66
To your house in Hwangseong
“I-I don’t know anything about this!”
Apophis, who had been struggling between the two, unable to move in either direction, finally fled, leaving a handkerchief on the camping table. At last, with only the two of them left, Set picked up the handkerchief from the table with a long sigh.
“Ji-ho.”
“…”
“Is it… okay if I give this to you now?”
Yeon Ji-ho, who had his face buried in his knees, could sense Set’s embarrassment. He slightly raised his head and glanced at Set with reddened eyes, saying:
“Yes. Honestly, I wish you had given me the blanket directly too.”
“…Did Apophis say that? That I told him to give you the blanket?”
“No, it was just my guess.”
Ji-ho added that he knew Apophis was polite and thorough, but not a warm person, so he naturally assumed it was Set. Set closed his mouth.
“…There’s no one else who takes care of me like that, except you, Set.”
“Ji-ho, when you return to your world…”
“It’s the same there too. Whether it’s Uncle Soo-cheol, Uncle Seon-rok, or the owner of the Kkokko-daek Chicken restaurant, they’re kind but they don’t cross the line.”
Set was confused. He couldn’t tell if Yeon Ji-ho was praising him or scolding him. Ji-ho’s eyes were red and his expression was gloomy as he mumbled.
“If I may confess something that’s been bothering me, I secretly heard about you from Apophis.”
“…”
“I was bullied.”
Set slowly took the seat next to Ji-ho where Apophis had been sitting. Ji-ho, now in a more comfortable position, rested his chin on his knees and spoke while looking away:
“Before, I was too embarrassed to say it, so I just said I had a bad relationship with them, but the truth is, I didn’t have a single friend.”
“I see.”
“We moved to the countryside where the pension is now when I started elementary school, and my parents were busy managing the pension. They didn’t have time to pay attention.”
With each breath Ji-ho exhaled, a damp breath escaped. It wasn’t so much that he was crying while recalling his past, but rather that the tears he had shed earlier while listening to Set’s story were still lingering.
“At school, I was the only omega.”
“Omega…”
“It’s rare for it to manifest at that age. But my parents were betas.”
An ordinary beta couple. An omega child born between them.
Ji-ho’s parents truly loved him, but they were naturally inexperienced when it came to trait-related matters. They had lived their entire lives as betas, after all.
So they didn’t know how much their child would stand out as an omega, nor how to treat him after he manifested. As a result, Ji-ho was bound to be lonely to the core, both at school and at home.
“Those young kids, I don’t know where they heard it from, but they said to me, ‘Omegas wag their tails at alphas,’ and called me a filthy brat.”
“Children can say the cruelest things.”
“They were young, so that’s probably why. Although I can’t forgive them… At first, I knew it wasn’t true, but after hearing it so many times, I started to wonder if it might be.”
“That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Back then, he didn’t know that. Ji-ho was young too.
But now it was a thing of the past, and even if he hadn’t forgiven those children yet, he wouldn’t let it kill his life.
“Set, you’re not just a character from a novel to me.”
“…”
“I couldn’t tell you properly earlier because I was upset.”
Maybe, that’s right.
Perhaps Set, like Ji-ho, had been called ‘the child with the eyes of misfortune’ or ‘the villain’ for so long that he had become bound by it. People tend to be confined by the names they’re called.
“Even if it turns out that all of this, our meeting, is just inside a novel, it doesn’t matter.”
“A novel, huh…”
“I like you.”
Ji-ho felt a single tear that he had been holding back roll down his cheek. Just one drop. No more tears flowed after that.
“I’m just… like you.”
Just. There’s no reason for liking you, no limit, and no expiration date. I just like you.
Set’s eyes widened at these words filled with abundant affection. Set, who had lived with such a painful past, had never received a sincere confession from anyone before.
It was a moment that made all the worries that had troubled Set seem insignificant. Ji-ho’s single sentence had such an enormous impact on Set.
“Ji-ho, so I… I, you.”
