* * *
At the doctor’s signal, a nurse quickly turned on a thin monitor fixed to the hospital room wall.
The screen, which Suhyeon had mistaken for a TV, displayed what looked like an X-ray.
The screen showed a white cross-section of a person’s chest.
The doctor approached the monitor and pointed a thin pointer at the lungs.
“Now, these are the lungs of a typical Guide or Esper, and… this is the heart.”
The location of organs that any rational human being would know.
But the place the doctor’s pointer moved to was something Suhyeon had never seen before.
Next to the heart, there was something forming a perfect circle.
“And this is the energy core. Have you heard of it?”
Suhyeon shook his head.
The doctor, as if he expected that, began to explain.
“It’s an organ where the Guide’s or Esper’s power is accumulated. Think of it simply as their second heart. It takes various forms, but it’s usually attached to the heart in this circular shape. Because it is the source of an Esper’s or Guide’s power, if it ruptures, it severely threatens life. This is common knowledge now that you’ve awakened as a Guide, so it’s good to know.”
Suhyeon watched the monitor for a moment, feeling like a student.
The doctor showed him a few more pictures, saying they were the cores of various Guides and Espers.
“And… here.”
The screen flipped quickly and stopped, and Suhyeon stared blankly at the picture that appeared.
Unlike the smooth, well-formed cores in the pictures the doctor had shown moments ago, the one in this photo was so distorted that Suhyeon wondered if it was even the same thing.
It even looked like it was slightly pressing on the heart.
‘Why is he showing me this?’
“This is Chae Suhyeon’s image.”
Ill omens always came true.
The doctor glanced at Suhyeon’s face and continued.
“As you can see, the core has a deformed shape. Unlike normal cores, where the core and the power within stabilize upon awakening, Suhyeon’s core is extremely unstable. Furthermore, the power intermittently causes small outbursts, and each time, the core swells up and irritates the heart. The coughing up blood seems to be because the energy outburst affects the lung tissue as well.”
It felt as if he were listening to someone else’s story.
The doctor picked up the remote again, and the screen soon showed a video of the core.
“The chest pain is caused by this. It wouldn’t matter if it was just pressing on the heart, but…”
‘Is there something else?’
Suhyeon stared blankly at the doctor’s lips, which were tightly closed for a moment before opening again.
“The human heart is very fragile. In contrast, the power contained in the core is strong, no matter who it belongs to. If an energy outburst occurs while it is pressing on the heart,”
The doctor raised a fist in the air, as if it were Suhyeon’s heart, and made a small pop sound with his mouth, then opened his hand.
Despite the small gesture, Suhyeon realized what it meant and instantly felt a chill.
‘My heart will burst?’
He looked at the doctor again, but he was merely looking at Suhyeon with a grave expression, as if to confirm that this was reality.
For a moment, his head throbbed.
The information, which had poured in all at once, stirred up his mind.
It was only after a long time that Suhyeon was finally able to part his lips.
“So, does that mean I could die at any moment?”
It hadn’t been long since he escaped the terror of the Gate, and yet death was once again casting its shadow so close.
A core.
An Esper and Guide organ that he didn’t even know existed in humans had appeared in him, but it was abnormal, pressing on his heart, and if the power inside exploded, his heart would rupture.
There was no human who could survive a ruptured heart, as far as he knew.
“…You don’t have to worry too much. The risk of such a large outburst is not great. It appears to be a phenomenon caused by the core and power not adapting to the body, since it’s not a congenital core. If the core begins to adapt to your body, you will return to normal.”
“What if the core doesn’t adapt?”
Silence again.
In the end, it meant that if the power inside exploded, he would die, and if the core didn’t adapt, he would have to live in this condition forever.
“…You will have to be hospitalized, as we need to constantly have medical equipment and specialized personnel ready to respond.”
The initial notification for hospitalization was repeated.
Suhyeon squeezed his eyes shut.
His pretty brown eyes hid behind his eyelids, only to reappear in the world a moment later.
“That wasn’t mentioned.”
However, it wasn’t Suhyeon who broke the silence.
The eyes of the doctor and nurses trembled slightly.
Suhyeon turned his head.
Perhaps because he had been receiving notifications that continuously made his mind go blank, he had forgotten that this unfamiliar man was by his side.
The man’s blue eyes, looking coldly down at the doctor, contained annoyance, displeasure, and even a slight anger.
‘Why?’
