SOG Ch 175

Seon Jae-chan’s Adam’s apple moved up and down continuously. Jae-chan drank the water hastily as if addicted to TZ, before finally removing his lips from the cup. Woo-jin, who had been holding the glass bottle nearby, took the cup as well and placed it on the console together. There was one more person beside Woo-jin.

“Patient, you were unconscious for over a week. We received advice from psychiatry that it seemed to be a psychological issue, so we moved you here two days ago, and it seems to have been effective.”

The doctor who had arrived earlier with the water, wearing casual clothes with a stethoscope around her neck, spoke with a pleased expression.

Seon Jae-chan nodded, pressing the back of his hand to his wet lips. This wasn’t a hospital, but Woo-jin’s officetel in District 1. That’s why the unfamiliar doctor who had entered the room immediately as if she had been on standby was wearing casual clothes instead of a gown.

“We’ll need to keep monitoring to see if your vision will fully return. Well, if not, you can receive treatment for amblyopia. The important thing is not to worry and stay relaxed.”

The doctor advised as she put an eye patch over Seon Jae-chan’s right eye with reduced vision.

“If you need any help, please contact us anytime.”

She was a specialist from Ross Clinic and promised to return in three days as she packed a small flashlight and rechargeable ophthalmoscope into her medical bag. After the doctor left, silence settled in the room again.

Jae-chan touched the white medical eye patch covering his right eye, then cleared his throat and spoke.

“Are you okay?”

To Jae-chan’s slightly hoarse question, Woo-jin, who had been listening attentively by his side throughout the examination, nodded. He sat on the bed and spoke.

“Yes.”

“That’s a relief… How about my aunt?”

Jae-chan mentioned his aunt who had been dragged into the submarine. His dark brown eyes, uncovered by the eye patch and looking particularly bright in the sunlight, wavered with anxiety. Woo-jin, meeting his downcast gaze, answered.

“She’s safe. No injuries.”

You were the most seriously injured. Woo-jin wanted to say that abruptly, but he held back, worried it might upset Jae-chan who had just lowered his shoulders in relief.

It’s such a strange thing. Seeing Jae-chan awake, he felt there was nothing more he could wish for in the world and was infinitely happy, yet something kept welling up from deep in his chest.

“Did you catch the terrorist boss? What about the others? Is Esper Chae Seong-hwan okay?”

Especially when he saw him checking on others’ well-being like this.

“My mother and Yu-ram were there too… There was also a pregnant woman, and Gyeong Hye-in…”

Jae-chan sat up straight and began to pour out the questions he had been holding back. Go Woo-jin, worried that the thin body he hadn’t even been able to hug once due to his unconscious attempts at guiding might collapse, propped him up with a pillow, then hid a sigh and organized his thoughts.

He should start by explaining about the terrorist boss, ‘Go Young-woon’.

Every time he recalled that name, Go Woo-jin was seized by a strange feeling. According to the intelligence agency’s investigation, the first name of the person who had used various names like Kim Young-ho and Gil Young-woon was ‘Go  Young-woon’. His father, Chairman Go  Young-chang, said he was indeed a colleague who had been cultivated together with him in the experiment.

Suddenly, he thought of his grandfather who had passed away 20 years ago. Although he had never seen him in person and only knew him from photographs, the man’s eyes gleamed with a fierce madness that seemed ominous at a glance. He knew that his own artificial cultivation experiment 24 years ago had also been led by his grandfather.

“That person was shot dead inside the submarine.”

At the end of his thoughts, Woo-jin briefly explained only Go Young-woon’s final moments.

The second body of the man Jae-chan had warned about was in the submarine. Taking advantage of the gap when Han Tae-hoon stopped the GPS jammer, Chae Seong-hwan, who had joined late, had caught the submarine in the Nam River. Of course, even if it hadn’t been Chae Seong-hwan, thanks to Noh Min-wan who had immediately attached a tracking device to the submarine’s surface upon hearing Go Woo-jin’s radio transmission, it wouldn’t have taken long to track it with an anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

Go Young-woon’s life, which Chairman Go Young-chang had briefly investigated, was turbulent.

Born from the experiment of Daesung’s founder, Go Young-woon dramatically escaped a mass murder crisis and then barely survived as an illegal Esper mercenary, moving between the five Union countries. He became a member of the rebel forces at the age of twenty.

Entering Mentosa Island, he became one of the direct researchers of Hong Eun-je, the rebel leader, and began research on the windless zone. After the rebels were suppressed, he became a researcher for the president who had become interested in the experiment. The president set up a research institute in District 5 for Go  Young-woon and his colleagues and steadily sponsored their research for several decades.

Go Woo-jin briefly recalled the furious President Gyeong Jeon-seok after the operation. He was enraged that all the research materials had been destroyed in the bomb explosion, and even the last key researcher had been killed.

However, President Gyeong couldn’t directly express his anger towards Go Woo-jin. This was because Go  Young-chang had been involved in the incident.

