PEN Vol 3 Ch. 2

Caught off guard by Sejin’s unexpected concern, Cheon Sejoo stood there, unable to respond.

Sejin’s eyes grew red with frustration as he yelled again.

“For you, I guess it’s only serious if your finger gets severed, right? Did you even go to the hospital? Did you get it treated? If this is the treatment you got, then that doctor must be a total quack! You should go back and complain! If you didn’t, then go get stitches or something! How can you be so calm about this? You could die from this!”

Sejin was the type to cry whenever he got emotional, whether angry or sad. Seeing him yell with tears welling up in his eyes made Cheon Sejoo feel somewhat shocked. He hadn’t expected Sejin to look so genuinely upset.

While Sejin was shouting, Kim Hyunkyung came outside in her slippers, and she too looked horrified when she saw Cheon Sejoo’s hand.

“Oh my, Manager!”

Her shriek alerted the others who were also peeling garlic inside the dormitory, and soon enough, a crowd of women rushed out barefoot to see what had happened. The dormitory yard was suddenly buzzing with commotion. In an instant, Cheon Sejoo had been reduced to the status of a seriously injured patient, surrounded by fussing employees.

“Shouldn’t we call 119^[1]?”

“There’s a first aid kit in the kitchen! Honey, go grab it quickly.”

“Where’s the manager? Someone call her!”

Caught in the middle of the chaos, Cheon Sejoo could do nothing but stand there, speechless.

If it had been Moon Sunhyuk or one of the guys, he would’ve just yelled at them to get lost because of all the noise. But these were all skinny, delicate women, and he couldn’t bring himself to raise his voice.

“No, really, I’m fine. The bleeding has stopped, and it only looks bad because of the bandage. It’s just a small wound…”

In the end, Cheon Sejoo couldn’t take it anymore and explained his condition with an awkward expression. But the moment he unwrapped the bandage to show them it was nothing, the scene erupted into even more panic.

“What? How could you leave it like this?!”

“Why are men always like this? My husband once came home with his finger barely hanging on, insisting that slapping a band-aid on it would fix it. All that showing off, and now you’re doing the same thing, Manager.”

It was a cleanly cut wound. The flesh was slightly torn open, exposing the inside, but there was no damage to the bone or muscles, so it was clearly an injury that would heal in a few days…

However, hearing the comment about showing off, Cheon Sejoo couldn’t bring himself to insist any further that he was fine and sheepishly hid his hand behind him. Cold sweat began to form on his forehead. He felt like he had become a terminally ill patient.

As the commotion continued in the yard, it wasn’t long before Han Jiwon, having heard the news, hurried over with a large first-aid kit in her hands, brought from the kitchen.

“I heard Manager Cheon got hurt?”

Han Jiwon, wide-eyed in surprise, arrived as the employees stepped aside for her. Cheon Sejoo was about to explain that it wasn’t a big deal, but before he could, Sejin held his wrist firmly and ended up presenting his hand to her.

“Here.”

Sejin gripped Cheon Sejoo’s wrist tightly as he showed Han Jiwon his hand. Seeing the blood-soaked bandage and the bloodstained palm and back of his hand, Han Jiwon frowned and shook her head. She didn’t overreact like the others, probably because she had encountered similar situations often, but the look of disapproval in her eyes was no different. She let out a short sigh, shook her head, and then scolded him.

“How did this happen? You need to go to the hospital. You need stitches. How can you just leave it like this?’

“That’s what we’ve been saying!”

Kim Hyunkyung and the other employees eagerly agreed with Han Jiwon’s words.

In the midst of them, Sejin looked at Cheon Sejoo with a face that said, “See? I was right. I told you we need to go to the hospital.”

Cheon Sejoo, seeing Sejin’s somewhat smug expression, felt deflated.

It really wasn’t that serious…

But somehow, it now felt as if something terrible might happen if he didn’t go to the hospital. Strangely, his insides felt uneasy. It reminded him of his childhood in the orphanage. When the other kids were about to leave with their parents, it used to be also this noisy back then…

In the end, Cheon Sejoo nodded, finally acknowledging that he was indeed a patient.

“Okay, I’ll go to the hospital right away. Thank you, everyone.”

“Good. Sejin, hurry up and go get your clothes. Wait, no, hold on! You should go together. Mr. Cheon, I made some kimchi pancakes earlier, so take them with you and eat them with Sejin.”

Kim Hyunkyung, after initially shooing Sejin into the dormitory to get dressed, suddenly decided to follow him inside. Moments later, Sejin returned with his coat, while Kim Hyunkyung carried the kimchi pancakes she had wrapped and an armful of garlic and scallions the employees had peeled earlier.

“Hurry up and go! Sejin, make sure to listen to the Manager and behave!”

“Get going, before the hospital closes!”

The front of the staff dormitory was lively.

Kim Hyunkyung, the employees, and Han Jiwon all gathered together to send Sejin and Cheon Sejoo off. After six months of visiting Ehwagak, the employees had built a sense of familiarity with Cheon Sejoo. Today’s incident seemed to bring all that built-up affection to the surface, and now they were seeing him off like they would their own son, waving from outside the dormitory.

“…We’ll be going now.”

Cheon Sejoo thought to himself that from now on, he’d definitely send Sejin off by taxi alone. After bidding them farewell, he returned to the parking lot with Sejin and got into the car. Once they were away from the bustling crowd and it was just the two of them in the quiet car, the silence felt oddly welcome.

