TSG 95

Shin Tae-oh, who was supposed to be resting, hadn’t been able to relax lately. He enjoyed the subtle tension and the odd atmosphere that arose when he was alone with Se-hyun.

But that wasn’t possible now.

“Do you know how important this time is for me?”

“Of course. It’s a time when you should rest and recover quickly.”

When Lee Jin-ho responded nonchalantly, Shin Tae-oh squinted as if that wasn’t what he meant.

“I’m busy trying to appeal to Se-hyun.”

“Who’s stopping you? Go ahead.”

Lee Jin-ho spoke as if it was no big deal. Everyone knew Shin Tae-oh liked Se-hyun, so Lee Jin-ho’s response only made Tae-oh’s expression darken further.

“Everyone, leave. Stop coming.”

At Shin Tae-oh’s low command, Jin-ho awkwardly laughed while Yoo Jin-ha and Ha Min-hyuk, who had been coming every day, pretended to look at their phones.

“Would our presence change anything? You can just pretend we’re not here.”

As Lee Jin-ho spoke as if it wasn’t a big deal, Shin Tae-oh’s gaze became even colder.

“Everyone leaves so Se-hyun can focus on me.”

“So, like I said, pretend we’re not…”

As Lee Jin-ho mumbled, Shin Tae-oh pointed at Se-hyun.

“Look at that.”

Se-hyun, who was peeling his fifth apple to share with everyone, looked up at the gaze directed at him.

Seeing Se-hyun’s innocent look asking what was wrong, Shin Tae-oh sighed openly.

“He should only be taking care of me, but he’s taking care of others too.”

Lee Jin-ho finally understood and reached out for the knife in Se-hyun’s hand.

“Why are you peeling so many apples with your sore wrist?”

“This much is fine.”

Se-hyun acted as if it was no big deal and finished peeling the apple. After tidying up, he approached, and just as Shin Tae-oh looked at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to hold his hand.

“It’s time for my check-up, so I’ll be back soon.”

“Now?”

Lee Jin-ho panicked, thinking Shin Tae-oh would make an even bigger fuss if Se-hyun left. If he had known this would happen, he should have left when Shin Tae-oh told them to go.

“My appointment time is almost here.”

Seemingly unaware of Lee Jin-ho’s desperate feelings, Se-hyun calmly replied and stood up. He told Ha Min-hyuk and Yoo Jin-ha to enjoy the apples and placed one in front of Shin Tae-oh as well.

“Please behave while I’m gone.”

“How can I behave when you’re not here?”

“They all came because they’re worried about you. Don’t be annoyed and treat them well.”

Se-hyun didn’t say ‘I hope you’ll behave,’ but ‘Behave.’ He didn’t suggest ‘It would be nice if you treated them well,’ but ‘Treat them well.’

Though spoken in a gentle voice, Shin Tae-oh wasn’t one to miss the underlying meaning.

“That’s sneaky.”

Se-hyun knew full well that Shin Tae-oh couldn’t refuse, yet he still gave the order so easily.

“I’ll be sneaky just this once.”

He wished Shin Tae-oh would exchange a few more words with the people worried about him, but he had forgotten one thing…

“I’ll take you there.”

That Shin Tae-oh was not an easy person to deal with either.

Right, it wasn’t like his legs were injured, right?

Though he boasted of rapid recovery with each passing day, he was still fundamentally a human made of flesh and blood. Se-hyun wasn’t attracted to the idea at all.

“It’s fine.”

“If you fall, it’ll be hurt for me.”

“How would you be hurt if I fell?”

“It would hurt my heart.”

“…”

Unable to find a response, Se-hyun pressed his lips together. While the worst injury was to his hand, there were plenty of other bruises that couldn’t be ignored.

The places where he’d been hit with a wooden plank were bruised deep blue, and there were moments when his legs would give out due to carelessness.

It had happened twice in front of Shin Tae-oh, and Shin Tae-oh hadn’t let it go unnoticed.