“I can’t believe the president didn’t know about Go  Young-woon’s background.”

The reason the President had quieted down was not for any other reason. Even if the terrorist was Go  Young-chang’s former brother, it would be disadvantageous if the multinational company J Pharmaceuticals countered by claiming the President had secretly harbored rebels for research. Moreover, if various rumors about the Windless Zone research reached the American Union, it wouldn’t paint a good picture.

And President Gyeong Jeon-seok was about to lose any further control over the situation.

Another hound, Gyeong Hye-in, who had been thoroughly abandoned by her father and president during this incident, had begun a campaign of exposure.

[The Confession of the President’s Eldest Daughter]

The content with a title befitting a tabloid was spreading in all directions, powered not only by countless cyber lecturers but also by some major media outlets. As a result, the world, which was already trembling in turmoil due to the District 5 gun terror incident, was unprecedentedly boisterous.

“What about the others?”

Although Woo-jin was displeased that Jae-chan asked about everyone except himself, he told him everything. He had heard the details about the situation after the shooting terror from Chae Seong-hwan.

“Everyone is safe. Both your aunt and mother are healthy. Your mother’s gunshot wound was deep, so she got stitches. She’s receiving outpatient treatment.”

“Ah.”

“Your aunt also had a new health checkup, and they said she was only briefly exposed to the problematic wavelength, so she just needs to receive treatment. They said she’ll fully recover in about two months.”

Seon Jae-chan felt greatly relieved by Woo-jin’s words, which conveyed everything he was curious about without omission. He was especially relieved to hear about his aunt. Although it would only be certain after the treatment was completed, he felt that his aunt might truly be free from the Esper condition.

“Park Yu-ram is also fine. The pregnant woman gave birth safely.”

Meanwhile, Woo-jin was delivering news about others as briefly as possible.

In fact, Jae-chan’s group had also been attacked by the terrorists, a fire had broken out in Research Building 3, and there had been dramatic events like giving birth in the midst of chaos, but Woo-jin omitted all these details, frustrated by Jae-chan’s concern only for others’ circumstances.

Finally, Woo-jin said what he really wanted to say.

“And you… were in bad shape. You couldn’t wake up for a long time.”

He lowered his eyes as he spoke. Unlike the previous topics, he hid his emotions, worried that his own bleakness and despair while waiting for Jae-chan might be conveyed to him or become a burden.

“The diagnosis was that this could happen because your wavelength stability was unstable for too long. Guide Nam Hae-sol visited several times.”

Woo-jin went on to mention that they had also measured Jae-chan’s matching rate with various unspecified Guides within the Ross Clinic, but this didn’t register well with Jae-chan. Although Woo-jin probably didn’t intend it this way, Nam Hae-sol’s name stuck in Jae-chan’s ear.

Nam Hae-sol was a keyword related to the essence of the problem that Seon Jae-chan had been avoiding all this time. Perhaps the Technician was right. Just hearing Nam Hae-sol’s name made him flustered and barely listen to Woo-jin’s voice.

‘But I should face it.’

As soon as possible. If he truly didn’t want to become the avoidant person the Technician had mentioned.

Jae-chan hid his anxious feelings and got up. He explained to Woo-jin, who was looking at him with slight curiosity.

“I’m going to wash up.”

Although his body condition was clean enough that he couldn’t tell he had been unconscious for over a week, it was a matter of feeling.

Woo-jin walked alongside Jae-chan, ready to catch him at any moment like a guardian watching over a child walking alone. The two entered the spotlessly clean bathroom together.

A moment later, Jae-chan glanced back at Woo-jin with a questioning look.

“Aren’t you going out?”

“We’ll wash together,” Woo-jin answered as he pulled his head out of his knit sweater.

Maybe it was his height, or maybe his bare form seemed more pronounced than when clothed. Jae-chan suddenly felt like the spacious bathroom had darkened. He also felt like the ample space had strangely narrowed.

“…”

Jae-chan, who had been oddly intimidated, soon straightened his back. He had woken up after being shot and for some reason became a coward even in front of the perfectly fine Woo-jin. There was no reason he couldn’t wash with him. It could be a kind gesture to help, considering he was still a patient.

“Then wait outside for a moment,” Jae-chan said, somehow feeling self-conscious. Woo-jin, who had been brushing his slightly static-charged hair with his long fingers, held his knit sweater in one hand. He examined Jae-chan’s slightly awkwardly smiling cheeks and rounded lips with downcast eyes and asked back.

“Why?”

“Uh, I need to use the toilet,” Jae-chan answered honestly, rubbing his slender stomach. He had drunk so much water like a cow that he felt the urge to urinate. He expected Woo-jin to leave now.

“Go ahead.” 

A low, unexpected voice replied. Startled, Seon Jae-chan, looked up only to meet eyes that seemed to press down on him intently from beneath the disheveled black hair.