Chapter 95 – The Price of Misjudgment
He woke up after a light sleep, but there was no sign of the fever breaking.
“The fever isn’t going down.”
Jeong Si-jun touched Yoon Ki-hyun’s forehead with a worried expression. The cooling patch, having already served its purpose, had long been tossed into the trash can.
“Is it still hot?”
Jeong Si-jun was so close that their lips were almost touching. It was an excessively close distance, but strangely, he didn’t dislike it. Yoon Ki-hyun simply nodded his head up and down weakly.
“……I think the cooling patch was useless.”
When he murmured in a heavily raspy voice, Jeong Si-jun gave [Read on Read BL Novels]on Read BL Novels -->a small nod of agreement. Still, the feeling of the scorching heat tormenting his entire body leaking out through the cool palm felt good.
“Your palm is colder.”
Saying so, Yoon Ki-hyun gently rubbed his forehead against Jeong Si-jun’s cold palm. Perhaps perceiving it as a spoiled plea for affection, Jeong Si-jun let out a small laugh, but his face quickly contorted with seriousness at the temperature that refused to drop.
“……Hyung.”
“What.”
“I think your fever is higher than I thought.”
“……Really?”
“Do you have a thermometer at home?”
“……Yeah.”
“Where is it?”
“…….”
“I think we need to check your temperature.”
“……Uh.”
Yoon Ki-hyun’s slow responses grew quieter. Sensing something unusual, Jeong Si-jun cupped Yoon Ki-hyun’s flushed cheeks with both hands.
As he lifted his face slightly to meet his eyes, they were half-lidded, intoxicated by the fever.
‘Is he really okay?’
Unable to overcome the melting heat, Yoon Ki-hyun’s vision flickered and blinked. It felt as if his consciousness would snap at any moment.
“Si-jun.”
Yoon Ki-hyun murmured Jeong Si-jun’s name. As he called him, he felt the grip on his cheeks tighten.
“……Yes.”
It was just as Jeong Si-jun managed to answer after swallowing hard.
“I…….”
“Yes.”
“I think something is wrong with my body.”
“Hyung.”
“Don’t call an ambulance……. Just go to the hospital…….”
He tried to continue, but his strength failed him, and the words cut off abruptly.
“Hyung!”
Jeong Si-jun’s panicked voice seemed to pierce through his eardrums. However, the firm warmth holding his body was more welcoming.
‘When you’re sick and alone, it just feels more miserable and painful for no reason.’
Still, just having someone by his side seemed to make it feel less miserable and less painful. Yoon Ki-hyun chewed over Jeong Si-jun’s words internally, gave a small smile, and then let his body go limp.
How many more times would he experience waking up to see a hospital ceiling?
Instead of being startled, Yoon Ki-hyun slowly turned his head. Seeing the guy sitting beside him as if it were [Read [Read on Read BL Novels]on Read BL Novels]the most natural thing in the world, his mind, which had been hazy as if shrouded in fog, seemed to clear.
‘Ah.’
At least there is someone who worries about me by my side. It was pathetic, but the fact that someone was with him felt more meaningful than ever.
When he gave an awkward smile toward Jeong Si-jun, the latter pouted his lips as if dissatisfied.
“……Does it feel like a time for laughing right now?”
The grumbling voice felt like a whine, asking for his emotional distress to be acknowledged.
“Why are you making a fuss the moment I wake up?”
Jeong Si-jun chattered away while supporting Yoon Ki-hyun, who asked back with a voice that still held a trace of amusement.
“Do you know how shocked I was because you were burning up with fever?”
For someone who was glaring and nagging, his voice was excessively quiet. It was almost at the level of a whisper in his ear. He seemed to still be mindful of the request to speak softly since Ki-hyun’s head was throbbing.
“Did you call an ambulance?”
“You told me not to call an ambulance. I came in my car.”
“Good job. Anyway, the manager said it would be difficult to renew the contract if ambulances kept coming.”
If he had relied on an ambulance this time, another tedious task—looking for a different goshiwon—would have been added to his list.
As Yoon Ki-hyun sat up with support and murmured indifferently, a sound of huffing came from beside him.
