MW 34

“Give birth to me?”

With his eyes rolling back, Dohae tightened his grip and said in a low voice.

“Why is that person my mother.”

“Ugh, heuh……”

“What does she have to do with me for her to be my mother!”

Genuinely terrified of Dohae, who lunged at him as if to kill him, Yijae dug his fingernails into the back of his hand and scratched.

Perhaps from the lack of oxygen, Yijae’s mind grew hazy, and the strength in his fingertips began to fade.

“Fuck!”

With a sharp scream, Dohae shoved Yijae away as if throwing him to the floor. He looked down at the gasping man and parted his lips.

“Seo Yijae, mark my words. If I ever hear again that you met with Jaeha hyung. Your mom will really die then.”

Clinging to his fading consciousness, Yijae struggled to nod. Dohae roughly tossed a file folder onto his body and said.

“Read it.”

Moving his deathly pale fingers, Yijae pulled the documents out of the folder and his eyes landed on the title ‘Consent to Discontinue Life-Sustaining Treatment’. And at the very bottom…….

“Wh-why is this…….”

His own signature was there.

“That’s what you get for signing without reading properly.”

As Yijae’s eyes trembled, not understanding what was happening, Dohae continued.

“Or were you just pretending not to know, even though you did? You thought your mom was a burden too, didn’t you.”

“N-no. I never…….”

As Yijae gripped the papers as if to tear them, Dohae snatched them from him and slapped his cheek as if to say, ‘don’t do anything useless’.

“There won’t be a second time.”

With those final words, he stood up and disappeared. Watching his retreating back, Yijae stared blankly with empty eyes.

⁺₊❆₊⋆

Crash!

The sound of a plate shattering echoed through the kitchen. Startled by the pasta that fell onto his forearm, Yijae swallowed a pained gasp, “Heut.”

“Yijae, are you okay?”

Hearing the sound, Jeongseok turned his head and found Yijae. It was already his second mistake today alone. Unlike usual, he seemed out of it, and Yijae didn’t look well.

“I-I’m sorry.”

Finally regaining his focus, he saw the mistake he’d made in the already busy kitchen and bowed his head in apology.

“I’ll clean this up, so go soak your arm in cold water.”

“No, it’s okay. I-I’ll do it…… Eut!”

Feeling a sudden stinging sensation, Yijae lowered his head.

“This is driving me crazy. Are you okay? Taehoon hyung! Bring me the first-aid kit.”

Jeongseok spotted Taehoon, who had just entered the kitchen, and shouted loudly. He had come down to the kitchen to get some alcohol, but when he saw Yijae kneeling on the floor, he rushed over with a surprised look on his face.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Food had spilled all over his white shirt and arm, and his hand seemed to have been cut by the broken glass, as blood was dripping from his fingertips.

“Wait a minute, the first-aid kit, wh-where was it?”

Seeing that the bleeding wasn’t stopping, as if the cut was deeper than he thought, Taehoon panicked. Yijae was already frail, looking like he might break if someone so much as tapped him. Seeing such a person get hurt made his mind go blank.

As he looked around, lost and unsure of what to do, Jeongseok shouted at him, “Next to the locker in the changing room!”

At those words, Taehoon’s head shot up and he quickly turned towards the entrance.

“What’s all this commotion?”

“Ah, Boss, you’re here?”

Just then, Seungmin, who was entering, frowned at the noisy interior and asked. Yijae tensed up at his appearance in this situation and gulped dryly.

“Well, the youngest got a little hurt. Huk, Yijae, this won’t do. First, just take off your shirt.”

Noticing the steam rising from the shirt, Taehoon hurriedly pulled at his clothes.

“I-I’m fine!”

“What? Your arm is already red. It must be bad on your torso too, you need to wash it off with cold water quickly.”

Yijae bit his upper lip with a troubled expression as Taehoon scowled, telling him not to be so stubborn.

Just then, Seungmin reached his hand out between the two and effortlessly lifted Yijae into his arms.

“Boss?”

“I’ll take care of Seo Yijae, so you guys finish cleaning up here.”

He had never shown such care for anyone before, so everyone in the kitchen stared at Seungmin as if it were a strange sight.

Yijae immediately noticed their gazes, but there was no trace of emotion on Seungmin’s face as he carried him in his arms and left the kitchen.

“B-Boss. I can walk.”

Once they were in the hallway, Yijae finally came to his senses a little. He spoke cautiously, trying to keep his sauce-stained clothes from touching Seungmin’s.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Replying thus, he tightened his grip on Yijae’s back as if to prevent him from escaping and, with wide strides, opened the door at the end of the hall.

“This place is…….”

Looking around the completely black interior, Yijae spotted the nameplate on a large desk and immediately realized this was the boss’s office.

“Take it off.”

“……Pardon?”

“I need to see the state of it to decide whether to go to the hospital or not.”

Quickly, he added one more word, then put his hand in his pocket, took out a cigarette, and placed it in his mouth.

With his lips pressed firmly together, Yijae began to unbutton his shirt cautiously as his chest started to sting, likely from the sauce seeping into the burn.

“Tsk.”

Seungmin, who had been smoking his cigarette, saw Yijae struggling to unbutton his shirt while curling his bleeding fingertips, and strode towards him.

“Throw this away. We have plenty of uniforms.”

“Huh?”

With those words, there was a ripping sound, and a button flew off and fell to the floor. After his shirt was stripped off in an instant, Yijae urgently stopped Seungmin, who was about to tear the t-shirt he was wearing underneath.

“I-I can take this off myself.”

Quickly turning around and taking off the t-shirt, Yijae let out a long sigh with a look on his face that said he didn’t know what he was doing right now.

“No blisters have formed. The finger doesn’t look like it needs stitches either. I’ll put a waterproof band-aid on it, so go wash up inside.”

Then, with fingertips calloused contrary to his appearance, Seungmin examined Yijae’s body, rummaged through a drawer, took out a band-aid, and wrapped it around his fingertip.

Yijae cautiously took the new uniform the boss gave him and walked towards the bathroom he pointed to.

With a click, the sound of the door locking was heard, and Seungmin quietly stared in the direction where the sound of water was coming from.

“Hoo.”

The wound on Yijae’s neck from a while ago seemed to be in worse condition than the last time he saw it. There were many red marks that looked new, too.

‘He doesn’t seem to have a hobby of being choked, so where on earth is Seo Yijae…….’

Crushing the shortened cigarette in the ashtray, he put a new one in his mouth and narrowed his brow.

Creak.

“Hyung!”

Suddenly, the door burst open and someone dressed flashily from head to toe appeared.

Didn’t I lock the door when I came in earlier? The wrinkle on his brow deepened as Seungmin tiredly took in his cousin who had just entered the office.

“You should knock before entering. You think this is your house, Yoo Chaekyung.”