#129
“What’s wrong?”
Though Do-hyun thought Ho-woo had slept peacefully, his face was even paler than when he saw him yesterday. Ho-woo was holding something square in his hand and looking Do-hyun up and down.
“Are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“…Is there anything strange? Like something different from yesterday or not being able to remember?”
Do-hyun thought carefully. Ho-woo had come late in the evening, and he had slept on the living room sofa. Then he woke up well and it was morning.
“Not at all.”
“…I see.”
Ho-woo, with a somewhat relieved face, staggered towards the living room. Do-hyun brought a cup of coffee to Ho-woo, who had slumped onto the sofa as if his legs had given out, and focused his gaze on what Ho-woo was holding in his hand.
The square object looked almost like a toy. There was a button under a transparent cover, and above it, on the screen, was written ‘ON’.
“What’s that?”
“…A button.”
“Huh?”
“A magic button.”
Ho-woo fiddled with the button with complicated eyes. Although he seemed very uncomfortable, as if holding an eerie, haunted object, Ho-woo couldn’t let go of it.
After silently fiddling with the button for a while, Ho-woo suddenly apologized to Do-hyun, who was skillfully tying his tie.
“Sorry.”
“For what?”
Do-hyun looked at Ho-woo through the mirror as he was neatly adjusting his tie.
“I barged in suddenly yesterday.”
“Is that all you’re sorry for?”
“Uh…?”
Do-hyun asked playfully on purpose. He deliberately acted light and mischievous to try to lift the mood for Ho-woo, who seemed to have a lot on his mind.
“I’ll bill you later for the door repair.”
Ho-woo’s gaze fell on the entrance. Looking alternately at the dented metal plate, about the size of a fist, and his own fist, Ho-woo roughly ran his hand through his hair, making a strange sound mixed with laughter and a sigh.
“I’m heading out. Make sure to eat something, and if you’re going to leave, just leave a text message.”
Do-hyun, who had already finished preparing for work, put on his suit jacket and passed by Ho-woo. Ho-woo watched until the last door closed and then buried his head in the sofa. The button was still in his hand.
A button that helps you get your mind straight. He couldn’t understand Oh-yul’s intentions in secretly coming in the early morning to leave this when his mind was already made up.
He was so surprised when he woke up in the morning that his whole body broke out in goosebumps.
Unable to sleep, he had tossed and turned until late dawn before finally falling asleep. He had probably only gotten a few hours of sleep. Ho-woo forcibly opened his eyes, which wouldn’t open easily, at the sound of Do-hyun knocking on the door and calling him.
And then he discovered it.
This button placed on the bedside table.
The moment he saw it, all sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind. Most of them were probably curses. It happened so quickly that he couldn’t remember clearly.
When Ho-woo had rushed out of the house yesterday, he didn’t remember bringing this. Even if he thought it might have been in his coat, there was nothing in the pockets. If he had time to grab something, he would have grabbed his wallet. Then he wouldn’t have had to walk all the way here.
In a split second, the entire situation flashed through his mind. If he hadn’t brought it himself, there was only one person who could have come here.
Oh-yul.
There was no one else.
Thinking that he might have done something to Do-hyun, Ho-woo had questioned him, but Ho-woo also knew that even if he had been affected by mental abilities, there wouldn’t necessarily be any traces left.
What on earth was he thinking?
Ho-woo seriously pondered, with the button in front of him. What was the intention of coming while Ho-woo was asleep and leaving this? He couldn’t understand at all. If he could enter the house secretly without making a sound, he could have easily taken Ho-woo back home, but he just left it and went.
A magic button that should be pressed carefully.
A tool to help Ho-woo get his mind straight if he recovers his memories and has a hard time.
But how?
“Ah… I’m going crazy.”
Ho-woo, who had been thrashing about on the sofa due to his frustration, soon went limp. He had to end this somehow. It wasn’t something that would go away just by avoiding it. Officially, Lee Ho-woo was the dedicated guide for an S-class esper. Even if Oh-yul could guide with other guides, it meant they would have to meet anyway if Ho-woo refused guiding as he did before. Moreover, this small button even proved that Oh-yul wasn’t someone Ho-woo could avoid just by trying to avoid him.
Would he really break up quietly when asked to?
No, absolutely not.
Ho-woo was well aware that someone who had waited for 21 years wouldn’t back down so easily.
