WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Malfoid
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◈ The Dynamics of Pure Love and Overprotection ◈
Chapter 29
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He readily admitted that he had spent the night sleeping rough in someone else’s apartment hallway. I had heard the elevator arrive before I fell asleep, so I thought he had left. Had he been waiting outside all night? Why? If he was that confident he could guess the password, he should have come in and slept.
Then, belatedly, I remembered that I had thrown Kang Uihyeon out myself. So much had happened in a single day that my thoughts were a mess.
“I came in because I heard you scream.”
Kang Uihyeon frowned down at the bloodstained towel. He checked his watch, then stared steadily at the doctor who still had not come to my bed.
“If I hadn't screamed, were you going to stay out there all night?”
“I was going to leave after seeing you wake up.”
“Do you have that much time?”
Kang Uihyeon turned his head toward me. An impatient, irritable look crossed his rough features. It had been a long time since his patience wearing thin had shown so clearly.
“Don't be sarcastic. I'm holding back plenty as it is.”
I promptly shut my mouth. Even when I acted up in front of Kang Uihyeon, I had a talent for knowing where the line was. I had nearly crossed it just now. My emotions had been constantly surging since my parents' death anniversary, leaving me unable to see straight.
At last, the doctor and nurse remembered I existed. When they unwrapped the blood-soaked towel, the sole of my foot, where the bleeding had stopped while I waited, was revealed. As saline washed away the blood around it, the long vertical wound looked more manageable than I had expected.
“Try not to put much weight on your left foot if possible. Be careful not to get it wet when you shower.”
For all the fuss of rushing to the emergency room, the treatment ended quickly. They applied medical adhesive and prescribed antibiotics. I sat up, feeling awkward.
“Get on.”
Kang Uihyeon lowered himself with his back to me. His broad, reassuring shoulders filled my view. Just yesterday, I would have climbed onto his back without hesitation, but now my pride stood in the way of what I wanted. Just as there were patients here with more urgent needs than mine, I had different priorities from now on.
“You don't even have shoes.”
Kang Uihyeon pulled my arms around his neck. Reluctantly, I let myself lean against his back. Just this once. Once we got home, I would change the door lock password again and pretend not to know him at school. No matter what happened at home, I would not call Kang Uihyeon. Even if I ended up in the emergency room again, never.
And then...
I needed to start dating Han Jio soon.
The moment I forced that last sentence into my mind, instinctive rejection rose up in me. What a spoiled emotion that was. Kang Uihyeon walked around school hugging another woman, yet I still was not even taking care of my own wretched heart.
Kang Uihyeon's ear was right in front of me. I wanted to bite down hard on that flawlessly handsome ear. I wanted to demand why he had waited outside for hours instead of going home, making me feel so unsettled.
“Asshole...”
The thought slipped out in the end. My lips had been pressed so close to his ear that there was no way he had not heard, yet Kang Uihyeon silently paid the hospital bill and settled me into the passenger seat.
By the time we left the hospital, the sky had brightened. Cars heading to work early were already filling the roads. Kang Uihyeon's car merged among them, but instead of turning toward my home, he crossed Seongsu Bridge. His house was this way.
“Where are we going?”
“I'll go home and pack some things.”
“What things?”
“Clothes and whatever else I need. I can't keep wearing Dogyeom's clothes every day.”
No way. I turned toward the driver's seat with an incredulous look.
“I'll use Dogyeom's room for a while.”
“You're going to live there?”
“For a while.”
“Why?”
My heart pounded so fast that my ribs ached. I could not tell whether it was anxiety or anticipation, not even as the owner of those feelings.
“You said your mother disappears when I'm there. I'll stay at your house for a few days, and we'll see if it's true.”
“I told you to stay out of it.”
“Then are you just going to keep getting hurt like this? How many times have I seen it already? You're telling me to stand by and do nothing?”
Kang Uihyeon raised his voice. It was rare for him to speak so loudly, and it frightened me. Without realizing it, I gripped my seat belt tightly with both hands.
“First it was the cup, this time it was the pot and the knife. What do you think it'll be next?”
As he entered a neighborhood of detached houses, Kang Uihyeon took a breath.
“Neither shamanic rituals nor talismans work, but you're fine if I'm at your house. Then I should be there.”
“So how long are you going to live at our house?”
I looked at the blue vein standing out on Kang Uihyeon's forehead and asked weakly.
“You're not going to live there forever. What can staying a few days do?”
