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Side Story: To You Far, Far Away 3
Indeed, I must forge my own destiny. The blessings wished by others don’t apply. At least at this moment, not for the members of Team 9. The blessing wished by Lea Parke seemed like it would only apply if they actually died.
“Ah, we meet for the second time. What a small world, isn’t it?”
Jay Wu could only laugh awkwardly, ha, ha… as he looked at Sebastian Riegel’s smiling face. Why did he feel a chill down his spine while looking at this incredibly handsome man smiling brightly? Finally, Sebastian looked straight at each of the Team 9 members’ faces and said,
“So you are…”
This meaningful silence. Then,
“Those… team members.”
How could so much meaning be packed into that single word ‘those’? All the team members’ eyes turned towards Jay. Their eyes were filled with anxiety and discomfort. Normally, they wouldn’t stay quiet after experiencing such rudeness, but there were two reasons they all remained silent. First, the crime they had committed was too great, and second, Armin, well-known as a lifelong single, was continuously holding Sebastian’s hand. If Armin was acting like this, it must be love carried over from a past life or something. Since Armin was someone who had invested all his intelligence and social skills into physical abilities, it meant that if they wrongly provoked Sebastian here, they might be beaten to death and dragged out. Five bastards had already been dragged out like that. Of course, they weren’t colleagues but assassins who had come to kill Armin.
“I’m Walter Diser.”
Walter bravely stepped forward and offered a handshake to Sebastian. In short, he was attempting a frontal breakthrough. Sebastian looked at him and smirked.
“I don’t think we’re close enough for introductions.”
The frontal breakthrough didn’t work.
“We, uh, we’re indebted to the team leader.”
Someone attempting a flanking maneuver appeared. He showed wisdom by not stating his name since introductions were rejected, but Sebastian chuckled, “Hmm.”
“That’s right.”
Yes, you are indebted to him.
With that brief acknowledgment, another team member weakly stepped back.
The team members sent glances to Jay, urging him to say something. Jay reluctantly opened his mouth.
“Congratulations on your engagement.”
Sebastian looked down at Jay. Seeing those eyes that seemed to say, ‘Right, you bastard were here too,’ made Jay’s stomach churn. Sebastian Riegel was no longer just a chaebol’s second son. He was someone who had negotiated with the director and shaken up the security bureau. Thinking that he might have offended such a person, Jay began to consider retiring earlier. But he still wanted to save a bit more money to give a nice wedding…
Frost descended in Sebastian’s voice.
“Skip the gifts and just enjoy yourselves. Don’t think I’m being too cold. As you know, you have… some history, don’t you? It’s troublesome to scrutinize the innocence of every item you give, so let’s just not exchange anything. I haven’t prepared any return gifts for you either. Please understand.”
Armin, who had been introducing Sebastian to everyone and engaging in conversations, finally realized the gravity of the situation and looked up.
“What’s wrong?”
Armin’s eyes were only clear. There was no anger or regret in those eyes. Ah, right. Come to think of it, even when he was Lee Shin-yeon, he was a person who rarely held grudges against others. Yes, you have a big heart. Armin’s heart is the Pacific Ocean, and Sebastian’s heart is a sauce bowl. He raised one corner of his lips.
“Why, you ask? Why?”
As soon as he heard that voice dripping with spite, Armin surprisingly showed some perception. He pulled the hand he was holding to link arms, then firmly told the team members, “Enjoy yourselves. I’ll see you later at the office,” and pulled Sebastian away.
“What’s really wrong?”
Armin pulled Sebastian to one side of the venue and asked. Sebastian was dumbfounded by the question. Those bastards who monitored you, left you alone in dangerous situations, and then all covered their own asses, now they come here pretending everything’s fine and say ‘Congratulations on your engagement’, and I’m supposed to just let it slide? Do you think I’m some thousand-year-old Buddha statue?
Just as he was about to get angry, Armin cupped Sebastian’s cheek with one hand.
“Did something happen?”
Only then did Sebastian realize that Armin wasn’t interrogating him, but was worried about him. In Armin’s mind, something must be wrong with Sebastian. While feeling incredulous at this ridiculous train of thought, Sebastian was also pleased by the concern, so he closed his eyes briefly before opening them again.
“Why? Should I be kind to your team members?”
“No, if you don’t want to be kind, you don’t have to be. But your complexion looks bad.”
“Why do you think my complexion looks bad?”
“Because they betrayed me?”
So you do know. As Sebastian looked down at Armin, he shrugged.
“You want me to be angry, but I’m not angry about the past. I’m sorry.”
At Armin’s words, Sebastian silently looked down at him for a while before nodding.
“Okay, I understand.”
You’ve always let the past flow by.