“Or are you worried about me? I’m the protagonist in your story. The protagonist doesn’t die.”

“Who said anything about dying…?”

Just thinking about it made Se-hyun turn around in alarm. As his eyes met Shin Tae-oh’s, he realized that Shin Tae-oh knew about his fear.

“Trust me. I’ll never hurt your heart.”

“That…”

Se-hyun couldn’t easily respond to words that seemed to see straight through him.

The memory of that day, standing outside the operating room, resurfaced every time his tension eased. His heart would freeze with a cold dread each time, and it seemed that Shin Tae-oh had sensed it.

But strangely enough, even though the same memory surfaced now, his heart didn’t grow cold. Instead, it fluttered, beating with excitement.

All because of Shin Tae-oh’s simple request to trust him.

“If that’s the case, then let me come with you…”

Before Shin Tae-oh could finish, Se-hyun placed a firm hand on his shoulder, preventing him from getting up.

Maybe Se-hyun had been overly devoted in taking care of Shin Tae-oh because the resistance Shin Tae-oh put up was stronger than expected.

Seeing Shin Tae-oh exerting strength in such trivial things, Se-hyun thought Shin Tae-oh’s discharge might be approaching soon.

Still, the bandages on Se-hyun’s hands and wrists seemed to serve their visual purpose as Tae-oh finally gave up and lay back.

Paying attention to every little detail like this was why Shin Tae-oh couldn’t win against Se-hyun.

“If I fall, it’s the floor that will be hurt, not me. So, I’ll just…”

As the door opened, Se-hyun caught sight of someone reflected in the window and proposed an alternative.

“I’ll go with Park Ha-seong.”

Park Ha-seong, who had come for a visit but couldn’t say a word due to the strange atmosphere, pointed at himself.
As Park Ha-seong was assessing the situation, Shin Tae-oh tried to follow Se-hyun.
“I’ll be back soon.”

But before Shin Tae-oh could get up, Se-hyun took Park Ha-seong’s arm and quickly exited the room.

The varied expressions from the four pairs of eyes watching them lingered in Se-hyun’s mind, making him chuckle as the door closed behind them.

There was Lee Jin-ho’s silent complaint about who would handle things now, Yoo Jin-ha’s plea that he wanted to go too, Ha Min-hyuk’s watchful gaze toward Park Ha-seong, who had helped rescue Se-hyun’s lover. Lastly…

Shin Tae-oh’s anxiety at not having heard his confession yet.

Se-hyun chuckled, realizing he wasn’t as nice as he thought. The fact that Shin Tae-oh’s anxious face seemed cute to him meant something was off in his mind.

“Shall we go?” Se-hyun asked Park Ha-seong cheerfully.

⍣⍣⍣

After the examination, he caressed the newly applied bandages. The doctor said they would watch how much scarring remained once the wounds had almost healed.

Given the location, he was told he could get scar removal treatment if needed, which made him realize how recklessly he had used his body back then.

As Se-hyun repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist, pain shot up from the injuries caught in the car door. While the wrist was the most severely injured, his hand wasn’t completely unscathed either.

“It’s already been over a week,” said Se-hyun, looking at his hand.

Park Ha-seong nodded. “That’s right.”

It was amazing that so much time had passed.

To him, the scene of Shin Tae-oh entering the operating room was still vividly etched in his mind.

Park Ha-seong, who had come out to the outdoor garden with him, slowly met his eyes after looking at the sky.

“It looks like there will be scars.”

Having entered the examination room together as a guardian, Park Ha-seong had also heard about the scarring.

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“I know someone I can introduce you to. They can remove the scars with minimal traces left.”

“Hmm… That’s okay.”

Se-hyun raised his hand to look at his wrist.

“I’m not going to remove them.”

He didn’t know how much scarring would remain, but he didn’t want to erase it.

“But it’s on your wrist, and in a visible place…”

“That’s why I don’t want to remove it.”

This was evidence of his change of heart towards the original work, and his decision to go to Shin Tae-oh.

“And about that… when I said I liked him.”

