Chapter 99
The entrance door was protected with a security function that did not allow any trespassers into the house. It could be unlocked with a passcode usually but needed a master key if someone decided to lock it from the inside. Moreover, Tae-jun was the only person with the master key.
He said to hold for a moment and ended the call. Something did not seem right. He quickly got up and looked at Jin-wook.
“I must go see Yuri.”
He called Yuri during his entire ride to the house. No matter how long he tried he was not connected to her. Was she sleeping in? His watch indicated that it was past 10 AM. She did not seem to be able to sleep last night, was this why?
He tried to stay nonchalant but his anxiety only intensified with each passing moment. Jin-wook noticed Tae-jun’s nervous face through the rearview mirror.
“You saw her awake very late at night just yesterday.” He tried to remind him, in case he didn’t remember because he was quite drunk.
Correct. He’d checked with his own eyes that the library had its lights turned on late at night. But he was still anxious. And what was he excessively fretting over? That Yuri might have disappeared just like in the past. His heart pounded vigorously from nervousness, his face was ashen.
Tae-jun firmly pursed his lips as he sank in his thoughts. The moment they arrived, he did not even give time for Jin-wook to park the car before he dashed out of the vehicle and to the house. Manager Choi and the security guards, who were standing by the entrance, lowered their heads.
“Still no response from the inside?”
“No. I rang the doorbell a few times, but she wouldn’t answer. ”
Tae-jun pulled out the master key and unlocked the secured door. Like mad, he sprinted upstairs and burst open Yuri’s bedroom door. The room felt eerily dark, what with its closed curtains and stuffy air. He quickly turned on the lights but saw not a soul.
Where is she?
He rushed to his bedroom, pushing the door open. As he stood there taking in the scene, he noticed a silhouette of a body covered with a blanket all the way to the face. It was a habit of hers to cover her face when she slept. When he caught sight of her hair and fingers peeking out and stroked his chest in a bid to calm his throbbing heart.
“Yuri.”
As he cautiously stepped inside, the sleeping figure should’ve provided him a semblance of relief. Yet, his heart never ceased to race. He curled his nose at the thick stench of alcohol permeating the room. Did she drink? About then, he stepped on something and came to a halt.
He narrowed his eyes at the familiar object that he had accidentally kicked- a bottle of Booker’s. This was a whiskey of over 60% alcohol concentration that was gracing the shelf in his library. Only now it was absolutely empty.
Did … did she finish this bottle by herself?
Tae-jun stilled before panic took over through and through. If this weak woman drank this much alcohol, she must be under the risk of acute alcohol intoxication!
Hurriedly, he tugged at the blanket veiling Yuri from head to toe. The anxiety in his voice was a testament to the turmoil of his heart at the moment.
“Yuri!” He cried aloud, hoping to wake her up.
Soon the wan face of the slumbering girl revealed from under. She lay there, dyed in a shade of blue … lifeless.
He held her by the shoulders and frantically shook her as he shouted: “Yuri Han! Wake up!”
By now, startled by the racket, Jin-wook and Manager Choi had rushed into the room.
A distraught Tae-jun lifted the limp girl up, her body cold. A stunned Jin-wook quickly recomposed himself as he placed his fingers on her neck. Her pulse was barely perceptible.
“Call the ambulance now!” Tae-jun screamed. He could feel his whole body fluster. His hands vigorously rubbed over Yuri’s feet and hands, trying to induce some heat. It was the most he could do to help her keep breathing.
“What happened?” Jin-wook took out the flashlight he always carried around to check on Yuri’s pupils.
Tae-jun shook his head. “I can’t be certain, but I should say it’s acute alcohol intoxication-” He paused in the midst of speaking as a silhouette of a white object on the side table grasped his attention.
It can’t be!
Tae-jun ordered Jin-wook to look over Yuri as he picked up the object. It was a vial of sleeping pills. The pills Jin-ho prescribed to him a while back. When he opened the lid, he was thunderstruck.
The vial was … empty.
⸙
His hands trembled, Jin-ho took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He frowned at the moist sensation. He had to give up on pursuing a career in general surgery because of his inherent personality, despite getting perfect grades in school. Doctors are expected to be inherently composed, no matter the situation adn it is especially true for surgeons. Given that, this talent medico was a contrast to his profession. He was easily overwhelmed during an emergency, losing his cool and bathing in perspiration. Every time he recalled the criticisms a professor had once showered him with, he felt bitter all over.
Save her, do whatever it takes to save her!
Tae-jun’s desperate cry was alarming enough to make the emergency assistants and even the vice president rush over to him. Jin-ho had never seen this Seo Scion this enraged ever since befriending him. The cardiologist was also more sincere than usual as he examined the D. I (Drug Intoxication) patient meticulously.
God was on their side. The sleeping pills Jin-ho had prescribed Tae-jun were not that potent. Moreover, they had expired over three years ago, so the ingredients were no longer as active. One more thing they were lucky with was the fact that Yuri did not take all at once but in gaps as she gradually consumed them.
However, this did not mean that the situation was not dire. She had consumed over half a bottle of pills with a full bottle of whiskey, she would’ve been in fighting for life had they arrived any later.
They opened her mouth to force her to throw up and cleanse her stomach. Tae-jun clenched his fist the whole time he watched this process. Sucking out the drug was incomparably more painful than taking the drug. As her ferocious squirms of pain rang through the room, his fist turned white, trembling in trepidation.
A prudent Jin-wook was quick to caution the hospital staff about divulging info, the matter had to be kept under wraps at all costs.
The emergency procedure was completed and Yuri was wheeled out to another room, even then Tae-jun’s firmly clenched fists didn’t relax.
Seeing the man’s stance, Jin-ho thought the actual one at risk was Tae-jun, not Yuri. He was pointlessly wandering around the pale woman like a ghost. The phone rang several more times but he did not even flinch.
Right then, Jin-wook ran to his boss in a frenzy and whispered. There seemed to be an emergency at work. It was only now that Tae-jun reluctantly recovered his sanity and took his eyes off the woman.
When he left, Jin-ho felt a humongous burden lift off his shoulders. Their treatment was a success, the woman would soon wake up and have no trouble recovering. Then, Tae-jun would also be relieved. At least that was what he thought until-
“Aaahh! No! Don’t, don’t put it inside me!”
Who would have thought that a completely unconscious woman would have a seizure?