Chapter 11 – Secret Temptation – Part 4

Chapter 11 – Secret Temptation – Part 4

The thug who stabbed the middle-aged person ran away without even thinking of looking around.

“Why? What’s going on?”

As Lee Hyerim tried to peek from behind Woojin, Woojin blocked her with his body.

“Don’t look. Someone’s been stabbed.”

“What did you say?”

Woojin immediately called 911 and approached him.

“Someone has been stabbed. Please send the police as well. This is…”

While on the phone, Woojin laid the middle-aged person flat and pressed firmly on their stomach with his hand.

Then he felt for their pulse.

The pulse was rapid.

This was the cerebellum working to increase the heart rate as blood pressure dropped due to bleeding.

His breathing is rough and fast.

As his heart rate and pulse quicken, his breathing rate increases in reaction to the need for increased oxygen supply. It’s an autonomic nervous system reaction.

But as time passes, it will gradually become the opposite.

Because his body is dying.

“Hemoperitoneum.”

The amount of bleeding was not small.

Woojin asked him, as he turned pale.

“Sir, what is your blood type?”

“Gasp. Gasp. B… B type, gasp…”

Woojin nodded and spoke into his cell phone.

“There is significant bleeding. There is a stab wound to the abdomen caused by a sharp object. It seems he has abdominal hemoperitoneum, and a blood transfusion will be urgently needed. Blood type B.”

-What? Could you repeat that?

“Bleeding is…”

Woojin changed his words. He judged that the other party couldn’t understand the terminology.

“He was stabbed with a knife and is bleeding a lot. He will need a blood transfusion along with transport. Blood type is B.”

-First, lay him down flat and where was he stabbed?

“The abdomen.”

-Then, cover the wound with your hand or a cloth…

“I’m already doing all that. You just need to bring B-type blood quickly.”

Woojin looked at the middle-aged person with surprising calmness.

His breathing was slower than before. His pulse was also slower than before.

His face was growing pale.

After 5 minutes, paramedics and police appeared.

One paramedic put the middle-aged person on a stretcher and said to Woojin.

“Are you a doctor…?”

He had heard from her, who had received the report call, that the reporter might be a doctor.

But he looked too young.

“No. Have you prepared the blood?”

“Yes, of course.”

The team members quickly disappeared, and two police officers approached Woojin.

“I have a few questions.”

Woojin slowly nodded his head, but his words came out quickly.

“The hat he was wearing was black and had a ‘K’ mark on it. The mask color was light blue, often seen in hospitals, and the top was a simple pattern of horizontal grey and white stripes. He wore beige pants with pockets and buttons on both thighs. His height was 171cm, and his shoe size was 265 Righteous Path. He pulled his mask up quite high and pushed his hat down as much as possible, so I couldn’t see his face clearly.”

The police officers standing in front of Woojin blinked their eyes.

It felt like the criminal’s information had just flashed by in an instant.

Had there ever been a reporter who spoke about a criminal in such detail?

No matter how much he searched his mind, he had never seen such a reporter.

Those who witnessed incidents usually spoke incoherently and were very cautious.

“I’ll tell you again.”

“Ah, yes.”

One police officer quickly turned on a recorder.

After the yellow police line was set up and Woojin provided some personal information, he approached Lee Hyerim, who was standing at a distance.

This would be her first time experiencing something like this.

However, for Woojin, who usually dealt with Lee Hyerim, this was a very good environment.

I can soothe the shock of experiencing something for the first time in her life and her brain’s thoughts.

Just like a parent comforting a child who knows nothing and presenting a coping room or a solution room.

Children watch their parents and grow. Even when they become adults, they usually have similar tendencies to their parents.

Right now, he just needs to comfort her.

Woojin put his hand on her shoulder and said,

“You must have been very surprised, right? It’s okay now.”

“Uh…”

“There’s nothing to worry about. The criminal didn’t see our faces, and you were hidden behind me, so they wouldn’t have seen you either.”

Lee Hyerim felt relieved by Woojin’s words.

“The culprit will be caught soon. The person who went to the hospital will also recover quickly. It didn’t look like a deep wound.”

Lee Hyerim, who had been startled, slowly returned to her normal state of mind.

Even the terms Woojin used when he reported it, sounding like a doctor, and how calmly he exchanged words with the police.

Truly, the more she knew…

The more unknown he seemed, no, he even felt mysterious.

She was with such a person right now.

She quickly pulled something out of her bag.

It was none other than wet wipes.

