72.
In the empty workshop without even a common metal chair, Ryu Ho-yeon, who had been sitting on the cold cement floor, slowly leaned back. Lying completely down, the fluorescent light hurt his eyes. He closed them. Still, the brightness remained the same. As if merely lowering one’s eyelids couldn’t shield from the brilliant fluorescent light.
The truth he had learned was similar. Lexy had said that if he wanted, he could contact Lee Han-seo to confirm the already determined destruction of the world. He contacted Berlin without hesitation, and Han-seo, instead of pressing him about where he had heard this, responded with a somewhat dejected voice that it was true.
The difference was that while Han-seo knew of a deadline 25 years away, the destruction Lexy presented was less than 5 years from now.
Lexy said that all this commotion he had caused until now was to meet Ho-yeon directly, properly confirm his abilities, and deliver this series of truths to him.
‘Don’t worry about Howard. I plan to make him give up when I take him away this time.’
‘…’
‘A year should be enough for final goodbyes, right? Anything more would be difficult for me too.’
‘By final goodbyes, you mean…’
‘Obviously, the last words before death. You didn’t think there would be no threat to life in saving the world, did you?’
Despite Ho-yeon not giving a definite answer, Lexy already seemed certain. What he left behind was just a sequence of several numbers. Lexy left the workshop saying that Ho-yeon should come to that location exactly one year from now. There were no additional persuasive words.
“…”
Ho-yeon had been in this state for hours since then. Sitting staring into space, then lying down for a while, then getting up when bored. He didn’t even think of manifesting a comfortable chair, sofa, or bed. It wasn’t because he was reluctant to use up Lexy’s guiding that still remained abundantly in his body. He just felt inexplicably guilty about making himself comfortable.
How long had he been like this? The sound of the door lock password being entered—beep-beep-beep—was heard just before midnight.
“You came out earlier than I expected.”
Ho-yeon murmured indifferently without opening his closed eyes. A soft laugh was heard above his head. At this point, the only person who knew the workshop’s password, which he diligently changed every week, was Choi Jae-won.
“I should use the privilege of being from a wealthy family at times like this.”
“Seems like you use it plenty in normal times too…”
“Well, that’s a given.”
Choi Jae-won, despite his parched hands, somehow had the strength to easily lift Ho-yeon. Ho-yeon quickly manifested a long sofa bed. He couldn’t let both himself and Jae-won be punished on the cold floor.
“Hyung.”
At the call, Ho-yeon finally opened his eyes. Perhaps because they had been closed for so long, Jae-won’s tired face appeared particularly clear in his vision. Ho-yeon answered with a simple “Why,” carrying the same emotion with which he had been called.
“What did the Director say?”
“Well, things you’d easily predict.”
“Pair with Lexy, how about letting go of Choi Jae-won, that sort of thing?”
“Yes. That sort of thing.”
An obvious silence followed. The two of them, with their noses close enough to feel each other’s breath, closely examined each other’s faces and their own pitiful reflections in the other’s eyes.
In Ho-yeon’s eyes was his reflection in Jae-won’s eyes. In Jae-won’s eyes was his reflection in Ho-yeon’s eyes. Both looked equally pitiful, each with their own circumstances and excuses.
It meant that Ho-yeon wasn’t the only one who knew that letting go was the right answer for both of them, yet couldn’t easily detach himself because he was immersed in the immediate sweet emotions.
Jae-won, who until just minutes ago had been watching the tedious bickering of legal professionals surrounding him, pleaded with a tired voice, unable to even think of hiding the fatigue layered under plausible pretenses.
“Hyung, just this once… just this one time, can’t you be on my side instead of the Director’s?”
Ho-yeon wanted to answer. Not just this one time. Since acknowledging that he had fallen in love with him, he had become solely on Jae-won’s side. Enough to decide to save this world that Jae-won had made him love, for the sake of the one he loved. That was an achievement that even the Research Director, who had poured out desperate affection to the point of selfishness, could not accomplish—something only Jae-won could achieve.
“I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll do anything, I’ll somehow get rid of Lexy. Don’t abandon me. Tell me that only I can be your Guide, by your side.”
Since they first met, despite his normal appearance, he had shown an immature mental state, and it was still evident. Even though it had already happened, he continued with this useless pleading without realizing it had already happened.
“You’re an idiot.”
“Ah, I know this one. An idiot who only knows you?”
“No, just plain stupid.”
