Boss, It's My First Time Being Your Resident - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 39. Terminal Lucidity (1)

“On foggy days like today, she always appears. Stay alert.”
“Senior!!”

A Gang’s eyes—brimming with hurt and reproach—glistened with tears as she wiped them away and bolted toward the emergency exit.

“Maybe I was too harsh.”

Tae Heon watched her retreating figure with a faint, mischievous smile playing at his lips.

Afraid of ghosts at well over twenty years old.
Not some wide-eyed child ignorant of the world, either.

Innocent, he might call it. Or perhaps guileless.

It was obvious she was proud of herself, executing their second “safe goodbye” mission.
He should have played along, feigned surprise, matched her rhythm instead.

He hadn’t expected a few common hospital ghost stories to backfire and chase away A Gang herself.

The image of her—lip pouting in indignation, eyes brimming with tears—bubbled up in his mind, and a laugh slipped out.

Quite charming, really. A Gang.

It was just as he’d brought the remaining barley tea to his lips, an unconscious smile gracing his face.

“Aaaaahhhhh!!”

A shrill scream tore through the air from beyond the rooftop emergency exit.

Tae Heon’s smile vanished in an instant.
He rose from his seat with urgency and strode quickly toward the emergency exit.

“Senior!”

The moment he opened the exit door, A Gang burrowed behind him as if she’d found a rescuer.

“What is it?”
“Senior… there’s a… a ghost… over there.”

Her trembling finger pointed into the darkness at a dim shadow creeping closer.

Tae Heon narrowed his eyes.

The hazy silhouette drew nearer and grew clearer.

An old man with white hair.

Nearly ninety winters seemed etched into his frame—deep wrinkles furrowed his brow, and beneath his sparse brows, his eyes curved in a crescent moon.

Though spring had descended these past few days, tempering the rooftop air to something gentle and warm, the old man’s season remained frozen in deep winter.

He wore a red knit cap pulled low, a thick wool sweater, and a heavy brown jacket layered over it all.

The old man tottered across the darkness, weaving between the rooftop railing and the garden bed.
His approach was unsteady and precarious.

“I’m here!”

The old man’s wrinkled face broke into a luminous smile as he looked at Tae Heon.

“Senior, do you know this person?”

A Gang peeked out from behind Tae Heon and asked tentatively.
The tremor in her fingers—gripping her own sleeve—transmitted itself fully to Tae Heon.

Instead of answering, Tae Heon extended one arm backward, drawing A Gang protectively into his embrace.

The old man didn’t look like a patient’s guardian.
Certainly not medical staff or hospital personnel.

At this late hour.
He was decidedly not the sort of visitor one would expect on a rooftop garden.

Tae Heon’s questioning gaze fixed on the tattered sleeve of the grandfather’s jacket.

“Let’s play! Come on, you two.”

Did the old man sense their wariness?

What dissolved the mounting tension in one swift stroke was the grandfather’s bright, guileless smile.

“I brought Fanta for you! All ten of them!”

The old man waved large plastic bags in both hands, laughing with childlike delight.

His exuberance was so pronounced that the surrounding air seemed to settle even more strangely and chill.

“Senior, he must be a patient’s guardian. But why is he here at this hour…?”

“Grandfather, which room are you visiting? Let me escort you.”
“I came to see Han Young! Ri Han Young! Why aren’t you saying anything? Have you gotten upset with me?”

The old man continued, looking up at Tae Heon.

“I brought you plenty of that Orange Soda you love! Remember? Don’t you remember?”
“…….”
“Why do you act like you don’t know? Did I take too long? Is that why you’re angry?”

The old man pushed the plastic bag brimming with Fanta forcefully against Tae Heon’s chest.

“I’m sorry I kept my promise so late. I was too slow, wasn’t I?”

Tae Heon’s eyes grew distant.

A Gang looked between Tae Heon and the grandfather in confusion.

Dementia? Sleepwalking?
Or else…?

