Even a Lonely Squirrel Has Its Burrow - Chapter 109

Beep— Beep—.

The rhythmic mechanical beeping grated on his nerves. On top of that, the sensation of having no strength in his body completely dragged his mood down to rock bottom. His brow furrowed, and his closed eyelids began to tremble slightly before gradually lifting.

“…What the hell.”

These were the first words that Sa Muheon uttered the moment he opened his eyes. It was an unfamiliar ceiling. However, it wasn’t difficult for Sa Muheon to guess where he was lying. There was no way he wouldn’t know. The quiet room was filled with the steady beeping of a machine, and the scent of medication at the tip of his nose made it clear—this was a hospital.

“Ugh….”

As soon as he realized where he was, he tried to sit up, but his attempt ended in failure. Letting out a short groan, Sa Muheon loosened the tension in his body.

Lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, he finally recalled what had happened before he collapsed.

He had been trying to catch Ryu Beomju. He had almost succeeded, but the misjudgment of President Yoo had completely ruined everything. From the start, it had been a mistake to entrust such a task to someone so difficult to fully trust.

“Tsk….”

Still lying on the bed, Sa Muheon clicked his tongue and slowly examined his surroundings. Something about the layout of the hospital room felt familiar. Looking more closely, he realized—it was the same room where Garam had been hospitalized before. The place where he had collapsed was quite a distance from this hospital, so he found it puzzling that he had ended up here.

If someone had been with him, he could have asked what had happened while he was unconscious. But the fact that there was no one in the room struck him as a little strange. At the very least, either Chief Han or Jang Seokgyu should have been by his side. Could something have happened to Chief Han, who had been with him?

As he pondered this thought, Sa Muheon’s head abruptly turned toward the hospital room door. He sensed someone approaching, and soon, the sound of the door opening reached his ears.

Creak—.

The person who stepped into the room was someone Sa Muheon hadn’t expected at all. As soon as she closed the door and saw him awake, she gasped in surprise and hurried over to his bedside.

“Oh my, when did you wake up? If you had regained consciousness, you should have pressed the call button.”

“…How are you here?”

Sa Muheon spoke, unable to hide his bewilderment. In response, she playfully winked at him.

“What kind of question is that? If not your mother, who else would be your guardian?”

Technically speaking, his mother wasn’t his only guardian since his father was still alive. However, instead of contradicting her words, Sa Muheon quietly nodded.

“You must be busy. I ended up taking up your time for no reason.”

“Are we strangers or something? My son got hurt—no matter how busy I am, of course I had to come.”

“What about Father?”

“Your father came by earlier. He was so furious that I had to send him home to calm down first.”

Sa Muheon silently nodded. Even without witnessing it firsthand, he could easily picture his father throwing a fit. Of course, the woman standing before him right now also looked visibly upset, far more than usual.

Watching him quietly nod, Sa Hiran let out a deep sigh and pulled over a chair. It felt uncomfortable for Sa Muheon to be lying down while facing his mother, but at the moment, there was nothing he could do about it. He could barely manage to sit up properly. As he frowned slightly, his mother, now seated in the chair, gently pressed down on his uninjured shoulder.

“Don’t try to get up for no reason. Just stay lying down. What’s so difficult about that when you’re with your mother?”

Realizing that his mother’s tone had turned sharp, Sa Muheon obediently relaxed his body. Only then did Sa Hiran let a faint smile cross her lips.

“I already heard the general story from Chief Han.”

“Is Chief Han okay?”

Hearing his question, Sa Hiran nodded.

“Yes. Fortunately, he’s completely unharmed. Thanks to him, you were able to get to the hospital in time.”

“That’s a relief.”

At his indifferent response, Sa Hiran’s eyes narrowed.

“A relief? Even with your shoulder in that state, you can still call this a relief?”

“I fought against a tiger shifter who had returned to his original form, and I only got a scratch on my shoulder. That’s a relief. I didn’t lose my life, and I didn’t end up crippled.”

Hearing Sa Muheon’s words, she let out a few deep sighs but didn’t argue with him. In truth, she had thought the same thing.

“Well, I suppose you’re not wrong.”

With a bitter smile, she murmured under her breath.

