them for the depressive Jaeri.

He closed his eyes and composed his emotions. Then he reached out and grabbed Jaeri’s hand.

Jaeri’s hand hurt a lot from his grip, but he couldn’t say anything because his hand was trembling severely, unlike him.

Instead of avoiding or pulling his hand away, Jaeri moved a little closer and sat next to him. At that moment, he suddenly pulled Jaeri into a hug.

“Uht….”

Jaeri, surprised by the sudden loss of his center of gravity, soon relaxed his body and let himself be held. He said nothing until they arrived home.

In that silence, Jaeri finally felt like he understood what the situation had been, and what his hyung had been thinking. Jaeri placed his own hand over his, which was holding him tightly.

After arriving home, Jaeri just trailed right behind him. He felt like he should. He just let Jaeri follow him around. When he washed his hands in the bedroom bathroom, Jaeri stood next to him, held out his own hands, and washed them too. When he drank water in the kitchen, he stood behind him. When he stood still looking at the blanket spread carelessly in the living room, he was behind him. And when he went and sat on the sofa, he knelt in front of him.

“Jaeri….”

He called Jaeri in a low voice, drawing out the end of his name. Jaeri looked up at him, then lowered his head from a sense of pressure he couldn’t explain.

He gently stroked Jaeri’s head.

“…I was wrong.”

“About what.”

“Taking… sleeping pills. Hiding them secretly.”

“…What exactly did you do wrong?”

“……”

“Jaeri, you know hyung is holding back a lot.”

As if some other emotion had covered it, that gentle voice was not natural. It was also an overly slow way of speaking, enduring something suppressed.

“…Yes.”

“……”

There was a moment of silence.

“I was wrong for… not telling hyung, for not getting permission, and taking sleeping pills. I was wrong for doing as I pleased…”

“…You know, well.”

“Ah, and… forgetting… to report….”

“You just remembered now?”

He said with a smile on his lips. That smile looked heavier than ever before.

“…Yes.”

Jungyoon said no more. The huge shock from earlier still left aftershocks in his chest, creating waves that struck his heart over and over again.

But the huge shock from earlier was nothing compared to these damn aftershocks, so he didn’t dare to dwell on it. That was true even though it was something he had to do—judge Jaeri’s rights and wrongs and punish him.

Judging for himself whether sleeping pills were good or bad, and because he thought they were bad, because he thought they would be hard to obtain easily, he pilfered the medicine he had given him and took it as he pleased. It was a wrong that could not possibly be overlooked. And yet….

Jungyoon remained still. He saw himself, a little powerless.

He suddenly said.

“…Starting tomorrow, you’ll have to go to the company and do menial tasks. If you don’t report, that’s what we agreed on.”

“Yes….”

Putting the sleeping pill incident aside for now, Jungyoon, having hardened his resolve to punish him for the other wrongdoing, picked up his phone without delay.

“Chief Koo, who among the department heads at the main office right now has the worst personality and is incompetent at their job.”

Chief Koo’s report followed.

“I’m sending an intern to the company tomorrow. Don’t say he’s from my line, but spread a rumor that he came in through Department Head Park’s connections. Which department needs manpower support the most right now? …Alright. Send him there, the kid’s name is Kim Leejae. Have an employee ID made.”

The physical examination that night was a bit harsh. He touched everywhere on his body painfully, and even when Jaeri was in a lot of pain, he didn’t soothe him. In that way, he tried to keep hearing the voice of Jaeri who was clearly feeling pain. Jaeri, who only made sounds of pain but did not avoid it and endured the entire painful examination, was bruised all over his body.

With the employee ID engraved with “Intern Kim Leejae” hanging around his neck, Jaeri stood awkwardly in the middle of the Strategic Planning Division, Advertising and Marketing Team 1 office, as Team Leader Seo introduced Jaeri to the team members. There were a few team members who took an interest in the very young and pretty boy’s face, but most were worn out with fatigue and had their eyes open like zombies.

“Well, we did ask for manpower support, but, tsk. This is Mr. Kim Leejae, the intern who will be training with our team starting today. His mentor is Assistant Manager Oh.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

“Assistant Manager Oh, you take charge of him.”

“Understood.”

A man with an irritable impression replied curtly, not hiding his expression of having been saddled with a troublesome task.

“As for his desk, we’ve set one up over there next to Assistant Manager Oh, so sit there.”

“…Yes.”

Jaeri timidly went to his seat and sat down. It was a desk with only a laptop, a mouse, a calendar, and a few discarded files. A bleak atmosphere. The eyes of the people, devoid of any leisure.

Jaeri was a little bewildered. He actually thought he was just being scared. He thought that once he arrived at the company, he would be told to do things like go to the Vice President’s office and clean. But Jungyoon was a man who did what he said he would do.

He didn’t know what to do, so he was watching Assistant Manager Oh’s expression, when Assistant Manager Oh happened to speak to him.

“Mr. Kim Leejae.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll buy you a coffee for a moment, so come out.”

“I can’t drink coffee.”

Assistant Manager Oh scowled deeply and looked at Jaeri.

“Anyway, I’ll let you drink whatever you want, so come out.”

“The people here are busy, so give up any thought of learning something and leaving. You know the company isn’t a school, right?”

“…Yes.”

Jaeri saw clear hostility in the bits and pieces of his words. In front of Jaeri, a peppermint tea was exuding a tart and minty fragrance. Jaeri discreetly took a deep breath of the peppermint’s scent.

“The good thing is, we don’t expect much from you, Mr. Leejae. Just do what you’re told, and run errands.”

“…Yes.”

Snap—. He made a snapping sound by rubbing his thumb and index finger together. It was a gesture to draw attention.

“Don’t beat around the bush like that when you answer. This is a company.”

“Understood.”

During the morning, a rumor that Kim Leejae was a parachute hire pushed in by Department Head Park spread like wildfire within the team. The talented team members, seeing the new intern who had simply gotten in through connections when even the intern competition was fierce, thought it was a dirty world.

Jaeri learned how to copy, print, scan, send faxes, and answer the phone. Answering the phone was the most nerve-wracking, but the busy team members found it bothersome to answer incoming calls, so he ended up answering the phone a lot.

Ring—. As soon as the phone rang once, Jaeri picked it up.

“Hello. This is Advertising and Marketing Team 1.”

Jaeri read the greeting he had written down in his notebook. He had written it down after watching someone else answer the phone.

— You answer the phone well, my Jaeri.

Laughter came from over the phone.

“…Ah, yes….”

His mentor next to him and other team members looked at Jaeri. Their expressions said, what kind of call is that, that you’re responding like that.

— You’re tired, aren’t you.

“…Yes.”

— Should I buy you lunch.

“…I think I have to eat with the people here.”

— Oyster and rice soup would be good for the lunch menu. It’s not like we can go far. There’s a good place downstairs from the company.

“…I can’t eat with you.”

Jaeri’s words came out a little sharp. This time, every team member within earshot of Jaeri’s voice looked at Jaeri.

— Exactly. I hate oyster and rice soup.

Jungyoon said some incomprehensible words and ended the call.