A Gentle Intruder - Chapter 42

The next day, without fail, a message came 10 minutes before the end of work.

[Come to the main entrance.]

Da Jung bit her inner lip while staring at the screen. She couldn’t keep being dragged along like this.

The face that kept lying until the end came to mind. He had the chance to reveal the truth but thoroughly ignored it. He was a man who had no intention of being honest until the end.

She didn’t want to doubt his feelings for her, but with him acting like this, even those feelings seemed impure. It might just be low-quality obsession.

A relationship that started with lies was bound to crumble, but she just didn’t know that fact. That this meeting was a house of cards.

‘I’m not going.’

Da Jung packed her bag, ignored the message, and left through the back entrance.

Surely he wouldn’t actually enter the hospital. There are so many people in a university hospital.

[You’re past the time to come.]

She closed her phone and walked quickly. She wanted to walk to the subway station and be swept up in the crowd of people. Lee Jae Ho was strange, really strange. He keeps making people unable to do anything.

Just as she was almost at the subway station, a call came. Her heart sank, but when she checked the caller ID, it was her coworker nurse Young Sook. Da Jung answered the phone with relief.

[Wow. Yoon nurse. Where are you now?]

“Why? I just left work and I’m at the subway station entrance…”

[Ah! Why did you go that far! Come back. Quickly! It’s amazing. Lee Jae Ho just showed up in the lobby!]

…Even from so far away, he stops her in her tracks.

[Wow. They say real fans can’t join savings clubs! Why did you leave on time today of all days! Come quickly. Quickly! The hospital is in an uproar now.]

Her feet turned 180 degrees on their own. Some unknown will activated and Da Jung retraced her steps.

[Yoon nurse! Are you listening? Oh, this is really amazing. He’s so handsome!]

“Lee Jae Ho. Where is he? Did he come up to the 7th floor?”

[Huh? Why would Lee Jae Ho come up to the obstetrics ward?]

“…Thank you.”

Da Jung’s walking pace gradually quickened until it turned into a run. She ran until she was out of breath. Her coat fluttered and her hair flew. Her lips were parched.

He’s crazy. Lee Jae Ho is really crazy.

She called him.

[Yes.]

A calm voice answered the phone. Da Jung, on the verge of losing her breath, suddenly burst into tears.

“Huh, wh-what are you doing at the hospital right now?”

[News travels fast.]

Huff. Huff.

[I didn’t know sitting in the lobby would be faster than the phone. I kept sending messages but it seems they didn’t go through well.]

“…How could you do this?”

Da Jung spoke in a voice that sounded like she was about to cry.

[Come within ten minutes.]

“…”

[Excuse me. I’m the boyfriend of Yoon Da Jung, a nurse in obstetrics, but she’s not answering her phone. Could you call her to the lobby?]

Jae Ho recited shamelessly as if rehearsing a script.

[What should I do?]

“I-I’m coming! I’m on my way.”

[Good. Let’s meet in the car.]

**

“This wasn’t a good method, Director.”

Manager Jung escorted Jae Ho while trying to sort out the situation. He couldn’t completely stop the rumors, but he was thinking of ways to package it as much as possible. He followed behind, coming up with several plans in his head and recalling the most plausible excuse among them.

“The agency will be in trouble too. For now, I’ll make a schedule and we’ll coordinate our stories…”

“Yoon Da Jung keeps running away.”

Jae Ho said irritably.

“How can she do that! Even after I showed my heart like that, she still runs away and talks about ending things. It’s a wonder I’m still sane right now.”

“You need to maintain a good image as much as possible until you inherit the succession, but if you keep being talked about by people, that itself is already a minus…”

“Stop it, hyung.”

Two guards cleared the way in front of Jae Ho, who was walking quickly. Manager Jung’s expression darkened as he looked at Jae Ho’s back.

“Jae Ho…”

Jae Ho, who had reached the car, irritably opened the driver’s side door and then turned around to look at Manager Jung.

“I’m going to make Yoon Da Jung come back to my side no matter what.”

“…”

“Even if she really hates me, I don’t care. It’s enough if I love her.”

The words ‘Is that all the love you were so desperate for?’ rose to his throat. But Manager Jung closed his mouth after seeing Jae Ho’s eyes.

In his strangely flickering eyes was the same pain he had seen when he first met the boy.

“I’ll do anything. If she keeps acting like this, I’ll even ruin that hospital so she can’t go to work and keep her by my side.”

Jae Ho gritted his teeth and pointed at the hospital.

“Go. Before Da Jung comes.”

Slam.

The car door closed.

Manager Jung sighed and instructed the guards to hide.

**

Da Jung wiped her tears and got into the car. She absolutely didn’t want him to see. Her messy hair and clothes, her unsteady breathing, everything was a mess, but her tears felt like her last bit of pride.

She couldn’t give tears to the man who had shaken her to her roots and was now trying to uproot her once again.

“Hello, Yoon Da Jung.”

He leaned over and fastened her seatbelt himself. As he did so, he came close to Da Jung’s nape and breathed hotly. It was an intense scent. Da Jung turned her head and closed her eyes, trying not to react to his fragrance.

Even after fastening the seatbelt, his upper body didn’t return to its place but lingered longer.

So close that if she raised her head, their lips would touch.

