Chapter 77 - Feeling Suffocated

Yiyoung stubbornly refused to look at him. “You’re probably laughing at me. You think I’m an idiot for getting stabbed, don’t you?”

“No, I didn’t think that way. But I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize if you don’t mean it!”

Muyeol inched closer, hovering above her as his arms rested next to her.

She became hyper aware of the heat of his body, and it startled her. She suddenly realized that Muyeol had been with her the entire time, even the moments she had no memory of. He had protected her from the nightmares despite getting scratched so harshly. He did not leave her unprotected.

Yiyoung sat up on the bed, and Muyeol adjusted himself accordingly, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder.

He stroked her back and muttered, “Sorry.”

Her eyes widened as the realization sunk into her. She finally understood why he had said all those things to her. He was the only person who had seen her at her weakest.

Yiyoung nestled further in his embrace. “I’ll forgive you just this one time.”

Muyeol rested his hand on her head, then slowly began to stroke her hair. Yiyoung frowned as sudden tears fell down her cheeks again. She wasn’t angry anymore. But she didn’t know why she was feeling so emotional either.  “You should be grateful that I’m such a nice person. If you’d said that to anyone else, you wouldn’t have been forgiven.”

“Okay,” he hummed.

His touch was so gentle and loving. She leaned into it, still crying as he patted her head.

* * *

Yiyoung continued to spend her days at the hospital since Muyeol didn’t let her be discharged.

“I feel suffocated,” she sighed. Any other patient would have been discharged by now, but Muyeol had stubbornly put Yiyoung in the most luxurious VIP room in the hospital instead.

And all the while, the two couldn’t reach an agreement about Yiyoung’s return to work. They often debated the topic, and she stayed resolute. Temporary retirement would slow down the progress of her career, after all. She didn’t want to waste an entire year not working.

Her argument would have made sense to Muyeol if it weren’t for the traumatic symptoms she was experiencing. He still hadn’t informed her of how serious her condition had been. He wanted to tell her after she recovered some more. She would be able to accept the news then.

Muyeol didn’t even lift his head. “Just think of it as a long vacation.”

“A vacation? Who works during vacation?”

“I do.” Muyeol didn’t go to the office now. He stayed by her side and worked from the recovery room. And once every day, Mr. Hong would stop by to see Muyeol.

“About Mr. Hong…” Yiyoung suddenly said.

“Yeah?”

“His face didn’t look well. The color of his face seemed darker, and his eyes seemed different. I wish I could see them up close.”

“Why are you diagnosing others? Just focus on recovering.”

His cold reply surprised Yiyoung. “Hey, he works for you. How can you say that?”

“Once you recover, he’ll automatically get better,” said Muyeol.

Yiyoung wasn’t wrong about Mr. Hong’s condition. The poor man was overstressed. So were all the people involved with the Istanbul project. And it was all because of Jaeho and Heesu.

The two were taking full advantage of Muyeol’s absence. They wanted to take all the credit after ‘leading’ the project to success, but from what Muyeol had heard, the meetings these days were filled with arguments.

“We’re worried that the project won’t work out…” Muyeol had been told after being informed of the number of new requests Istanbul had added after Jaeho handed out a blank cheque, promising to grant any request of theirs.

Because of that one decision, the employees now had to work extra hard to come up with a plan to ensure profits while not spending above the budget. They were already nervous about the situation, and Mr. Cha’s blatant support for Jaeho and Heesu only made the situation worse.

Muyeol would correct their awful plans and send out directions to his team, but Jaeho and Heesu would disregard it and come up with their own ideas instead. Things would become better if he just went to the office, but Muyeol stayed at the hospital.

Muyeol looked up at Yiyoung to find her reading a book, his neck sporting another new wound. Earlier this morning, a nurse had come in to check on Yiyoung’s condition. As she was checking Yiyoung’s blood pressure, she had accidentally bumped into the device hooked onto the bed, causing it to beep.

It wasn’t a loud sound; Yiyoung had barely heard it. But it still sent her into a seizure. She couldn’t breathe well, and had writhed about so violently that Muyeol had to hold her down. In her hypnotic struggle to survive, she had clung to Muyeol and put a deep scratch on his neck.

By now, most of the medical staff was aware of her trauma. Only Yiyoung was clueless because it only happened when she was unconscious, and Muyeol had requested the others to not disclose it to her. So Yiyoung had no idea that her trauma was affecting her daily life, and also that it was the reason why Muyeol didn’t want her to return to work. She would only be able to work after fully recovering from her trauma. Until then, unfortunately, she was stuck in the hospital.

Yiyoung closed her book. “Come here.”

“Why?” Muyeol asked.

“So I can look at your wound.”

Muyeol, who had explained the wound as a cut he got while shaving himself, said. “I told you to stop diagnosing others. Just relax and rest.”