* * *

To know for sure, he’d have to contact Jeong Sanho. But the only phone in this place was still under repair.

‘Should I go a little farther? There might be a place with reception.’

He hadn’t tried to go out because he believed the phone would be fixed soon.

Of course, the fear of encountering wild boars also played a part.

But if he went out with the other staff members, that might be manageable.

Then, a sudden thought made him sit up.

“How do they order food here?”

Supplies came once every three days.

The last time, the exact food he had casually mentioned craving was prepared the very next day.

He didn’t think much of it back then and just ate it with pleasure.

Maybe they had the ingredients on hand, but if not…

The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

It’s plausible that there’s no signal, but it doesn’t make sense to have only one landline phone in the entire living room.

There are other staff here too, so why would there only be one in the living room?

Surely, there should be phones in the staff dormitory too, yet he was told that the one in the living room was all they had.

An absurd thought crossed his mind—one that was so far-fetched it could be the most plausible explanation.

“Am I… trapped here?”

Thinking back, everything about the situation was strange.

Hoonil had come here with him, and the day Hoonil left, a different doctor arrived.

At the time, he thought that since the hospital was far away and required a long drive, they had arranged for a substitute to look after any staff who might fall ill.

But if he was actually confined here, the doctor’s presence seemed intended just for him.

The unopened Blu-rays were filled with animated and superhero movies that didn’t match his tastes at all.

Game cartridges, books—everything he used was brand new.

‘I came here with Jinwoo…’

If he was indeed confined here, that would mean Jinwoo was complicit in his entrapment.

The house renovation was just a pretense to keep him staying here?

‘Why?’

If Soohyuk or Wonbeom had kidnapped and locked him up here, it would have been surprising, but considering what he knew of them through Gray, he wouldn’t have found the situation entirely unreasonable.

But that Jinwoo was involved made it incredibly hard to grasp.

“Is there something I shouldn’t know?”

Now that he was convinced he was being held captive, Wonbeom’s injury seemed all the more suspicious.

Of course, the wounds on his body were real.

“Did Baek Jingyeom tell Sanho to harm Wonbeom, not Jinwoo?”

Not knowing anything for certain made his imagination run wild.

If he stayed here like this, he felt like he would learn nothing until Sanho carried out his plan.

Jingyeom subtly glanced around the glass greenhouse.

He had noticed the CCTV cameras installed everywhere on his first day here.

He’d even found a few of them himself.

‘Was I really being watched the entire time?’

He had thought the cameras were there to protect the mansion’s expensive valuables.

“Why the hell are they doing this?!”

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a reason.

He hadn’t caused any trouble; in fact, he thought he’d been behaving quite well so far.

Other than being hospitalized once for a cold, he hadn’t caused any problems.

The only noteworthy thing he’d done was communicate with Sanho and his father.

There was absolutely no reason to keep him confined.

“How could Jinwoo think of leaving me here like this?”

Jinwoo had said with a straight face that he’d only be staying here temporarily due to the house renovation.

He had believed that completely.

“Ah…”

Now, he finally understood why the phone in the living room was still “under repair.”

“It’s to prevent me from contacting anyone… But I only ever contact them anyway!”

Everything fit together perfectly, and the realization made him shake his legs in frustration.

The fact that he’d only figured it out now felt absurd.

“I guess all those movies I watched were useless, huh?!”

Despite watching so many films, how had he not been suspicious?

It was all because Jinwoo had been there with him on the first day, putting his mind at ease.

“I hope there’s really nothing serious going on…”

That night, Jingyeom was overwhelmed with stress and developed a fever.

The mansion went on high alert, and the doctor immediately contacted Hoonil to share Jingyeom’s condition.

Fortunately, it was determined that it was just a fever, and they decided to monitor him for just one more day.

Naturally, this news reached the three of them, and Jinwoo, who was planning to visit, decided to hurry his departure.

Jingyeom, who caused so much worry for those far away, regained quite a few memories this time.

---

Realizing that the dreams he thought were lucid were actually memories, Jingyeom observed the situation calmly this time.

Judging by the setting of a hospital, these were likely memories from when he collapsed last time.

Though the sounds were still inaudible, the faces of the people were vividly clear.

