Chapter 497

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Yeo Ryung asked urgently, “Does it hurt a lot? Do you have a fracture?”

“No, not that much. I’m okay…”

When it came to his troubled situation, Eun Hyung tried to reduce the level of seriousness or pain, showing a smile, as usual.

I also urged, “For now, let’s just go to the hospital first. If you start to feel pain at night, the only option you have will be the emergency room.”

“No, I am really fine…”

“If you’re suffering at night, you have to wake Yoo Chun Young up…”

Eun Hyung, waving his hand in the air, shut his mouth immediately at my remark. Jooin once told me how to handle Eun Hyung. Indeed, it never went wrong, even once.

Being satisfied with Eun Hyung finally becoming quiet, Yeo Ryung and I helped him to stand up.

“Excuse me, we’re coming through.”

“Sorry, sorry…”

While pushing our way through the crowds, I kept glancing in the direction where Ruda disappeared. How could he suddenly show up at the right timing? Above all, how did he know ahead that Eun Hyung would get surprise attacked by someone?

Anyway, first thing first, we had to bring Eun Hyung to the doctor. Switching my gaze to the front, I quickened my pace.

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Pushing Eun Hyung into the doctor’s room, I called Jooin right away and let him know what had happened. As I expected, Jooin burned with anger.

“Let’s say San hyeong was ranked on the list so that the attacker could target him, but how did he know about Eun Hyung?” asked Jooin.

“I really have no idea, but Ruda seemed to know about something…”

Jooin raised his voice, “Ruda hyeong?”

“Uh-huh, before Eun Hyung got attacked, he called him and told us to go to a crowded place ASAP.”

“I see. Let me find out that part.”

I nodded at his words in trust of Jooin to reveal the truth of the incident within a day. I added, “Again, I don’t know the reason for the attack and how long these things will continue, so it seems that Eun Hyung needs security around him for a while.”

“Just telling Chairman Yoo would solve that problem. You know Eun Hyung is like a son to him too,” replied Jooin.

Well, recalling the memories of how Yoo Chun Young’s family treated Eun Hyung, I could tell that how intimate they felt about him. ‘That will indeed work,’ the moment I nodded with that thought in mind, someone snatched my phone out of the blue. I looked behind me in surprise.

Having left the doctor’s room before I even knew, Eun Hyung talked on the phone clearly, “Never tell him.”

Jooin responded a few words over the phone in his usual, high tone voice; however, the call was disconnected as soon as Eun Hyung closed my flip phone with a loud shut. Since it was our first time seeing Eun Hyung behaving that unkindly, both Yeo Ryung and I just flickered our eyes.

As if he was driving a wedge in his words, Eun Hyung uttered, “Don’t let Chun Young or his family know about this thing. I don’t want them to be concerned about this.”

Considering Eun Hyung’s personality, he would indeed react that way.

Hesitating for a second, I carefully asked, “Then what about Eun Jiho?”

“Even him too.”

I squinted my eyes at his determined response, wondering, ‘Geez, then what should we do?’ Earlier, he seemed to be utterly unable to cope with that guy by force, but now he wanted us to put our hands down and just watch him getting beaten in front of us.

Putting my phone back into my hand, Eun Hyung continued, “I can handle it myself.”

“But…”

“Let’s go,” urged Eun Hyung, turning around.

I looked at the view of his back blankly.

‘I can handle it myself.’

I felt that such trivial words could be embedded in my heart. It seemed like I was forced to see our relationship diagram that existed in Eun Hyung’s mind; we should only receive things from him but weren’t allowed to give him anything at all.

He would have definitely hated Yeo Ryung and me being vigilantly aware of our surroundings while we were almost guarding him on our way to the hospital. In his perspective, that wasn’t our role to play.

While I stood in a daze for a moment, something white flew over beside me. Taking a close look, it was a folded prescription bag.

The white folded paper bag struck Eun Hyung on the back of his head and fell on the floor.

Eun Hyung turned around with a look of wonder on his face.

“Stupid!” Yeo Ryung blurted out, standing up from the seat. Before I had a chance to stop her, she strode along the hallway and quickly left the hospital.

