The Trashy PD Has To Survive as an Idol - Chapter 145

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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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145

I’m screwed.
Without thinking, my gaze dropped. That’s when I noticed my trembling hands gripping the sink.
He said he was leaving—so when exactly did he come back?
Even in a moment like this, my mind habitually assessed the situation.
Did Kang Yi-chae see the blood? Yes, he did.
Do I have a plausible excuse? He’s not someone I can fool.
If I honestly told him it was because of a System penalty? The hospital ward would only get more crowded.
Hitting myself in the back of the head to lose my memory? That might kill me faster.

‘No matter what I do, I’m going to look insane….’

The back of my head throbbed.
Thinking I needed to say something, anything, to clear the air, I turned off the sink water and opened my mouth.

“Yi-chae, first of all….”

At that moment, Kang Yi-chae came down from the doorway and entered the bathroom.
The wet slippers made a soft patting sound against the floor, and my hearing sharpened involuntarily.
Whether or not I stopped speaking to stare at him, Kang Yi-chae approached the toilet, even verified its contents, then pressed the lever firmly with his finger.

The water rushed down.

“….”

As the sound of flushing ended, silence settled in.
It was obvious he’d deliberately cut me off.

“Before I call an ambulance, there are a few things I want to confirm.”

Kang Yi-chae’s eyes moved from the toilet to the sink, then to me.

‘How am I going to handle this?’

All traces of humor had vanished from his face, and though he tried to appear composed, his eyes gleamed with barely suppressed emotion.
I understood why he’d be concerned seeing a member unwell, but I hadn’t expected him to react with such intensity.

‘…Did I touch a nerve?’

The guy whose jokes and laughter usually filled half his sentences, whose lips never seemed to turn downward—seeing him like this made even me feel the weight of the moment.

“Did you catch some incurable disease?”
“…No.”
“Then do you have some trauma related to hospitals?”
“…I don’t have that either.”
“Then why?”

Kang Yi-chae lifted his eyes and locked his gaze with mine.

“Why are you holed up in here right now?”

Red warning lights flashed in my mind.
I tried to quickly cut him off before he could piece it together.

“Kang Yi-chae, w-wait…. Cough. Ahem.”

A cough erupted, and blood I’d been holding in my mouth sprayed out. The atmosphere in the bathroom grew even heavier.

“…It’s not what you’re thinking.”

I shut my eyes tight for a moment, then opened them, my mind made up.
At this point, everything was already exposed, and I had no decent excuse anyway. If I just dragged this out a little longer, it would pass. The best strategy seemed to be talking my way through it smoothly and convincing him this was nothing serious.

“Sorry for scaring you. The truth is, my stomach’s been a bit off. Whenever I get tired or my condition dips, this happens sometimes. I’m already seeing a doctor back in Korea.”
“….”
“I’m already on medication, and if I get a new prescription and it backfires, what then? Besides, even if I went to the hospital, it’s nothing serious—it’ll just cause unnecessary rumors.”

Going to the hospital would be a disaster.
Even if I managed to suppress any news articles in Korea, the real problem was that I had symptoms but my body was perfectly healthy.
One wrong move and rumors would spread that I was some idol cursed with an undiagnosed incurable disease, like a drama protagonist.
I forced myself to relax my grip and act like everything was fine.

“…You understand, right, Kang Yi-chae?”

However, Kang Yi-chae stared at me with an unreadable expression.

“Done saying everything?”
“…!”
“Then I’ll call now.”

Damn it—was he really planning to call an ambulance?
I quickly grabbed Kang Yi-chae’s hand as he calmly reached for his phone.
None of my lengthy excuses had worked.

“Hey, wait a second.”
“What.”

‘Damn it.’

Part of me had actually been relieved it was Kang Yi-chae.
I’d thought he’d be easier to brush off than the rigid Kim Sung-hyun who wouldn’t listen to anything, or Sung Ji-won who’d smile and drag me to the hospital anyway, or the youngest, Jung Da-jun, whom I didn’t want to see me like this.
But looking at him now, that wasn’t the case at all.

‘He’s pissed.’

With one eyebrow raised sharply, Kang Yi-chae was radiating an intimidating presence.
The blood from my coughing fit had left a mark on his wrist.
Knowing it was a shallow ploy, I lowered my head anyway.
To escape this situation,

“…Hey, Kang Yi-chae.”

