….
Seven days.
Seven days of Jin-Ho sitting in uncomfortable plastic chairs.
The boy, Toya, still hadn't moved once.
He didn't even twitch, or mutter in his sleep, no signs that his consciousness would return anytime soon.
The clinic was small.
Smaller than Jin-Ho had expected; two rooms, one nurse, one doctor with no fancy equipment, or advanced technology.
Just basic beds, oxygen cylinders, and the kind of place that survived on cash payments and didn't ask too many questions.
Which was perfect for Jin-Ho's purposes.
The director said the same thing that Jin-Ho was already aware of… the boy was stable. Just… not awake.
Jin-Ho sat on the old metal chair beside Toya's bed, arms folded, watching the rise and fall of the boy's chest.
From what he remembered about this world, Toya's coma had lasted years. Three, maybe more.
"…Let's not repeat history, alright?" He muttered to the unmoving boy.
But that was the problem, wasn't it?
He had spent most of the week elsewhere, dealing with a problem that had been gnawing at him since that first day.
Money.
The money he got from selling a few more of his stuff are drawing thin - especially the treatment.
He had to take a few creative jobs like - helping at construction sites.
The kind that asked for no identification or background checks. Just enough to scrape together enough cash to cover seven days of basic hospital care.
The small clinic had been surprisingly accommodating once he had shown them the money.
No questions asked into where a burned child had come from, no authorities called, no paperwork demands.
Just a simple exchange: cash for silence and care.
…and honestly both of them are oddly calm about treating a half-burned kid dropped off by a stranger in the middle of the night.
For seven days, he waited for the sound of police sirens, or any investigator asking around for a burned child.
A child had been burned in what had to be one of the largest fire incidents in the area. Forests were still smoldering.
The news was probably talking about it.
And yet, no police investigation at the hospital.
It made Jin-Ho feel something uncomfortable, a mix of guilt and anger that he couldn't quite name.
"Aug…" he cursed to himself that night.
He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "So, now what?"
Now, on the seventh day, he stood in the clinic's small main room, watching the doctor shuffle around.
The old man moved with surprising speed despite what looked like extremely poor eyesight.
He kept looking in the wrong direction when talking to people, his movements jerky but oddly efficient.
A dry cough broke the silence.
Jin-Ho turned to see the doctor, an old man with silver hair, thick glasses, and a white coat that looked older than his nurse, shuffling into the room.
"Where are you taking this kid? Kid?" the doctor asked, his unseeing gaze pointed somewhere behind Jin-Ho's left shoulder.
"What do you mean 'kid, kid'? The patient is the kid, not me." Jin-Ho shot back.
The old man didn't even flinch. "To me, you are both the same. A kid trying to take care of another kid. That's all I see."
He said it with a warm, almost teasing smile - but he wasn't even looking the right way.
"Doctor." the nurse sighed, gently turning his shoulders. "The boy is this side."
The doctor coughed awkwardly, as if pretending he had known that all along. "Ahem, yes, yes, of course I knew that."
Jin-Ho stared at him, unamused. "…How did you even treat him with that eyesight?"
It was like watching someone perform surgery with a blindfold on - theoretically impossible, yet somehow accomplished.
The nurse stifled a giggle behind her clipboard.
She was young, mid-twenties maybe, with her brown hair tied up and a smile that was a little too cheerful for a clinic this quiet.
When Jin-Ho had brought Toya in, neither of them had asked questions. They just worked. No suspicion, no interrogation. Just focus.
Even now, they hadn't pried. They didn't ask who Toya was, where he came from, or how Jin-Ho managed to pay.
And Jin-Ho knew they didn't believe he had gotten the money honestly. But they didn't care - they just took it.
'Yeah,' he thought. 'They probably needed it too.'
"Anyway." Jin-Ho said finally. "I am thinking of discharging him and taking care of him my—"
His job was already done: run a proper scan on the boy with a real detector and figure out when he would wake up.
But if even the doctor had no idea… then there was no point in sticking around.
"Are you out of your mind, boy!?" the doctor suddenly barked - except in the wrong direction again.
"Doctor." the nurse whispered, guiding him ninety degrees to the right.
"Ah, yes, you!" He snapped, glaring at Jin-Ho properly this time. "What nonsense is that? The child's condition isn't stable. His vitals may look fine now, but one infection and you will be carrying a corpse instead of a patient!"
Jin-Ho just stared, this man was insane. Either that or he was losing his mind watching him.
The old man wasn't done. "You think just because the wounds are closed, he's safe? This boy's body went through hellfire! He needs rest, care, and time! And you - what do you have? A first aid kit and good intentions?"
The nurse placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling softly. "Doctor, please. You are scaring him."
"Scaring him? He should be scared!" the doctor huffed, but finally quieted down, muttering something about reckless youth.
The nurse turned to Jin-Ho. "He's right, you know. The boy still needs time, we can let him stay here a bit longer."
She said calmly. "It seems you have a lot of things to do. During this week, you have only been here about an hour or so each day."
She wasn't accusatory, just stating a fact.
And it was true.
Jin-Ho couldn't stay all day.
He had to work, had to figure out his situation, had to prepare for whatever came next.
"We have another bed in the back." She hesitated, then added carefully through her colleague's continued muttering. "There's a connecting door. The patient can stay there until he gains consciousness. We will look after him."
Jin-Ho raised an eyebrow. "Why would you do that?"
Then came the kicker, her smile widening slightly. "Of course, it would be nice if you could keep paying for it."
Jin-Ho blinked, then let out a dry chuckle. "…You two really don't waste time, huh?"
The nurse just shrugged. "We need to survive too."
Why do Jin-Ho trust them so much?
Honestly he doesn't.
He had left Blacky, at the clinic as insurance on the first day.
Just in case the doctor and nurse got any funny ideas about disappearing with the kid or worse.
And more importantly, neither had tried anything suspicious. Blacky would have made his displeasure known if they had.
So Jin-Ho had decided he could trust them.
At least to a point. They seemed to have no hidden agendas, no interest in the boy beyond the money. Just a desperate clinic trying to survive.
"That sounds reasonable." Jin-Ho admitted. "But I need to think about it—"
"Think?!" the doctor roared again, apparently having reset his rant loop. "What is there to think about?! It's a perfect arrangement! You get someone to care for the boy, we get paid for our services. Everyone wins!"
Jin-Ho glanced between the two of them, one blind, one utterly shameless - and let out a long, weary sigh.
…Then his eyes drifted through the connecting door to the boy, still unconscious.
"Okay." Jin-Ho said finally. "We have a deal. I will pay for him to stay, you keep him alive and stable until he wakes up."
"Excellent!" the doctor shouted, somehow managing to face directly toward Jin-Ho despite his complete lack of functional vision. "I knew you were a sensible kid!"
The nurse smiled - a real smile this time, not just the calculating one from before. "The patient is lucky to have found someone willing to help him."
Jin-Ho didn't respond to that. He just nodded and turned to leave, already thinking about where he had got more money.
The real problem was still ahead of him. Once Toya woke up, if he woke up, what then? Jin-Ho couldn't just abandon him.
But he also couldn't stay here indefinitely, playing caretaker for a burned kid who didn't even know him.
As he walked out of the clinic, Jin-Ho couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the beginning of a much more complicated problem.
The kid was his responsibility now. For better or worse.
…And even as he left, he had ordered Blacky to stay behind and keep an eye on Toya.
Just in case.
….
.
[To be continued…]
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