D 05

Episode 5. Please Don’t Die

After briefly looking down at his bandaged stomach, Taejun bowed his head and let out a long sigh.

“If you want to live here without any trouble.”

He stopped mid-sentence. At that moment, Haeyoung felt that he was about to reveal something important.

Finally, Haeyoung began to sob.

Tears stemming from fear streamed down her cheeks.

Taejun looked straight at her. In his eyes flowed complex emotions that Haeyoung could not understand.

“Listen to me.”

Even after hearing his words, Haeyoung couldn’t understand them. What secret was Ki Taejun hiding?

Taejun, swallowing the words he couldn’t quite bring himself to say, struggled painfully, cutting off his breath.

Nevertheless, he forced himself to get up, grabbed Haeyoung’s arm, and pushed her out of the basement.

“You didn’t see anything today, you hear me?”

The last words Taejun left behind as he closed the door were vividly etched into Haeyoung’s mind. An inexplicable darkness lingered in his eyes.

Haeyoung pushed against the door with both hands, but it wouldn’t budge even a crack.

Haeyoung, a mix of fear and frustration swirling inside her, slumped onto the cold floor.

Even in her fear, she realized that Taejun was hiding not just a simple secret, but something that could cost him his life.

Taejun didn’t return to his room all night.

Haeyoung spent the night wide awake, torn between fear and worry. She went to the basement door several times, but couldn’t bring herself to open it, afraid of being severely scolded by Taejun.

Morning came, and as soon as the housekeeper arrived for work, Haeyoung asked her for the basement key.

“Why do you need the basement key? That’s just where we store old stuff.”

Facing the housekeeper’s suspicious gaze, Haeyoung clutched her bag strap and hurriedly answered.

“My liberal arts class asked us to bring a tool as a supply. I’ll just grab one.”

At the tremor in Haeyoung’s voice, the housekeeper tilted her head in curiosity but didn’t ask further.

Avoiding everyone’s eyes, Haeyoung went down to the basement, opened the door, and stepped inside.

“Oppa…”

With a trembling voice escaping her lips, she froze at the sight before her eyes.

Taejun, his face even paler than the day before, lay slumped on the floor.

“…I knew it. I knew this would happen.”

Tears instantly welled up in Haeyoung’s eyes.

“I really shouldn’t have left you alone.”

Not listening to me…

Haeyoung took out the medicine and wet cloth she had brought in her bag just in case, and carefully began to clean his wound.

“You’re really going to die like this.”

She examined his wound. It seemed to have opened wider than the day before, the blood clotted and hardened.

“What do I do?”

He wouldn’t actually die, would he?

No matter how harsh Taejun had been, she should have come back at dawn to check on his condition.

If she had known his condition would worsen like this, she really would have.

“Please, open your eyes. Oppa.”

But Taejun didn’t stir at all.

Desperate to raise his cooling body temperature, Haeyoung did everything she could, rubbing and pressing his body vigorously.

As time passed, the sun set and the night grew deep.

Whether it was because her family was busy with work and came home late, no one came looking for her even though she had been gone for a long time.

Haeyoung couldn’t leave Taejun’s side. She couldn’t shake the fear that if she left him like this, something really might happen to him.

What on earth had happened?

Haeyoung desperately rubbed Taejun’s hands, but his cold body temperature seemed to be getting colder and colder.

“Ah, what should I do?”

Thinking of Taejun who had warned her not to tell anyone else, she couldn’t bring herself to ask anyone for help, but on the other hand, his condition wasn’t good enough to just leave him like this.

Terrified that Taejun might really die if things continued this way, Haeyoung shook her head, roughly wiping away the tears that flowed freely.

His breathing seemed to be getting fainter, his body as cold as ice, and there was nothing she could do.

“If this happens, it’ll be just like I killed you…”

Haeyoung held his hand tightly.

There was no warmth in the hand she held, so she trapped it between her own two hands, rubbing it, trying to revive his temperature.

“Really, you can’t. Please don’t die.”

She could still hear Taejun’s breathing, but even that was weak and irregular. Looking at his face, she felt despair and hope intertwined.

“Should I go out and call a doctor now? What if I tell the adults and ask for help?”

Haeyoung placed her hand on his forehead and murmured. The cold temperature seeping through her fingertips made her even more afraid.

‘You didn’t see anything today, you hear me.’

She recalled the weight of his warning.

But the more she thought about it, the deeper the confusion she fell into.

She had lost count of how many clothes and blankets she had brought down overnight.

Although it was early spring, the weather was still chilly, and the basement was particularly colder. So her choice to try and raise Taejun’s dropping temperature was to warm his body as much as possible.

Whether it was because of the pile of clothes covering his body so thickly it felt heavy, she could feel Taejun’s cold body temperature faintly returning.

Haeyoung slipped her hand inside the pile of clothes and held Taejun tightly.

Taejun woke up, writhing in pain so intense it felt like his flesh was being sliced. As soon as he regained consciousness, he frowned at the weight pressing down on his body.

Turning his head, he saw Ahn Haeyoung, clutching his hand tightly and sound asleep, pressed close against him.

“Ha.”

How did she manage to sneak in here?

Lifting the bothersome clothes covering his body and pushing them towards Haeyoung, she curled up and pressed herself even closer against him.

Her full chest touched his arm. Taejun closed and opened his eyes, trying to pull his arm away.

Then, belatedly, Haeyoung’s pleading voice echoed in his mind.

‘Really, you can’t. Please don’t die.’

‘If you die like this, it’ll be like I killed you…’

Taejun let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

“This is really absurd.”

But there was something subtle mixed within that laugh.

The worry and fear she harbored faintly touched somewhere deep in his chest.

He tried again to pull his arm away from Haeyoung, but her grip on him was surprisingly strong.

Taejun looked down at her for a moment. Curled up and shivering, she looked like the most fragile creature in the world.

Dried tear tracks were messily scattered around her eyes.

Cold air flowed into the basement, making the atmosphere even more damp.

The smell of the basement, a mix of dust and musty moisture, was cold and unpleasant, but even in such an environment, Haeyoung had stayed by Taejun’s side.

“Ha…”

He let out a long sigh.

Her warm touch, the piles of blankets, and the body heat touching him were gradually thawing his cold, frozen body.

Old mildew stains on the basement walls were faintly visible in the dim light, and in one corner, old tools and miscellaneous items were piled up. The only light source was a single flickering incandescent bulb, its light casting irregular shadows on Haeyoung and Taejun’s faces.

“Was there any need to go this far?”

Taejun murmured, looking closely at her face.

He moved his arm slightly, brushing her hair away from her forehead.

“Ahn Haeyoung.”

His low voice broke the silence in the room.

Haeyoung flinched slightly and woke up. Her eyes wide, she looked at him.

The distance was too close. The space between them was so narrow that her breath tickled Taejun’s ear.

The shadows cast by the incandescent bulb blurred the distance between them even more.

The moment their eyes met, the silence in the basement grew even heavier.

“You-you’re awake?”

Haeyoung asked, her voice trembling. Guilt and relief flickered in her eyes, which shone with a clarity like the color of the sea.

“What are you doing here?”

Taejun replied curtly. His voice was still dry, but as he read Haeyoung’s expression, it wavered subtly.

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