Heavy Rain Chapter 47

The moment he realized that, Lyle felt as if sparks were flying before his eyes. So much strength went into his knocking hand that the door shook as if it were about to break. Nevertheless, there was not a single response from inside.

He felt a sensation as if his heart were caught in something tight and being squeezed. Unable to endure it, he eventually stepped back slightly and pushed the door with all his might using his shoulder.

Unlike how firmly it had been closed until now, the door broke away pointlessly. Lyle hurriedly pushed through the debris and went inside. His steps headed toward one direction without hesitation—toward the place where Haejin’s pheromones were felt most intensely.

“Jin! Snap out of it! Call a doctor! Right now!”

“Yes, yes!”

Haejin, whose face was soaking wet, was sitting slumped next to the sink. Even though Lyle had just broken the door and entered, he was merely staring blankly into the air.

Seeing that, Lyle became insanely anxious and quickly approached, grabbing Haejin’s shoulders. He tried to draw his attention by shaking him slightly, but the boy’s gaze did not return.

He hurriedly inspected his body here and there, but there were no particular wounds.

“Jin, what’s wrong. Try to snap out of it.”

“…Eyes.”

“What?”

The trembling voice was extremely small. Lyle pressed close to Haejin’s mouth and listened intently. Haejin’s body, which he had pulled into an embrace without realizing it, continued to tremble bit by bit.

“Eyes are… constantly watching.”

“Watching?”

“Constantly.”

“Do you know who I am? Look here for a moment.”

Haejin, who fit perfectly in his arms, was truly small. To the point where he wondered if he had always had such a tiny frame.

He could feel a gaunt skeletal structure through the hands holding the boy’s shoulders. An indescribable feeling of wretchedness rose up and enveloped Lyle. His heart, which felt tightly jammed earlier, was still being constricted violently.

Not knowing what else to do, Lyle simply picked Haejin up and carried him. As soon as he reminded himself that calling a doctor would take more time, his body moved on its own.

Held in his arms without a single bit of resistance, Haejin’s arms dangled limply downward. Seeing that ominous gesture, Lyle applied strength to his hands.

“…I keep hearing knocking.”

Because of Haejin, who kept saying things that made no sense, his heart was endlessly urgent.

“What did you do? Explain.”

“That is…”

The doctor, who had left the mansion only a day ago, looked dazed at the situation of being called back. However, he soon only said that there was nothing particularly wrong with Haejin’s physical condition and that it must be a psychological issue. If not that, he said they would only know by going to the hospital for a detailed diagnosis.

But right now, they were in no position to go to the hospital. Lyle had seen Haejin trembling while trapped in trauma before. Even if he dragged him to the hospital by force, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t have a seizure like last time. Lyle was utterly angry at this situation where there was no way out.

After laying Haejin down for the time being, he harshly interrogated the servant who had been with him. Although wearing a face of grievance, the servant diligently explained what had happened.

They insisted that for the past few days, Haejin had been eating surprisingly well.

“So I was telling him how good it was that he was eating well lately, and then there was the sound of the Master knocking. At that moment, suddenly…”

Knocking. Hadn’t Haejin also clearly said that he kept hearing knocking? Could that be the problem?

Above all, even hearing those words, he couldn’t tell if they were the truth. After all, he couldn’t install CCTVs inside the bedroom. Thinking objectively, the probability of the newly replaced servant mistreating Haejin was low.

In this stifling situation, Lyle anxiously wiped his face. The sensation of Haejin trembling was still left on his fingertips. That small, weak trembling became a massive earthquake by the time it reached Lyle’s head.

“Where did the butler go?”

He had strictly requested that the man keep a close eye, but the butler had coincidentally vacated his post. He had reportedly gone out on personal business.

Unable to even sit in a chair, Lyle anxiously paced back and forth in the sitting room attached to Haejin’s room. He couldn’t bring himself to go far. In case something happened during a moment he looked away.

He frowned in distress as he recalled that Haejin had retched. Could he possibly be pregnant? Since he had never taken an interest in such things, he didn’t know when those symptoms usually appeared.

It was possible that Haejin, having noticed it with his body first, had fallen into a panic. Perhaps he was so shaken because it was an unwanted child.

Lyle, who rubbed his chest roughly without realizing it, suddenly looked at the CCTV newly installed on the ceiling. Come to think of it, the boy also said that eyes were constantly watching.

Could the fact that he installed CCTVs have been felt as surveillance? Although surveillance was the purpose, the boy might have felt it in a direction different from Lyle’s intention. Since the boy didn’t express his emotions well, the butler wouldn’t have been able to read that repulsion.

One way or another, it seemed Lyle himself was the cause of everything. Wasn’t it because of him that Haejin developed such trauma in the first place?

The moment he thought this far, he couldn’t even breathe deeply. For fear that that breath might reach Haejin, who would be lying in the other room.

Just then, there was a knock.

The servants inside and Lyle reflexively looked toward the door of the sitting room. The knocking sound felt like thunder today of all days. After Haejin mentioned it, it bothered him immensely without him knowing why.

At his glance, one of the servants standing nearby quickly opened the door. It was the butler who had reportedly gone out on personal business.

“Butler. Why did you vacate your post at a time like this?”

“Young Master. I have something to tell you.”

Looking at the butler who spoke with a serious expression, Lyle sighed and headed toward a chair on one side. The butler, who approached and sat on the opposite side, said something unexpected.

“I have just returned from meeting someone who used to work here and was fired. Regarding that… unsavory incident from a while ago.”

“What did you say?”

Lyle frowned at the sudden statement. The elderly gentleman, unbothered by that reaction, took a breath while drinking the tea handed to him by another servant. As if he had returned in a hurry.

“I am telling you in advance, but I acted as if I were dissatisfied with the mansion’s affairs because I wanted to feel out their inner thoughts. Please understand.”

“…Just speak. Even if you get sued for that, I will settle everything, so hurry.”

Having intuitively noticed that the man had gone to ask about Haejin’s condition, he urged for an answer. The elderly gentleman, who smiled warmly upon seeing that honest side of him, suddenly hardened his face.

“…That fellow James really did… something irreversible.”

“…”

Lyle merely stared at him as he lamented, calling the former butler’s name like a monologue. The elderly gentleman, who gave a bitter smile at the silent pressure, revealed the detailed events that had occurred, as if they were difficult to even put into words.

“I was told that until shortly before they were fired, they made sure to monitor Mr. Bright by his side until he finished all his food.”

The part about someone constantly watching—did it mean this?

It felt like being hit in the head. Lyle hadn’t expected that Haejin had been abused in this way, even if he knew the boy had just been skipping meals. The time “shortly before they were fired” was definitely when Lyle had started to care about the fact that Haejin was thin.

He had only told them to feed him well.

“In particular, the last meal they prepared was brought in by the former butler himself, and he reportedly forced him to eat it.”

The atrocities of the former butler, who tried to push Haejin before him as if bringing in livestock for breeding, came to mind. Only now could he realize exactly how the former butler had understood his orders.

Pressing down on his eyes without realizing it, Lyle leaned deep into his chair. There was no sign of a resolution, and only the wrongs committed in the past lay spread out like a spiderweb.

“I felt that I needed to look into it because Mr. Bright seemed too uncomfortable with me. It seemed there was a clear reason for that reaction. In particular, he didn’t seem to like my attire very much.”

Could it be that the very existence of a butler remained as a pain like a large nail for Haejin? Lyle, who had been looking at the butler in his black suit, straightened his posture again.

Now that he knew the cause, even in this way, he had to take measures immediately. He had already seen what happened when he postponed it once; it was enough now.