PHUW 76

What on earth was this?

Haeri just blinked blankly. The one who had dropped the nuclear bomb couldn’t even meet his eyes and looked away. That handsome face turned more and more like a fully ripe tomato with every passing second. Haeri’s own face began to heat up as well.

He felt like he had to say something. The one who had dropped a straight, heavy pitch at an injured man waiting for surgery now cowardly kept his mouth shut. The only one who could break through this awkward and humiliating situation was Haeri.

“Mm,… what non… nons… nonsens….”

He was so shocked he stuttered. The head that had stayed straight even while avoiding his gaze now sank lower and lower. Unable to hold up his long, broad frame, Jeong Mok buried his face in the crook of his arm. His wide shoulder blades bulged under the pulled-tight suit jacket.

“Ugh… it’s embarrassing.”

“Hyung-nim, why are you embarrassed? I’m the embarrassed one. How could you say something like that, and in an emergency room of all places.”

He snapped with a face like a cherry tomato in front of a giant one.

“That’s why I told you we should talk later.”

Jeong Mok muttered sullenly. Who was he to be the one getting irritated? It was so absurd Haeri was dumbfounded.

That was when, without warning, someone yanked the curtain open. Both of them jumped.

“…Why are you so startled?”

The nurse looked at them with suspicion. Jeong Mok looked away, but Haeri couldn’t. He had moved his foot in surprise, and the pain broke through the painkillers, twisting his flushed face.

“You can’t be fooling around in the ER.”

The nurse scolded in a dry, official tone after glancing at the two of them.

“N–nothing happened.”

“Yes. Guardian, don’t agitate the patient.”

She didn’t sound convinced.

“I’m sorry.”

Jeong Mok apologized, his face still red.

“We’ll move you to the ward now. Guardian, help please.”

Even though the surgery was delayed, the ward was ready, and they moved immediately. It was the same room Haeri had stayed in before. Naturally, Jeong Mok moved with him.

***

In the ward, while Haeri changed into a patient gown with the nurse’s help, Jeong Mok had a long call with someone named Manager Ahn. Maybe it was a call Haeri wasn’t supposed to hear, because even though he could have helped, he stayed deliberately far away and only watched. Almost everything he said was bland instructions like “Yes, please send me a detailed report by email.”

Afterward, he continued with his secretary. That conversation must have been fine to hear, because he sat comfortably on the sofa by the bed while talking. From what Haeri caught, he said it would be difficult to go to work today, to cancel all outside appointments, and to bring anything urgent here. He gave instructions to relay things to some managing director at a subsidiary, and about how to handle a video meeting with an overseas branch. It was all company business.

‘Am I supposed to be hearing this?’

Normally people hide company matters, don’t they? And these were direct orders from Hyeonsan’s vice chairwoman, which had to be important. Letting him hear this while making the earlier call with Manager Ahn off-limits made him wonder what that one had been about. But that was only a small question. The bigger thing was elsewhere.

Haeri had barely escaped death, he had been too shaken, then too busy venting complaints and chasing away urgent worries, to really look at Jeong Mok properly. Now he finally had the chance.

‘Clothes really do make the man. He looked good even in rags, but dressed properly, it’s something else.’

The clipped instructions and his relaxed posture made him seem arrogant, and wearing a three-piece suit that fit as if tailored onto him, he looked exactly like a chaebol heir stepped out of a drama. A striking face with a bold build to match. Anyone, young or old, man or woman, would fall for him at first sight. Just looking at him made Haeri’s chest tingle.

‘If he did SNS, he’d blow up. He could make a hundred billion a year just on sponsored ads. What a waste.’

Even though as a chaebol heir he already had money to burn, Haeri found it a waste.

‘Why?’

Feeling his gaze, Jeong Mok mouthed the words “What is it?” over the phone. Haeri shook his head quickly, saying nothing.

‘No. It’s better if he doesn’t do SNS. He’s the type who could make even healthy men fall for him. If he became a nationwide star, patients unable to function in daily life would pop up everywhere. Unless he’s ready to take responsibility for everyone who falls in, keeping up the mystery is better for social stability.’

Messages kept coming in.

Jeong Mok tapped the screen with only the tips of his fingers sticking out of the bandage. Soon, as if it bothered him, he unwrapped the carefully wound bandage the doctor had put on. He did it so coolly and recklessly that Haeri watching felt his bones ache in sympathy.

In just a few hours, the swelling had only gotten worse, not better. That must have been why he took off the bandage. Normally, when it swelled that much, a hand looked like Mickey Mouse’s, but Jeong Mok’s hand was so big and long that even puffed up it didn’t look ridiculous.

