Episode 339:
Sinkhole. Management office. Police station, etc.
After that, Lee Jae-heon, who used lucid dreaming several times, made several guesses to build confidence and eventually developed a plan to some extent. I wanted to plan a little more, but I didn’t have enough time right now.
Lee Jae-heon had to quickly raise up the survivors.
“It’s hard to watch the chicks play.”
Something like that.
* * *
“…Kek cough hu….”
Ha Seong-yoon’s feelings were complicated these days.
“Ugh….”
“….”
“…What are you looking at?”
It was all thanks to that damn patient bastard.
“It’s amazing that you still have the energy to argue.”
Every time I would strangle myself to find out what I was dreaming about, I would suddenly wake up and say something like that, and if the other person wanted it, I was willing to at least applaud them. As I always say, for Ha Seong-yoon, Lee Jae-heon was a type of patient he had never seen before in his life.
“I’ve tried my best to ignore it, but what on earth are you dreaming about?”
“A dream that you have to die to wake up from?”
“oh.”
“It’s a joke.”
“Haha, I see.”
I’m tired of saying anything.
‘…I think I’ve heard this before…’
After getting glass-colored eyes, Ha Seong-yoon’s mind was always complicated. It was inevitable that not only the occasional traces of death but also the memories of numerous episodes would burrow into my brain, making it difficult to recall specific situations clearly. There was no time to tell whether this happened today, yesterday, or 10 years ago.
In that sense, I felt like I had heard of Lee Jae-heon’s ‘dream to wake up only when you die’. I think it was when I was at the park…
“….”
I couldn’t remember who I heard it from or what exactly it was about.
“Was it Jeong In-ho?”
“…Why is the story of In-ho Jeong suddenly coming out?”
“Ah, the words came out of my mouth. sorry.”
“I’m not sorry, but…”
I think I heard the story from Jeong In-ho.
When Jaeheon Lee was in the park, he was having a dream that he could only wake up from when he died. I think they said he was killed by a green algae monster, but Jaeheon Lee woke up like that and vomited blood every time. It was not once or twice that all the survivors were seen sneaking out of the shelter and returning while they were asleep.
“But seeing as you’re not coughing up blood, it’s better than before.”
“….”
“But you’re still making it up.”
Actually, I guessed it to some extent.
“For some reason, the condition was so bad….”
Ha Seong-yoon was dumbfounded and laughed.
“You’ve never confessed to me once.”
“What are you talking about? “Wasn’t the answer I just gave very gentle?”
“Apart from the speed of the answer, I don’t think he has ever spoken first.”
“Even if I tell you, it won’t change anything.”
“I always think about this, but you really don’t trust people.”
“….”
Lee Jae-heon, who was silent for a moment, nodded while lying down.
“I don’t believe it.”
“Do we still not look like people?”
“Did Inho Jeong even tell you that? “This guy looks like a man with a dirty mouth.”
“We shared quite a bit of information. “We had no choice but to talk about a variety of things, especially in the park, when the teacher always vomited blood after waking up.”
“It’s not my fault that I have dreams like this.”
“That’s right.”
This time Ha Seong-yoon nodded.
“The saying that even if you talk about it, you can’t fix it… it’s true.”
How can there be such a difficult world?
There was no environment more difficult for Ha Seong-yoon, a doctor who had to be more evidence-based and logical than anyone else. The hidden world was like a theater stage with ambiguous and clumsy settings. It’s a place that can change as much as the director wants.
Ha Seong-yoon narrowed his eyes and laughed.
“Anyway, the significance is that I don’t vomit blood like last time. “It’s still a headache, but it can be interpreted as less burden than at the park.”
“It’s the same asphyxiation.”
“….”
“Shall we stop here?”
“No, just try to finish what you have already done.”
“I feel like I’m going to get scolded.”
“Did you think you wouldn’t get scolded for hiding your physical condition until now?”
“With a temperament….”
Lee Jae-heon, who raised his upper body, answered.
“Monsters don’t appear in dreams.”
“I would like to say that it is fortunate, but it sounds like Jae-heon Lee is committing suicide every evening.”
“You are quick to grasp the situation. That’s right, I wake up from suicide.”
“Hahaha….”
“If I don’t do that, I won’t be able to wake up from the dream, so there’s nothing I can do.”
“Would it have been better if there had been a green algae monster?”
“I think it was a little more convenient that way.”
“I’m curious. Do you have dreams like this in real life?”
“I think I only dream about it when I’m in the other world.”
“It’s a world gone crazy.”
“Maybe I’m just crazy…”
“Do you really need to say all your thoughts out loud like that?”
At those words, Lee Jae-heon stared at Ha Seong-yoon, but Ha Seong-yoon, who was already distracted, could not figure out the meaning in that gaze. Jaeheon Lee just scratched his neck and changed the topic.
“…There is no big problem. “It’s not that I don’t feel like my mental strength is being eaten away, but like you said, it’s less difficult because I don’t vomit blood.”
“Aha, the act of vomiting itself puts a lot of burden on the patient.”
“I have something more to suggest.”
“…I don’t want to hear it, but I think I’ll regret it if I don’t, so just say it first.”
“Would you like to stop by the pharmacy?”
“haha.”
Ha Seong-yoon thought that his laughter had increased these days.