It wasn’t him but Sebastian himself who was tied to the past. Even at this moment, Armin had forgotten everything in the end. People say that Lee Shin-yeon, and Armin Schnieke, are oblivious or easy to fool, but Sebastian remembered when Lee Shin-yeon died. He only worried about himself, with no other regrets, concerns, or attachments. A person who always lived in the present tense even accepted death as the present. In the end, it was always only Sebastian himself who remained.
“Oh? It’s the family.”
Armin greeted the family members entering the venue. Sebastian whispered to him, “I have something to do for a moment,” and gently pushed his back. Armin checked Sebastian’s complexion once more but then ran off to the family without hesitation.
It’s such a strange thing.
Sebastian smirked. In his past life and even at this moment, his lover seems to be the closest yet the farthest from him. He loves him so much, but there are parts that don’t completely overlap. And those parts feel like the farthest in the world.
But even this feeling of distance is actually because they are close. With truly distant people, there’s no room to even feel emotions.
‘Loving you is like becoming a seeker.’
Sebastian watched Armin run off to his family with a bitter smile. Whether as Armin Schnieke or Lee Shin-yeon, that soul is always consistent. He consistently loves himself but eventually forgets, and in the end, leaves and disappears, and all past is futile to him. Sebastian often chuckled when he saw the kind of affection that says, ‘If I can’t receive love, I’ll receive hate instead.’ Such cute tricks are far from possible with Armin. So without resorting to any tricks, one can only love him straightforwardly. That’s the kind of person Armin Schnieke is.
He saw Armin’s adoptive father, Richard Schnieke, walking this way after exchanging a few words with Armin. Just seeing his face made Sebastian’s insides twist.
Lee Se-yeon, to think that this person would reincarnate together.
Seeing Sebastian’s brows furrow, Richard clicked his tongue and said, “Ah, it’s not like I’m here because I want to be.”
Sebastian snorted at this.
“A clergyman.”
“Does it not suit me?”
“Considering what you used to do, hardly.”
“It suits you though. Fate can be unfair. Someone like you should have been born and lived like Armin.”
Sebastian raised his lips at Richard’s venomous words.
“So this is the mindset of a clergyman.”
“Why? Because I wish for your unhappiness?”
“No, because you wish for the world’s unhappiness. Do you think if I had been like Armin, I would have lived as quietly as him?”
That was true, so Richard fell silent without realizing it. If this man had lived Armin’s life instead, it was obvious that some part of the world would have become a sea of fire.
Richard looked at the ground for a moment. Sebastian had forcibly brought spring to this land, but couldn’t thaw the ground. The chill of winter remained in the earth.
“When I first met Armin, I was thirty years old and working for the World Service Association. At that time, Urnan was a devastated land in many ways, where countless people were dying. Both rebels and the government were plundering people. Even in the capital, you could see smoke from burning corpses.
At that time, Armin was twelve years old and a child soldier for the rebels. His nickname was Ghost. Armin had already killed many people. That child was so elusive that it was impossible to catch him, but he was unexpectedly arrested. His father, who was a drug addict, took drugs while running errands for the rebels and had an accident while driving under the influence. He collided with our World Service Association truck, and through that, we were able to secure Armin by threatening his father. The father didn’t care what happened to the child as long as he could save himself. He knew the child would suffer a terrible fate if caught because of the many killings he had committed, but he didn’t care. However, the child came to save his father with an expressionless face and only got into our vehicle after confirming his father was safe.”
Sebastian felt the urge to smoke. It was so typical of Armin that he was at a loss for words.
Armin, and Lee Shin-yeon, always fell for this. When family was involved, he would give up anything. Wasn’t it himself who had embraced him in his previous life by holding his family hostage? He knew it better than anyone.
“We judged that the child was in a brainwashed state. We tried to take the child abroad, avoiding the eyes of the Urnan government if possible, but the child refused. In that state, the Urnan government learned of the child’s existence, and the child was taken away. When we appealed to various organizations and recovered the child, he was… in tatters.”
Sebastian clenched his fist. Even though he knew well what they might have done to a child soldier in a country like Urnan, he dared not imagine the extent of it.
“The Urnan government official said they were merciful and didn’t mutilate the child’s body, but according to someone who knows them well, they didn’t cause permanent damage to inflict more pain. They probably planned to butcher him alive at the end… Anyway, we were able to secure the child again, but it was dangerous to stay in Urnan, and of course, to take the child away…”
“You needed legal qualifications.”
Sebastian’s voice sank gloomily. Pretending not to hear that, Richard continued.
“That’s right. And I knew from the moment I first saw the child that he was Lee Shin-yeon. I couldn’t let the child be taken away twice and end up in that state again. When I asked the child to become my adopted son, he couldn’t understand the concept. He didn’t know what adoption meant. After explaining for a long time, the child showed an expression for the first time. I can’t forget the voice that asked, ‘Can I choose my family?'”
And so Armin took Richard’s hand. This time, he voluntarily chose his twin from his previous life as family.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
