Chapter 76 – ​The ​Price ​of ​a ​Misjudgment

Though ​he ​looked ​as ​if he had much ​to ​say, Jeong Si-jun ​remained silent until ​the ​guiding ​was ​finished.

In ​the ​guiding room, where ​an ​awkward ​atmosphere lingered, an ​alarm searching for Jeong ​Si-jun rang ​loudly. Despite ​this, he ​could not ​bring ​himself ​to leave.

‘The alarm ​is still ​ringing.’

Irritated by the incessant ​sound, Yoon Ki-hyun asked ​if he didn’t need ​to go. ​Only ​then did Jeong Si-jun hesitate before ​leaving the guiding room, ​mentioning ​that ​he ​would ​be right back.

“…….”

Left ​alone, Yoon ​Ki-hyun ​looked down at ​his ​hands. As he gripped his ​slightly trembling ​hands ​tightly, his breath ​hitched.

Even ​after ​taking ​long ​breaths, his ​chest ​felt tight ​and his mind was hazy. As he ​began to settle ​the unauthorized copylingering aftereffects ​of Read on Read BL Novelsthe guiding in ​his body, ​a terrible headache ​and ​tinnitus struck as ​if they had ​been waiting.

“……Ugh.”

Even ​letting ​out a ​short ​groan was ​not ​easy. The ​moment ​his ​own groan sounded ​muffled ​to his ​ears, ​he ​felt ​as if he were being strangled.

‘……Here we go again, this bullshit again.’

As his vision flickered black, Yoon Ki-hyun slowly leaned his back against the sofa. It was a familiar pain, but it was agonizing every single time. To the point where he felt it wouldn’t be a loss if he just died right here.

The only saving grace was that if he lay down and rested for a while, the tinnitus and headache would gradually subside. So, it would be fine this time as well.

While waiting for the pain to pass, Yoon Ki-hyun suddenly felt a lukewarm liquid flowing over his upper lip. It was a wretched nosebleed.

As he hurriedly blocked it with a tissue, even breathing became uncomfortable. He felt disgusted by a body that couldn’t just deal with one thing at a time, yet he found himself chuckling.

‘No, really, is there a reason to live like this?’

He had grown accustomed to his hands being stained with blood from constantly plugging his nosebleeds, but every now and then, it felt chilling.

Then, thoughts like this would suddenly occur to him.

How much longer could he make a living off others’ money with this kind of guiding?

He had desperately tried to ignore it, but he always thought that there might not be much time left. This was because he could feel his body breaking down bit by bit every time he performed guiding.

‘Still, I should do it as long as I can…….’

He tried to steel himself, but his thoughts didn’t follow easily. He had never felt so hopeless about a body that wouldn’t move as he wished and a future that remained so opaque.

‘I’m just…… sick of everything.’

Yoon Ki-hyun grew weary of it all. He was disgusted; he was bored.

The series of daily actions—waking up, breathing, eating, and working—felt dreadfully overwhelming. He neither wanted to handle it nor had the confidence to do so.

Yoon Ki-hyun felt a sense of déjà vu. It was a sensation he often experienced after realizing there was a problem with his memory.

‘……Another place I don’t recognize.’

His memories didn’t flow continuously; it felt as if the middle had been cut out entirely, like an edited film. He tried to lift himself up to assess the situation, but his body felt strangely heavy and his ears were muffled.

Turning his head, he saw a haggard-looking Jeong Si-jun. He was mouthing words beside him.

“……What are you saying? I can’t hear you well.”

The sound didn’t carry properly, as if someone were speaking from outside the water. As he frowned and tried to hold his forehead, someone stopped his hand.

It was a medical staff member he had never seen [[visit our site]stolen contentclass="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">Read on Read BL Novels]before. The atmosphere suggested they were trying to check his condition.

Yoon Ki-hyun obediently let his body go limp. After some time had passed, the words began to sound clearer.

“Can you hear me well?”

“……Better than before.”

Even giving a short answer left him strangely out of breath, and his chest felt stiff. It seemed something had gone wrong with his body again.

“You had pulmonary edema.”

It was a professor who had been there since some unknown time. Yoon Ki-hyun gave a small nod and blinked blankly.

Pulmonary edema. He felt like he’d heard that before, but what was it again?

“Fluid had built up in your lungs, but you should be fine now.”

Ah, so fluid can build up in the lungs.

Despite the kind professor’s explanation, Yoon Ki-hyun indulged in trivial thoughts and turned his head. It was because he was mindful of Jeong Si-jun sitting by the bed.

“Did the Team Leader bring me here again?”

“……Do you have any idea how shocked I was to find you collapsed in the guiding room?”

Jeong Si-jun muttered softly, frowning as if recalling the moment.

On the hand that roughly brushed down his face, there was a half-cast he hadn’t seen before. It seemed he had been injured at a gate.

He needed to check the state of his wavelength, too. In this physical condition, even a simple task felt quite burdensome.

“The progress is not too bad. We will monitor your condition and I will tell you again early next week [Read on Read BL Novels][unauthorized copy]style="position:absolute;left:-9999px;font-size:0;">[stolen content]if you can be discharged.”

“Yes.”

“And…….”

The professor paused, then cautiously spoke while looking at Jeong Si-jun.

“Could you step out for a moment?”

It was just as Jeong Si-jun was about to stand up at the very polite request. Yoon Ki-hyun vaguely realized what the professor wanted to say to him and gave a small wave of his hand.

