# 11
When Jin-ha opened his eyes, he was lying with his head on the man’s thigh. His vision was spinning, and his head felt hazy.
As soon as Jin-ha hazily opened his eyes, the man immediately asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what…?”
“That your physical condition wasn’t good. You should have said something.”
The accusation was laced with blame. Jin-ha stared blankly at the man with his precise way of speaking and arrogant attitude.
The shadow of the small child—who had been holding Jin-ha’s hand tightly and following him around until just moments ago—flickered and disappeared.
After a brief silence, Jin-ha raised one corner of his mouth in a slight smile.
“Why would I share such things with someone I don’t trust?”
Words that he would normally suppress and swallow came out unfiltered. Anger as deep as the man had entered his heart consumed him. Finding it amusing that he could feel such betrayal toward someone he’d known for such a short time, Jin-ha chuckled. As he laughed, a slight cough rose up, making his chest resonate, and he tasted blood in his mouth.
Watching this, the man took out a handkerchief from somewhere and roughly wiped the blood from Jin-ha’s mouth.
“Ha, you don’t trust me?”
“What about you has given me reason to trust you?”
“What?”
“Playing house, *cough*… designating a mom and dad, suggesting we go find fairies that don’t exist… Was that entertaining for you?”
When Jin-ha glared at him, the man’s eyes wavered.
“…You were the one who suggested it first.”
“Only because I thought you had fairy sickness…!”
If he’d known the man was this normal, he would never have said such stupid things. If he’d known he was being played in a joke that wasn’t even funny…!
“…Enough. Let’s just go now instead of staying here.”
Jin-ha coldly cut off the conversation and struggled to sit up. The man abruptly grabbed Jin-ha’s hair as he tried to stand, then caught his waist and the back of his head to support him as he nearly fell backward, smiling crookedly.
Jin-ha grabbed the man’s collar in return, refusing to back down.
“What are you doing?”
“If you leave?”
“Let go of this.”
“If you leave, you’ll try to forget everything?”
“Wouldn’t that be better for you too?”
Was he saying he wanted to continue this ridiculous family game even after they left? Jin-ha stared in disbelief, and the man let out a long, deep sigh. That breath brushed against Jin-ha’s collarbone.
“…That proposal is terribly boring.”
“Why would there be any fun in this?”
“It’s boring, I said.”
“Go find someone else who’s fun then.”
Because I’m naturally not a fun person.
The man frowned at the growling, teeth-gritting tone.
“Find someone else who’s fun…?”
His tone suggested that such a bothersome task was beneath him. That wasn’t Jin-ha’s concern. Whether the man found someone new or not, Jin-ha just wanted out of this situation.
He was tired and exhausted, and his mind wasn’t working anymore. He wanted to collapse and fall asleep right there, but the only thing keeping him conscious was the sense of danger that anything could happen if he fell asleep in front of this twisted man.
“There’s no way I could find anyone as entertaining as Hunter Lee Jin-ha.”
The man murmured while caressing Jin-ha’s pale cheek. After saying it, his voice became clearer, as if confirming his conviction.
“This is a very serious matter, Hunter Lee Jin-ha.”
With apparent resolve, the man stood up while holding Jin-ha. Jin-ha had no strength left to resist and could only watch passively as the man did what he wanted.
Right now, it took all his strength just to keep his eyes open.
“Hunter Lee Jin-ha, listen carefully. Your current physical condition isn’t simply a case of excessive magical power.”
The man began walking slowly. Jin-ha belatedly realized that their surroundings had grown dark. An astonishing number of stars twinkled above the man’s head. Among them, three satellites shone from different positions.
“It seems there’s a significant difference in the magical power concentration between your world and this one. This world’s magic is too heavy for Hunter Lee Jin-ha, who has lived in a world with thin magical power. That alone isn’t good, but that damned fairy’s soul tried to devour you and worsened your condition.”
“Please… stop…”
“I’ll help you adapt.”
“Earth…”
“You won’t die. When you wake up, you’ll actually feel lighter.”
The man crossed through the darkness as if he could see perfectly, quickly reaching his destination.
