#132
Ho-woo placed the juice box with its handle miserably half-torn on the bedside table. The set of juices with various fruit flavors mixed appropriately was Oh-yul’s recommendation. It seemed to be a brand that Han Seong-won liked.
“Oh! I love this.”
He welcomed Ho-woo’s juice set despite having several expensive-looking gifts piled up beside his bed. He quickly took out two juice bottles from the box and handed one to Ho-woo. It was the most neutral orange juice.
“Please have some.”
“But this is a get-well gift…”
“I can’t finish it all by myself before I’m discharged anyway.”
“Thank you.”
Too embarrassed to refuse further, Ho-woo gratefully accepted Han Seong-won’s consideration. However, he didn’t drink it, just holding and fiddling with the bottle. An awkward silence settled, with the noise from the TV in the room trying to fill the gap. Ho-woo broke the silence to fulfill his duty as a visitor, asking, “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine now.”
He smiled a bit playfully, perhaps to lighten the stiff atmosphere.
“You know Esper Woo Tae-sik in our team, right?”
“…Yes, I do.”
He was someone Ho-woo was connected to by an incident that perhaps Woo Tae-sik himself wouldn’t remember. A vague memory of a youthful face comforting him, saying everything would be alright while carrying him, remained. Ho-woo forced a smile, pushing away the bitterness.
“Even though healing Espers aren’t omnipotent, they can boost recovery to quite a good level.”
He tapped his legs firmly fixed in casts.
“Thanks to that, it ended up like this. Otherwise, I might have really been done for with full-body fractures and internal bleeding.”
“……”
Although Han Seong-won said it jokingly, Ho-woo felt his words piercing like a sharp blade. Having unintentionally landed a clean hit on Ho-woo, Han Seong-won noticed Ho-woo’s increasingly dark expression and awkwardly scratched his cheek, then raised his voice to appear busy.
“If Ho-woo is hurt anywhere, tell us quickly so you can get treatment. If you tell the boss, you’ll probably be treated first.”
“I’m not hurt anywhere.”
“That’s a relief. Actually, I was a bit worried when we couldn’t reach you that day.”
Ho-woo’s expression became strange at the mention of worrying about a man who could survive leisurely even if thrown into a horde of monsters outside the city. Han Seong-won hastily added an excuse at Ho-woo’s expression.
“I wasn’t worried about the boss, of course!”
“Then?”
“I was worried about you, Ho-woo.”
“About me?”
Ho-woo pointed at himself in confusion. He hadn’t been particularly close with Han Seong-won. They were just acquaintances who exchanged greetings and casual conversation, so it sounded quite strange that he had worried about him in that situation.
“Of course. The boss is someone who would survive even if thrown outside the city, so there’s no need to worry about him.”
Ho-woo nodded slightly as Han Seong-won had a similar thought to his own.
“This might sound a bit strange, but…”
Han Seong-won hesitated for a moment, then whispered, lowering his voice as much as possible, as if worried about being overheard outside.
“The standard of life the boss is living now is you, Ho-woo.”
“……”
“I know it sounds really strange, but that’s how I see it.”
Han Seong-won, who had landed sharp clean hits in a row today without realizing it, looked at the closed door over Ho-woo’s shoulder for a moment and whispered again, lowering his voice.
“I’ve spent quite a long time with the boss, you know.”
The year Han Seong-won turned 24, he met Oh-yul, who had just turned 20 and left the training center.
At first, he was negative.
Although he knew age didn’t matter much in the hierarchy of Espers, being subordinate to someone 4 years younger than him, and a rookie who had just graduated from the training center, wasn’t pleasing. Even though he was recognized for his ability and given the title of Team 1, he wasn’t very happy.
A week after being assigned to Team 1, Han Seong-won finally met the rumored S-class Esper in person. The being with the unbelievable title of still growing stronger as his energy continued to increase had a delicate face like a young master.
Even by Han Seong-won’s standards, which had become incredibly high as Espers were generally superior in appearance, Oh-yul could only be described as amazing.
He really was amazing.
He looked around at his team members, hiding his sparkling jewel-like blue eyes under long eyelashes. Han Seong-won remembered the eerie fear he felt then.
An uncomfortable fear crawling up from beneath his feet gripped him. There stood an absolute ruler he had never felt even when facing monsters outside the city. And in that chilling atmosphere, Oh-yul gave his first evaluation of his team members.
‘You’re all terrible.’
Even though the low bass voice criticized while scraping his vocal cords, Han Seong-won hunched his shoulders that he had proudly straightened. He had thought he was strong, but he was just a frog in a well.