I decided to appeal to his emotions.

“You’re upset? You don’t trust your brother? You seem shocked because you’ve never seen this before, but it’s more common than you’d think. If it were serious, I would’ve rushed to the hospital first… *cough cough!* Hack!”
“….”
“…I would’ve rushed first… *retch.*”
“….”
“*Hack, cough*….”
“….”

Yet Kang Yi-chae remained expressionless throughout.
Even as my vision blurred and my head spun, I managed to gather my wits and barely piece together my words.

“…I’m fine.”

Even so, I forced myself to swallow the blood pooling in my mouth, trying to appear composed, but Kang Yi-chae merely tilted his head and asked this.

“Enjoying yourself?”

Damn it.
I turned my head and spat the remaining blood into the sink.

“You bastard…. You’re my brother—can’t you just let this slide?”

I considered how to get out of this, whether I should pass out again, but then realized that if I actually ended up in a hospital, things would get even worse, so I immediately dismissed the thought.
I wished the System Window would help, but at times like this, it offered nothing.
Kang Yi-chae let out a small sigh and pulled his wrist free from my grip.

“I don’t understand….”
“….”
“The reason I didn’t drag you to the hospital immediately despite seeing you like this, the reason I asked—it was out of respect for you. I was wondering why someone with a sharp mind would stubbornly do something like this.”

Seo Ho-yoon, the kind of person who ate three meals a day without fail and lived with ginseng sticks in his mouth, was in this much pain yet refusing to go to the hospital—I wondered if it was a condition where the hospital wouldn’t help anyway.
But since I’d said it wasn’t like that, Kang Yi-chae had no reason to just sit and watch me suffer in the hotel room.

“But the excuse you’re making right now is pretty pathetic.”

Kang Yi-chae wiped the blood on his wrist once, then lifted his head to look at me.

“…Hey.”

I took a moment to breathe deeply.
Enduring the splitting headache, I reached for the towel hanging beside Kang Yi-chae and grabbed it.

“I’m not going.”
“….”

And I roughly wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth.
Honestly, I didn’t understand why I was so worked up….

‘No.’

That’s not what matters right now.

“I get your position. Honestly, even I think it’s pathetic what I’m saying, but if you just leave me alone for about half a day, it’ll get better.”
“…Half a day?”

Kang Yi-chae murmured those final words.
That System bastard—they said it was getting better, but the pain still crashed over me relentlessly.
My mind wasn’t working anymore, and I decided to reveal only the bare minimum truth to somehow calm down this wild-eyed bastard.

“Yeah. Look, your complexion’s already improved a bit, hasn’t it?”

Of course, the mirror still reflected nothing but a sickly, pallid wreck.
At my shameless words, Kang Yi-chae swept his hair back with an incredulous expression. Standing before him, I pressed on even more shamelessly.

“If you really want to go to the Hospital, just wait half a day… no, exactly three hours.”
“….”
“You know me well. I don’t do reckless things. So trust me just this once, yeah?”

Kang Yi-chae’s lips twitched slightly,

“Star….”

He wiped away the blood scattered across the Bathroom, his gaze wavering as he looked at me.
The man who moments ago seemed unwilling to budge an inch had weakened slightly—caught by one of the words I’d carelessly thrown out.
His eyes, emotions tightly compressed within, closed slightly, and a hollow laugh escaped his lips.
That’s when I understood.
Kang Yi-chae would listen to what I had to say.

“Thank you.”

Thinking I’d managed to gloss over it, I quickly turned toward the door to escape the Bathroom, when Kang Yi-chae’s eyebrows twitched,

Slam!!

“…!”

…and he kicked the Bathroom door shut with his foot.

“One hour.”

A chill ran down my spine as the wind brushed past my face.
The one who’d slammed the bathroom door shut tilted his head to the right. Already looking like a thug, he appeared far more menacing when angry than anyone else.

“One hour. That’s all you get.”
“….”
“If you’re not better by then, you’re listening to me.”

…Could I possibly recover within an hour?

Ding!

[…One hour gives a 17% probability of success.]

Without me asking, the System Window seemed to sense my unspoken question and chimed in appropriately.

‘Am I insane?’

No matter how I thought about it, one hour was far too short.
But the atmosphere around Kang Yi-chae didn’t permit me to ask for more time, so I merely rubbed the back of my neck and grumbled.

