Chapter Text
The tongue depressor feels cold against the flesh of my mouth. As Lee Seolhwa pushes it in deeper, I fight the urge to choke. She narrows her eyes down at me.
“Open your mouth wider, please.”
I comply, shifting slightly. I feel like a young child at the pediatrician’s office.
Lee Seolhwa turns to Han Sooyoung, who is leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest, looking amused. “Remind me again where you found him?”
“A little ways out of the Complex. He was outside on the ground.”
Humming, Lee Seolhwa brings her attention back to me. She pulls the depressor from my tongue and shines a small flashlight down my throat. “Do you have any allergies?” she questions. Flicking her finger to turn off the light, she puts it aside.
“No, not that I’m aware of,” I respond, swallowing. I still taste blood, and the smell of antiseptic in the hospital room is acrid.
“It’s nothing like that,” Han Sooyoung chimes in from the other side of the room. She approaches us, frowning. “He says it’s some sort of personal scenario.”
I glare at her. She sticks her tongue out at me.
This girl…!
“A scenario-related medical condition? I’ve seen such things before in the past.” Lee Seolhwa looks off to the side, as if reminiscing. “Dokja, could you tell me more about the clear conditions?”
I weigh my options. I wouldn’t mind telling Lee Seolhwa; she is trustworthy and she may have knowledge on the disease. On the other hand…
“I will tell you if Han Sooyoung leaves the room.”
She stares at me, incredulous. “I’m the one who brought you here, you know! Imagine if I wasn’t there to find you!” Her voice is fierce, but I sense the concern in her words. “You could’ve passed out from the blood loss and nobody would have known.”
I quickly start to retaliate with another excuse, but a wave of nausea grips me. I clutch my stomach and retch to the side of the hospital bed. Nothing comes out except for spit tinged with iron. It drips down my chin and stains my white coat. A high-pitched noise rings in my ears, and I’m assaulted with a migraine. My sense of balance begins to slip away.
[S o pa the tic… Ki m Dok j a…]
As the two women rush to hold me up, I try to wipe my face with my sleeve. I hold a hand over my mouth as I vomit into it. When I pull it away, amidst the stickiness and the blood coating my fingers, a wilting, thorned white rose rests in my palm. It looks blurry; almost surreal.
Han Sooyoung and Lee Seolhwa glance at each other. The former nods, strands of her short hair bouncing, her eyebrows scrunched together.
“Kim Dokja,” Seolhwa starts, slowly. “Tell me honestly. What is the scenario penalty?”
[Incarnation, “Han Sooyoung”, has activated the skill, “Lie Detection”!]
I bite back a pained whimper. It comes out as a sputter. I refuse to make eye contact with either of them as I answer, “Nothing serious.”
[‘Lie Detection’ has confirmed your words as false.]
Han Sooyoung throws her hands up in the air. “You asshole--we’re just trying to help you! The penalty is death, isn’t it?”
My refusal to respond is more than enough of an answer.
“Coughing up flowers… a terminal illness…” Lee Seolhwa seems to be thinking out loud as she gathers some supplies.
I remain quiet, aside from my sharp breathing. The pain in my head and chest is still severe, but The Fourth Wall offsets some of it. I rotate the flower absentmindedly between my index finger and thumb. The thorns puncture the soft pads of my fingers, and more blood tints my clothing.
“Hey, stop that,” Sooyoung scolds. Leaning in to pick up the rose by its petals, her eyes widen as it crumbles in her hand, brittle. The particles left behind glow faintly. “Huh? Is this thing magic?” She holds her palms in front of her, turning them back and forth.
“It could be. It’s a product of the scenario, after all,” Lee Seolhwa adds. Handing Han Sooyoung an absorbent tissue, she takes one of her own and begins to clean the area around me. I watch as she collects a few droplets of my blood and saliva into vials and screws the caps tightly.
Han Sooyoung hums thoughtfully as she wipes my face. I flinch when the papery texture makes contact with my skin, and close my eyes, feeling my cheeks heat up. “But why is Dokja able to touch it?” she asks.
Lee Seolhwa’s back is turned to us. Presumably, she’s testing my samples using one of her skills. She pauses her work to whisper, “I have a theory.”
Unfortunately, before she can elaborate, the door to the infirmary opens.
The regressor stands in the doorway, and the displacement of air causes his coat to flutter perfectly.
This guy… always one for dramatic entrances.
My breathing seizes again and I cough violently.
Han Sooyoung moves in front of me, blocking my line-of-sight. She eyes Yoo Joonghyuk cautiously. “What are you doing here?”
Turning to face Lee Seolhwa, he tilts his head slightly, as if to ask if it is okay to enter. The doctor shrugs.
Regardless, Yoo Joonghyuk walks towards me and Sooyoung. I don’t look up—I can feel roots inching their way up my raw throat again. My retinas burn and I feel tears welling up in the corners of my eyes.
“Is he truly ill?”
“Something like that,” Han Sooyoung answers for me. Her hand rests on my shoulder. “He says it is a personal scenario. Have you ever experienced something like this?”
I want to snap back, If he had, it would’ve been covered in Ways of Survival. I struggle to breathe as the plant roots obstruct my airway, as if wrapping around my windpipe.
“No. It is strange. He tends to hide his discomfort, so don’t let him fool you,” Yoo Joonghyuk comments.
“Of course, I’m well aware…”
I feel like a small animal in a cage. These two, talking about me like I’m not even in the room… I couldn’t let myself be angry for too long, because I began to feel a tingling sensation in the tips of my fingers. My ears ring again, and I throw up the mess of roots.
[Exclusive skill, the “Fourth Wall” is shaking!]
Noticing my condition is worsening, Lee Seolhwa hurriedly comes to my bedside. She addresses Yoo Joonghyuk and Han Sooyoung: “You two, please let him rest.”
Yoo Joonghyuk nods. “I have work to attend to. Kim Dokja, recover quickly.”
I give him a faint smile before he leaves the room. My mouth feels too dry to speak.
“Don’t let him out of your sight, even for a second,” Han Sooyoung advises, while also leaving.
Lee Seolhwa lets out a tired sigh. As she continues analyzing the samples, she starts to interrogate me. “May I ask if this personal scenario has a name?”
[Tel l her. Sh e w i ll kn ow]
I mentally tell The Fourth Wall to shut up. I swallow and reply, “Yes. There’s this Japanese word. Hanahaki.”
“I suspected as such.”
“You’ve treated this before?”
“Not treated. Rather, I’ve… well, it’s a difficult story. I will tell you I haven’t seen it as a personal scenario before. Is this something the constellations have come up with?”
I think for a second. “They haven’t been questioning me about it. It’s like this is filtered to them.”
“The channel has also been quiet for a while,” Lee Seolhwa muses. “Still, I want you to understand that this condition is dangerous.”
[Exclusive skill, the “Fourth Wall” is shaking!]
[Se e ?]
The sound of static fills my head. Lee Seolhwa continues talking, but it almost feels far away, even though she is within a few feet of me.
At one point, she pauses. Looking directly at me, I see the question pop up in her eyes prior to her even asking me.
“Kim Dokja. Who do you love?”