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As Kang Chan and his parents started eating in earnest with the President of South Korea, their conversations revolved mainly around their kids and how they were making them worried. Hwang Ki-Hyun even asked Moon Jae-Hyun to use his influence to turn his damned son into a member of the special forces because his wife was so worried about him.
“We should never abuse our powers,” Moon Jae-Hyun responded.
“Mr. President! This is for the country. You just have to put him in the special forces.”
Despite his pleas, Moon Jae-Hyun firmly rejected the notion.
Could the National Intelligence Service Director really not take care of that one thing by himself?
It was childish, but Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook became a lot less nervous because of it. By the time the main dish was served, even Yoo Hye-Sook was joining in the conversation from time to time.
“Meeting Kang Chan made me disappointed in my own son so. I even thought about asking Kang Chan to take care of him for about a year,” Hwang Ki-Hyun said.
“Saying that will get you in trouble!” Moon Jae-Hyun replied, startled.
“If that doesn’t work, then maybe we can at least get my son to lodge with Kang Chan’s parents,” Hwang Ki-Hyun continued, making everyone in the room laugh.
***
After eating dinner until they were full, Kang Chan and Seok Kang-Ho leaned back against the bed

The door opened, and Yoo Hun-Woo came inside.
“Does it hurt anywhere in particular?” Yoo Hun-Woo asked Seok Kang-Ho with a cautious expression after examining him.
Afterward, Yoo Hun-Woo said, “Mr. Kang Chan, Su-Jin’s parents hope that you’ll do what you just said if it’s perfectly okay with you. They want to help Su-Jin relieve her deep sorrows, even if just a little bit before she passes.”
“How is she doing right now?” Kang Chan asked.
“She likely won’t survive past this evening.”
Kang Chan sighed softly. “Can I go there right now?”
“For as long as you’re okay with it, it doesn’t matter what time you go. However, you will have to change your hospital gown due to the smell of cigarettes. You will also have to disinfect yourself since she’s in the ICU.”
“Let’s do that.”
“Sure.”
“I should go as well,” Seok Kang-Ho said, only to frown as he stood up.
“You stay here. It will be difficult to explain why you’re here if the parents see you as well. I’ll go there alone for now. You should visit her after we see how things go,” Kang Chan reasoned.
Seok Kang-Ho looked at Yoo Hun-Woo, but the latter didn’t side with him.
“Alright,” Seok Kang-Ho answered.
Kang Chan left the patient room with Yoo Hun-Woo. It wasn’t like Seok Kang-Ho was going to go with them just because his lips twisted with dissatisfaction.
Kang Chan got changed in the nurses’ office, washed his face, and sprayed disinfectant all over him.
“I told Su-Jin’s parents that you intervened and helped out during the blood transfusion due to the urgent situation and because our hospital was lacking blood. We’re both going to be in a real predicament if the patient’s condition improves and word about it gets out,” Yoo Hun-Woo explained.
“Let’s just not talk about that.”
“I didn’t want to hide the fact that you helped out.”
They got on the elevator and went up to the ninth floor. From the entrance alone, the ICU was definitely different from a regular patient room.
To its left was an area full of guardians. It had ‘waiting room’ written on the plaque attached to it. Yoo Hun-Woo gave two of the people inside a glance, then went into the office across the waiting room.
“This is Kang Chan, the student that I told the two of you about,” Yoo Hun-Woo told Su-Jin’s parents.
“Hello?” As soon as Kang Chan greeted them, Sim Su-Jin’s mother immediately covered her mouth and started to cry.
“We heard that you gave our daughter a blood transfusion. Thank you.” Sim Su-Jin’s father told Kang Chan after exhaling softly. He looked haggard.
“I only gave a small amount of blood. Anyway, please speak comfortably to me,” Kang Chan couldn’t even sit yet.
“I heard that you’ll relieve our Su-Jin’s deep sorrows
 I’m sorry, I know this is shameless, but please do,” Still sobbing, Su-Jin’s mother barely managed to get the words out.
“We disinfected ourselves before coming up here, so we should see the patient first. Let’s talk afterward,” Yoo Hun-Woo said. The parents stepped aside to one side of the room.
Grief filled the eyes of Su-Jin’s mother.
While some people committed suicide, leaving their parents behind and brokenhearted, those who did them wrong dreamed of living a new life after saying they felt remorse for what they had done.
Damn it! Where and what in the world went wrong?
Yoo Hun-Woo opened the automatic door of the ICU by using the intercom. When they entered, they were met with another set of doors.
“This way, Mr. Kang Chan.” Yoo Hun-Woo pointed to their right, where he took out green clothes so thin and light that it was as if they were made out of hanji.[1]
“Put this on your head,” Yoo Hun-Woo put on the same thing.
Yoo Hun-Woo pressed a button, and they were showered with disinfectant. Afterward, he opened the automatic door.
On both sides of the room were big beds, each one having an enormous number of machines and devices connected to it.
With mechanical beeps in the background, the doctors and nurses busily moved as if they were on a battlefield.
Yoo Hun-Woo took Kang Chan to the bed on the left side of the room.
With Su-Jin’s entire body basically wrapped in bandages, only her eyes, nose, hands, and feet were visible.
