#89
“Don’t forget to brush your teeth before bed. The bathroom is over there, and you can use the yellow toothbrush on the shelf.”
Ho-woo looked around the house again as he confirmed the bathroom location Oh-yul pointed out. It was a well-maintained house, not seeming hastily prepared.
“Is it okay if I ask where this place is?”
Ho-woo asked cautiously, not wanting to satisfy his curiosity if it was inconvenient. Oh-yul answered as if it was an insignificant question.
“It’s my house.”
Ah, I see, but didn’t you live next door to our house?
“That’s also my house.”
Oh-yul quickly answered before Ho-woo could even ask, reading his expression.
“Then the places you stay are…”
The management complex, next door to our house, and here. Three places in total?
“I don’t come here often. Do you remember when I mentioned having a study?”
At the word “study,” a memory flashed in Ho-woo’s mind. He had said that the book he used to study cooking was in his study.
Did he buy this house just to have a study? How much do Espers get paid?
Seeing Ho-woo pondering with a serious expression, Oh-yul clenched his molars and shook his shoulders slightly, still unable to erase his smile.
“I think I know what misunderstanding you’re having, but this place wasn’t bought with my money.”
“There’s that excellent tool called a loan.”
If he bought it with a loan, it’s not Oh-yul’s money. Strictly speaking, it’s the bank’s money.
The Esper, guessing what Ho-woo was thinking, let out a faint laugh. Realizing his assumption was wrong from that laugh, the Pair slightly widened his eyes and stared blankly at his partner.
“This is where I lived with my family until I joined the corporation.”
With his words, a previous conversation came to mind.
‘I didn’t have a family that would miss me.’
His voice, which had answered so nonchalantly then, echoed like an auditory hallucination. It was still a heavy topic, just as it was then.
“It must be a precious place for you.”
But Oh-yul tilted his head slightly and muttered, “I wonder.”
“It is a precious place for me, but not because of my family. They locked me in a room like a monster after I manifested, so it would be strange to say I miss them.”
“…”
“The day I left for the corporation, everyone in this mansion died except for one person.”
He showed no emotion, as if telling someone else’s story.
“I killed them.”
There wasn’t even a hint of guilt.
The words uttered in a flat tone, as if reading a newspaper article, seemed to have no effect on him. Ho-woo didn’t know what expression he was making. The Esper, who was staring intently at Ho-woo’s face, blinked his eyes that gleamed like minerals.
This is a minefield.
The beast that hadn’t shown its teeth to him had subtly revealed its fangs. The beast, which had been showing its claws while observing Ho-woo’s reaction, suddenly pretended to be well-mannered.
“I’m sorry. Were you very surprised?”
“…Well…”
“Let’s stop with the uninteresting story here. Go brush your teeth and come out.”
Oh-yul pushed Ho-woo into the bathroom. Stumbling in, Ho-woo turned to look at the quietly closed door.
…You didn’t say it was a joke, did you?
Ho-woo wondered what parts were true. He wasn’t the type to make silly jokes. He had said he wouldn’t lie to Ho-woo.
“…”
Little was known about his past. When Ho-woo first searched for him, there were various epithets describing him.
The youngest manifested. The endlessly growing Esper. The first S-class Esper.
Among the flashy descriptions, there was nothing to guess about his past.
Even as he washed his face at the sink and brushed his teeth with the prepared yellow toothbrush, Ho-woo swallowed deep worries.
No matter how he thought about it, his romance was like the hell mode of a game, the hardest among hardcore modes.
Sometimes he would pitifully ask to just look at Oh-yul, and now he’s subtly pushing forward Esper Oh-yul too. It wasn’t a misconception.
That man was kind, affectionate, and gentle, but he had a bad personality.
It was rather Ho-woo who wasn’t prepared for his readiness to willingly show his true self. Oh-yul must have noticed this. That’s why he changed the subject and let Ho-woo leave.
After washing up, Ho-woo was gently laid down on the bed in the room where he first woke up, following Oh-yul’s lead.
As he rested his back on the cozy sheets and soft mattress, fatigue rushed in like a tsunami. Ho-woo struggled to keep his half-closed eyes open and weakly grasped Oh-yul’s clothes.
It was a small movement conveyed without strength, but it was enough to hold the man back.
Oh-yul stood by Ho-woo’s side, who had fallen asleep instantly from fatigue, looking down at him for a long time. When his breathing became completely peaceful, he turned to leave.
***
Cozy blanket.
Softly flowing sunlight.
And an affectionate voice tickling his ear.
“Ho-woo.”