“Ah, you can just speak comfortably.”

He couldn’t keep hiding it forever anyway. At Yoon Ki-hyun’s dissuasion, the professor briefly adjusted his glasses.

“Yes, if that is the case……. I recall you saying before that you absolutely had to perform [Read on Read BL Novels]style="position:absolute;left:-9999px;font-size:0;">[stolen content]content -->guiding, but it would be best if you did not do any more guiding from now on.”

“……Ah.”

Yoon Ki-hyun let out a short sigh.

“Even if you continue treatment without guiding, the outcome cannot be guaranteed, but continuing treatment while also guiding is……. I don’t know if this is the right expression, but honestly, it is not much different from throwing money into the air.”

From the professor’s blunt explanation, he could feel how much guiding hindered his treatment.

In fact, the professor had held a consistent view since the initial diagnosis.

That even if he quit guiding and focused on treatment, a full recovery could not be guaranteed and the process would be quite arduous.

However, he was in a situation where he had to guide to earn money for medical expenses. Therefore, the advice had been to reduce the time and frequency as much as possible—whether it be 5 or 10 minutes a day.

“……Is that so.”

Yoon Ki-hyun realized that his condition had reached a stage where the professor could no longer compromise. If he was speaking this bluntly, it likely meant that if treatment were stopped, the remaining time might not be very long.

Yoon Ki-hyun nodded and replied that he understood. The professor left the hospital room after saying they would monitor the progress further.

“…….”

“…….”

Left alone with Jeong Si-jun in the hospital room, Yoon Ki-hyun stared blankly out the window. Outside, where the sun was still up, it was unusually clear without any fine dust.

‘I tried as much as I could, but I guess it’s not meant to be.’

At this point, it felt as if the world was pushing him toward death, and he was the only one stubbornly struggling to live, oblivious to the signs.

The process of struggling to survive by any means was not beautiful. It was stolen content-->our site -->visit our siteonly grotesque and ugly.

From bottomless self-pity to the envy and jealousy he felt toward Jeong Si-jun, who was free from the money worries that always constricted him.

He had tried his best to survive, doing every unsightly thing possible, but now he wanted to stop everything.

Things like individual rehabilitation or personal bankruptcy, which had complicated his thoughts for a while, could no longer serve as alternatives. Even if those debts were wiped away, he would die anyway since he had no money for medical treatment.

Yoon Ki-hyun looked silently at Jeong Si-jun, from whom not even the sound of breathing could be heard. Jeong Si-jun, unable to meet his eyes, kept his lips pressed firmly together.

“Team Leader.”

“…….”

“As you heard, this is how it turned out.”

“What do you mean by ‘how it turned out’?”

“I mean, I can’t do guiding anymore.”

Only then did Jeong Si-jun lift his head. His lips, which he had been chewing on the whole time, trembled.

‘Why did it turn out like this? I just wanted to apologize to Yoon Ki-hyun somehow and try to get along again, so why suddenly…….’

He swore to heaven that he hadn’t wanted this situation. He thought he still had time to fix his foul speaking habits and verbal slips.

“……No. Think about it again.”

Jeong Si-jun muttered with a frown.

He had never imagined a termination of the contract in this manner.

He had imagined Yoon Ki-hyun becoming disappointed in him, hurling curses, and terminating the contract saying he couldn’t do his guiding because it was filthy and [stolen contentclass="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">Read on Read BL Novels]wretched, or imagining him disappearing without a word and cutting off contact…….

But for him to stop being his Guide due to health reasons, calmly and composedly, and regardless of Yoon Ki-hyun’s own will.

“That professor might be a quack. He could have misdiagnosed you. I’ve seen many professors, so I know. They take the money and then always look for ways to slip away, changing their words constantly…….”

The professors Jeong Si-jun said he had seen many of seemed to be the ones who had cared for his mother, who had passed away recently. Yoon Ki-hyun glanced at Jeong Si-jun’s trembling hand.

“There’s plenty of time, so don’t say you’re quitting.”

Time. Yoon Ki-hyun calculated the time—no, the money—he had left.

If he quit being Jeong Si-jun’s personal Guide, how many more times could he pay for medical expenses and loans with the remaining money?

Combining the deposit from his studio apartment, the severance pay from the center, and the amounts Jeong Si-jun had frequently deposited as settlement money, it would be six months at most.

Wouldn’t it be too boring to wait six months just to die?

Yoon Ki-hyun slowly opened his mouth.

“……It’s a disease called Miscellaneous Restrictive Awakened Body Abnormal Syndrome.”

The name of his disease still didn’t sit well on his tongue. At the sudden mention of the disease, Jeong Si-jun fell silent.

“My disease. I’m telling you just in case, but it’s not contagious. They say it occasionally occurs only in Guides.”

“…….”

“The five-year survival rate is only 20%.”

Because Jeong Si-jun had cared for his mother, who had fought a long battle with illness, he could understand the meaning of what Yoon Ki-hyun was saying.

“Since there aren’t many patients with this disease in the country, they said the sample size is insufficient. The professor says it’s [visit visit our site[unauthorized copy]our site]20 percent, but as if I could believe that…….”

Yoon Ki-hyun gave a short laugh and looked at Jeong Si-jun. Then, he slowly requested the termination of the contract.

“I can’t do guiding anymore, and my body is sick, so I’m useless. So, let’s end the contract here.”