Chapter 65

Chapter 65

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Around 7 a.m.

Some of the group members woke up with frowns, rising from where they lay.

They woke up at a time similar to their usual waking hours, having grown somewhat accustomed to the unpleasant influence of this alternate world.

Of course, not everyone woke up. Among those still asleep were Yoon Garam, who ran her own flower shop, a pair of siblings who were still students, and the exhausted Director Lee Jaehun.

The first to notice something strange was Dr. Ha Sungyoon.

“...Jung Inho-ssi.”

“Yes?”

“Director Lee isn’t waking up.”

“......”

Jung Inho was about to say, ‘He’s probably just sleeping deeply because he’s tired,’ but then closed his mouth. Knowing Dr. Ha Sungyoon’s personality, he wouldn’t say something unnecessary, and Jung Inho himself wasn’t more knowledgeable about medical matters than Ha. It was unlikely that the experienced doctor, who had been observing Director Lee Jaehun’s condition, was mistaken.

Jung Inho clenched and unclenched his fist once, then looked around as naturally as possible.

“I think it would be good to fetch some water today.”

“Shall we go to the small lake? There might be other fruits around there too....”

“I’ll see if we have any containers for carrying water.”

The group remained calm.

“......”

For a moment, Jung Inho felt a chill.

Director Lee Jaehun had always taken on all the injuries and pain himself, but he left the solvable tasks to them. Jung Inho, who knew a bit about Lee Jaehun’s past, guessed that he wanted them to grow.

Sure enough, when Director Lee Jaehun disappeared the other night, Team Leader Kang Mina picked up a hammer. No one in the group was clueless about how to start a fire, and even Dr. Ha Sungyoon, who had been somewhat detached, was trying his best to manage the group with a sense of duty.

Although they couldn’t solve every problem, they could fetch drinking water, feed themselves, and manage their emotions with proper breathing techniques. They knew what they needed. They had established a basic system that wasn’t there initially.

To Director Lee Jaehun, who likely wanted such a result, this must have been an ideal scenario....

“...I’ll take a look too.”

A cold wind crawled up his spine.

Not just now, but sometimes, Jung Inho felt like Lee Jaehun was preparing for a situation where he wouldn’t be around.

It wasn’t an entirely wrong thought. From the beginning, Lee Jaehun’s goal was his own physical and mental well-being and prosperity. More precisely, he wanted to create a situation where he could live comfortably without needing to intervene.

However, the problem was with Director Lee Jaehun’s behavior up until now.

According to Dr. Ha Sungyoon, he had inflicted long, deep cuts on his own arm with precise strokes, and, as revealed, he was accustomed to pain. The way he faced death before Jung Inho came back from the past made him seem like someone who wanted to die.

With a flood of information that was ambiguous as either truth or falsehood, Jung Inho’s thoughts had solidified. He believed that given the right justification, Director Lee Jaehun would be the type to end his own life.

Eventually, when the time came, he would dump everything on Jung Inho....

“......”

He watched Director Lee Jaehun, who lay so quietly that even his breathing couldn’t be heard.

“...Ha...”

Before, he would have thought it was surprising to see him sleep so quietly.

The Lee Jaehun he knew was never a quiet person. He would get worked up over the smallest things and attach excessive meaning to trivial matters. Inho had never associated calmness with the sight of Lee Jaehun swaggering and disparaging others.

But unfortunately, now he could only think that this silence suited him very well.

“...Director.”

“......”

“Director?”

He gently shook the man lying there, but there was no response.

“.......”

For a moment, Jung Inho thought he had stopped breathing.

He suddenly remembered the first time Lee Jaehun woke up after passing out. The shrill groans, the scratching at his neck, and the momentary silence that followed—he remembered it all.

He recalled the empty space filled only with blood, no bodies in sight....

“Director.”

His grip tightened.

If something had happened to him, the group needed to know. It wasn’t like when he and the doctor kept quiet about Lee Jaehun’s past. So, he raised his voice, making sure the others could hear.

