Chapter 58

As soon as he looked in the direction of the bed, he narrowed his eyes. If the bed had been empty a little while ago, today... a very, very large white lump was lying on the bed. A white tail was wagging from the butt of that lump.

Tae-un closed the hospital room door and slowly approached the bed. Fortunately, the owner of the hospital room had not disappeared anywhere. He was lying obediently with his chest and legs pressed down by the fluffy front paws of the giant dog Aila.

"What are you doing?"

"...Animal therapy."

"What's that?"

"Ayoung said so..."

In the morning, before going to school, Ayoung, who came to visit briefly, summoned Aila and gave the order to hold Soram oppa still before leaving. When Soram tried to move, Aila barked "Woof!" and pressed Soram's chest with her soft pink jelly paw.

"Ah, I really got it. I'll stay put and not leave the hospital room!"

"Woof!"

"Do you know how many hours you've been doing this, you rascal? This is worse for my health!"

"Woof! Woof!"

"If you keep doing this, I'll take away your position as the flight team mascot!"

"Woof!"

It was unclear if she understood, but Aila diligently responded to Soram's grumbling. Soram slumped his body with a resigned face.

"Contact Ayoung during her break and ask her to unsummon her."

"..."

"Han Tae-un ssi? I definitely saw you come in, why aren't you saying anything?"

"You're doing well."

He praised and stroked Aila's back. Aila raised her head while keeping her paws on Soram's body and sniffed the hand that was petting her.

"No, don't encourage her... I feel like I'm really going to get indigestion."

Tae-un pulled the caregiver's chair and sat down, holding Aila's chin and head with both hands and petting her. Aila soon made a happy growling sound. Soram, who was still crushed under her paws, said while looking at the scene.

"Han Tae-un ssi is good at handling large animals."

"I've raised cows before."

"Ah, that's right. Right now, Aila is smaller than a cow..."

The tail wagging of Aila, who was being petted, became bigger and bigger. And she unknowingly stretched her body towards Tae-un little by little. However, there was a limit with the current posture.

Finally, Aila surrendered to the touch that seemed indifferent but only stroked the itchy parts. In the first place, Pomeranians were not a breed that was very loyal to their owner's orders. Rather than loyalty, they were a cute breed that enjoyed being loved more. With a whining sound, Aila got down from the bed and put her head and front paws on Tae-un's thighs. Thanks to that, Soram was able to be liberated.

Soram, who finally sat up after a few hours, rotated his shoulders back and forth. Then, the moment he put his feet outside the bed.

"Grrr..."

"..."

A total of four eyes, the dog's and the man who was petting her, immediately turned towards Soram.

"...Why are you all glaring at me like I'm a rascal about to cause trouble when you come to visit me in the hospital?"

"You know that best, don't you, Jin Soram ssi?"

"I'm not going anywhere. What trouble can I cause with this body?"

As if to prove his words, Soram got up and just tapped his shoulders.

"By the way, Han Tae-un ssi, did you get discharged or not? You're always walking around, but the nameplate on the next room is still there."

"I got a diagnosis that I can be discharged, but the director told me to just pretend to be hospitalized and take a few more days off to rest. And he said to make it seem like I'm being discharged with Jin Soram ssi."

"Ah, I see..."

"Woof!"

"I got it! I won't wander around. I'll stay on the bed, stay."

Aila gave a look that said she couldn't give up petting but was still watching. Soram climbed back onto the bed, unable to stretch his stiff body much, while ignoring Aila. However, instead of lying down, he sat cross-legged.

"Hey, Aila. Come here."

"Woof."

Instead of going to Soram, Aila hit the bed with her tail, meaning why, what is it?

"No, I said come to me."

"..."

"This one can't even recognize someone she's been through thick and thin with for a year and is enchanted by the wicked hand that raised cows...!"

"What are you saying?"

Knock knock. A sound of knocking on the hospital room door interrupted the two's voices.

"Yes."

"Patient Jin Soram, I brought your meal."

"Ah, yes."

Just in time, the meal came in. At the appearance of a stranger, Aila stood up and stepped forward as if to protect the two. However, after sniffing the smell of the tray, she trotted back next to the bed.

A table was set up on the bed, and the meal was placed on top of it. Although he could eat a regular diet instead of porridge, the side dishes were mostly bland menus such as white kimchi, steamed eggs, fish, and stir-fried fish cakes. The soup that came with it was also a bland potato soup. Soram, a Korean who loved spicy and salty soups, stews, hot pots, that is, red foods, gradually pouted his lips.

