‘I told you, it’s not time to resent me yet. That moment is still far away.’
<It’s not time to blame me yet. That moment is far away.>
‘You said later. After everything was over, you said later… Isn’t now that later?’
<After everything… later.>
‘I killed all the countless creatures.’
‘…….’
‘I stopped the creature wave. Isn’t this what you were waiting for?’
‘…….’
‘That’s why you brought the creature horde into my dreams, why you made me train with gunfire, with goggles, why you pushed me to get used to real combat… wasn’t it?’
Kwon Jae-jin could no longer hold back his questions. What was going through the mind of Seo Eui-woo from the first timeline? By what means was he infiltrating Kwon Jae-jin’s subconscious and appearing in his dreams? And ultimately, what was his true objective?
It was time to find out.
‘Tell me. What is it?’
Kwon Jae-jin lifted his gaunt face. Though exhaustion hollowed out his eyelids, the black pupils buried deep within remained sharp and piercing.
His unwavering gaze was the same as ever.
Slowly, he turned his head and locked eyes with Seo Eui-woo. But the 24-year-old Seo Eui-woo gave no response.
His once-youthful, striking features now bore no trace of softness. His ashen-gray eyes were unfathomably dark, void of any discernible intent. They looked less like the eyes of the living and more like those of a dead reaper—cold and chilling.
‘…No, not yet.’
Seo Eui-woo released Kwon Jae-jin. The arm that had tightly restrained his waist loosened. Whatever thoughts ran through his mind remained unreadable.
‘This isn’t the end. It hasn’t even begun.’
‘What…?’
‘Stay quiet and wait. I told you—it’ll be later.’
Seo Eui-woo’s lips curled into a smile.
His face was flawless, as if sculpted from wax, and crystalline like a diamond. It didn’t seem like the face of a living being, but something inorganic.
Even as he smiled, it didn’t look like a smile at all.
‘What the hell… What exactly am I supposed to be waiting for?’
‘You’ll know the moment it happens. It’ll be horrifying.’
‘…….’
‘Ah… right, the creature wave. Do you really think that was the end of it?’
‘…What are you saying?’
‘Did you see any α-creatures in today’s battle?’
Wait, no way…?
A sudden, ominous realization struck like a bolt of lightning.
Looking back, there had only been β-creatures…
No wonder it felt too soon.
The battle today wasn’t a true creature wave.
It was merely the opening act.
‘It’s not time yet. You’ll have to wait a little longer.’
‘…….’
‘Wow, this is interesting. I’ve always been the one told to wait, but now I’m the one telling you to wait… It’s new, don’t you think?’
His long, narrow eyes curved gracefully, a glint flashing within the deep darkness of his gaze.
Beneath the surface, a lurking unease coiled. Though he hid it well, something in the distant depths of his eyes seemed to echo with a desperate scream, a silent wail of agony.
‘Isn’t this the first time you’ve had to wait for me, Jae-jin? Looks like we’re experiencing a first together.’
‘…….’
‘You can be impatient if you want. I always was…’
The glossy, pale glow in his eyes was an embodiment of a relentless, suffocating obsession, refusing to let Kwon Jae-jin go.
‘Haha.’
***
His consciousness stirred faintly.
He tried to wake up immediately, but his eyes wouldn’t open as he wished. His body remained motionless, heavy with exhaustion, sprawled limply.
‘Ha…’
<This isn’t the end. It hasn’t even begun.>
<Stay quiet and wait. I told you—it’ll be later.>
‘At this point, I can’t just brush it off as some meaningless dream…’
Fine. If he was being generous, maybe at the start, it really was just a dream. A few times, he had dreams where the Seo Eui-woo from the first timeline appeared. Back then, nothing about it felt unnatural.
But as time passed, the dreams became more deliberate. Now, it had escalated to a point where he could no longer ignore the presence of the first timeline Seo Eui-woo.
It felt as if the Seo Eui-woo invading his subconscious was growing stronger.
Like he was feeding off the new timeline granted to Kwon Jae-jin’s regression, parasitically growing along with it…
‘What the hell am I supposed to be waiting for? What does he mean it hasn’t even begun?’
The creature wave? Or was it something else…?
‘Whatever it is, why won’t he just come out and say it?’
Was there something Kwon Jae-jin absolutely wasn’t allowed to know right now? Was he hiding it on purpose?
‘How the fuck am I supposed to know what that bastard Seo Eui-woo is thinking…’
Caught up in struggling to live a proper life with the Seo Eui-woo from this timeline, finally starting a real relationship, Kwon Jae-jin had momentarily let it slip from his mind. But the truth was, Seo Eui-woo had always been a meticulous son of a bitch he could never fully handle.
This was the same man who had erased every single memory of Kwon Jae-jin’s childhood and hidden the existence of his psychic abilities so flawlessly that no one ever suspected a thing. That was the first timeline Seo Eui-woo—calculating, relentless, and absolutely insane.
Was there ever a time, even once, when things went the way Kwon Jae-jin wanted while he was with him?
