* * *
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was a head of snowy white platinum blonde hair.
“You’re awake?”
“…Yeah.”
“Wait a moment.”
Jiwon anxiously blinked as she pressed the call button for the medical staff.
As the staff arrived and checked the situation, Minchan and Yoon entered the room.
After the medical staff left, saying that everything seemed fine, the three of them finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay.”
“I was really shocked when I heard you suddenly collapsed.”
“Collapsing? Who told you?”
“Lee Jaeyoon.”
Yoon replied curtly.
Lee Jaeyoon?
Why would he contact them?
Isn’t he the one who wanted to take Lee Jaehee’s body back?
Hyunsoo, sitting there in a daze, tried to piece things together and remembered the chaotic scene before he lost consciousness.
“Was it a suicide ghost?”
The shaman had said that the man who claimed to be Lee Jaehee was a suicide ghost.
That his head was shattered, and his body was flattened.
“Lee Jaehee’s body is perfectly fine, so why did his soul end up like that? Was he really not the real Lee Jaehee, as the shaman said? What am I supposed to do now?”
Questions swirled in his mind, but no answers came easily.
Honestly, he didn’t know enough to figure it out.
“What happened there?”
“We let you go because you said it was urgent, but then suddenly you’re in the hospital…”
Hyunsoo hesitated, wondering how to respond to Minchan and Jiwon’s questions.
“They should at least know the situation. They must have been shocked to get a call saying I was in the hospital after I said I’d be right back.”
He noticed that everyone looked haggard, as if they hadn’t slept well.
It seemed they had been more worried than he had thought.
“Actually, I had a promise with Lee Jaeyoon from before.”
“What kind of promise?”
“That I would stay in this body only until the real Lee Jaehee returned.”
The unexpected revelation made all three of them tense up. Minchan felt a faint sense of betrayal.
He never imagined Hyunsoo would make such a promise, especially since he said he would stay by their side.
Even if it was an old promise of still going through the exorcism, it still hurt.
“I got a call that something urgent had come up, so I went to see him. He said they had found the real Lee Jaehee.”
“What?”
Yoon, who had been listening with a frown, suddenly shouted. Hyunsoo grabbed his head in pain, and Yoon’s voice followed in alarm.
“Are you okay? I’m sorry. I was just so surprised that I…”
Hyunsoo waited for the headache to subside before continuing.
“Ugh. My head’s pounding. Anyway, Lee Jaeyoon asked me to keep my promise, so I was locked in a room, waiting for the shaman’s ritual. But the shaman said it wasn’t really Lee Jaehee, but some other ghost who committed suicide. After that, I don’t remember. When I came to, I was here.”
He wanted to explain clearly, but he couldn’t think straight. His fragmented thoughts spilled out. He had no idea why he was in the hospital, or why Lee Jaeyoon contacted these people.
“You were… locked up?”
Minchan, who had been listening quietly, asked again.
“They thought I might run away.”
“Bastards.”
Minchan muttered angrily, unable to hold back. Normally, Hyunsoo would have scolded him for not speaking nicely, but he said nothing.
Sitting on the hospital bed, Hyunsoo just stared at the IV in his hand, lost in thought.
Minchan and the other two exchanged silent glances.
There were signs of struggle around his neck, and his swollen wrist was wrapped in bandages.
His expression was weary. Seeing how exhausted he looked, they decided to give him some space.
“You must be tired, so get some rest. We’ll be in the caregiver’s room right next door, so call us if you need anything. You can also press the button for the medical staff.”
“Okay.”
Hyunsoo nodded quietly, and the three of them left the room.
The silence came quickly.
Now alone, Hyunsoo shook his bandaged wrist a few times.
The pain suggested it would take days to recover.
Exhausted, he closed his eyes, intending to sleep, but then a dark shadow crept across his vision.
“Hehehehe. That body is mine. It’s mine! I’m going to take it!”
Was that man really not Lee Jaehee? If, as the shaman said, he was a ghost who had committed suicide, could Hyunsoo continue living in this body? Or rather, should he?
“Why should I?”
Why should he keep living? What did it matter what happened to Lee Jaehee’s body? He was just another victim, dragged into this mess.
Why should he be treated like an evil spirit? The thought suddenly hit him.
“How ridiculous. A parasite clinging to someone else’s body without any conscience.”
According to Jaemin, Park Hyunsoo was nothing more than a conscienceless parasite, an evil spirit living off someone else’s body. Everyone’s silence implied that Lee Jaehee’s family felt the same.
Whether Lee Jaehee’s body ended up in the hands of another ghost didn’t matter; Hyunsoo could just leave. Although he felt bad for the others, he thought he had done enough.
Except for the orphanage kids, these were the people Hyunsoo had been connected with the longest, but sometimes they were too much to handle.
Honestly, he felt like giving up on everything.
“You know I really love you, right?”
“Screw off. I love him more.”
“Who talks like that? I’ve told you I hate people with dirty mouths.
Neither of you are good enough, so Jaehee belongs to me.”
Whether his body had changed or not, these people were always expressing their affection.
Sometimes, Hyunsoo wondered if he was being brainwashed.
“I’m… tired.”
