EXTERN

Chapter 18

 

I stretched and twisted from side to side, trying to shake off my laziness. We’d finished seeing patients for the day because all the medical supplies we’d brought from the university’s Faculty of Medicine had run out. None of us had expected so many villagers to come for check-ups. That would definitely be something for the juniors to take away and improve on when organising next year’s project.

 

I glanced at my watch. Four in the afternoon. The sun was still blazing outside the village pavilion, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the engineering and architecture students working out there, helping to build the school for the children.

 

“P’Perrrrrr, let me wipe your sweat!”

 

“P’Night! Here’s some water!”

 

“P’Per, would you like a snack? I’ll feed you!”

 

“Oh! P’Night, you’ve got something here. Let me wipe it off.”

 

“Take a break and drink some water, P’Per—”

 

“Are you hot, Night?”

 

“Why don’t you take a break, P’Per?”

 

I felt the corner of my eyebrow twitch. I walked over and stopped beside a junior from my own faculty, who was staring silently at the two incredibly popular Gear brothers being fussed over by the girls. His expression was impossible to read.

 

“Jealous, Mai?”

 

I lowered my head and asked the beautiful second-year boy beside me, a boy so pretty even girls would be ashamed to stand next to him. He merely pouted at me and shrugged as though he couldn’t care less.

…Bloody hell, you’re terrible at hiding it.

 

“No, P’. This is normal.”

 

“Hmph.”

 

I snorted and gave the little kitten, whose mouth clearly didn’t match his heart, a knowing smirk. You’ve still got a long way to go before you reach my level, kid.

 

“You’re one to talk, P’Kan. Aren’t you going to do something? You’ve let your stallion run wild for long enough.”

 

I followed the little guy’s gaze. The two ridiculously hot brothers were still surrounded by girls, being pampered from every direction. Well. Clearly there was nothing I needed to worry about.

 

“If it were me… I wouldn’t let him see that I was jealous.”

 

I turned and gave the pretty boy beside me a gentle smile. Especially when he was the one already showing obvious signs of jealousy.

 

“You’re just going to leave them like that?!”

 

Kitten practically shrieked. I raised an eyebrow teasingly. That made him realise he’d just exposed himself completely.

 

“I wouldn’t show him I was jealous…”

 

“???”

 

“…I’d make him jealous instead.”

 

Grab!

I caught the fair-skinned kid around the waist and pulled him close, lowering my face until we were almost touching.

 

Hmm…

His waist was bloody tiny. His skin was smooth and soft, and thick, curled lashes framed a pair of large eyes that had widened slightly in shock. I had to admit, this junior was prettier and more naturally beautiful than any woman I’d ever dated. No wonder Nong Night had fallen for him so hard.

 

“P’Kan…”

 

Mai was still startled and hadn’t caught on to my game yet. He tried leaning away from me, so I slipped my other arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer. Then I lowered my face and smiled at him. Bloody hell, he was fun to tease.

 

“KAN!!”

 

“MAI!!!”

 

Exactly as expected.

 

The brothers, Per and Night, shouted before they’d even reached us, making practically everyone at camp turn to watch with interest.

 

“…?”

 

I turned towards them with an irritated expression, as though I’d just been rudely interrupted. The black-haired brat with the extremely unfriendly face immediately grabbed Mai and dragged him away from me. And I mean far away. More than twenty metres. He was probably taking him somewhere private to settle things.

 

“What?”

 

I looked at the poisonous snake now standing in front of me. His face was completely blank. I couldn’t read him at all.

 

“I have a heart too…”

 

“Per.”

 

My entire body went cold. His voice was calm. Too calm. This was someone who usually laughed and joked around all the time. I studied his exhausted face and noticed the dirt smeared across it and the sweat covering him. His lips were dry and pale, as though he was dehydrated. Could he…?

 

“…Actually, my heart already belongs to you, Doctor. You can squeeze it, crush it, hurt it as much as you want… I just wonder whether you’ve ever loved me at all. Whether you’ve ever felt anything for me.”

 

“…Moustache.”

 

I barely knew what to say. I wanted to walk over, hold him, comfort him and apologise. But right now, even breathing felt difficult.

 

“If this was supposed to be a punishment… then P’ succeeded.”

 

With that, he turned and disappeared into the crowd. Leaving me standing there alone with a tangled mess of thoughts and confusion fighting inside my head.

 

I loved him. And I cared about him. Had I really not shown him enough? Either way, I had probably been wrong to stupidly provoke him like that.

 

“P’Kan, have you seen Per? I haven’t seen him since we split up to go shower.”

 

Nong Moo, whose face was covered in thick stubble, wandered over, looking confused.

 

“I haven’t seen him either. It’s already six. Maybe he’s waiting for dinner at the canteen?”

 

It was only a guess. After Per had sulked and disappeared, I’d seen him just once more, when I was heading into the accommodation while he was walking back towards the tents.

 

“Okay.”

 

Moo nodded and walked away. We were all adults. Surely Per wasn’t childish enough to go on a hunger strike just because he was upset with me.

 

“Haah…”

 

I sighed resignedly and headed back into the accommodation to grab my torch and mosquito repellent. Better to be prepared. I didn’t want that poisonous snake getting dengue fever on top of everything else.

 

“Where the hell have you been, Natcha? I’ve been waiting ages. I thought you were showering, but when I opened the bedroom door, you weren’t there.”

 

May-I turned towards my female friend, who had just returned to the table looking unusually cheerful.

 

“I went to take care of something.”

 

My head immediately snapped up from my plate. Without even thinking, I looked towards the engineering gang’s table. The muscular figure of the man I loved was nowhere to be seen. Not even a glimpse of him. And it was almost seven.

