SOS! I’m Being Forced to Be a Villain - Chapter 51
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 51
‘Even in that situation, both of them started to feel something called affection for me.’
Maybe it was precisely because of that situation that it became a trigger for them to feel affection. But why?
‘Seeing me collapsed like that, whether it was pity or protective instinct, something must have bloomed in them.’
I muttered inwardly. However, there was strangely less venom in that tone.
‘Anyway, it wasn’t like they were just pretending to be nice for a moment out of some pathetic pity.’
Now that I had escaped from the System’s control that had been arbitrarily stimulating me, I finally felt like my head was working properly. Of course, that didn’t mean the suspicious anger and distrust toward Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min disappeared all at once.
Irritably running my hands through my hair, I slowly reached out. I rummaged through the coat hanging at the foot of the sickbed and pulled out my phone.
I was planning to check the contact that Seo Jung-hoo had supposedly sent. However, as soon as I turned on the phone, what appeared and filled the screen wasn’t a message from Seo Jung-hoo, but a pile of messages from another familiar sender.
Yu Baek-hyeon
I heard you collapsed and were taken to the Emergency Room.
What would have happened if there weren’t people around to call for help.
Baek-hwa, should your brother return to Korea? Are you okay?
Contact me when you see this message.
The message window was packed full of countless speech bubbles. As I stared at the screen with tired eyes, new messages came pouring down like rain, as if someone had reported that I had woken up.
Yu Baek-hyeon
Baek-hwa
I heard you woke up.
How’s your body? Are you okay?
Your brother hopes you’ll rest a few more days before being discharged.
Since you ended up at the Hospital anyway, why don’t you get some tests done while you’re there…
Before he could continue, I frantically tapped the screen and irritably closed the message window with my brother. If I left it alone like this for long, he’d probably start bombing me with phone calls too, but I had no choice. At least right now, I didn’t have the energy left to argue back and forth with my brother about everything.
Swallowing a sigh, I shifted my gaze. Below my brother who was still sending messages non-stop, I saw a message from an unfamiliar phone number that wasn’t saved.
Rest well today.
As I glared at the speech bubble on the screen with sullen eyes, I suddenly shifted my gaze to the top of the phone. Then I discovered something unbelievable and stiffened in shock.
“…11 o’clock? 11 PM?”
I had been unconscious for over 9 hours?
This was the first time in several years that I had woken up after being out for such a long time. In other words, it also meant that my physical condition had gotten considerably worse recently.
So to summarize.
My condition had deteriorated due to excessive stress lately.
Meanwhile, that damn System had gone from controlling me at will to now even threatening me with my life as leverage.
For some reason, the intentions of Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min who kept clinging to me became more incomprehensible as time went on…
‘…Wait a minute.’
I can check that last one directly, can’t I.
Fortunately, I could access the profile information of the main characters Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min, and those profiles contained items like ‘current emotional state’ and ‘inner thoughts.’
In other words, when I asked those two questions, I could thoroughly check whether they were pretending not to know while thinking something else inside, or whether they were lying to me.
It was a method I hadn’t thought of in the Park because I was too busy being manipulated by the System’s power. So if I could find out what those two’s purpose was even now, then.
‘…I’m really being ridiculous. What meaning would that have.’
Even if Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min weren’t just suffering from mere pity or good Samaritan syndrome, but were treating me for some other reason with genuine sincerity, what could I do about it? I didn’t want to risk my life just to hang around with those two.
‘Now I need to somehow convince them not to follow me on the way Home from school.’
Meeting separately on weekends like today, recklessly trying to throw my life away?
Even I found it ridiculous. A bitter lament seeped into the hollow laughter that escaped through my teeth.
I twisted the corners of my mouth and rolled my eyes meaninglessly. Then I asked the nurse who approached the sickbed to add an IV bag.
“Could you call Dr. Seong Tae-hwan for me?”
The nurse who finished her work said to wait a moment and left. And not long after, the man himself appeared.
Seong Tae-hwan, who had reached the front of the sickbed, shook his head firmly as if he already anticipated what I was going to say.
“No. As I said before, you need to finish all the nutritional IV…
“Move me to a private Room.”
About to refuse immediately, Seong Tae-hwan’s eyes widened.
“Huh? What?”
“I’m going to stay at the Hospital for a few more days before leaving. Of course, I won’t get any tests done.”
Seong Tae-hwan seemed flustered and kept opening and closing his mouth. Getting tired of waiting for him, I frowned slightly.
“You said it would be better to stay at the Hospital for a few more days to monitor my progress. Isn’t that right?”
“No… that’s right. Yes. You made a good decision, Baek-hwa.”
Looking up at Seong Tae-hwan who seemed quite pleased, I quickly turned my head away.
The smell and noise of this place, the Hospital space itself, was still not at all welcome to me. But this time, I had no choice but to make the decision to stay at the Hospital.
I didn’t want to go outside and get harmed by those sent by the System, nor did I want to be caught and tormented by the clueless Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min. For that, it was better to stay here at the Hospital, which was relatively comfortable for hiding alone.
“But would it be okay to go to a private Room?”
To Seong Tae-hwan who was checking just in case, I slowly rolled my eyes.
I knew what Seong Tae-hwan was worried about. I had spent most of my childhood alone in private hospital rooms, and Seong Tae-hwan knew that fact well too. That’s why he would have heard from my brother and known that I, as an adult, extremely disliked being hospitalized.
But unfortunately, even by my own assessment, I wasn’t normal right now. Both physically and mentally.
So it was better to choose a private Room rather than a shared Room bustling with strangers.
As I was roughly nodding to show agreement, I suddenly narrowed my eyes and glared at Seong Tae-hwan.
“Don’t add weird things when you talk to my brother. I’m just tired and want to rest for a few days.”
“…Well. Would there ever be a case where you, Baek-hwa, choose a Hospital instead of Home or a Hotel when you want to rest.”
“That’s what’s happening now, right now.”
Seong Tae-hwan subtly avoided me. At that, my eyes trembled, and I snapped back with an even sharper tone.
“You’re done with your business, so hurry up and leave.”
“The nurses will come soon.”
Seong Tae-hwan, who had conveyed several guidance matters, finally checked my condition one last time. Since such explanations and procedures were already tediously familiar, I didn’t hide my annoyance and openly displayed how fed up I was as I fidgeted.
Soon Seong Tae-hwan said he’d see me again later and turned around. Only then did I languidly stretch out my body on the sickbed.
Rather than getting just the IV and being discharged immediately to meet Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min, and thus creating another opportunity to be tormented by the System again, it would be much better to rest at the Hospital for a few days. So I was planning to stay here for at least three or four days.
Naturally, I had no intention of replying to Seo Jung-hoo’s contact, nor did I plan to take the initiative to inform them of my location.
‘I’ll protect myself.’
I couldn’t trust anyone. I didn’t even have the desire to trust.
I had absolutely no intention, really not even a little, of entrusting authority over myself to others. The experience of suffering contradictory pain under the pretext of being for my own good was enough once in my childhood.
I switched my phone to silent mode, then eventually turned it off completely. I planned not to receive any contact while staying at the Hospital.
Seong Tae-hwan would contact my brother on his own…
Like that, I pushed away all thoughts about Seo Jung-hoo and Kwon Tae-min far into the distance.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————