Monochrome Rumor - Chapter 3

It was the only sentence that occupied Lee Ha-Jin’s mind.

When he opened his eyes, grabbed his spinning head and raised his body, he realised that he is sore all over and clicked his tongue slightly,

Because of these useless vivid dreams

A man’s voice seems to be hovering around me, so I blinked a few more times and saw someone’s shadow. And before it looked clear, I groaned a little, someone’s hugging my body, but the opponent only strengthened his grip as if he could not hear it.

With a short sigh, I blinked a few more times, and the surroundings began to look clearer than before.

Hospital bed, IV, a room with white walls, I felt that it was no different from the girl’s space. I dreamt another dream then.

Immediately after waking up from a dream that I didn’t even know, when I opened my eyes all I could see was pitch black. I tried to close my eyes again because I thought I hadn’t woken up from my dream yet, but my back began to tremble in the cold air that was sipping through my bones, and I realised that this is not a dream.

After realising that he was lying naked, he tried to move his body, but the narrow space was not enough to move his body, making him irritated.

Bang! When he punched the space presumed to be the wall with annoyance, there was a ringing sound inside.

The sound made his ears numb, but at some point, after hitting it several times. A presence was felt from outside. The rustling sound of clothes was getting closer and closer. He felt the space where he was lying was opening up.

Suddenly,

I closed my eyes reflexively to the bright light that filled my vision, and when I opened it again a little later, I saw people looking down at me in amazement. ‘Why do you look at me like that?’ I wanted to say that, but the pain that came over in an instant made me lose my consciousness again. I don’t know. I hope I’m not naked the next time I wake up. With that thought, darkness came again.

Since then, my consciousness has continued to turn on and turn off like a fluorescent lamp.

I felt that there were people who kept standing by my side, but it wasn’t quite what I anticipated. I saw a man hugging me and other men looking at me anxiously.

“Hey, you punk. I knew you were trying to fool us again”.

“I knew you’d wake up”.

Yeah, you’re amazing to know all that. With a blank face, Ha-Jin responded inside, while rolling his eyes.

In fact, as soon as I woke up, the feeling of being hugged by a young man and saying some unintelligible words whether it was a curse or a concern was not pleasant, but I didn’t come to my senses yet and I felt tired of someone crying while looking at me, so I relaxed my body.

But the words of that man did not end.

“Hey, why aren’t you talking? You’re good at being mean. Say Something, Huh? Is there something wrong?”

Those inconsiderate words were stopped by the man with a soft expression, who looked down on me gently as if happy to see me.

“Stop it, Eui-Hyun. Si-Hyun just woke up.”

“That’s right. Looking at Si-Hyun’s expression, he’s out of his mind right now”.

Perhaps the words worked, but the man’s body, who was hugging me, frustratingly only barely let go.

And Ha-Jin, who was able to breathe comfortably again, leaned back against the bedhead.

I felt like I was going to die of suffocation. But who the hell are these guys talking about? When I looked around, I saw four men surrounding my bed.

The man who hugged me was annoyingly muttering harsh words but couldn’t take his eyes off of me, and the person next to him, who was patting his shoulders as if to soothe him, was clearly the man with the soft expression a while ago. The man standing next to him silently is tall and has an expressionless face, so I don’t know what he’s thinking. Lastly, the man, who has been looking at me anxiously like a puppy from the left, gently sweeps the back of my hand and holds my hand tightly as if he was relieved.

In short, they were all strangers.

“What is this?”

Ha-Jin took his hand to his neck because his voice was hoarse. He felt that his skin was very soft.

“Isn’t it chaotic? Are you sick somewhere?”

“You just woke up after a week, Si-Hyun”

“As if you couldn’t wake up earlier, why did you sleep so much, I almost got annoyed”

“Again, you say something that you don’t even mean.”

“Eui-Hyun over here was the most worried about you, Si-Hyun, he was clinging to you, didn’t even eat while looking after you”

“When did I do that!?”

“Does your throat hurt? Do you want some water?”

When I was staring silently at the two who started bickering while talking, the puppy-like man carefully asked me. Come to think of it, I was about to nod my head because I thought I was thirsty, but before I nodded my head, there was a cup of water sticking out in front of me. Looking up in front of me, was a man who had been standing there with an expressionless face since earlier.

The water was placed on a table near the bed, maybe the man noticed me touching my hoarse throat.

It was an unbecoming delicate consideration because it looks like he would never blink an eye if anyone died. After greeting him quietly with his eyes, Ha-Jin immediately picked up the glass of water and drank it without leaving anything behind. When I emptied the cup I silently returned it to its place.

When I spaced out looking at the glass, he called me, saying,

“Si-Hyun Hyung?”

Oh, who now?

“Who is Si-Hyun?”

“Huh? Huh?”

