I Became a Villainous Character with a Limited Lifespan - Episode 127

Episode 127

Sometimes happiness comes with a price. Seung-hyun was fine until he returned to the car, but on the way home, he felt exhausted. By the time he arrived home, he was overwhelmed with fatigue and barely managed to get ready for bed, half-leaning on Jae-young.

“You shouldn’t have…”

“I guess I got tired from being out for too long after such a long time. I’ll be fine after I get some sleep.”

Seung-hyun reassured the worried Jae-young. However, one knows their own body’s condition best. 

He felt a bit dizzy, and even after entering the house, he still felt cold. After lying down, his head seemed to get a bit hot too.

“After I sleep… I’ll be fine.”

Jae-young repeated what Seung-hyun had said to calm himself down. Rather than calming Jae-young, it was more like he was trying to reassure himself.

Tomorrow he had something he needed to say. For that, his condition didn’t need to be great, but he at least needed to be well enough to have a conversation.

‘Let’s sleep for now. After I sleep… maybe I’ll be fine.’

Even though he knew the chances were low, Seung-hyun pulled the blanket over himself at Jae-young’s insistence after repeating several times that he would be okay.

“I get it, so rest for now. Let’s talk tomorrow. I have some medicine I’m taking, so I’m not sure if I can take this. First, I’ll contact my doctor…”

Listening to Jae-young, Seung-hyun slowly closed his eyes, overwhelmed by drowsiness. He desperately prayed that he would at least be well enough to sit up tomorrow. But as always, God ignored Seung-hyun’s prayers.

***

“You went out yesterday. Last night was a bit colder than usual…”

Seung-hyun woke up to a familiar voice. The soft-spoken voice belonged to the new doctor introduced by Professor Kim.

“Regardless of going out, your condition seems to have worsened. You must have felt it yourself. Perhaps it was because you felt frustrated…”

He could hear the sound, but it wasn’t easy to open his eyes. He didn’t have the strength to lift his eyelids or move a single finger, so Seung-hyun had no choice but to lie still.

“Since you’re already taking medicine, rather than hastily adding new medicine… I’ll give you an IV for now, so please monitor his condition for a few days.”

“…”

“I understand your frustration, but right now, long outings are not possible.”

“I heard that Seung-hyun recommended walks.”

“I did recommend walks, but I meant short walks to get some sun nearby, not hours of walking around in the cold air. CEO Han must have understood it that way too.”

The doctor looked at Seung-hyun with slightly pitying eyes. He must have felt frustrated. There were often patients like this.

He understood the feelings of those who went out even though they knew what the consequences of a day out would be. It wasn’t comfortable to nag them since he couldn’t fully empathize.

Fortunately, the person who needed to hear the nagging was asleep now.

‘Moreover, unbeknownst to himself… with an alpha pregnant, there are too many variables to his condition.’

It was clear that the child in his belly was having a big impact on his rapidly deteriorating condition.

If he weren’t a patient who had already been given a terminal diagnosis and was barely receiving life-sustaining treatment, he would have done various tests, but there was a limit to what could be done since the patient himself had half-given up on treatment.

‘It’s better not to know about the child. He’s already having a hard time as it is.’

Perhaps it was because his appearance was so different from what he had heard. The doctor felt particularly sorry for Seung-hyun. After inserting the IV into Seung-hyun’s arm, the doctor got up.

“I’ll be staying around here for a while, so call me right away if anything happens.”

“…”

Jae-young sat in front of Seung-hyun’s bed and stared at him for a long time, forgetting to see the doctor out. There was no way Seung-hyun could have missed the meaning of the walk the doctor recommended.

He must have wanted to go out even if he had to lie. He understood that feeling, but he was angry. 

‘I should have opposed it after all. Instead of being distracted by his appearance and not doing anything, I should have brought him back, even if it was late.’

