Salt Society Chapter 44

It was baffling. Moreover, suddenly, a sweet scent of vanilla cream began to waft through the air. Kihyun, who used to use menthol-based products for all his bath supplies, looked around in confusion. He wondered if something containing vanilla scent among the products in the bathroom had broken.

However, he couldn’t find any such traces in the end, so he just washed up quickly and came out.

More than that issue, the thought that he could eat the morning menu at a fast-food restaurant today was dominant.

Kihyun immediately threw a windbreaker over his treatment uniform and left the house. The timing was awkward. He felt like he should have accepted the car Cho Yeonoh offered to give him at times like this.

Since he was young, he had been scolded by his father, who said the habit of eating while walking was not good. Because of that, trying to eat a muffin while walking down the street felt unnecessarily bothersome. If he had a car, he could have stopped at a drive-thru, eaten inside the car, and then gone to work.

Maybe I should just get one, he thought as he entered the fast-food restaurant. Today, after buying coffee as well, he shoved the egg muffin down in three bites and came out. Since yesterday, he had been dying to eat this. Or sour summer plums. It was strange, as he wasn’t usually the type to enjoy sour things.

He thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep because those two things kept coming to mind alternately, but again, he slept perfectly fine as soon as he lay down.

“Should I eat one more…”

Even though he had already left the shop and walked more than 100 meters, he muttered while looking back, but then continued on his way.

His desires were usually stronger for sleep than for food, so it was a strange thing. He walked while tilting his head, and the sound of ice clinking came from the tumbler containing his coffee. As he walked toward the hospital, the nurses walking ahead of him turned around and giggled.

Wondering what was going on, Kihyun bowed his head in greeting, and the nurses smiled brightly while pointing to the corner of their mouths. Only then did Kihyun realize that something was stuck to the corner of his mouth. It was a trace of the muffin he had finished in three bites.

“Mr. So, are you going to eat that for lunch?”

“I was planning to eat it around 11 o’clock if I got hungry.”

When he replied bluntly with an expressionless face, the nurses laughed out loud once more. Every single one of the hospital nurses was full of laughter. Byungju said, what are you talking about, they only laugh because it’s you, Mr. So, but he wasn’t the type of person overflowing with humor enough to make people laugh selectively.

Anyway, having eaten, he felt quite energized, so he didn’t take the elevator and walked up the stairs to the athlete’s room. Kihyun’s morning had started off quite well.

Compared to the worst afternoon that sought him out as if it had been waiting, that is.

“Where is So Kihyun.”

Calling someone by their name without honorifics at work was the same as intending to look down on that person from now on.

As soon as Kihyun heard Team Leader Lim’s voice, he sighed and stood up from his seat. He was in the middle of demonstrating an ankle exercise while looking after a figure skater. He had been paying more attention to the young athlete than to his other assigned patients because he wanted to ensure her ankle didn’t suffer aftereffects like his, but then his name was suddenly called.

In a place overflowing with patients and athletes engaged in rehabilitation, a voice that stripped away rank and title to call only a name, just like scolding a student. Kihyun lightly tapped the head of the figure skater who was looking at him in surprise and walked over.

“I asked where So Kihyun went!”

Watching Byungju peek his head out in surprise, Kihyun let out another low sigh and entered the office.

As soon as Kihyun entered, Team Leader Lim slammed the chart he was holding in his hand down on the desk and spoke.

“I guess you think there’s nothing you can’t see?”

“…I don’t know what you mean.”

Team Leader Lim put his hands on his waist and gave a “Ha” of a snort.

“Yesterday when I was off for the morning, Ms. Lee Seongmi came down and said her TM joint hurt, and they say you treated that directly, Mr. So.”

Only then did he seem to know the reason for the fit. Ms. Lee Seongmi was the younger sister of the 3rd chief of rehabilitation medicine, and she was a patient that Team Leader Lim, who had much to flatter the chief about, had personally stepped forward to take on after a long time.

Yesterday morning, Ms. Lee Seongmi came down and complained of pain in her right mandible. Kihyun had stacked about five wooden tongue depressors, placed them deep in the molars on the opposite side of the pain, and had her bite down with all her strength.

It was a prescription made because there are many people who often complain of mandibular pain due to an imbalance of strength with the opposite side. He had intended to report it to Team Leader Lim afterward, but as luck would have would have it, he forgot while going down to the family medicine department to get checked.

It was obvious the 3rd chief had relayed that story directly to Team Leader Lim. For Team Leader Lim, who hoped to go as the head of the physical therapy room to the hospital the 3rd chief was rumored to be opening after quitting around the end of the year, it would be quite annoying.