“And who are you guys?”

“Hey, Lee Si-Hyun, have you gone crazy?

“I don’t think so? But why are you suddenly talking to me informally?”

Looking at a man in his early 20’s, Ha-Jin frowned. The way he speaks without hesitation. All the casual talk was unfamiliar. It was a natural reaction for Ha-Jin because he was always aware that he was in a difficult position wherever he was. Even if it’s not what he wanted.

“Does your head hurt?”

The hand touching his forehead was smooth, as if the owner of the hand was worried about chasing off the thoughts that he had in his head.

“Well, it doesn’t seem you have a fever”

“Si-Hyun, do you really not remember anything?”

“…………”

“Don’t worry; it’s probably because you just woke up. There was a big car accident: Everyone was worried because you were hurt a lot.”

“… I’ll bring a doctor.”

I remember everything. However, the name Si-Hyun and the memory of these people do not exist.

As I was looking at the man explaining the situation softly in a low voice, I could see the expressionless man who handed me water earlier, going out of the hospital room quickly, saying that he would call a doctor.

Ha-Jin sighed briefly. I shouldn’t be doing this here; I had to go back quickly. I had to know Dae-Joon’s situation, and there were still a couple of important transactions left.

But the atmosphere here, I don’t think they will listen to me even if I say it. It was a moment when I tried moving my body with the thought that it would be faster to leave the hospital room and find out for myself.

‘Throb’ I stopped moving due to the burning pain in my left leg.

I definitely didn’t feel anything earlier. When I quickly rolled up the loose patient cloth surrounding the leg by rolling up the sheet, I saw a leg that had no problem in appearance.

Yeah, now that I look at it…

“………?”

What’s with these white and thin legs?

Ha-Jin blinked and looked at his smooth, exposed legs, and was lost in thought.

Come to think of it, my fingers are too white and thin. Earlier, I just ignored it because I was not in my right mind, but the voice that I spit out was really boyish, which was different from my usual voice.

What could this be?

Suddenly, I felt the chills flowing down my spine, ignoring the worried words saying “What’s wrong with you?” and hurried down from the bed.

No way. Are you filming a movie now? He opened the door that looked like a bathroom quickly with his legs that didn’t feel any pain.

“Huh…”

It has a thin, white face, and a wet red double eyelid, a beautiful nose and moderately plump lips. A beauty that does not seem to belong to this world because it is so beautiful.

“oh fuck”

Ha-Jin knew this face.

“You’re crazy, you only asked me to protect your younger sister, not this”

The face that looked desperate, couldn’t stop crying and smiled sadly even at the last minute.

The man in my dream was staring at me with a ridiculous look in the mirror.

***

Admiration, surprise, doubt, puzzlement. The doctor, who couldn’t properly manage his facial expression while searching through the chart, looked at Si-Hyun in front of him, groaning helplessly.

There was nothing wrong with his left leg. Yesterday, his leg was so twisted that even his bones were showing. But now everything was fine, except for light scratches.

But how could he explain this perfectly healthy leg?

In fact, there were many other things that he couldn’t understand. When Lee Si-Hyun was transferred, he swore that he wasn’t breathing and even checked that he went into a rigour mortis state as well.

Although the body was covered in blood, it was possible to quickly recognize who was carried in. How can you not know? A member of a famous idol group who never misses a commercial, drama, or an entertainment show.

He was so surprised he couldn’t move for a few seconds and just stared blankly when such a famous person was carried in, as a corpse.

It was when he came down to the morgue the next day for an autographed autopsy after identification. How chilling it was to hear a banging sound somewhere.

He thought he heard it wrong, but realised that he was not hallucinating because the face of the nurse next to him turned blue.

The sound was loud and was heard several times, the source was the freezer where Lee Si-Hyun’s body was stored last night. With trembling hands, the doctor slowly pulled the handle of the freezer, his and the nurse’s eyes open wide because of what they saw that night.

Aaaah! Hw screamed without a sound from the surprise, there was Lee Si-Hyun, who frowned as much as he could as if he were blinded, and soon distorted his expression and painfully closed his eyes.

Time flew by like crazy after that, the doctor’s heart was pounding as he checked for the pulse in Si-Hyun’s wrist.

Unlike what he saw in the emergency room, the body which was horribly messed up was now normal except for some bruises here and there.

People came to the doctor’s office and asked to bring a picture of the body that was taken as evidence, but he couldn’t find it

There was no picture of the accident anywhere.

And I was so surprised, I thought that the broken legs and the messed up body were actually a dream.

“Excuse me doc, is Si-Hyun okay?”

The man with the soft expression asked with a worried face, and the doctor, who came to his senses, raised his head. Next to him, Eui-Hyun was frowning with a face that seemed to ask if he could trust this person.

