By Zephyria 
76
But then, without a sound, Seong-im, who was standing beside Ho-eun, lightly tugged at his sleeve and released it. Ho-eun, unaware of her presence, almost cried out in undignified surprise. But she stared intently at Ho-eun.
Ho-eun, bewildered by her gaze, looked back at her. Then, as if possessed, he blurted out,
“He’s my… nephew.”
Ho-eun himself didn’t know why he said that.
“Nephew?”
The doctor craned his neck to look at the child Seong-im had wrapped in her arms. More precisely, he was looking at the tattered clothes the child was wearing. Ho-eun swallowed hard. For some reason, his heart was pounding. He felt like his lie would be exposed.
“We, we left the house in a hurry and didn’t have time to pack clothes…”
He stammered out an excuse. He wondered if such a flimsy excuse would work, but the doctor raised his eyebrows and led him to a nearby examination room. The examination room was splattered with blood here and there, but it was much cleaner than the chaotic outside.
When the nurse closed the door, it felt like they had crossed over into another world, a safer and quieter world.
“Lay him down here.”
The doctor gestured to a bed on one side. Seong-im carefully placed the child she had been carrying down. The child looked around, his face filled with fear.
The doctor examined the child’s calf and said that the only option was to gather the flesh as best he could and apply a bandage. Ho-eun pleaded with him to do anything he could.
The doctor exchanged a few words with the nurse and then snipped at the pants with scissors. Ho-eun turned his head away from the exposed wound. He could never get used to blood, especially the blood of a living person.
But suddenly, the child screamed and began to cry. Startled, Ho-eun looked back at the child. The doctor was pouring disinfectant on the child’s calf. The child shook violently, overwhelmed by the excruciating pain. The small body’s convulsions caused the large bed to creak and groan.
“D-Don’t you use anesthesia?”
Ho-eun asked. It seemed more like torture than treatment. But the nurse said in a dry tone,
“We’re out of medicine. We barely have enough disinfectant.”
“……”
Ho-eun’s eyelashes fluttered. He hadn’t even considered that they might be out of medicine. He was despondent that there were so many different ways to suffer.
As Ho-eun fidgeted helplessly, the child screamed again. Ho-eun quickly grabbed the child’s hand.
The child gripped Ho-eun’s hand as if pinching it. The back of Ho-eun’s hand turned white. It was a small hand, but the grip was incredibly strong.
Ho-eun frowned. It wasn’t because his hand hurt. It was because he couldn’t fathom the child’s pain.
He himself was no stranger to pain, but he had never had his flesh torn off, so he couldn’t imagine how agonizing it must be. Even if he didn’t know much, he knew it couldn’t compare to a fever or a cold. The thought of that young child enduring such pain with his small body made his heart ache as if it were being crushed by a rock.
Then, just as the doctor began to continue the treatment in earnest, the child fainted from the pain. The doctor continued the treatment without paying any attention. Ho-eun thought it was fortunate that the child had fainted, given the doctor’s touch, which he couldn’t tell if it was treating the wound or tearing it apart.
“Haa…”
Ho-eun sighed as he watched the doctor’s hands gathering the torn flesh of the calf. He ran a hand over his face with the hand that wasn’t holding the child’s. His face was paler than before. He actually felt dizzy and his vision blurred for a moment. At that moment.
Click.
Seong-im placed something next to Ho-eun. It was a roughly made wooden chair.
“…Did you give this to me so I can sit down?”
Nod, nod. Seong-im nodded her head.
“……”
Ho-eun stared blankly at the chair. He should refuse, but the words wouldn’t come out. He was actually exhausted. Riding a horse all night from the garrison to the town, fleeing from the Devouring Ghoul, and searching the hospital for a doctor. It was a grueling schedule for Ho-eun.
His hand, which had been gripping the reins, throbbed, his knees were shaking, and his throat, which had been exposed to the cold wind, felt rough. His physical condition was not good, and he was worried that if he stubbornly endured it, he might become even more ill later. If he collapsed like he had before, he would cause a great deal of trouble.
“Thank you.”
Ho-eun sat down in the chair with a brief word of thanks. Even so, he didn’t let go of the child’s hand.
