* * *
Hajin stared at the awakened Suhyeon.
He had been continuously observing him, and now he felt it was time to admit it.
The continuous pull he felt toward the man, Suhyeon, was not because the man possessed some ability.
The man before his eyes was ignorant, pure, and innocent.
He had awakened as a Guide, they said. Espers were said to go crazy over Guides, but this wasn’t because of Guiding, either.
There was no Guiding wavelength detectable from this man right now.
This was simply Hajin himself being unable to maintain his composure.
He didn’t know what was going on.
But it seemed better to keep him close and observe him rather than repressing the thoughts that kept popping up in his mind while keeping him elsewhere.
“…Pardon?”
Hajin looked down at Suhyeon.
The man’s light-colored eyes blinked, filled with his image.
‘What correlation is there between being hospitalized and going to a stranger’s house?’
Hajin let out a small laugh at the man’s transparently innocent face.
“Hajin, what in the world are you trying to—”
Hajin twisted his head.
The Hospital Director was staring at him with a look of utter bewilderment.
It was not a gaze he liked.
His deep blue eyes narrowed, then relaxed.
Explaining was quite bothersome, but seeing Suhyeon, who was now frowning out of confusion, Hajin bothered to reply.
“My mansion is fully stocked with medical equipment, enough to tell a university hospital to step aside. Do you know of a doctor named Ryu Yihan?”
The fact that his house was full of various facilities was known to almost everyone except Suhyeon, and the Hospital Director clammed up as if he finally understood something when Ryu Yihan’s name was mentioned.
Even Suhyeon, who seemed to know nothing, recognized that name and tilted his head.
“Isn’t he a famous doctor?”
‘I didn’t know keeping a guy around who only knows how to yell loudly would be helpful.’
Shin Hajin quickly caught himself after inadvertently thinking Suhyeon’s behavior was cute, and he cleared his throat.
“That person will be constantly by his side.”
Suhyeon, who had been looking at him, briefly turned his head toward the Hospital Director.
Between the hospital and Hajin’s mansion, the better option was obviously the mansion.
Since the Hospital Director only wore a displeased expression and made no real objections that would interfere, Hajin turned his head back to stare at Suhyeon, satisfied.
“Of course, there will be no hospital fees.”
He added the words that had spontaneously come out without thinking.
“And… I could treat you well.”
‘I become strange when I stand in front of this man.’
The light brown eyes that heard Hajin’s words wavered for the first time.
In truth, if anyone saw them, both Shin Hajin, who was recommending his home instead of a hospital, and Chae Suhyeon, who was wavering over the recommendation from a stranger, were odd people who deviated greatly from common sense.
But the two individuals didn’t realize it.
*
‘A complete stranger… well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.’
He was the one who caught him coming out of the Gate. So, he was a savior, if you will.
Suhyeon couldn’t deny that he was slightly tempted right now.
Anyone would call him crazy for considering a stranger’s offer, but he had his reasons.
Even a layman like him knew the name Ryu Yihan.
‘The God’s Doctor of Korea. A ray of light for Espers and Guides…’
He had seen him on TV with those kinds of titles attached.
Judging by the doctor’s reaction, it didn’t seem like a lie.
Wasn’t the fact that the doctor didn’t object enough to give it some credibility?
A famous doctor, waived hospital fees, and a place equipped with special gear that even the doctor acknowledged.
‘…Wouldn’t that be so bad?’
Suhyeon thought blankly and then pressed his lips together for a moment.
His brown eyes briefly looked up at Hajin’s all-black outfit and then back down.
His common sense, which had momentarily flown away due to the overwhelmingly good conditions, returned a little.
‘But still, shouldn’t I avoid incurring such a debt to someone whose name I just learned?’
“Do you not trust me?”
Just as he was about to refuse, Suhyeon’s shoulders trembled at Hajin’s words, which seemed to pierce through his thoughts.
His deep blue eyes narrowed into slits for a moment, then returned, as if something displeased him.
Hajin’s feeling was a mixture of being dumbfounded that Suhyeon knew Ryu Yihan but not him, and being even more driven crazy because that very innocence seemed to suit Suhyeon.
But Suhyeon had no way of knowing what was going on in his mind.
With a thud, a card and a small, thin object resembling a remote control were placed in front of Suhyeon.
The card was the man, Hajin’s, ID with his serious face printed on it.
And… What is this?
Suhyeon fidgeted with the thin metal plate that had only a single small button on it.
He thought it was a remote control, but it was too small for that.
“…Huk,”
While he was staring silently at the plate, Suhyeon turned his head at the sound of a stifled gasp beside him.
