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Chapter 6
Charge Me Up
Listening to the conversation between Professor Kwak and Ho-rang, Bo-bae could barely keep the corners of her mouth from curling skyward into a smirk.
Meeting a man who didn’t get shocked when touching her was already a once-in-a-lifetime miracle, but now she was the one keeping his heart beating? Wasn’t this straight out of an episode of Unbelievable Story Surprise?
Just moments ago, this man had stood there with a ice-cold expression, barking a “10-meter no-approach rule” at her. He had treated her like a perverted stalker and even called her a kiss lunatic!
And yet, she was making his heart beat!
To think that her electric ability—a trait she had always considered utterly useless—would shine so brightly in a moment like this!
While she was inwardly shouting “Hooray!”, Professor Kwak finished his conversation with Ho-rang and stepped toward her.
“Patient Na Bo-bae. I sincerely apologize for moving you to this room without consulting you first. The situation was extremely urgent.”
As Professor Kwak bowed his head in apology, Bo-bae waved her hands dismissively.
“Oh, no! Not at all. It was an unavoidable decision to save a human life.”
Bo-bae offered a sweet smile, prompting Ho-rang to let out an incredulous snort.
“Thank you for understanding,” Professor Kwak continued. “As you’ve heard, Patient Na Bo-bae, your help is desperately needed.”
“Yes, I see that. My help is very, deeply, truly desperately needed.”
“He has a bit of a fierce temper, but he doesn’t bite.”
“Yes. Right now, he looks just like a tiger that’s lost its teeth.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, it’s nothing! Please don’t worry and go rest.”
“Then I’ll be leaving him in your good hands.”
Professor Kwak gave Bo-bae a final earnest request regarding Ho-rang before stepping out of the room.
Left alone, a heavy silence descended upon the VVIP suite.
Bo-bae stared intently at Ho-rang, while Ho-rang thoroughly ignored her—treating her as if she were completely invisible.
Eventually, Bo-bae broke the silence first. After all, generosity is the privilege of the one holding all the cards.
“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
“No.”
“Aww, come on. I’m pretty sure you have something to say.”
Bo-bae smirked slightly as she watched the man sitting stiffly in a desperate attempt to protect his pride.
His earlier insult—claiming she threw her body at him because her writing was garbage—still made her blood boil when she thought about it. But it was also true that she had committed a grave breach of etiquette toward a total stranger. So, if he properly asked for her help, she was willing to give it.
“Something to say, huh…”
When Ho-rang nodded as if something had just crossed his mind, Bo-bae looked at him with expectant eyes—waiting for an apology to spill from that arrogant mouth.
“10 meters.”
“10 meters?”
“Did you forget already? I told you not to come within a 10-meter radius.”
“Ha! Is that really all you have to say to me? That damn 10 meters!”
“That’s it. Nothing else!”
As Ho-rang snapped back fiercely, Bo-bae glared at him.
It seemed this man still didn’t believe a single word the doctor said. Well, a woman who recharges batteries? Who in their right mind would believe such nonsense? But still.
“If you don’t believe it, it’s your own loss.”
Whether he believed it or not, Bo-bae had nothing to lose.
“I’ll get out of your way and beat it past 10 meters just like you said, so get plenty of rest. And make sure to keep an eye on that.”
Bo-bae pointed at his smartwatch and walked out of the room. Left alone, Ho-rang glared fiercely at the closing door.
“What, does she think I’ll get scared just because she leaves?”
Snickering in disbelief, Ho-rang unfolded the newspaper resting on the table.
The economy section, current affairs, the editorials… Ho-rang’s eyes tracked across the printed text, but not a single word registered in his head. Though the news was filled with business matters he urgently needed to keep up with, his mind was entirely consumed by thoughts of his heart and its battery.
Feeling irritated, Ho-rang tossed the newspaper aside and slyly checked his smartwatch. A sneer formed on his lips.
“I knew it. As if that kiss lunatic could actually affect my heart.”
11%. The remaining battery reading was exactly the same as before, even though quite a bit of time had passed since she walked out of the room.
Only then did a sense of peace return to his mind. Professor Kwak must have just been bored and decided to play an extreme practical joke on him.
Ho-rang rose from the sofa and stood before the large window. The rain that had been pouring all night had finally stopped. The dark clouds had receded, revealing a clear blue sky outside. The sunlight streaming through the glass felt exceptionally warm and cozy.
He was just beginning to soak in the comfortable warmth when—
Beep-beep— Beep-beep-beep—
An grating alarm sounded from somewhere. Ho-rang looked around, but couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from. It sounded like it was right next to him.
The moment he glanced down at his wrist, his expression froze solid.
“What is… this?”
The smartwatch that had been perfectly fine a second ago was now flashing a bright red light. On top of that, the battery reading had plunged down to 9%!
“Is it broken?”
That fleeting thought barely crossed his mind before—
“Ugh…”
A sharp, throbbing pain flared up in his chest. Along with the stabbing sensation, breathing suddenly became difficult.
At that exact moment, Professor Kwak’s words echoed through his mind:
“Without that patient… your heart won’t beat!”
Why did those words have to pop into his head right now?!
He didn’t want to believe it. He wanted to brush it off as a joke and move on, but he couldn’t.
Because the smartwatch was wailing even louder, and the stabbing pain in his heart was rapidly worsening.
Ho-rang sprinted out of the room. Seeing him, a nurse on duty hurried over.
“Are you feeling unwell? Should I call the professor?”
Shaking his head, Ho-rang dripped with cold sweat as he gasped out a question:
“The woman who just left this room… where did she go?”
