Chapter 22
Ahem— It was Lee Haesu who moved first, clearing his throat.
“Oh, but Eunseong-ssi, I’m curious about something too. That hair and eyes—is it some kind of side effect? Were you injured when the accident happened?”
“Ah, this is something I don’t really know either…”
Geumseum, who had reflexively started to answer about his eyes, hesitated at the name ‘Eunseong.’ His gaze suddenly caught on Mujin.
After killing the Boss, he had lost consciousness while being carried here in Mujin’s arms from that scene. This place was probably his home, definitely his bedroom, yet he had brought him in without hesitation. He didn’t even know how long he had been occupying this place, lying here.
Geumseum clearly remembered Mujin calling him before he lost consciousness. Even after coming here, he had called that name as if confirming.
‘Yoo Eunseong.’
That name was probably his original name. Though he couldn’t remember anything, it strangely felt familiar.
Thinking that far, something he needed to confirm came to mind.
“I want to make sure of one thing—was I perhaps a wanted fugitive?”
When Eunseong asked cautiously, Mujin, who had been frowning the whole time, let out an incredulous breath.
“Oh, you’re right. You are a wanted fugitive.”
Thump. Even though he had asked with some preparation, his heart dropped.
Leaving behind Eunseong, whose eyes had grown wide as lanterns, Mujin dragged Lee Haesu outside the iron bars. Though Haesu had dozens of questions remaining about Eunseong, seeing Mujin lock the barred door again, he kept his mouth shut and obediently followed him.
He could see a territory he shouldn’t intrude upon. After leaving the room and living room, passing through the long corridor, crossing the front door, and getting far enough that Eunseong couldn’t hear them, Haesu stopped walking.
“Mujin.”
“I know, me too.”
“You know what I’m going to say? You just say you know without thinking?”
“Eunseong won’t be investigated.”
Haesu opened and closed his mouth several more times before giving up.
After Eunseong died, he too had felt pangs of conscience. When he heard about the project attempting reawakening, he thought it was insane, but he had stepped forward to help, worried that Yoo Eunseong might die. However, he only realized after hearing the fact that Yoo Eunseong had died that this had been seen as complicity. He belatedly regretted that instead of stepping forward to heal him every time he got injured to a painful degree, he should have opposed that project itself.
“Yeah, well… I’ll talk to the Guild Leader too. He seemed very worried. But when I touched him just now, it seemed like it really is Eunseong-ssi. You know too, I remember anyone I’ve touched once. Especially Eunseong-ssi, countless times…”
“Go.”
Mujin pushed Haesu outside the front door with a twitch of his eyebrows.
Seeing Mujin’s expression come alive, Haesu momentarily had the illusion that time had been turned back. If not that, then perhaps Mujin himself had actually been missing for the past three years. For the past three years, Mujin had been a completely different person. Now it seemed like the real Baek Mujin was standing before him for the first time.
He patted Mujin’s shoulder and told him to contact him again if needed, then took the elevator.
Mujin, who had been heading toward the room where Eunseong was as if returning to where he should originally be, stopped abruptly. After consciously letting out several deep sighs as if drawing out the fire inside him, he stopped by the kitchen to get an ice pack.
As he expected, Eunseong was standing gripping the iron bars, ears perked up. When Mujin opened the door and entered again, he even looked down at the locking mechanism with interest.
“It only opens to my fingerprint. You can’t break it with your strength.”
At the words that seemed to read his mind, Eunseong went to the bed, his proper place, and sat down obediently.
Mujin approached and handed Eunseong the ice pack. When he docilely received it and pressed it firmly against his eyes, it seemed like he might live a little. It was a method he hadn’t thought of in the ‘Bottom.’
Mujin, whom he thought would just leave, sat down on the floor below the bed like a tired person. Silence descended on the spacious area. Everything was quiet except for the rustling sound from the ice pack.
“That Hanyeong is okay—that’s a lie, isn’t it.”
Eunseong asked while leaning against the headboard of the bed.
Mujin remained silently unresponsive.
Eunseong looked at his back with deeply furrowed brows. He wasn’t foolish enough not to understand the looks exchanged between Mujin and Haesu. Nor was he unable to guess how fatal the spider poison Hanyeong had inhaled was. What he had lost was memory, not common sense.