Ho-woo smiled, pulling up the corners of his mouth even in his sleep, satisfied with all of it. In response to Ho-woo’s whining, tinged with sleepy petulance, the familiar voice let out a small laugh, and a large hand carefully brushed up his disheveled hair.
“Don’t want to go to work?”
“Mmm…”
I don’t want to.
Doesn’t everyone dislike going to work?
Even in his drowsy state, not yet shaking off the sleepiness, he squirmed as if agreeing, and the kind voice spoke again.
“If you don’t want to go, should I contact your company?”
It was a sweet proposal. Ho-woo knew that if the owner of this voice wanted, he could do that.
“Hm?”
At the question asked once more as if urging him, Lee Ho-woo, who was about to nod reflexively, suddenly opened his eyes wide at the thought that flashed through his mind.
Are you crazy?!
He abruptly sat up. As a result, Ho-woo, who had headbutted Oh-yul’s face as he was bending over, swallowed a groan while writhing from the stinging pain.
“Ugh… ouch…”
It felt like he had hit his forehead against a rock. His head was spinning, and he couldn’t focus properly, as if he had a concussion.
“Oh my.”
Following Oh-yul’s rare exclamation, a hand approached and gently rubbed Ho-woo’s reddened forehead. Unlike Ho-woo, who was in pain after having his entire face slammed into Oh-yul’s forehead, Oh-yul’s face was clean, with his eyebrows drooping in concern. The hand covering the swollen forehead felt cool.
At this point, Ho-woo felt a bit dumbfounded. He was the one who had headbutted, but since it was his forehead against the entire face, shouldn’t the other side be more damaged?
Are Espers beings whose facial skin is made of steel too?
When Yu Hee-eun had given him serious advice to kick between the legs before, he hadn’t paid attention, but now he thought that maybe he really would need to kick with all his might to inflict even the slightest damage.
“It seems you’re fully awake now, so come downstairs. We should have breakfast.”
Oh-yul, after ruffling Ho-woo’s hair, left the room first.
Ho-woo, who had been blankly staring at that broad, sturdy back, belatedly remembered his own disheveled hair and messy appearance.
He wanted to show only his good side if possible, but it seemed already too late for that.
Although he had jumped up in surprise, Ho-woo shook off the remaining drowsiness with a single yawn and looked around the room again, now filled with light as the thick blackout curtains had been drawn.
Unlike when he had examined it relying on the dim light of dawn, the room now definitely felt like a child’s room.
The small furniture, toys neatly arranged on one side, textbooks and a small bag that Ho-woo might have used in 1st or 2nd grade of elementary school – it was a scene that seemed frozen in time.
Ho-woo approached the desk and examined the textbooks. On the very front of the textbook, showing the passage of time, Oh-yul’s name was written in a scrawling handwriting. With only a 2-year age difference between Oh-yul and himself, Ho-woo probably used the same textbook for his classes.
Though he couldn’t remember.
Quickly losing interest, Ho-woo put the textbook back in its place and looked over the desk to see if there was anything else interesting, but there wasn’t much that caught his eye. He couldn’t rummage through this room like combing for lice, so he just skimmed over what was visible on the surface. Then he noticed the fairy tale book open on the table and examined the page it was opened to.
“…Huh?”
He hadn’t noticed in the early morning, but the beach drawn in vivid colors looked quite familiar.
Where have I seen this before?
It could just be a common fairy tale book he might have seen somewhere. But a strange sense of déjà vu gripped him.
He had never felt particularly uncomfortable about not having memories from before he was 10 years old. He had transferred to a new school after moving from where he lived before and met Do-hyun there, and Do-hyun had been very considerate of Ho-woo despite their young age.
Thanks to Do-hyun, who was sociable and friendly, Ho-woo made many friends and consequently became more cheerful. Although he couldn’t have deep relationships, he had people he got along with moderately well in each grade.
Even without memories, he didn’t try hard to find them since it wasn’t particularly inconvenient. His father didn’t say a word about the lost memories either, so he vaguely thought they probably weren’t good memories anyway.
But now, to have this sense of déjà vu.
Ho-woo pushed down the uneasy feeling and closed the fairy tale book. He needed to prepare for work before it got too late. Just because he didn’t want to go to work doesn’t mean he could skip it.
As Ho-woo left the room, he noticed Oh-yul was in the kitchen from the smell wafting up the stairs and the faint clattering sounds. The food smell made him feel hungry. As he went downstairs, he saw Oh-yul wearing an apron. The man’s profile, holding a spatula, looked rather serious for someone just watching eggs cook.
