When Your Pain Becomes Mine

"Do you really want to get fired?"

"Do whatever you want. I don't care."

His eyes widened upon hearing Ojae's unexpected response.

"Hang up if you have nothing more to say. I may not answer your calls anymore since I'm busy."

Ojae spoke like a weak man who had lived all his life and tried to hang up the phone.

"Well, wait." Gyeonhui stopped Ojae quickly. "... Well." Gyeonhui struggled to speak many times.

"I fully sympathized with your pain… and... I'm thinking of you too, and I'll always be on your side."

It was choppy and sloppy, like reciting words that he had memorized.

"... What the hell are you talking about?"

"You said you need my comfort, so I'm comforting you now."

Gyeonhui felt so awkward and shouted, but he heard no response over the phone.

'... I've done something stupid.'

Gyeonhui closed his eyes, shaming his own behavior.

"I think you're angry at me, not comforting me."

"I'm done. Forget it."

Gyeonhui hung up on Ojae and threw the phone on the bed.

"Really!"

Unable to withstand the embarrassment, Gyeonhui screamed.

'Knock, Knock.' Then, with a sound of knocking at the door, Ojae entered.

"You've done something you've never done before, so I'll forgive you this time."

Ojae spoke with an expressionless face.

"What the hell is this? Were you already here?"

Gyeonhui looked at him, outraged, and asked.

"Why? If you don't like it, then I can just leave again." Oaje then turned around.

"S, stop!"

Ojae looked back at Gyeonhui's urgent voice.

"I'll just let it pass this time. If you repeat this sort of behavior, then I will never look for you again..."

Oaje laughed as he watched Gyeonhui, who was still being grumpy at him.

"Hah." Gyeonhui turned his head, outraged. He exhaled a sigh quietly and showed a slight sense of relief in his face.

"Well, what happened at the hospital?" Ojae asked as if nothing had happened between them.

"I don't know. I couldn't find the cause; I just checked." He responded as usual.

"What does that mean?"

"If it's just the aftereffects of the accident, then it makes sense if my head or my body hurts, but it's so strange that I could feel her pain. They've asked me if there's any kind of passageway, but I have no idea what the hell that is." Gyeonhui scowled.

"How about her, does she not know yet?"

He nodded instead of answering.

"Hmm… the passageway..."

Ojae thought seriously as if it were his own problem.

"The aftereffect of the accident is obvious, in my opinion."

He remembered the accident about half a year ago.

The strange pain obviously started after that accident.

"What the hell is the cause?"

As Ojae struggled, he shook his head, for he could only wrack his head till it hurt.

"Think about it, what happened to me exactly on the day of the accident?"

Gyeonhui, who was now frustrated, yelled at Ojae.

"If it happened the day after the accident, then that's when Sun took you to the hospital. She gave you some of her blood, and she left as soon as I arrived at the hospital. That could be it. "

"Wait, wait. A blood transfusion?"

"Yes."

"... That's it."

He couldn't keep his mouth shut as if he had realized something.

"What?"

"Blood transfusion...."

"Blood transfusion?"

"Yes, I got a blood transfusion from her."

"No way...." Ojae, understanding Gyeonhui's thoughts in hindsight, stuttered.

"Yes. It was the blood transfusion, the blood transfusion. That's the link. That was the connection."

He repeated the same thing again and again with a shocked look on his face.

When Sun returned to her office, she plunked down in a chair, exhausted.

"Why did it take so long? Did he mess with you again?"

Eunyoung asked, not knowing that she had gone to the hospital.

"No. The briefing went well, and we decided to go ahead next weekend as scheduled."

"... I'm glad. You've done a great job."

"No problem," Sun responded with a halfhearted smile.

"But what's wrong? Did Mr. Woo bother you again?"

"... No, he didn't. I'm just tired." Sun responded with a smile.

"Oh, that's right. You're just getting started on your period." Eunyoung said, confirming the date on the calendar.

