Chapter 3

The word “injury,” which Jeong Iwon had once casually skimmed over as nothing more than a line of text in a web novel, was far more serious in reality.

The skin had been torn open deeply enough to expose the raw red flesh beneath, while the surrounding skin was grotesquely swollen and had turned a dark purplish color. Blood continued to seep out in sluggish pulses, and judging by how abnormally swollen the entire hand was, there was no doubt that the bones had been damaged as well.

Fuck, this isn’t something I can fix with a Band-Aid! This isn’t a wound I can just scrub with antiseptic!

Jeong Iwon shut the first-aid kit with a pale face. He had about as much medical knowledge as a speck of dirt, and if he recklessly tried to treat the wound himself, he might actually leave the man with irreversible complications.

“You. Get up right now. You absolutely have to go to the hospital.”

“……I said I’m not going.”

At least he’d come to his senses enough to stop speaking informally, but Jeong Iwon had no intention of accommodating him. He was too irritated to bother with formal speech himself.

“Shut up! This isn’t something you get to decide. Get up. Now!”

Jeong Iwon once again forcibly shoved against Yoon Mujin’s broad back as he tried to resist, managing to get him upright.

Then, supporting the enormous man, he hurried toward the village hall.

Their destination was the home of Grandpa Chilseong, the only person in the village who owned an old Porter truck.

“Grandpa! Grandpa Chilseong! Please, come save someone!”

Jeong Iwon pounded hard on the gate.

Grandpa Chilseong, who had been taking an afternoon nap, came rushing out in alarm.

The moment he saw Mujin’s blood-covered hand, the old man went pale as well and immediately started the engine of the old blue truck parked in his yard.

“My goodness! What in the world happened?! Hurry up and get in! If we put our foot down, we’ll be at the town hospital in no time!”

“Thank you, Grandpa! Hey, you, get in the passenger seat!”

Jeong Iwon practically shoved Mujin into the passenger seat before quickly turning toward the truck bed himself.

“Grandpa, I’ll ride in the back! Let’s go!”

It was uncomfortable enough to cram three grown men into the narrow front of the truck.

More importantly, this was a deeply ingrained defense mechanism born from the desire to avoid being trapped in a cramped space while pressed against that dangerous, beastlike Alpha.

However, before Jeong Iwon could even put a foot into the truck bed, Grandpa Chilseong’s thunderous voice rang out.

“Hey! Are you crazy? You’re going to ride in the truck bed when you’re a person?! That’s illegal, you hear me? Illegal! There’s plenty of room up front, so hurry up and squeeze into the middle!”

“What?! No, that’s not it. It’s just that the three of us with that huge guy would be too cramped…!”

Besides, isn’t it illegal to have three people in the front seat too?

“Quit your whining and get in! Can’t you see the man’s hand is practically falling off?!”

In the end, overwhelmed by the old man’s fierce scolding, Jeong Iwon had no choice but to squeeze himself awkwardly into the cramped auxiliary seat between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.

Rattle—!

The old truck roared to life and began bouncing along the poorly paved country road.

“……”

“……”

A suffocating silence filled the vehicle.

Grandpa Chilseong remained silent as he concentrated on driving, while only a taut tension lingered between Jeong Iwon and Yoon Mujin.

Because of the cramped space, their shoulders and thighs kept brushing against each other whenever the truck jolted.

Through Jeong Iwon’s thin T-shirt, he could feel the hot, solid body heat of Mujin’s muscular, well-trained body.

As the heat inside the vehicle rose, the cool scent of earth pouring from Mujin’s body filled the cramped interior.

As though stimulated by the gloomy pheromones, sweet, soft white-peach pheromones began leaking from Jeong Iwon’s body as a defensive response.

The damp, muddy scent of earth after rain and the sweet fragrance of peaches warmed by brilliant sunlight.

Two completely different pheromones that seemed as though they should never mix became strangely entangled inside the cramped truck.

Yoon Mujin sat rigidly, staring out the window, but his rough breathing had noticeably calmed compared to before.

The intensely unfamiliar yet gentle fragrance lingering at the tip of his nose wasn’t unpleasant.

Instead, it was somehow numbing the grief and pain that had been boiling violently inside him.

Yoon Mujin stole a glance at Jeong Iwon’s profile.

Iwon sat pressed tightly against him, staring stubbornly out the window.

For the first time in his life, Mujin found himself overwhelmed by a strange sense of relief and confusion.

How much time had passed?

The old truck finally came to a stop in front of the emergency room of the town’s only general hospital with a loud screech of brakes.

“We’re here! Hurry up and get inside!”

At Grandpa Chilseong’s shout, Jeong Iwon hurriedly opened the door and pulled Yoon Mujin out.

