Just as Eric reached for the stairwell door handle, he heard quick footsteps echoing down the hall, getting closer. He also heard a woman’s voice.
“Sir, come on, hurry up!”
That voice… Eric’s heart did a little jump. His eyes widened. He’d know that voice anywhere. He hadn’t stopped thinking about the woman it belonged to for days.
It was the girl. She was here!
He still didn’t know her name, but who cared? What mattered was that he had saved the old woman lying in that room.
Saving someone’s life creates a big debt, after all.
He wouldn’t ask for too much back. Just marrying him would be payment enough!
Thinking about it made Eric Vaughan feel a sudden rush of excitement.
Of course, that feeling was all in his head. He didn’t know it yet, but his ‘little brother’ down there wasn’t really working anymore.
Eric decided not to head downstairs just yet. Gritting his teeth against the sharp pain in his backside, he stayed leaning against the wall, awkwardly holding onto his medical bags. He took a shaky breath, trying to plan the perfect way to step out and introduce himself.
The main hospital hallway ran longways, east to west. The shorter hallway with the stairs branched off it, north to south.
Still leaning on the wall for support, Eric slowly shuffled forward towards the corner where the hallways met.
The footsteps got louder. Eric felt his nerves jump, his heart started pounding faster. He took another deep breath and even tried to quickly smooth down his messy hair and straighten his wrinkled clothes.
But then… the hand fixing his hair froze right where it was.
“Damn… you… Alex?”
Seeing the man walking down the main hall with the girl sent a jolt through Eric, like getting hit by lightning. He knew that man. Oh, he knew him too well.
He hated him with every fiber of his being. Alex! It was him again. Damn it all, it was him again!
This damn lowlife! Using some sneaky trick, he’d already stolen Sera, the woman Eric thought was his. And now, here he was again!
Walking right next to the woman Eric had just decided was going to be his future wife!
“This… Bastard!”
Eric ground his teeth together, watching Alex laugh and talk closely with the girl. Pure rage boiled up inside him. He wanted nothing more than to rush forward and beat Alex senseless.
But before he could even try to take a step, that awful, tearing pain shot through his rear again, freezing him on the spot. Cold sweat dripped down his back. He couldn’t move at all.
….
The girl and Alex walked right past the entrance to the stairwell hall, chatting and laughing easily together, looking just like a couple.
Seeing that felt like a punch straight to Eric’s gut.
“Damn it, why is it this trash again?”
Eric felt like he was going to explode inside. “Why is it always you, you bastard?!” he screamed silently in his head. “Damn you! Why do you always show up and ruin things for me?! How dare you! You’re asking to die!”
Even though his rear end hurt badly, Eric Vaughan forced himself to take a step. Cold sweat immediately beaded on his forehead and soaked his back.
Eric had sharp eyes, always noticing small details – maybe a habit from training with his master. He naturally focused on things that mattered, picking up clues.
As soon as he got near the main hallway, his gaze locked onto the small, reddish marks sprinkled across the girl’s neck.
[The Protagonist ‘Eric Vaughan’ has a Mental Breakdown. Congratulations, you have earned 9999 Critical Points.]
Seeing those marks shattered Eric completely. Okay, so he was a virgin who’d never even held a girl’s hand, but that didn’t mean he was clueless about this stuff.
He might not have eaten the pork, but he’d definitely seen the pig run! He’d seen enough adult movies back in the mountains, his masters had quite the collection. He could probably even name some of the famous actors from Japan, Korea, Europe, and America.
Sure, all his knowledge was just from watching, but he knew exactly what he was seeing. He just hadn’t experienced it himself.
Those little red marks were definitely hickeys.
“Damn it!”
“Alex, you son of a bitch!”
The proof was right there. Eric couldn’t even lie to himself anymore.
His hands, gripping the colostomy and urine bags, started to tremble. If he wasn’t holding them so tightly, he probably would have dropped both bags right then and there.
“No.”
“It can’t be.”
“There must be some misunderstanding.”
Eric refused to believe it. He knew this girl, she seemed so innocent. Girls like her valued their purity above everything else. She wouldn’t just give herself to a man so easily.
“This isn’t real. Something’s wrong. This just isn’t right,” he mumbled, sounding desperate.
Eric’s mind really felt like it was cracking apart.
When that jerk Alex took Sera from him, Eric could still try to make himself feel better. He told himself that Sera’s grandfather died suddenly, and she blamed him by mistake, which was why Alex could trick her away.
He didn’t blame her for that.
But this time was different.
He had cured this girl’s grandmother! She had late-stage liver cancer! For an old woman like her, that was pretty much a death sentence. The useless doctors here could never have saved her.
This was totally different from what happened with Sera.
This time, he was the one who healed the patient. Nothing bad was going to happen, so there was no way she could misunderstand and think he caused her grandmother’s death.
Maybe losing Sera had made Eric care even more about this simple, innocent girl.
“Maybe… maybe they’re just dating. It was just a kiss, a normal kiss,” Eric tried to tell himself, searching for any other explanation.
Then, an idea suddenly hit him, and his mood instantly brightened.