The frog revered the sky stretching to that wide horizon. Other Espers weren’t much different. Implicitly, they all bowed their heads to the alpha of the pack that day.
Most Espers belonging to the Management Corporation regarded Oh-yul as their alpha. They feared him but also praised him.
He was the hidden ruler of the corporation, but he didn’t rule.
The overwhelming alpha quietly held his breath. Even under Kim Dong-cheol’s tyranny, the Espers couldn’t step up. Because their ruler was submerged deep underwater.
It was a very long time.
Han Seong-won stared at Ho-woo sitting by the bed. The reason Oh-yul started to move was so clear that it was impossible not to know.
“Please live happily with the boss for a long, long time.”
He sincerely wished. That Lee Ho-woo would not leave Oh-yul’s side. If possible, it would be even better if they imprinted.
Ho-woo invisibly bit the soft flesh inside his mouth at his sincere request. Even without Han Seong-won’s request, he couldn’t escape from Oh-yul.
In a choice that put his life on the line, Lee Ho-woo had lost. It was an irreversible choice and an irrevocable result. Trapped in the largest prison in a world blocked from all sides, Ho-woo came to understand one aspect of Oh-yul. He acknowledged that the gaze calmly looking at him had already been mad for a long time.
The monster who had torn Ho-woo’s heart to pieces in a terrible way loved him too kindly and devotedly.
Even if that form was grotesquely distorted.
Whether it was happily or not, they would be together until the last breath.
“…I think it will be like that.”
Ho-woo left a strange answer to Han Seong-won’s request and got up from his seat.
“Are you leaving?”
“I came out for a short while, so…”
Ho-woo checked the time on the pager on his wrist. More time had passed than he thought. It suddenly occurred to him that if this much time had passed, the stalker might have come looking for him.
“I’ll see you next at the corporation.”
Instead of telling him to get well soon, Ho-woo promised a next meeting. Anyway, Espers recover at a different rate than ordinary people, so Han Seong-won would be back in tip-top shape after just one more week.
Receiving Han Seong-won’s farewell from behind, Ho-woo opened the hospital room door and was startled by the black shadow leaning diagonally against the wall right next to the door. He had expected it, but he didn’t think he would really come and wait.
Separation anxiety? It was troublesome how he followed him around like a puppy whenever he left for a moment, as if he were a pet.
Sighing inwardly and closing the hospital room door, Ho-woo crossed his arms and looked up at Oh-yul, who was staring at him with a slightly sulky face.
“When did you come?”
Ho-woo lowered his voice so Han Seong-won, who would obviously be uncomfortable knowing Oh-yul was here, wouldn’t hear. Of course, this effort was shattered because Oh-yul didn’t lower his voice at all.
“I came earlier.”
“When?”
“When Ho-woo received the juice as a get-well gift.”
That meant he had followed almost as soon as Ho-woo arrived at the hospital. Ho-woo briefly glanced at the tightly closed door and then moved first. Following Ho-woo as he walked, Oh-yul still didn’t unfold his sulky face. Ho-woo was dumbfounded by his thoroughly sulky face.
No, who should be angry right now? This is the pot calling the kettle black.
“Why did you come when I was going to return soon anyway?”
“We were supposed to have lunch together today.”
If Ho-woo had hurried when he checked the time, he would have just barely made it to the appointed time without being late. So it wasn’t an excuse for coming. He just didn’t like being apart even for a moment.
Ho-woo was about to snap at him but stopped. This man wouldn’t change at all anyway. There’s no point in trying to instill proper common sense into a madman, he would just think as he pleased.
“I’ve reserved a nice place.”
A thick hand quietly settled on his shoulder. Ho-woo walked following Oh-yul’s subtle guidance and stole a glance at his profile.
As forgotten memories returned, Ho-woo felt deep sympathy for this abhorrent monster. Perhaps, if Ho-woo’s feelings for Oh-yul were laid out in words, they would be full of contradictions.
While wanting to punch that brazen face or mercilessly kick between his legs, he also felt pity.
The child who had locked himself alone in a dark room had finally taken a step outside. Pulling back the blackout curtains and standing under the light, he grasped the light that seeped in for the first time in his life. Though the method was riddled with greedy selfishness, it effectively imprisoned Ho-woo.
“Ho-woo.”
Having arrived at the parked car, Oh-yul was waiting for Ho-woo, holding the passenger door open. The midday sunlight shattered and poured down over his head. The terribly beautiful monster shone brightly in his own happy ending that he had finally welcomed.
I wonder…
Will I be able to tell him that I love him again?
Becoming a bundle of contradictions, Ho-woo calmly moved forward into a distorted daily life.
End of Ordinary Person A.
