Chapter 15: Stuck in Her World (2)

"Who the hell....."

P looked at Yuki standing with her left hand on her waist on the left side of the bed, facing Hanabi, who was sitting on a chair on the right side of the bed four steps away.

"What the hell is this..," P said subconsciously, utterly dazed and confused in curiosity.

The room was completely packed. Mio was standing on his right side, just gazing down at him. Min-seo was at his left, examining his bare torso in absolute awe since his shirt was off. Meanwhile, Yu-na was just chilling on his left side, snapping endless pictures of him with her phone.

"Instead of you calling him a mutt, at least try to say thank you! If it wasn't for him, I would have been dead twice," Hanabi said, defending him.
Yuki turned her head away from Hanabi, glancing down at P. P ignored Yuki's glare and turned his head to face Hanabi on his right.

"There's no need for a thank you. I just want to go home," P said simply.

"You can't do that, you've severely been injured on your back," Hanabi protested, looking at him with worried eyes. "At least let your wound heal first!"

"She's right. You are in no condition for body movement," Mio added, crossing her arms as she glanced down at P. "If you even start walking in this condition, you might start bleeding severely, and that could lead to you dying. You lost a total nightmare amount of blood last night."

"Thanks for your advices, but my injury is neither of your concern," P replied, his voice calm, serious, and completely composed. "I've got to move. I can't remain here like this."

"Listen here, mister. You're free to do whatever the hell you want. It doesn't concern us one bit, even though you are the one who saved Hanabi," Yuki said in a dramatically annoyed tone, glaring down at him.
Hanabi’s eyes shot up to Yuki. Yuki...! she screamed in her subconscious, her facial expression practically screaming: what-are-you-doing?!

"You were badly injured, and my friend brought you to her house and even called a doctor to treat your wound," Yuki continued, completely ignoring Hanabi. "She only wants you to stay at her house so that you can get better. That's the least she can do to repay you! All you ever do is just appear and disappear... do you know how hard it was for her to cope in the last two months? She almost went completely nuts because of you!"

"Yuki, that's enough...!" Hanabi shouted, her face flushing.

"Hey.. listen, I think you are severely overreacting," P said, locking eyes with Yuki with a deadly serious look and voice. "I said I can't stay here for long... I have to get moving. Is it really that much of a big deal? And this matter is also none of your concern. We all have our own lives. Mind your business!"
Min-seo nervously stepped in, gesturing her hands down to calm them both. "I think you guys shoul—"

"Tsk! Who the hell do you think you are? Hanabi is my friend," Yuki snapped angrily, cutting Min-seo off entirely.

"Even though she's your friend, you shouldn't go ahead and talk like that to someone you just met and don't even know," P said seriously, his voice dripping with annoyance. "I don't even know anything much about your friend Hanabi, neither does she about me. You can't just expect me to suddenly start listening to your opinions because she saved me last night. Let her do the talking, not you."

"Okay, that's enough, guys!" Hanabi finally yelled, shutting the argument down.
Yuki clamped her mouth shut, remaining silent after his words.
A few steps away from the left side of the bed, Yu-na was sitting on Hanabi's makeup desk. She was casually chewing and blowing a massive bubble with her gum, holding her phone with both hands as she watched the entire scene unfold in pure excitement.
The room fell into a heavy silence for a moment.

"Huh... What happened? Why aren't you guys arguing anymore?" Yu-na asked, looking genuinely disappointed that the drama had ended.

"SHUT UP!" P and Yuki yelled in unison, turning their shared wrath on the girl sitting at the desk.

"Did I say anything wrong?" Yu-na muttered nonchalantly, blowing another bubble.

Tsk.. This is all TEMU's fault, P muttered subconsciously in deep regret.

"That's enough. Everyone remember you are in my room. I don't want any ruckus happening here," Hanabi stated seriously, taking control of the room.

Heh... P and Yuki both scoffed in their minds.

Look who's talking, Yuki thought.
Pfft, look at her acting bossy, P noted, a faint, amused smile tugging at his lips.

"P, I know how you feel. It seems like you are a very busy man and you have places to be," Hanabi said, softening her tone.

Yeah... P agreed in his mind.

"But you are seriously wounded, and you need time to heal. Have you actually thought about it?" Hanabi asked, her voice sweet and entirely calm.

"Hmph," Yuki muttered, crossing her arms and closing her eyes as she turned her head away, silently agreeing with Hanabi.

"Can't you just stay for some time so that you can get better?" Hanabi asked.