“What does that even mean? Did those piece-of-trash bastards threaten you just because you called an ambulance?”
“It wasn’t a threat……. It’s just, with the door being broken last time and all. If ambulances come [unauthorized copy]in and out often, it makes the atmosphere unsettling for other people.”
“What do they expect when someone is sick? Isn’t that what ambulances are for? I’ve seen some crazy bastards, but this is too much.”
Jeong Si-jun huffed, his eyes wide with indignation. It was something Ki-hyun had brushed off as nothing at the time, but seeing the guy get angry as if it were his own problem made his heart stir again. Should he call it the feeling that he finally had someone on his side in a world he had always considered himself alone in?
“……Hmm, so how does your body feel now?”
“I’m fine, except for feeling a bit stiff.”
Yoon Ki-hyun answered while lightly feeling his body. Since the burning fever had subsided, his condition was much better, but he felt heavy, as if he were carrying a heavy cotton quilt over his entire body.
“Anyway, I’m indebted to you again.”
“……It’s nothing like this.”
Only then did Jeong Si-jun let out a long breath with a look of relief.
“…….”
“…….”
An awkward silence flowed through the hospital room. Yoon Ki-hyun fiddled with his prominent knuckles a few times before looking at Jeong Si-jun.
How much more, and how many more times, could Jeong Si-jun handle someone like him?
Right now, he might take him to the hospital and stay by his side as if it were no big deal, but wouldn’t he eventually grow tired of the repetition?
“Si-jun.”
“Yes.”
“To be honest, I don’t think I’ll get better; content">stolen contentif anything, I’ll be more sick than I am now.”
Yoon Ki-hyun erased the remaining grace period between the two in his mind. Whether there was time left or not, it was something that had to be said eventually.
“As you know, if it weren’t for being your personal Guide, I have no place to earn money. But to receive proper treatment, I can’t do guiding…….”
Jeong Si-jun’s gaze wavered. A sense of déjà vu washed over him. He felt as if he had said these exact words when he rejected Jeong Si-jun’s confession.
That the difference between them was too great, so he couldn’t accept his heart. That he had nothing but a diseased body, so a relationship with him would be a loss for the other.
“No matter how I think about it, if you date me, you’re the only one who loses. I still have debts to pay, and hospital bills…….”
“I’ll take care of that. I can handle it all.”
Jeong Si-jun cut him off and muttered as if grinding his teeth. A debt like that was mere pocket change to Jeong Si-jun. Couldn’t he just pay off a measly loan?
“It’s not a problem that can be answered so easily.”
“It’s an easy problem for me.”
“What if I’m asking you to date me just to use you or take your money?”
“I’m the one who said I wanted to be used from the start.”
He was momentarily speechless at the immediate retort.
Despite such a warning, far from hesitating, an unknown sense of ecstasy could be glimpsed on Jeong Si-jun’s face.
As if he had already noticed the context in which these words were being spoken.
The moment he faced that face full of anticipation, Yoon Ki-hyun’s lips moved on their own. As if telling him to push aside the complex thoughts that always caused headaches and speak according to his heart.
“……It’s obvious you’ll regret it later.”
“How do you know that, Hyung? I’m confident I won’t regret it.”
“Think about it again. You’re the only one who loses. Nursing a sick guy, cleaning up after him……. Your money will be drained too.”
“Even if I spend money on everything you just mentioned, my money won’t be drained. Do you want another briefing on my assets?”
Jeong Si-jun leaned his upper body forward, bracing himself against the bed. His face was clearly dissatisfied. And those eyebrows twitching on their own.
If nothing else, it seemed he had touched the pride of a guy who was confident in at least one thing: money.
‘……I have nothing left to say now.’
He had laid out all the grounds to reject Jeong Si-jun.
Even after revealing everything—that he wasn’t a suitable partner for dating and that his health wasn’t great—Jeong unauthorized copySi-jun’s [stolen contentclass="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">Read on Read BL Novels]gaze was still fixed on him. Persistently, obsessively, and blatantly.
“Then, shall we…….”
Yoon Ki-hyun closed his lips, feeling Jeong Si-jun’s gaze, which was as vivid as if it had a physical form, enveloping his entire body.