Right now, what he needed wasn’t a doctor. It was that woman, Na Bo-bae.
“To think that my electric ability would actually come in handy in this lifetime! Oh, you adorable thing. Mwah. Mwah. Mwah.”
Bo-bae showered her own body with kisses, showering praise on the electric power she had done nothing but resent her entire life.
Until thirty, she hadn’t even been able to hold a man’s hand. She had cursed it as a useless ability that ruined her love life and blocked her career path as a writer, but to think it would help her in such a dramatic way!
Either way, that man desperately needed her power, and she needed him to write her novel. In short, her electric power was directly helping her writing. How wonderful was that?
“It should be about time for him to come out…”
Bo-bae muttered to herself, casting a side glance toward the roof access door.
She didn’t know how sturdy his artificial heart battery was, but with 11% remaining, dropping below 10% wouldn’t take long. And human psychology dictates that once a battery dips under 10%, panic naturally sets in.
After all, modern people could survive without food, but never without battery life.
“Speak of the devil.”
Bo-bae smiled brightly as Ho-rang finally burst onto the rooftop.
He scanned the area frantically before spotting Bo-bae and making a beeline straight for her. The anxious look in his eyes, the beads of sweat on his forehead, and the smartwatch blaring its loud warning alarm…
The second she saw him, Bo-bae knew for sure: This guy finally gets the picture.
“Oh my, look who it is! Isn’t this the gentleman who ordered me to stay 10 meters away?”
Ho-rang found her twisted tone thoroughly grating, but his attention was entirely consumed by the smartwatch—whose blaring alarm had suddenly shut off the moment he closed the distance between them.
Fearing the worst, he checked the screen. The battery level, which had been at 9% just moments ago, had already bounced back to 10%! And it had barely been a few seconds since he reached her.
His mind was thrown into total chaos. He saw it with his own eyes, yet he couldn’t bring himself to believe it.
If what the professor said is true… if it’s true that this woman is keeping my heart beating…!
What am I supposed to do now?
“If I stay this close, I’m gonna get chewed out again,” Bo-bae scoffed, pretending to turn away. “I’ve already taken so much heat yesterday and today that I’m worried I might live forever from all the curses.”
As she tried to walk past him, Ho-rang stepped directly into her path.
It was the exact reaction she anticipated, but she had no intention of yielding easily. She was, by nature, the type to pay back every cent she was given.
“We shouldn’t be standing this close. I’ll get scolded by you again.”
“Even if you go back to the hospital room, I’m going to be there anyway.”
“That’s why I’m planning to change rooms. To one about 10 meters away from yours.”
When Bo-bae smiled sweetly and tried to take another step, Ho-rang blocked her path once more.
“Oh my. Was 10 meters always this close? This isn’t 10 meters, this is more like 10 centimeters.”
The man had closed the distance so much that she could feel his warm breath against her face. That was proof of just how desperate he was. Very, very desperate.
Looking down at the woman staring up at him so mockingly, Ho-rang suppressed the boiling rage inside him. He utterly loathed this situation, but to survive, he needed her.
She was his one and only lifeline right now.
Clenching his fists so hard the veins on his hands bulged, he forced out the words that seemed utterly stuck in his throat—dragging them out with immense difficulty, piece by excruciating piece:
“Help… me.”
“Huh? What did you say? I can’t really hear you.”
After using every ounce of his strength to force out words he swore he’d never say in his entire life, she was playing dumb! She was even blinking her eyes with an innocent expression as if she didn’t have a clue.
Ho-rang clenched his teeth tight and opened his mouth again.
“I said… help me.”
“Help you? Oh my goodness! CEO Baek Ho-rang of Taeseong Group asking a ‘kiss lunatic with a rotten mind’ like me for help? I don’t even know what to do with myself!”
Despite claiming she didn’t know what to do with herself, Bo-bae boldly crossed her arms and looked up at him with sparkling, sharp eyes.
The sight, the situation, this reality—it was all infuriating beyond belief, but Ho-rang had to endure it. To survive!
“Will you… help me?”
When he dragged the words out of his throat to ask once more, the insincere smile vanished from the woman’s face. Blinking, she asked back:
“For free?”
Ho-rang’s eyes widened at the unexpected counter.
“What?”
“Haven’t you ever heard of give and take?”
“…”
“Expecting something without offering anything in return—isn’t that just a thief’s mindset?”
“!”
The exact words he had thrown at her yesterday were now being thrown right back into his face.
He had known this woman wasn’t normal, but she was a total lunatic. A lunatic with a terrifyingly good memory.
“I mean, of course, ethically, on a humanitarian level, out of the goodness of my heart, I could help you. But! Mr. Baek Ho-rang, you hate that kind of thing, don’t you? You like clean transactions and absolutely despise getting a free ride, don’t you?”
On top of throwing his own words back at him, this woman was… serving him a massive, steaming pile of humiliation.
However, there were two things this bold woman didn’t realize.
Unlike her, he had plenty of things to “give”—and he, too, remembered every single word of the conversation they had yesterday.
Bathed in the sunlight breaking through the dark clouds, Bo-bae’s face shone unusually pale and fair.
Her face had been this pale yesterday, too.
“Just kiss me once!”
Even when she was wrapped in his arms, saying those words.
“So as long as there’s something ‘given,’ it’s fine, right?”
“Huh?”
Ho-rang cupped Bo-bae’s face with both of his large hands.
Then, with rough lips, he swallowed her soft ones.
It was their first kiss.
