WAK 27

Chapter 27

About three minutes prior.

Jeonghan, who had been driving away from the apartment complex entrance, stopped his car temporarily for a red light.

As he chuckled to himself, reminiscing about his date with Hana, a white envelope lying on the passenger seat caught his eye.

He reached out and picked up the envelope containing the performance tickets.

“Can I keep both tickets?”

That was what Hana had asked on the way home, pulling out the tickets to look at them again.

“Yeah. But what are you going to do with the tickets?” “I’m going to paste them in my diary.” “You keep a diary?” “Not every day. Maybe about once a month?” “Then you don’t really keep one.” “Still, I write in it when something memorable happens.”

Recalling her prim, defensive expression, he smiled quietly and checked his surroundings. Then, he made a U-turn and drove back into the apartment complex.

Parking his car in front of Hana’s building with his hazard lights blinking, he called Hana.

Something was strange. She had just gone upstairs, yet she wasn’t picking up.

Listening to the long, lingering ringing tone, he decided he should hang up and pulled the phone away from his ear. And right at that moment, he heard Hana’s desperate cry.

[Please save m—!]

Jeonghan’s relaxed face hardened instantly.

“Hello! Kang Hana!”

There was no answer from her.

“Kang Hana! What’s wrong?”

Turning completely pale, Jeonghan hastily unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

He bolted forward, forgetting even to shut the car door.

Fortunately, the elevator was parked on the first floor.

As soon as he stepped inside the elevator, Jeonghan pressed the button for Hana’s floor.

The floors seemed to change agonizingly slowly, making him frantic.

Finally, the elevator stopped on her floor, and the moment the doors opened, he squeezed through the narrow gap and raced down the hallway to the very end. At the far end of the dim corridor, light was spilling out from an open doorway.

Jeonghan shoved open the partially unlatched front door with all his might.

The instant he opened it, he spotted Hana collapsed on the floor. He rushed over to her and dropped to his knees.

“Hana! Kang Hana! Get a hold of yourself!”

Despite his urgent voice, the hand tapping her cheek was careful and gentle.

Hearing Jeonghan’s voice, Hana winced and managed to open her eyes with great difficulty.

“Senior…”

“Haah… Thank goodness.”

He pulled her tightly into his arms.

Clutched against Jeonghan’s chest, Hana could feel his body trembling ever so slightly.

While receiving treatment in the emergency room, the headache refused to go away.

Hana stared blankly at the IV fluids dripping down, drop by drop.

Who could it have been?

She tried to think about who had secretly broken into her home and attacked her.

All she could recall was the look in the eyes glaring at her from between the baseball cap and the mask. Even that she had seen for only a split second, making the memory hazy.

Although the cap and mask had been ripped off, it had been a chaotic situation, and on top of being beaten, she couldn’t remember his face.

I’m going to catch that bastard no matter what…

She was grinding her teeth fiercely when a passing nurse intervened.

“Patient, you shouldn’t put so much force into your fists. The IV fluid won’t flow.”

Only then did Hana realize she was clenching her fist tightly.

Her eyes caught sight of Jeonghan entering the emergency room entrance.

What would have happened if Jeonghan hadn’t returned at that exact moment? Just thinking about it sent a shudder through her.

Walking up to her, he let out a soft sigh, his face filled with pity.

“I called the police.”

“You said you ran upstairs the moment the call connected, right?”

“Yeah. I had just called you right after arriving in front of the building. Coincidentally, the elevator was on the first floor too, so it probably took me less than a minute to get up.”

“It’s strange that you didn’t run into him in the hallway.”

“We’ll find out once we analyze the CCTV footage.”

“Did he escape down the stairs… Ouch…!”

Mid-sentence, her jaw throbbed, causing her expression to twist slightly.

“Don’t say anything right now.”

He pulled the blanket that had been covering her chest all the way up to her neck.

His tender care made a lump form in her throat.

Hana pressed her lips together and tried desperately not to cry. She blinked her eyes rapidly to dry away the tears welling up in the corners.

Normally, he would have smiled faintly at this kind of sight, but right now, his heart was too heavy for laughter. Jeonghan looked down at her hand with the IV needle inserted and sighed.

“Stay with me for a while.”

“…What?”

“You can’t go back into a house that’s been targeted by a burglar.”

It wasn’t wrong, but staying together still felt like crossing a line.

True to Jeonghan’s words, she didn’t have the courage to step foot back into the apartment where the intruder had broken in. Yet contacting her sister was out of the question because she didn’t want to worry her.

She could ask her mother—her only remaining family—for help, but her mother would inevitably nag her about living alone and stubborn-headedly tell her to hurry up and get married instead.

She looked at Jeonghan with a troubled gaze.

