ANTITOXIN Chapter 28

Trailing off his words, the man rubbed his chin and next moment turned back to his subordinates to order.

“This time, escort him politely.”

The subordinates nodded their heads simultaneously and answered, “Yes.”

Once again, the man looked at Seolwon. And with a smile in his eyes, he said.

“Sleep well. Let’s finish the blind date tomorrow.”

Sleep well?

Could it be…

Just as Seolwon sensed an ominous aura, the man stepped backward. Seolwon’s gaze, which followed his movement, soon landed on Executive Director Hwang’s face. To be precise, it was the upside-down face attached like a Siamese twin. Even though he wasn’t shot, it did not disappear. On the contrary, the complexion, which had turned even paler than before, seemed to tell of his future of becoming a corpse.

Meanwhile, one of the subordinates who had packed something stepped up and stood in front of Seolwon. It was the subordinate who had been standing on the man’s right. Seolwon, who had foretold Executive Director Hwang’s death, lifted a terrified gaze. As if it had been waiting, a blunt voice fell.

“It will sting a bit.”

No sooner had the warning ended than a stinging pain was truly felt in his neck. It was a pain familiar to Seolwon.

The drug that infiltrated his body rapidly brought down his consciousness.

Right before his eyes went pitch black, Seolwon heard it.

― Haha, finally…!

The exclamation of a wandering spirit possessing a peculiar feeling…

Faintly, his consciousness surfaces. It felt like struggling to swim out from within a deep fog. Unlike his consciousness attempting to ascend, his heavy eyelids only kept trying to sink back down. It took a long while until he lifted them completely.

Through a blurry vision, an unfamiliar ceiling entered. Soft ivory-colored wallpaper, a modern-styled light… It was different from the ceiling he always saw. Even with a dull consciousness, he could tell. That it was an unfamiliar shape.

Seolwon slowly drew in a breath. The air rushing into his nose was crisp without any moisture. This air was just as unfamiliar all the same.

Before long, a question naturally arose. The one of, where is this.

He tried to raise his body to check, but it didn’t work. His limbs were duller than ever before. He felt a mood where he just wanted to keep lying down.

It wasn’t merely because of the cozy blanket wrapping around his body. It was also because of a crisp energy he had never felt before. An energy like sunshine, devoid of any impurities, surged as if caressing his body.

Intoxicated by the energy, he only blinked his eyes for a long while. Then, step by step, he groped through his memory. Regrettably, nothing came to mind in his head, which had turned hazy like his vision. Surely something major had happened before he lost consciousness… His brain, steeped in sleepiness, seemed to refuse thought. Even in the midst of that, he could know this much instinctively. That this place was neither a place familiar to him nor a place that suited him.

The point when his brain began to function properly was from when he sensed a human presence. The noise faintly leaking in from the outside lit up his consciousness like a switch. The space was unfamiliar, and now even a human presence. A sense of wariness squirmed.

Groaning out an, ugh, Seolwon barely raised his upper body.

However,

“Ack!”

It hurts. Everywhere in his body hurt. In particular, the pain around his nape and waist was beyond description.

Why does it hurt so much?

Could it be because of the shamanic illness. It was just when he was about to doubt it out of habit. Within his head, which had grown clear as if the fog had lifted in a short interval, the cause came to mind.

“Ah…”

It wasn’t because of the shamanic illness. It was because of the traffic accident.

Right, such a thing had happened.

And…

‘Sleep well. Let’s finish the blind date tomorrow.’

The words he heard before losing consciousness came to mind. That flashy face possessing a light playfulness and a heavy sense of intimidation simultaneously, came to mind as well.

Seolwon, touching his forehead, looked all around his surroundings. A large bed and a wall-mounted TV, a dark walnut-colored solid wood shelf and a one-person sofa, down to a subtly wafting fragrance… The interior was exceedingly neat without a single place out of order. Because of that, it rather didn’t feel like a place where a person lived.

By the way, what time is it?

Once he grasped the space, a question about the time naturally arose. Seolwon rolled his eyes to look for his phone. However, it wasn’t visible. He thought he had put it in his coat pocket, but the coat itself was missing. Then he suddenly realized. That the texture of the clothes he was wearing right now was also unfamiliar.

