By Zephyria Seo Jeong-won told the returning caregiver that Seo Gyu-won seemed to have moved. He added that he thought he had moved his finger, but he wasn’t sure, so she immediately pressed the nurse call button.
The hospital room became noisy. The medical staff who rushed in meticulously checked Seo Gyu-won’s condition.
“It seems we need to monitor him for now. There’s no pupillary response. If we could give it a few more days… and expose him to Pheromone a few more times, if possible? Tomorrow or the day after, even the weekend is fine.”
“I’ll have to ask.”
Seo Jeong-won replied uncertainly. The doctor rubbed his chin and asked if he could spare some time.
“Ah… yes, I can.”
In the afternoon, Kwon Tae-hee had blocked him, preventing him from having a proper conversation with the guardian. He seemed young and clueless, so he thought that if he spoke in difficult terms, he wouldn’t understand and would just agree.
But there was one thing that bothered him. The Pheromone lingering in the room like residue had permeated the guardian too much. It felt like a warning not to touch him.
The doctor hesitated until the last moment, then opened his mouth, not wanting to miss this good opportunity.
“Then shall we go to the lounge for a moment?”
Seo Jeong-won asked the caregiver to look after Seo Gyu-won and followed the doctor. The doctor, who entered the nearby lounge first, sat down on the sofa.
“Come this way.”
“Yes.”
Seo Jeong-won sat opposite him with a timid attitude. The doctor leaned forward and explained Seo Gyu-won’s condition first. He used difficult medical terms and appealed to emotions, doing his best to get the guardian’s consent.
“The patient is definitely reacting to the Pheromone. You saw it today. His body temperature rose, and his heart rate, pulse, and breathing all improved noticeably.”
“…….”
“If possible, how about giving the patient a direct Pheromone shower? Since his body has been in a coma for so long, he might experience shock, but in my judgment, the probability of that is less than 10 percent. Rather, the probability of him waking up is higher than that.”
Seo Jeong-won fidgeted with his fingers, looking at the doctor who was speaking as if it was all good.
“In case of an emergency, the hospital staff will be on standby to respond quickly. You can rest assured.”
It sounded like he would do it right away. Seo Jeong-won met the doctor’s eyes.
“I can’t say for sure right now… Can I ask and tell you tomorrow?”
“This is for the patient’s benefit above all else. Please also think positively about using the treatment process as research data for developing treatment methods.”
Looking at Seo Jeong-won, who was sitting with an innocent expression, the doctor appealed emotionally.
“Seo Gyu-won’s reaction is not a common case. If many people reacted to Pheromone, there wouldn’t be any comatose patients.”
“…….”
“Our medical staff also hopes that Seo Gyu-won will wake up as much as you do.”
The doctor bowed deeply and got up first. After he left the lounge, Seo Jeong-won sat alone for a long time. It was dark outside the window. He didn’t need to check the time to know he had missed the last train.
He rummaged through his pocket and took out his phone. He hesitated for a long time whether to call Kwon Tae-hee or not.
Would he be surprised if he told him that Hyung’s finger had moved? If he asked if he could give Seo Gyu-won a Pheromone shower instead of him, would he listen?
After sighing a few more times and his pounding heart had calmed down to some extent, he touched his phone. He found Kwon Tae-hee’s number and pressed it.
The ringing tone continued for a long time. Just as he was about to hang up, his voice rang out.
—Yes.
“……Ah, hello?”
—Speak.
“Did you… did you get home okay? I just woke up a little while ago—.”
—I’m busy right now, why did you call?
Kwon Tae-hee’s voice, cutting off Seo Jeong-won’s words, was sharp. He could hear people talking over the phone, as if he was working late.
“It’s not, it’s not that, but today the Pheromone had a good… effect on Hyung. He moved his hand. The doctors came a lot earlier. I wanted to say thank you.”
—Okay.
“Maybe you could give Hyung a Pheromone shower directly—.”
—Seo Jeong-won. I’m a little busy right now, I have to hang up.
“Ah, yes. Yes, I understand. Then please call me later. Have a good meal…….”
Before he could finish speaking, the call ended. Seo Jeong-won, who had taken the phone away from his ear, sighed softly. He should have made this request when he was in a good mood, he made a mistake.
“I wish he would.”
