Heavy Rain Chapter 29

A surge of nausea rose up within him. Haejin, who had been undressing with trembling hands while slumped over, was forced to bend his waist and brace himself against the ground. Since that sharp intake of breath a moment ago, his lungs had not been moving. It was as if something were clenching his windpipe tight.

It wasn’t that he was enduring this situation stoically just because no tears were falling. He was simply in such despair that he couldn’t even shed them.

“…Please let me go to the hospital when it is over.”

When the driver had acted that way, he should have just gotten out immediately and caught a taxi. He should have run out of the mansion right then without even thinking of leaning on someone like Lyle.

He had to go and see them. He had to go and say thank you, and tell them he loved them.

Because he was a fool, he couldn’t manage even that one thing.

“Jin?”

“Hic.”

Lyle, who had been looking down at the irritating Haejin with a cold gaze, suddenly called his name. He had thought the boy was just dawdling, but Haejin’s condition was strange.

Lyle reflexively knelt on one knee in front of Haejin and met his eye level. A suffocating, gasping sound leaked from the boy. When he quickly grabbed his shoulders and made him lift his head, he saw a deathly pale complexion.

In that moment, Lyle strangely found himself unable to breathe, just like Haejin.

“Hey, Jin! Snap out of it!”

He called Haejin, barely squeezing the words out of his throat. His heart, which had been sounding alarms like crazy since the moment he dragged him here, acted as if it would burst with a pop at this very second. He barely turned his head and urgently pressed the mansion’s emergency phone as if he were going to smash it.

Something was going terribly wrong. An ominous feeling ran down his spinal cord and squeezed his brain. This precarious emotion reached its peak the moment Haejin suddenly vomited bile in front of him.

“Jin!”

Without realizing it, he pulled Haejin toward him. Haejin, who normally would have stepped back, fell into Lyle’s arms as if collapsing. That compliant limpness felt like an awl forged from ill omens.

Feeling that things couldn’t go on like this, Lyle lifted the boy up, not even caring that his clothes were getting dirty. In that moment, with his head lumping over, Haejin murmured faintly. The words, fluttering out like a sigh, scattered just like mist. His gaze was not on Lyle, but looking toward somewhere far, far away.

“…I’m, sorry, for not going…”

Haejin, who had been doing nothing but sucking in air as if he were broken, couldn’t even make a gasping sound after that. His entire body just went limp and convulsed without rest. Seeing the pale complexion and eyes that even showed the whites, Lyle realized it.

That something was terribly wrong.

Both for Haejin, and for himself.

“The diagnosis is that the psychological issue is the most significant factor.”

“…”

Lyle sat in the drawing room attached to his room with an exhausted air. He didn’t even seem to have the presence of mind to change his dirty clothes. It was unlike Lyle, who usually maintained razor-sharp self-discipline.

The secretary, glancing at that haggard appearance, spoke again.

“Because his aversion was so severe, we couldn’t perform a blood test, but… even to the naked eye, nutritional issues clearly remain. Since psychological problems often lead to a loss of appetite, it would be best to pay close attention from now on.”

Haejin was now lying in his own room in the main building, not at the hospital. Although Lyle had personally taken him to the hospital in a car that rushed there, the moment they reached the building, he had broken into death-like fits again.

‘The hospital, I hate it, no.’

Lyle thought he would suffocate from those pheromones saturated with fear. So he hurriedly called the doctor into the car to check Haejin’s condition. Even in that moment, Haejin twisted his body and rejected everything with his entire being.

At the news that it was a psychological problem rather than a physical one, they had to turn the car around and return to the mansion.

The results of the examination by the doctor who came for a house call showed signs of trauma. Lyle described Haejin’s sudden state as detailedly as possible. Then came the question of whether he had experienced any psychological shocks at that specific location recently. Lyle could only swallow dryly.

‘…I’m, sorry, for not going…’

It was all too clear toward whom the words Haejin spat out just before fainting were directed. It seemed the fact that he heard of his parents’ passing late was more shocking than Lyle had imagined. Having memories only of moving busily after his own parents died, he was ultimately flustered by that fact.

How could he look so much like he was going to die right this second?

Because he had moved personally, there were many things regarding external eyes that needed to be covered. Thus, the secretary, who had been dragged out at dawn along with him, was silently delivering reports without a single word of complaint.

“It would be best for him to at least get an IV, but he seems to have an aversion to needles.”

Recalling Haejin’s pale face, a throbbing pain arose near his heart. Hearing the mention of needles just now felt like being pricked by the words.

It wasn’t just needles; Haejin had nearly had a seizure at the doctor’s white coat as well. Because of that, the doctor who came for the house call had to examine him in a way that avoided reminding him of a hospital as much as possible.

Lyle, who unlike his usual self had been on high alert regarding Haejin’s condition the whole time, fell into thought. The hand that had caught the collapsing Haejin was still trembling slightly.

This was also the hand that had just been violently dragging Haejin to that room. He had personally thrown Haejin into the center of that trauma.

Why had he been so angry, as if the boy being a little thin were such a big deal?

“…”

Something felt as if it were about to surge up his throat, so Lyle hurriedly covered his mouth. A faint trembling dug deep into his skin. Thus, he had to admit it now. That something was distinctly wrong.

The situation he had regarded as a mere momentary impulse or an abnormal reaction was persisting for this long. If so, this was not a temporary phenomenon. He could no longer act detached toward Haejin’s condition. Furthermore, even more so when he thought of the last words the boy spat out.

Suddenly, the words of the doctor who asked if he had met an Omega with high compatibility came to mind. For now, that would be the most convincing explanation.

“If we terminate the contract like this, we must readjust the compensation plans and such. …Since the contract has not been fulfilled even once, we can also claim a penalty for breach of contract, but what shall we do?”

Lyle, who had been deep in thought, jerked his head up. The secretary also had an expression as if the words he was uttering felt somewhat guilty.

“No, …no, don’t do that.”

Answering urgently, Lyle closed his eyes. Something was trying to surge up again. Haejin’s pale face wouldn’t leave, as if it were stuck to the inside of his eyelids every time he closed them. His airway tightened again. Amidst inexpressible bewilderment and confusion, Lyle barely managed to grasp one emotion.

A deep fear.

This was not Lyle’s emotion. Haejin’s pheromones were simply lingering around him like a scent. What the boy had been emitting with his whole body as he collapsed was a fear heavily mixed with despair. As if it had been transferred completely to Lyle, those faint, faint pheromones clung to his surroundings tenaciously.

Because of that, the image of Haejin being unable to breathe and turning pale wouldn’t leave his mind.

“Take measures so that there are no legal lawsuits against Jin in the future as well.”

“Yes. And the resolution of your pheromones is also urgent, Chairman. The doctor sent a message.”

“…I know.”

The secretary did not want to say such cold things in this situation either. However, he was, above all else, the person who handled Lyle’s affairs. Separate from his apologies toward Haejin, he had to do what needed to be done.

“I will proceed with Mr. Bright’s medical support without any deficiencies.”

“Do that.”

“And I will look into a new contract partner.”

The secretary, having heard the situation from the doctor and Lyle, judged objectively. That forcing the contract on Haejin any further than this was truly a terrible thing to do. Thus, the next step was decided.

However, Lyle seemed to have different thoughts.

“…For that, let us just wait a little while for now.”

“Chairman, Mr. Bright is currently…”

“I know. I’m not saying I’m going to do anything to Jin by force.”

Rubbing his brow roughly, Lyle bowed his head. Only then did his own mess of an appearance enter his sight. He had been that much of a frantic mess since the moment Haejin collapsed.