“Min Jaehwi!”
At Jaehwi’s action of needlessly tormenting the golem that was sitting obediently, Raon stood the fallen golem back up, rubbed its head, and shouted loudly.
‘That human has a nasty temper.’
“Ppiyuung.”
Though Raon rubbed it, Bbobbo nodded its head as if agreeing with the golem’s words as it kept rubbing the spot where it was hit with its small hand, seemingly truly hurt, and made a small sound.
“Every time you go to a dungeon, you cause trouble like this, that’s why I told you not to go. If you’re going to go, go together.”
The corners of Raon’s mouth twitched upward as he watched Jaehwi, who didn’t give him a glance and only spoke while looking ahead. Jealousy and sulking. Right.
“I put you in Alpha Team to go together and went to the meeting, but you didn’t come to the meeting. Are you blaming me now?”
“You should have told me you were going to enter the dungeon!”
“You would have stopped me somehow.”
When he cut off Jaehwi’s words, silence descended in the car. Raon, who placed his hand on top of Jaehwi’s hand gripping the steering wheel, tapped his hand as if lightly tapping on piano keys. As if just touching him gently wasn’t enough and there was no response, there was no reaction even when he interlaced his fingers on top of the back of his hand.
Turning his body to sit looking at Jaehwi, he silently stared at Jaehwi, who couldn’t even get angry at him and was suppressing it alone inside. There was only one reason Jaehwi hated him entering dungeons. Because it’s dangerous. He might understand if his grade was at least high, but anyway, what could he do about not being able to?
He disliked it as much as Jaehwi disliked him entering dungeons because he worried about him. He knew his abilities were excellent, but he disliked him bearing that danger alone. If they die, can’t they die together, and if they live, can’t they live together?
Though others might consider it an expressionless face, but because his sulkiness could be clearly read, Raon put more strength into the hand he’d willfully interlaced and moved closer to him.
“Hwiya~”
“……”
Raon’s eyes widened as he scoffed at the expression that seemed about to answer with lips twitching but then stiffened as if realizing ‘oops.’ The hand that had been leisurely there just a moment ago moved urgently, and he pulled up Jaehwi’s sleeve that came down neatly to his wrist.
Though his skin wasn’t cracked open, the brown-toned forearm that would normally look good with thick veins rising prominently and even capillaries visible appeared dark red. He placed his hand on the collar with trembling eyes, but he couldn’t check the neck area because of Jaehwi’s hand holding his hand.
It was dark inside the dungeon so he didn’t know, and even after coming out, the exposed neck, face, and hands were fine, so he hadn’t paid any attention to Jaehwi’s condition at all. From when he brought the golem out, while being by Jaehwi’s side with the guiding naturally occurring, he only thought that of course he would be fine.
“Stop the car.”
There was no answer in return, and Jaehwi was still running while only looking ahead.
“Stop the car.”
Even when he said it again, at Jaehwi’s stubbornness of not opening his firmly closed mouth, Raon put energy into his hand.
“Don’t do it.”
“You think I won’t do it just because you say that?”
“I won’t die from this much, so just stay still…”
Again! Again saying it’s okay, that it doesn’t hurt. Telling him to just stay still.
Unlike how he’d been passively holding the hand gripping the steering wheel until now, Raon reached out his hand and cupped both of Jaehwi’s cheeks, turning him toward himself.
“Ppiyaoaang.”
With Bbobbo’s sharp sound close to a scream, the car that had been running well swayed, and Jaehwi, who urgently stepped on the brakes, stretched out his arm to hold him so his body wouldn’t sway dangerously. Before properly seeing Jaehwi’s startled expression, Raon first placed his lips on his lips.
“What are you doing right now…!”
Though he didn’t expect him to obediently receive the kiss, at his hand gesture trying to remove him, Raon rather moved toward him. And then he climbed up to sit on Jaehwi’s thighs.
Though the space between Jaehwi and the steering wheel was narrow and a bit stuffy, because they were that closely attached, Jaehwi also couldn’t move freely.
Raon, who grabbed both of Jaehwi’s cheeks again, stared directly into his black eyes. And then, rather than energy naturally flowing when they got close or slightly touched, he sent out energy more strongly with a clear intention of guiding.
Jaehwi, who didn’t shake off his hands or turn his head, inhaled very slowly then exhaled, closed his eyes, and completely drained the strength from his body.