The nameless man, despite having fiercely questioned the doctor, suddenly furrowed his brows and made a strange expression.
Then, he turned his head and met Suhyeon’s gaze.
The blue eyes flickered, taking Suhyeon in.
It was such an intense look that Suhyeon flinched without meaning to.
“Ahem, Patient Chae Suhyeon.”
It was the doctor who rescued Suhyeon from the look that felt like it would swallow him whole.
He was looking at Suhyeon with a look of pity, and Suhyeon saw that and returned to reality.
Hospitalization.
Along with it, a more practical sense also returned.
That is, money.
“…Um, is there any way I don’t have to be hospitalized?”
“No.”
‘I suppose so.’
They had said his life was at stake.
Suhyeon bit his lip for a moment at the doctor’s expression, which was more resolute than when he explained about the heart.
Hospitalization in the Special Department must be very expensive.
Although he had steadily saved money from his early employment, he didn’t have much money as a recent graduate who had always lived alone.
“Excuse me, will hospitalization cost a lot?”
Suhyeon asked quietly after a moment of consideration.
The doctor and nurse blinked, as if they hadn’t imagined such a question would be asked.
But soon, they wore troubled expressions.
“Hmm… The accounting department will inform you in detail, but the Special Department’s hospitalization fee is a bit higher than other wards.”
The doctor looked away at the man beside Suhyeon, not Suhyeon, for some reason, and explained in a gentle voice.
‘This is a disaster.’
“However—”
However, Suhyeon didn’t properly hear the doctor’s next words.
Cough—
Ah, the blood was not an illusion.
“Chae Suhyeon? Patient?!!”
Just as suddenly, dead blood gushed out with the renewed chest pain that suddenly returned.
Suhyeon, in unbearable agony, collapsed, lying facedown from his seated position, again.
The intense pain was much fiercer than before, as if to make him realize the change in his physical condition.
Tears welled up in his sorrowful eyes. It was a pain that didn’t allow for even a whimper.
“Administer the painkiller, quickly!!”
“Electrocardiogram, Nurse!”
The faint screams and shouts of people rang in his ears.
Feeling his consciousness gradually sinking, Suhyeon involuntarily twisted his head up and met the man’s eyes.
The blue eyes were wide open, looking down at the collapsing Suhyeon.
Only as his vision flickered to black did Suhyeon seem to realize.
The comfortable and peaceful life he had before falling into the Gate was already far away.
Perhaps, he might never return to the daily life of an ordinary office worker.
*
This time, it didn’t seem to take as long to regain consciousness.
The afternoon sunlight streaming into the hospital room was the same, and the blue-eyed man by his side was still there.
The doctor and nurse, who had been calmly discussing Suhyeon’s possibility of death, were also the same.
Although they looked a little more drawn than before for some reason.
The only difference was perhaps one more IV line flowing steadily into his arm.
And the fact that the man, who had been silently by Suhyeon’s side all along, was now too close.
“That’s a relief…”
The doctor’s muttered words weren’t very clear.
The man’s detached blue eyes, carrying a cool air, scanned Suhyeon.
When Suhyeon sat up a little, the man’s face became closer.
Although not as much as the doctor or nurse, the man also looked somewhat tired.
“I am Shin Hajin. Chae Suhyeon.”
“…I am Chae Suhyeon?”
At the sudden introduction, Suhyeon stammered out his own name in response.
‘Huh?’
‘His name was Shin Hajin.’
It suited the man.
A dazed thought, completely unrelated to the situation, passed through his mind.
The man, Hajin, sighed.
Then, he raised his head and looked at Suhyeon again.
When Suhyeon flinched at the look, which seemed to view him as something bothersome, Hajin flinched back as if he had been infected.
‘What was that?’
“Hold out your hand.”
Suhyeon meekly held out his hand.
Soon after, Hajin, who had been looking down at him, removed the glove he was wearing.
Thud.
Hajin’s hand landed on top of Suhyeon’s.
It was a perfunctory movement, but a sigh escaped Hajin’s lips once more, as if it held some meaning.
Suhyeon heard a gasp from the side for some reason and, looking at the doctor and nurses, saw the doctor’s eyes were wide with shock.
While Suhyeon tilted his head in confusion, the blue eyes stared directly at him.
He could feel the gaze that seemed to captivate him even without looking. His light-colored eyes fully took in the blue ones.
“Will you come to my house?”
* * *
