85 – Health Seeker
“Did the kids move me?”
The last memory that came to mind was the memory of the floor of the room collapsing, so it seemed like someone had found me and moved me to the bed.
“Ugh… I need to drink some water.”
Today, he pulled his heavy legs out of the bed and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Haaam, kkeum!”
As he yawned, he felt a soreness in his throat and quickly closed his mouth. Just as he was about to get up from the bed to find some water.
From Noble mtl dot com
Thud.
The tightly closed door gently opened, and Iris, with a sunken expression, entered the room.
“Ah, ahem…Iris-“
Instinctively grabbing my throat, I managed to say Iris’s name. Iris, who had been bowing her head deeply, suddenly looked up at me.
“Ah…!”
With a short gasp, Iris rushed towards me in the blink of an eye. It was an incredible speed.
“Oppa!”
“Oof!”
Caught in Iris’s strong embrace, I fell backward. I held onto Iris and collapsed onto the bed.
“Oppa, oppa…”
“Ugh…”
I raised my hand to comfort her sobbing, but her slender arms were wrapped around me so tightly that I could barely breathe. Only the sound of dying breaths escaped. I gently patted Iris’s back and said,
“Surrender…”
Not sure if my intention was understood, Iris was startled and fell away from me.
“Op…pa.”
Iris’s words echoed and my vision turned black.
“Oh, wait, am I passing out right now?”
With that absurd thought, my consciousness abruptly faded.
***
How much time had passed since then? I woke up as if coming out of a dream.
“Ugh…”
“..! Lian!”
“Oppa!”
“Everyone, be quiet! Oppa is a patient!”
As the surrounding noise subsided, I slowly opened my eyes and saw concerned gazes filled with worry.
“Kum, ah…mu-“
With a voice that was dry and almost dying, someone supported my shoulders and back, helping me sit up halfway. And someone else brought a cup to my lips.
Gulp, gulp.
“Ahh! I feel alive!”
As my thirst was quenched, my mind cleared up. Some strength returned to my weakened body.
Gurgle -.
Now, if only I could fill my growling stomach like crashing waves, I could recover my original condition.
“Oh, I’m hungry.”
Reflexively mumbling, Noah suddenly jumped up and rushed out of the room. I caught a glimpse of his red hair swaying beyond the open door.
“Joo In-nim…? Joo In-nim…?”
Unable to enter the room, Jace’s voice lingered outside the door as I replied with a dazed expression.
“Why is Jace… doing that over there?”
“I told him not to come in because I thought he might rush in without hesitation once he knew you woke up.”
Feeling dull-headed as if I had just woken up from a day-long sleep, I mumbled my thoughts, and Lily answered.
“Can’t he come in if I tell him it’s okay? He looks so pitiful…”
“Still, he can’t. It’s been a whole week since Oppa opened his eyes. He hasn’t had a proper meal and his body is extremely weak. If Jace interferes, he won’t just faint.”
“A week…? Me?”
As I mumbled in confusion, someone hurriedly entered the room. It was Nero and Noah.
“Hyung! You’re awake!”
Nero quickly approached the bed and examined my complexion, while Noah brought a tray.
“Ugh…”
I could hear Jess whimpering from outside the door. I looked at Lily and said, “I’m fine, so just let them in.”
“You’re not fine at all!”
Startled by the sudden outcry, I turned my head and saw Noah looking at me with a deeply wrinkled face. He handed the tray to Nero and approached me, pouring out his words.
“Do you know how you looked when we found you? You collapsed on the floor and didn’t even flinch when we tried to wake you up! And you stayed like that, collapsed, for a day… two days… Do you know how worried we were? Afraid that you would just leave us…”
Tears started to well up in Noah’s eyes, and my body stiffened. Noah lowered his gaze, bit his lip for a moment, and then asked with a trembling voice, “Why didn’t you tell us that your condition was so bad?”
“What?”
“Why didn’t you tell us that you were in such a bad state… Why?”
I rolled my eyes and cold sweat trickled down my face.
“Well, it’s not like that… I just picked up a fallen gem from the floor and examined it, and then I passed out…”
I couldn’t bring myself to say those words because it would make me look like someone who mindlessly picked up food from the street and ended up in the hospital. Just the thought of Noah’s eyes, filled with concern, looking down on me with pity, made me feel frozen.
