I Became a Villainous Character with a Limited Lifespan - Episode 131

Episode 131

‘I want to stay asleep like this.’

How long had it been? It was the first time Seung-hyun clearly thought of something.

He wanted to stay asleep like this. Too many things had happened. Now he just wanted to rest, no matter what.

He felt like he could open his eyes now, but Seung-hyun simply floated in his unconsciousness without moving a single finger. As he drifted for a long time, Seung-hyun flinched in surprise at the sensation of something touching his hand.

‘What is it…?’

Seung-hyun slowly opened his eyes. Only he was floating in a space with nothing. It was clearly empty, so what touched him? Seung-hyun looked around to figure out what had touched his hand.

‘…?’

Before long, Seung-hyun, who found the object that had touched his hand, blinked his eyes. What was this? A lump that was hard to define clearly was wriggling.

Should it be called slime that children play with? The way it rippled and slowly changed shape every moment felt a bit cute. When Seung-hyun carefully held out his palms together, the lump climbed onto his hands as if it had been waiting.

It was just a small lump without eyes, nose, or mouth, but why was his gaze drawn to it so much? Seung-hyun stared intently at the lump wriggling on his palm.

‘Do you like me?’

As if understanding, the lump rippled greatly. Seung-hyun carefully placed the lump on one hand and stroked it with the other.

‘How did you end up here?’

The lump pressed strongly against his palm as if not wanting to be separated from Seung-hyun. Did I just expect an answer from it? Seung-hyun laughed, finding it absurd himself.

‘I don’t know what you are, but… you must be really bored too. Being left alone with me in a space with nothing.’

Seung-hyun said, stroking the lump. The lump snuggled into Seung-hyun’s arms as if it was okay, flapping.

‘You must feel stuffy. Don’t you want to go out?’

The lump fluttered, pretending to fly. Did this mean it wanted to go out? Seung-hyun looked around.

It was a space that seemed narrow and infinitely vast at the same time. However, it was certain that there was no exit.

‘It doesn’t matter to me, but it seems like it really wants to go out…’

Seung-hyun hugged the lump tightly, feeling a bit sorry for it. Although it couldn’t be possible, it sounded like it was laughing.

‘You poor thing. You too.’

Seung-hyun smiled bitterly, feeling somehow touched. The lump didn’t seem to care and just fluttered around Seung-hyun.

***

“This is literally life-sustaining treatment. Rather than aiming for recovery… you should think of it as buying time to prepare yourself.”

“I know.”

Jae-young looked at Seung-hyun, who had entered the treatment capsule through the glass window. He clearly looked asleep, but he still couldn’t believe that those eyelids would never open again.

“I don’t know how much longer this treatment can keep the director going. Because right now there are many variables.”

“Is it that much of a mess?”

“It was originally like that, but now…”

Professor Kim, who was about to unconsciously talk about Seung-hyun’s condition, belatedly closed his mouth. There was nothing good that would come from saying it.

“…You’re hiding something from me.”

However, it was impossible to take back the words that had already slipped out. Professor Kim avoided his gaze, sweating profusely, but Jae-young didn’t seem to back down easily.

“It would be better not to know. This isn’t a problem that can be solved either…”

“Can it get any worse than the current situation?”

Jae-young spoke self-deprecatingly. Could it get any worse than now? Seung-hyun had already been declared unable to wake up, and he was barely breathing only due to Jae-young’s selfishness.

Even that faint breath would eventually cease around the time the seasons changed. So how could it get any worse than this?

“…Were you Director Han’s lover?”

Professor Kim asked after a brief deliberation. It would be strange if he wasn’t, but it wasn’t a light matter to talk about without confirming.

“…Was I? It would have been nice if I was.”

“…”

“We spent a lot of time together, but I never heard Seung-hyun call me his lover, so maybe we were nothing.”

It was an ambiguous answer, but Jae-young, who said those words, looked so miserable. Professor Kim looked at Jae-young, who was biting his lips with his gaze fixed on Seung-hyun, and said,

“…It might be better not to know. Do you really need to hear it?”

