I Became The Only Healer In The Academy [EN]: Chapter 55

55

“Who… is this?”

Inhwan looked back and forth between Sunghyun and the girl beside him with a very flustered expression, and Sangyeon also stopped his hand holding the meat in mid-air, staring at the two.

“Uh, that’s…”

Sunghyun hesitated, wondering if he should tell them that the girl had tried to take her own life, and looked at the girl.

Her expression clearly showed lingering fear, and her hand holding Sunghyun’s was clenched tightly, but her large eyes looking at Sunghyun were filled with trust.

“I’ll explain later. I want to feed her first, is that okay?”

“Of course, it’s okay. Little one, what kind of meat do you like? Chicken? Pork? Or beef?”

“Uh…”

The girl seemed confused.

But it didn’t feel like she was confused by the many choices given to her.

It was more like she had never eaten any of these three before.

Sunghyun was the first to notice this and said to Inhwan.

“Let’s eat everything.”

“That’s a good idea.”

As Sunghyun said, Inhwan took out all the meat from the refrigerator and said.

“By the way, how old are you?”

“I’m eight years old.”

“Such a little kid at this hour… What’s your name?”

“Yae-in. Heo Yae-in.”

“That’s a pretty name.”

“Yes, but now there’s no one who calls me Yae-in.”

“Huh?”

“They call me trash.”

At the completely unexpected answer, Inhwan’s hand momentarily lost strength, and the dish he was holding fell, making a clattering sound.

“H-Hik! S-Sorry!”

Hearing the sound, Yae-in reflexively cowered, covering her head with both hands and sitting down.

“I-It’s okay. It’s not what you think.”

Sunghyun used Purification once again, and thankfully it worked well, as Yae-in looked at Sunghyun with a better expression.

Her eyes looking at Sunghyun were filled with tears.

‘What happened…’

“Ha, haha, I clumsily dropped it.”

Inhwan laughed loudly to cover it up and cleaned the floor, and in the meantime, Sangyeon, seeing that the meat was all grilled, took it out, put it on a plate, and brought it to Yae-in, saying.

“Eat first.”

“Th-Thank you.”

Sunghyun watched Yae-in, who was gobbling up the meat on the terrace, and said to Inhwan and Sangyeon.

“She seems to have a lot of stories.”

He explained what had happened in the alleyway, and as soon as he finished speaking, their faces contorted as if they were quite displeased.

“Domestic violence… is that it?”

“Ha, I don’t know who’s doing such a thing, whether it’s the mother or the father, but it’s not something we can solve.”

Whoever had done something to Yae-in was still her parents.

Even if they took good care of her wounds, she would have to return to her parents’ arms if they wanted her back.

“Sunghyun, you’re the one she’s most open to, so you have to find out. What’s been happening to her that made her make such a decision at such a young age.”

Having to find out itself was a sorry thing to say to Yae-in, but that was the only way they could help.

Sunghyun sat next to the girl who was mindlessly devouring the meat.

“Is it good?”

“Yes! I’ve never eaten anything like this before!”

It was just grilled meat, but she had never eaten it before.

“Did something hard happen?”

At Sunghyun’s question, Yae-in put down the hand holding the meat.

He could tell right away that she wasn’t reluctant to speak.

It seemed like the thought that she wanted to speak but shouldn’t was already ingrained in her mind.

“You don’t have to tell me if it’s hard to say. I just want to help you.”

Normally, he would have said it was okay not to say anything, but now Sunghyun had already gained Yae-in’s trust.

The power of Purification also played a big role.

“Actually…”

Yae-in slowly explained.

Why she made such an extreme choice.

“I… live with an old man. My dad passed away.”

“What about your… mother?”

“I don’t know about my mom. A long time ago, she stroked my hair in the early morning, said she was sorry, and then disappeared the next day. I wasn’t asleep…”

“Then who are you living with?”

Yae-in hesitated for a moment at Sunghyun’s question and carefully said.

“I don’t really know either. One day, he suddenly came to the house saying he was my dad’s friend.”

He wanted to ask what that person had done, but seeing the scars on Yae-in’s body and what had happened earlier, it seemed best not to ask this.

“I’m sorry. For asking you this.”

“No. The old man is a good person.”

“Let’s eat. It’s getting cold.”

Having found out what he needed to know, Sunghyun approached Inhwan and Sangyeon, who were looking at him.

“I didn’t ask what happened.”

“Good job. We can find that out anyway.”

“Find out? How?”

“Is there anything that can’t be done with money? I don’t think so.”

Inhwan’s expression was quite heavy.

He definitely didn’t look like someone who would just let it go.

“I’ll have the child sleep over tonight. I can’t help it if she says she wants to go back.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s something we should do anyway.”

That day, Yae-in stayed at Inhwan’s house.

They were worried that she might go back, but she was rather happy.

The next day, Sunghyun and Sangyeon headed straight to Inhwan’s house.

Originally, they would have headed to the door, but when they woke up in the morning, they received a text from Inhwan.

“Turns out the man she’s living with isn’t even her father’s friend.”

“What? Really?”

“He’s homeless.”

“…Huh.”

It was absurd.