It felt like he had to do it, since the doctor strongly recommended it. The weekend was coming soon, so he decided to wait a few days and ask if he could spare some time on Sunday.
* * *
Seo Jeong-won waited for Kwon Tae-hee, who hadn’t contacted him all morning on Friday, and then cleaned up the flower shop after receiving a call from Chief Jung. It was well past noon when he arrived at Kwon Tae-hee’s house.
His house, which should be called a mansion rather than a house, was empty. Only the secretary, who had taken him there and came with him, silently guarded a corner of the living room.
“Can I go out to the garden for a while?”
“There were instructions to have dinner first.”
“Ah…….”
It looks like the sun will set soon. He swallowed the words that were lingering in his throat and ate an early dinner as Kwon Tae-hee had instructed. After finishing his meal, it was naturally dark outside.
The season, which had fully entered autumn, had an early sunset. Seo Jeong-won looked out the living room window with regretful eyes.
The color of the green lawn was gradually fading. The time had come when it no longer needed to be watered. When he was in the flower shop, he didn’t really feel the passage of time, but every time he came to Kwon Tae-hee’s house, he could see it with his own eyes.
He watched the lights in the garden turn on one by one, then went into the bedroom and quietly took a shower.
He took out the suppressants and birth control pills that he never forgot to take and swallowed them. He had to take them tomorrow too. He vaguely worried if he would have time to take them and went into the bathroom.
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, his abdominal pain had disappeared these days. It had been annoyingly painful until last week, but it was okay these days. Only an unpleasant smell that stimulated his sense of smell from time to time remained. Was it the smell from the suppressants? Like a side effect.
In the early days of taking the suppressants, he suspected that it was a new symptom that had appeared as the nosebleeds that had frequently occurred had subsided.
Still, it was fortunate that one thing had disappeared. He stared blankly at his flat stomach and headed to the shower booth.
He stood under the showerhead where warm water poured out immediately without having to adjust the temperature and slowly washed himself.
He washed his body twice with shower gel and shampooed his hair thoroughly. He washed it carefully until the slippery feeling disappeared.
When he came out of the bathroom, shaking his wet hair, he ran into Kwon Tae-hee, who was taking off his clothes in the dressing room. He reached out to Seo Jeong-won while unbuttoning his shirt.
“You showered.”
He grabbed his wet hair, then pulled Seo Jeong-won into his arms. The body wash scent from his not-quite-dry body was particularly sweet.
It smelled so good that he suspected that he might have brought something else and washed with it without him knowing.
“Yes, did you have a good…… day? Did you send the car late? I didn’t know if I could get off work because I’ve been so busy lately.”
“……Are you very busy these days?”
“I’m busy. I want to explain why I’m busy… but you probably wouldn’t understand even if I told you.”
It wasn’t that he was ignoring Seo Jeong-won, but that he wouldn’t understand because it wasn’t something he would be interested in.
Kwon Tae-hee hugged Seo Jeong-won, who had come out of the shower and was fair and soft, even tighter.
His hand, which crossed his thin back, hooked his finger on the neckline of his loose T-shirt. He gently pulled it to check how faint the mark he had left that day had become.
When he pressed his lips firmly against the skin with a thin scab, Seo Jeong-won shivered. Kwon Tae-hee released the arm he had been holding and raised his chin, which was leaning against his chest.
His black eyes sparkled like glass beads. When the light shone on them, they looked like they contained the universe.
As the time they spent making eye contact lengthened, the color of Seo Jeong-won’s ears, cheeks, and neck gradually turned red. It was like paint spreading.
“I was going to shower together.”
“……I can shower again.”
He was good at saying cheeky things. Kwon Tae-hee chuckled lowly and moved with Seo Jeong-won. He sat him in front of the mirror and took out the dryer.
He thought he would be annoyed if anyone was lingering in front of him due to lack of sleep and accumulated fatigue, but the unpleasant feeling completely evaporated the moment he faced Seo Jeong-won.
“Are you seducing me?”
“I don’t think…… you’ll fall for it even if I do.”
“I think I’ll fall for it.”
A light laugh was heard. Seo Jeong-won quietly closed his eyes, feeling the hot wind and the clumsy hands shaking his hair. Wouldn’t he listen to his request if he was in a good mood? Seeing that he had called him here, wouldn’t he rest on the weekend? Then…… he could go to the hospital with him.