“I’m tired of doing meaningless things without knowing. Even if there’s nothing I can do… I don’t want to be frustrated not knowing about Seung-hyun until the end.”

Jae-young said firmly. It didn’t seem like it could get any worse than this, and even if it did, it didn’t matter. Professor Kim looked at Jae-young and sighed.

“I roughly told you, but Seung-hyun’s physical condition is not normal. That’s because of his broken pheromone gland and the organs that were affected in a complex way… but what’s hard to deal with.”

Professor Kim hesitated, wondering if it was right to talk about this fact. Even if it was expected, it couldn’t help but be a shock to the person involved.

He shouldn’t have made a slip of the tongue. Professor Kim made a troubled face. However, now that he was caught hiding something, there was no way to run away.

“An alpha’s pregnancy can have unknown side effects even on a healthy body, but in Director Han’s case, he couldn’t help but be affected more.”

“…?”

Jae-young frowned, not understanding those words. An alpha’s pregnancy, what was he talking about?

“What are you saying?”

“…There is a child in Director Han’s belly. You probably roughly know about alpha pregnancies… but it’s a strain even on a healthy person’s body. We couldn’t remove the child either because we didn’t know what variables it would cause, so we left it as it was.”

“What…”

Even after a long explanation, he couldn’t understand what it meant. Was it a dream? No. Wasn’t it too absurd? Jae-young listened to Professor Kim’s words blankly, then remembered something and froze.

‘…That time.’

The day it snowed a lot. He recalled following Seung-hyun’s words, finding it difficult to maintain his sanity himself, when Seung-hyun said if he wasn’t going to get pregnant anyway, was a condom really necessary?

“…How long has it been?”

“It’s difficult to judge visually. We’ve never diagnosed the child, and even now the child has barely grown, so it’s even more so…”

“No, never mind. When did you find out? At least tell me that. Was it this year?”

Jae-young asked urgently. He thought it would be fine. The possibility of an alpha pregnancy was so low that it was ridiculous to even mention it.

So he didn’t think deeply about it and even forgot that such a thing had happened. Jae-young’s face turned pale.

‘The fact that I couldn’t feel the pheromones strangely at that time, and that it felt different from usual…’

It wasn’t simply because of the atmosphere, but because the pheromone gland was already broken. Jae-young recalled the pheromones that were so bizarre they couldn’t be distinguished as an alpha’s or omega’s on the day Seung-hyun collapsed.

‘There were already signs. I…’

“Yes. It’s difficult to be certain of the weeks since we didn’t properly diagnose it… but it definitely hasn’t been over half a year.”

It was that day. It couldn’t be any other day. Jae-young staggered for a moment.

“Are you okay?”

“…”

Happy memories instantly turned into painful ones to recall. The enjoyable things that happened on the trip were stained with self-reproach that he shouldn’t have done it.

“That’s not the cause. From the first diagnosis, the director was told it would be difficult to last more than a year, and this…”

“At least it means I did shorten Seung-hyun’s time.”

Jae-young laughed hollowly. Professor Kim hesitated and said,

“We can’t be certain. It was that one year was the maximum, so it wouldn’t be strange for his condition to worsen at any time. Even if this hadn’t happened, the variables…”

“I’ll see you again tomorrow.”

Jae-young turned around, staggering before Professor Kim finished speaking. If he didn’t know, that was one thing, but knowing and hearing it was too painful.

“…Did Seung-hyun know?”

“It could have been more dangerous to give him a big shock, and even if he knew, there was no suitable method, so I didn’t tell him.”

That’s fortunate, Jae-young thought and asked again.

“Is there anyone else who knows?”

“At the time, Secretary Lee was Director Han’s guardian… so I told him. There’s no one else. But if the family members ask for an accurate report on his condition, it will be difficult to hide it until the end.”

“…I see. I’ll get going for today.”

It was hard to look at Seung-hyun. Jae-young staggered down the corridor and returned to his car.

“…”

The car with the engine off stayed in that spot for a long time. Only after the sky had turned completely dark and the street lights came on could Jae-young grab the steering wheel.