DFLT 59

“Ah….”

Yeonoh nodded, his face a little dazed.

“I’ll tell them you fell asleep, so rest comfortably.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

After Dr. Shim left, Yeonoh was left alone in the quiet hospital room, lost in thought as he slowly blinked his eyes.

Just how many things had happened in one day? From Dojin’s confession to the argument with Heonyoung, he was mulling over the long, long day when, just as Dr. Shim had said the medicine hadn’t worn off yet, his body started to feel a little cold.

Just then, a nurse who came in to draw blood for a detailed examination brought a warm blanket and covered him with it. Without any time for his thoughts to linger, Yeonoh’s eyelids slowly drooped, made languid by the warmth that began to slowly seep into his skin.

He had no idea how much time had passed when a suppressed chill slowly enveloped his body.

“…Mmm, it’s cold.”

Drunk on sleep, Yeonoh mumbled softly and pulled the blanket up.

“My hands are freezing….”

His fingertips, which had touched the outside air because he had grabbed and pulled the blanket, were so cold that he put his hands inside the blanket and held them tightly together. He changed positions this way and that against the chill that dug into his skin, then curled up as much as possible and fell back into unconsciousness.

Then, at some point, warmth began to circulate again. The moment a warm energy, like a gentle breeze on a spring day, enveloped his entire body, he realized. He felt that the bone-chilling cold was finally over. Unconsciously relieved, a deep sleep washed over him.

After sleeping soundly for a while like that, what pierced Yeonoh’s eyes was the sunlight. His eyelids were so heavy he must have slept so deeply that his eyes were swollen. As he struggled to push his eyelids up, the first thing he saw was the wide window of the hospital room with the blinds raised.

“It’s morning….”

As if to mock the cold storm that had raged through the night, the morning was peaceful. He had finally shaken off all effects of the medicine.

He must have turned on his side while sleeping, because he was about to sit up to stretch his stiff shoulders, but his back was as heavy as if he were wearing a backpack full of lead weights. Letting out a small groan, Yeonoh casually looked behind him, and a large question mark floated above his head.

“Exec…utive Director…?”

The presence attached to his back wasn’t lead weights, but Seo Heonyoung’s upper body. Why was Seo Heonyoung lying in a hospital bed? Was he sick somewhere? With two men in this narrow bed, it would be strange if it weren’t cramped. It felt like he was still half-asleep and groggy, and the reality of it didn’t quite hit him, so Yeonoh calmly watched Seo Heonyoung’s sleeping face.

His eyelashes were long, and his hair, covering his forehead, was neat, as if he had stopped by home. It felt somewhat strange, unlike the Seo Heonyoung who shot arrows every time he opened his mouth. More than anything, what was most unfamiliar was his defenseless appearance. Had he ever seen him this up close? Well, it was the first time they had ever slept in the same bed….

Oh, wait. I’m in the same bed as Seo Heonyoung?

As Yeonoh thought this to himself, all five of his senses came rushing back, and his calm face began to color with horror.

“Aack!”

Seo Heonyoung, who was already much larger than him, was taking up most of the space, so there was nowhere further to go. Yeonoh scooted as close to the edge of the bed as he could and grabbed onto the rail. Startled by Yeonoh’s commotion, Heonyoung’s forehead twitched as he, too, woke from his sleep.

“Wh-wh-why is the Executive Director in my bed…!”

“Are you going to keep looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost?”

At this point, seeing Seo Heonyoung was more surprising than seeing a ghost. He placed a hand over his pounding heart and took a deep breath, in and out. Seo Heonyoung pressed both his brow bones with his thumb and forefinger and opened his mouth.

“I only meant to stay for a moment but I fell asleep.”

“Pardon?”

That didn’t explain anything at all. It only added to the confusion.

“I got a call from Dr. Shim when the second bradycardia came in the early morning. So I had no choice but to come, and you were talking in your sleep the whole time, saying you were cold.”

“Ah, another bradycardia….”

Seo Heonyoung, emphasizing the “had no choice,” had a displeased look on his face, so Yeonoh muttered awkwardly.

“You reacted to my body temperature.”

“My body temperature?”

Heonyoung got up and out of the bed, lightly rolling his neck as if it were stiff, and answered.

“You were shivering from the cold, but as soon as my hand touched you, your heart rate returned to normal.”

“Ah, so you were raising my body temperature for me….”

Could that be the reason for the inexplicable warmth? A small question popped into Yeonoh’s head.

“I was curious if the hypothesis was true. I don’t know if that was the reason, but the bradycardia didn’t come once for several hours.”

The aftershock of realizing he had slept in the same bed was still making the blood rush through his entire body, but in contrast, Seo Heonyoung seemed completely unfazed.