His grandfather was shouting at the doctor, visibly furious.

His neck veins bulged, and spit flew as he spoke.

The doctor, not backing down, shouted back just as intensely.

It was surprising that he would speak so aggressively to someone elderly.

Though it was unclear what they were arguing about, the child turned to the opposite side and curled up, covering his ears as if he didn’t want to hear any more.

‘The kid is sick—why are they shouting like that right next to him?’

Jingyeom didn’t like what he was seeing either.

He felt certain that it wasn’t a good memory.

Soon, the child’s body began to tremble, and when he looked up, he saw his grandfather’s face, now gentle, unlike the enraged expression from earlier.

Just that change in expression showed how deeply the grandfather cared for the child.

It evoked a sense of longing.

“My puppy, Grandpa will make sure you get better. Don’t worry.”

“……”

“That guy from earlier is a quack. Let’s go to another hospital with Grandpa.”

The words that had been inaudible earlier were now ringing clearly in his ears.

It felt like he had finally found a clue as to whose memories these were.

“…Grandpa.”

“Yes, my puppy.”

The grandfather picked up the child and gently patted his back.

Tears welled up in the child’s eyes, blurring his vision.

And then the scene changed quickly.

Although they visited other hospitals, the grandfather always got angry and stormed out holding the child’s hand.

Eventually, they ended up back at the first hospital they had visited.

The child was always confined to a hospital bed, never able to leave.

The grandfather, nurses, and doctors were a constant presence.

At some point, even a caregiver was hired, but no one else came to visit the child.

As time passed, the child’s hands grew slightly larger.

One day, the first visitor arrived—a woman and a boy around his age, whom he had seen at the previous residence.

Though the boy was taller now, his face was the same, making him easily recognizable.

“Jingyeom, it’s been a while.”

The boy greeted him brightly, offering a toy, but the child immediately threw it to the floor.

The shocked look on the boy’s face caught his attention.

“Who asked you to bring this crap?”

“Baek Jingyeom!”

Despite the woman’s shout, the child merely turned his head away.

Shortly after, the grandfather entered and stepped out into the hallway with the woman.

Even though the door closed, in the poorly soundproofed hospital, their voices could still be heard.

It might have even been deliberate, as if they wanted him to hear.

“This is what happens when you spoil him! If I had taken him earlier, he wouldn’t have turned out like this!”

“Lower your voice. We’re in a hospital.”

“I can’t even go to see my brother because of how Jingyeom is acting. How could I face him like this?!”

“Why are you even here?”

The grandfather didn’t respond to the woman’s words, instead snapping back with his own question.

The child, who had been staring at his feet while sitting on the bed, slowly slid down.

The boy glanced back and forth between the child and the door, unsure of what to do.

The child moved cautiously and pressed his ear against the door.

‘Eavesdropping is bad.’

Even now, Jingyeom could only observe the memory through the child’s perspective, unable to do anything else.

“Is the transplant still a long way off? I heard these days you can bump up your place in line with some extra money. If not, I could ask someone to find a donor. Should I look into it?”

‘Transplant?’

He had suspected it wasn’t a common illness, given the extended hospital stay, but it seemed a transplant was necessary.

Jingyeom focused even more on their voices.

“Absolutely not! Do you really think that would help Jingyeom live a happy life?”

“I’m worried too! I’m his aunt—don’t I have the right to be concerned?”

‘His aunt?’

He wanted to hear more, but the memory replayed rapidly once again.

The child continued to grow, while the visits from his grandfather became infrequent.

Eventually, only the caregiver remained by his side.

One day, the grandfather reappeared, this time wearing an oxygen mask.

‘…He must be very ill.’

The child’s vision blurred and trembled violently, indicating that he was crying.

After staring at the hospital floor for a long time, the child’s gaze slowly lifted, and he saw the doctors and nurses rushing toward them.

The child couldn’t bring himself to leave the spot.

The next scene was his grandfather’s funeral.

Then, the memory ended.

Trapped in darkness, Jingyeom mulled over the memory that had just surfaced.

‘This isn’t Baek Jingyeom’s memory—it’s mine.’

Though he wasn’t entirely certain, he instinctively felt that this was his memory.

* * *