Illusion Blind Date - Chapter 13

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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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#13

When I shook his shoulder to wake him, Jimun forced his heavy eyelids open and stirred.
His eyes kept drooping as though weighted down, blinking sluggishly—it was pitiful to watch, but there was nothing for it.
“…Why did you come in so early? Is there an emergency?”
It was an emergency of sorts, but not one involving a patient, so I couldn’t quite frame it that way.
“No, it’s about what happened yesterday.”
“Oh, right—Cha Tae Mun!”
“The professor who’s supposed to join our department, right?”
“I didn’t know until I went into the Operating Room. You can imagine how shocked I was….”
Well, if I’d known, I would’ve told him sooner.
Spring exhaled softly, both hands thrust into the pockets of his gown.
“Sit down. You’re scaring me standing there.”
“Scary, my—”
Spring settled into the chair across from Jimun.
“But nothing happened yesterday, did it? Were you very shocked?”
Jimun asked, watching Spring’s expression carefully.
“…Well, a little. It’s what I heard he’d be like. I just had a bit of a fit, made a fuss, you know.”
“Geez, you should be more careful.”
Jimun’s throat was dry, so he retrieved two 500ml bottles of Bottled Water from the refrigerator.
“Here, drink.”
“I’m fine.”
Jimun poured the Bottled Water and drank about half, then tossed a Vitamin Effervescent Tablet into the remaining bottle.
Right—gotta take care of yourself with the good stuff.
Spring watched what Jimun was doing.
He hadn’t gotten to the main point of his story yet, but Jimun, his attention scattered, was shaking the bottle full of the effervescent tablet with abandon.
“Hey, you’ll burst it if you shake it like that!”
Spring shouted.
“It won’t burst. See, it says to shake it well. Look.”
“Still, shake it gently. You’re being obnoxious.”
Jimun shrugged and set the bottle down.
“Did you eat?”
Then he looked directly at Spring’s face and asked.
“No.”
“Wait a moment.”
Jimun stood and walked back to the refrigerator.
I watched to see what he was doing—he emerged with a perfectly ripe Banana.
“The on-call doctor yesterday gave me this. You eat it.”
Where did he get such a huge Banana!
“No, I’m fine.”
Spring glanced back and forth between the Banana and the water bottle, then shook his head.
“Are you ignoring my goodwill? I’ve been saving this specially for you.”
“Which is why you should eat it.”
Jimun began pushing the perfectly ripe, thick, substantial Banana right up to Spring’s face.
This is insane.
Already half-delirious, when Jimun thrust the Banana toward him, Spring’s thoughts inevitably drifted into dangerous territory.
This was beyond his control.
He’d managed to resist the water bottle, but the Banana was simply impossible to bear.
He’d barely forgotten about it, and now it came rushing back.
“Really, stop!”
Spring swatted Jimun’s back.
Whack.
“Ow! Even when I’m giving you something you’re making a fuss! Look at you—you’re like Suho. Like he doesn’t have enough because he can’t eat.”
“I said stop! I don’t like Bananas!”
With his face flushed crimson, Spring hissed, and Jimun set the Banana down with an expression of absolute disbelief.
“You don’t like Bananas?”
“I don’t!”
“Fine, I believe you. But if you’re not going to eat it, why is your face so red? Are you hot?”
Bom waved a hand fan, trying to shake loose the lustful demon rattling in her skull.
But if it were so easy to dislodge, she wouldn’t have called it a demon in the first place.
“Out with you, be gone!”
Demon, disappear from my mind!
“Why won’t you vanish? Get out!”
Bom grabbed the Massage Roller rolling across the table and began shouting “Go!” over and over.
Jimun stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“You feeling okay?”
“Actually, it seems to be helping a little.”
One way or another, Bom took a deep breath and carefully set down the Massage Roller she’d been wielding.
“You can’t act like this in front of Cha Tae Mun.”
Cha Tae Mun.
Bom picked up the Massage Roller again and counted numbers to herself under her breath.