Could it be delirium—a sudden, temporary state of mental confusion brought on by physical illness or medication?

Countless possibilities flickered through A Gang’s mind.
Yet his eyes—unlike those of someone with dementia or delirium—held an uncanny clarity and sharpness.

As A Gang studied Tae Heon’s expression and cocked her head, he moved.

Tae Heon stepped forward and steadied the tottering grandfather’s arm with a firm grip.

Tae Heon’s large hand gently cradled the old man’s lean, bony shoulder.

“You’re definitely angry with me. I thought you’d be happy calling me ‘big brother,’ but here you are, speaking formally, keeping me at arm’s length.”
“…….”
“Ri Han Young. My comrade. I missed you so much. Didn’t you miss me?”

The old man searched Tae Heon’s face with transparent, crystalline eyes, awaiting a response.

His expression held the tenderness and longing of one encountering a schoolmate separated for decades.

For a moment, Tae Heon’s pupils rippled.
Over his colorless gaze fell the old man’s long-harbored yearning.

The rigid set of Tae Heon’s face melted like snow in warmth.

“I missed you too, brother. Do you know how long I’ve waited for you here?”

A Gang doubted her own ears.

The situation was incomprehensible.

An old man in his nineties calling a man barely thirty a “comrade.”
That same man unguardedly calling the ninety-year-old “brother,” meeting him at eye level.

The usual Tae Heon would have coldly corrected this illogical situation on the spot, maintaining his composure. Yet why was he so quietly accepting the old man’s confusion?

“Do you remember what you said? That drinking a whole bottle of Orange Soda was wanting for nothing in the world. That it was sweeter than medicine. That your wish was to drink it until your belly burst.”
“I remember, brother. I remember how much I loved this.”

At Tae Heon’s soft reply, the old man’s face bloomed like a flower.

“I searched eight provinces looking for you. See? I was right, wasn’t I? Even separated by war and flight, we wouldn’t die—we’d survive and meet again. And we’d drink this Orange Soda dry together.”

The old man had traveled backward through his own time.
Seventy years back, to that moment when he’d lost his comrades in the war.

He had come to the rooftop not as a ninety-year-old, but as a twenty-year-old boy in his heart—one who’d shared drinks with friends from his hometown.

“How could I forget? It feels like yesterday.”
“That’s what I thought! How could Han Young forget me! You’re my comrade all right! You’re my brother!”

The old man gripped Tae Heon’s hand tightly with trembling fingers, overcome with emotion.

“Han Young, we did it. We endured all those harsh years, and here we are, face to face. I kept my promise, didn’t I?”

The old man rummaged through the plastic bag with his weathered hands and pulled out an orange can, pressing it firmly into Tae Heon’s palm.

“Go on! Drink! Drink in front of your brother. There are ten here, so take your time.”
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I’m fulfilling my wish today.”

Tae Heon laid his hand over the cold can the grandfather had offered, his voice low.

He held the old man’s gaze for a moment, then pulled the tab on the can.

The hiss was followed by the sweet scent of orange mingling with the dawn air.

Tae Heon tilted his head back and drank the Fanta in one long gulp.

The sound of liquid descending echoed clearly through the quiet garden.
With each swallow, his prominent Adam’s apple bobbed powerfully up and down.

A Gang forgot even to breathe, watching this unfamiliar side of Tae Heon as if entranced.

“How is it? Refreshing? Is it the same taste we had back in Hamgyeong?”
“Yes! Still the same. That cool, sweet taste. Orange Soda really is the best. It tastes even better because you gave it to me.”

Tae Heon held up the can before the grandfather.

A Gang, watching the entire exchange, felt her lips part slightly.

Tae Heon—the man of principle—accepting a carbonated drink from a stranger without hesitation, drinking it casually right before her?

That prickly temperament of his, matching the old man’s rambling and even cracking jokes with him?

“Do you remember? When we were climbing the evacuation road.”

The unexpected words spilling from Tae Heon’s lips stole A Gang’s breath away.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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