I didn’t know he was that kind of person.
How old is he to pick up something that fell on the floor and play with it so carelessly?
I worried for no reason. What a waste of time.
As the spotlight shone on me, I sat down hesitantly like a tragic heroine and shouted, “Hey, guys, sorry! Don’t go!” The scene of the children leaving with cold expressions was vividly depicted.
It was even more difficult to speak when I imagined it to that extent.
“Uh, uh… Well…”
I desperately searched for a plausible answer, rolling my eyes.
“L-Lian!”
“Oh my god…!”
“….?”
Noah stuttered in surprise, and Lily, who had been silently watching us, came closer to me and started examining my face.
“Why is your sweat like this…”
“Oh.”
While fiercely rolling my head to avoid being ignored by the children, cold sweat was pouring down and staining my clothes.
“Sorry, my clothes and the bed got dirty.”
“What are you talking about right now!”
When I apologized for dirtying the bed because of my hesitation, Lily poked me with a stiff face. I started to read the atmosphere like an obedient puppy.
“It’s not important that your clothes got dirty -… No, it’s not the time for this!”
Lily quickly rushed out of the room and ran somewhere. As I blinked my eyes and looked at the direction where Lily disappeared, Nero placed a tray on the bedside table and said,
“Lily went to get the tools used for treatment because she’s studying to become a therapist.”
“Ah… But I’m not sick. I think I’ll be fine if I just eat something.”
I was just speaking with 100% sincerity, but all I got in return was a stern gaze. Nero spoke with a determined expression resembling Lily.
“First, get treated, then eat. We still don’t know if it’s safe to eat even if you eat.”
I could only lie down on the bed, sobbing at the broken horse.
“If I just eat, I’ll feel better…”
As I sulked with such thoughts, I felt someone cautiously grab my right hand. When I turned my gaze, Iris was holding onto the tip of my finger with a deeply sulky expression.
Feeling her fingers tickling mine as if she was trying to gauge my reaction, I firmly held her hand. Iris widened her eyes in surprise and looked at me. I tried to smile as gently as possible, reassuring her.
“Sob…”
“Huh?”
Then Iris started shedding tears. I immediately tried to sit up and hug her, but a firm hand held my shoulder and pressed me back onto the bed.
“Just stay lying down.”
“Yes…”
Noah’s voice sank low as he blinked. Under Noah’s charisma, I became a shrinking violet again, placing my hands on my chest. How long did it last?
“Lord Joo-in!”
Lily and Jess entered the room together. It was adorable how they approached carefully, as if they had heard that they needed to be quiet.
“What’s all this?”
My gaze, initially directed at the cute Jess, quickly shifted towards Lily, who was carrying something in her arms.
“We obtained a lot of good things while raiding various organizations this time.”
Lily said, placing the unknown items on the bed without explaining their purpose, and lifted the blanket. Then she boldly lifted my clothes upward.
“Kyaaah!”
“…?”
An unexpected feminine scream burst out. Noah, his face turning red, covered it with his hands and stepped back, swaying.
“Lord Joo-in… Does it hurt a lot? Should I lick it?”
Jess sniffled and stuck out her tongue with a gloomy face. Lily pushed Jess away, holding up an object that was the size of an adult man’s fist.
As she twisted the round-shaped object up and down, the middle part opened up. It seemed that the outer appearance was just a case, and something like a medical bandage came out from the inside. Lily pressed it firmly against her throat.
She took out three more bands and stuck one on her forehead and one on each calf. Then, she fiddled with other tools and started doing something.
“It’s like watching a mad scientist.”
With a flickering and banging sound, it reminded Lily of the strange world of scientists with a weird mechanism where something was completed when the microwave finished running with a “ding!”
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As time passed and the receipt was spit out from the card machine, something that looked like a result sheet was printed from the square-shaped machine.
“It should say that I’m healthy, right?”
Except for being hungry, there shouldn’t be any problems, so it would definitely say that she’s healthy.
“…Why?”
Surely it would say that… Lily’s face turned pale as she read the result sheet.
the device probably scanned his stuff and was like “wtf he shouldnt be alive”