 

GRAB!

 

“What did you do?!”

 

I marched straight over and seized Natcha’s upper arm so hard that she grimaced in pain.

 

“Oh? You actually care about me?”

 

The ugly, frightening smile on the woman’s face sent an icy chill through my entire body. Without realising it, I grabbed both of her upper arms and shook her in anger.

 

“WHERE DID YOU TAKE PER?!”

 

I shouted loudly enough that everyone in the canteen turned to stare.

 

“I didn’t do anything to your man!”

 

My anger was so intense I could barely control myself. My heart hammered with fear. Fear that something had happened to the person I loved.

 

“Then where is Per?”

 

I forced myself to calm down. I couldn’t let my emotions make everything even worse.

 

“I didn’t do anything to your fucking husband!”

 

My fingers tightened around my friend’s arms. Whether it was because of her schizophrenia. an illness that can cause disturbances in thought and logic, hallucinations, hearing voices and abnormal behaviour, or because of something else entirely… Right now, I wasn’t going easy on anyone.

 

“If anything happens to Per… I don’t care who did it. Whoever is responsible will pay for it.”

 

My voice was cold and threatening. The entire area fell silent with fear.

 

“I’ll contact the park officers and get them to help search.”

 

Guide quickly stepped in, trying to bring the situation back under control.

 

“We’ll help search too.”

 

The engineering gang, already too restless to remain seated, immediately jumped to their feet. I simply nodded, grabbed my watch, torch and mosquito repellent, and immediately headed into the surrounding forest to search for my man.

 

The sky grew darker with every passing minute. And I ventured deeper and deeper into the forest. I tried to move as quietly as possible, straining my ears for any sound that might belong to the person I was searching for.

 

“PER!”

 

I shouted for the sulking poisonous snake. Nothing answered. I was worried. Guilty. Confused. My thoughts were a complete mess. If Per really had been hurt because of Natcha, I couldn’t deny that part of the blame would belong to me.

 

The forest became increasingly frightening and cold. The ground was littered with branches and rocks. Trees of every size grew densely around me, evidence of just how healthy and untouched the forest was. But that only made finding Per even more difficult.

 

“…”

 

Eventually, exhaustion began setting in. Scratches from branches and rocks were starting to sting, so I stopped beside a large boulder to rest and swept my torch around the area. I was furious with myself for having such a stupid argument with that poisonous snake. I wanted to curse myself out, but somehow that didn’t feel like enough. I wanted Moustache himself to yell at me instead. Maybe then this crushing weight inside my chest would ease a little.

 

“Per…”

 

I startled slightly when I heard how badly my own voice was trembling. Then a clear droplet fell onto my hand. My eyes widened.

 

“Nggh…”

 

I swallowed back a sob and hurriedly wiped away my tears. This wasn’t the time for me to be weak. Just let me find Per first. After that, he could punish me however he wanted. I’d genuinely surrender.

 

“…”

 

I was about to start walking again when the metallic smell of blood drifted through the air.

I froze.

 

“PER!!!”

 

I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Rustle! Rustle!

 

“Kan…”

 

A tall figure emerged and began walking towards me. The instant he came within sight, I ran straight to him.

 

“Per!”

 

“Ow!”

 

I immediately stopped the hug I’d thrown around him and looked up at his face. Then I pushed him back slightly and swept the torch over his body.

 

“B-blood!”

 

His hand was pressed against the lower-right side of his abdomen. There was a stab wound beneath it, blood soaking through a wide area around the injury. The sight made my entire body turn ice-cold.

 

“…Hmm? Have you been crying?”

 

And yet the bastard was still trying to grin at me, even as his face grew paler by the second.

 

“This isn’t funny. We need to get back to camp.”

 

He needed treatment immediately. I had no idea when he’d been stabbed or how much blood he’d already lost.

 

“Kan…”

Thump!

 

His heavy body suddenly sagged against mine. I panicked. His skin was cold. My thoughts began racing, every piece of medical knowledge in my head colliding with fear and stress. I hated myself for knowing what to do medically yet feeling utterly helpless when it was someone I loved. That only made me angrier with myself.

 

“Nggh… Hold on. Please. Don’t leave me.”

 

“I love you, Kan…”

 

I wiped my tears away, then quickly supported him, trying to get him moving back towards camp.

 

“Don’t talk yet… Wait until we get back to camp, then you can say it to me again.”

 

I held his trembling body tightly against mine as we walked, one hand helping put pressure on the wound to slow the bleeding.

 

“You’re so bloody cruel… A man’s trying to tell you he loves you… and you won’t even let him.”

 

I stopped. Then slowly looked up at the man in my arms.

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

Beneath the moonlight and the beam of my torch illuminating the path, I met those coffee-coloured eyes. He was looking at me with exactly the same feeling he always had. And it drove the truth into me all over again.

 

I loved him.

 

Grab!

I slid my hand behind his neck and pulled him down to meet my lips. I carefully kissed him, cradling his face in my hands. It wasn’t a deep kiss. But I poured every feeling I had into it.

 

Everything that had built up inside me until there were no words capable of describing it. Everything I’d never been able to arrange into sentences that would make him understand.

 

“…”

 

I reluctantly pulled away and wrapped my arms tightly around him.

 

“I love you… so much.”

 

“Kan…”

 

I helped him start walking again. But out of the corner of my eye, I caught the tall bastard wearing an unbearably smug little grin.

 

“I’ll let you punish me… but you have to be safe first, okay?”

 

I looked at my poisonous snake, whose arm was beginning to tighten rather confidently around my waist.

 

“Then let’s hurry back, yeah—”

 

Would it be wrong if I abandoned the bastard in the middle of the forest?!

You sly bloody snake!