The moment the blood-covered giant entered the emergency room, the medical staff were startled and rushed over.

The doctor on duty quickly examined the wound, then furrowed his brow deeply.

“My goodness, that’s a deep laceration! You’re bleeding this much—what have you been doing all this time?! Get him into the treatment room immediately and stitch that wound! The ligament is badly stretched as well, and judging by how swollen it is, there may be a fracture in the hand bones too. Get the patient in there!”

Despite the doctor’s urgent instructions, there wasn’t the slightest flicker of emotion on Yoon Mujin’s face.

Instead, he roughly pushed away the nurses trying to lead him into the treatment room as though they were nothing but an annoyance.

“There’s no need. I’m not getting a cast.”

“Sir! Are you in your right mind?! The wound is wide open and you’re bleeding everywhere! If you leave the bones misaligned like this, you may never be able to properly make a fist again!”

“It won’t matter. I have no reason to make a fist anymore. Whether my hand becomes useless or not is none of your concern, so leave me alone!”

There wasn’t even the slightest trace of attachment in Mujin’s eyes.

A hand that could no longer box.

A hand that could no longer embrace his first love.

If that was the case, perhaps he thought letting it become mangled and completely useless was a fitting punishment—one that might at least lessen the hellish emotional agony he was experiencing.

“I said I don’t need it, so all of you just get the hell out!”

Yoon Mujin growled like a beast that had completely given up as he turned toward the emergency room exit.

And then—

From behind Mujin’s enormous back, Jeong Iwon, who had been pale with shock only moments earlier, strode toward him.

He took a long, deep breath.

Then he mercilessly raised his hand toward the back of Mujin’s bird’s-nest-like head.

SMACK—!

A clear, crisp sound rang through the emergency room.

“……!”

The doctor, the nurses, the patients inside the emergency room, and even Yoon Mujin, who had just been struck directly on the back of the head, all froze like statues.

Mujin clutched his stinging head and turned around in disbelief.

Jeong Iwon stood there with his arms firmly crossed, glaring fiercely up at him from considerably below his eye level.

“Are you seriously an idiot? You’re huge, but is your head filled with nothing but udon noodles?! I hit you in the forehead and you still didn’t come to your senses. Damn, smacking the back of your head feels surprisingly satisfying!”

“You! You’ve been doing this since earlier—!”

“What?! Want another one? I don’t give a damn what tragic sob story you’ve got or why you’re making that face like some old man who’s already lived out his entire life! But I absolutely cannot stand by and watch a perfectly healthy person’s hand become permanently useless right in front of me! So stop arguing and listen to the doctor!”

Jeong Iwon’s face flushed bright red as he unleashed his fury like a machine gun.

Then, while the nurses stood frozen in confusion, he began fiercely shoving Mujin’s broad back forward.

“Get in! Get in there right now, get your wound stitched up, get a cast, and come back out! If you don’t go in, I’ll tie you up with a rope, throw you into the truck bed, drag you all the way to Seoul, and dump you there!”

It was a bizarre sight.

A gigantic man standing over 190 centimeters tall was awkwardly stumbling backward under the hands and furious scolding of someone much smaller than him.

“Ah, stop pushing! Fine! I said I understand, so stop pushing!”

Confusion and absurdity mingled with the intensely sweet peach fragrance that kept invading his senses.

Mujin’s mind was becoming hazy.

In the end, he slowly walked into the treatment room under his own power.

Even until the final moment before the treatment room door closed, Mujin’s gaze remained helplessly fixed on Jeong Iwon’s face as he continued scolding him and pointing angrily.

Somewhere in a corner of his parched heart, a tiny but distinct ripple appeared.

How much time passed?

After a long, tedious, and anxious wait, the tightly closed treatment room door finally opened.

Yoon Mujin emerged.

His badly torn and mangled right hand was now firmly encased in a thick white full-arm cast and suspended from his neck.

The nurses had apparently wiped away most of the blood from his clothes and skin, because the sharp smell of disinfectant immediately reached Iwon’s nose.

But unlike his arm, which at least looked somewhat cleaner now, Mujin’s pale complexion and hollow, lifeless eyes remained unchanged.

His enormous physique looked completely at odds with his fragile, almost broken appearance.

Jeong Iwon had been sitting in a corridor chair outside the emergency room, nervously bouncing his leg.

The moment he saw Mujin emerge from the treatment room, their eyes met.

“……”

“……”

Once again, an awkward and heavy silence descended upon the emergency room corridor.

Whether he was ashamed that his miserable condition had been exposed or simply overwhelmed by the situation itself, Mujin avoided Iwon’s gaze and merely pressed his lips tightly together.