Inevitably, clock-out time arrived.
After organizing his patients’ charts, printing next week’s exercise regimens, and filing everything away, Gi-hyeon headed to the locker room to change.
Since he intended to stay out for the night, he had brought actual clothes instead of his usual commuting scrubs. The moment he appeared in a neat, polished outfit, the therapists at the neighboring lockers immediately started poking their noses into his business.
“Oh? Where are you off to today, Dr. So?”
“Seriously, Dr. So, why are you so dressed up?”
Park Chang-won and Kim Byung-joo, fellow trainers from the sports clinic, whistled as Gi-hyeon changed. Grinning like idiots, they demanded he take them along if he was heading somewhere fun. Gi-hyeon only shook his head.
“The second someone wears normal clothes, you two lose your minds.”
“What? So scrubs aren’t normal clothes?”
“Those are hospital goblin uniforms, not human clothing.”
After a brief exchange, they nodded solemnly as though they had reached a profound agreement. Letting out a dry laugh, Gi-hyeon turned toward the exit.
Behind him, Byung-joo called out again.
“But Dr. So, didn’t you bring a bag today?”
“Why would I? There wasn’t even a conference.”
With that clean deflection, Gi-hyeon pushed open the locker room door and left. Behind him, the trainers burst into laughter, saying his personality was as stiff as a bamboo shoot.[1]
Stiff, huh.
If he were really that rigid, he wouldn’t be running away from home and wasting money on a hotel just to avoid his own boyfriend.
Still, the lighter clothes felt nice. The layers were thinning little by little; summer would be here soon enough. As long as the humidity stayed tolerable, he could handle the heat.
Winter, on the other hand, had been miserable.
His naturally low body temperature made the cold unbearable. His feet had been freezing badly enough that he’d wanted to sleep directly on the heated floor, wrapped in blankets, but that bastard had constantly complained about back pain and dragged him onto the bed every night instead. Being trapped in Jo Yeon-oh’s arms certainly kept him warm, but it also destroyed any possibility of sleeping properly.
Unless the Alpha got sent away on a business trip, Gi-hyeon was condemned to chronic insomnia.
Which made this impulsive little escape feel almost celebratory.
He considered taking the subway, but the thought of being crushed shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers made him immediately give up on the idea. Instead, he hailed a taxi. Even if traffic was terrible, he wanted to sit down.
A dull ache throbbed through his ankle. He’d probably need to ask the concierge for an ice pack later.
Since he had booked the room with accumulated credit card points, he’d been upgraded to a fairly luxurious suite. His plan was simple: barricade himself inside the hotel for the entire weekend and sleep until he practically rotted.
His body felt heavy and exhausted enough that he had no desire to do anything else.
“Sir, we’ve arrived.”
Unsurprisingly, Gi-hyeon had completely passed out in the backseat during Seoul’s evening traffic and only woke when the taxi stopped. The elderly driver extended a hand without even turning around, and Gi-hyeon groggily explained that he had paid through the app.
Only then did the driver glance back with an embarrassed laugh.
“Oh dear, I completely forgot. It’ll process automatically, so you’re all set.”
“It’s fine. Have a good evening.”
The man’s cheerful laugh was oddly contagious, drawing a faint smile from Gi-hyeon as he stepped out of the cab.
Since the taxi had pulled directly into the hotel driveway, a doorman immediately approached and opened the door for him. After giving a slight nod, Gi-hyeon walked into the lobby.
Arriving empty-handed felt a little awkward, but bringing a bag would have made his escape attempt too obvious. He briefly considered buying fresh underwear from a nearby convenience store after checking in, only to dismiss the idea almost immediately.
He was going to be alone anyway.
A hotel bathrobe would be more than enough.
Everything felt exhausting. Since his only goal was to sleep himself unconscious, it hardly mattered what he wore underneath.
After checking in, Gi-hyeon headed toward the elevators. He planned to order room service for dinner as well.
But just as he crossed the sprawling marble lobby—
…!
Gi-hyeon abruptly turned and pressed himself against the nearest wall.
Jo Yeon-oh had just entered the hotel.
To avoid exactly this kind of situation, Gi-hyeon had deliberately chosen a Swiss hotel chain completely unrelated to Haeseong Hotel, which belonged to Yeon-oh’s cousin. Yet somehow, absurdly, they had run into each other here anyway.
Spotting Manager Yoo and several executives following behind him, Gi-hyeon guessed it was a business dinner.
Clicking his tongue in irritation, he immediately changed direction and slipped toward the hotel’s luxury arcade instead. He wandered aimlessly past the boutiques until the employees started giving him suspicious looks. Only after deciding the coast was clear did he return to the elevators and step into the first open carriage he saw.
“Excuse me.”
Fortunately, the elevator was already occupied by a family of foreign tourists speaking rapid Spanish. Tapping his room key against the sensor, Gi-hyeon pressed the button for his floor.
As the doors slid shut and the elevator began to rise, the tight pressure in his chest finally eased.
…He probably didn’t see me.
Trying to calm his racing heartbeat, Gi-hyeon stepped out once the elevator chimed and walked down the quiet hallway.
For a fleeting moment, a strange thrill flickered through him — the nervous exhilaration of getting away with something. But the instant he pressed his keycard against the lock, the adrenaline drained away, leaving only exhaustion behind.
If he had come here with someone Yeon-oh approved of, the Alpha wouldn’t have cared in the slightest. Which meant there was no logical reason for him to get angry over Gi-hyeon coming alone.
It would still become a massive headache if he got caught, of course.
The absurdity of feeling like the lead in some cheap espionage thriller drew a dry laugh from him.
It was honestly pathetic that this kind of nonsense was the only thing capable of making him laugh lately.
Still, he didn’t bother wiping the smile from his face.
No one was here to pin him down with a cold stare and demand to know what was so funny.
The thought alone loosened something tight inside him.
Stepping into the dark room, Gi-hyeon didn’t even bother inserting the keycard into the power slot. He simply leaned back against the closed door and let his head rest there.
A long sigh escaped him.
Living was exhausting.
Everyone felt this way, didn’t they?
That bleak thought was the only comfort So Gi-hyeon had left.