“…Say it with words, you bastard.”

I pushed Kang Yi-chae aside and opened the bathroom door again.
After drying my hands with the towel I’d been holding, I collapsed onto the bed.

‘Damn it….’

As I pulled the blanket up, I briefly replayed what had just happened.

‘Kang Yi-chae looks absolutely vicious when he’s angry.’

Right now, I was just grateful he wasn’t strangling me.
Kang Yi-chae, who’d followed me out, dragged a chair over and plopped down beside me, arms crossed.

Bzzzzt.

[CEO]

I tried to ignore the heavy silence pressing down on the room, suppressing my cough and the blood I was holding back, when my phone suddenly rang.
As I fumbled for my phone to answer it, Kang Yi-chae snatched it away and threw it into the corner of the bed.

“…Hey.”
“What.”
“That was actually an important call…”

My eyes rolled toward where the phone lay, and I could see weariness and cynicism etched across Kang Yi-chae’s cold face—emotions far too mature for a twenty-two-year-old.

“A leak? Or damage control?”
“…”
“Does it have to be right now?”

He was saying he’d caught on to everything—the smoking scandal and the leak.
Momentarily stunned, I wiped my sweat-soaked forehead with my hand and kept my eyes fixed on the ceiling as I spoke.

“…Yi-chae.”
“…”
“Why are you so upset?”

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand that part.

“Is it because I didn’t tell you guys? Because I was suffering alone? Or because I lied just now? …I just didn’t want to worry you.”

I added a note of vulnerability to my words.
Some of it was genuine, anyway.

“It’s not like I’m dying, cough… The person involved is fine. It’s something that’ll get better anyway, so you’re just wasting energy worrying about it right now.”
“What?”
“Say that again?”

I threw down the towel I’d been holding over my mouth while coughing and drove home my final point.

“You’re overreacting right now.”

Kang Yi-chae simply stared at me.

“Overreacting?”

And I spoke.

“My mom passed away acting like you, Hyung.”
“…!”
“I couldn’t help but notice the hyperventilation. It’s hard to hide. But everything else—I didn’t realize because she was always smiling when she looked at me.”

‘Damn it.’

“By the time I found out, it was already over.”

I’d misspoken.
The calm way the words continued made them cut all the deeper.

“Does that answer why I’m being so dramatic?”

…I was wrong.
I covered my face with both hands and went through the motions of washing it.

“…I’m sorry.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look at Kang Yi-chae.
After a long silence, Kang Yi-chae sighed.
Then a soft sensation touched my hands. Kang Yi-chae pressed a fresh towel into my hands and spoke in a slightly gentler tone.

“It’s okay. That was just me venting too.”
“….”
“I’m acting out now because I couldn’t do it back then—at least with you as a stand-in. Cut me some slack.”
“…But, cough… I mean, it’s not really that serious, you know?”
“While coughing?”

I tried to offer some excuse, but naturally it fell completely flat with Kang Yi-chae.

“If Jung Da-jun were in the same situation as you right now, could you say something like that?”
“….”
“The person who would’ve thrown a fit if Jung Da-jun had acted like you—now you’re acting like it’s nothing when it’s your own problem.”

Every word he spoke was a perfect strike.
I had no strength to argue back, so I closed my mouth.

“I’ll understand anyway. I respect whatever you do behind the scenes, as long as you’re living healthy and happy.”
“…That’s how people should live.”
“Right?”
“It’s possible if you have money.”

Kang Yi-chae’s eyes softened at my words spoken with complete sincerity, and a faint smile crossed his face.

“Yeah, if that’s your happiness. I really love how things are now—Da-jun, you hyungs, all of it. I want to keep going like this.”
“….”
“So let’s stay together for a long time, healthy and strong. Don’t get sick somewhere I don’t know about.”

After saying that, Kang Yi-chae pulled his body back and settled comfortably against the chair’s backrest. His expression seemed far more relaxed than when we started.

“…Yi-chae.”

I couldn’t miss this moment.
I was about to carefully broach the subject of extending it to three hours, suppressing a chill and gauging his mood, when—

“Oh.”

Kang Yi-chae spoke in a soft voice.

“46 minutes left.”
“….”
“I should get ready to call a taxi.”

This damn bastard….
I genuinely regretted not just smacking Kang Yi-chae in the head from the start and making him lose his memory.

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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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