Chapter 9: In the Hospital Room(1)

-I bled too much.

That was the last thing I thought. I had no memory after that. Maybe, Ye-jin took care of everything.

If she had failed, I would have already died, so the mere fact that I am alive means that Ye-jin

succeeded in escaping, which I could easily deduce.

‘Anyway, where is this?’

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling. Realizing that this was only

the second time I had seen an unfamiliar ceiling recently, I got up from my seat.

White walls and the smell of disinfectant unique to hospitals. It seemed that I had succeeded in

escaping and was taken to the hospital.

Even though the place I was hit was throbbing, there was nothing particularly painful. Instead, my

body creaked as if it was moving for the first time in a long time. It felt like all my joints had become

rusty machines.

“You’re awake, oppa.”

The door of the room opened, and Ye-jin walked in.

“Oh, you’re here?”

Awkward greetings, and a natural silence followed. Unable to bear the awkward atmosphere, we

only stared at the innocent floor tiles.

“Ahem, oppa. Do you know how long it’s been since you collapsed?”

“No. I just woke up and haven’t checked the time. I can’t see where my smartphone is either…”

“U, use this smartphone! I mean, I found the one you used to use, but it was broken by the impact

when we escaped. It wasn’t to the point where it could be fixed, so…I threw it away.”

“Really? Then there’s nothing I can do.”

There was still a long time left in the contract period, but I didn’t want to argue about that in a

situation where I should be grateful just for saving my life. There were no particularly important

files or documents either…

‘Ah, one phone game account must have been blown away.’

There was one game I was playing with a guest account, but with the phone gone, I couldn’t play

that game anymore. As it was a game I had been playing with some affection, I felt a little down. Ye-

jin noticed my expression and grabbed my hand, asking.

“Th, oppa, did you have any important files or anything like that?”

“No, I didn’t. Why are you asking? You can’t undo what’s broken anyway…”

“No, it’s not that. I was just wondering…”

It was a bit suspicious, but I knew that she wasn’t the type of person to hide something from me, so I

just brushed it off.

“So, how many days have passed since I lost consciousness?”

“A week.”

“That’s within the expected range.”

A week. I knew my body condition very well. After using Breath, it would have taken quite a long

time for my body, which had become completely worn out, to recover to the point where I had no

difficulty moving. I thought it would take as long as a month, but the fact that I had been asleep for

about a week was relatively good.

After that, the typical well-being questions between acquaintances who had met after a long time

came and went.

How I had been doing since becoming a user, why I hadn’t been in contact, how the game friends we

knew privately were doing, etc…

At the time of our first and last meeting in reality, we were not on good terms. However, as users,

there were many difficulties that we could sympathize with each other, so we were able to slowly

improve our relationship while asking about each other’s well-being.

‘I don’t know why, but her attitude towards me seems to have become much more docile…’

Her past self, that is, Ye-jin at that time, although we had only met once in reality, was very prickly

and difficult to approach. Although it was a meeting in the form of a one-sided ‘interview’, I was

looking forward to hearing her answers to the questions I had worked hard to prepare.

-What are you going to do by asking that?

-I won’t answer unless it’s a proper question.

-It’s really boring. Where did you learn those kinds of jokes?

The problem was that her attitude towards the interview was close to being a mess. I couldn’t even

ask most of the questions, and the answers to the questions I did ask were not nutritious.

At that time, she was really just a woman who annoyed the other person to the point where I wanted

to punch her, nothing more and nothing less.

If she hadn’t been in the server pvp ranking top 10, and if she hadn’t been a user who became a hot

topic in the community for her almost magical control skills, and finally if it hadn’t been for the

earnest request of a friend who was a broadcaster on Fantasia Online, I would have kicked the

interview out of the place.

After finishing the interview in a mess like that, and even having an argument at the end, I huffed

and puffed and went back, which was our last meeting in reality. After that, her younger sister, who

had a personality resembling an angel, came forward to mediate between us. If it weren’t for her, my

relationship with her would have been very twisted.

After the mediation, Ye-jin apologized to me. I coolly accepted the apology and added her as a

friend. Until my body changed like this, I would very occasionally party with her younger sister and

the three of us.

When I thought that far, I remembered that Ye-jin’s younger sister was also caught there.

“Th, did you save your sister, who was caught with you, safely?”

“If you’re talking about Ye-rim…she’s sleeping in the bed right next to me. I guess you didn’t know

because the curtains were drawn.”

At that, Ye-jin got up and pulled back the curtains around the bed. Then, behind the swaying fabric,

her younger sister’s face, which looked exactly like Ye-jin’s, appeared.