Set stuttered uncharacteristically, not knowing what words to use or how to say them. Ji-ho now understood well what he wanted to say and how he felt, so it was time to wait.
“Your Excellency! Look out!”
Apophis’s voice rang out, sounding as if it would tear. At that moment, a large shadow fell over Ji-ho’s face.
As soon as Set realized this, his movements changed. He wrapped his arm around Ji-ho’s waist and leaped backward so quickly it was hard to follow with the naked eye.
Simultaneously, something indistinguishable in form crashed down right in front of where Ji-ho and Set had been. Ji-ho blinked, unable to comprehend the series of events that had occurred within seconds.
Then, a fluttering black feather tickled Ji-ho’s nose.
“…A feather?”
Ji-ho murmured without realizing it. A feather, and a black one at that. The moment he realized this, only one thing came to mind.
“Isquis.”
Somewhere, it seemed like Apophis’s curses could be heard. If he had seen what was unfolding before Ji-ho and Set, it was only natural.
What had fallen threateningly before them just moments ago was none other than a wing.
The wing seemed to have been forcibly torn from someone’s back, as the nerves at the junction where it connected to the back were still wriggling.
The black wing was familiar even to Ji-ho’s eyes. Moreover, a piece of a familiar windbreaker was attached to the torn part of the wing, fluttering.
“Damn it, Hadad!”
Apophis’s enraged voice soared towards the sky. At the same time, Ji-ho’s head also tilted up to look at the sky.
“Hello, Ji-ho.”
Hadad’s figure, standing on the sky, was exactly like that of a god. If this had been bright daylight instead of night, his shimmering golden hair would have reflected the sunlight even more beautifully, exuding an unapproachable aura.
But even in this dark sky, Hadad’s blue-green eyes shone brightly. Those eyes were focused solely on Ji-ho.
“It was good to let Chronos loose. I thought the Set I knew would come looking.”
Beside Hadad, who was floating in mid-air, was the young magician boy he had seen before. It seemed he was levitating with the boy’s magic.
Ji-ho couldn’t hear whatever he was saying. The only thing occupying his mind was the whereabouts of Isquis, who had regained his wings.
“Isquis…!”
“If I tell you, will you come with me?”
Hadad kindly extended his hand towards Ji-ho. The white outstretched hand looked as noble as a rope descending from heaven.
However, at the same time, Set, who was next to him, tightened his arm around Ji-ho even more. As if he might lose him if he didn’t.
“Oh my. Set, if you hold him like that, Ji-ho won’t be able to come to me even if he wants to.”
“No matter what happens, Ji-ho will never go to you, Hadad.”
“Really? But a prophecy has come down.”
Moonlight filled Hadad’s eyes. He opened his mouth with eyes gleaming with madness.
“‘An acacia blossom on the unchanging prairie.'”
“‘The one who finally plucks the flower becomes its owner.'”
Chills ran down Ji-ho’s spine as he heard those words, as if an electric current had passed through his entire body. It might have been because Hadad’s eyes were fixed on Ji-ho as if nailed in place.
“Gliese must have already left your side, Hadad.”
Gliese, who had been responsible for delivering prophecies to Hadad, had already come to Set and told him the prophecy. As she was the seed of a god, she couldn’t give false prophecies, so even if she wanted to, she couldn’t reverse the prophecy now.
“Is there really only one god?”
One corner of Hadad’s mouth curved up. It was a subtle smile.
“Poor Set. You don’t even know that you’ve been abandoned by the god of this world.”
“…Shut up.”
“Haven’t you ever thought about it suddenly while living?”
It was strange. With each word Hadad uttered, his appearance grew closer to that of a villain rather than a protagonist. Even his crooked smile and figure against the night backdrop.
“The thought that everything you want fails.”
“…”
“The thought that you can’t have anything you desire.”
Hadad covered his mouth with both hands and laughed. His laughter echoed through the quiet night, cutting through the air.
He whispered as if revealing some secret:
“That’s because you’re not the protagonist of this world.”
