Chapter 4
The day Eunseong first met Mujin was when he entered kindergarten together with his twin brother Jaeseong.
Not all childhood memories are clear, but his first impression was as vivid as a photograph.
His jet-black curly hair, eyes as black as go stones, white cheeks and red lips made young Eunseong feel ticklish inside. Just looking at him made him so shy that he hid behind his mother’s legs instead of greeting him.
Even in a kindergarten that gathered only children born with ability user bloodlines, Mujin stood out. He was much taller than his peers, had distinct features, and spoke clearly and precisely.
Compared to his twin brother Jaeseong, Eunseong was extremely shy. When Jaeseong ran around playing with Mujin while holding toy swords, Eunseong would crouch down and play quietly in the dirt. Because of this, even though they were all the same age, Mujin mistook Eunseong for a younger brother for quite a long time.
Huiseon Guild was certain that the child who would help externalize Mujin’s Hwanghwa would be his older brother Jaeseong. They decided to raise the children together, who happened to be friends of the same age. From studies to play, they shared everything they could do while growing up. The three children became as close as brothers from the same womb.
In the eyes of the purposeful adults, Eunseong was just a third wheel between the two boys, but the children didn’t care about such calculations. Rather, Eunseong, with his gentle personality, became closer to Mujin, but such things were considered completely unimportant.
Mujin’s father, Baek Sangyeon, who headed Huiseon Guild, cherished Jaeseong terribly. Having experienced saving his own life by externalizing his Hwanghwa, he knew Jaeseong’s importance all too well. The one who had helped Baek Sangyeon externalize his Hwanghwa was Jaeseong and Eunseong’s father, Yoo Hwan.
‘Jaeseong, how is your training going these days?’
‘Mujin, you’re in the same class as Jaeseong this time, take good care of him.’
‘Before entering this mock training, shall we go look around the auction house together with ajussi? I want to buy Jaeseong some protective gear.’
However, since Baek Sangyeon couldn’t distinguish between Jaeseong and Eunseong’s faces, such awkward situations often unfolded. When called by Jaeseong’s name, Eunseong always missed the timing to reveal the truth.
Eunseong and Jaeseong’s faces were identical like facing mirrors – even they would get confused looking at photographs – but only Mujin could distinguish them with surprising accuracy.
That’s why.
When Yuseong Guild’s plane crashed into a rift due to engine failure, the rescue team mistook the sole survivor at the scene for ‘Yoo Jaeseong.’
When Mujin corrected the misunderstanding caused by wishful thinking, various media outlets had already published articles.
That the Yuseong family had suffered an unexpected accident, but fortunately ‘Yoo Jaeseong’ had survived.
When Eunseong, who had lost all his remaining family, finally recovered from his injuries and got up, only Mujin was there to welcome him. Eunseong had to bear the disappointment of the entire world on top of the sadness of being alone.
‘If I hadn’t gotten on that plane, hyung might have lived.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘No matter how much I think about it… that protective barrier that was put on me at the end. I think there was a mistake.’
‘It’s an unconfirmed fact, what’s the point of dwelling on it?’
Eunseong couldn’t stop thinking that the item someone had used to save him inside the crashing plane was actually meant for Jaeseong.
‘Stay and sleep here.’
Mujin grabbed Eunseong’s arm and pulled.
‘No. I have a lot to do. Team Leader Yeon is waiting.’
‘If it’s because of our father, you don’t need to see him. It’s completely empty until next week.’
Yuseong Guild, specialized in item creation and buffs, was a guild that had accumulated enormous wealth.
When his family was shattered by the unexpected accident, Eunseong suddenly had to take on the guild leader position as well. In his unprepared state, information he needed to grasp and things he needed to study poured down on him. But that wasn’t the only reason he declined Mujin’s invitation.
Eunseong lacked the ability to handle Hwanghwa. Though they were twins, he was born with pitifully insufficient power compared to Jaeseong. So much so that he was evaluated as a child who would have no abilities, but thanks to being from the same womb, he was born with weak buffing abilities. In other words, even that was supposedly Jaeseong generously sharing his abilities with him.
