# Chapter 26
Jaeha desperately tried to ignore his terrible surroundings and focus on what he could do.
Though he didn’t understand why, Youngwoo had gained power and come looking for him. When someone interfered as he tried to approach Jaeha, he blew the person away. He showed no guilt at all.
‘Sunbae Youngwoo isn’t a normal person – he’s a psychopath or sociopath or something. The interest he shows in me shouldn’t be judged by normal standards either.’
Even after thinking hard about what to do, he couldn’t come up with a good answer. But he couldn’t keep silent forever, so Jaeha tried his best to remove emotion from his voice.
“Sunbae, you hurt someone.”
Though he managed to somewhat hide his fear, he was too direct. Jaeha’s eyes wavered, thinking he might have made a mistake, but Youngwoo didn’t seem to mind.
“Is that a problem?”
Jaeha wanted to nod his head vigorously but held back and carefully nodded just once. Youngwoo stared at him and tilted his head side to side, thinking. After tilting a few times with no answer, he began banging on the wall again.
“This is strange. There’s no way that person is more important than me.”
Afraid Youngwoo might do something unpredictable, Jaeha quickly spoke up.
“Sunbae, your hand.”
“Huh?”
“You’ll hurt yourself doing that.”
He chose these words knowing Youngwoo was happy when he showed concern. Sure enough, Youngwoo stopped banging on the defense barrier and smiled brightly. But while still wearing that bright smile, he started banging on the barrier even harder.
“Jaeha, hurry. Tell him to get rid of this. I want to get closer. Let’s hold hands. Okay?”
“S-Sunbae. I told you you’ll hurt your hand.”
“Yes, you’re worried about me. Good. More. More. More. Jaeha, okay? Let’s hold hands. Send him away. Okay? Jaeha, quickly.”
Despite his smile, Youngwoo’s strangely twisted expression made Jaeha’s jaw tighten with fear, unable to say anything to persuade him. If Dojoon hadn’t been firmly holding his waist, his legs would have given out beneath him.
Noticing this, Youngwoo began banging on the barrier nervously. Though they were inside the barrier, it felt like they could feel the vibrations. Dorim, who had been sleeping, stirred due to Youngwoo’s obsessive banging. This brought Jaeha back to his senses, and he moved half a step forward. Though he had left Dojoon’s arms, his hand was still around Jaeha’s waist.
“Sunbae, let’s solve this through talking.”
“Talking?”
As if by magic, Youngwoo’s banging stopped just because Jaeha had spoken to him.
“Yes, Sunbae. I’m scared of you right now, and you don’t understand why I’m afraid. Let’s talk so I can understand you.”
At Jaeha’s words, delivered with a forced smile, Youngwoo clapped his hands and showed a bright smile.
“Okay. From now on, I won’t show blood in front of Jaeha. Now that’s resolved, come to me.”
“No. I’m afraid because you hurt someone.”
“I see. But I had a reason this time.”
“Even if you had a reason, you shouldn’t hurt people.”
“Then should I have died?”
Faced with Youngwoo’s question that offered no escape, Jaeha quickly denied it.
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Then what?”
“You could have run away.”
“I told you earlier. If the bomb had just exploded, you would have been hurt too, Jaeha. You could have died. The kid he’s holding wouldn’t have been safe either.”
When Youngwoo mentioned Dorim, Jaeha felt Dojoon hold his breath through his back. Wanting to avoid a situation where he had to take care of both Youngwoo and Dojoon, Jaeha quickly spoke up.
“That’s just a guess, Sunbae. So this… this is really just common sense.”
Explaining that killing people is wrong – he never knew such a basic concept would be so difficult to convey.
The more he talked with Youngwoo, the more exhausted Jaeha became. He couldn’t think of words to persuade him, and he kept being drawn into Youngwoo’s logic. He wanted to stop talking.
“Jaeha, that’s enough.”
“Huh?”
Jaeha snapped back to attention when Dojoon called him affectionately and pulled him into an embrace. Dojoon pointed somewhere, and only then did Jaeha notice his surroundings, which he hadn’t seen while focusing on Youngwoo.
Heavily armed police. Even a bomb squad wearing thick protective gear had surrounded them behind Youngwoo.
“Put your hands up. Turn around slowly.”
It was the result of residents who had fled calling the police.
Only then did Jaeha let out a sigh of relief.
Jaeha had noticed the siren getting very close before disappearing and judged that it was dangerous for Dojoon to provoke Youngwoo. Expecting the police to arrive soon, Jaeha had stepped up to buy time. That’s why he spoke slowly to Youngwoo, trying not to provoke him.
“Too bad. I wanted to hold hands with Jaeha.”
Even in a situation where red targeting lasers were aimed at him, Youngwoo remained focused on Jaeha. Just as Youngwoo was about to turn around, smiling at Jaeha until the last moment, Jaeha thought he glimpsed a dark red marble in Youngwoo’s pocket. Without thinking, he called out to stop him.