“Hmm…”
Jae-won held back his words with a thoughtful expression, as if he couldn’t figure it out. Ho-yeon gently stroked the back of his hand covered with scabs and finally spoon-fed him the answer he wanted.
“If you’re going to make such a request, isn’t there something you should say first? Why did you stop in the middle when you were going well through three stages?”
Life finally returned to his tired eyes. Jae-won, who might not be brilliant but certainly wasn’t dull, immediately caught Ho-yeon’s meaning and his eyes sparkled. He seemed to have finally realized that Ho-yeon had long chosen the option as Jae-won’s one and only love interest, not as the Research Director’s son.
“I like you, I like you, Ho-yeon hyung. I love you so much. So much that I don’t even know why I’ve fallen in love this deeply with you.”
“I see.”
Up to this response, it wouldn’t have been much different from usual. But with the two syllables that followed, Jae-won’s eyes widened like saucers.
“Me too.”
Though simple in words, the meaning was not simple.
Choi Jae-won. I like. Also Ryu Ho-yeon.
This was the first instance of conveying that fact in such a clear linguistic form, without roundabout expressions or ambiguous metaphors. Considering how long and desperately Jae-won had waited for this moment, it’s not at all insufficient to call it an event.
“Hyung, what I just heard, that is… um, you too, that is, Ho-yeon hyung really…!”
“Yes. I like you too.”
“Hyung!”
Looking at Jae-won who was exclaiming in delight, Ho-yeon, as always with his doll-like pretty face, whispered once more, “I like you, Jae-won.”
With each movement of Ho-yeon’s lips, the fatigue accumulated on Jae-won’s face melted away like an untimely icicle under spring sunshine. It was a love strong enough to save the world. There was no reason not to express this much. Ho-yeon, suppressing his urge to cry, murmured his clumsy confession over and over again.
‘You at that time didn’t seem to have any reason to save the world. I thought you’d just nonchalantly take a nap, thinking if it perishes, then it perishes.’
Regrettably, everything Lexy said was true. Even though he cherished Han-seo and revered his one and only mother more than anyone, until then, the world wasn’t a place of much value to Ho-yeon.
That’s because the world he had experienced was limited to either virtual spaces beyond monitors and text or the confined center.
News of someone dying in the real world or an entire region disappearing because they couldn’t control a dungeon felt less real than the death of a character in a favorite movie series.
However.
There was someone who wanted to eat with him so badly that he even lied about cooking being his hobby when he had never done it before, who bought well-reviewed bath additives daily for baths he didn’t even enjoy, who willingly showed him how beautiful it was to float across the lavender night sky. Someone who loved him so desperately that they chose extreme methods that were killing themselves.
As long as there was such a Choi Jae-won, the world could no longer be a place Ho-yeon didn’t care whether it perished or not. He wanted to let Jae-won enjoy all the beautiful and brilliant elements of the world that Jae-won had shown him, to the point where they would become so natural that Jae-won wouldn’t even feel any particular emotion about them.
“I persuaded Lexy and sent him away. He said he’ll take Howard back too. He won’t come looking for me again.”
Though he would be the one going to find them. Ho-yeon uttered a skillful deception without a single lie.
“Really? Is that true?”
“Yes. So you should stop receiving the experiments too. Promise.”
“If it’s certain that Lexy has gone back!”
“…Jae-won.”
“Yes, hyung!”
“…”
“Hyung?”
“No, just.”
“…”
“I’m saying I love you a lot.”
At the casual murmur, Jae-won’s face turned bright red as if it might explode any moment.
The very next day, Lexy took Howard and left South Korea. The higher-ups, who had been counting their chickens before they hatched, uniformly showed regret but quickly changed their expressions, saying it was fortunate that at least they had Choi Jae-won. The fact that the Research Director was among those higher-ups was somewhat regrettable to Ho-yeon, but he didn’t show it at all.
For about a month afterward, Ho-yeon thoroughly enjoyed his time as Kim Jun-young and Lee Jung-hyuk’s close junior, the Research Director’s beloved son, and Choi Jae-won’s innocent lover.
The Research Director also became unusually generous to her subordinate staff, as her son, who rarely expressed himself, was now calling at least once a day saying, “Mom, I love you.”
And exactly one month later.
“Hyung, are you in the living room? Hyung!”
Leaving only the chocolate cookies they had made together the day before and a pair dissolution application form on the table, he disappeared without a trace.
It was the worst Valentine’s Day gift ever.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