After finishing his long calls and messages, Jeong Mok finally leaned his upper body against the back of the sofa and sighed. The fluorescent light shone directly down on his sharply defined face. Maybe it was the shadow cast by his high nose, but the dark circles under his eyes stood out. His cheekbones and cheeks looked sharper than before too, as if he had lost weight.

Jeong Mok looked at Haeri. The combination of his good looks and masculine air made Haeri’s heart drop.

“How’s the pain? Is the painkiller working?”

“…Yes.”

That husky low voice sounded so gentle that Haeri felt embarrassed and awkward. The conversation about kissing just a while ago felt like a dream.

‘Am I the only one who’s conscious about it? Why is he so unbothered?’

He wanted to bring it up again, but actually saying it was too embarrassing. If only he had the courage to ask, “So why did you suddenly want to kiss me?”

Unable to do either, he fidgeted instead. Maybe thinking Haeri was uncomfortable, Jeong Mok propped up his injured leg with a pillow. When his warm hand brushed Haeri’s ankle, the sole of his foot tingled. If not for the painkiller, he would have gone into a fit.

“I’ll check on Gom-i. It might take about an hour. Can you be alone for a while?”

This was a VIP ward, and with his frequent hospitalizations, Haeri’s assigned nurse knew better than anyone how to look after him. Besides, Haeri wanted to know how Gom-i was, so he told him to go quickly. But Jeong Mok didn’t move, he checked things pointlessly around the room before finally leaving.

As soon as he was alone, Haeri’s imagination spread wide.

Kiss. K-I-S-S. In Korean, bbo-bbo or ipmajchum. Another word, a lip bump. An act of pressing lips against someone you like, or feel more for as a sign of affection. The range went from a level 1 peck, like a mom kissing her baby, to a level 10, adults entangled and going back and forth.

‘Which one is it?’

Surely it wasn’t just a peck. If it were, he wouldn’t have been so mortified. If it had only been a quick surprise and then he laughed it off saying Haeri was cute, it would’ve passed easily. For him to be so shocked he immediately kicked Haeri out, it had to be well past level 8.

His face burned. He pulled the thin sheet stamped with the hospital logo over his head. The memory of that day, forgotten until now, suddenly came back in vivid detail.

That time, he had fallen while playing with Gom-i in the garden. Jeong Mok had come to help him up, and then looked at him with an intense gaze that startled him. His heart had pounded, sure something was about to happen, but then the washing machine alarm went off. Jeong Mok rushed to the laundry room, and Haeri tried calming his own racing heart. Then there had been a loud noise from the laundry room, and he had run there with Gom-i.

‘And then he lost his temper and left. Even after coming back, he kept snapping until Gom-i bit him.’

So at that moment, when he looked like he was about to do something, that something was a ki…

“Ahhhh.”

If he could have, he would have kicked the sheet. Instead, Haeri clenched it tight with his eyes shut.

So he hadn’t shown even a trace of personal interest, but secretly he had wanted to? How could someone be so sly?

Every time Haeri had panicked, thinking he was crossing a line too far, he thought it was just him being strange. He figured Jeong Mok’s affection was pure, the sort between close hyung and dongsaeng, and only his brain had twisted it with a dirty filter.

“What the hell. So he was doing it too, while acting like he wasn’t?”

He had deliberately lured him in, made him feel like the crazy one, and then tried to kiss him on top of it. And after all that, instead of explaining properly, he kicked him out?

“What kind of childish man is that? With a face and body like that, don’t tell me he’s never dated before. Ah, but he did say he wasn’t gay, so maybe it was his first time with a man and he didn’t know. Is that it?”

Ha. What era was this? If you touched another man like that, of course you had to seriously question if you had those inclinations. Acting like he was so mature and grown-up, when he was making mistakes even high school kids wouldn’t. It was too absurd.

“I’ll have to grill him. If you’re going to look like a macho man, but you can’t even manage a little kiss properly, then don’t touch people in the first place. You made me look like the weird one. Unbelievable.”

An hour passed quickly while Haeri was fuming.

‘Why isn’t he back?’

He needed Jeong Mok to come back so he could ask about Gom-i, whether he was badly hurt, if he’d been given food and water. But an hour became an hour and a half, then two, and still he didn’t return. If Haeri had had any strength left, he would’ve taken a taxi to chase after him.

Had something happened to Gom-i? Jeong Mok had said he was fine.

Or had the blow to his head done something after all? He had seemed fine in the car, but since Haeri himself had once undergone major surgery for a head injury, he couldn’t help but worry.

In the end, he pressed the nurse call button. When the nurse came, he asked her to bring him a phone. Taking the ward’s phone, Haeri dialed Jeong Mok’s number. Somehow, he had memorized it.