As far as he could remember—never.
He couldn’t run away, no matter how hard he tried.
He couldn’t die, no matter how desperately he wished for it.
He couldn’t even hate him, no matter how much he wanted to.
And even now, after everything had ended—after he had finally closed that chapter of his life, after he had convinced himself that he had neatly categorized the first timeline Seo Eui-woo as a past lover and moved on—Kwon Jae-jin still hadn’t been able to forget him.
He had intended to naturally let go of the first timeline Seo Eui-woo by building a new life with the second timeline Seo Eui-woo. Slowly, he had hoped to bury the bitter, tragic love of the past and move forward into the second act of his life.
But the first timeline Seo Eui-woo refused to let things go the way Kwon Jae-jin wanted.
‘Even if I try to forget, he won’t let me…’
That fucking bastard…
Seo Eui-woo, you fucking bastard…
Cursing him under his breath was pointless, and it did nothing to calm his sinking heart. In truth, he couldn’t even spit out those curses with real conviction.
Because the first timeline Seo Eui-woo was the one who had carried Kwon Jae-jin’s death on his back.
Standing in front of his mangled, dismembered corpse—what had Seo Eui-woo been thinking?
What words had he said?
What expression had he made?
And… what exactly…
What had he been feeling…?
Right now, there were too many unknowns—Seo Eui-woo’s true objective, the method he used to appear in Kwon Jae-jin’s dreams, the reason he kept telling him to wait. These were questions without answers. And yet, the one thing he did know was painfully obvious.
Obvious enough that even daring to guess terrified him.
The moment he let himself think about it, a heat swelled in his chest. A lump of fire threatened to surge up his throat, ready to explode. His head spun, his vision stung—so much it ached.
‘…Hah, enough. I should just get up.’
Swallowing his ragged breath, Jae-jin finally forced his eyes open.
Seo Eui-woo was right there in front of him.
Twenty years old, still with the youthful face of someone just barely stepping into adulthood.
His pale, beautiful features were twisted in distress. His skin looked dry and parched.
Without so much as blinking, he was watching Kwon Jae-jin regain consciousness, his breath held tight. His gray eyes, dark and saturated with something heavy, fixated on Jae-jin’s every movement, obsessively tracking the moments his eyes fluttered open.
The second their gazes met, a strange iridescence flickered across the depths of Seo Eui-woo’s translucent pupils.
“…Ugh.”
Jae-jin tried to call out, Eui-woo, but his throat was too dry.
His mouth felt like it had been stuffed with sand, parched and rough. Seeing Jae-jin grimace, Seo Eui-woo tensed his arms. Then, without warning, he tightened his grip and crushed him in an embrace so suffocating it felt like his ribs might crack.
“Kuugh!”
He nearly bit his own tongue.
“…I was worried. I was so fucking worried.”
Their bodies tangled together. The sound of their rain-soaked combat uniforms rustled sharply against each other, and discarded weapons and goggles clattered to the ground.
Seo Eui-woo clutched Jae-jin’s face in both hands like a lunatic and yanked him closer, desperately verifying over and over that he was awake. He checked his eyes to see if they were open, kissed him, met his gaze again, kissed him again—it was a complete mess.
Yeah… He must’ve been scared out of his mind.
After the coordinate shift, Jae-jin had lost consciousness. It made sense that Eui-woo had been worried.
“Ease up… You’re making my head spin…”
Jae-jin weakly pushed at Seo Eui-woo’s shoulder. His entire body ached. His fingers felt sluggish, almost numb.
“Jae-jin, why the hell are you so weak? You drop like a sack of bricks every chance you get.”
“I do not—”
“Oh? You don’t? You totally do. You’re always flopping over. You little flopper.”
…Flopper? What the fuck.
Jae-jin’s brow furrowed in bewilderment. His sharp brows twitched, rising in exasperation.
“I think… the coordinate shift just left me a little dizzy.”
He had just fought on the battlefield, battled creatures to his limit, burned through every ounce of his psychic energy, and witnessed the catastrophic horror of an Esper going berserk. His body had been running on fumes, and then he had to endure a coordinate shift on top of all that. Of course, he passed out for a bit.
And honestly, he had woken up pretty fast, all things considered.
He gave a perfectly reasonable explanation, but Seo Eui-woo didn’t listen in the slightest.
“Oh, just a little dizzy? And that’s why you look like this?”
“What’s wrong with my face—”
“You look like you’re about to fucking die. Your pupils are blown wide, your lips are trembling, and your heartbeat is going crazy fast.”
“…You’re really observant.”
“Well, what else would I be looking at besides you, Jae-jin?”
Seo Eui-woo pressed in again, slightly less aggressive than before. His lips brushed against Jae-jin’s temple, then trailed down along the curve of his neck, leaving a line of lingering kisses.
Pinned under his weight, Jae-jin let out a slow breath, his body sinking into the warmth pressing against him. The initial shock and confusion began to fade, his stiff muscles gradually loosening.
Seo Eui-woo was here.
They were both alive.
For now, that was enough.