Suddenly, her voice became calm, cold, and chillingly quiet. The entire room went dead silent. Yuki opened her left eye, glancing back at Hanabi in surprise.

"Please... I know we just got to know each other. But could you please, for my sake... stay?"
Hanabi brought her hands down, her shoulders dropping as her face completely softened into a look of pure, heartbreaking sadness. It made her look incredibly, impossibly cute. She looked directly into P's face.

P glanced back at her, and his chest suddenly tightened. He was completely flustered. To P, she honestly looked like a cute, helpless cat sitting on a giant strawberry cake with a cherry right on top of its head.

Yu-na’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.

This is it... The husband and wife moment...! How is he gonna react?! Yu-na gasped excitedly in her subconscious.

P stared at Hanabi, his eyes wide. What... is this...? I... can't... why does it feel like I must obey?! his mind panicked.

P stared at her intensely cute face, struggling and failing to look away multiple times. Finally, with a massive burst of willpower, he successfully snapped his gaze up to the ceiling, his face burning. He remained quiet for a long moment, trying to force the words out of his mouth.

"...Okay, fine.... I will sss..st..stay.." P muttered, completely unable to resist the cuteness.
"Hehh.....?!" the rest of the girls exclaimed in unison.

Yu-na let out an excited, muffled scream. This is it!! Look how cute he looks! This is what I've been waiting for my entire life! It's so amazing I can't help it.... keep going, don't stop! she squealed in her mind, slamming her phone over her face to hide her wild, thrilling expression while aggressively biting her fingernails. I want more!!!

"Why the hell did you suddenly agree to stay now?!" Yuki banded, completely baffled by his sudden flip.

"I think it's because she asked nicely," Min-seo smiled.

"I'm actually shocked myself, but honestly, it doesn't concern us that much," Mio said, checking her watch. "I've got to go to work. What matters to me right now is getting my pay for saving your life."

"Life? What life..?" P asked, genuinely confused.

"Your life... or have you completely forgotten your fatal wound and how you got treated?" Mio stated bluntly.

"You expect me... to pay a single dime after I survived this fatal wound all by myself, and all you did was patch me up?" P scoffed, looking highly annoyed. "Do you think I'm a fool and I would suddenly pay you...? Over my dead body. I know myself because I am simply built different... you can't fool me."

The entire room instantly went completely blank. A stark, white, lifeless void swallowed the background.
Mio stood there, completely blank, her mouth wide open in disbelief.

"Hanabi.... where is the axe I pulled out of his back? I want to fix it right back in," Mio said, her eyes locked onto P with a terrifying, wide-open death stare.

"Okay, wait...! I don't know how you did it, or how you've managed to completely fool me," P quickly stammered. His expression turned deadly serious as he raised his left hand, holding up a single index finger. "I promise, Madam..., I will pay you down to the very last dime."

Mio was suddenly holding a heavy survival axe in her left hand out of nowhere, casually cleaning the sharp, gleaming blade with a handkerchief as she stared him down. The moment P uttered those words, the room instantly regained its full color, and Mio's terrifying expression melted into a bright, angelic smile.

"It actually costs exactly $7,000 dollars," Mio said cheerfully, tilting her head.

"Isn't that too harsh?" exclaimed Hanabi.

He's a foreigner, he must have a lot in the bag. He doesn't know our ways, Mio thought subconsciously as she grinned with an evil smile.

> [ LOADING... ]
> Two pixelated hands shaking digitally on a screen.
> The iconic, classic Nokia theme song begins to loudly blare through P's mind.
> 
P's brain had completely rebooted.

I... wha... what is money...? P questioned himself subconsciously, staring into the abyss.

"So, I'm going to take my leave now... I'm late for work, which also includes you, Min-seo," Mio said, breaking P's trance as she turned to walk out.

"Oh right! Bye-bye!" Min-seo smiled, waving cheerfully at P while he continued to stare blankly at the ceiling like a statue.

Yuki was the first one to aggressively barge out of the room. "I have much more important places to be," she huffed, walking out through the door, closely followed by Mio and Min-seo.

Hanabi watched them all filter out. "Okay, bye...!" she called out cheerfully.
Yu-na was the last one to walk out. As she reached the doorway, she stopped, turning around to give Hanabi a massive, toothy grin and a giant thumbs-up with her right hand, her face practically saying: you-have-got-this!

Hanabi stared at Yu-na in utter confusion as the door finally clicked shut.

Now, it was just P and Hanabi left alone in the quiet room.

