When the men reached out to restrain Michael, Federico stopped them.
“…Are you saying I lost?”
“Don’t be too disheartened. It’s not like Hunter won either.”
Michael suddenly lifted his head and looked at the ceiling. The eerie light from the fixtures flickered repeatedly with a ticking sound.
“Humans who receive abundant love naturally shine from within. That light melts away their outer surface, wanders around to illuminate their own existence, and eventually withers and disappears.”
And Hunter was jealous of Maria’s light, obsessed with it, and wanted to monopolize it. Michael approached Hunter and bent at the waist. From a distance close enough that their noses nearly touched, he quietly spoke over Hunter’s faintly wrinkled forehead.
“You, too, merely worshipped Maria’s abilities in the end.”
Genius artist, the light he couldn’t help but admire, an angel flapping magnificent wings. His soft voice gradually grew stronger.
“You never reached out to her as she was crushed and distorted by the weight of those abilities. While she finally embraced her trials and hardships as part of herself and chose a painful death as her conclusion, what were you doing all that time?”
Hunter’s thick-jointed fingers twitched slightly. Michael glanced at them briefly before slowly pulling away.
“There are no winners in this bet.”
His voice, now calm as though he had never raised it, dampened the cement floor. Sitting on the edge of the bed with his head tilted to one side, he appeared as composed as always, but his half-lidded eyes pooled with longing.
Federico leaned back in his wheelchair and interlocked his fingers. No winners, he thought.
“That sounds rather hollow.”
The two men maintained silence as if they had tacitly agreed to do so. The light that had been flickering precariously soon returned to normal, coinciding with Federico’s cough.
“I just wanted to live.”
Michael knew which incident Federico was making excuses for. That moment when he had begged pathetically for his life before Giuseppe and betrayed his brother Paolo.
“I don’t regret that choice. I’ve lived a sufficiently interesting life since then. Even if I could turn back time, I’d make the same choice.”
I, Federico, am that kind of person. Anger, despair, pain, and frustration make me dance in the theater of life. So I can’t help but be satisfied. His confession, flowing like a monologue, began to bare its teeth at some point.
“But such a hollow result is difficult to accept. No winners—where am I supposed to find pleasure in that?”
“A result is a result.”
“Yes, I’m not denying the result itself. I’m just not satisfied with it.”
Michael felt suspicious of his mischievous smile and sharply lifted his head. The hundreds of small screens were tinted only in gray, showing motionless spaces. But at the edge, he caught a slight movement.
Choi.
His eyes, briefly turbulent with bewilderment, barely regained stability when he realized he was in front of Federico. Fortunately, the CCTV screens were positioned behind Federico, reducing the risk of being caught, but he needed to be careful with a man who was adept at exploiting weaknesses.
“In that regard, would you like to play a game with me?”
A very entertaining game to mark the end. The previously empty eyes now sparked with a mix of heightened emotions.
“I’m not interested.”
“Well, I think you’ll soon become interested.”
“…What is it?”
“Soon, a bomb will explode.”
Federico pointed behind himself. There, Hyungoh was looking around cautiously, on high alert.
So he had noticed after all. Michael, who had closed and opened his eyes slowly, narrowed his brow and asked.
“How powerful is the bomb?”
“Enough to bring down the entire building, with power to spare.”
“Were you planning to commit suicide?”
“Haha, suicide.”
Perhaps it might turn out that way. Federico murmured softly before continuing.
“If you survive that bomb with that child, you win. If not, I win.”
“…Ah.”
Michael’s eyes widened as if understanding.
“A game of life and death.”
If I win, you die; if you win, Choi and I will be blown to pieces. Without further consideration, he left the control room. He had never seen such a situation even in his dreams.
Of course, not all of his dreams had been projected into reality. Even when they showed only specific situations sporadically, he could roughly predict the flow.
However, he had never dreamed of Federico dying in an explosion, or of himself and Hyungoh dying together in a blast.
I have no idea. Who’s going to win? Michael chose the stairs over the elevator, which felt especially slow today, and slightly raised the corner of his mouth.
The unpredictable future, something he had never experienced before, was actually approaching with a sense of excitement.
* * *
Listening to the receding footsteps, Federico closed his eyes tightly. Though he couldn’t see directly, it was easy to imagine Michael running urgently, his steps echoing rapidly through the corridor.
The men guarding Federico fidgeted like puppies needing to relieve themselves. After tensely eyeing each other, Felix, apparently deciding he couldn’t stand it anymore, spoke first.
“Um… Father. Is it true there’s a bomb here?”
“Do you think I would lie?”
“Ah… Hahaha, no.”
Felix forced a laugh and lowered his head. He maintained his usual neat posture, but his restlessly moving eyes betrayed his true feelings.
“Why, do you also want to participate in the game?”
“What?”
Seeing Felix’s shoulders visibly flinching, Federico called out heartily.
“You only get one chance, so move those feet diligently!”
The quick-witted Felix pushed past the dumbfounded men who couldn’t grasp the situation and moved his body in a flurry. As the control room door was roughly flung open, the men who had been side-eyeing each other jumped in surprise and followed in unison.
Federico burst into laughter, finding it comical how these large men were desperately fleeing.
“What’s the point of running away when you don’t even know where the bomb is? It’s not even funny how clueless you are.”
Isn’t that right, Hunter? He spoke again toward the silent man.
“By the way, you’re quite pitiful too. No one is trying to save you from the bomb with your body in such poor condition. Not even Michael, whom you carefully raised for so long.”
His fingers, which had been caressing Federico’s cheek, slowly moved down to fiddle with his nape. As his grip tightened slightly, Hunter’s dry, firmly closed lips began to part.
“Don’t worry.”
Though his heavily cracked voice lacked strength, it was enough to surprise Federico. As he withdrew his hand, eyes narrowed like a sparrow’s, Hunter’s pupils slowly emanated their own light.
“…I don’t tend to die that easily.”