Such a person had survived. He felt like he had stolen both Jaeseong’s life and Mujin’s chance to live. No matter how many dozens or hundreds of times he reconsidered, that protective barrier wasn’t meant for him.
‘Let’s check once more. Is that really Yoo Eunseong lying there… The Yuseong Guild leader was at the scene together, if he was in his right mind, that couldn’t be possible, could it?’
‘Really… he abandoned Yoo Jaeseong and saved Yoo Eunseong?’
The voices that had been talking outside the hospital room remained like echoes, tormenting Eunseong.
From after that incident, Eunseong stopped visiting Mujin’s house.
* * *
Eunseong opened his eyes on a cozy bed. The first thing he felt upon waking was that his entire body seemed to be soaked in Mujin’s scent.
It was enough to make him recall his childhood for a moment. From a very young age, Mujin had lived alone in an independent space on the top floor of the Huiseon Guild building. Before the accident, Eunseong had spent more days eating and sleeping in his space than at his own home. It was the scent he had always smelled then.
The large room, which had no furniture except the bed, was dark and dim, and the boundary between the night view visible beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows and the living room was invisible, making it seem like floating in the middle of a starry field in the night sky. Mujin’s taste was bleak, but there was something peaceful about it.
“Ugh…”
How many days had he been unconscious? When he moved his body, his joints creaked like ungreased gears. As soon as he barely managed to sit up straight, something that had been crouching in the darkness suddenly moved as if it had been waiting.
It slowly grew in size as it stood up, casting a long shadow over Eunseong.
“Hieek!”
With the night view behind him, not even the outline of an eyebrow hair was visible. Only two pupils glowed bright yellow in the pitch-black darkness. Inside Mujin’s body, Hwanghwa was blazing fiercely, licking angry flames.
“…Make some noise at least, I thought you were a ghost.”
Eunseong looked up at the black mass and smiled awkwardly. Then the mass puffed up its shoulders even larger in displeasure. At least that’s how it looked to Eunseong’s eyes.
“Do you even know how to be scared? While doing such things?”
The voice grinding through gritted teeth was full of anger. Eunseong unconsciously raised his hand to rub his own chest.
The place where the hole had been was completely healed, but the inside still ached dully. He could feel a heavy regeneration item hanging over the thickly wrapped bandages. It was a necklace that Eunseong knew well – one that Jaeseong had given to Mujin as a gift while he was alive.
The necklace’s grade was far too high for Eunseong’s body, so it couldn’t exert its original effects. Still, it was better than C-grade or D-grade items because it had a vitality support option that ignored grades.
“You almost died.”
Mujin’s murderous voice fell over Eunseong’s head as he fiddled with the necklace. The low voice sounded like a monster’s cry.
“I know.”
Eunseong’s voice came out pathetically cracked. His parched lips split with a crack, tasting of blood.
“You know?”
Mujin bristled like an angry hedgehog raising its spines. His voice was sharp as if stabbing Eunseong’s skin. Still, knowing his heart well, he couldn’t bring himself to make hasty excuses.
Unlike skills, healing items have reduced effects according to the hunter’s grade, so if S-grade healing ability user Lee Haesu hadn’t been there, he could have missed the golden time and died. His forehead went cold and cold sweat filled his palms.
“Sorry, but Mujin. Could you give me some water?”
As soon as the words fell, Mujin moved and threw a water bottle he’d taken from the refrigerator toward Eunseong.
Eunseong confidently reached out and caught it with a smack, but his bones ached so much that he dropped it again. Mujin picked up the bottle that had fallen and rolled away and held it out again.
“Ah right. Your arm was injured too, Yoo Eunseong.”
“You threw it this way knowing that?”
How spiteful. When he tried to accept the water bottle with an embarrassed face, Mujin took it back, unscrewed the cap, and handed it over.
“I’m barely holding back from beating you until you cry, so shut that mouth.”
His eyes, now accustomed to the darkness, could clearly see Mujin’s cold expression. He watched Eunseong empty the water bottle, then abruptly turned and left the room. Eunseong looked at the door that had closed with a sound loud enough to break, and swept up his disheveled hair.
‘…He seems angrier than I thought.’
But he had no intention of compromising either. Since he had no intention of changing his mind, the chill in his chest was also something he had to bear.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
