Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? Chapter 49

After Naya left, I went back to the medical institute. The unexpected reunion had completely drained me.

I had thought meeting a villain would be scary, but she was even scarier than I’d imagined.

The look in Naya’s eyes when she said, “You too,” kept replaying in my mind, and I shuddered.

Ehit walked with me all the way to the institute and asked what Naya had said.

“She just asked whether we were close. Stuff like that.”

“And what did you say?”

“No. I just told her the truth. That we’re not at all.”

Ehit nodded a beat later.

“You did well.”

By then, we had arrived at the institute. Through the windows, I could see the staff peeking out at us.

I had fallen into the water, then followed my fiancé’s mother somewhere—how interesting must that have looked to them?

And now I was coming back together with my fiancé, so their gazes were several times more intense.

“Then I’ll see you later.”

I hurriedly waved and rushed into the institute. I had a mountain of work to do.

Ehit seemed to stand there for a while even after seeing me inside, but my head was too tangled to go back and say anything to him.

Sitting on the bed, Ehit pressed his temple. Without realizing it, he was thinking about Dapflen again.

She’d met Naya. And worse, without even knowing what kind of person she was, calmly drinking tea with her.

‘Is her body fully recovered?’

Since the day she collapsed like that, he hadn’t gone to check on her condition. Just thinking about that day soured his mood again.

Why did that woman always do such reckless things?

‘Does she treat her body so carelessly because she thinks she’s going to die soon anyway?’

He set the book in his hand down on the bedside table.

Every night, Dapflen surfaced in Ehit’s mind and kept him from sleeping. It would be better to just sleep early before that happened again.

“Big brother, hi?”

At that moment, the door cracked open.

A pair of mischievous eyes peeked through the gap.

“Go back and sleep, Jaiman.”

“I don’t want to.”

Jaiman scampered over and burrowed into Ehit’s blankets.

Ehit shook his head but indulged his younger brother’s whining anyway. No matter how he felt about Naya, Ehit adored his little brother.

Considering that Naya disliked him yet still left Jaiman here, did she know that much at least?

Or did she have some other motive?

Ehit shook his head. He didn’t want to think like that when it came to his brother.

Pulling Jaiman out from under the blankets, Ehit looked at him indifferently. Dangling in the air, Jaimen giggled.

“Why did you come?”

“Let’s go treasure hunting.”

“Fine, tomorrow.”

“No, now.”

“No.”

Ehit answered firmly. But Jaiman was even firmer.

“The treasure is already waiting.”

Seeing Ehit suppress an annoyed expression, Jaiman grinned.

No matter how complicated Ehit’s thoughts were, or how tired he felt, his prank-loving brother never gave him a break.

“Huh? I’m telling you, it’s already waiting.”

“…Where is it?”

Still, that relentless playfulness always lifted Ehit’s mood. Sometimes it even made things that gave him headaches feel trivial.

Ehit took a jacket out of the wardrobe and looked back at his brother.

Jaiman, still in his pajamas and smiling brightly, looked innocent to the point of seeming like he was plotting something.

“Go to your room and get something to wear, Jaiman. It’s cold at night.”

Come to think of it, he’d expected Naya to take Jaiman straight back to the capital once she stopped by Bellachen.

‘What on earth is she thinking?’

And why had she called Dapflen earlier?

If Mendel hadn’t told him that he’d seen the two of them while returning from work at the harbor, who knew what that woman might’ve done to Dapflen.

As he draped the jacket over his shoulders, his hand tightened for a moment.

When he turned around, Jaiman still hadn’t gone to get clothes. He was sitting on the bed, looking at him with a bright, open smile.

“Get your clothes. You’ll catch a cold and Mother will scold you.”

“I’ve already been scolded a lot, so it’s fine. And I’m not going.”

“You’re not going?”

“Yeah. I told you, I hid the treasure. The one who hides it doesn’t go looking for it.”

“Where did you hide it?”

“Room 201 at Hotel Lyken.”

“Good grief.”

With a throbbing headache, Ehit walked over and lifted his brother up.

Jaimen dangled there, eyes wide and blank.

“How did you even get to a place like that, Jaimen?”

Hotel Lyken was a place Ehit had visited before while tracking down a witness for a mission.

