A Taste to Spit Out - Chapter 3
I slowly forced my blurry vision to clear, and soon, a broad back, dark like the night sea, filled my sight. It felt as if it would suffocate me, tightening around my throat.
“What’s the patient’s condition?”
Muffled voices echoed around me, but none of the words seemed to properly sink into my mind.
The only words I could catch were a few scattered ones: patient, fetus, car accident, right leg fracture, and so on…
It felt like an elephant was stomping on my head, or perhaps like it was stomping in place, each step pounding, as if about to crush a watermelon. The pressure was unbearable, making my skull feel like it would shatter. Overwhelmed by the sudden surge of pain, I squeezed my eyes shut again.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Am I… alive?
I couldn’t even die, in the end…?
At that moment, something sharp jabbed into my throat, as if thorns were piercing it. Normally, I would have immediately realized what the uncomfortable sensation was, but my brain felt like it had turned into a mushy, rotting fruit.
My thoughts drifted in and out, slipping away slowly. Why does everything feel so… off?
Please, take this out. I want to move. I tried to wiggle my fingers, but I couldn’t move at all. I was tightly bound, trapped somewhere.
With great effort, I barely managed to force my eyes open, and a blinding light flooded my vision, stabbing into my pupils like sharp toothpicks.
“…Ugh.”
Thump, thump, thump—something dark gradually filled my blurry sight, creeping closer like a relentless storm, like a hungry predator hunting me down, closing the distance bit by bit.
In that moment, as the large shadow rushed toward me, every part of my body—my fingers, toes, every cell—screamed in terror, curling inward.
I wanted to run, I had to escape…
But I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t respond, as if I had no bones, nothing but soft, helpless flesh.
Yet I couldn’t just lie here comfortably, waiting for someone to stab me with a fork like a piece of meat.
“Ugh…”
I desperately tried to struggle, but someone’s hand suddenly gripped mine, hot and slow. A shudder ran through me as that eerie touch slid across my skin.
Who is it, who are you? Go away, please don’t come any closer… My stomach, it’s twisting, I’m going to be sick.
I screamed silently, but it was useless. The back of a hand traced down my forehead, across my cheek, and down to my neck, leaving a chilling trail that sent shivers down my spine.
“…W-who, wha…”
I feel like I’m about to stop breathing. The hand that seemed ready to strangle me finally grips my own, and I trembled uncontrollably, terrified of whoever this unknown figure might be.
Why, why are they coming closer to me? Are they going to strangle me?
Shaking with fear, my shoulders stiffened. But then, the voice that reached me was…
“Baby, are you okay?”
It was unbearably sweet. A voice so sugary, it could melt away my insides like honey, luring me in like sugar water draws in flies.
My heavy eyelids slowly, ever so slowly, began to open. The thick hand, as if trying to comfort me, gently brushed against my eyes. “Open your eyes, look at me, quickly.” And then, the darkness that had filled my vision receded, and light streamed in.
“Baby, do you have any idea how scared I was? Huh? A sudden car accident, and now you’ve been unconscious for four days. How far are you planning to push me into a corner like this…?”
The man muttered without pause, pressing his face deeply against the back of my hand, as if filled with sorrow and desperation.
But to me, there was no horror movie more terrifying than this. As my blurred vision gradually cleared, I finally recognized who the man was…!
“You…”
Why… why are you here?
The man was none other than Kang Yeol-Jin.
A sickening sensation crawled up from my fingertips, like repulsive centipedes squirming across my skin, at the sheer absurdity of this situation.
“Don’t… don’t touch me!”
I wanted to yank my hand away, but I didn’t have the strength to even move a finger. All I could do was flinch slightly. I braced myself, expecting his hand to strike me at any moment. I squeezed my eyes shut, convinced he’d hit me, but all I could do was squirm, as if I were someone poked in the side.
And yet…
His face was crumbling. It was filled with disbelief, frustration, and a sense of utter defeat.
What was that expression?
No, it wasn’t just his expression that was strange.
His hair, which he usually kept short and neat, was now grown out, slicked back with thick wax. How could his hair grow that much in just a few days?
The once hidden, eerie gaze was now fully visible, radiating an intense masculinity. He was exuding a raw, primal scent, completely wild.
This wasn’t the face I knew. This wasn’t the expression Kang Yeol-Jin could ever make. What on earth was he scheming now?
You never looked at me like that before. You always looked at me like I was less than an animal, a worthless dog.
“Our baby is fine.”
**Baby…?**