Still, though.

“Director, you should wake up now.”

“Inho-ssi?”

“Get up.”

Jung Inho admitted he felt a twinge of fear.

“I said, get up, Director.”

Clang.

A piercing echo rang in his ears.

It was the sound of blood flowing.

* * *

Lee Jaehun did not wake up.

“.......”

Of course,

That didn’t mean he was dead.

Did he have internal injuries? What effect did the otherrworld have on him? What did the varying amounts and frequencies of the blood he coughed up mean? For a doctor who had to be sensitive to every small change in a patient’s condition, this was the most brutal situation.

The knowledge he had was useless. No, it could even be dangerous. Treatments he once believed were absolutely correct could kill someone here.

It was astonishing and bewildering.

If it were just one extreme or the other, it would be easier. But the fact that his choices could be completely right or completely wrong drove a doctor like Ha Sungyoon crazy.

The only silver lining was that Ha Sungyoon had already been a bit mad.

“.......”

“...Yeah.”

He understood and accepted it. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have made it to the underworld. The previous sane version of him....

“It’s inevitable for me.”

After venting his confusion, Dr. Ha Sungyoon quickly returned to his usual demeanor.

His calm and gentle manner induced a shallow disorientation among the group, which then seeped in as a sense of incongruity and subtle fractures among them. They started to notice the traces of madness that had been hidden under the guise of being an adult.

Yet, Jung Inho didn’t feel overly anxious.

‘...We’ve just been pretending not to notice.’

Everyone had maintained a reasonable distance, pretending not to see because of their unfamiliarity with each other.

Sure, it’s polite to hide personal flaws or breakdowns to some extent as an adult. But ever since Director Lee Jaehun had inadvertently revealed his extraordinary nature, it became impossible to maintain such formalities. They had sensed that such a day would come.

Surprisingly, it was Kang Mina who remained the calmest amidst the chaos.

“The Director....”

“Yes.”

“When he was comforting Yeonhee-ssi, he mentioned there might be fish in a small lake.”

“.......”

“He also said he would build a house.”

Despite hesitating as usual, she conveyed everything she wanted to say and, just like when Director Lee Jaehun had disappeared, left the choice to Jung Inho.

He felt the familiar gaze on him from somewhere.

“Tell me what needs to be done....”

“...If I tell you?”

“I’ll take responsibility.”

“Responsibility.”

“I can do it.”

For what?

“...I see.”

Jung Inho asked himself, but didn’t say it out loud due to sheer exhaustion.

Whatever the case, he could see a dark, burnt-out look on Kang Mina’s face. The kind of cold, yet soft look you might find on a freshly dead body....

Blood soaked into the ground.

“.......”

Blood.

Corpse.

Darkness and,

Bright red flames.

“...Then, should we start building a wall?”

Hallucinations scraped at his eyes.

Glass shards seemed to flutter inside his ears like butterflies.

Jung Inho instinctively felt that something had changed in the person before him, but he couldn’t muster much of a reaction. The most shocking moment he’d had involving Team Leader Kang Mina was seeing her alive, especially after experiencing death and returning to the past.

That was enough.

As long as she was alive.

As long as she didn’t die, even if her limbs were twisted like a doll’s. As long as her eyes didn’t stare blankly into space, crying blood, with an emotionless gaze fixed on him, that was more than enough.

“A wall?”

If it came to that, Jung Inho wouldn’t be as afraid of her dying or killing something. Just as much as before, anyway.

“I don’t know how to make a roof.... We could pile up wood or stones, and if that’s not enough, we could weave vines together.”

“...Sounds good.”

He hoped that particular kind of fear would only happen once.

“I’ll do it.”

“Let’s do it together.”

“With whom?”

“With whoever you want.”

Moreover,

She had the right to do as she wished.

“Please, do whatever you want.”

Because she was alive.

As long as she was alive, it was fine.

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