“Pine Hospital, are you ready?”
Only then did Ji-woo tear her gaze away from Seo Tae-joon.
Mi-sook offered her the saw, her face etched with worry. Ji-woo slung it over her shoulder, then dusted her palms with rosin powder.
His blood was on this saw, Ji-woo thought, a silent confession. She had deceived and tamed a man with no memory of his past. Seeing him stand there, a party to his own brainwashing with his brother's help, made a knot of guilt tighten in her stomach.
“I’m going,” she announced, deliberately ignoring his intense stare.
Her movements were light and practiced as she scaled the trunk. The rough bark scraped her thighs, knees, and elbows raw, but she pushed upward without pause.
Forty minutes later, near the top of the thirty-meter ginkgo, her clothes were plastered to her skin with sweat. A deeper problem was setting in: a dull numbness was already creeping into her arms and legs, even before the real work of sawing had begun.
Still, she grit her teeth, her thoughts on the long-neglected tree. It had borne this burden for too long; she had to relieve it. Her impatience grew as she neared the misshapen branch.
Finally level with her target, she shifted her weight onto the crooked limb. It groaned under the new strain, beginning to sway in a long, sickening arc.
“Uh, oh.” In her entire life, Ji-woo had never considered herself afraid of heights, but then, she had never been this high up.
Am I… actually afraid of heights?
It wasn’t that she didn’t have acrophobia; she’d just never been in a position to discover it. Now, perched at the top of the world, her heart hammered against her ribs and a tremor started in her legs.
So this is why the director of Verdant Hospital gave up. Just balancing on the quivering, twisted branch felt nearly impossible.
If this thing can’t take my weight, she realized with a jolt, it’ll snap and crash right onto the road below.
“Ah!”
A sharp scream rose from the ground, followed by a chorus of panicked shouts. Ji-woo didn’t dare look down, the wave of noise crashing against the back of her neck.
Just as she steadied herself and reached for the saw on her back, her body lurched. The strength vanished from her legs.
Ah, shit!
She slipped, a helpless slide into open air. Her safety rope would catch her—she wouldn’t die—but the sheer terror of her first high-altitude fall made her squeeze her eyes shut.
I’m falling…!
Just as the world began to gray at the edges, an arm snaked around her waist, catching her with a force that threatened to crack her ribs.
“I’ve got you.”
The low voice sent a jolt of ice through her veins. Seo Tae-joon. He was holding her, his large hands clamped around her waist like a vise.
Ji-woo’s eyes flew open. “S-Seo Tae-joon?”
She twisted her head to find his face inches from hers—the sharp line of his nose, his eyes a storm of relief and fury. And then she saw it: he was clinging to the tree beside her with no ropes, no equipment, nothing. The realization hit her, and she shrieked.
“Are you crazy?!”
“It’s okay,” he soothed, his voice a low rumble. “I won’t let you get hurt.” He completely misunderstood, thinking her terror was for herself, not for him.
“No, that’s not—!” Ji-woo choked on her words, momentarily speechless. “What is wrong with you! You’re going to give me a heart attack!”
Then again, hadn’t he always been this way? He’d tried to bury a man alive. He’d chased her relentlessly. Woken from a coma, killed a chicken with his bare hands, fallen back into a stupor, and then woken again in tears.
And now this—scrambling thirty meters up a tree without any gear, as if he had a death wish.
“Why are you so reckless?” she whispered, her gaze falling to his hands. They were raw and bleeding, covered in scratches. While she was protected by gloves and gear, he had climbed with nothing but sheer, irrational will.
“I don’t know. Do you?” He took a shuddering breath and pressed his face into the curve of her shoulder. His warmth seeped through her shirt, a strange flutter starting in her chest.
“You decide.”
“Decide what?”
“Whether I’m pulling you down from here, or we’re staying.”
His voice was calm, presenting a simple choice. Ji-woo didn’t hesitate. “I’m finishing what I started.”
This twisted growth was strangling the tree from its very roots. The tournament no longer mattered; all she could think about was saving it.
“Alright. Get on my back.”
“…What?”
“I’ll do the cutting. You just tell me where.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “No!”
“Why not?”
“You don’t have a rope! Get back!”
“It’s fine. If I fall and die, you’ll still live.”
That was the last straw. “Don’t you ever say that again!” Ji-woo screamed, her voice cracking. “If you get hurt, my life is over too! Do you understand?”
Do you have any idea how terrifying your family is? If you die, they’ll stuff me in an oil drum and drop me in the ocean! She gasped for air, the unspoken words churning inside her.
“Just you climbing up here at all is insane!”
“…I’m sorry. Don’t be angry.” He murmured, rubbing his nose softly against the back of her neck.
“And safety aside, I’m the tree doctor here! I’m obviously much better with a saw than you are!”
“…”
“So, y-you listen to me!” Her face was burning, her voice trembling. It was only because she wasn’t facing him that she could manage such bravado. As she lifted her chin, feeling a momentary sense of victory, a warm puff of air ghosted across her nape. He was smiling. “You’re in for it when we get down from this tree, so just… hold on tight.”
“What—”
Before she could finish, Seo Tae-joon scooped her up and settled her onto his back as if she weighed nothing.
“What the—! Seo Tae-joon!” Ji-woo shrieked, her arms instinctively clamping around his neck.
The sudden shift thirty meters in the air left her with no choice but to cling to him for dear life.
His back was broad and surprisingly steady. It was the first time she had ever been carried like this. Everything about the situation was terrifying and new, and her heart hammered against her ribs with a strange, unidentifiable emotion.