“I want to see Hanyeong.”
This time too, there was no answer.
Outside, the sun was setting. The crimson light coming through the window drew deep outlines on Mujin’s body.
“That I committed a crime… being a wanted fugitive, that’s also a lie, isn’t it.”
Eunseong asked once more.
Mujin, who had been sitting on the floor looking outside, finally turned his head at those words.
“Why, do all the things I say seem like lies?”
“…Because I’m not that kind of person.”
Eunseong said firmly, hardening his lips. He had no memory, his body wasn’t intact, and his eyes were a mess, but this one thing was certain. He wasn’t the type of person who would commit crimes and run around as a fugitive.
‘That’s how the world is, kid. If you can’t adapt, you’ll be weeded out too. You’ve rolled all the way down to the bottom here and still don’t know that?’
He could never agree with the Boss’s words, even if he died.
Mujin turned his body and leaned his arm on the bed. Burying his head like that, he looked up at Eunseong with an obliquely angled gaze.
“What kind of person are you?”
“A good person.”
Because his mouth was covered by his arm, his expression couldn’t be seen clearly. But his eyes seemed to be smiling.
Mujin suddenly straightened up and sat on the bed facing Eunseong. Then, like someone he hadn’t seen in a long time, he carefully examined Eunseong’s features again. He looked at his face caressingly with his jet-black pupils.
There was an inescapable force in that intense gaze, so Eunseong ended up staring into his eyes as if bewitched. He followed his pupils, forgetting all about his eye pain. Even as tears gradually welled up in his stinging eyes, he couldn’t stop looking.
Then, when Mujin’s lips finally moved slightly, Eunseong was even a little startled.
“You’re a cruel person.”
Mujin only said those words and then lowered his eyes. With long eyelashes drooping over his pupils, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
He was holding his breath, afraid he might hiccup from the surprise, when Mujin raised his eyes again and looked directly at Eunseong.
“Ignoring your contact. I only did that once… but I was so angry then too.”
“…”
“And then you died.”
Perhaps because his voice was low, his chest strangely ached.
I died?
Eunseong blinked. The pooled tears flowed down, making him look exactly like someone crying, so he hurriedly tried to wipe them away, but Mujin was faster. He carefully swept away the tears with his touch and stared intently.
It was when Mujin was about to speak again.
“But I didn’t die.”
Eunseong struck first.
It was a rebuttal mixed with a bit of playfulness. Mujin’s expression looked too serious, but no particular words he could say came to mind. So wouldn’t it be better to change the subject—it was a somewhat reflexive answer.
Mujin, who had been staring blankly at Eunseong with wide eyes, soon smiled slightly, lifting the corners of his mouth.
“That’s right. I was mistaken.”
As if realizing something he hadn’t known, he nodded repeatedly.
His face, which seemed sharp at first glance, cast a soft light. His drooping eyebrows and black pupils looked as sad as an abandoned puppy.
The person who had mercilessly bombarded the monster nest where spiders poured out endlessly with fireballs could also make such a tender expression.
Eunseong suddenly felt a tingling in his fingertips.
When he raised the ice pack to cover his eyes, the strange feeling that had suddenly come seemed to subside a bit.
“…”
It was strange. Eunseong was definitely conscious of Mujin, who would be looking at him from beyond the ice pack, even though he couldn’t see. He didn’t know what action to take next, like something broken.
Then Mujin placed his hand on Eunseong’s head with a thunk. He pressed down on the crown of his head with his large hand so that the weight could be felt heavily, then rubbed gently, swish swish.
“Rest for now. You’ve been through a lot.”
Was it because of the warm body temperature? Goosebumps rose all over the back of his neck. When the stiffly frozen Eunseong finally raised his head again, he was alone in the space inside the iron bars.
…What, when did he leave?
He was so flustered that he didn’t even hear the sound of the barred door opening and closing.
Once again, he was left alone in the large, white room.
Eunseong sat blankly and looked toward the entrance.
‘You’ve been through a lot.’
When he recalled Mujin’s voice, his ears tickled.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