The blanket covering her body rose and fell regularly, and her breathing was even. I was a little

relieved that she didn’t seem to be hurt or shocked as much as I had worried.

“Ye-rim… that was her name.”

Thanks to the fact that I just fixed the title I called her as ‘sister’, I couldn’t remember her real name

properly.

“You couldn’t remember Ye-rim’s name, but you remembered my name.”

“How can I forget the name of the b*tch who acted so rude at our first meeting.”

“Oh really, I said I was wrong then. You’re so petty, keep bringing up my dark history…”

She pouted and grumbled as if she was sulking. At the same time, the animal ears that popped out

from between her hair also perked up.

“Maybe, can I stroke them once?”

As I was talking without much thought, the words came out without the filtering of my brain. I

regretted it, covering my stupid mouth with both hands.

Stroke her head. There was no way that a grown adult, especially Ye-jin, who was famous for her

pride, would like that.

“Yes, it’s totally okay! Please stroke me!”

The tail that was swaying behind her short pants drew a straight line with only the end bent. That

tail shape, as far as I know, only comes out when a cat is in a good mood. No way, right.

At her reaction, which was quite different from what I expected, I awkwardly reached out my hand,

and she put her head in my hand first.

The clean hair and the fluffy fur of the animal ears were felt alternately on the palm of my hand. To

be stroking the head of a grown adult woman like this. Objectively, it was an act that could cause

severe guilt, but rather than sexual excitement, it was a feeling of adding psychological stability.

-Purrrrr…

Ye-jin also seemed to be really in a good mood, singing a purr song, which is a sound that cats make

whenever they are in a good mood. It seemed that cats or canidae-type demi-humans liked to be

stroked in this way.

The more I stroked her, the lower the angle of her head became, and before I knew it, she was

leaning her head on my thigh. It was like a lap pillow that many subculture media deal with. The

posture was a bit uncomfortable, but I decided to just leave it alone because I liked listening to the

purr song.

Of course, I can’t say that there wasn’t a little bit of ulterior motive…

‘It’s inevitable that canidae and feline demi-humans, who have to resemble the characteristics of

cats or dogs, will like stroking…’

So I decided to think of the being who was burying her face in my thigh as not the beautiful human

woman Ye-jin, but as a cute cat. In that way, I enjoyed the purr song that calmed my mind and the

soft skin felt beyond my thigh for a long time.

‘Haa, it’s so f*cking sexy. Should I just devour her…’

While he was thinking that and stroking her hair, Ye-jin, who was burying her head between her

thighs, was having lewd thoughts. If the other person wasn’t an older brother she had known for a

long time, and the person she valued next to her family, she might have already crossed the line.

‘Ssibal, it’s heat week, wouldn’t oppa forgive me just once…?’

In fact, the lower part was already slightly wet. Of course, no matter how much she was a person

belonging to the category of pervert, she wasn’t a crazy b*tch who would get sexually excited right

away just because she had someone she liked in front of her.

The reason why she was reacting so excessively was because of the demi-human’s racial

characteristic, ‘heat’. The reason why demi-humans suffer during the heat season, which comes once

a month, was because of the unbelievable lust. The reason why they were framed as s*x offenders

and avoided was also from the same reason.

Demi-humans also had rational modern people inside who avoided crime, so everyone tried to

endure as much as possible to avoid causing crime – but there was a limit to that.

Ye-jin had reached the boundary of that limit.

‘I said I wouldn’t come to visit the hospital today because of this…’

If my sister, who was hospitalized in the same hospital as oppa, hadn’t said that she really wanted to

eat peaches, and if today wasn’t my sister’s birthday, this wouldn’t have happened.

It was commonplace for demi-humans who had ‘heat’ to stay at home until the condition ended, and

Ye-jin was no different. Of course, Ye-jin was also an ordinary person after all. She had no intention

of running at a stranger and becoming a criminal.

“Does this make you feel better?”

His hand started to scratch not only her head but also her chin. Ye-jin responded with a bigger purr

song instead of answering.

“Hehe, you seem to like it.”

An action made only with consideration for this side’s feelings, without any intention or ulterior

motive. And that gentle tone and eyes.

The biggest problem was that he didn’t know that such a pure and simple appearance stimulated her

more.

‘If I hit his stomach just once right now, will he die?’

Since he didn’t invest in health or defense at all, and he wasn’t wearing any armor, he might end up

dead with just one hit.

While drooling secretly, she had to repeatedly engrave the patience character in her heart.