“The surgery went well. Fortunately, Chief Han did a good job with the emergency treatment on-site, so you were able to make it here. There weren’t any large hospitals nearby, so we had no choice but to bring you all the way here. Even though the emergency treatment was done well, they said it could have been quite dangerous if there had been any more delay.”

“…That’s at least some relief.”

“Relief? Do you have any idea how shocked I was when Chief Han called me? Your father’s face turned completely pale….”

“Did it?”

Strangely enough, a small chuckle escaped him at that thought. But as soon as he laughed, pain shot through his shoulder, making him grimace. Seeing this, Sa Hiran looked at him with a concerned expression.

“The surgery went well, but you’ll need absolute rest for a while. They said the pain will persist for some time.”

“Well, there’s nothing I can do about that.”

Sa Muheon genuinely thought that there was no other choice. It was an injury sustained in an unexpected situation, but considering it as the price of carelessness, he had gotten off easy. No matter what, it was still a far cheaper price to pay than his life.

“For the time being, your daily life is going to be affected. What are you going to do about that?”

“That’s….”

At the pointed remark, Sa Muheon trailed off. He hadn’t thought that far ahead, but if, as his mother said, his daily life would be affected, then his immediate future would be a bit of a problem. If he had been living alone, it wouldn’t have been such a major issue. He could have relied on Jang Seokgyu’s help or even hired a live-in caregiver.

But right now, he was living with someone.

As Garam’s presence came to mind, Sa Muheon’s expression turned to one of dismay.

“You’re not seriously thinking of making that child take care of you, are you?”

At his mother’s next words, Sa Muheon, for once, was unable to hide his rare expression of shock.

“How do you…?”

“Oh my, didn’t I tell you? You were unconscious for over a full day.”

“What? Ugh….”

Startled, Sa Muheon reflexively tried to sit up again, only to collapse back onto the bed with a short groan. Sa Hiran, alarmed, immediately stood up and moved toward him, but Sa Muheon was more focused on verifying what he had just heard.

“I was unconscious for that long?”

“Why would I lie about something like that? That incident happened two days ago.”

Sa Muheon’s pupils wavered without direction. He had been asleep for that long?

He had told Garam, See you tomorrow. Imagining how long Garam must have waited for him, and how shocked he must have been when he heard that Sa Muheon was injured, made his heart sink.

“Did you contact him?”

The urgency in his question was palpable. Even as he spoke the words, Sa Muheon hoped that Garam didn’t know about his injury. He wasn’t trying to hide it, but he could easily predict how much it would have shaken Garam to hear such sudden news.

Sa Hiran widened her eyes, seemingly surprised by her son’s anxious expression, but she soon gave him an answer.

“I actually contacted Manager Jang, but it seems the boy was next to him and overheard the conversation.”

Clicking her tongue lightly, she furrowed her brows slightly, as if just thinking about it made her feel sorry for him.

“That late at night, the boy went completely pale. In this freezing weather, he didn’t even dress properly before rushing over here. He came with Manager Jang, but honestly, Manager Jang didn’t look much better—he was just a little less shaken than the boy.”

“Then, right now…?”

“He wanted to stay here last night too, but I sent him home to get some proper rest. He said he’d be back in the morning….”

As she spoke, Sa Hiran lifted her wrist to check the time. When she turned her head toward the presence she sensed outside the hospital room, Sa Muheon’s gaze naturally followed hers.

Creak—.

The person outside the door, as if afraid of disturbing Sa Muheon’s rest, carefully and slowly pushed it open.

Even before the door was fully open, Sa Muheon already knew who was behind it. The corners of his lips curled upward.

As the door opened and the person caught sight of the situation inside, their eyes widened in shock upon meeting Sa Muheon’s gaze.

“Uh….”

Even after confirming that Sa Muheon was awake, Garam remained rooted in place, unable to step inside the room, as if he had been nailed to the spot.

Sa Muheon, as he always did, gave him a bright smile.

Now that he had opened his eyes safely and welcomed Garam, he expected Garam to smile back at him.

But Garam didn’t smile at all.

As if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, he stood frozen, blinking repeatedly.

Then, as he finally accepted that Sa Muheon had truly woken up safely right before his eyes—

Tears began to fall, one after another.