CH 75

She wanted to continue teasing him, but when Yiyoung saw how serious Muyeol got, she took pity on him. “I might be able to remember everything if I drink some coffee.”

“What?” Muyeol sputtered.

“I need coffee.”

He stared at her in bewilderment for a while before it finally sunk into him that she was only pulling his leg. Muyeol patted his chest in relief, and Yiyoung felt a bit guilty for teasing him.

“So, you didn’t go to work?” she asked, and Muyeol nodded in response. “For how long?”

“For three days,” he said.

Yiyoung looked at his beard, almost impressed by the speed with which it had grown. It had only been three days, yet Muyeol looked like he’d been living out in the wild for weeks.

“Do you remember getting stabbed?” asked Muyeol.

“Yeah, I remember everything. I was just a little confused because I’d just woken up,” she said before perking up, feeling like she was ready to be discharged. “Who’s the doctor in charge of me? Can you call them over?”

Muyeol pressed the call button without a word. The doctor came in immediately, almost as if he had been waiting outside the recovery room this whole time.

As Yiyoung talked to the doctor, Muyeol focused on taking care of her. After wiping her face, he moved onto her hands. He had become adept at it over the past three days. It was inevitable; Yiyoung had kept breaking out in cold sweats, and on the second day, her body temperature shot up pretty high.

Muyeol hadn’t left Yiyoung’s side even once in the past three days. Sangsu and Honghee had offered to take over and let him rest, but he gently refused. Yiyoung had kept waking up in panic, and he was the only one capable of calming her down; his face and arms were full of scratches from the fits she’d had.

When he was done wiping her hands, he moved to lift the blanket, wanting to wipe her feet, too. He felt Yiyoung’s gaze on him, so he paused and looked at her. She stared at him wide-eyed, as if silently asking ‘What are you doing?’

Muyeol resumed his movements and spoke nonchalantly, “It’s going to cost you $50.”

Yiyoung opened her mouth, but no words came out. She didn’t know what to say; she hadn’t been expecting Muyeol to take such good care of her.

“The $50. If you don’t give it to me, I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth,” he said again.

Yiyoung scoffed in disbelief at first, but then smiled when she remembered how she had threatened in the exact same manner a long time ago. “Yeah, right!”

“Just finish what you were going to say to the doctor,” Muyeol said coldly.

But Yiyoung understood how deeply he cared about her. The warmth of his hand pressing against her ankle, and the way he gently wiped her feet almost made her cry, but Yiyoung managed to hold it in and continued talking to the doctor.

The doctor’s gaze continuously wandered toward Muyeol as he talked to Yiyoung. He maintained his professionalism by only talking about her condition, but what he really wanted to ask was whether Yiyoung truly was Muyeol’s wife. The entire hospital was eager to know about their relationship. Yiyoung was extremely lucky to be the wife of the president of the hospital; Muyeol had been born to such a wealthy family, after all. The staff couldn’t wait to hear about their love story! Yiyoung already knew her condition well, and he had so many questions…

“So I should be able to work again in three months!” Yiyoung concluded brightly.”

“Do you really want to go back to work that early, Dr. Yoon?” the doctor asked in disbelief.

“Of course! A fish cannot live outside the pond, after all.”

“Everyone knows you’re hard-working, you should know better than anyone that you need to rest, right?”

“Yeah, I know! So, I’ll listen to you well so I can get back to work as soon as possible.”

“Alright… You were fortunate. It could have been a lot worse.”

“I’m pretty strong, so I’ll recover fast!” she chirped.

Meanwhile, hearing Yiyoung talk about going back to work right after waking up, Muyeol’s face hardened.

Yiyoung claimed she remembered everything, but Muyeol didn’t agree. She had absolutely no clue what Muyeol had gone through the past three days. She was oblivious to what she had done to him.

The doctor left the room, finished explaining everything to Yiyoung. Then, Yiyoung turned to Muyeol, feeling refreshed after getting her body wiped down. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

She remembered dialing his number after getting stabbed. Perhaps she had done so after recalling that Muyeol had told her to call him during any emergency.

Suddenly, Yiyoung narrowed her eyes, the multiple bandaids on Muyeol’s face catching her attention. “What happened to your face? Come close so I can see.”

“It’s nothing.”

“I said, come close,” she ordered.

Muyeol reluctantly pulled a chair to the bedside and sat close to her. Yiyoung turned his face, carefully checking both sides, the angry red abrasions glinting under the light.

Her lips trembled. She remembered her nightmare again; she had tried to fight against the criminal trying to stab her. “D-Did… Did I do this to you?”

“It’s okay,” he said, “you were unconscious.”

But it wasn’t okay. It wasn’t just one wound, his entire face was covered with him! And there were scratches all over his neck and arms, to… Yiyoung gingerly held his face and whispered, “Sorry… I’m really sorry.”