This persistent stalker really showed his face in Ho-woo’s life from time to time. Yet, he meticulously made sure that Ho-woo couldn’t recall his face, which was another point that made Ho-woo disgusted.
He did think that erasing his memories at age 10 was Oh-yul’s goodwill in its own way. Ho-woo knew that it would have been difficult to live a normal life with those memories.
So, Ho-woo decided to acknowledge what he could.
Although he was an incredible stalker and had accidentally killed Ho-woo’s mother, which meant he should be immediately excluded from Ho-woo’s life, he wanted Ho-woo that much.
Ho-woo, who had been groaning with his head buried in the sofa for a while, checked the intercom curiously at the sound of the doorbell ringing in the house. No one appeared on the small screen. Ho-woo glared at the screen showing only an empty corridor with narrowly opened eyes from afar, then suddenly got up.
“Did he forget something?”
It was about the time Do-hyun would return if he had left something behind. Ho-woo, tilting his head, soon said “Huh?” and checked the intercom again. If it was really Do-hyun outside the door, this was his house, so why was he ringing the doorbell and waiting for someone to open the door?
Something felt off. Ho-woo calmly spoke to the person outside the door through the intercom.
“Who is it?”
He thought that if it was a thief, they would run away once they confirmed someone was home. He thought if it was for something else, they would at least say something, but the other party remained silent.
A prank call?
No, it still felt strange. Even though it seemed like someone might be playing a prank, Do-hyun’s house was a high-end apartment. Because there was a number lock on the entrance door, it was difficult for strangers to enter.
A real thief?
He wanted to call the police, but he didn’t have his cell phone. And since Do-hyun, living alone, hadn’t connected a landline, there wasn’t a proper way to report it. While Ho-woo was pondering whether to ask the security office to report through the intercom, he was startled by a voice that came along with the doorbell ringing again.
“I’ve come to pick you up.”
Ho-woo tensed up at the appearance of the person he least wanted to face right now. He couldn’t understand what Oh-yul was thinking. Oh-yul’s voice calling Ho-woo was too calm.
As if Ho-woo recovering his memories wasn’t an issue at all.
As if Ho-woo was the only one confused.
Of course, Ho-woo was the only one confused. But still, isn’t this a bit much?
From his jumbled memories, Ho-woo barely managed to pull out a way to address him to push him away.
“Um… Hyung… no, Mr. Oh-yul.”
Ho-woo tried to stay calm. He reminded himself several times that just because the other person was acting like a jerk, he didn’t need to act like one too, trying to control his emotions. Ho-woo’s eyes caught on the small button he had placed on the table, as if it had caught in his throat.
As soon as he saw the troubling object that Oh-yul might have secretly come in and left by his bedside at dawn, Ho-woo’s composure shattered.
“F*ck, are you a son of a b*tch?”
This shitty situation really couldn’t be endured without cursing. Ho-woo spat out the curse as if chewing on it, growling and scratching his throat fiercely.
“If that’s your preference, should I act like a son of a b*tch? From what I’ve observed, the Ho-woo I knew tended to be attracted to kind people, but preferences can change at any time.”
However, the answer that came back from Oh-yul wasn’t what Ho-woo had expected. To Ho-woo, who was momentarily dumbfounded and couldn’t say anything, Oh-yul added:
“Whatever you want, I’ll do it for you.”
Speaking as kindly and gently as his voice, acting as if he would really do anything, Ho-woo coldly bid farewell to the man without even showing his face.
“You said you’d do whatever I want, right? What I want is for us to break up.”
Both of them knew the reasons without having to spell them out in detail. Lee Ho-woo thought it was only natural to end now what should never have started in the first place, a relationship that had been haphazardly patched together.
So he spoke firmly and coldly. Even to his own ears, it sounded rude enough to make affection drop instantly.
However, Oh-yul let out a small laugh. Not a sneer, but a small laugh that burst out as if it was genuinely funny, irritatingly circling Ho-woo’s sensitive ears.
“Ho-woo.”
With a voice still not cleared of laughter, the monster uttered the answer that had been determined from the beginning.
“That’s impossible. Because I’ve never even thought about it once.”
Like a siren singing a sweet song to enchant sailors, Oh-yul beckoned to Ho-woo from within an endless quagmire.
“If you want to run away, do so. Run away to your heart’s content.”