The silence stretched on. Hanabi slowly started getting incredibly nervous, her fidgeting hands giving her away, while P remained flat on his back, staring intently up at the ceiling—frantically strategizing a high-stakes escape plan because he didn't have a single dime to his name.
Hanabi looked over at P, but the very second they both caught each other's eyes, they quickly turned away. Hanabi began coiling her hair around her finger, incredibly nervous as her heart beat faster. She started vividly remembering all her past intense experiences with P before she finally stopped, dropping her hands to her lap.

"So... P, the last time I saw you, you were shot multiple times and badly injured. I remember right before I passed out, you took a bullet for me," Hanabi said, her voice dropping.
P turned his head to her, looking at her with a serious expression.

"When I woke up in the hospital, I was able to discover that all the guards surrounding us at that time had been completely massacred, and the boss was nowhere to be found. I later saw in the news that he had hanged himself. He seemed to be the one behind everything," Hanabi said, looking directly at P.
P gave absolutely no reaction, just coldly glaring up at the ceiling.

"I was just so curious then. When I asked the police about you, the police explicitly stated that you actually never existed. I was left completely dumbfounded," Hanabi said, coiling her hair around her finger again in curiosity. "I struggled a lot to process everything that happened, wondering if it was all real or not. But now I'm seeing you here again. It gives me a somewhat feeling of relief that my experiences with you weren't me hallucinating, but real. And I am so happy to see you safe."

"So... what exactly happened to you after I passed out?" Hanabi asked.

P glanced at Hanabi quietly for a long moment, his eyes looking entirely like he wouldn't give her a single answer. Then, he finally spoke.

"I survived because the guards suddenly started fighting among themselves. I don't know how, but I didn't care. I dragged myself to escape into the heavy snow and fell down a hillside in a completely snowy area. When the boss finally regained control of the situation, he started aggressively looking for me but couldn't find me. He thought you were dead and that he had completely lost me," P said coldly.

Hanabi looked at him in deep curiosity.

"He almost found me, but I was incredibly lucky that the hill completely covered his view from above. But right before I passed out, I heard him ordering the remaining guards to quickly cover up all evidence regarding me. It seemed like he had powerful higher-ups, and if they found out that a hostage had successfully escaped, he would be dead meat. I could literally hear him breaking down slowly before I passed out," P said calmly.

Hanabi blinked her eyes, taking it all in.

"I later then woke up. I had been saved by an old lady who lives deep in the snowy forest, and I stayed with her for weeks healing my wounds. That's it," P stated.

"Oh... so that's how you survived. That explains a lot," Hanabi said with a massive sigh of relief. Then she paused, remembering the wreckage. "So... what about the plane?"

"Tsk... TEMU. I bought the plane from TEMU. It is literally the best online shop if you want to buy something—a place truly meant for billionaires. But for some strange reason, this plane product failed. This is the first time I am ever having a bad product from Temu," P said jovially.

"You can't buy literal planes from Temu, that's completely impossible!" Hanabi said, utterly surprised.

"Oh really? But the plane is from Temu. I bought it for exactly $5k dollars. It was very cheap, that's why I love Temu. You can buy literally anything on there," P argued confidently.

Who in the world would sell a functional plane for only $5k... Hanabi wondered subconsciously, entirely baffled.

GROWL!!!

A loud rumble echoed through the room. P was incredibly hungry.

"Are you perhaps hungry?" Hanabi asked, instantly concerned.

"Yes. Do you have food that I can eat, if you don't mind?" P asked calmly.

"Sure! There's plenty of food in the kitchen, I will go get you some," Hanabi said in total delight, happy to entertain her heroic guest.

She got up from her chair, wasting no time to walk toward the bedroom door while P offered her a warm, beautiful smile from the bed.

"I actually eat a lot," P noted warmly.

Hanabi stopped right at the bedroom door, holding onto the handle as she turned back to face him. "Oh? Then I guess I will just have to make even more," Hanabi said with a matching warm smile. "Just have some patience, okay...?"

P nodded with a gentle smile. Hanabi twisted the handle and opened the door.

"Take your time..!" P yelled out with a cheerful smile.

SLAM!

The bedroom door shut.

The exact millisecond the door clicked closed, the cheerful smile vanished from P's face. His gaze immediately locked in deadly serious.
...
Moments later, Hanabi carefully opened the bedroom door using her right arm while balancing a massive, heavy tray of fresh food with a glass of juice resting on it.

"Okay.... I'm ba—"

Hanabi stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes violently widened, and she froze in a shocking, absolute silence while staring directly at the mattress.

The bed was completely empty. P was gone.

"P......" Hanabi said faintly, her shoulders dropping as she looked sad and down at the steaming tray of food.