“Hmm….” said the doctor who coughed briefly.

“Temporary memory impairment caused by an accident, no health problems, and let’s wait and see if PTSD is present.”

Even if the doctor said it was okay, everyone looked worried at Si-Hyun who was sitting on the bed with an expressionless face.

Where am I? Who are you? And suddenly ran to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and was in that state the whole time.

Even if they talked to him, he didn’t answer back, and his face was like that just before the accident, so everyone was anxious.

“…Doctor.”

“If I remember correctly… I have a younger sister right?”

“Oh! Do you remember? She is currently in our hospital. But suddenly, the condition is a bit…”

“Is there something wrong with her?”

“That’s…..”

“She cried until she was exhausted after that car accident, and she hadn’t regained her consciousness as of now.”

Si-Hyun was silent for a moment when he was told that she was still unconscious due to a severe fever after collapsing.

Another worrisome situation on his hands.

I don’t know anything else, but Si-Hyun didn’t seem to be a terrible brother.

The reason why no one could be sure about him being a good brother was because they didn’t hear it in person.

Si-Hyun was a member who never said a word about himself in the first place. Even though they had been together for two years, there were so many things they never knew.

However, they knew that I would make time every few days no matter what. I didn’t say anything, but everyone knew that it was to meet my weak sister.

“May I go and see her?”

The doctor nodded several times even before thinking about it, asking him with a desperate face. He forgot for a while because he was occupied by the things he couldn’t understand, but he had no choice but to tell him that anything was okay if he asked him with that face.

Even if he knew that the word beautiful was a little awkward to stick to a man, he felt like he was a celebrity because when he saw Si-Hyun’s face, he could only think of those things.

As soon as I got permission, I wondered how many steps my body was able to walk by itself without help, and I stumbled a little.

‘Oh’ I reached out, but this time again, the man with the expressionless face, who was standing silently, was fast.

He was quite careful with his hands holding my wrist with a blunt face and wrapped his hand around my waist. Somehow, I felt like I was really a patient, I frowned yet the man helped me again.

Si-Hyun, who sighed slightly, eventually entrusted himself to th man. It was a gesture of a person who knew well that giving up quickly was more comfortable.

Her pale face was whiter than what he had seen in the dream. It was very sad to see her breathing heavily, but the face of Lee Si-Hyun who looked down at it was expressionless.

I rather wished she didn’t exist, but seeing this girl right in front of me, gave this situation a sense of reality.

I didn’t know what happened. Immediately after the accident, when I opened my eyes I was already in this state. However, it was certain that I entered this man’s body. And I don’t know the way out.

Well, then it can’t be helped.

In the first place, Lee Ha-Jin was not very determined. He was thorough about what he had to do, but except for that, he generally gave up quickly and had a very indifferent tendency to just be a bystander. Even at the moment of his death after leaving the guardrail, He just died without resisting. To the point where that bland feeling was everything he had felt.

The white hand of the man he had always seen in his dreams is now his and holds the girl’s cheek. The child he saw closely was much smaller than what he thought.

“Hi.”

The voice, which was beautiful but sharp, naturally changed to a soft tone.

When I realised that it was the voice that always called this girl, the voice in my dream slowly rises and subsides.

‘I’m pretending to be strong, but I’m still very weak for a long time. So, I… ‘

The hand that was stroking on the cheek glided down. It is a neck that is likely to break even with a little force. Si-Hyun’s face, looking down at it silently, was briefly colored with insidious light.

I said I’ll help him, but I couldn’t help being angry as if I had been scammed.

What will happen if I break her neck like this?

If he knows that his sister, who he was worried about even after he died, has died in vain, is he going to become a demon and come back to my dreams to haunt me?

I thought it was a fairly reliable guess, and I grabbed her thin neck gently.

Death is so light and unjust.

Lee Ha-Jin was a man who witnessed death from a young age. With a father who was a head of a company, he grew up without knowing what affection from his mother was, then his father left his wife and took her place being cold.

He had no ambition nor spirit, but because of his evil mother, he had no choice but to take his rightful place.

“Finance” It was called finance when you put it in good words, but in short, it was a private loan business.

There were so many people in the world that needed money, and it was simpler to lure those people gently and suck up to them than breathing.

I know people with desperate faces.

Even the end of those people.

Unpleasant memories crept out like a snake. It’s not good to ask for a favour rather than to protect yourself with your own strength.

“……………”

It can’t be helped. Ha-jin released his hand that was holding the child’s neck. I knew it was useless to vent my anger towards this child.

The face with her eyes closed without knowing that she almost died was pathetic. You must have felt like the world was falling apart when you saw your cold brother’s face.

“Wake up.”

“Hurry and wake up and…”

I’ll protect you and your brother.

“Stop crying, and smile.”

I told you I’ll protect you.