Chapter 4. Don’t Get Cocky
Honestly, she was scared. The fiercely gleaming eyes and the savage aura that scattered through the silence weighed down on her endlessly.
Lost in many thoughts, she crossed the garden.
As Haeyoung lightly walked toward the front entrance, a long shadow suddenly fell over her from behind.
“Mm—!”
The moment her mouth was covered, the metallic, nauseating smell of blood stabbed into her nose. A suppressed voice pressed in from behind her back.
“If you go into my room, there’s a drawer under the wall shelf. There’s a box with a red handle inside it. Bring that down.”
Even without turning around, she knew exactly whose voice it was.
It was Taejun’s voice.
The hand covering her face was cold. Her heart pounded violently against her ribs.
He let out short, rough breaths as if he was struggling to breathe, and Haeyoung felt those trembling breaths push her deeper into confusion.
“You heard me, right?”
Terrified, Haeyoung nodded vigorously.
Without even looking back, she hurried inside. When she caught sight of herself in the mirror near the entrance, she gasped in shock.
Her face was covered in blood.
The blood from Taejun’s hand that had been holding her face.
Even while startled, Haeyoung suppressed her fear and ran up to the second floor.
As she found the box with the red handle just as he had told her and pulled it out, her hands trembled slightly.
In her ears, the pounding of her own heartbeat rang loudly as if it were echoing inside her skull.
Fear. Yes, it was fear.
As she wiped the blood on her fingertips against her skirt, tears began to spill out on their own. Hastily wiping them away, Haeyoung ran back toward the entrance.
The moment Taejun saw her appear, he grabbed her hand and dragged her down to the basement connected to the outside.
In the dark and damp space, drops of blood fell onto the cement floor.
Haeyoung’s forehead quickly beaded with sweat.
“…A-are you hurt? Where? How bad is it?”
It was a question she barely managed to force out.
But Taejun ignored it.
“Come here and do this.”
He removed his hand that had been pressing tightly against his abdomen and took off his shirt.
Without even thinking that he looked frightening, covered in blood, Haeyoung quickly stepped closer and checked his condition.
Taejun didn’t respond to her words. He simply took off his shirt and revealed the wound.
A long slash stretched across his abdomen, as if it had been cut by a knife. Blood slowly seeped out from the wound.
Haeyoung couldn’t turn her eyes away.
The wound was far deeper than she had vaguely expected.
Because of that, fear and pity mixed together, and she couldn’t continue speaking.
“Take out the powdered medicine and bandage inside.”
At Taejun’s short and firm voice, Haeyoung opened the box with trembling hands and took out the medicine and bandages.
But his movements were rough and impatient.
Taejun snatched the powdered hemostatic medicine and began roughly sprinkling it onto the wound.
Haeyoung gasped and reached out her hand.
“Wait, I’ll do it, I’ll—”
But the look in Taejun’s eyes froze her in place.
His cold, sharp gaze seemed to pin her exactly where she stood.
Even more clearly than the blood, the pain was visible in his eyes.
She was frightened and confused, but strangely, she still wanted to help him.
As Taejun opened the box and took out the bandage, his hand trembled slightly.
Parts of the wound had already turned dark red where the blood had dried, while fresh blood spread in bright crimson. Haeyoung instinctively inhaled sharply.
“Just wrap the bandage.”
Taejun’s voice was heavy and rough, but the pain hidden within it was unmistakable. He gestured toward the rolled bandage.
Her fingertips trembled so much that she could barely hold it, but Haeyoung finally managed to unravel the bandage.
The moment she faced the wound directly, pity and questions tangled together in her heart.
Wiping away tears with one hand, she whispered,
“A-are you okay? Where did you get hurt?”
How badly he was hurt was obvious.
What she wanted to know was why and where he had been injured this severely.
What kind of situation could cause an ordinary college student to come back like this?
Normally, when people get hurt… they go to the hospital.
No matter how much Chairman Ki had once been a street thug from the bottom, he was now the respected chairman of a corporation.
And Taejun was the son he treasured most—his proud and intelligent son. Chairman Ki wanted to pass down the company he had built properly to him.
Chairman Ki often said that his lifelong wish was for his children’s hands to never be stained with blood.
And until now, that wish had been kept.
Until now.
Unable to swallow the sob filling her throat or let it out, Haeyoung could only tremble helplessly.
There was a reason Haeyoung feared blood so much.
The father she had believed to be an ordinary office worker had once come home drenched in blood one day.
Taejun snatched the bandage with his blood-soaked hand and muttered briefly,
“You talk too much.”
Even so, Haeyoung raised her trembling hands and helped him wrap the bandage.
Feeling the warmth of his body through her fingertips made her anxious, as if his temperature were slowly fading.
“This… this wound is too deep. You have to go to the hospital.”
“Shut up and wrap the bandage.”
Taejun’s tone was cold, but his face looked completely exhausted.
He seemed as fragile as a candle about to go out.
Seeing his pale, bloodless face, an even greater fear overwhelmed Haeyoung.
“Y-you might die.”
Everyone knows that losing too much blood can kill you.
She didn’t know where Taejun had been hurt or how long he had been exposed in this condition, but it was natural for her to worry.
Taejun grabbed Haeyoung’s hesitating hands and murmured quietly,
“Focus. Tie it tight so it doesn’t come loose.”
Caught by his cold hand and pulled closer to him, Haeyoung finally began wrapping the bandage around his bare upper body.
Up close, the wound was deeper than she had thought.
Even after placing gauze and wrapping the bandage once, twice, blood still soaked through.
“I don’t think we can just leave it like this. Let’s go to the hospital quickly.”
With tear-filled eyes, Haeyoung looked up at him and pleaded.
“That’s enough. You can go now.”
The moment she finished wrapping the bandage and pulled her hands away, Taejun stared at her for a long moment before letting out a short breath.
Even after hearing his words, Haeyoung couldn’t easily step away.
One thing was certain.
Taejun was hiding something.
“Where did you get hurt? …Did you fight with someone? Why? Are you a gangster too? You said you were a college student. What kind of student gets hurt like this?”
Haeyoung’s voice trembled.
Her questions poured out, filled with confusion and fear.
Taejun let out a sigh and closed his eyes briefly. The gaze he turned toward her was heavy and tired.
“Shut up and get out.”
That was the only answer she got from him.
But Haeyoung didn’t stop.
“At least you could explain something to the person who helped you. I-I’m scared. What if something happens because we just leave it like this…?”
She didn’t know how to accept the surreal situation unfolding before her, but she couldn’t just leave the injured Taejun alone.
“Do I have some obligation to explain every little detail to you?”
Taejun muttered quietly.
But beneath his cold and firm voice, there was a faint tremor.
Haeyoung reached her hand out toward him, then hesitated. Her hand stopped in midair.
“Can you walk? Can you make it to your room? You can’t just stay here. Y-your clothes too… What should I do? What do you want me to do?”
Taejun turned his head and looked at her.
His eyes had softened slightly, but there was still a solid wall between them.
“Haeyoung.”
He called her name in a low voice.
But the words that should have followed never came.
A brief silence passed.
“Just because you helped me a little… don’t get cocky like you’re something special.”