I was not trying to pick a fight. If Kang Uihyeon was willing to stay at our house, I was the one who ought to be grateful. If someone alive and breathing, rather than my dead mother, became my housemate, I could ask for nothing more. I just wanted to be realistic. His method was only a temporary fix.
“Just wait a little.”
Having regained his calm, Kang Uihyeon spoke steadily.
“I'll look for a solution while I'm staying there.”
It felt as though we had gone back to the time of my parents' funeral. I had been scrambling about without enough time to process my grief when Kang Uihyeon, who had been in class, came running at once. When I saw him standing beyond the threshold, my legs had given out. I had forced myself upright, gone to him, and gripped the hem of his clothes tightly. Begging him not to go anywhere, begging him to stay here.
Three years ago, I had only pretended to be grown up. Now I really was an adult, yet I was no different from before. It was pathetic and pitiful that I still could not solve a single problem of my own and had to rely on someone who was not family. I had decided to stop liking Kang Uihyeon, but my hand was still clutching his clothes. It was entirely my fault that this bond kept becoming harder to break.
* * *
When we returned home, the first thing I noticed was the kitchen knife lying beneath the sofa. The knife, still smeared with a little of my blood, was so chilling that it was hard even to look at. As soon as Kang Uihyeon entered the house, he picked it up and put it in the sink.
“Get some sleep.”
Kang Uihyeon came back toward the entrance to help me. I shook my head. It was the last weekend before exams. I could not waste it sleeping.
“Then do you want to wash up?”
It was an ordinary question, but tension suddenly ran through my shoulders. I refused Kang Uihyeon's hand and limped into the bathroom alone. He followed after me without seeming the least bit tired.
“I'll wrap your foot. Wait.”
I did not want the wound to get worse either, so I sat on the edge of the bathtub and waited for Kang Uihyeon. He soon returned with plastic wrap and knelt on one knee before me. It was strange how he did not hesitate for even a moment before placing his knee on the dry bathroom floor. He had been thrown out after I told him to get lost. Did he have no pride?
“I should buy more plastic wrap.”
He wrapped my left foot so carefully that he used up the rest of the roll. I quietly looked up at Kang Uihyeon as he stood. Following him with my eyes was just a habit and meant nothing, but he seemed to think otherwise.
“Is there anything else you need help with?”
“No, I'm fine.”
I had almost answered, “Forget it,” rudely, but changed my words to sound polite. When I thought about it calmly, Kang Uihyeon had done nothing wrong. Him hugging Ms. Jeong Sujin did not mean he had wronged me. My one-sided crush was the unwelcome intrusion in their slowly developing relationship. What I needed to do was not take my temper out on Kang Uihyeon, but clearly acknowledge my situation and let go of my feelings.
“Take off your clothes and leave them outside. I'll run the washing machine.”
“Okay.”
After sending Kang Uihyeon out, I washed with difficulty, half crouched over. As warm water poured over my head, I tried not to think of Mother or Kang Uihyeon. That part went well, but after I finished washing and stepped out from under the shower, I stared at the towel rack in dismay.
...I had not brought a change of clothes.
If I had been home alone, I could have hurried into my room. But Kang Uihyeon was moving around outside the door. When I cracked the bathroom door open, the clothes I had taken off after wearing them all day yesterday were already gone. I stuck only my eyes out and waited for Kang Uihyeon to notice me. Even I was not shameless enough to shout, “Oppa!” in this state.
Not long after, Kang Uihyeon came out of Yu Dogyeom's room and met my eyes. As he started toward me, I quickly shut the door.
“What is it?”
His low voice came from right outside.
“Some pajamas...”
“Wait.”
His footsteps faded away. Standing naked in the hazy steam while waiting for Kang Uihyeon, I felt like a girl awkwardly trying to flirt. Like one of those cheap women who threw themselves at someone with nothing but the naked body everyone had. Since Ms. Jeong Sujin appeared in Kang Uihyeon's life, my pride and self-esteem had both been getting crushed like this.
Soon, knock, knock. Kang Uihyeon knocked on the bathroom door. I raised my voice through the door between us.
“Just leave them there.”
There was no answer. Had he already gone? I carefully turned the doorknob I had been gripping tightly. My gaze immediately dropped, and what I saw was not clothes but a man's bare feet.
“Don't put your left foot on the floor. Sit down and get changed.”
Kang Uihyeon passed the pajamas to me himself through the narrow opening in the door.
“I'll take the plastic wrap off for you.”
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