So close that she could hear his pounding heartbeat.

The man tickled her lips with his low breath. Da Jung held her breath.

“Let’s depart.”

The man straightened up only after a long while.

The car was just quiet, without even music playing. The man who had provoked her so intimately as if about to kiss her and then casually grabbed the steering wheel seemed impressive. Da Jung felt ashamed, feeling like she had been played again.

“Do you really want to end things with me?”

He said as he attempted to change lanes.

“It’s not that I want to end it, it’s already over.”

“Wrong answer.”

The arm smoothly turning the steering wheel looked firm.

“You were nervous just now. Thinking I might kiss you.”

Da Jung’s face turned bright red.

“Your heart was about to burst.”

“That’s…!”

Feeling irritated by his misaligned feelings yet satisfied with the ambiguous situation earlier, Jae Ho smiled slightly.

“I think I’m quite the gentleman. I’m not a crazy guy who clings to and obsesses over a woman who says she doesn’t like me.”

“…”

“Try to really hate me. To the point where your teeth chatter. Then I’ll end it.”

Da Jung clenched her fists.

“I… I hate you. I hate you.”

Jae Ho chuckled again. Da Jung felt as if she had been stripped naked by that short breath. Even to herself, it sounded like a hastily thrown answer.

When they hit a red light, Jae Ho shifted the gear to P.

He turned his body sideways and looked at Da Jung with an overtly seductive gaze. Da Jung tried hard to stare straight ahead and ignore him.

“Shall we try again to see if you really hate me?”

“!”

“This time for real. How about it?”

Da Jung bit her lip. He then raised his thumb and gently lowered her chin.

“Can you keep lying even if my lips ravage you?”

“Th-that’s…”

Even though the light had changed, Jae Ho didn’t start. He just stroked Da Jung’s lips with his thumb while giving her a deep look.

Should I become a beast completely? It would be sweet. Enough to snap that last thread of reason in an instant.

−Honk honk.

−Hooonk.

He was going crazy with desire. Even more so because she kept pushing him away.

It was hard to endure even when he didn’t know the taste at all, but now he knew Yoon Da Jung completely. The woman was more potent than any addiction in the world.

“The, the light…”

As Da Jung opened her mouth to point ahead, Jae Ho’s finger entered her mouth.

Just that alone made her whole body tingle and boil up, causing Da Jung to close her eyes. She resented herself for crumbling at just one section of his finger, no matter how much she tried to endure and resist.

−Honk honk.

Just then, as if the car behind had broken down, the driver got out and started setting up a warning triangle. Another man appeared and gave hand signals. It was unclear why they were setting up a long line of warning triangles for Jae Ho’s car when their own car had broken down, but thanks to that, other cars started to move away.

“Why is your lip injured?”

It was a wound from biting her lip on the night of the nightmare, but she didn’t bother to answer.

“Show me just your lips.”

As Da Jung’s lips started to tremble, Jae Ho withdrew his finger.

“Stop trembling.”

“…”

“I’m holding back because I don’t think I can end with just a kiss.”

Da Jung exhaled as if vomiting.

“Try to hate me sincerely. If you want to end it that badly.”

“…”

“How can I let you go when you look like you’re about to cry from just one finger?”

Jae Ho shifted the gear back to D and attempted to start. As he moved out, the car behind started to clear away the warning triangles. Perhaps it wasn’t broken down after all. Da Jung wondered as she looked in the rearview mirror, but soon it disappeared from view.

**

Yonghyeon Psychiatric Hospital, located at the edge of Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province.

The poorly maintained building looked bleak. Weeds had grown so much that the parking lot lines had disappeared, making it look like an unused building at first glance. If it weren’t for the occasional cars coming and going, even the villagers might have thought it was a closed hospital.

This place, usually quiet most of the year, was bustling with commotion for the first time in a long while.

Two nurses and a burly security guard tied a man of small build to a bed. The man’s body went limp after finally passing out from the sedative, having struggled until his throat was hoarse.

“How on earth did he escape?”

One nurse said irritably while dusting off her clothes that had been kicked. The other nurse also frowned.

“It seems the cleaning staff was careless with locking the door.”

“No. My goodness. Does that mean he was conscious? Even with all those drugs poured into him.”

“I know.”

The two nurses fidgeted nervously, carefully checking if the arms tied to the bed in an X shape might loosen further. Then the security guard spoke.

“It won’t come loose.”

“Yes. Thank you for your hard work. You can go now. Thank you.”

After the security guard left, the two nurses exchanged anxious looks.

If the director found out that the patient in Room 103 had attempted to escape and was actually caught after getting outside the building, how furious would he be? They were already scared, feeling as if they could see his fierce gaze.

It was fortunate that it was an empty dawn; if it had been daytime, they would have had to report it without fail. Luckily, the security guard had promised to turn a blind eye, so the two nurses decided to keep quiet.

One of them spoke in a low voice.

“They say he’s a mentally ill person who even killed someone… I was terrified thinking he was crazy… But doesn’t this man seem quite normal when you look at him?”

“…”

“He was saying he’s being unjustly confined, and I wondered if it might be true…”

The other nurse cut her off with a firm expression.

“Stop it. We’re not the ones to judge.”

The two nurses, who had closed their mouths again, quietly turned off the lights after securing the ward.