The doctor and the nurses beside him were staring at the metal plate in Suhyeon’s hand, their faces deathly pale.
They looked like they were looking at a time bomb.
“Sh-Shin Hajin. Are you insane?”
The doctor, stopping just short of lunging at Hajin, asked with a terrifying intensity.
“How could you give him that so casually…!!”
‘What is this thing?’
It seemed Suhyeon was the only one in the room who didn’t know the true nature of this metal plate.
Given the others’ serious reactions, Suhyeon cautiously tried to slide the metal plate away, but a solid hand stopped him soon after.
Suhyeon, whose wrist was grabbed, blinked and looked up at Hajin.
His light brown eyes and the blue eyes met.
In that moment, Hajin’s face, which seemed only capable of hard expressions, softened slightly.
When Suhyeon’s eyes wavered, having noticed the change, Hajin let go of Suhyeon’s wrist and put the metal plate back in his hand.
“It is a device I made in case I go into an outburst. If you think I’m going to do something reckless, just push the button.”
‘An outburst? Is it a type of control device?’
“What happens if I push it?”
His deep blue eyes curved.
His already masculine and attractive face blossomed with a dazzling beauty.
Suhyeon watched, mesmerized, as Hajin lightly tapped his temple with his elegant finger.
“This explodes.”
The light weight of the metal plate, which he had been unconsciously toying with, suddenly felt incredibly heavy.
Suhyeon’s lips fluttered.
It meant that this small remote control was a bomb that could blow up the man in front of him at any moment.
The strong reactions of the doctor and nurses suddenly made a hundred percent sense.
‘Do all high-ranking Espers make such terrifying things? Do Yejun didn’t have anything like this.’
“Is this sufficient now?”
“Sufficient for… what?”
Suhyeon stared blankly at the man.
Even the most emotionally detached person would have their thoughts paralyzed after hearing such a terrifying thing.
“Coming to my house.”
‘Ah, he was still talking about that.’
Suhyeon looked alternately at the metal plate and Hajin, utterly bewildered.
He had half-forgotten the fact that he was a patient who had just coughed up blood.
‘Does one normally entrust a control device for their own life to a stranger so easily?’
But Suhyeon couldn’t think any further.
“Chae Suhyeon,”
Hajin lowered his body, meeting Suhyeon’s eyes, and spoke in a low voice.
A face that looked like the personification of the God of War or the word Luxury was thrust close to him.
The cold, unfeeling, rigid expression softened as it met Suhyeon’s, melting into a faint smile.
“I will treat you well.”
He then let out a soft, seductive promise.
Suhyeon became more and more dazed. His rationality wavered back and forth.
The funniest fact was that all of this was happening just to get him hospitalized at Hajin’s house instead of the hospital.
Yet, the man, whose looks seemed to stifle every breath of the person facing him, continued to stare at him.
‘…Maybe it won’t be so bad?’
It’s extreme, but he did give me a means of defense.
In the end, Suhyeon’s rationality melted away.
“…You’ll treat me well?”
He asked blankly, without thinking.
He realized only after speaking that it was quite a strange question.
Hajin flinched for a moment, then nodded.
His blue eyes flickered.
“I will treat you well.”
His gesture of rubbing the back of his neck and slightly averting his gaze made him look somewhat bashful.
“…Ahem! Are you finished?”
Suhyeon’s rationality, which had not only left the building while staring at Hajin but had almost escaped the town called sanity, returned.
The doctor, who looked twice as old as when he first entered the room for some reason, looked at them with an exhausted expression.
In reality, he was not just exhausted but utterly resigned, but Suhyeon did not know that.
“Shin Hajin, is it correct that Doctor Ryu Yihan will continuously reside there and attend to the patient?”
The doctor asked Hajin, as if confirming for the last time. Hajin nodded dismissively.
“Since he is moving to the jurisdiction of another doctor, I will not interfere any further. However…”
Once it was decided that Suhyeon would go to Hajin’s house, things moved quickly.
The doctor, who had insisted on the condition that Suhyeon must visit the hospital at least once every two weeks no matter what, conceded surprisingly easily and even gave him some complex paperwork.
Suhyeon only needed to complete the discharge procedure to leave the hospital and go to Hajin’s house.
The discharge procedure was also fast.
Hajin made a call somewhere, and a man appeared soon after.
The man’s eyes briefly widened in shock when he saw Suhyeon, then he received a look from Hajin and ran out of the room as if escaping, quickly returning with the prescription from the reception desk.
Suhyeon bowed to the nameless man who had even brought him a change of clothes, then grabbed the bed rail and got up.
His head spun.
* * *
