Almost blind | Haobin

73| the end of the nightmare |73

"Dr. Jeon Minwook, you may come in."

The judge's voice rang across the courtroom. Hao lifted his head, eyes hazy from exhaustion, his body heavy from the hours of sitting in silence. The door opened with a soft creak and a young man stepped in.. he was slender, pale with black hair...

For a moment, the light above him flickered, washing his face in a pale glow. Hao's breath caught. He remembered that face - not well but enough. He'd seen him before in the mental hospital. He turned immediately to Taesan beside him, whispering under his breath, "He was on the testimony list?"

Taesan leaned closer, his expression tense but calm. "It was sudden," he murmured. "He called me this morning. But it's alright, Hao. He's on our side."

Hao gave a small nod, his shoulders sinking back, his body curling slightly inward as if protecting something inside him. His hands rested in his lap, trembling just a little, as he watched Minwook make his way to the front.

The young doctor stood there awkwardly for a moment, unsure where to put his hands, before the judge spoke again. The usual formal questions, the same rhythm every witness had endured. Minwook answered quietly at first. But then, as if something in him had decided he couldn't stay silent anymore, his words began to flow.

"I've worked at the hospital for a few years now," he began and his eyes flicking between the judge and the defense. "I've seen things there most people wouldn't believe. I know how patients are treated, how silence is often mistaken for healing."

The courtroom stilled. Even the air felt heavier.

"When Zhang Hao was discharged," Minwook continued, "I spent a lot of time with Taerae. He was... lonely, yes, but proud of Hao. He used to say, 'If he made it out, maybe I can too.'" The young doctor's voice faltered. "He missed him terribly. The first few days after Hao left, he would sit by the window for hours, watching the outside world as if he were waiting for someone to come back. But..he was never mad at him."

Hao's chest ached at that. He lowered his gaze, blinking hard.

Minwook remembered that evening vividly.. the sterile hum of the fluorescent lights, the faint scent of alcohol and detergent clinging to the air. He'd been doing the usual inventory check when he noticed it: several containers of pills missing from the storage cabinet. At the time, he brushed it off, convincing himself it was just a clerical mistake, maybe an oversight from another shift. But now, as he sat in the courtroom with the weight of Julson's accusations hanging thick in the air, those missing pills came rushing back to him like ghosts he had tried too long to forget.

Everything began to align in his mind. Taerae's sudden death, the strange silence that hung around Julson's patients, the way their eyes had lost their light. He recalled the sight of Julson one afternoon, standing in the one of his patients room with a bottle that shouldn't have been in his hands. The hospital had received a new shipment only days earlier, yet Julson's expression.. told him not to ask questions.

There was something unnatural about the way his patients moved, Minwook realized later. They weren't recovering; they were fading. They wandered through the halls like shadows trapped in their own bodies. They all were suddenly so quiet, detached, never speaking to anyone, always locked in their rooms. And then came the attempts.. first Hao and not long after, Taerae. Both young, both under Julson's care. It was too much to ignore now.

"I also witnessed something else," Minwook said after a moment. "A fight. Between Dr. Julson and Dr. Kim Gyuvin."

The judge leaned forward. "A fight?"

"Yes." Minwook nodded. "It happened late one evening. I heard shouting from the parking lot in front of our hospital. When I got closer, I heard Dr. Julson threatening him, saying he'd drag Gyuvin's personal life into court, twist his reputation if he ever tried to testify. It was so bad that we had to call police to stop the fight."