It was so old and decayed that it wouldn’t be strange if only ghosts lived there. The old doors didn’t even lock properly, making it a dangerous place.

Ehit tapped Jaiman lightly on the forehead.

“I’ll go get the treasure. But don’t ever go to places like that on your own.”

“What kind of place is that?”

“I’ll tell you after I get back.”

How could a six-year-old have gone somewhere like that? Jaiman’s curiosity was far too strong.

After putting Jaiman down and walking him back to his room hand in hand, Ehit finally left the estate.

Riding hard on horseback, he arrived at Hotel Lyken in the middle of the night.

“Please guide me to room 201.”

“Yes, sir.”

When the hotel worker saw the Cloyden crest on Ehit’s clothes, his eyes widened.

He quickly nodded and rushed up to the second floor.

“It should be here…”

Stopping in front of the door marked ‘201,’ the worker reached for it.

Creak—the handle of the old door turned.

 

 

****

 

 

 

According to what I’d heard earlier from the administration office at the institute, it would take at least a month to restore the official residence.

‘A month?’

I entered my luxurious, gorgeous, minus five-star hotel room and lit the lamp on the desk.

Then I stood quietly by one wall and looked around the cramped room.

Mold-stained wooden walls painted over with brown dye, and a single bed with two cheap outfits I’d bought in a hurry laid on top.

Does the door even lock properly here?

“Ah…”

I raised both hands and covered my tired eyes, pressing down as I closed them for a moment.

My mind went blank.

Why did everything feel like it was just getting worse?

I’d managed to salvage a few things from the collapsed residence, but I’d lost far more. Items I’d thought I might sell someday for money were gone too.

Honestly, things felt better back when the train stopped, when I met Ehit and clinked glasses with him on the ship.

‘At least in that moment, it felt like I was living a normal life.’

Chatting about trivial things with Ehit, joking around.

Not this headache-inducing relationship tied together by a destined bad connection, but just like friends.

‘Friends…’

Not calculating anything—just getting closer naturally and sharing how we felt.

‘And here I am, laying everything bare to you.’

I thought I was just spacing out, but before I knew it, I was recalling the things Ehit had said back then.

What kind of feelings had he been talking to me with that day?

Until now, I’d thought Ehit saw me only as a political marriage partner, as the Cloyden family’s fiancée. That he didn’t see me as “Dapflen,” but only as “Lady Aileta,” the lucky girl who’d claimed the fiancée position.

Honestly, there were many times when that made me feel bitter.

But then a thought struck me. Wasn’t I also seeing Ehit only through an image I’d created myself?

That day, watching him talk about himself, I’d felt surprised.

But it wasn’t just because I hadn’t expected him to share something personal with me.

More than that, I’d never imagined that someone always so calm and cold could make that kind of face, wear that kind of expression, while talking about himself.

Ehit Cloyden from the original story.

A cold man who wouldn’t even care if his fiancée was wiped out along with her family. Someone always rational and composed, untouched by emotional turmoil or pain.

Wasn’t that everything I thought Ehit was?

Staring blankly at the flickering light on the table, I shook my head.

‘I should just sleep. I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow too.’

I parted my lips slightly and let out a long, very long breath.

Then I walked over to the bed and pulled back the blanket.

“……”

Inside the blanket, a bug that looked almost like three bugs combined was waiting for me.

I quietly put the blanket back down.

“……”

Tears suddenly welled up in my eyes. Once they started, I couldn’t stop them.

“I don’t want to cry…”

But things never went the way I wanted. I was experiencing firsthand that tear ducts breaking down was a real thing.

Tears like scoops of ice cream rolled down my cheeks one after another. No matter how hard I pulled up the corners of my mouth, they kept drooping.

It was late at night, in a place with poor soundproofing. I just swallowed my sobs, breathing in hitching gasps.

Knock, knock—suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

“You have a visitor.”

It was the hotel owner’s voice.

A visitor? Who would come here?

I hurriedly wiped my tears with the back of my hand and opened the door. And the moment I saw who was standing there, something inside me completely broke.

“…Hic.”

I collapsed onto the floor and burst into loud sobs.

“Dapflen? It really is you?”

Dellers dropped down in front of me too, his face full of panic.