And then the group chat of Team 7 rang.

2A0: [Tae-un oppa, did you arrive at the hospital?]

Han Tae-un: [Yeah]

2A0: [Okay, now passing the baton]

And then Aila was enveloped in red smoke and disappeared. Disappointment was evident on the face of the staff who was grinning at the giant Pomeranian.

"Then enjoy your meal."

Only the two of them were left in the hospital room like that. Soram stirred the soup with a spoon. After taking a spoonful of potato soup, he muttered, "Tastes like water..." He looked at Tae-un with the spoon in his mouth.

"How are your hands?"

"They're fine. Almost fully healed."

"Hmm."

On the other hand, only Soram's hands were fine. The rest of his body was still in the recovery stage, so the inside of the loose hospital gown was full of bandages.

Still, according to the doctor, after regaining consciousness, his body was healing at the ridiculously fast recovery speed unique to 1st grades. Perhaps the one who would be bandaged longer was Tae-un's left hand, which was wrapped like an oven mitt.

"Tae-un's hand is unfortunate. Cut by a sword, poison entered the wound, and the bones were crushed."

"Unlike someone who has injuries all over the body, I only need to feel sorry for my hand, so I'm lucky."

Soram raised his eyes and pointed at him with the chopsticks he was using to spread the fish meat.

"Did you want to speak informally to be more nitpicky? Double the nitpicking?"

"You started it first."

Tae-un also retorted without backing down.

For the past few days, Soram had been fickle, mixing formal and informal speech whenever he felt like it. Tae-un just responded the way Soram did.

In the first place, it was a suggestion he had made because he was concerned about the subtle distance between the two. However, that distance was narrowed not by speaking informally, but by going through life-and-death moments together. When they first faced each other after waking up, Tae-un felt that the wall Soram had been putting up in front of him had softened a little. So there was no need to insist on speaking informally, and it didn't matter at all that Soram used formal and informal speech in a playful mix.

"Do you need anything from the dormitory?"

Soram shook his head while chewing on white kimchi.

"Are you coming again tomorrow?"

"I have to get outpatient treatment anyway."

"It's fine. Then just get treatment and go. It's a precious vacation, so you should rest at the dormitory too. When you return, you'll be on 24-hour standby again, so you should rest at times like this."

"It's okay. I have nothing to do anyway."

"Just because you have nothing to do doesn't mean you should make work for yourself. You should just sleep."

Ah. The spoon that was scooping rice suddenly stopped.

"Come on the day of discharge. Let's leave together."

"..."

"At the discharge ceremony... um, how should I explain it? Red carpet...? Discharge celebration march...? We'll be doing it in front of people..."

"I know. I've seen the video before."

"Huh? Whose?"

"Yours, when you were hospitalized after the tunnel dungeon."

"Ah... was it the year before last? You looked up all sorts of things."

Soram, who was eating, suddenly looked towards the window. The sky, which had entered Family Month [TL: May is known as "Family Month" in Korea as three important days honoring family members and teachers are observed this month: Children's Day, Parents' Day, and Teachers' Day.], was very clear. Early grasshoppers occasionally sat on the window frame and flew away.

"They said 3 days left, right?"

He was referring to the hospitalization period. It had already been a week since Soram was lying in the single room.

A gust of wind blowing from outside shook Soram's hair. Blue mist spread from the fingertips of his head that turned back to the window, and the open window slid shut.

As the noise from outside disappeared, the sounds made by the two people left inside became more unfamiliar. Even more so with the hearing of a 1st grade.

In the stillness, the two people sitting close together, a few books, and the lightly colored clothes that wrapped around Soram.

Tae-un recalled a place where the two of them had been together before. The guard floor was much darker than here, and the current Soram was eating by himself without restraint. However, it felt like they were trapped in a small space together, just like then.

As if they had no choice but to look at each other, the only color that caught their eyes even if they tried not to look.

Tae-un couldn't take his eyes off Soram more than he did then. His mouth, which lacked the ability to make conversation even though he wanted to, only became dry.

However, before he could say anything, their eyes met.

"Now really go. Let's see each other on the day of discharge, Han Tae-un ssi."

Soram waved his hand without any lingering attachment.