He was angry at Seung-hyun and himself. It wasn’t that he didn’t know he should have stopped him. He thought it would be okay just once because his heart softened at Seung-hyun’s request and smile.

It was painful to see the consequences of such a naive thought. If it were like usual, he would have only blamed himself, but perhaps because of the prolonged frustration, this time his anger was directed elsewhere.

“If I had known it would be like this, it would have been better to never hear you say you love me.”

If this was the price. Jae-young recited those words and left the room after looking at Seung-hyun. Despite the pain in his heart, Seung-hyun could only lie still without any reaction.

It was after falling asleep and waking up again that he regained enough strength to move. The IV fluid was almost gone.

“…”

As he struggled to sit up, he saw someone watching him through the door that had opened at some point. It was Jae-young.

It seemed he had come to check since it was time for the IV fluid to run out. As expected, a caregiver was standing next to him, looking uncomfortable.

“Then I’ll get going.”

In the cold atmosphere, the caregiver, who had been reading the room, removed the needle and left the room as soon as she finished cleaning up, as if running away. The two stared at each other for a long time without saying anything.

“…Did you want to go out that badly?”

Jae-young was the first to speak. His tone was calm but seemed angry.

“The doctor said. There’s no way you couldn’t have felt that you weren’t okay.”

“…”

“Even lying, you must have known… how I would feel.”

There was no way he could not have anticipated how painful it would be to see him unable to open his eyes after one wrong choice, to hear the doctor’s frustrated voice.

Jae-young asked again, holding back his anger.

“But did you still want to go out enough to not care?” 

“…I thought at most I would just be tired for a few days.”

“You knew there would be at least that much of an aftermath, didn’t you?”

Seung-hyun closed his mouth at Jae-young’s words. Yes, he knew that would happen. He had nothing to say even if it was called greed.

“…Didn’t you also keep being trapped in this house because of me? Rather than meaninglessly spending time…”

“Who said it was meaningless?”

Jae-young cut off Seung-hyun’s words. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what he might have been thinking. But he was upset that while Seung-hyun thought he couldn’t go out because of him, he couldn’t consider how Jae-young would be distressed by the thought that Seung-hyun’s condition worsened because of him.

For Jae-young, not being able to go out for a few months was incomparably less important than Seung-hyun’s health.

“…You just thought about yourself, didn’t you?”

Even though he knew that getting angry would change nothing and only hurt each other, he couldn’t think rationally, perhaps because of the prolonged frustration.

Even if he got a little hurt, even if it was frustrating. The heart that had endured, thinking it was okay as long as he could be by Seung-hyun’s side, began to crumble little by little.

“To you, you’re the most pitiful one. You pretend to think about how I feel, but you just wanted to feel better, didn’t you? Just one outing, some lackluster fireworks. What’s the big deal about that?”

What was so special about that, that he couldn’t even think of the obvious and take better care of him? He was angry at himself, but his sharp words were directed at Seung-hyun.

“Seeing that, did you think I would be happy? No, of course not. An event so shoddy it’s embarrassing to even call it fireworks, a path that’s nothing special, just a place to occasionally take a walk. What’s so great about an outing like that?”

Even though Jae-young definitely felt happiness in that moment too, he got angry as if he never had. They were words he would regret as soon as he turned around, but he couldn’t think of anything else at the moment.

“You just thought about yourself. Don’t say you did it because of me.”

“…”

This seems to be the first time he’s gotten this angry. It must not just be because of one day, but an outburst of everything that had built up. Seung-hyun bowed his head, his heart aching.

‘…It’s because of me.’

Because I was greedy. To someone who could have lived his whole life not knowing this feeling. With various thoughts, tears welled up. Seung-hyun tried hard not to show those tears and barely spoke.

“…I’m sorry.”

The greed to make just one day, just one day of happy memories seemed to have created the worst memories for both of them, and he felt uneasy.

The feeling of something hot welling up as his insides burned must be because of that. Seung-hyun thought so and gripped the blanket.