ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 7: 변장 (ʙʏᴇᴏɴᴊᴀɴɢ)- ᴅɪꜱɢᴜɪꜱᴇᴅ 

"Ding Dong!"

"Ding Dong!"

The doorbell rang twice like a harsh siren in the reticent, fusty night. Getting no response from the other side the third person rang the bell again.

But when it didn't work either, with more enthusiasm, she rang thrice at once, more harder than before.

With a little 'click' sound, the door opened not so long after that. And Jungkook was far beyond being surprised as he found Min Myeong Jo herself standing there. He was so surprised that he couldn't talk for a while.

"Are you not gonna invite me in?" Her words finally broke his bombshell.

"Y-es! Please come in!" his voice was raspy and his tone was high pitched from the shock.

He opened the door wide enough for her to enter and closed it staying behind. Following her inside, he apologized for the delay while opening the door and for acting clumsily. "I dozed off for while working on some projects," he explained without her asking as he was rubbing his eyes, awakening him fully.

"It's okay, kook. It's late anyway...  Just that I am a bit tired. Can you please give me some water first?" she plopped on the sofa where Jungkook was sitting even two minutes ago.

"Sure," Jungkook was busy getting her water in the next second. He was lucky that he had bought some beforehand.

"Here," he offered the bottle. "Sorry, I don't have a cup here."

"It's okay, I prefer it like this," and with that, she drank the whole bottle of water in one breath.

"Slow down, noona. You'll choke." Jungkook managed to chuckle even though his inner self was jumping with worry.

"Ahh... I'm alright." she smiled showing the whole set of 32 teeth.

"Now, how are you here. No, I mean it's 2 in the morning! How could you reach this first? I don't mean that I don't like that. It's just that it could've been dangerous, you know?" He inquired obviously worried.

"Chill. I know what I am doing. Don't worry about me-" she stood up, sealed the water bottle, approached Jungkook, and flicked his forehead and he made a little 'ouch' sound as she continued, "Just worry about yourself, you dummy. Oh, and I took a flight."

"Still-" Jungkook was still hesitant but was immediately cut off.

"Now, let's check her first," she indicated at the figure over the bed and as she approached the bed, Jungkook nodded and followed her like a lost puppy.

Checking her vitals, she nodded. "It's pneumonia," she announced calmly.

His hands tensed. "Can you help her?"

She peered at him and sighed,
"I'll do what I can. If we can get her fever down, her prognosis is much better."

His teeth ground into one another. "She could die?"

The doctor looked concerned then. Her gaze flashed between him and the unconscious girl, "I can't say at this time. We'll know in a few hours."

Myeong Jo then opened the bag she bought and was setting up a saline bag and an IV.

Yi-ahn just laid on the covers, still unconscious, still feverish, still looking like absolute shit. Her raspy breathing had gotten worse the past few hours, with nothing to do but wait for the doctor to come, Jungkook sat next to her and prayed each little hitch wasn't her last.

Myeong Jo pulled out a long thick needle and stole a glance at Jungkook. He crossed his arms. She couldn't see the way his heart raced while she put in her IV, but it couldn't hurt to hide it.

"Jungkook," she uttered in her usual emotionless calm voice.

"Y-yes," he couldn't help but shutter on the calmness.

"You should go and rest too," she uttered, making it unable to understand if she was just saying or demanding.

"It's okay. I'm alright, I'll rest once I know that she is alright." though Jungkook could sense the demand behind her calm tone, he managed to OPPOSE.

Myeong Jo sighed as if she knew it could happen.
"Look, kook." she directly looked into his eyes which gave him the chills and he immediately looked away from her flaming eyes.

She continued, "I know you couldn't leave someone drowning even though they were complete strangers and to the point that they could be dangerous too. They could be some spy or something sent by some enemy, though you saved them and bought them in your room. I can totally understand how you feel and even if it was me in your position, I could've done the same. And, I totally support your act."

She cleared her throat before talking again arranging the words in her mind, "But, you are being too kind. Don't you think that what you're doing now is being a bit extra of what one should do due to responsibility towards another human? I mean, everything you've done is right except for the fact that you are being indifferent to yourself, your health for some stranger. Don't you think it's a bit too much to offer a complete stranger? "

The whole time Jungkook just listened to her hanging his head down like a suspect of murder during the trial. He opened his mouth for the first time defending himself, "I-I understand, noona. It's just that I am worried, nothing else."

She sighed, "Okay, I understand. But you have to take care of yourself too kook. Just look at yourself, what you've done to your body! You are losing weight just like those cherry blossoms falling. Don't worry about her, she is safe thanks to you. I am here, so just go and take a nap."

"B-but..." he was cut off by her eyes, harder to read the emotions behind them. But what he knew was, they hold the power to make him oblige.

"Go," that's what she uttered before she moved her eyes back to the unconscious girl and Jungkook knew he was gonna oblige...

If you looked through the page, the next minute you'd found Jungkook laying on his past position, over the sofa while Myeong Jo peeked over him and a faint smile appeared on her face.