‘Uh, what am I supposed to do…?’ Shortly after, I got up from the seat and looked back and forth between Yeo Ryung and Eun Hyung. When our eyes met, Eun Hyung pointed with his chin in the direction where Yeo Ryung left as if I didn’t have to think twice. Still, I hesitated.

He uttered, “Go ASAP. It’s dark now.”

I barely took a few steps upon his words but stopped right beside him for a second. While Eun Hyung dropped his gaze at me in wonder, I looked into his eyes.

“You know I didn’t tell you guys anything when something happened to me…” I uttered.

“Oh…”

“Now I get how it feels.”

“…”

“You guys must have felt quite upset…”

Dropping the last sentence with difficulty to Eun Hyung, who remained wordless after emitting just a short exclamation, I turned around and bent my steps again. Though he was, of course, out of my sight since I was walking with my back to him, I could clearly see Eun Hyung standing alone in the lobby.

That night, Jooin called me when I was busy studying. Pushing the math workbook that I was tackling just now to the corner of my desk, I picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hi, mama, it’s me.”

As if he roughly finished speaking with Ruda, Jooin slowly unfolded the information that he heard from Ruda.

I tossed a question in surprise, “You’re saying that Jung Yohan is suspicious?”

“Not suspicious, we’re close to being assured. After being discarded by Jung Yohan, Hwang Siwoo confessed everything to Ruda hyeong about the things he did when he was under Jung Yohan,” answered Jooin.

A-ha, so what I had seen through the window was that moment. Now I could understand why Hwang Siwoo looked intimidated like a sinner during the whole conversation, whereas Ruda seemed like he was mad.

Jooin’s following words then made me frown.

“To top it off, the order of the surprise attack victims and the order of the guys on the ‘Most Dangerous’ list that Hwang Siwoo handed over to Jung Yohan exactly match.”

Listening to Jooin’s words, I asked the question that lingered inside me for the whole time, “Then the reason why Ruda wasn’t attacked is…”

“Hwang Siwoo eliminated Ruda hyeong’s name from the list right before handing it over to Jung Yohan since he became close to Ruda. However, that enabled Ruda hyeong to help Eun Hyung this time, so, in the end, it wasn’t something bad though…”

“Geez…” I heaved a deep sigh.

So, Hwang Siwoo put Eun Hyung’s name on the ‘Most Dangerous’ list, after all, huh? How dare could he do that to Eun Hyung, a model student who had nothing to do with the ranking?

‘Digging your own grave.’ Usually, I would have sneered that way at those who tried to play with Eun Hyung, but this time, it was a different situation.

The all-black guy I had bumped into in the alley against the burning sunset entered my head. Although he was in a one-on-one fight with Eun Hyung, the guy wasn’t overwhelmed at all. Instead, he was the first person to prevail in the situation. Just by recalling the moment sent me a chill down my spine and seemed to freeze my breath.

While I became stiffened for a second, Jooin called me.

“Mama?”

That was when I pulled myself together. Rubbing my forehead, I replied, “Ah, sorry. Why don’t you finish your sentence?”

“Yeah, anyway, the reason is obvious why Jung Yohan is demanding that guy to eliminate the most dangerous opponents to him. Literally, he’s getting rid of the competitors before he takes the Number one position, especially removing those who aren’t with him in the same direction.”

“Not being with him in the same direction…?”

“For example, Woo San or Gang Han is well-known for not getting involved with ordinary students. Suh Doh Gyum is a type of guy who doesn’t care, but he tries not to fight with other kids since Kim Pyung Bum hates it. Lastly, it’s needless to speak about Eun Hyung you know.”

“So, Jung Yohan doesn’t belong to that type, right?”

“They say it was more like a war a long time ago… the days when offering money to the superiors and enduring punishment were mandatory…” replied Jooin, lowering his voice.

I asked, ‘You’re kidding, huh?’ but Jooin didn’t smile. That was when I also became serious.

“Mama, if Jung Yohan wins over the nationwide Number one position, everything can change. We must prepare for that, though we’re gonna try our best for it to not happen…”

When the ridiculous word, ‘nationwide Number one,’ slipped out from Jooin’s mouth, it sounded severe as if the world was leaving its destiny on it.