“Stay by my side until it’s safe.”

He seemed to have already made up his mind to take her with him.

Leaving the emergency room around 4:00 AM, they arrived at Jeonghan’s hotel suite.

“Use the bedroom.”

Jeonghan’s casual remark filled Hana with a sense of guilt.

“Where are you going to sleep, senior?”

“I’ll just ask them to bring up an extra bed.”

Knowing there was a bed the size of a athletic field, making him sleep on a narrow extra bed didn’t sit well with her.

“Let’s share the bed. The bed is huge anyway…”

“Do you trust me that much?”

“…Yes.”

Jeonghan lightly pinched the bridge of Hana’s nose and let go.

“Keeping my hands to myself while looking at the night view was a miracle. So don’t tempt me any further.”

“But…”

The guilt of taking someone else’s bed weighed on her. Hana hesitated, but Jeonghan remained firm.

“You don’t need to make a face like that. Right now, the injured person comes first.”

He gently nudged her toward the bedroom.

“Then I’ll impose on you just for tonight.”

“No. You aren’t going back to that house until the culprit is caught.”

He was absolute.

He doesn’t mean staying together for several days, right?

A slight doubt crossed her mind, but this wasn’t the right time to be stubborn. Hana gave a single nod and walked into the bedroom without another word.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she rubbed her face dry. She still hadn’t washed off her makeup, and her entire body felt stiff and aching from the physical struggle.

She looked down at her own body. The dress she had bought by making a huge splurge was ruinously torn.

“I left a bathrobe out. Wash up if you want to.”

Jeonghan’s low voice came from outside the door.

“I’ll stay far away.”

He probably added that to make sure she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.

Sitting blankly for a moment, she forced herself to stand up. A wave of heavy fatigue washed over her, but she knew she had to wash up and lie down first.

Dragging her heavy body, she stepped out of the bedroom.

Glancing toward the living room where Jeonghan should be and making sure he was nowhere in sight, Hana snatched the bathrobe hanging in front of the bathroom.

Stepping into the bathroom and leaning her back against the closed door, a mirror came directly into view.

Her tiredly drooping eyes widened gradually until they transformed into a look of absolute horror.

“Wh-What is this?!”

Limping slightly on one leg, she strode toward the sink. Pressing her hands against the vanity, she leaned forward to inspect her face more closely.

Swollen, bruised, with split lips…

“Oh my god…”

The face in the mirror was utterly disastrous.

“I really…”

Unable to finish her sentence, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from her ruined face. Seeing her eyes swollen up like two dark bruises made her want to burst into tears.

The look Jeonghan had given her earlier suddenly flashed through her mind.

Did he really spend time with me looking like this?

She hadn’t imagined it looked this bad since he hadn’t given any away, but she was so mortified she wished she could just vanish on the spot.

How on earth was she going to face Jeonghan after washing up, and how was she going to go to work tomorrow?

Ah, right. Tomorrow is Saturday. Thank goodness.

Just how violently had she fought with the intruder for her face to end up in this absolute state?

If the hotel elevator had been lined with mirrors instead of golden, opaque inner walls, she would have discovered it much sooner. A complex mixture of regret over the lack of a mirror and relief washed over her.

Hana drooped her shoulders and headed toward the shower booth with a deeply depressed expression.

After finishing her shower, Hana tied her bathrobe tightly and stepped out of the bathroom. She hurried straight into the bedroom before she could run into Jeonghan.

Sitting on the edge of the bed and unwrapping the towel from her hair, she spotted a set of women’s cosmetics placed on the vanity in front of the bed.

It seemed Jeonghan had brought them over while she was showering.

Standing up from the bed, she approached the vanity. Right next to the new cosmetics was a tube of medicinal ointment.

How on earth did he get his hands on this at this hour?

Hana smiled faintly and opened the cosmetic packaging.

After carefully applying the ointment to her face, a yawn escaped her lips.

It had truly been a long day.

Still wearing the bathrobe, she crawled into bed. It felt strange realizing that just yesterday, Jeonghan had been sleeping right here.

Lying straight on her back and staring at the ceiling, Hana turned onto her side and pulled the blanket up to her nose.

Though the hotelier had surely changed the sheets, she found herself sniffing the fabric anyway.

It didn’t smell like the scent she had caught from Jeonghan’s suit jacket. Instead, it carried the crisp fragrance of being thoroughly dried under the sunlight. It was a refreshing scent, yet for some reason, she felt a vague sense of disappointment.

Tossing and turning for a moment, Hana thought of Jeonghan and quickly drifted off to sleep.

She had thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep in an unfamiliar bed, but she had experienced far too much today, leaving her body utterly exhausted.