Vol 5 Chapter 58

When the effort to communicate verbally in a conversation between men disappears, all that's left are fists. Kapros's already frayed nerves had been grating from Je-hwan's completely off-point words, and this punch was like adding fuel to the fire.

Kapros gradually felt his own patience, which had been holding back his anger, snapping. He couldn't understand why Je-hwan, unlike before, wasn't listening despite his repeated pleas. It was incomprehensible how Je-hwan kept talking about himself, which had nothing to do with the situation, even though Kapros had said several times that it was an important matter. This unfamiliar attitude from someone he thought was usually considerate even of things he hadn't thought of, and knew how to wait patiently, was strange.

Kapros wasn't weak enough to need Je-hwan's protection, and he had always handled his own affairs well. Even if Je-hwan had said he had more than normal affection for Kapros, what was the point of rushing off to confront Jeong Seung-jo, whom he presumed had hurt Kapros? What did he intend to do?

Fortunately, judging by Je-hwan's silence, it seemed he hadn't noticed that Jeong Seung-jo's face was the same as Caesar's, but even excluding that issue, Jeong Seung-jo was still a past that Kapros didn't want to talk about to others.

"I don't understand why you're acting like this. I don't understand why you're saying these things here and now. I just told you not to be concerned about what you just saw! Because it has nothing to do with you!"

"Enough!"

Je-hwan shouted with a deeply contorted expression.

Although his face clearly showed signs of pain, Kapros's angry eyes didn't register it. Frustrated, he grabbed Je-hwan's wrist, which was still pressed against the wall next to his head, pushed it away, and stepped back a few paces. He staggered a bit since he wasn't using his cane, but he didn't fall. Je-hwan tightly closed his glaring eyes, then opened them again.

"You don't understand why I'm acting like this?"

After a long while, Je-hwan asked with his head bowed. Kapros coldly nodded, thinking that the hurt tone in his voice was due to him trying to suppress his anger.

"Yes. And if you keep interfering in my affairs like this, I don't think I'll ever be able to understand you."

Je-hwan's eyes widened as if struck by lightning at Kapros's words, which he had uttered with clenched fists. The explosive passion disappeared in an instant, and a glacial expressionlessness gradually covered his face.

After a long moment, Je-hwan slowly bared his white teeth and muttered something.

"Meddling..."

"What?"

"Interference."

"..."

"Was that really your thought and answer?"

Kapros asked again because Je-hwan's voice was too low to hear properly, but Je-hwan remained silent. A cold silence flowed through the corridor where not even breathing could be heard. The sunlight streaming in from the window stretched to the wall they were facing, casting flickering, dark shadows. Seeing Je-hwan's expressionless face that seemed normal at a glance, Kapros thought he had finally calmed down and understood.

As the other party seemed to have changed to a more reasonable state, Kapros's sense of crisis that 'this must not be discovered' gradually subsided. As his head cooled, he felt the need to provide supplementary explanations for the words he had urgently shouted earlier.

"I don't know how it looked to you, but matters related to that guy are... important to me."

"..."

"Really... important. I can't explain yet, but... later..."

But would such a day for explanation ever come? Thinking of Jeong Seung-jo he had just seen, Kapros wasn't confident. As he trailed off, Je-hwan slowly nodded.

"I see. It seems important."

Was communication finally working? Just as Kapros was about to feel relieved, he heard one more sentence.

"But it's not necessary. I don't want to hear it."

The low voice was the coldest and chilliest of all the words Je-hwan had spoken so far. Kapros was momentarily stunned, then almost lost his reason due to the anger that suddenly welled up.

"You, this...!"

Beep beep beep.

Just as Kapros was about to get angry again, thinking that this bastard hadn't deviated one bit from his incomprehensible words earlier, a sharp ringtone sounded from Je-hwan's pocket. Silently, Je-hwan took out his portable VT messenger device, quickly scanned its contents, narrowed his eyes, then let them sink back into a cold light. After pushing it back into his pocket, he quietly called Kapros's name.

"Kang Mu-heon."

Kapros inappropriately thought that this might be the first time Je-hwan had called him by his full name. Je-hwan stood in the dark shadow of the stairs, his expression still unreadable, and put his hand in his pocket.

"I guess I'm inevitably human too... and such words hurt. It seems I'll have to go back first without interfering any further today, as you wish. I'm sorry for causing a disturbance. Well then."

Unlike his usual slow manner of speaking, Je-hwan finished his words coldly and smoothly, then turned around and went down the stairs before Kapros could call out to him. The back of his head, quickly walking down without looking back even once, was visible for a moment before disappearing, and a few minutes later, the sound of a motorcycle engine starting came from outside the building.

And he left.

Kapros stood there blankly for who knows how many minutes. The entire situation was utterly confusing, but among everything, Je-hwan's last words kept echoing in his ears.

'Such words... hurt?'

Yoon Seok-ho stood alone outside the dark hospital room. Inside the room with thick curtains drawn, another person was barely asserting their existence through the regular mechanical sounds of numerous machines connected to their body, relying on a respirator.

A nameplate faintly inscribed with the words "Jang Je-cheon, 33, Male" glowed blue at the head of the bed. Yoon Seok-ho's dark and cool eyes, quietly looking down at the seemingly peaceful sleeping figure, showed not a trace of his usual smoothness or brightness.