“Here.”

Woojin’s hand was covered in blood.

“Thank you.”

Woojin, who received the wet wipes, started to clean his hand.

Woojin, as Lee Hyerim watched him, might have grimaced while wiping the blood, but he was incredibly calm.

He just looked like someone wiping something off because it was there.

“Let’s go.”

“Aren’t you going to throw that away?”

“I’ll throw it in the trash.”

***

The next day, Woojin arrived at the luxury apartment complex he had promised Lee Hyerim.

It was for a tutoring session.

High-priced tutoring that others couldn’t get even if they wanted to.

It would be a great help.

I heard her parents weren’t home.

Lee Hyerim merely said it was a house she often sought when she wanted to be alone.

Woojin seemed to know Lee Hyerim’s family background but didn’t voice it.

There was a proper order for things, after all.

Woojin took the elevator up to the Prime Floor.

Ding-dong-

When he rang the doorbell, Lee Hyerim flung the door open.

“You’re here? Come in.”

The Living Room was spacious but desolate.

There was only a sofa and a TV. The Kitchen was the same.

“Where’s the Tutor?”

“It’s almost time for him to arrive. Americano?”

“No, I’m good.”

“He’s a teacher who mainly focuses on the CSAT. He’s quite famous in this area, apparently. Judging by his explanations, I guess he’s good enough.”

“How much is the tutoring fee?”

“I don’t know, I don’t pay for it.”

Woojin nodded slightly.

That was truly like Lee Hyerim.

About 30 minutes later, the Tutor arrived at the house.

He was a young man who looked to be in his late twenties.

“Hi, Hyerim? It’s nice to meet your friend, the one you told me about.”

“Hello.”

When he offered his hand for a handshake, Woojin took it.

However, the Tutor’s handshake was dominant.

As their hands met, the back of the Tutor’s hand was slightly angled towards the ceiling, while the back of Woojin’s hand was angled slightly towards the floor.

This means the other person doesn’t see me as an equal.

What this handshake reveals is that the tutor sees me as someone to dominate or control.

Of course, this action was unconscious on their part.

For an equal handshake, when two people shake hands, the backs of their hands should be vertically aligned.

You can quickly tell this by looking at scenes or photos of politicians shaking hands.

-A false smile.

-A gaze that scrutinizes me, and wariness.

-Dominance Handshake.

Woojin might have reacted differently depending on the situation, but he brushed that thought aside.

Whether the tutor is interested in Hyerim or not, what matters is the knowledge inside his brain.

The tutor, who had greeted Woojin, sat down at the large dining table and said,

“Alright, shall we study hard again today?”

The first subject chosen was mathematics.

It was a problem that only high school seniors would learn, which showed he was indeed a tutor specialized in CSAT preparation.

Woojin listened to the tutor’s words while looking at the workbook Lee Hyerim had prepared for him.

“For the curve y=ex with respect to the real number t…”

Lee Hyerim furrowed her brow as if the problem was difficult, while Woojin was expressionless as usual.

“There’s a trick here with the function y=l f(x) – k…”

The tutor, who had been reading the problem, smiled at Lee Hyerim.

“If you avoid this trick, what’s the answer number?”

“Number 3?”

He, who had been looking at Lee Hyerim as if she were cute, shifted his gaze to Woojin.

He heard that Woojin was preparing for the GED.

It would be difficult.

He intended to disregard Woojin in front of Lee Hyerim.

Woojin replied.

“Number one.”

His eyes widened slightly.

But he quickly put on a somewhat bewildered expression.

“Oh, you got it right. That’s amazing, aren’t you? You must be studying hard, right? Want to try solving this one? I need to know your skill level so I can tailor the lesson to you.”

One corner of his mouth curved up slightly as he pointed to a problem.

It was a sneer.

He deliberately chose a difficult problem to intimidate Woojin in front of Lee Hyerim.

Woojin’s pen twirled once in his hand as his gaze fell on the workbook.

“Number three.”

“Your name is Woojin, right? If you don’t know, you should say so. If you just guess like this…”

Woojin listened to him and began marking his answers in the workbook.

He solved ten problems in less than 40 seconds.

‘Is this punk messing with me right now…?’

As the tutor was thinking that, Hyerim, who had checked the answers next to Woojin, let out a dazed remark.

“Hey, Shin Woojin, what the…”

There were no wrong answers. Not even the subjective questions.

Then Woojin spoke.

“Something other than this… Aren’t there any harder problems?”