OMH Chapter 56

Oh My Hero – Episode 56

56. Guide (1)

The warehouse where Woojin was held wasn’t far from where we were.

‘Well, it was close, so the hooligan bastard must have come out to watch us.’

After checking the hooligan’s biometrics, it was revealed that they were from the EGA Association.

Apparently, they were C-grade Mental-type and D-grade Special-type Espers who worked in the patrol team.

The patrol team mainly patrols the border areas, but they also patrol the Downtown area quite often.

Knowing that story, I could somewhat understand why Gwak Seungtae was so popular with the general public in Downtown. Just a little bit.

Those hooligans were from the patrol team, so they seemed to know the geography of the border area and the geography of Downtown inside and out.

No wonder those guys, who were lacking in strength, were moving pretty fast.

Still, we caught them, so we achieved our goal.

‘But can we say that things are resolved just because we achieved our goal?’

I blankly watched Woojin being carried away on a stretcher and fell into thought.

In missions, everything was always resolved once the goal was achieved.

Even if someone went missing, became disabled, or died, the Association would pat itself on the back as long as the mission’s objective was accomplished. The rights and wrongs that occurred in the process were just minor personal matters.

That’s right. This is just a personal matter.

Being kidnapped and injured by a hooligan during a mission is just a personal misfortune.

Thud –

The ambulance carrying Woojin closed its doors.

“Ah.”

Without realizing it, I reached out to the ambulance. Just as I was about to step towards it, someone grabbed my shoulder.

“Senior. The director is looking for you over there.”

“……Oh, okay. I’ll go.”

Jang Hana’s words brought me back to my senses.

I’m the team leader now. Even if it’s just temporary, I can’t follow Woojin because I have to finish things up at the scene.

With heavy steps, I headed towards Gwak Seungtae.

If I want to get to Woojin as quickly as possible, I need to finish things here quickly.

“……”

I went to take care of the remaining work, reminding myself of that fact.

*

By the time I finished everything, it was 7:30 PM.

It was around 4 PM when I chopped off the hooligan’s head, but it took over two hours to do the seemingly trivial finishing touches.

The most time-consuming thing was calming the public sentiment in Downtown.

Apparently, beheading a hooligan in front of a crowd caused quite a commotion afterward.

Even though the hooligan drew his gun first, the general public made a fuss about how the Association was barbaric, used excessive force, and so on.

However, when Woojin was found covered in blood in the warehouse, everyone shut their mouths.

They were people who had been constantly looted by the hooligans, so seeing the victim who had been kidnapped by the hooligans found in such a miserable state seemed to have a greater impact on them.

We used this to incite anti-hooligan sentiment among the people.

We needed to leave the image of the victim who had been harmed by the hooligans in people’s minds, rather than the scene of the Association hunting down the hooligans.

It’s better for the residents of Downtown to have as little animosity towards the Association as possible for many reasons.

Jang Hana and Gwak Seungtae, who are Mental-type Espers, helped to engrave the image of the victim in people’s minds.

Jang Hana learned the tricks from Gwak Seungtae and implanted the image of the victim in the minds of the crowds.

Gwak Seungtae, who is a D-grade, had weak ability output, so it was difficult for him to use his ability on a large number of people.

However, since Jang Hana, who is an S-grade, could easily use her ability on many people, things were finished quickly. Sometimes, the grade is a gangster in itself.

Anyway, I’m glad it only took about two and a half hours.

Constantly reliving the image of Woojin, who was severely injured, was too painful for me as well.

I can write the report later, so I should dismiss the kids quickly and go see Woojin.

‘But I feel like I’m forgetting something again, what is it?’

Hmm…….

“Ah, right! Cha Wooreen!”

*

Suddenly, I remembered Cha Wooreen, so I left the rest of the people to take care of the supplies and ran towards the daycare where I had left Cha Wooreen.

By the time I arrived in front of the ‘Hope Daycare’ building, the sun had already set a long time ago, and it was very dark all around.

Well, it’s the end of December, winter, so it’s natural for the sun to set early.

I pressed the intercom of the daycare and asked for Cha Wooreen.

Cha Wooreen came out to the daycare entrance holding hands with someone I didn’t know very well.

“Why are you late… sniff, why didn’t Oppa come… sniff.”

‘Oh no, why is she crying again.’

“D-Don’t cry! We’re going to see Woojin right now. Say ‘Goodbye’.”

I put Cha Wooreen under my arm, exchanged greetings with the person who I assumed was a teacher, and ran.

As expected, Cha Wooreen burst into tears right away.

“Haa…….”

Cha Wooreen had a lot of complaints in the car.

Cha Wooreen’s biggest complaint was why I didn’t come to pick her up when everyone else was going home, and the second complaint was that I came to pick her up instead of Woojin.

‘I was always there with you when I came to pick you up, that’s a bit too much.’

I wanted to tell Cha Wooreen this fact, but Cha Wooreen continued to complain.

The kids teased her by going home before her. And the teacher who was with her wasn’t fun, and she was so bored playing alone.

“Yes, yes, that’s what happened.”

I just listened to Cha Wooreen’s complaints.

She’ll be upset when she sees that her brother is badly hurt, so I need to resolve her other complaints first.

I returned the borrowed Association car and headed to the Medical Center with Cha Wooreen.

*

When I arrived at the Medical Center, Woojin was sleeping in the recovery room.

Whether he had received all the healing with the Recovery ability, the miserable appearance when he was rescued was nowhere to be found, and he looked all fluffy.

Cha Wooreen, who didn’t know anything, ran to Woojin.