Lifting the blanket, he checked the clothes he was wearing. Some pajamas with a striped pattern were put on him. He had absolutely no memory of changing…

“…What is it?”

The more he perceived the current situation, the deeper his anxiety grew. There would be people who accept unfamiliarity positively, but there was bound to be people who accept it negatively. Seolwon was clearly the latter. Be it a neat interior, crisp air, or clean clothes, from the moment he perceived that it was unfamiliar, all of that approached as stress.

Before long, he laboriously stepped down beneath the bed. Every time he moved, his joints creaked and let out a scream. When he finally arrived in front of the door even if with slow steps, tears even pricked his eyes. It was because the aftereffects of the accident he suffered last night remained tenaciously.

Although it wasn’t that far from the bed to the door, it was only after taking a long while that he barely went outside. As soon as he went out, what he confronted was a wide living room drenched fully in sunshine. Filled with an energy crisper than in the bedroom, it was just like a lake upon which the morning sunshine was cast.

At a crispness to the point of making him even forget his anxiety disorder, he inadvertently took a deep breath in and out.

Right then, from beyond the wide living room, a voice familiar to his ears was heard.

“Uh? You’re awake.”

Seolwon inadvertently threw his gaze in the direction of the sound. The one who stepped into his shifted vision was none other than that man from yesterday. The real arms broker.

“Hi, hi.”

Dressed in light training wear, he waved his hand and greeted him. Judging by how he had a towel slung around his neck and was holding a pet bottle of an ionic drink in one hand, it appeared he had been exercising.

At the sudden encounter, Seolwon could not even offer a greeting and hesitated. Unless he had forgotten yesterday’s events, as long as he remembered them vividly, there was no way the present face-to-face meeting would be welcome.

Soon, the man who had been standing on the opposite side approached without hesitation. It was a headlong approach without a shred of hesitation. Seolwon stepped backward reflexively. Despite a reaction that laid bare his wariness and rejection starkly, the opponent did not care at all.

Having stubbornly approached near him, he perched on the backrest of the sofa and locked eyes with Seolwon. Then, he stares intently at Seolwon’s face for a brief while. At the gaze that stared at him flawlessly, Seolwon, at a loss for what to do, cast his eyes down. On top of still being unfamiliar, his inner thoughts were difficult to read and he was unpredictable, so he was a fearsome opponent. The gaze of such an opponent gave an uncomfortable impression no less than physical contact.

Fortunately, the silence harboring a subtle tension did not last long.

“Did you sleep well? To my eyes, it looked like you were sleeping well. You were sleeping so well that it was to the point of being confusing whether you were dead.”

Come to think of it… he really did sleep well. It had been a long time since he slept soundly without even dreaming. It was a rare occurrence for Seolwon. It was probably because of the injection medicine he received right before he fainted.

“Ah, yes. I… slept well.”

“That’s a relief. Your body? No place hurts? For now, I’ve sutured your forehead.”

Tap, tap, he pointed at his forehead with his finger. Seolwon, who inadvertently raised his hand following him and caressed his forehead, only then perceived the adhesive bandage that was attached. It was a region on the upper part of his forehead, close to the hairline. If he sutured it, it meant he stitched it with a needle, but he hadn’t known at all. It was because that side had no feeling. Now that he knew, it feels like it’s throbbing a bit only now.

“It doesn’t seem like a scar will remain, but let me know if it bothers you by any chance. Because I’ll give you a definitive after-sales service.”

“No. It’s fine.”

In truth, only his head was fine; below his neck, it hurt to the point where tears would prick his eyes if he let his guard down. However, for fear that he would drag him to a hospital under the pretext of giving after-sales service or whatever if he said it hurt, he glossed over it roughly. Since one of the places he loathed most in the world was precisely a hospital.

“I thought you would groan out because it hurts, but it’s unexpected. Are you the sturdy type, more so than you look?”

No. Regrettably, just as he looked, Seolwon was close to a weakling. It was merely that he endured ordinary pain well and did not make it obvious even when it hurt. It was the same right now. It didn’t mean he was perfectly fine, but that he was pretending to be perfectly fine. If this had been his own house, he wouldn’t have even made an attempt to get up from the bed.