Be-ep. Be-ep. Be-ep. Be-ep.
The machine that Kang Chan had only ever seen on TV drew vertical lines, telling him that Sim Su-Jin was still alive.
When Yoo Hun-Woo glanced at Kang Chan, the latter approached Sim Su-Jin.
What am I supposed to say?
Now that he was actually facing her, he didn’t know what to say.
What could Kang Chan tell a girl—who was in so much pain that she decided to commit suicide—that could make her want to live tirelessly?
Kang Chan looked at Shim Su-Jin’s eyes, which were slightly visible through a crevice in the bandages. She had a thick tube inserted under her neck, leaving her nose exposed.
“Shim Su-Jin,” Kang Chan called, then carefully put his hand on top of hers. She was cold to the touch, almost as if her hand had been left in a refrigerator. “I believe you’re listening. I jumped off the roof before the summer break as well. It was fucking painful. Fortunately, I faintly heard someone talking.”
Yoo Hun-Woo watched them from a good distance away from the foot of the bed. Another doctor and a nurse in scrubs were standing behind him.
“They transfused my blood into you because we were wondering if my blood could pass on the energy that revived me. Anyway, there’s one more thing that I have to tell you. I jumped off the roof because I was bullied as well. However, I survived and developed guts. After that, I fought like a crazy person. I even fought Lee Ho-Jun and Heo Eun-Sil.”
He wondered what he was doing, but he couldn’t stop.
“I’m Kang Chan, a senior at Shinmuk High School. You might have heard of me because, until the start of my senior year, people told me that I used to hand over my money and act as others’ errand boy. Despite doing all of those, I’m still alive.”
To a girl that was dying, Kang Chan was saying things that Seok Kang-Ho would likely say. “It’s unfair, isn’t it? You were angry and felt mistreated because you didn’t receive any help even though you were really desperate. You can’t die because you received my blood, though, so shake this off and get better soon. When you have recovered, let’s go to school together. I’ll beat up everyone who bothers you until you no longer feel angry.”
Kang Chan stroked Shim Su-Jin’s hand. “Cheer up, kid. I beat up and got rid of every bully out there, including those in Shimdeok High School, the weird university kids that are apparently the bullies’ higher-ups, and even Park Ki-Bum and his parking lot gang that controlled those university kids. Mr. Seok Kang-Ho, one of our P.E. teachers, is also waiting downstairs. If you want me to prove what I said, he’ll help me do just that.”
Kang Chan then talked about her parents, whom he met outside the ICU, and about him seeing a side of Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook that he didn’t know about.
This was something that Kang Chan had never done before—something that he would’ve never done in the past.
However, having felt Kang Dae-Kyung and Yoo Hye-Sook’s love, and after seeing kids like Cha So-Yeon and Moon Ki-Jean, he now wanted to help Shim Su-Jin using any means.
Since he had started talking about his life already, Kang Chan decided to tell her about Cha So-Yeon and Moon Ki-Jean, what had happened in the school cafeteria, and Heo Eun-Sil and Lee Ho-Jun almost getting beaten to death at Tron Square.
As Kang Chan talked to Shim Su-Jin for a little less than an hour, Yoo Hun-Woo, the other doctor, and the nurse stood beside them, watching. Rather than protecting Kang Chan, it felt as if they were waiting because they didn’t know when Shim Su-Jin would stop breathing.
“I’m going. Remember my name. The hospital will contact me. If they tell me you have woken up, I’ll run over immediately. My blood is in your veins now, so I don’t mind doing that. Endure it. Endure it and survive, and I’ll take care of everything for you after that. Okay?” Kang Chan ended.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Just as Kang Chan finished talking, the rhythm of the machine’s sounds changed.
Whoosh.
Yoo Hun-Woo, the doctor, and the nurse urgently ran toward Shim Su-Jin. Yoo Hun-Woo gave an order that Kang Chan didn’t understand, and the doctor and the nurse immediately carried it out.
Medication was injected into the IV, and a moment later, Shim Su-Jin’s parents urgently ran over.
Yoo Hun-Woo looked at Kang Chan, then briefly shook his head.
Damn it!
Kang Chan was angry, but for now, he had to move out of the way for her parents.
Shim Su-Jin’s mother shed a shower of tears as she reached out her hand toward Su-Jin’ from the other side of Kang Chan. Her mother carefully stroked the bandages wrapped around Su-Jin’s face as if it was her bare skin.
Kang Chan stood up as Shim Su-Jin’s father approached her as well.
Seeing a middle-aged man with graying hair tearing up and crying was extremely painful.
At that moment

Shim Soo-Jin stirred.
Kang Chan quickly raised his head and looked at Yoo Hun-Woo.
Be-ep. Be-ep. Be-ep. Be-ep.
With surprise in his eyes, Yoo Hun-Woo’s gaze alternated between the machine and Kang Chan.
Not long after, Su-Jin stirred again!
Her hand clearly moved.
“Mom
”
“Su-Jin! Su-Jin!”
“Mom
”
“Su-Jin! Su-Jin!!”
Her mother called Sim Su-Jin as if she had gone insane.
1. hanji, or Korean paper is traditional handmade paper from Korea. ☜