The energy he let flow steadily seeped into Jaehwi. Even without going to the trouble of lifting his collar to see his covered body, he could tell Jaehwi’s condition from his gradually relaxing expression or complexion. Though his mind might be complicated because of him acting as he pleased, his body becoming comfortable was certain.
“Are you angry?”
Though he had no choice but to accept the guiding, he wouldn’t look or answer? He’s entered avoidance mode again.
“I told you not to enter the dungeon, but you entered. I told you to stay obediently inside the barrier, but you broke through and wandered around, and entered danger you didn’t notice again. I barely broke through the barrier and rescued you, but you’re holding a dangerous golem. Even when you say you’re fine, you forcibly guide. Just now almost caused a traffic accident?”
Raon first listed out his own wrongs one by one. While doing so, he stroked Jaehwi’s cheek and moved his fingertips along the clear lines. Though his eyebrows twitched as if ticklish, Jaehwi didn’t open his eyes until the end.
Raon, who removed his hands from Jaehwi’s face, let his arms hang down comfortably and leaned comfortably against Jaehwi’s body. Placing his head on his firm shoulder and his hand on his left chest, he felt the resonance of his heart beating steadily.
“You can be angry. Because I clearly know what I did wrong. But when I can’t see you, I’m also anxious, and when you enter a dungeon, I’m also scared. Just being together like this makes your condition better. Then the chances of you being in danger inside the dungeon also decrease. Because you don’t have to see a dangerous end.”
Until now, it had been close to being stubborn. He couldn’t talk about his deep inner feelings. He probably looked like a whiny child trying to do everything that looked good. Like that, Jaehwi stepped back one step, two steps, compromising, barely coming this far.
What he’d been agonizing over whether to keep saying or not slowly flowed out from Raon’s mouth.
“This is the second time. I’m living the same time again. I don’t know if you’ll believe it or not, but there’s less than a month left until the day you died. We’d barely gotten close, and I thought we’d become deeply involved. That also happened haphazardly by chance, but I slept once and woke up planning to talk about it.”
He’d agonized so much about where and how to start, but once he started moving his lips, the words he wanted to say flowed out comfortably.
“When you said you liked me, I wanted to answer that I liked you too. When you said you loved me, I wanted to say I loved you too. It wasn’t that I deliberately didn’t… Anyway, I couldn’t say those words. That was the biggest regret.”
Raon slowly stroked the left chest where Jaehwi’s heart was beating.
“I met you in the last space in the center’s basement. I kissed you saying I’d be back soon and went out, but you’d entered a rampage state. Your skin was all torn, and you were burning with fever. Your breathing was rough too. I was so surprised I touched you, and the wounds disappeared from the torn skin.”
Raon slightly separated his upper body that was touching and moved his fingertips that had been resting on his chest to pull down the zipper of the hoodie zip-up he was wearing. He ended up laughing softly at the black t-shirt inside the black zip-up.
“Wounds that heal just by me stroking with my fingertips. It didn’t take effort, I didn’t try, I just touched and that was all. You asked to be held like that and asked me to cover your ears, but why did I turn away from that? Being by your side, what’s so difficult about that? I like you too. Being by the side of someone you like is rather a happy thing.”
As always, the speaker was Raon, and the listener was Jaehwi. Though Jaehwi wasn’t showing any answer or reaction, Raon knew all too well that he was the one who listened to his story more deeply than anyone.
“Then I lost consciousness, and I came back through time. Now I was going to do everything you wanted to your heart’s content. But you’re not the Jaehwi I know. Should I say too cold and businesslike? So I insisted. I was also unreasonable, and made you uncomfortable. To stay by your side, I had no choice but to become strong, so I exercised morning and night and entered dungeons too. But I caused you trouble.”
Raon, who stopped talking for a moment, separated his body again and looked at Jaehwi, who still had his eyes closed.
“Min Jaehwi. Jaehwi. Hwi. I don’t want you to die alone, I don’t want to die alone, and I don’t want both of us to die. I want to live. I’m going to live. Living, I want to go shopping with you, eat delicious things, watch movies, travel, and do everything. To do that, there are two ways.”
When he spoke up to that point, Jaehwi’s beautifully closed eyes slowly opened. The sunlight full of orange hue as the sunset began to set poured down on his face, and a reddish tint reflected in his black eyes.
“Either somehow not enter that dungeon, or enter together. I’ll say it again, you have no choice.”
Raon said what he’d been thinking deeply about, and what came back was an absurd laugh.