There was still an opportunity to buy time to think. He could change the subject or let it fade away.
But from the moment he opened his eyes after losing consciousness. No, perhaps his mind had already been decided from the moment he resolved to let Jeong Si-jun into his home this morning.
Under that burning, hot gaze, Yoon Ki-hyun slowly parted his lips.
“Do you want to try dating for just one month?”
The moment he finished the sentence, he felt the gaze, which had been tracing his face with vivid clarity, waver.
Jeong Si-jun didn’t move an inch. As if he had forgotten [stolen content]class="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">stolen content]stolen content -->how to breathe or blink, he just stared blankly at Yoon Ki-hyun.
‘Why is his reaction…… like this?’
It was a proposal he had offered with courage, following his heart after a fairly fierce internal struggle, but Jeong Si-jun’s reaction was beyond his expectations.
If he was going to have no reaction at all, why had he pushed him so hard, saying he liked him so much…….
‘Did he suddenly realize it’s a mistake now that a sickly guy is asking him to date in a hospital?’
Feeling upset by the unexpected reaction, he spoke while avoiding eye contact.
“If you don’t want to, then forget it. A relationship where I depend on you for everything is unstable, and…….”
As he tried to wrap things up incoherently, his face flushing for no reason, he heard Jeong Si-jun let out a loud breath.
“……Haa.”
“What?”
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“Can you say that one more time?”
“What?”
“The part about dating for just one month. I want to record it.”
Seeing him fumble through his pants looking for his phone was absurd. Moreover, seeing him request it so precisely, it was clear he hadn’t misheard, so he didn’t know why he had been so silent.
“You heard it all, so why didn’t you answer?”
“Because I couldn’t believe it. I thought maybe I had dozed off for a second…….”
Jeong Si-jun gestured with his chin, thrusting forward the phone with the recording function activated.
“Please say it one more time. Huh?”
“……Ah, no. Get this away from me, quickly.”
“Ah, please. If I don’t have this, I might be so anxious for the whole month that I’ll keep begging you to say it.”
“Ah, seriously…….”
On the phone screen thrust in front of his face, the time was ticking, indicating it was still recording.
He suffered through a brief, frantic conflict. Whether he should actually let him record this or just crush it [stolen content[unauthorized copy]style="font-size:0;position:absolute;left:-9999px;">]as if it never happened…….
Ultimately, unable to withstand Jeong Si-jun’s persistent pleading, Yoon Ki-hyun mumbled toward the recording phone.
“Let’s date for just one month. Happy? Let’s try dating for one month, and if it’s not great, we’ll think about it then.”
Ding, along with the notification sound that the recording had ended, Jeong Si-jun sprang up from his seat. Since he was a large guy, it felt somewhat threatening, and Ki-hyun flinched slightly.
“Ki-hyun Hyung.”
“……What.”
“I really, fucking love you.”
At the raw voice that laid bare his overflowing emotions, Yoon Ki-hyun looked up. Standing with the bright fluorescent light behind him, Jeong Si-jun was wearing a smile he had never seen before.
He couldn’t understand why he was smiling our site">visit our sitelike that over a single request to date from a man whose only trait was being sick. But strangely, after seeing that smile, he felt a conviction.
A strange conviction that, at the very least, Jeong Si-jun would not be the one to abandon him first.
“Can I hug you? Since we’re dating now?”
Jeong Si-jun asked for permission, extending both arms.
Thinking that he was a more troublesome guy than expected, Yoon Ki-hyun nodded. Then, the guy who had been approaching slowly gently wrapped his arms around his back.
“Wow, wow…….”
Jeong Si-jun made a sound like a gorilla encountering modern civilization for the first time, then cleared his throat and murmured, pretending to be cool.
“I guarantee it.”
“What.”
“Even after a month, you’ll want to keep dating me.”
Even as he spoke with full confidence, Jeong Si-jun’s hands hugging his back were trembling slightly.
To think a day would come when he would find that cute. Yoon Ki-hyun slightly tilted his head and rested his cheek against Jeong Si-jun’s chest.
Listening to the heartbeat thumping so violently it almost hurt his ears, he felt as if his own face was turning red for no reason.
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