He leaned back against the backrest and exhaled softly. He dabbed at the cold sweat on his forehead with his sleeve, and rotated his throbbing ankles. Then he glanced at Seong-im, who was standing beside him.
“……”
Seong-im, with a sword in one hand, was constantly looking around. She looked at the door of the examination room once, the window once, and even looked at the doctor and nurse warily. She looked just like Gil-sang.
As Ho-eun watched her, he belatedly realized that he still didn’t know her name.
“Excuse me… may I ask your name?”
“……”
Seong-im didn’t answer. Did she not want to tell him her name? He thought for a moment.
“Ah.”
He suddenly realized that she couldn’t speak. After a moment of hesitation, he cautiously extended his palm.
“If you, if you could write it here…”
Ho-eun trailed off, feeling embarrassed for some reason. It was rare for him to touch a woman who wasn’t family. Of course, he wasn’t excited. Embarrassment and excitement were completely different.
“……”
Seong-im stared at Ho-eun’s white palm. Then she switched the sword to her other hand and began to write her name on Ho-eun’s palm. Ho-eun watched it intently.
“Go… Seong… Im. Is that Go, Seong, the character Seong, and Im, the character Im?”
Seong-im nodded.
“……”
Go Seong-im. Oh Gil-sang’s Bondmate, Go Seong-im. Ho-eun raised his eyebrows and repeated her name in his mind. Today, he learned the name of another Crimson Rain Brigade soldier. It was truly a meaningful day. He hoped that if he spent his days like this, he would one day know the names of all the thousand or so Crimson Rain Brigade soldiers.
“It’s a very beautiful name.”
Ho-eun said without a hint of falsehood. The refined name suited her perfectly.
“……”
Seong-im looked at Ho-eun, who was sparkling his eyes, shrugged her shoulders, and turned her head away. Her expression was quite indifferent.
‘That girl is awfully picky, she wouldn’t even hold your hand for a wound like that.’
He remembered what Gil-sang had said when a Devouring Ghoul’s claw had been embedded in his shoulder. He thought she really would be like that, and a slight smile appeared on his face.
Dong-ja and Man-soo, Gil-sang and Seong-im, it seemed that everyone had met a partner who suited them so well.
“……”
He hoped that he and Tae-muk would look just as good together in the eyes of others. He wondered if that day would ever come.
Ho-eun sighed through his nose and readjusted the child’s hand.
The child’s small calf was wrapped tightly in bandages. It was wrapped so thickly that it was twice as thick as the other side.
The child regained consciousness near the end of the treatment. He didn’t scream then, but just shed tears silently. Then, the moment the doctor tied the bandage and said it was over, Ho-eun carefully picked up the child and placed him on his lap. The small body was as hot as a brazier. It was a temperature that reminded him of someone.
“Did it hurt?”
Ho-eun asked, sweeping the sweat-soaked bangs back with his palm. The child panted, his breath hot with fever, and then nodded.
“But you endured it well. Good job, good job.”
Ho-eun patted the child’s back. When he cried because he was in pain, his parents would hold him like this and comfort him. It felt like the pain would disappear with that touch.
“……”
The child felt the touch for a moment, then buried his face in Ho-eun’s chest. Ho-eun found it so adorable that he forgot the situation and smiled softly.
At that moment, the doctor slumped down in the chair at the side of the examination room. He took off his glasses and covered his eyes with the back of his hand. The nurse leaned against a low chest of drawers. Fatigue was piled up around her eyes.
Ho-eun stared at the two of them. Then he said, “Just a moment,” and tried to put the child down on the bed. But the child grabbed Ho-eun’s clothes tightly with his small hand and wouldn’t let go. Ho-eun had no choice but to stand up with him dangling.
Ho-eun approached the doctor and struggled to pull out a silk pouch from his waist. It was filled with bills. He had brought it with him in case he went to town, and he was glad he did.
Ho-eun grabbed half of the tightly packed bills and placed them on the doctor’s desk. It was enough money to buy a thatched-roof house, but it didn’t matter.
“Thank you. This is the medical fee. Let me know if it’s not enough.”
The doctor took his hand off his eyes and glanced at the crisp bills. Then he shook his head.
“It’s not necessary.”
“But…”
“In this world, would we even have a day to use the money we collect?”
“……”
“We might be eaten by Devouring Ghouls tonight…”