Before Nabin’s body could crumple to the floor, he was caught securely in a strong embrace. Startled by the sudden change in height, he went rigid.
Hayan didn’t move right away. Instead, he gave Nabin time to adjust to being held. Only after Nabin gave a small, tentative nod—like an unspoken reply—did Hayan slowly start walking.
The mansion felt both familiar and different from the one where Nabin had once lived among S-rank Espers. It clearly reflected its owner’s character: though the estate was vast, the furnishings were surprisingly sparse.
The bedroom where Nabin had awoken contained only the bare essentials. As he glanced around from within Hayan’s arms, he realized there was hardly anything that could even be called furniture.
The first-floor living room, for example, held nothing but a single oversized sofa, sitting awkwardly in the wide-open space. Without meaning to, Nabin’s gaze lingered on the emptiness, and Hayan, embarrassed by it, cleared his throat.
The barren garden was the same. Even to Hayan’s own eyes, the place didn’t look like a home where people truly lived. Only the bedroom prepared for Nabin, and the first-floor room set aside for his mother, felt remotely inhabited.
Hayan had set up his own quarters right beside Nabin’s room. But like the living room, the space he’d chosen for himself contained nothing more than a bed, leaving the atmosphere cold and unwelcoming.
After they visited Nabin’s mother, he thought, they would definitely need to go shopping to fill the mansion with more of a human touch.
“Would you mind going shopping with me later?”
“…Shopping?”
“Yes. Living alone, I never bothered to get what was needed. And honestly, I don’t really have an eye for these things. I’d be grateful if Guide Kim Nabin could help me.”
For anyone who knew him, it would’ve been a jaw-dropping sight. Hayan was famous at the Center for his reticence. Normally, he only spoke if someone else initiated conversation.
If it wasn’t necessary, he simply stayed silent. Yet when it came to Nabin, he made the effort to keep the conversation alive.
He thought ahead for the next topic so their exchanges wouldn’t stall, and even his tone softened instinctively—born from the hope that Nabin wouldn’t be afraid of him.
For over a decade, he had lived with an expression as cold and unyielding as ice, his features seemingly carved from frost. But the gaze he turned on Nabin was different—warm, like sunlight melting snow.
Even his unconscious habit of meeting Nabin’s eyes whenever he spoke carried quiet affection. From the moment he carried the unconscious young man into the mansion, the chill of the empty place had weighed on him.
His lack of taste wasn’t false modesty—it was the truth. Every piece of furniture was chosen only for practicality, not design. But now that he would be living with Nabin, he imagined the mansion would slowly take on Nabin’s colors. And in time, those colors would become his own.
“…Ah.”
At Hayan’s gentle words, Nabin couldn’t bring himself to answer. Flustered by the warmth in those eyes, he quickly looked away. That gaze, growing more tender with each passing moment, stirred something unsettling deep inside him. Even the long years of aching loneliness he had endured came rushing back, swelling in his chest until it felt like he would burst.
Seeing Nabin bow his head in his arms, his ears burning red, Hayan had to suppress the sudden urge to press his lips to them.
Afraid he might lose control if he lingered, he quickened his steps toward the room where Nabin’s mother rested. By now, the medical staff would likely have come and gone, leaving her fast asleep.
Nabin’s mother was among the most severe cases of Espers addicted to illegal drugs. The fact that she was even still alive was thanks entirely to her son’s tireless efforts.
When Hayan had brought her here, he had also ordered a background investigation on Nabin. He hadn’t forgotten to tell his informant about the man he’d run into outside the examination room while carrying Nabin.
I know that bastard. He’s notorious in the underworld.
The moment the informant heard the description, he confirmed the man was Kim Minsu of Black Finance.
Hayan had already suspected he was no ordinary thug—anyone who could charge at an S-rank Esper without hesitation had to be exceptional. His suspicion was right.
Kim Minsu was infamous, especially in the loan-sharking world. Dozens of lives had been ruined after crossing paths with him.
It wasn’t hard to imagine the kind of torment he had inflicted on Nabin. The fact that his frail mother, barely able to move, had survived at all was like a flower blooming from the blood her son had shed.
“This room is the largest on the first floor and gets the best light, so I chose it for her.”
“Th-thank you…”
Shaking off his thoughts, Hayan stopped in front of a door. He opened it and carefully set Nabin down. When Nabin wavered, he caught him and guided him closer to the bed.
“Mom…”
Nabin collapsed beside it. Her eyes were closed, but it wasn’t the same as when her breath had stopped. Remembering her body at the funeral, tears immediately welled in his eyes.
Though her face was gaunt, there was still life in it, and it felt like a dream. Carefully, Nabin took her dry hands into both of his. The faint warmth told him this was real, filling him with relief—and crushing regret.
He had once clutched these hands and poured out the truth he had hidden inside. If he had known that confession would drive her toward death, he never would have spoken it.
He had regretted that day countless times. He could never forgive himself for pushing his mother into the grave.
Even after his father Subin’s death—though she had often been so lost in grief that she forgot her only child—it was impossible to say she hadn’t loved him.
Whenever she regained lucidity, she begged him for forgiveness. Most of her days were numbed by drugs, her body barely able to move, but her life had been as much a desperate fight as his own.
She had endured, even when she wanted to die, simply because her son had begged her not to leave him. That desperate plea had kept her alive.
“I’m sorry… It’s my fault… Hic… Because I said those things…”
Nabin wept like a child. Clutching his mother’s hands as if they were his only salvation, he poured out his grief in pitiful sobs.
As if stirred by his tears, her fingers twitched, and her long-shut eyelids fluttered.
“Na…bin…”
“…Mom?”
Her moments of consciousness were becoming fewer and shorter. Nabin had confessed his hidden truth only because she so rarely woke.
Now, though her sight was blurred, she strained to look at him. Hearing her raspy voice call his name left him dazed, as if dreaming.
“My… son…”
Her skeletal fingers tightened ever so slightly around his wet hands. That faint pressure broke him, and he sobbed until his breath hitched.
He had thought he would never see her again. Part of the reason he had welcomed death before was because he longed to see his mother and father, unreachable in life.
He didn’t know what fate had allowed him to return to the past, but just meeting his mother alive again filled him with gratitude. It would have been wonderful to see his father too—but even this was more blessing than he had ever dared hope for.
Her lips trembled, straining to form words. Her breath came shallow and fast, but the sweat soaking her face showed how fiercely she was fighting to speak.
“Forg…ive… me…”
“It’s okay, Mom. I’ll… hic… I’ll do better. Just… please, stay by my side…”
At her apology, Nabin’s face twisted in anguish. No matter how hard life had been, he should never have told her that he wanted to die—that he couldn’t die because she was still alive.
He had practically placed the noose in her hands. His words had become the rope that dragged her into death.
Now he had to steel his heart. He couldn’t collapse before her again.
He couldn’t lose the warmth in her hands, the clouded but affectionate gaze fixed on him, the faltering voice that still managed to call his name.
“I… love… you…”
Did she remember too? In her dim eyes lingered a sorrow as heavy as the sea. Tears slipped from her feeble eyelids, tracing down her parched cheeks and leaving them glistening.
Ah.