'It's so bad that everyone around you knows.'

At one point, she remembered what he had said.

"... Eunyoung."

"Yes?"

"Don't worry about me. I can take care of it."

"I know, but I have a right to worry about you, you know."

With Eunyoung's words, Sun smiled bitterly.

"How was the pet fair?"

Eunyoung asked with a curious expression.

"Oh? Well, it was fun."

"Why are you skipping over everything? Tell me all the details?"

Ari, who was beside her, smiled and asked again.

"Well... It was a lot of fun."

"What the hell…." Ari pouted her lips.

"Did you not buy anything there?" Upon hearing Eunyoung's question, Sun remembered that Eunwoo was holding her bag for her.

"Oh, that's right! Hey Eunyoung, I have to go home first today."

"Why so sudden?"

"I left my bag to Dr. Park."

When she hurried out, she noticed that the event items were piled up on one side of the office.

"Hey Eunyoung, would you be able to stock all of those doc.u.ments in your car?"

It wasn't a massive amount of paperwork since it was mostly school supplies, but it was too much to load them all in a small car.

"Yes, that's a problem. I'm thinking about renting a minivan." Eunyoung nodded.

"Why don't we ask Dr. Park then?" Ari intervened.

"What?"

"I saw Sun leaving. They rode a big van. It's his car, right?"

"Huh? Yes…" Sun nodded upon hearing Ari's question.

Eunyoung exchanged glances with Ari and said, "Do you think we can borrow his car?"

"How could we use Dr. Park as a driver?" She said as if they were saying something ridiculous.

"No, we don't just use him. I'll have to pay to rent a car anyway, so I'll just buy us a delicious meal with that money. What do you think?"

As Ari jumped into the conversation, Eunyoung nodded as if she were on the same team.

"Will you be seeing him now? Why don't you ask him?"

On Eunyoung's words, Sun became embarrassed.

"... I don't know. I'll go first." Sun tried to leave the office with her bag on her shoulder.

"Oh, hey Sun, what about that?"

Ari quickly called her and pointed at Sun's desk.

She turned her head and noticed the bag that Gyeonhui had left behind.

A bag that was full of chocolates and various sweets.

"... Just leave it there."

After a moment of contemplation, Sun turned her head and left the office.

***

"Hmm. Because of a blood transfusion, it might be possible."

In the late evening at Dr. Seo's office, the doctor nodded after he listened to Gyonhui.

"I'm sure; otherwise, it can't be explained. Well, it still doesn't make sense."

As if he didn't like his own senseless words, Gyeonhui scowled.

"Luckily, we still have both of your blood samples, so let's do a test. I'll contact you as soon as I get some findings."

"Thank you very much, and make sure that this matter remains confidential. Got it?" Ojae lowered his voice.

"You don't have to worry about it. As a doctor, I have a duty of confidentiality." Dr. Seo said while winking as if he believed it himself.

"Thank you."

Ojae confirmed everything in detail and left the office with Gyeonhui.

"If they do a blood test, then at least we'll get something conclusive. Don't worry too much."

Upon hearing Ojae's words, Gyeonhui felt a little relaxed.

"... Is this what you call 'comforting'?"

"Sure. This is comforting. What you did was just memorizing a few lines."

"... I still don't know what the difference is. It's hard to understand."

He shook his head while scowling.

"It isn't so bad. We'll do it one step at a time."

Ojae smiled and clenched his fists before showing it to him.

He laughed in an outraged manner.

"Oh, what happened to the orphanage campaign?" Ojae asked since he didn't attend or hear anything about it.

"We decided to proceed as planned."

"That's great. This time... Do you want to go to the event?"

When Ojae asked this question to him carefully, he shook his head slowly.

"I don't like it, and I don't feel good there."

"The nun will be so happy to see you after such a long time."

"Say hello to her for me."

"... I will." Ojae reluctantly nodded.

It was difficult for Ojae to talk more because of Gyeonhui's hardened expression.