Finally, rational thought returned.
“Jimun, now that you mention it, I think I’m about to get thrown out of this place.”
“Come on, Cha Tae Mun’s not that heartless. Like I said yesterday—he won’t bite unless you provoke him. So don’t worry so much.”
But she had provoked him. More precisely, she’d seen something she shouldn’t have.
Jimun, oblivious to Bom’s circumstances, was spinning the wheels of optimism.
“Is that really true, though?”
“His personality’s rough, sure, but he’s not unreasonable. If you just keep quiet and stay out of sight, you’ll be fine.”
“Rough, huh?”
“Yeah.”
He said it so cheerfully.
“He’s the spitting image of Uncle. And Uncle’s the kind of person Grandmother says she must’ve given birth to a grudge—he’s genuinely odd. He’s only reformed since meeting Aunt, but apparently he caused her no end of grief when he was younger.”
“So Uncle is…?”
“Yeah. Apparently he lived so rough that gangsters tried to recruit him. My dad became a lawyer specifically to keep Uncle out of prison. That’s the real reason.”
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense.”
“It does. Cha Tae Mun inherited all of Uncle’s traits intact.”
Bom recalled Cha Tae Mun’s extraordinary presence and immediately nodded in agreement.
“But Grandmother always says he’s better off than his father because he’s had more education. I can’t tell one way or the other, myself.”
Jimun’s expression, which had been shrugging and smiling, grew steadily darker.
“He lives on the 3rd Floor, or so I heard. Once we get home today, everyone should start cleaning their rooms first.”
Even if she ended up getting kicked out, she couldn’t bear the shame of having been a slob. The house needed cleaning before anyone got back.
“Surely he doesn’t go opening every door to inspect the rooms? I’ve left mine an absolute mess.”
“It’s not just your room. Suho and Yun Geon’s are in the same state.”
“The kids will think this came out of nowhere.”
“You’ve all been living comfortably enough up to now. Come on, get up. Does moping about solve anything?”
“No.”
Bom pulled the dejected Jimun to his feet and together they left the Tea Room.
But the usually quiet Station seemed unusually bustling.
Bom perked up her ears and approached the cluster of nurses gathered there.
“What’s going on? Who came in?”
“What’s the fuss about?”
Jimun, following close behind Bom, looked at the nurses with equally curious eyes.
They were all craning their necks like meerkats, their gaze fixed on a single point. Bom and Jimun’s eyes followed theirs simultaneously.
“Wow… that’s Cha Tae Mun, right?”
“I think so.”
Cha Tae Mun, whom she’d assumed was sleeping soundly at home, stood reviewing the Patient Chart of a child who’d had surgery yesterday, draped in a blue Medical Gown.
The others had no idea.
They didn’t know what kind of animal-like body he was hiding beneath that handsome face and blue gown.
Steam began to rise in Bom’s mind again.
Smack!
She slapped her own cheek to shake the thought away.
Regardless of whether Bom slapped herself or not, the nurses’ eyes never left Cha Tae Mun.
Standing apart with them, watching Cha Tae Mun in secret from a distance, Bom suddenly flinched.
Cha Tae Mun, who had been studying the Patient Chart with intense focus, slowly looked up, and his gaze shot toward the Station.
Bom hurriedly bowed her head in greeting.
His keen black eyes landed on her for a moment, then shifted to Jimun.
A flutter.
He beckoned Jimun with an elegant gesture.
“You did call for me, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. Go on.”
I nudged Jimun in the ribs, and he took off at lightning speed.
It was a perfect snapshot of just how much Jimun deferred to his older cousin.
I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying from where I stood, but from the way they gestured at the Patient Chart and then at the patient, it looked like he was grilling Jimun about the patient’s condition throughout the night.
Jimun stood there with both hands clasped in front of him, the very picture of contrition.
Jimun might be timid and anxious by nature, but holding that posture in front of his cousin meant…….
There was nothing left to contemplate.
Terrifying.
What had I been thinking, planning to move in with someone so utterly frightening?
There were single rooms everywhere around the Hospital.
I should just pick any place and go.

“I haven’t shown a woman my naked body since puberty.”

By Cha Tae Mun’s own admission, I’d become the first woman since his adolescence to see him unclothed, and no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine how to take responsibility for that.
Someone as fragile as me didn’t have the fortitude to handle him.
I should just back out and find another room without making a fuss.
Just seeing him here at the Hospital was enough to make me feel faint.
As I was shuddering and shaking at the thought, a nurse standing beside me tapped my arm and spoke up.
“Bom.”
“Yes?”
“That guy over there.”
The nurse raised her hand without hesitation and pointed at Cha Tae Mun.
Please don’t point. That’s rude.

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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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