“Sunbae Youngwoo!”
Youngwoo’s expression showed his usual familiar public smile. Seeing this, Jaeha squeezed out words that Youngwoo wanted to hear and that might influence him.
“Sunbae, please don’t get hurt.”
There was desperation in Jaeha’s voice. The emotion Jaeha showed, hoping Youngwoo wouldn’t use the marble visible through his pocket gap, made it seem like he genuinely cared for Youngwoo. The perfect smile Youngwoo had put on for the police faded.
“Please. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
These were desperate words hoping he wouldn’t use the bomb. Since nothing else got through to Youngwoo, he mixed his true intentions with words Youngwoo wanted to hear most.
Youngwoo’s smile changed to an innocent one, feeling the sincerity in Jaeha’s words. He looked truly happy, his eyes sparkling along with his bright smile.
“As I thought. It’s only you.”
Only after Youngwoo had completely turned his back did Jaeha’s focused gaze drop to the ground. Having seen the bomb marble in Youngwoo’s pocket that supposedly didn’t exist anymore, Jaeha became anxious.
‘It wasn’t just the one he took from the crack?’
Jaeha’s eyes quickly scanned the surroundings. The ground, where red blood was dripping, was already so stained that it wasn’t easy to find anything.
“Slowly.”
Youngwoo raised his hands and obediently followed the police’s orders, and was even handcuffed.
“You have the right to an attorney and the right to remain silent…”
“Ow, that hurts.”
No one responded to Youngwoo’s complaint. The officer recited the Miranda rights silently as he walked away with Youngwoo.
Until then, Dojoon maintained the barrier. Only after seeing Youngwoo get into the police car did he remove it. As the fresh air flowed through, relieving the stuffiness, Dojoon’s tense expression quickly relaxed. Meanwhile, Jaeha frantically examined the ground.
“Haa. Today has been really crazy.”
As Dojoon started walking, Dorim, who had been sleeping well in his arms until now, whined.
“Mmm… sleepy.”
“Yes, we’re almost home.”
“Yaaawn…”
After Dojoon soothed her lightly, Dorim soon leaned back into his arms. As Dojoon entered the apartment entrance to return home, he stopped and was confused when Jaeha didn’t follow even after waiting. Looking back, he saw Jaeha still examining the ground far away.
“What are you doing over there?”
“No, I think Sunbae Youngwoo had more than just that one.”
“What?”
“I think I saw a dark red marble in his pocket. Like… this kind of thing?”
Though small and hard to see, the color was so distinctive that Jaeha could spot it when he focused.
Marbles scattered among the bloodstains. There wasn’t just one. Now he understood why Youngwoo had walked along the barrier line several times.
“Wow, he said come outside, but he did this?”
Youngwoo had definitely grumbled about not seeing black gaps, cracks.
‘Was it fake?’
If they had gone outside at Youngwoo’s urging, was he planning to kill Jaeha and Dojoon? That couldn’t be right. Youngwoo constantly wanted to hold onto Jaeha. He might have intended to take Jaeha away. If so, he might have planned to kill Dojoon after he removed the barrier.
‘Why on earth?’
Jaeha, who had a normal way of thinking and was somewhat slow, couldn’t understand.
“Huh?”
As soon as the police car left, the dark red marbles that were lying around in a circle simultaneously turned red-hot.
Just as the shocked Jaeha tried to move to avoid them, Dojoon also discovered the marbles flashing red as if about to explode.
“Hey, this is going to explode! Get away!”
“Jaeha!”
Unfortunately, they were standing on opposite sides of the marbles’ explosion range.
Dojoon rushed urgently toward Jaeha, but fear overwhelmed him, unsure if the barrier would hold even if he put one up.
Though he used his power instinctively, all he could do was create a barrier around himself.
Could he make two barriers on both sides of the explosion range? Feeling he should get to Jaeha first, he ran, but Dorim in his arms felt unusually heavy today.
Bang! Boom!
“Ugh!”
Dojoon’s bad feeling was right. He reflexively created a barrier, but it only protected his surroundings – he doubted whether it had blocked the explosion heading toward Jaeha.
Several more explosions followed until the dust that had risen from the explosion settled. Fortunately, the explosions weren’t as strong as expected. And Jaeha, who ended up watching this explosion from the rooftop, was bewildered by the whole situation.
“What, what is this? I couldn’t have been blown up here by the explosion.”
“Sunbae Jaeha, you have such a cute thought. Oh, but you’re naturally cute, so that’s to be expected.”
Following that slick voice came a sweet perfume smell.
Gaeho. Why are you here?
Jaeha, held in Kyun Jiho’s arms while looking down over the rooftop railing, couldn’t understand what was happening at all.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