He really didn’t mean anything by it. It must just be me reading too much into it. Yeonoh tried to hide his surprise and parted his lips.

“Thank you, Executive Director.”

“Get a grip and eat something.”

“Food?”

Heonyoung pulled the small bedside table over. When he opened the bag, which seemed to be takeout from a restaurant, there was pork cutlet in a lunch box container. In a smaller container from the same bag, there was even cold buckwheat soba. Crispy pork cutlet with cold soba…. Yeonoh, who hadn’t had any appetite at all, suddenly started to feel his mouth water. It was a little early in the morning to eat pork cutlet, but he was even salivating.

“Wow, I’ll eat well. Thank you.”

He split the chopsticks in half, opened the lunch box lid, and was about to pick up a piece of pork cutlet.

“Malnutrition in the 21st century. Does that even make sense?”

Seo Heonyoung looked simply dumbfounded, as if he had never put in the effort of buying the pork cutlet at all.

“I-I didn’t know either. I’ll be careful not to let it interfere with my work.”

After replying, he picked up the pork cutlet again and was about to finally take his first bite.

“Who said you could work?”

A sudden bolt from the blue struck.

“Pardon?”

Pork cutlet or not, Yeonoh barely managed to catch his heart, which had almost dropped to his feet, and asked with a trembling voice.

“Take next week off for sick leave.”

“Ah, thank you….”

Just as he was breathing a sigh of relief that he wasn’t fired, someone knocked on the hospital room door. Thinking it was medical staff, he told them to come in, but the person who appeared when the door opened was Dojin.

“Why is Seo Heonyoung here?”

“And what about you, Kang Dojin?”

Heonyoung and Dojin, recognizing each other’s presence, wore expressions as if they had bitten into something sour.

“I was thinking Yeonoh probably hadn’t eaten, so I was going to tell him to at least have some porridge….”

Seeing the pork cutlet lunch box on the bedside table, Dojin was horrified and put down the bag he was holding. It was a shopping bag with a porridge restaurant logo.

“Hey, feeding a sick person greasy food will give them an upset stomach!”

Dojin, telling Yeonoh not to eat things like pork cutlet, took out plain white porridge. At the same time, Seo Heonyoung’s face soured.

“I think eating something like that would make him sicker.”

“What do you mean, ‘something like that’? It’s better than something stimulating and greasy, you know?”

“It’s not an upset stomach, it’s malnutrition. Don’t you know that for a malnourished patient, eating what they want is the best medicine?”

It seemed like if they kept this up, they would fight endlessly. More concerned about their bickering than his own condition, Yeonoh couldn’t touch either food when the hospital meal arrived just in time.

“Th-the doctor told me to eat the patient meal. I’ll eat this.”

He was very disappointed about the pork cutlet he couldn’t even take a single bite of, but it was much better than having their endless argument as a side dish. He was about halfway through his meal when Heonyoung’s phone rang.

“Yes, this is Seo Heonyoung.”

As Seo Heonyoung took his phone and stepped out of the room, he was suddenly left alone with Dojin, and the awkwardness doubled.

He tried his best to act nonchalant and steadfastly ate his meal, and before he knew it, the tray was clean. Right, I can’t keep avoiding it like this forever. Yeonoh, who had put down his spoon, began to speak in a low voice.

“Sunbae.”

“Yes, Yeonoh. Do you need anything?”

Hearing Dojin’s bright voice in response, Yeonoh could read his mind. He seemed to know what Yeonoh’s answer would be and was trying to avoid it.

How should I bring it up? He had thought about it a hundred times, but no answer came. No matter what he said, the fact that he had to convey his rejection to Dojin would be the same.

“About yesterday—”

“If you’re talking about that, I think I went overboard because I was drunk.”

“Pardon?”

“I have a habit of clinging to anyone when I get tipsy. You were really surprised, right? I’m sorry.”

“Ah….”

For a moment, a mix of complicated feelings swirled, and he hesitated about what kind of expression to make.

He thought it was just like the free-spirited Dojin, and he also felt a small sense of relief that he wouldn’t have to remain on awkward terms with him.

“Just forget about what happened yesterday.”

The conversation, which he had thought would be difficult, was resolved more easily than expected, and his heart felt a bit lighter.

“Okay, I will.”

“Our Dubu is so big-hearted. To even cover for his hyung’s shameful behavior.”

Just as Dojin grinned and ruffled Yeonoh’s hair with his hand, Seo Heonyoung, having finished his call, opened the door and came in. Seo Heonyoung, who had been silently watching the two of them, stood there blankly, as if he had even forgotten to close the door.