* * *
The Medical Professor of the Special Department, who was also the Hospital Director of Korea University Hospital, was in a bit of a predicament.
The cause was the man Shin Hajin had dropped off and then vanished.
“Pulse?”
“It’s a little faint, but it’s not far off the normal range.”
“Did you draw blood?”
“Yes. We are reviewing the results now. There are no values that look like a serious problem.”
They were running tests because it was Shin Hajin, of all people, who had brought him, but they didn’t know the man’s identity or the reason for his unconsciousness.
Even for the medical staff of a university hospital, there wasn’t much they could do in this situation.
Furthermore, the basic examinations they had conducted simply showed that the bodily condition of this extremely fragile-looking young man was perfectly normal, and his unconsciousness was closer to a state of sleep.
The Hospital Director couldn’t understand why Shin Hajin had dropped this man here, given his utterly normal readings for a patient.
Yet, to simply leave him be and send him back once he woke up felt… risky because of the name Shin Hajin.
As is typical of university hospital special departments, Korea University Hospital’s Special Department also had a close relationship with the Korean Esper-Guide Association.
Doing anything that might displease one of their big players, Shin Hajin, was not a good idea.
He couldn’t understand why Shin Hajin, who was normally such a cold and aloof young man, had dropped off this man.
“…Huh?”
However, in the next moment, the Hospital Director’s predicament was unexpectedly resolved.
It happened when one of the nurses assisting with the man’s treatment made an expression as if she had suddenly remembered something.
“What’s wrong?”
“Uh, uh, wait, just a moment.”
The medical staff, who had been clustered together, focused their attention on the nurse.
The Hospital Director didn’t know this, but the nurse was someone who obsessively sought out every article related to the Gate because her younger brother was an Esper of an ambiguous rank.
“…I-isn’t this, this person?”
The nurse, who had been tilting her head as if deep in thought and then pulling out her phone and moving her fingers, showed the screen to the Hospital Director.
The screen displayed an article related to a Gate that had become a huge sensation three years ago. The Hospital Director remembered it too.
A significantly large Gate that occurred in the city center of Seoul three years ago.
It was hard to specifically remember any particular Gate since they opened everywhere without warning, but this was an incident that he, and the general public, had all heard about at least once.
Because it was an incident where a person was sucked into the Gate and went missing.
At the time, the media had revealed the victim’s face and it became quite noisy, reawakening caution regarding the Gates.
From another perspective, it was also an event that heroicized the Esper who barely managed to close the Gate despite the massive damage it caused, but setting that aside as it was not important.
The article on the nurse’s phone screen showed the victim’s picture.
A young man of a light coloring, whether he was mixed-race or not. Chae Suhyeon, age twenty-three at the time.
The Hospital Director’s face hardened.
His gaze, which had been resting on the nurse’s phone screen, slowly moved to the unconscious man.
The man looked exactly like the person in the photo, to the point where one could believe the photo was just taken.
Ding—!
The Hospital Director’s cell phone rang with a text message alert.
‘—Sorry I had to leave quickly due to the team leader’s order. It bothered me, so I’m sending this: the man popped out of the Gate that opened in Germany today.’
There was no one in that room who wouldn’t know who the text message was referring to.
The Hospital Director’s complexion visibly turned white.
‘Popped out of the Gate.’
The man who was sucked into the Gate three years ago, came out of a Gate today.
It was utterly against common sense.
However, the medical staff did not remain foolishly frozen but began to move quickly.
Their minds were still full of questions, but they at least understood the circumstances.
And when the man woke up,
“Chae Suhyeon, is that right?”
The sight of the man, Suhyeon, who was shedding tears as if unable to believe that this was reality, stimulated the sympathy of the Hospital Director, a middle-aged man who had seen it all.
The young man, who was crying with such a sorrowful appearance, suddenly clutched his chest before the Hospital Director could even say anything.
The man’s face instantly became stained with pain, and he collapsed without even screaming.
His chest.
In the worst case, his heart.
Simultaneously, blackish-red, dead blood was spat out as if in slow motion.
The faces of the Hospital Director and the medical staff froze instantly.
The nurses let out soft screams.
“Prepare the IV fluids! Get all the labs ready! Quickly!”
The Hospital Director shouted, rushing to catch Chae Suhyeon’s collapsing body.
The Gate was a place where space and time were all twisted.
It was impossible for a person who had fallen into such a place and come out to be fine.
An unexpected emergency situation descended upon the medical staff.
*
“The German Gate was closed without any issues.”
“You worked hard, Shin Hajin Esper.”
