CTL 60

The man sleeping in the old van was motionless.

“I’m not that cruel of a person, you know.”

Looking at the deeply sleeping man, Park Taesoo turned to look back at Ko Yoonchul.

“How painful would it be to go through this while you’re perfectly sane. I don’t want something like that. It makes the person watching feel disgusting, too. Don’t you think?”

“…”

When Ko Yoonchul nodded his head, Park Taesoo let out a smirk.

“You fucking idiot.”

He threw a small lighter from his pocket, but Ko Yoonchul failed to catch it properly, and the lighter tumbled across the ground.

“S-sorry.”

Ko Yoonchul quickly bent down, picked up the lighter, and apologized. As soon as Ko Yoonchul straightened his back and handed it back to him, Park Taesoo scowled deeply.

“Ha, fuck. Hey.”

“…”

“I’m telling you to light it. Don’t you get it?”

“Ack!”

Ko Yoonchul staggered from the fist he swung. But he hesitated for a moment, still holding the lighter.

“What. Can’t do it? Feeling guilty or something?”

“…If, if I do this.”

Ko Yoonchul asked desperately.

“You’re, you’re going to give me the drugs, right?”

“…”

“You’re going to let me go, right? You s-said you would send me abroad.”

“Haa… Yoonchul. I told you I’d do it, okay? Why can’t you trust people like this.”

Seeing Ko Yoonchul stuttering badly, Park Taesoo answered with annoyance. Only then did Ko Yoonchul say things like, uh, yeah, right, and flicked the wheel of the lighter.

A moment later, flames began to soar inside the car where the sleeping man was. Even though a person was dying right in front of him, Ko Yoonchul paid no mind and only looked at Park Taesoo.

“N-now, please save me. Okay?”

“So why did you have to resist in the first place, huh? Ugh, seriously.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I thought you were someone Ko Yoongeon sent. I really did.”

“Not even realizing you were trying to save me…” Ko Yoonchul mumbled for a moment.

Park Taesoo couldn’t stand watching the half-witted Ko Yoonchul any longer and grabbed him by the collar, dragging him away. After forcing him into a car and tossing him the drugs, Ko Yoonchul caught them and hurriedly plunged the syringe needle into his own arm.

“Hey, Ko Yoonchul.”

“Yeah.”

“Let me ask you one thing.”

“What is it…?”

Ko Yoonchul asked, his eyes already hazy as if the drug was taking effect.

“What the hell is Ko Yoongeon’s weakness?”

“He doesn’t have a weakness….”

“…”

“Yebin…? His mom…?”

No, no… Shaking his head, Ko Yoonchul’s face went completely slack.

“Aah… he, heh, heu… has been… keeping a man… around lately….”

Then his body went limp.

“A man…?”

Park Taesoo’s eyes immediately curved.

✧ ✧ ✧

As expected, this time too, Yoongeon opened his eyes at dawn.

He couldn’t get his mind straight. It was because he hadn’t slept a wink. But upon seeing Seohwi’s sleeping face as soon as he opened his eyes, Yoongeon smiled softly. It was good to see him looking so comfortable.

“…”

Yoongeon stroked his hair before sitting up. He made his way outside so as not to wake Seohwi, but a sudden wave of dizziness made him stagger for a moment before he quickly righted himself. He couldn’t afford to fall pathetically over a little dizzy spell like this.

Sighing, he headed for the sofa in the living room. Although he liked being with Seohwi, Yoongeon hadn’t been able to stay by his side lately.

He sat on the sofa, listlessly slumped over, and fell into a short sleep. Then, two hours later, he woke up with a start, without any warning.

“Uh…”

Why did I suddenly wake up, Yoongeon wondered, looking at the clock. The time was 6 in the morning. He had only been asleep for about two hours.

“Haa…. What on earth is wrong with me.”

His body felt unusually drained of energy. Could he be sick? But he didn’t feel any signs of being ill. It wasn’t possible to be sick without knowing it, so he must have been exaggerating his symptoms.

“Ha, for heaven’s sake. Of all the things…”

Could he now exaggerate his symptoms unconsciously? He forced strength into his listless body and tried to move. And that, he could do. It seemed he was right about exaggerating. In all his many lives, he’d never been like this; what a strange thing to happen.

‘Right, this kind of thing can happen.’

Not just once, not twice, but for ten out of eleven lives, he had lived with the memories of his past lives, so he figured it could be possible. Of course, accepting the fact that he was a pathetically weak human was a slightly different matter.

In any case, it was enough that he could move. He blinked his dazed eyes a few times, trying to clear his head. But for some reason, the distant feeling, the feeling of being one step removed from the world, wouldn’t go away. His body was the same, but it felt as if his soul was floating.