If you were concentrated enough maybe, yeah, maybe you could even hear her mumble, "You're still a kid, kook!"

✵°✵.｡.✵°✵

As the morning heat kissed softly all over him and instead of birds' sweet chirping, a household chorus made its way through his ears, Jungkook unwillingly opened his eyes.

Looking at the ceiling, it seemed different. Something seemed to change, tho he was not sure what. Suddenly a noise dragged his attention as his eyes followed from the selling to the source to Myeong Jo.

Right! In a blink of an eye, he suddenly remembered everything. Meeting with Shin Corporation, ending up on the sea beach, noticing someone drowning, bringing them to the hotel, calling Myeong Jo and her sudden appearance, and he's going to bed after getting a little scolding.

"You're up! Good morning," Myeong Jo's voice seemed refreshed. Well, at least it was not emotionless like yesterday.

"Good morning, Noona. What time is it?" Jungkook's voice was raspy from the half-sleeping state.

" It's 7. I need to be in Seoul by 10. So, I must leave now." she was busy arranging her stuff and talking while working.

"How is she?" Jungkook hesitated before asking.

When his eyes trailed down on the bed at her, she didn't look any different than when he left her. Her hair was splayed out on the pillow, a shock of warm, deep brown against the white sheets. Her breathing had evened out a bit, but she was still pale.

Myeong Jo held up her hand for silence as he walked closer to the ber, her stethoscope plunging into her ears and pressed down to her chest. A minute ticked by before she pulled the little piece of metal off her skin and turned to him.

"She still has a fever, but it's gone down significantly. Without proper testing, I can't say what's exactly wrong, but it sounds as if she has fluid in her lungs."

He sat on the edge of the bed. "Pneumonia?"

She shrugged. "Most likely."

She held up a small bottle and syringe. "I've started giving her antibiotics for the infection. The rest is up to her at this point."

After finishing injecting her with the liquor, she looked back at me, "I am hoping that she'll recover fast from observing her for a while now. If everything goes right, she is most likely to get her sense back around noon. You'll be home at that time, right?"

Jungkook shrugged, "Yeah, don't worry. I only have to go out after 8 pm. So, I'll be working from here the whole day."

She was finished packing and was gonna leave, "I'll leave now. Take care!"

"I'll walk you out." He genuinely requested.

"Okay, let's go." she chuckled.

While walking past the corridor, he remembered that he had to talk about the deal with Shin Corporation.

"Umm... Noona, I have something to tell you." he hesitated before asking.

"What is it? Just spill it." Myeong Jo was chilled like ever.

"Well... Never mind." he suddenly thought it wasn't an appropriate conversation for now, not in a situation like this.

"Just tell me what happened. Why are you hesitating so much?" she chuckled, trying to make the environment easy to talk in.

But it wasn't something to be fixed, cause the problem was the timing. It wasn't the right talk for this time.

"No, It's nothing. I'll just tell you next time." he looked down as he sighed.

"Okay. If you don't wanna talk about it now then It's fine. Just take care of yourself. And tell me when you feel better." like her usual self, she didn't persuade him further. Well, she never liked to persuade someone to tell something they weren't comfortable with.

Jungkook then thanked Myeong Jo for taking the trouble of visiting all the way from Seoul despite her tight schedule and apologized for the trouble.

"Don't worry about that. I came because I missed you. You are barely home nowadays and I was worried about you." she sounded worried too.

Jungkook decided not to reply to that.

"Ah," she half screamed remembering something, "When she wakes up, don't ask her anything unpleasant, you-know-what I mean?" she uttered the last part in a mysterious tone drawing instant attention.

He nodded understanding exactly what she meant, "I know, right?" and winked at her finishing the sentence, mystery-filled in his voice too.

The air was thick with this unknown mystery even when Myeong Jo left and Jungkook went back to the hotel room.

Keeping the mystery to himself he crouched down on the couch and sank into his laptop again, working on his projects.

Suddenly his phone rang with a melodic tone; he took the phone from the table and it was a call from someone saved as, "Psyche"

Jungkook dragged the receive button and it led him to a pin lock. He entered the pin code there.

He scanned his retina and finally, it led him to the dialler as he uttered,

"Say it." 

His voice was firm and cold as his face was straight, eyes glowing like a wolf staring at its prey, making him look like a totally different person all on a sudden.

"The information you asked is ready boss." an ice-cold voice in a raspy and exhausting tone replied from the other side, it was a voice enable to shake any listener from the core.

"Spell it, now,"  Jungkook empathized on the last part while his expression remain the same, even though he didn't scatter his eyes once.

"It's a bit complicated. I need to show you something. Could we meet?" the ice seemed to be melted a bit as his voice was a bit less cold.

Seconds passed, but there was no reply from the other side.

"Oh, you should've told me earlier that you are this much desperate to meet the doom." a devilish smirk appeared on his face making it unable to read him, transferring him into a totally different person from less than ten minutes ago.

Was Jungkook really the person he appears to be? Then, is it really possible to change so much within a few seconds?