⚡️-REWRITTEN ELECEED ALTERNATE UNIVERSE-⚡️

CHAPTER 29: FANCY NICKNAMES AND LUKEWARM TROUBLE

"Bad idea." Kayden watched me from the corner of his eye as I struggled to sit up. Eventually, I made it, and I half regretted it.

The feeling of the blood in my head moving down was a very light-headed feeling that certainly did not want to feel again for awhile. If it could be helped.

"G'morning. Or afternoon. What time is it?"

"Two fifteen, I think." Kayden continued his munching on a packet of cat treats.

"There's no way I'm making it to school." I rubbed the dryness out of my eyes with a groan.

Right. Water.

Glancing at my bedside table, to my relief, there stood tall a full glass of water beside a softly blowing diffuser.

I downed the thing in one round. Water has never tasted so good.

"How long was I asleep?"

Kayden moved onto his next packet of cat snacks, nestling his back further into the foot of the hospital bed. "Forty nine hours, I think."

"That explains while I feel so... dead."

He snorted. "Got yourself a two day nap and you don't feel rested? Classic."

With sigh and a newfound reluctance to hold myself up, I plopped back down onto my pillow and rested an arm over my eyes. "I feel miserable. I might try going back to sleep."

"Suit yourself. Rest up."

As I tried the first minute to fall back asleep, I came reluctantly aware of the prospect that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep under such... thoughtful conditions.

To put it simply, my brain wouldn't shut up.

So I humored it with my eyes closed.

I didn't actually win, huh... mentally, I disregarded the thought. It's fine. I already made peace with that. I did everything I wanted to do, and...

With renewed clarity of mind, thoughts of finally collapsing and finding a smiling Kayden beside me crossed my mind, and a swelling emotion other than discomfort filled my chest.

...yeah, that's right. I got everything I wanted.

But even so, the pain is a lot harder to deal with now that I'm out of the heat of the moment, left to rot here in a hospital bed with the after effects...

...nothing a little rest won't fix up.

Wait a minute, actually, since I can't really sleep, I might as well try doing that 'force control' thing Kayden taught me. I wonder if it will help at all...

Thus I set out to silencing my mind and searching within me for my numen.

There it is!

With just a little bit of focus and attention to feeling, I managed to fully possess my numen and repeated the steps to force control.

"Training without me having to nag you this time?" Kayden mused. His voice smiled however.

"Can't sleep. Thought I'd do the next best thing."

Only a moment passed of tentative satisfaction before Kayden spoke again with sudden wariness.

"Wait, Jiwoo, stop. There's somebody coming."

Footsteps echoed outside the room, coming nearer until stopping just outside my door. The door slid open and in came...

Ihyuk and Chairwoman Jiyoung.