“Why? “Are you the type of person who enjoys pain?”
“I respect various tastes, but I don’t have such masochistic hobbies… I just don’t like the atmosphere that has become so stagnant.”
“Hmm.”
As is my habit, I looked at it sarcastically, but when I thought about it objectively, Lee Jae-heon’s suggestion wasn’t that strange.
‘This person, like me, wants to return to reality as quickly as possible.’
I don’t know if the current survivors have lost their minds or not, but it is true that they are in a very depressed situation, as Lee Jae-heon said. Except for a few missing team members, the rest have also lost the will to be active. There was also a part of Ha Seong-yoon who thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to return to reality and just live like this.
‘Azalea is very indifferent, but Han Do-yoon in particular…’
The other survivors are immersed in complacency and think, ‘I will have to return to reality someday,’ but Han Do-yoon seemed to truly think that it would be okay even if he didn’t go back. Ha Seong-yoon speculated that Do-yoon Han may have been feeling some resistance to his work life. Just because someone smiles all the time doesn’t mean they don’t have serious concerns.
In this situation, I sympathized to some extent with Lee Jae-heon’s words about making preparations for the future, that is, the exploration of Eonhak High School. The only goal of the survivors right now, other than the vague wish of ‘going back to reality’, is to reinforce the shelter or find a new shelter.
“…Then, if we go to the pharmacy….”
As he began in a positive tone, Jaeheon Lee naturally accepted his words.
“First, let’s buy some glucose candy.”
“Is that even in the other world?”
“Ah, isn’t there something similar? First of all, anyone can buy energy supplements, so Ha Seong-yoon, please take charge of that as well.”
“Then I wonder if I’ll just end up falling into that abyss of pain…”
“I decided that there was a possibility.”
“If you keep listening, you’ll get upset, so just stop there. Anyway, it’s good. “Anything else?”
“Wouldn’t you need a cure after all?”
Lee Jae-heon had two injuries that could not be healed unless he returned to reality. It’s a fact that Ha Seong-yoon doesn’t like very much, but when you put everything aside, Lee Jae-heon’s rise is no different from a constant spring of water in the pharmacy’s rules. Since I couldn’t get treatment no matter what medication I took, I was able to continue getting appropriate treatments from the pharmacy.
Ha Seong-yoon suddenly realized that I was not as worried about Lee Jae-heon’s physical condition as I was before.
“Ha Seong-yoon?”
“…I’m listening. “Then it will be difficult to buy medicine to treat bones, right?”
“Shall we break just one little finger? “As long as I don’t take the medicine, I can keep buying it.”
“….”
“Oh.”
When there was no answer right away, Jaeheon Lee was seen grinning. Ha Seong-yoon frowned at his disgustingly grinning face, but Lee Jae-heon didn’t seem to be particularly affected.
He spoke as if he was happy.
“Now you understand my heart.”
“…Rather, I might need it someday…”
“Of course, that’s true. “I completely agree.”
Ha Seong-yoon felt a moment of self-destruction at the needlessly bright voice.
‘Is this okay?’
In fact, when I thought about it objectively and efficiently, as Lee Jae-heon said, it was a wise choice to stock up on medical supplies in advance before exploring Eonhak High School. The memory of the last episode stuck in his brain like a tree thorn, and it even made Ha Seong-yoon feel a sense of crisis that he had never had before.
If Kang Min-ah’s hand had been treated sooner, she wouldn’t have gone crazy and started killing people. If Jeong In-ho had been given energy recovery medicine to relieve his mental burden, he would not have appointed Lee Jae-heon as class president and he would have been prevented from losing his mental strength during class. In many ways, the items from the pharmacy were essential to the exploration of Eonhakgo.
‘But if you think about it that way, in the end, someone has to get hurt that much to be able to buy something at the pharmacy…’
No matter how much Lee Jae-heon himself wishes, is it really right to allow this? Was I such an immoral and unkind doctor? Expressing someone’s pain with numbers really….
“….”
However, all doctors in the world expressed pain with numbers as well.
“great.”
“I’m glad we finally seem to understand each other.”
“…Eventually, it will be treated, and if you agree to it… it will be okay.”
All treatments involve pain, and doctors were accustomed to expressing patients’ pain in numbers. If the patient refuses treatment, we can somehow coax him or her into receiving treatment, but isn’t Lee Jae-heon even expressing his will on his own?
“Why don’t we go alone, Garam… How about going with Boss Yoon? “I think other survivors might feel rejected if they find out, so I want to go as quietly as possible.”
“I agree with you. Mr. Garam Yoon will be of sufficient strength. “I got the detective notebook from Hong Gyeong-jun anyway, so this alone should be enough to avoid the monsters in the mall.”
“Then it would be better to let them know that we will be going on an expedition this time. “There is usually only one team going on an expedition per day anyway, so even if we stop by the pharmacy, we won’t get caught.”
“Where was the area where I couldn’t take the medicine right now? First of all, your skin and muscles will be fine… Did I hurt any organs? “I’m sure the bones aren’t hurt.”
“Now that things are like this, let’s take a look at the situation again. “Take off your clothes.”
Ha Seong-yoon knew that this was truly crazy and that he would regret it greatly later.
I also knew that it was a regret I might have to return to reality.
(Continued in the next part)
