Leave the Hero's Ex-Girlfriend Alone! - Chapter 14

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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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Leave the hero’s ex-girlfriend alone!
EP14
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In the end, I came down with a nasty cold.
37.5 degrees.
I’d been feeling chilled since yesterday, so I guess this was where it was headed.
I swallowed a dry cough and slowly pushed myself up.
My head was spinning, and my arms and legs felt so heavy, it was as if they’d been nailed to the floor.
But no matter how sick I was, dying at the office was the duty of every office worker.
I splashed some water on my face, barely managed to change clothes, and left the house.
For some reason, today it was unusually hard to step out through that door.
I can’t remember how I made it to the office, my mind was such a fog.
Staggering, I somehow dropped into my chair and switched on the computer.
Woooong—
The sound of Windows booting up rang faintly through my skull.
“Haah…”
A deep sigh welled up from somewhere below my navel.
Not only was there a scorching heat, but I’d started to shiver, my whole body trembling.
Just get through today…
If I can hold out today, it’s the weekend.
I steeled myself and checked the work I had to finish today.
I had to write the report on yesterday’s studio shoot, and then what was the next thing…
It was getting harder and harder to concentrate.
Am I going to pass out at work at this rate?
Will this count as a workplace injury…?
I honestly have no idea how I got through the rest of the day.
After clocking out, I dragged my heavy body home.
I stopped by the hospital on the way and picked up my medicine, but I didn’t even have the energy to eat.
Thud.
Without taking off my bag or my coat, I collapsed straight onto the bed.
All I wanted now was to fall asleep without a single thought in my head.
Just then—
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
A salesman, maybe…
Whatever. Please, just leave me alone.
I pressed a pillow over my ears and squirmed.
Ding-dong.
The bell rang once more.
“Seriously, what now.”
Grumbling, I got up from the bed.
My head swayed heavily.
I braced myself against the wall and barely made it to the intercom.
The face on the intercom screen made me freeze in shock.
What are you doing here?
Am I seeing things because I’m sick…?
I pressed the call button on the intercom and spoke in a hoarse voice.
“What is it?”
The guy on the screen gave a small smile and shook the paper bag in his hand.
“I figured you hadn’t eaten.”
“I’m fine. I don’t feel like eating right now.”
“Why? You said you were sick. I’ll just leave this here.”
His eyes were like those of an abandoned puppy.
I wondered if I’d been too cold to someone who’d come out of concern.
“Um… hang on a second. Simba’s here.”
“Oh, the cat?”
“Yeah. Just wait a moment.”
I ended the intercom call, gently scooped up Simba, and shut her in the small room for a while.
“Simba, stay in here for a bit. Be a good girl, okay?”
As if she’d sensed I wasn’t well, Simba curled up obediently.
I shut the door to the small room and immediately opened the front door.
That guy poked his head in and pushed his way into the entryway as if he’d been waiting for exactly this.
“Hey, I never said you could come in.”
I blocked the door with my body before it was even fully open.
“Doesn’t that mean I can?”
He grinned brightly and lifted a paper bag.
Tilting his head, he studied my face as he spoke.
I stood planted on the threshold and narrowed my eyes.
“That’s not—”
“I’m coming in.”
Before I could finish, he twisted his body sideways and slipped past me with ease.
“Hey!!”
I shouted, but it was already too late.
He had already kicked off his shoes, strode into the kitchen, and set the paper bag down on the dining table.
“I’ve already set foot in, and I’ve taken my shoes off. There’s no going back now.”
“This is trespassing. Are you a thief or something? Seriously…”
I pressed a hand to my forehead and shook my head.
Heat radiated from my palm against my brow.
“Just eat. You have to eat it while it’s warm.”
He slowly took a container of porridge out of the bag.
He pried off the lid and held out a spoon he’d thought to bring along.
He looked ready to stay put until I took at least one bite.
When I took it from him without a word, he sat down across from me.
I sat at the table and carefully spooned up the porridge.
Watching me, he got up, took a bottle of water from the fridge, and poured me a glass.
“Th-thanks.”
I mumbled around the spoon between my lips.
Satisfied with that, he just smiled and stared at me without looking away as I ate.
This situation was incredibly uncomfortable.
I felt like I might choke on it.