Acting as the youngest, a role he’d never been suited for, responding to someone else’s name, introducing himself as Jaehee, fulfilling Jaehee’s duties just because he was in his body—it was all exhausting.
“Thinking about it, there’s no reason for me to stay in this body, especially when I’m treated like an evil spirit.”
Once the thought took hold, it spread uncontrollably. His anger at Lee Jaehee’s family turned into frustration with the three friends’ excessive affection and dependency.
“Who am I blaming…?”
In the first place, he could have ended this by being firm. Even if Lee Jaehee’s soul was gone, what did that have to do with him? He should have insisted on an exorcism right away.
In the end, no one was to blame but himself. If he had been more resolute, none of this would have happened.
“I’ll think more after I get some sleep.”
Maybe because he was tired, his thoughts kept drifting to dark places. As he tossed and turned, trying to sleep, his last thought was how surprisingly soft and comfortable the hospital bed was.
“Is it okay to keep taking advantage of this?”
No one knew exactly what trick had been pulled, but “Lee Jaehee” remained hospitalized.
The monsters didn’t appear like clockwork, as in a game. They struck unexpectedly, like natural disasters.
While humans were busy researching signs of their appearance, the monsters weren’t idly waiting around either.
As a result, the Special D Team had to deal with a schedule so packed that they barely had time to visit their hospitalized colleague.
“How on earth are they managing to stay by their side?”
While “Lee Jaehee” was in the hospital, Minchan, Jiwon, and Yoon practically set up camp in the guardian’s room next to the hospital ward.
Occasionally, one of them would leave for a bit, but most of the time, the three of them were together.
Hyunsoo, who had just gotten the bandages off his wrist, was staring blankly when a tangerine floated in front of him.
“Want some?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll peel it for you.”
Jiwon brought the tangerine back in front of him and peeled it with telekinesis. A few drops of juice splashed out, but Hyunsoo let it slide because Jiwon looked so focused.
“You could just peel it by hand; it wouldn’t make much difference.”
“I need to practice control like this.”
“Always got a good reason, huh?”
As Hyunsoo was about to take the tangerine quietly, Jiwon shook his head.
“Just open your mouth.”
He was offering to feed him directly. If it were in the past, Hyunsoo would have been horrified, but now he just quietly opened his mouth.
As if waiting for this moment, a slice of tangerine was gently placed in his mouth. Lately, he didn’t feel like doing anything. Even breathing sometimes felt like a chore.
“Am I getting burned out?”
He wanted to search for the symptoms, but he didn’t have his phone. He needed to get it back from Jaeyoon, but there was no way to contact him.
His phone number was stored in the confiscated phone.
In this day and age, no one memorizes phone numbers anymore, and more importantly, he didn’t see any reason to remember Jaeyoon’s number.
“I can’t even remember these guys’ numbers, so why would I remember Lee Jaeyoon’s?”
After being confined by Jaeyoon, Hyunsoo developed a peculiar sense of animosity towards him. Jaeyoon acted as if he would give everything when needed, but when Hyunsoo became useless, he coldly turned away.
Hyunsoo never intended to break his promise to Jaeyoon. He was disappointed he couldn’t stay with the D team longer, but he never planned to pretend nothing happened and illegally occupy someone else’s body after its rightful owner returned.
“No matter how untrustworthy I seemed, locking me up was crossing the line. Then again, I guess he never trusted me in the first place.”
The more he thought about being confined, the more furious he became. The fact that he wasn’t even fed made his judgment even harsher.
The 180-degree change in Jaeyoon’s attitude was suspicious, but maybe that was his true nature.
“Don’t want any more?”
“No, I was just thinking.”
When Hyunsoo opened his mouth again, another slice of tangerine was placed inside. When he thought about it, those three were really convenient to have around.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Yoon, who was sitting on the couch, asked. Minchan, for some reason, was just sitting there with a content smile.
Since Hyunsoo couldn’t reveal what he was really thinking, he just blurted out whatever came to mind.
“I don’t have a phone, so I guess I’ll need to get a new one?”
“Did that bastard really take your phone?”
Hyunsoo stayed silent, not wanting to sound like he was tattling, but in this situation, silence was an admission. The three’s expressions instantly turned cold.
“I’ll just go to a store and buy one under my name. You should rest.”
“You need your phone for identity verification to log into the center app.”
“Oh….”
Yoon scratched his head. In this day and age, not having a personal phone was practically like being invisible.
“Just ask if you can go out for a bit. You and I can go out together and be back in no time.”
“That works! Got it. Wait a moment.”
Yoon, excited by the idea of going out together, quickly disappeared. Hyunsoo sighed inwardly, wondering why Yoon used his abilities so recklessly, then turned to Jiwon.
“Can I have more tangerines?”
“Oh, just a sec. I need to peel it first.”
As he watched Jiwon diligently peeling the tangerine, Hyunsoo thought to himself.
“Forget about the other two; the real problem is that guy….”
He had managed to divert Jiwon and Yoon’s attention for now. The only one left was Minchan, who was sitting there with a deadly serious expression.
Hyunsoo couldn’t help but worry that Minchan might be seriously contemplating whether to kill Lee Jaeyoon.
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