However, it wasn’t something to get this angry about. In other words, it meant he just needed someone to vent his anger on. As if that prediction were correct, Team Leader Lim shouted while poking Kihyun’s chest repeatedly with a ballpoint pen.

“You, tell me. You find me quite pathetic, don’t you?”

“…”

Since it wasn’t that he didn’t find him pathetic, he didn’t answer. He had no desire to escape the situation by going as far as to lie. Team Leader Lim gave a hollow laugh at Kihyun’s attitude and then pressed firmly against Kihyun’s chest again.

“I said tell me. What kind of backing is so great that a guy who doesn’t even go out for medical support is so stiff-necked? Is it just that you’re friends with the chairman?”

“…”

It was starting again. Every time, this topic ended with criticizing Kihyun for not going on medical support. Since he was a bit annoyed today, normally he would have just said “I’m sorry,” but he didn’t want to open his mouth. Knowing that, Team Leader Lim yelled at the top of his lungs even though the athletes could hear from outside.

“I’m asking if you find me pathetic, you brat!”

“Isn’t this treatment time?”

It was then that a familiar voice was heard. Kihyun turned around in surprise.

Though his face was gaunt with hollowed dimples, the one standing there after opening the office door was definitely Cho Yeonoh. His suit jacket was nowhere to be seen, and he was dressed in a three-piece vest. He looked dissolute with his tie and a couple of top buttons of his shirt undone, but it was an impression that was hard to approach in a different sense than when he was neat.

Because of his height, which was slightly taller than the office door, he ducked his head to come inside and asked again.

“I asked if it’s okay to yell like this so all the patients can hear during treatment time, are the words difficult. Since both of you aren’t answering.”

He pointed out that both weren’t answering, but he was looking only at Team Leader Lim with a crooked gaze. As if he had asked that side in the first place.

“Ah, well, that is…”

Team Leader Lim had a rare blank face. Because he was quite smart and possessed excellent social skills, he was a person who had never shown any signs of bullying Kihyun in front of superiors.

Even Lee Bumhee, who attended the same hospital, didn’t know. But to be caught by the chairman of the foundation—and Cho Yeonoh at that—he had reason to be flustered.

Cho Yeonoh tilted his head to the side with one hand shoved into his suit pants and said.

“Team Leader Lim Hyeongseop, right?”

“…Yes, yes, that’s correct.”

Team Leader Lim nodded his head as if it might fall off. Yeonoh, who was looking down at him with narrowed eyes, let out a “Hmm” from his throat.

“I see.”

That was all. Team Leader Lim didn’t even get a chance to make an excuse. It was because Cho Yeonoh turned his back immediately.

“Mr. So Kihyun, follow me.”

Then he went straight out of the office. Kihyun truly let out a sigh. Once the guy had gone completely out of the athlete’s room, only then did Kihyun turn to Team Leader Lim and speak. Since an expression as if looking at a pathetic human wouldn’t leave his face, he just opened his mouth as he was.

“You should have known when to stop.”

“…What?”

“This has become a headache.”

Kihyun, who muttered as if it didn’t matter whether the other heard or not, also left the office. Team Leader Lim shouted from behind asking Kihyun what that was supposed to mean, but he didn’t reply.

Looking outside, the athletes had all stopped exercising and even the trainers were just staring blankly this way.

Kihyun clicked his tongue and left the athlete’s room.

His head ached because he didn’t know how to explain things to the guy. Coming out into the hallway, he saw the guy standing in front of the elevator. Kihyun stood in the spot next to him.

Before he could even say a word, the elevator opened with a “Ding” sound. Yeonoh entered first.

Kihyun had no choice but to follow him in. Cho Yeonoh again reached out without a word and pressed the top button.

“…Going to the rooftop?”

“…”

Cho Yeonoh didn’t answer. The silence continued until he unlocked the door lock on the rooftop door. They had installed a door lock for fear that athletes or patients might come up unnecessarily, but Cho Yeonoh pressed the five-digit number without a hitch, as if he remembered the password, and opened the door.

As the guy led the way, opening the door and heading toward the outdoor garden, Kihyun slowly followed behind him and spoke.

“How do you remember things like this. I can never remember it.”

“Be quiet.”

Cho Yeonoh said softly without even turning back. His voice was deeply sunken, which made him seem quite angry, making Kihyun feel awkward.

In fact, Kihyun himself was in an embarrassing state. No matter how much they were in a relationship that was just for show, who would be okay with being caught in such a state by their partner? Showing a side of himself being completely broken down was not a pleasant thing.