I forced down spoonfuls of porridge that no longer wanted to go down, trying hard not to pay attention to him.
I wasn’t in any state to think clearly, so I needed to get out of this spot as quickly as possible.
“I’m done. Thanks.”
“You’re not going to eat more?”
“No, I’ve lost my appetite.”
At my words, he began clearing the dishes off the table.
I said nothing and watched his back as he tidied up.
Having eaten, drowsiness was creeping over me, and I genuinely wanted to rest.
I let out a short breath and decided I had to send this uninvited intruder back out.
“Now that’s enough—”
Before I could even finish, the world spun before my eyes.
I tried to get up from the chair, lost my balance, and swayed.
On instinct, I grabbed the table to steady myself.
A glass slipped off the edge of the sink with a clink, and he abandoned the dishes and rushed over.
A sharp ‘Ugh’ reached my ears, and in an instant my body was lifted off the ground.
Alpha had one arm wrapped around my waist, the other hand supporting me.
Like that, he carried me out of the kitchen.
“Hey, hey. Put me down. What are you doing?”
I struggled to slip out of his arms.
“Don’t squirm. You’ll fall.”
“Then just put me down.”
Ignoring my words, he gave me a little jolt and readjusted his grip.
It felt even tighter than before, as if he had me held in a vise.
“I’ll see you to your destination safely and kindly, so please sit still.”
With this cold sapping my strength, I didn’t have the energy to argue.
I gave up, rested my chin on his shoulder, and let my body go limp.
At that, he patted my back lightly and walked slowly into the bedroom.
Rustle.
Still holding me, he pulled back the blanket with one hand and gently set me down.
But on second thought.
“You could have just used your power, you know.”
He shrugged once and cracked a joke so lame it didn’t deserve a laugh.
“Come on, it’d be nostalgic, right?”
“Yeah, right.”
I nudged him away with my foot as he tried to slip onto the edge of the bed.
“Ow, ow,” he whined, and his ridiculous performance of suffering made me want to laugh and sigh at the same time.
“You went to the hospital, didn’t you? Did they give you medicine?”
“It’s in my bag.”
I jerked my chin toward the bag I’d tossed carelessly by the kitchen.
He went straight to the kitchen and came back to the bedroom with water and the pills.
How could he be so at home here.
I slowly pushed myself up and took the medicine he held out to me.
After swallowing the pills with a sip of water, my stomach felt a little steadier.
My head was still spinning, but there were things I had to settle.
“Just go now. You know very well we’re not that kind of pair anymore.”
“I know.”
He seemed to answer calmly, but his eyes wavered for a moment.
He glanced at my face, then tossed out a line as if to break the awkward silence.
“Still, that was harsh. Ending it with a single text message.”
He pressed both hands to his chest with a playful look and added something like, ‘I’m so hurt.’
I’m serious, but he’s still playing it like a joke.
If I kept going like this, I’d end up being jerked around by him, just like always.
“Here’s the thing.”
I parted my lips.
“I hate that you’re a Hero.”
I meant it.
I didn’t want to be anyone’s girlfriend, or anyone’s target, any longer.
“…Can’t you just quit?”
For the first time, I asked him that.
It was a question that dragged up everything I’d held back, every anxiety I’d buried, and the last frayed edge of feelings I had never once put into words.
Alpha hesitated for a long while, as if he hadn’t expected me to ask such a thing.
Carefully, as if refining the words he meant to say.
“….”
But in the end, there was no answer.
That meant he couldn’t let go of anything.
Holding on to what he wanted to protect and what he couldn’t release, he sounded as if he’d declared that he would only keep things exactly as they were.
A hollow feeling began to spread through me.
“You can’t even choose, yet you keep showing up like this, looking after me, being so gentle… Stop confusing me.”
My voice began to tremble.
Whether it was because I was sick or not, I couldn’t keep my emotions in check.
“Don’t. Don’t do that.”
I stressed it once more.
The playfulness vanished from his face.
“…Please, just go.”
I pulled the blanket up over my head and lay down in bed.
“….”
“….”
Alpha quietly smoothed the edge of the blanket and got to his feet.
I heard a few footsteps, then they stopped.
I silently begged him, just this once, to answer me.
But Alpha never said a word.

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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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