## Chapter 227 – A Week Without Weekends
“…….”
I definitely fell asleep on the street, but waking up to see a ceiling is an experience I’m now used to. Instead of trying to move my unresponsive body, I lifted my heavy arms. My arms, where the burns hadn’t completely healed, were wrapped tightly in bandages, and the other arm was in a cast. It seemed I was hurt much worse than I thought. I didn’t even know my arm was broken.
“…Ugh…”
Clutching my side, which was covered in dark purple bruises, I barely managed to sit up, and my whole body screamed in protest. Letting out a small groan, I managed to get up and stretch the stiff muscles in my neck.
“…But where is this…”
As I turned my head, my vision slowly started to clear, and I saw a white ceiling, and sunlight streaming through the curtains, hitting my right eye. Everything else was unfamiliar. A wide space with a bed I was lying on, a table with a potted plant, a small refrigerator, and a TV hanging on the wall.
This wasn’t my studio apartment, Seohee’s house, or the temporary place I’d taken from Jung Ah-woon. I was alone in a room with nothing familiar.
“…Lee Chaeyoon? Hey, is anyone… Ugh?!”
Something was very wrong. In my last vague memory, I clearly saw Chaeyoon. And I heard Seohee calling me as she approached. But I was alone in a place like this.
Thinking something was wrong, I endured the pain of my body breaking and tried to get out of bed. At that moment, I heard a ‘clink’ of metal against metal from one of my legs, and I couldn’t move it. Because my leg wouldn’t move as I wanted, I fell straight back onto the bed, writhing in silent agony as the impact went to my broken bone.
“Shit…! What is this? This is, handcuffs…?”
As the pain subsided a little, I lifted the blanket covering my body to check what was binding my foot. It was handcuffs. Not a toy, but steel handcuffs connecting my ankle to the bed. And what I was wearing under the blanket wasn’t my shirt, but a patient gown with a regular pattern. Only then did I realize where I was and what was happening.
“…A hospital?”
The injuries and fatigue from the fight with Keen had already pushed my body to its limit, and I’d passed out from the sudden attack by Nigeum, Keen’s colleague and a Creator. I didn’t remember anything after that, but when I opened my eyes, I was handcuffed to a hospital bed.
This was probably…
I could easily break these handcuffs, but I didn’t plan to. I turned my head to find the nurse call button on the head of the bed and pressed it. Now they would know I was awake.
I stopped trying to move my body and leaned back against the bed, relaxing my whole body. With a languid sigh, I turned my head to look out the window, waiting for someone to come into the room.
‘Tap, tap.’
“……”
It felt like less than 30 seconds after pressing the bell when I heard footsteps in the hallway outside the door. Several heavy, dull sounds. At least it wasn’t a nurse coming to check on my condition.
“…You’re awake? I’m coming in.”
“Yes, come in.”
As if to confirm my guess, I heard a man’s voice knocking and sounding annoyed. The man opened the door before I could even finish answering. It was definitely not a nurse, and not Chaeyoon or Seohee either, but two men in plain clothes.
“Are you Lim Chanwoo? Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Minhyuk, a detective from the Violent Crimes Unit 2 at Seojin Police Station.”
“Yes.”
One pot-bellied middle-aged man and one unshaven middle-aged man took out their IDs from their pockets. These men introducing themselves with the cards hanging around their necks were as expected, police officers.
“…You don’t seem very surprised?”
“Well, with something like this on my ankle, nothing surprises me.”
“We put it on your foot because you hurt your arms badly.”
Leaving the fat man standing still, the detective Lee Minhyuk sat down on a chair next to the bed.
“Well, that’s beside the point. How’s your body? The doctor said you were in bad shape. Four broken ribs, second-degree burns on one arm, a fracture on the other, a concussion, and a ruptured stomach… You look too fine for all that. The doctor said you wouldn’t be able to get up for a while?”
“…I have good endurance. So, what about you, detective? I don’t think you came to ask how I am.”
I said, making eye contact with the detective, who was smiling but staring sharply at me. Then the potbelly, who had been standing like a stone statue, chuckled softly as if he was dumbfounded, and Lee Minhyuk, still smiling, took out a cell phone from his pocket.
“…Let’s start with this. It’s the ‘Sunghoe University Murder Case’ video that’s all over social media right now.”
“…..”
Lee Minhyuk touched his phone and turned the screen toward me, playing a video. The shaky video started from the point when Keen and I were surrounded by the crowd. The conversations Keen and I had were drowned out by the murmuring of the people. The video showed Keen being kicked away by a front kick and flying into a tree behind me.
“…First of all, this video was taken at Sunghoe University yesterday. Yesterday, the man in this video with you killed one female student, and another man who ran away with him killed three students. It was a mess. Four students were killed in the middle of Seoul, at a university.”
“…If that video was taken yesterday, then I’ve been unconscious for a day, and you’ve already investigated everything at the school, right?”