Yoongeon forced himself to get up. Once he was on his feet, it was a bit of an effort, but he could do it. His body felt a bit sluggish, but that was it; he didn’t feel sick or overwhelmed.

“Right… it must have just been for a moment.”

It could be because he hadn’t slept properly. Yoongeon thought so and headed for the second-floor study. Since his mind was awake, he figured he might as well get some work done.

But around the middle of the staircase, Yoongeon lost consciousness.

✧ ✧ ✧

From outside, a loud noise rang out of something heavy falling and then shattering into pieces.

“…?”

The noise was loud enough to wake the deeply sleeping Seohwi at once. Startled, Seohwi opened his eyes and sat up, but Yoongeon wasn’t beside him.

“Yoongeon?”

It was usual for him to be gone when he woke up, but somehow, he had a bad feeling this time. And with good reason, hadn’t there just been a tremendous noise?

Seohwi went outside, feeling anxious. It was always quiet, but for some reason, today it was ominously silent. Only then did Seohwi, looking around a bit more urgently, find his eyes widening.

“Yoongeon!”

He had collapsed, unconscious.

Rushing over in shock, Seohwi didn’t even pay attention to the broken glass shards at his feet as he lifted Yoongeon, who had collapsed among the shattered remains, into his arms.

“Damn it, Yoongeon, Yoongeon! Wake up!”

No matter how many times he called, Yoongeon didn’t open his eyes. Not only that, but blood was flowing from his head.

Looking around to figure out what on earth had happened, Seohwi realized that he had fallen while climbing the stairs. Perhaps because he had fallen badly, the glass railing had shattered and was scattered on the floor.

“Wait, just a moment.”

Seohwi brushed off the broken glass shards covering Yoongeon and carried him, carefully laying him down on the sofa. Then he rushed into the room, grabbed his phone, and was about to call 119 when he paused.

“…”

He knew this wasn’t something to hesitate about, but the thought occurred to him that the fact of Yoongeon being sick becoming known to the public might be a burden to him. Seohwi took a few deep breaths to calm himself and then called Secretary Lim. When the line had rung about twice and was picked up, Seohwi said that Yoongeon had collapsed before he could even offer a greeting.

Even at the words that he had collapsed, Secretary Lim answered without a hint of panic that he would arrive within 15 minutes and hung up. And he arrived with a doctor in exactly 10 minutes.

“…He’s just asleep. It’s a bit much to call it a silver lining, but you can rest assured that it’s highly unlikely to be a cerebrovascular disease.”

“What about an examination?”

“We’ll have to do one.”

The doctor, who had been examining him for a while, said as he set up an IV drip. Seohwi, who had been tense thinking it was a serious illness because he had collapsed so suddenly, finally let out a sigh of relief.

“What about his head.”

“It’s just a slight tear, so this much is fine. It doesn’t even need stitches.”

The doctor added that it was fortunate the wound itself wasn’t large compared to the amount of bleeding, and then adjusted the drip rate of the IV.

“Has he been under a lot of stress lately?”

“Stress? I don’t know. He’s always the same.”

The answer came not from Seohwi, but from Lim Sunwoong.

“He’s always had a lot of work.”

“Well, the Executive Director does tend to work quite a lot. In any case, right now he’s just sleeping because he’s accumulated a lot of fatigue. I can prescribe sleeping pills if you’d like. Should I?”

“Yes.”

“No. The Executive Director has a lot to do today, so that won’t work.”

At their conflicting answers, the doctor looked between the two of them, then gestured with his eyes as if to say they should come to an agreement quickly, and left. It was his own way of being considerate. After he left, Seohwi frowned and looked at Secretary Lim.

“Didn’t you hear him? He said he’s accumulated a lot of fatigue.”

Even as Seohwi coldly challenged him, Secretary Lim shook his head without a hint of being intimidated.

“The Executive Director doesn’t like it when his schedule is disrupted.”

“Work isn’t what’s important right now….”

“It is important. Mr. Yoon Seohwi, you may not know this, but honestly, if we’re only talking about work, we’re at the point where even waking him up right now wouldn’t be enough.”

Lim Sunwoong, who always had a silly, smiling face, scratched his temple with a slightly hardened expression.

“This isn’t the time for him to be sleeping like this. Someone who knows that…”

“What’s important to me is the Executive Director. Not the work.”

“Yes. And what’s important to the Executive Director is you, Mr. Yoon Seohwi, not the work.”

“…”

Secretary Lim cut off Seohwi’s rebuttal and spoke nonchalantly. At that answer, Seohwi was momentarily at a loss for words.

“But there are too many people clinging to the Executive Director right now. And every single matter is a sensitive one. It’s the same as holding a ticking time bomb.”

At Secretary Lim’s words, Seohwi bit his lip. Right, he wasn’t unaware of how many people were hanging on his shoulders.

“…You mean there are a lot of things that need to be resolved.”