Chapter 23

“Come here. Judith.”

As though it were only natural that she should be at his side, Johannes grabbed Judith by the wrist. The heat in the palm touching her wrist was intense. Biting her lips to keep them from trembling, Judith moved closer to Johannes. Karl’s eyes, watching their behavior, sharpened.

The examination room still smelled of Judith’s lingering fragrance and coffee from a short while ago. Johannes sat in the patient’s chair with his brow deeply furrowed, yet he did not loosen his grip on Judith’s wrist. Though he looked as though he might collapse at any second, he kept Judith tightly fastened at his side. Because he’s sick. Biting the inside of her mouth, she swallowed the heat passing from Johannes into her wrist. Johannes, who was always so composed, became terribly clingy whenever he got a feverish cold. Even while saying it would be terrible if she caught it, he would rest his head on Judith’s shoulder and refuse to part from her. Only the shoulder had become a wrist now. It had been Judith who told him that if he was hurting, he could lean on her whenever he wanted.

“There are some unclear points for this to be called a simple feverish cold. For now, I think it would be best for him to be admitted and observed. If you go to the injection room, they’ll start by drawing blood. We’ll discuss the test results in the hospital room.”

Karl, staring at Judith’s wrist, tucked the pen he had been scribbling with into his front pocket.

“May I ask just one question unrelated to the examination?”

Karl looked directly at Johannes. Wetting his dry lips with the tip of his tongue, Johannes nodded weakly.

“The two of you…”

Before Karl could finish the question, Judith stepped in.

“We’re friends.”

“Friends?”

“Mr. Meyer’s grandmother lives right next door to us.”

“Ah.”

Only then, as if his curiosity had been answered, Karl gave a faint smile. Judith thought she had covered things well enough that sick Johannes would not be embarrassed by an awkward question. But his grip on her wrist only tightened more painfully. When she lowered her eyes to look, his lower lip was sticking out. His face was full of dissatisfaction.

“The patient should go to the injection room. The person who came with him, please take care of the admission procedure. And.”

Karl’s gaze landed on Judith. As if unable to bear even that gaze, Johannes abruptly rose from his seat and dragged Judith out. Judith turned her head toward where Karl stood and mouthed soundlessly.

‘I’m sorry. My friend seems to be very sick.’

She did not want to invite unnecessary misunderstanding. Judith hoped Karl would not suspect anything about her relationship with Johannes. She did not want it getting into Teacher Marie’s ears and becoming tiresome. And the thought of Johannes Meyer being named as the subject of some rumor was dreadful. Just imagining it made her shudder. Judith trembled in the shoulders and stepped into the injection room.

“This will sting.”

The nurse warned him as she inserted the needle into the back of Johannes’s hand. Johannes still gripped Judith’s hand tightly and clenched his teeth. To think he was still afraid of injections even as an adult. He ought to look ridiculous, trembling with his eyes closed, but instead he looked cute. Judith shook her head from side to side. The problem was that her mind always softened whenever she stood in front of Johannes. Should she ask the nurse to give her something in the head too.

“All done. You can go to room 304 now.”

With practiced ease, the nurse attached the fever reducer and fl*ids to the IV line and directed them to the hospital room. Johannes grabbed the IV stand, rose to his feet, and leaned slightly against Judith. She had intended to leave him to the butler and go home, but Johannes clearly had no intention of letting her go. In the end she had no choice but to wrap an arm around Johannes’s waist and leave the injection room with him. The moment they came out, the Meyer family butler, who had been waiting, approached them.

“Sir, please go home and bring the necessary things. Judith should be enough here.”

“?”

“Yes. Then I leave him to you, Miss.”

Without Judith’s consent, she was appointed Johannes’s caretaker. Looking straight up at him, Judith lifted her shoulders in a shrug.

“I’m sick.”

“I know you’re sick, but shouldn’t we call someone from home?”

“Didn’t you say that if I’m sick, I can lean on you?”

“That was…”

Something she had said in childhood. A promise made before the confession incident. A promise made when the two of them were close, when Judith had been madly in love with Johannes.