As he started the car, Cheon Sejoo realized that the headache he had earlier now disappeared. With a clear mind, he placed his hand on the steering wheel.

“Your hand.”

Just then, Sejin’s firm voice interrupted him. He reached out and grabbed Cheon Sejoo’s right hand, pulling it down from the steering wheel. Sejin’s face twisted into a frown as he scolded him.

“You’re left-handed, so why do you always use your right hand to drive?”

“…You sure do pay a lot of attention to me, don’t you? How do you even know I’m left-handed?”

Today, it felt like Cheon Sejoo was learning something new about Sejin.

Sejin was more concerned about him than expected, and he cared about Cheon Sejoo enough to get upset and hurt by his indifference. The affection Sejin showed through his actions felt strange.

“Don’t change the subject. We’re going to the hospital.”

Ignoring his attempt to deflect the conversation, Sejin fiddled with his phone during the drive down the mountain road. Soon, he set the car’s GPS to navigate to an orthopedic clinic that offered late-night service.

Even though it was a wound Cheon Sejoo could easily treat by himself, he didn’t say anything to avoid Sejin’s nagging. After all, going to the hospital wasn’t exactly a problem—just explaining how he got the injury would just be bothersome.

A problem arose while they were on their way to the hospital. As they crossed out of Gyeonggi Province and were entering Seoul, Cheon Sejoo received a call from Moon Sunhyuk. Since Sejin was sitting next to him, Cheon Sejoo wanted to avoid taking the call as much as possible, but after declining once, his phone immediately rang again. It seemed like something urgent.

Cheon Sejoo glanced at Sejin’s expression, picked up his phone, and answered the call with his left hand while the steering wheel with his right. Sejin gave him a sharp glare, but there was nothing he could do.

“What is it?”

– Sir, are you still at Ehwagak?

“No, I’m already in Seoul.”

Speaking quietly so that Kwon Sejin wouldn’t overhear their conversation, Cheon Sejoo responded as he glanced sideways. Sunhyuk’s voice, tense with urgency, explained the situation.

– It’s just… one of the guys we had tied up at the workshop broke free from his restraints and tried to escape. He’s still out of it, so we went in with the youngest to restrain him again, but the guy grabbed a scalpel and injured him.

“What the f*ck…”

A curse slipped out in disbelief.

Cheon Sejoo momentarily forgot that Kwon Sejin was right next to him and let out a hollow laugh.

There were numerous tools to restrain people inside the workshop. One of them was an unbreakable metal chair and an operating table, where the two guys they caught yesterday had been tied up side by side. However, the guy bound to the operating table with thick leather straps had somehow managed to free himself and escape.

Though the workshop could only be accessed via eye recognition, meaning he couldn’t get out, the fact that he managed to get loose inside was a big issue. The workshop had more than enough tools that could be used to attack someone—scalpels, hammers, wrenches, anesthetics, and hallucinogens. Given that he had already found and swung a scalpel, the guy trapped inside might be fully armed by now.

“Is the youngest hurt badly?”

-There’s some bleeding. From what I can see, it looks like the skin’s just torn, and he says he’s fine, but I think it would be good if you could come check it. He refuses to go to the hospital.

Gu Haewoong hated hospitals.

He hated them so much that early on in his workdays, when Cheon Sejoo tried to send him to a hospital after he hurt his hand, Haewoong got so mad that he threw the first punch himself. For Gu Haewoong, hospitals were practically rage-inducing triggers. It seemed inevitable that Cheon Sejoo would have to stop by the office before heading home.

But still, how had the guy who was supposed to be knocked out until the next day, thanks to the sedatives, woken up already?

Cheon Sejoo clicked his tongue inwardly.

They had stripped the guy down and checked everything, so where had he hidden the tool to free himself? The fact that he had attacked Cheon Sejoo with a pocketknife he had hidden in his mouth was proof enough that the guy was a sneaky b*stard.

Cheon Sejoo let out a small sigh and glanced to his side.

Sejin was glaring at him as if urging him to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Meeting his gaze, Cheon Sejoo responded to Sunhyuk on the phone.

“It’s dangerous, so just leave him and wait. I’ll be there. It’ll be about 30 minutes to an hour.”

-Yes, we’ll wait.

It was rush hour, so the roads would probably be jammed. Cheon Sejoo adjusted the GPS destination and turned to look at Sejin.

If he dropped him off at his house, he’d have to pass through the regular congested areas, which would add another 30 minutes to the trip. As annoying as it was, he thought it seemed easier to just take Sejin along and have him wait in the car. He then opened his mouth to speak.

“I have something to do, so I need to stop by the office for a bit.”

“What?”

“We’ll go to the office first, and then to the hospital.”

“……”

Sejin’s expression hardened as if the statement were less of a suggestion and more of a demand. Though Cheon Sejoo hadn’t done anything wrong, he suddenly felt guilty under Kwon Sejin’s cold gaze and remained silent as he focused on driving. After a while, Sejin spoke in a sullen voice.

“Do your subordinates not know how to do anything without you?”

“What?”

Perplexed by the question, Cheon Sejoo glanced sideways. Sejin was looking at him with a face full of disdain.

“They always call you and tell you to come. And then you rush over there like a dog.”

“When have I ever rushed over like a dog?”