“We’re so lucky Team 1 was on standby. Thank you, Hajin.”
Hajin, having finished his report and the video call with the German government, went straight down to the Association’s underground parking lot.
As he approached a luxury sedan, the waiting driver bowed his head.
The car carrying him smoothly left the Association.
At the entrance of the Association they passed by, reporters, who had mysteriously figured out that Hajin and his team had returned after closing the Gate, were swarming like a rat infestation.
Even when they moved with the utmost care to prevent information from leaking, reporters always flocked like a horde of mice.
They just created provocative stories, and the public read them and got excited…
The disgust for humanity always lurked within Hajin, as it always did.
The person for whom that revulsion had completely disappeared for a mere moment was—
“Ha,”
There it was again.
He thought of him again.
Hajin let out a self-mocking laugh and brushed his hair back.
He saw the driver flinch, but it was none of his business.
Hajin recalled the man who had been unsettling his mind since the report.
His light brown eyes blinking, and the tears rolling down.
The one whose contact he, who could not permit anyone’s touch, not only allowed but kept holding without feeling any revulsion.
The light-colored man, who had stared at him with innocent eyes for a short while, would not disappear from his mind, no matter how hard he tried to push him away.
‘Was he a mental-type Esper? One with an enthrallment ability or something?’
It was a reasonably rational deduction, but that frail, small-animal-like man had clearly lost consciousness in front of him.
He had never heard of an ability that could affect someone even after the Esper lost consciousness, and no matter how strong an ability was, it wouldn’t affect someone when they weren’t even together, like now.
Moreover, he was an S-Class Esper. Most powers couldn’t even touch him.
And his mysophobia.
Hajin looked at the black glove he always wore on his hand.
If an enthrallment ability could eliminate all feelings of repulsion, he would have long ago hunted down and tortured all Espers with similar abilities to get rid of this issue.
In the end, he was left with only the conclusion that he was simply concerned about the man whose name, age, and everything else he didn’t know, to the point of personally transporting him to the hospital.
Even after arriving home and gulping down a bottle of cold water, the image of the man popping out of the Gate and falling into his arms would not disappear from his mind.
“Tsk,”
Hajin clicked his tongue and roughly raked his fingers through his hair again.
It was annoying.
“Why are you acting so distracted?”
At the familiar voice from behind him, Hajin only turned his eyes to look at the unwelcome guest who had slipped in without him noticing.
Ryu Yihan, a doctor and a friend of Shin Hajin for over ten years, stood crookedly in front of him, wearing a white medical gown.
“I told you not to enter my house without permission.”
“You called me, you bastard.”
Shin Hajin paused.
It was true.
After leaving the man at the hospital, he had called Ryu Yihan, as if possessed, because there was something he wanted to ask.
He had forgotten, though.
“…Can a person come out of a Gate?”
Ryu Yihan’s face was one he hated to look at, but his knowledge of Gates and medicine was useful.
The lukewarm word ‘useful’ didn’t suit a world-renowned doctor in the Special Department at all, but again, it was none of Hajin’s business.
Ryu Yihan frowned, then shook his head.
“There’s no precedent for that. Though there was a time when a person was sucked in, three years ago. Why, did someone come out?”
Shin Hajin didn’t answer, but Ryu Yihan’s face instantly filled with excitement.
“Someone came out! What have you been doing without telling me? Where is the person, tell me now!”
His eyes were filled with intensity.
Ryu Yihan was obsessed with the Gates.
“Tsk,”
Hajin lightly kicked Ryu Yihan to shut him up and clicked his tongue fiercely.
As if intending to drive him crazy, the man’s image became clearer the more he thought about him.
There was no sign of it disappearing.
If anything, it was getting worse.
If he let this continue, he would be sitting around thinking about the man all day.
He needed to find out what the man had done to him.
Hajin picked up his phone and called someone.
Naturally, the call was answered immediately after only a few rings.
“Esper Lee Jeonghyeon.”
The poor teleportation worker, who was being exploited by his team leader, dutifully had to move Hajin back to Korea University Hospital again.
“Sh-Shin Hajin Esper!”
And what met his eyes right afterward was the sight of the man, surrounded by the unpleasantly numerous medical staff, trembling, clutching his chest in pain, losing consciousness, and having a seizure.
His vision was stained red.
Shin Hajin grit his teeth without time to think.
He didn’t know why he did it.
But he fiercely turned his head and sought out the Hospital Director, and,
“Save him.”
He issued a sharp command that must not be refused.
Once again, an emergency had been declared in the Special Department.
* * *