A homeless man suddenly barging into the house and pretending to be a friend of her deceased father.

“Does that make sense? How would a homeless man know?”

Sangyeon also had the same question as Sunghyun.

The man pretended to be a friend not long after her father passed away.

That meant he knew that Yae-in’s father had died.

“I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“What about Yae-in?”

“She’s sleeping.”

Inhwan’s expression, pointing to one side of the room, seemed a little relieved.

“And soon, someone will come.”

“Someone?”

“I told them to find out more details.”

No sooner had Inhwan finished speaking than the phone on the table rang.

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter. Come and report.”

Soon, the elevator doors opened, and a man in a black suit bowed and entered.

“Who are you two… Oh? This person is…”

The man looked at Sunghyun with surprised eyes.

Rather than being surprised, it was more like he was looking at a really famous celebrity.

“He’s my friend. Sunghyun, you seem to know him?”

“Anyone who handles information would know him.”

“Start. How much have you found out?”

“Wait, Yae-in is in the room, is it okay to talk here?”

“The room is soundproof. She definitely won’t hear.”

The man handed the documents he had brought to Inhwan and said.

“He’s 38 years old. His name is Kim Cheon-joong. He became homeless due to successive business failures 10 years ago, 7 years ago, and 3 years ago.”

The documents the man gave him contained Kim Cheon-joong’s appearance and detailed information about what he had just said.

What kind of business he had, and why the business failed.

“And?”

“Decisively, the person who made the biggest investment at the time of his last business failure was the child’s father.”

“Ah…”

The documents also included a photo of the house where Yae-in was currently living.

It was a fairly large house, but it had an eerie atmosphere from the morning, as if no one lived there.

“How does he make a living?”

At Inhwan’s question, the man turned to the next page of the document and continued his explanation.

“Yae-in has already been removed from the family register [official record of a family’s composition]. As a result, support funds are being provided, and the man has been receiving them and living off them.”

“He’s trash. Have you found out about this man’s lifestyle?”

“He’s said to be living in a drunken stupor every day. He’s been living by selling things in the house little by little to make up for the lack of money, but even that seems to be gone now.”

Yae-in’s situation was the worst, but for Sunghyun and the other two, the current situation was not the worst.

Since they had already figured out that the man named Kim Cheon-joong was not Yae-in’s family, they were in a situation where they had the option to handle him as they wished.

“We’ve found out everything we need to know. Thanks for your hard work. You can go now.”

“Ah, and there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?”

The man hesitated a little to answer.

It wasn’t that he was hesitating because Sunghyun and Sangyeon were next to him, but it seemed like he was just hesitating to even put those things into words.

“Recently, he seems to be laying his hands on Yae-in more and more.”

“Laying his hands on her? Do you mean he’s hitting her?”

“That’s already been happening for a while…”

“…That’s enough.”

Sangyeon cut off the words that were about to follow.

Anyway, everyone in this place already knew it without having to say it.

“…It’s more serious than I thought. I understand. Go now. Thanks for your hard work.”

“Yes.”

The man bowed politely and left.

“So what are we going to do now?”

At Sangyeon’s question, Inhwan answered with a puzzled expression.

“What do you mean what are we going to do? We have to beat him up.”

“…Beat him up? Sunghyun, you must have a plan, right?”

“Um… I agree with Inhwan’s opinion.”

In fact, there was nothing to think about this time.

There was no worry about who was behind Cheon-joong, and Cheon-joong was not a meaningful presence to Yae-in.

Besides, legally, Cheon-joong was not related to Yae-in at all.

“Ugh… What are you doing, uncles?”

Yae-in, who had just woken up, carefully opened the door and appeared, rubbing her eyes.

“Ah, just talking about games.”

All three of them looked at Yae-in with the same smile and answered, and Yae-in briefly made a puzzled expression before going back into the room.

“But… what’s going to happen to Yae-in? You’re not going to raise her, are you?”

“It won’t change much even if Yae-in comes into my house. After all, I’m the only one living in this house anyway.”

It seemed like Inhwan was thinking of taking responsibility for Yae-in until the end.

“Don’t worry too much. There are many ways anyway. We could just buy the house she’s living in now.”

“…That’s quite a drastic method.”

“Let’s talk about that later, and let’s do what we need to do now. We’re not going to the academy anyway, right?”

At Inhwan’s words, who was burning with enthusiasm, Sunghyun and Sangyeon also nodded.

The documents that the man who seemed to be Inhwan’s secretary brought naturally contained the detailed location of the house.

“…Anyone who would stop us if we tried to kill him?”

At Inhwan’s question, Sunghyun and Sangyeon answered with silence, and all three of them knew very well that silence meant affirmation.

“Then let’s go. The very fact that we’re on the same land is too unpleasant.”

There was no need to make a detailed plan or set an appropriate time.

It was a very simple problem that would be over as soon as they stopped by as if they were stopping by a convenience store.

“He’ll probably be waiting downstairs on his own.”

“Who?”

“The man who brought the documents just now.”

As they got into the elevator and went down, the man was waiting in the car, ready to get in right away, just as Inhwan had said.

“You know where to go, right?”

“Yes, I’ll take you there right away.”