“You’re young, but you’re quick on the uptake. You’re right. We’re looking for the two escaped criminals, and we suspect you too. You weren’t in the video, but anyone can see that you were talking to this man, and in the CCTV footage we secured from the school, you met this man first.”
“…..”
In the end, what I never wanted to happen was happening. The two detectives in front of me were speaking politely, but they already saw me as an accomplice and were trying to get information.
“…So, tell me, what did you talk about with that man? Everything, without leaving anything out. I’m saying this because you might get caught up in this too.”
I wanted to tell them, but I couldn’t. No, would they even believe me if I told them? That those men weren’t human, but ancient beings who had lived for centuries, with power that couldn’t be compared to ordinary humans, and their goal was world domination. That kind of story that only comes out in children’s animation? They’d think I was crazy.
“…Caught up? Shouldn’t I be the victim? I didn’t kill anyone. Those men suddenly attacked me, and I had no choice but to respond. It was self-defense…”
“Ha, Chanwoo. No, Chanwoo, listen carefully. People died, no matter what the reason. Students, friends of the same age, died at the school you used to attend. I’m telling you nicely. I already have a headache because all the witnesses are saying strange things… Look, I didn’t want to show you this because it looks like a threat, but take a look at this.”
I tried to deny it, but Lee Minhyuk, who had been listening quietly, scratched his head in annoyance and turned to another video on his phone.
In that video, Keen grabbed a woman, lifted her up, and broke her neck, killing her. Then, he approached a man who had fallen while running away and reached out his hand. Just before Keen’s hand grabbed the fallen man, a flash of light burst out from the edge of the video. Lee Minhyuk stopped the video, which showed the flash burning Keen’s right arm.
He put his phone back in his pocket, stood up from his chair, and leaned his face close to mine.
“It’s hard to see because the image is blurry, but the direction from which that strange light came… was where you were lying. What did you shoot? A gun? That’s illegal possession of a weapon. You even shot someone with it. This could ruin your life.”
…They’re mistaking the ray of light I shot with the power of Lapis for a gun. I guess they would. Who would think someone shot such a high-voltage laser with their bare hands? But this was troublesome. Four people died in broad daylight at a university in the middle of Seoul, and I was at the center of it. And two unidentified men. Since they had no information about those two, the focus would be on me, and in the worst case, I could be stuck in Korea before I could even get to the research lab’s headquarters.
Even if I could resolve the situation with these two through conversation, it would take a lot of time. With Keen closer to Iria’s body than me, I didn’t have time to waste.
“…So, tell me honestly now. What’s your relationship with those two? Why did you fight? If you tell me now, I might be able to overlook the illegal weapon…”
“…I’m sorry, detective.”
“…Huh?”
Gathering the remaining strength in my body, I recovered enough to move with the golden light, and in an instant, I pulled my foot and broke the handcuffs that were tied to the bed, then took a stance.
“What suddenly… Ugh?!”
As I got up, I punched the detective Lee Minhyuk in front of me in the jaw, and at that moment, the detective’s body floated in the air, spun around once, and fell to the floor. I had controlled my strength so he wouldn’t die, but he probably wouldn’t be able to get up for a while.
“Hey, hey?! Wait, stop! If you do this here…”
The potbelly who had come in with the detective looked surprised and raised his hands high.
“…I’m sorry, sir.”
“Ugh?!”
I slowly approached the man and apologized quietly, then raised my hand high and slapped the man’s soft, fleshy cheek. The man collapsed with a ‘smack.’ I had controlled my strength, so he wouldn’t die either… but now there was no turning back.
“I hit a police officer…”
Even though it was unavoidable, this was a reason that would sound like an excuse to ordinary people. I was already suspected of being an accomplice with that bastard Keen, and now I’d hit a police officer. This would turn the suspicion toward me into certainty, and if I left the hospital room now…
I’d be caught by the nurses or the police who had come with these two. Then I had no choice. I searched the detectives’ pockets, but my cell phone wasn’t there. Was it at the police station…? I sat the two limp bodies on the sofa, then took off the patient gown and put on Lee Minhyuk’s clothes.
I finished preparing to go outside and took a deep breath. From now on, I was going to be chased by the police. Ah, really. The only time I’d been chased by the police was when I was playing ‘cops and robbers’ with my friends when I was young.
What would happen if I got caught? I decided to leave that to the me who got caught later. I unwrapped the bandages around my hand, threw them on the floor, and finally left the hospital room.
———————————
“Hyeong-nim! Big trouble! Lim Chanwoo escaped!!”
“What? What happened to Minhyuk?”
“…He, he’s unconscious. It seems he was hit…”
“What? Those two got hit by a student? Seriously… Catch him quickly. He’s still in the hospital anyway.”
“No, he’s already out of the hospital… They missed him and are searching the surrounding area…”
“…How? What were the guys guarding the front of the room doing…?”
“…He broke through the window and jumped…”
“…That hospital room is on the fifth floor?”
