Without even knowing how the situation was unfolding, Jaehwi didn’t take his eyes off Raon, who was firmly occupying his bed and sleeping soundly. Many emotions filled and disappeared in Jaehwi’s black eyes as he stroked Bbobbo sitting on his lap, leaving only one emotion.
Time passed while he continuously avoided Raon. Now there wasn’t much time left that he could actually spend with him. It seemed like he could endure just a little more, but seeing Raon continually giving up, folding, suppressing himself and approaching, it was difficult to sort out his complicated emotions.
Unlike himself who was so complicated, Raon conveyed various emotions with diverse gazes and careful touches. Though in the end he had burst out in anger.
“Kang Raon who thinks he can get everything by being stubborn.”
Jaehwi, leaning back comfortably in his chair, entrusted his body to Raon’s energy that wrapped around his body as naturally as breathing. “Min Jaehwi who sways however he’s swayed.” Jaehwi, who had been muttering with his eyes closed, laughed helplessly.
Even without exchanging this kind of energy, he could feel with his whole body that his condition improved when he was by his side. When the energy gently wrapping around his body was added, Jaehwi’s world finally found stability.
After sharing a kiss in Raon’s office, he hadn’t deliberately avoided his contact.
He hesitated for a long time, not knowing how to respond to Raon’s messages that were piling up one by one. When he somehow tried to respond to the first message that came, a new message would arrive. Although recovering his relationship with him was important, finding a way to conquer the Illusion Dungeon that had ended with a rampage before regression came first. If he was going to cling to his emotions and his own emotions and avoid reality recklessly, he wouldn’t have avoided him from the start.
To establish countermeasures for what would happen in the future, he postponed getting scolded by Raon and stirred up all the recently generated high-level dungeons. Raon had given him an order prohibiting dungeon entry, but he ended up ignoring even his orders.
Finding out where dungeons occurred or which team departed when was easier than eating cold porridge for him. After waiting outside briefly and leisurely following after the dungeon conquest team entered, they would send shocked or flustered gazes, but not a single person sent him back.
Sometimes when he arrived before the assigned team, he would enter first and clean it up…
After regression, his relationship with Raon had completely changed, but dungeons that had occurred, including the Donghae dungeon, were appearing sequentially. That meant that Illusion Dungeon would also occur just like before regression. And it was already decided that he would be deployed there.
Unlike before when he hardly entered dungeons, as he continuously rampaged through dungeons, he could definitely see that the dungeon patterns were changing minutely. There were many variables, and the balance of appearing monsters was also off.
NCSC couldn’t be unaware of what he had noticed, and they had more information than him. That’s why he wasn’t flustered by the contact from NCSC that hadn’t existed before. Contrary to the words that it was a light meal under the pretense of friendship, the content contained in today’s meeting was not light at all.
Those who thought of him as a pawn on a chess board didn’t give visible information. However, today’s conversation changed his perspective on seeing the board that was turning.
Even considering that the dungeon itself was incomplete and had variables, that day’s dungeon definitely had more than one or two strange things. There are very rare cases where a dungeon’s grade suddenly changes. But it wasn’t to a level that greatly deviated from predictions.
Even when he left the sleeping Raon and went to the dungeon after spending a long night together, he had taken that place lightly. Even if it was a bit difficult, there had never been a dungeon he couldn’t conquer with his own abilities until now. But… why did he wander through the Illusion Dungeon like that? Normally, he wouldn’t have paid any attention to the illusions it created. He would have appropriately released the power he’d been suppressing and blown up the dungeon itself.
However, he continued to wander through the illusions even while being aware they were illusions. Anyway, the dungeon that occurred would occur, and he had to enter the Illusion Dungeon again. After learning about the regression, he hadn’t even made plans to half-heartedly conquer the Illusion Dungeon and come out. He had planned to quietly spend time without getting privately and complicatedly entangled with anyone, then rampage together with the Illusion Dungeon and end his life.
While complicated thoughts kept trailing on, Raon, who had been sleeping deeply, tossed and turned. His small body, whose breath was disturbed and faintly making sounds, was facing him. Darkness or disheveled hair and such couldn’t hide Raon at all.