In front of what looked like a gate torn open through empty space, the man looked down at Jin-ha and grumbled with dissatisfaction.
“I’d prefer to treat you here, but circumstances won’t allow it. That’s unfortunate.”
“What… are you…”
“There might be some side effects. You might have difficulty using magical power for a while, or controlling it might be problematic… But don’t worry. It won’t last long. It just needs time.”
“Explain properly…”
“I should have made a magic device to dilute magical power in advance. Well, there’s no use regretting it now.”
The man clicked his tongue and firmly grasped the nape of Jin-ha’s neck.
“Focus on me, Jin-ha.”
At the same time, their lips overlapped.
Jin-ha struggled in surprise, but his movements were just feeble thrashes. Instead, the sudden movement caused him to lose his grip on the collar he had been holding.
The man lightly sucked on his lower lip, then pushed his tongue inside.
“Mmph…!”
Good heavens, what was this…
The sensation of a hot tongue thoroughly exploring his mouth was foreign. He never imagined such a thing would happen to him in his lifetime.
The man’s deep blue eyes, meeting Jin-ha’s wide-open ones, took on a gentle light.
But Jin-ha soon couldn’t focus on that anymore. The magical power that flowed in with the kiss violently swept through his body. The unfamiliar magic from the man soaked his entire body and rushed toward his heart. Jin-ha squeezed his eyes shut and did his best not to faint.
The man’s magical power was extremely fierce, but it helped. It shattered the magic that had been clumped in an oversaturated state inside Jin-ha’s body. Thanks to that, Jin-ha could barely breathe again. Only then did the pain that had been turning his stomach subside somewhat.
“Hng, ugh. Uhhk…”
Jin-ha had never heard of stabilizing magical power through a kiss, but having experienced it firsthand, he couldn’t disbelieve it.
In fact, the Hunter’s Guild often withheld new information. No matter how hard the World Gate Information Association tried to make related information public, there were always people who valued money more than life.
“Ngh…!”
But even if kissing was necessary to transfer magical power, was it necessary to torment his tongue like this? Moreover, the man kept twisting his head and sucking on his lips, causing embarrassing sounds to escape. Wet, sloppy, sticky sounds…
Ah, his ears were tingling from the obscene sounds.
Jin-ha grabbed the man’s shoulders and shook him. The man stepped back at that feeble movement.
“What?”
“Now, I’m okay… Ngh…!”
Jin-ha finally realized that the man’s purpose wasn’t just treatment. As soon as he heard Jin-ha say he was okay, the man kissed him again, entangling and pulling Jin-ha’s tongue.
A kiss filled with even more desire than before consumed Jin-ha.
“Stop, ah, enough…”
Even when he barely managed to shake his head to break free, the man quickly caught up and overlapped their lips again. Jin-ha looked up at the man holding him down, blinking with difficulty.
A strange, persistent look different from before pooled in those deep blue eyes as they stared at him intently. There was a kind of longing, greed, thirst. After repeatedly exploring Jin-ha’s mouth, the man finally growled in irritation and pulled back.
“Haah… ha… You, you, what on earth…”
As Jin-ha mumbled in confusion, the man heaved a great sigh. Afterward, the man lifted Jin-ha with a lighter movement, as if he had set aside his desire, and rose from his seat.
“Let, let go… You, what are you?!”
“Don’t be too angry. You know it was all necessary.”
“At first it was, but later it wasn’t!”
“How was it later?”
The man’s eyes were full of mischief as he asked. Jin-ha gritted his teeth.
“What’s your purpose…?”
When Jin-ha asked sharply, the man began walking with a thoughtful expression.
Toward the gate that was the only thing glowing in this darkness besides the stars and moon in the sky. Even though his mind was unhinged, he apparently hadn’t forgotten that they needed to return to Earth.
That was a relief.
While Jin-ha was sighing in relief, the man swiftly reached the gate. The gate was small, just large enough for one person to barely pass through.
“Hmm… a bit small.”
Muttering as if annoyed, the man hoisted Jin-ha onto his shoulder and then extended one hand toward the gate. Surprisingly, the gate began to expand. As if it were unfurling a body that had been curled up.
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