“Oppa, I’m here. Wake up!”

“Hey, you can’t shout in the hospital room.”

I grabbed Cha Wooreen, who was crawling onto the bed.

The grumpy kid hit me wildly, asking why I was bothering her.

“You can’t see it, but Woojin was hurt really badly earlier?! Don’t cling to him, just look at him with your eyes.”

“No!”

While I was arguing with Cha Wooreen, someone came into the hospital room. It was Lee Hwayoung.

“Excuse me. Please be quiet in the hospital room. That kid is the patient’s family, right? If possible, leave her alone… oh, Gang Hana? Oh my god… what’s with your hair?”

“What? Lee Hwayoung, did you not recognize me just now?”

I was dumbfounded by Hwayoung’s reaction.

“Can’t you even recognize your friend?”

“What happened to your hair? Is that a baby perm?”

“What perm? Why does everyone ask me if I got a perm when they see me? I just grew it out.”

“So cute! You should have grown it out sooner.”

Lee Hwayoung, who came to tell us to be quiet in the hospital room, was the loudest.

It’s really fortunate that Woojin is the only patient in the recovery room. If there was another patient, they would have complained.

Since Hwayoung, who is a Medical Bureau employee, came, I asked her what I was curious about.

“It wouldn’t have been a serious situation since it was just external injuries, so why did you do a full recovery ability treatment?”

If you are an Association member, you can receive physical recovery treatment using abilities, but not all Association members receive treatment using abilities.

There are over 5,000 Association members, and if you give ability treatment to all of those people, all the Espers with healing abilities will die from a brain explosion due to a rampage.

So, ability treatment is given differentially depending on the severity of the injury.

Woojin’s injured appearance was pitiful, sad, and heartbreaking, but it wasn’t a serious injury.

Lacerations, bruises, and cuts that weren’t amputated aren’t serious injuries.

“Come to think of it, Woojin hurt his head, so maybe that’s why? He was bleeding so much that his head was covered in blood, was it serious?”

“No. He only had a mild concussion, nothing serious.”

“Phew~ that’s a relief.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

“We wouldn’t normally do this, but it’s because of your mentor. But he didn’t get ability treatment for the concussion, so let him rest for a few days. That takes too much effort. He looks fine on the outside, so it’s okay~”

“……”

If you’re going to give him ability treatment, you should treat him all the way. The people at the Medical Center are so stingy.

Still, he looks much better than he did a few hours ago when he was covered in blood.

I looked down at Woojin’s face, which was as white and beautiful as a pure lily.

Woojin’s face was as delicate and perfect as a work of art from a bygone era, with no trace of his previous gruesome appearance.

Without realizing it, I stroked Woojin’s jet-black hair. Remembering the image of blood clots drying on this soft hair made my heart ache.

Slap-

“Ouch. Why are you hitting me?”

Cha Wooreen hit my hand that was stroking Woojin.

“Uh… just because.”

What is it, really.

“Good job hitting her. I didn’t want to see it either.”

“Then, you guys should turn your eyes away.”

I couldn’t protest actively because Woojin was sleeping soundly right in front of me, so I grumbled quietly.

Lee Hwayoung definitely heard my grumbling, but she ignored it cleanly.

“It’s getting late, so either leave the hospital room or something. You need to put the kid to sleep, right? Or does Wooreen want to sleep here?”

“I don’t like it here. I want to go home with Oppa.”

“You don’t have a home.”

I corrected Cha Wooreen, and Lee Hwayoung hit my side with her elbow. It’s true, why is she doing that.

Anyway, I decided to discharge Woojin as Cha Wooreen wanted.

He can rest at the dormitory.

I carried Woojin on my back and held Cha Wooreen’s hand as I went back to my room.

I had to walk slowly because I had to match Cha Wooreen’s walking speed.

“Hana Oppa, look over there. What is that?”

The curious child pointed and asked.

“That? It’s a tree.”

“No, not that!”

The hot-tempered child became irritated when she didn’t get the answer she wanted.

“Are you talking about the light decorations? The sparkly ones?”

“Light decorations? Then what is that?”

This time, Cha Wooreen pointed to a large cone decoration in the central square. It was full of lights of various colors and shapes, which was enough to attract a child’s attention.

“That’s a Christmas tree.”

The Association puts up this huge decoration every year at the end of the year.

It seems really meaningless, but they always make people do it, so they always put it up.

“Pretty.”

But it seems to please the child.

Well, it’s good enough if you like it.

*

As soon as I got back to the room, I laid Woojin down on the bed and washed Cha Wooreen and put her to sleep on the sofa.

Woojin is clean, but it’s a bit weird not to wash him, so I took warm water in a basin and wiped Woojin’s face and hands with a clean towel.

Because I didn’t draw the curtains, the moonlight was pouring in from outside the window and shining on Woojin.

Woojin’s white skin looked like a sculpture made by an artist as it received the pale moonlight.

Woojin’s marble-white hands seemed to have no warmth.

Suddenly, the image of Woojin covered in blood that I saw during the day came to mind.

I carefully took Woojin’s hand.

Fortunately, I could feel warmth in Woojin’s hand. I even checked Woojin’s pulse while I was at it. It was slow but definitely beating.

Feeling somewhat relieved, I put Woojin’s hand to my cheek.

Woojin’s wrist smelled soft and sweet.

Woojin is not a sculpture, but a living human being. That fact lingered in my mind anew.

I held Woojin’s hand, which felt faintly warm in the pure white moonlight, and sat like that for a long time.

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