With his two hands neatly together holding the edge of the pillow, Raon’s movements stopped with a small sigh flowing out. Jaehwi’s hand that had been stroking Bbobbo was now covering his own face.
Now… should he start instead of end?
He knew that Raon was doing this much for him to save him. Because his own thinking was short and he ended up showing him his end. When leaving the hotel where Raon was sleeping, he had made it so no one could enter until he opened the door himself, but Raon woke up earlier than he thought. He never expected that he would use a teleportation Esper to come to where he was.
Above all… at the same time as voluntarily confining himself in the center’s basement, he waited for death by letting go of everything he had been suppressing until now. He thought that would end everything.
He, who thought he would rampage and die immediately, survived longer than expected, and Raon, who he thought would take a long time to travel even if he woke up late and found out, arrived far too quickly. Things got tangled and tangled like that, leading to now.
Jaehwi, who had been covering his face for a long while, dropped his arm as if letting it fall. Facing Raon’s peaceful face, so different from himself who was complicated and difficult in everything, his mouth corners twitched without him knowing.
To no longer avoid him and break through head-on, there was no time to be intoxicated by people’s words praising him as Nox or a top-tier Esper. Of course, that too wasn’t easily obtained. It was a title attached because he barely survived rolling through all kinds of dungeons two or three times a day like eating meals. Even so, if only Raon could be peaceful like now even if he rolled and wandered more, what couldn’t he do?
To save him, he had to be there. Before the Illusion Dungeon occurred, he had to maintain the best condition and go around as many dungeons as possible. Like that, he had to accumulate experience and check all the dungeon changes.
And before entering the final Illusion Dungeon, he would have to receive guiding from Raon. Where could there be a more ironic situation than this? To maintain his peaceful life, he should keep his distance, but thinking about what would happen in the future, he had to be close to him…
“What am I that hyung should sacrifice himself? If what hyung wants to do is be my Guide, then do that. Instead, dating is after I somehow conquer the Illusion Dungeon and come back alive. Then. That works, right?”
Even knowing that Raon, who had fallen into deep sleep, couldn’t hear, Jaehwi murmured lowly. Because that wasn’t directed at Raon but at himself. What he needed now wasn’t a relationship where they couldn’t live without each other after even forming a bond, but an appropriate business-like relationship.
And the one who shouldn’t cross that line was himself. Raon had already shown everything like a runaway train. Thinking of the curses that weren’t quite curses he heard while being dragged by the ear by Raon, who he thought was only kind, sweet, and gentle, a smile naturally formed.
Our hyung. What should I do since even his anger is cute? I should have felt even a little scared or scolded. In the end, he had ended up kissing those lips that were rapidly chattering away. Jaehwi’s gaze landed on Raon’s cheek slightly pressed from sleeping on his side and his lips protruding forward.
Soft, warm, and moist. And that sweetness is… Jaehwi, who had been recalling the sensation while suppressing his instincts as much as possible, reached out his hand at the same time he noticed Bbobbo fluttering and trying to wriggle into the blanket covering Raon.
Where are you going…
Jaehwi’s mouth corners, having caught Bbobbo before she entered the blanket, rose crookedly along with the thought that instinctively came to mind. It was because he remembered Hajun, who had been showing a relaxed appearance by Raon’s side with his distinguished family background, looks, and abilities—lacking nothing. The moment he saw him acting as if Raon’s seat, which hadn’t been decided yet, was his from the start, he truly realized what it meant to have his insides turn over.
Even when Raon asked if it was okay to guide other Espers, he had snorted. That person who hates guiding so much would guide others? Beyond that, who would believe his words that he would do contact guiding while disliking contact with others like germaphobia?
But if his partner wasn’t an Esper… if they’d known each other for a long time so it wasn’t intentional skinship, but a close relationship where light contact was natural. Stupid him hadn’t thought that far.
As Jay said, he hoped he would meet a good person within his stable life decided from the moment he was born and live a peaceful and comfortable future. Not knowing how big the gap was between vaguely thinking about it and actually seeing that sight before his eyes.
When he tossed Bbobbo who had entered his hand into the air, he heard a “Ppyak!” sound, but his gaze fixed on Raon didn’t waver at all.