It was something Se-hyun had confessed one night while drinking with Park Ha-seong and Yoo Jin-ha.

“I was wrong. It turns out it wasn’t just ‘liking’ after all.”

“Then why does it sound to me like you thought it was ‘liking,’ but it’s actually ‘love’?” Park Ha-seong asked, a bit amused.

Se-hyun chuckled and nodded.

“I’m his protagonist, right? The protagonist doesn’t die.”

Se-hyun had to admit it. He had fallen for Shin Tae-oh’s plot, pretending to be a side character but making himself the main focus.

“From now on, I’m going to create it—the future I’ll have with Shin Tae-oh.”

“I thought you two were already dating… Guess you’re starting now,” Park Ha-seong concluded with a smile, and Se-hyun nodded again, laughing.

⍣⍣⍣

Se-hyun entered the house, which had lost its warmth after a few days of absence. He quickly turned on the lights here and there, thinking it wouldn’t take long to fill the place with his presence again. Then he turned toward Shin Tae-oh, who was still standing in the entryway.

He looked at the hair that had grown out naturally after the bandages were removed, then at his face.

“What?”

“I’m just deciding which side I need.”

Left or right? Se-hyun glanced between his two hands and finally chose the right one.

As Se-hyun grabbed Shin Tae-oh’s right hand and pulled him closer, Tae-oh’s large body pulled toward him as lightly as a sheet of paper.

Se-hyun’s wrist must be fine now, considering how easily he pulled that off.

“Show me.”

Instead of explaining his intentions to the puzzled Shin Tae-oh, Se-hyun led him somewhere.

Passing by picture frames one by one, they stopped in front of the place where the sunflower painting was.

“You want me to show you the safe?”

In response to Shin Tae-oh’s question, Se-hyun just gestured for him to go ahead.

At that reaction, Shin Tae-oh let out a small laugh and took down the frame as Se-hyun instructed.

As he looked at the safe, no different from last time, a red light appeared and scanned Shin Tae-oh’s pupil.

Right side is correct.

After a beeping sound from the high-security safe, the lock disengaged. Shin Tae-oh lightly pressed the wall, and in response, the square section that filled the frame popped out slightly.

Before opening the door, Shin Tae-oh looked at Se-hyun.

“Do you know what it means to see the safe?”

“Yes.”

Se-hyun, who had been watching, pulled open the door that Shin Tae-oh was about to open himself.

Then he unhesitatingly reached inside and grabbed what he could.

“…This isn’t the only one, right?”

Shin Tae-oh wondered if he had ever told Se-hyun what was inside the safe but shook his head. Then Se-hyun reached deep inside himself and brought out the rest.

They were all profile pictures of Se-hyun.

As Se-hyun looked at the photos one by one, Shin Tae-oh, his patience wearing thin, lifted Se-hyun’s chin to make him look at him.

“How did you know?”

“You told me.”

“When.”

“When you regained consciousness after the surgery.”

Se-hyun still remembered where Shin Tae-oh had mentioned keeping the photos.

The casualness with which Se-hyun had figured out the safe made Shin Tae-oh smile softly as he stroked Se-hyun’s cheek.

“I almost forgot who Ahn Se-hyun is.”

A secretary who seems to know everything about him.

“It used to be completely empty. I wanted to fill it with something precious, but there was nothing.”

Shin Tae-oh’s safe was the embodiment of his empty heart. In the original story, he must have tried to fill it by forming a relationship with Yoo Jin-ha.

“But you were so bold. You didn’t hesitate to come into my heart.”

“Hmm… If that’s my answer, what do you think?” Se-hyun’s voice rumbled softly as he spoke.

Surprised, Shin Tae-oh’s eyes widened as he gazed at Se-hyun expectantly.

Wanting to express his feelings somehow, Se-hyun finally said what was on his mind.

“I’ll fill it for you.”

It came out as it occurred to him, so it might be a bit bland for a confession…

But it didn’t matter.

Because Shin Tae-oh was smiling brightly.