“I’m this sick, and you’re going to leave me?”

Johannes murmured in a cracked voice, brushing Judith’s cheek with his fingertips. At that moment, she remembered his back as he turned away after opening the café door for her. Since that day, when she had let him go without realizing he was ill, Johannes’s condition had only worsened. Judith could not ignore the guilt caught in the pit of her stomach. Letting out a small sigh, she left reception and headed down the corridor with Johannes.

“If you keep this up and fall, you’ll be badly hurt.”

The arm Judith had wrapped around Johannes’s waist was suddenly caught and removed by someone else’s hand. It was Karl who had inserted himself between Johannes and Judith. Karl took one of Johannes’s arms over his own shoulder, pushed the IV stand, and quickly walked ahead.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“It is the duty of medical staff to care for the patient.”

“No. Who asked for your help?”

“The person behind you is my patient too.”

Karl was already standing in front of room 304, flinging the door open. Johannes turned his head to check Judith’s condition. No matter how he looked at her, she did not seem sick.

“Did something happen to Judith?”

“Not exactly a sickness. Yesterday, while taking a walk with me, she scraped her heel.”

“Ha. A scraped heel is a patient?”

“She bled, and I treated it, so she is indeed my patient.”

Click. Johannes ground his molars together while glaring at the shameless doctor. She scraped her heel while walking with him. If he had treated it, that meant he had touched Judith’s ankle with his hand. In an instant, heat rose to his head.

“Now, carefully. Lie down on the bed, please.”

Watching Johannes obediently submit to Karl’s touch, Judith stepped into the hospital room. It was a private room, not a shared one. Of course it would be, but the thought of being left alone here with Johannes made the inside of her mouth go dry.

“Thank you for your help. You must be busy, so please go.”

“Thank you for your concern, but I’ll stay here until the test results come out.”

Karl dragged the small chair by the bed over to Judith’s side. Judith, who had been standing by the door, shyly thanked him and sat down. Karl deliberately stood with his back to Johannes so that Johannes’s gaze could not reach Judith. With that brutish doctor blocking him, he could not see Judith, and it made his insides burn. What kind of relationship do those two have? Judith acting so docile in front of that doctor irritated him. In front of me she only gets angry like a sharp-clawed cat.

“Ha……”

Johannes let out a long sigh without bothering to hide it. Unmoved, the two of them whispered softly at some distance where he could not hear. Johannes rubbed the rim of his right ear with one hand and twisted his face.

Knock. Knock.

“Come in.”

Just then, with a knock, the door opened. A nurse holding a chart spotted Karl and raised her voice.

“Doctor, what are you doing here? Afternoon consultations started more than ten minutes ago.”

“Ah, already?”

Karl replied smoothly, then turned to Judith and closed and opened one eye in a friendly wink.

“And Mr. Meyer’s test results are out too.”

Karl silently examined the chart the nurse handed him and tilted his head slightly. Judith focused on Karl’s mouth. Just what was wrong with Johannes that he had to be admitted to the hospital? No matter how severe a feverish cold might be, did a grown man really need to be admitted? Judith, who had always thought admission was only for those who had a serious illness or a major injury, could not understand it.

“Hmm.”

After studying the chart for some time, Karl turned his gaze to Johannes. Understanding the meaning in that look, Johannes quietly shook his head.

“The test results will be given in the examination room, to the patient alone.”

Karl lowered his head to Judith and raised it again, then left the room under the nurse’s insistent urging. Once the commotion subsided, silence descended over the hospital room. Sitting in the chair, Judith stole a glance at Johannes, who lay turned toward the window. Just what was the problem that even the test results had to be kept secret? Or was that simply hospital policy? She was curious and frustrated.

“So, is that the man you chose?”

At some point Johannes had turned his head toward Judith and thrown out an awkward question. Judith pressed her thumb against the tip of her index finger and shook her head. She had not known yesterday, but she could see it clearly now. Karl had no intention of giving up on her. She had to cut things off before his feelings grew deeper.