🔊 TTS Settings
Episode 4: Don’t Get Cocky
Honestly, she was scared. It was because of his fiercely gleaming eyes, the savage energy dispersing within the silence, that pressed down on her endlessly.
Lost in thought, she was crossing the garden.
As Haeyoung walked lightly towards the front door, a long shadow loomed over her from behind.
“Hmm”
The moment her mouth was covered, the acrid, nauseating smell of blood stung her nostrils. Following that, a suppressed voice whispered from behind her back.
“Go into my room. In the drawer under the wall shelf, there’s a box with a red handle. Bring it and come back down.”
Even without turning around, she knew exactly whose voice it was. It was Taejun’s.
Taejun’s hand covering her face was cold. Her heart pounded, thumping against her ribs.
He was breathing in short, ragged gasps, as if out of breath, and Hae-young felt his trembling breath push her deeper into confusion.
“Got it? Did you hear me?”
Terrified, Hae-young nodded vigorously.
Without looking back, she hurried inside, but stopped in shock at the sight of herself in the mirror by the entrance.
Her face was covered in blood. Taejun’s blood, from when he had grabbed her face…
Even in her shock, Hae-young suppressed her fear and ran up to the second floor.
As she found and pulled out the box with the red handle as he had instructed, her hand trembled slightly.
In her ears, her own heartbeat sounded loud, as if echoing inside her head.
Fear. Yes, that was fear.
As she rubbed the blood on her fingertips onto her skirt, tears spontaneously burst forth. Quickly wiping them away, Hae-young ran back to the entrance.
Taejun, who had been waiting in front of the entrance, snatched her hand as soon as she appeared and went down to the basement, which connected to the outside.
In the dark, damp space, blood dripped onto the cement floor.
Beed of sweat formed on Hae-young’s forehead.
“A-are you hurt? Where, how, how badly?”
The question finally came out. But Tae-jun ignored it.
“Come here and do this.”
Tae-jun removed his hand from where he had been pressing firmly on his stomach and took off his shirt.
Without even thinking about how frightening he looked covered in blood, Hae-young stepped forward quickly and examined his condition.
Paying no attention to her words, Tae-jun took off his shirt to reveal the wound.
A cut, as if from a knife, traced a long line across his abdomen. Blood was seeping out steadily between the gash.
Hae-young couldn’t bring herself to look away. His wound was much deeper than she had vaguely imagined.
Because of that, she couldn’t speak, a mix of fear and pity swirling within her.
“Take out the powder medicine and bandages inside.”
At Tae-jun’s short, firm command, Hae-young opened the box with trembling hands and took out the medicine and bandages.
But his movements were rough and impatient.
Taejun roughly snatched the powdered hemostatic agent and began brutally sprinkling it on the wound.
Startled, Hae-young reached out her hand.
“Wait, let me do it. I’ll…”
But Taejun’s glare froze her in place.
His cold, sharp gaze seemed to pin her right where she stood.
More vividly than his blood, she could see the pain in his eyes.
She was scared and confused, but strangely, she wanted to help him.
As Taejun opened the box and took out the bandage, his hand trembled slightly.
The wound was a mix of already clotted, dark red areas and fresh, spreading bright red blood. Hae-young gasped instinctively.
“Just wrap the bandage.”
Taejun’s voice was heavy and rough, but the pain hidden within it was palpable. He gestured towards the rolled bandage.
Hae-young, finally managing to unroll the bandage that wouldn’t hold steady in her trembling fingers, was filled with a mix of pity and question as she faced the wound.
Wiping away the flowing tears with one hand, she whispered.
“A-are you okay? Where did you get hurt?”
Since she could clearly see how badly he was hurt, she wanted to know why and where he had gotten so severely injured.
What reason could an ordinary college student have to suddenly get hurt like this?
Normally, if you get hurt, I mean, usually… you go to the hospital.
No matter if Chairman Ki came from the bottom rungs of gangsters, he was now the chairman of a respectable company. And Taejun was his proud, smart son whom he cherished above all else. Chairman Ki wanted to hand over the splendid company he had built to Taejun.
Chairman Ki always said his lifelong wish was to keep his children’s hands free of blood. And that wish had been well kept until now.
Until now.
Unable to either swallow or let out the sobs filling her throat, Hae-young didn’t know what to do, her hands simply trembling.
There was a reason Hae-young was so afraid of blood. Her father, whom she thought was just an ordinary office worker commuting to work, had also come home one day covered in blood.
Taejun snatched the bandage with blood-soaked hands and muttered shortly.
“You talk too much.”
Even so, Hae-young helped him wrap the bandage with her trembling fingertips.
Feeling his body temperature, transmitted through her fingertips, seem to grow cold, she couldn’t help but feel anxious.
“This, this wound is too deep. You need to go to the hospital.”
“I told you to shut up and wrap the bandage.”
Taejun’s tone was cold, but his face was clearly exhausted. He looked as precarious as a candle about to flicker out.
Facing his completely pallid face, drained of blood, an even greater fear gripped Hae-young.
“Y-you might die.”
Everyone knows that losing a lot of blood can kill you. She didn’t know where Taejun had been hurt or how long he had been exposed in this state, but it was natural to be worried.
Taejun grabbed Hae-young’s fumbling hand and murmured lowly.
“Focus. Wrap it tight so it doesn’t come loose.”
Held by his cold hand and pulled close to Taejun, Hae-young finally began to wrap the bandage around his bare torso.
Up close, the wound was deeper than she thought.
Even after applying gauze and wrapping the bandage once, twice, blood soaked through profusely.
“I don’t think we can just leave this. Let’s go to the hospital, quickly.”
Hae-young warned Taejun, her eyes filled with tears.
“It’s done now. You can go.”
The moment she finished wrapping the bandage and took her hands away, Taejun looked at her for a long moment, then let out a short breath.
Even after hearing his words, Hae-young couldn’t easily move her feet.
One thing was certain. Taejun was hiding something.
“Where did you get hurt? …Who did you fight? Why? Are you a gangster too, oppa? You said you were a college student. What could happen to a student to get hurt this badly?”
Hae-young’s voice trembled. Her questions, mixed with confusion and fear, poured out.
Taejun sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. His gaze towards Hae-young was heavy and weary.
“Shut up and get lost.”
That was the only thing she could hear from him.
But Hae-young didn’t stop.
“At the very least, you could explain a little to someone who helped you. I’m s-scared. What if something goes wrong if I just leave you like this…?”
She didn’t know how to process the surreal situation unfolding before her eyes, but Haeyoung couldn’t just leave the injured Taejun alone.
“Do I have any obligation to explain everything to you?”
Taejun murmured lowly. But within his cold, firm voice, there was a hint of an unfamiliar wavering.
Hae-young reached out her hand towards him, then hesitated. Her hand stopped in mid-air.
“Can you walk? Can you get to your room? You can’t just stay here forever. A-and your clothes… What should I do? What can I do to help?”
Taejun turned his head and looked at her. His gaze softened somewhat, but she still felt a solid wall.
“Hae-young.”
He called her name in a low voice. But the next words didn’t follow.
A brief silence passed.
“Just because you helped me a little, don’t get cocky and act like you’re something.”
