# Chapter 37
In the sense that they should use him as much as they wanted.
‘So that I can use you all in return.’
Jaehee looked down at Geonwoo sleeping soundly beside him. As he sensed Geonwoo’s condition gradually recovering through their touching bodies, Jaehee thought.
‘A supporting character who had no presence in the original story.’
‘Before regression, he aspired to be a villain but ultimately never made it to the stage as a supporting character.’
‘Now he’s on stage openly eyeing the villain role, an unnecessary supporting character.’
But in the original story’s predetermined destiny where Geonwoo’s happy future was assured, there existed only one villain.
The pathetic villain sub-bottom, Lee Jaehee.
‘No one else is needed, not a single person.’
For Jaehee, who had resolved to become the villain sub-bottom to preserve the original story, unnecessary supporting characters who arbitrarily coveted the villain role and tried to ruin the original story were not needed. So, it was time to remove those who were arbitrarily directing the play on someone else’s stage, and for the real villain to appear.
After finding out the method he had been searching for from them.
“May I ask for one more favor?”
Jaehee said to the Guide.
***
In the dark dawn, long after the Guide had left, Jaehee was alone with his thoughts.
‘I need to find out how to erase the Bond by any means necessary.’
That was Jaehee’s only thought.
“…Ah…”
Just then, a very faint sound reached Jaehee’s ears. Hearing it, Jaehee immediately checked on Geonwoo. Geonwoo suddenly began suffering with his face deeply furrowed. Whatever was tormenting him, Geonwoo burrowed into Jaehee’s arms, forgetting about his large body.
Surprised by this, Jaehee tried to call out to Geonwoo.
“Choi…!”
But Jaehee couldn’t finish. Geonwoo, who had buried his face in Jaehee’s embrace, was wetting his cheeks with tears. Geonwoo’s tears touched Jaehee’s body and flowed down. As if in agony, as if it was too painful, containing all kinds of sorrow, Geonwoo was trembling in Jaehee’s arms, crying so pitifully.
“Esper Choi Geonwoo?”
In that moment, Jaehee’s eyes widened, and concern filled his face. Geonwoo wasn’t in a conscious state. It was like what he had seen yesterday. After falling asleep due to his ability and completing all treatments, Geonwoo had tossed and turned slightly before trembling and suffering just like now. He had cried and struggled. The wave pattern had spiked, nearly becoming dangerous.
Remembering this, Jaehee quickly tried to check Geonwoo’s condition.
“Wait, let me…!”
But their pressed bodies wouldn’t separate. Even when pushed, they wouldn’t move apart. He tried to wake him like yesterday, but due to the healing power that had been depleted from the prolonged treatment, Geonwoo couldn’t wake up no matter how Jaehee tried. Instead, as if the movement had disturbed Geonwoo’s unconsciousness, Geonwoo wrapped his arms around Jaehee’s waist and held him close.
For the stability of the wave pattern, Jaehee had been doing Guiding with his clothes off, and now Geonwoo’s body was pressed against Jaehee’s without any gap, and Geonwoo’s lips touched Jaehee’s collarbone. Geonwoo’s lips moved slightly as if whispering something. The repeated soft touch of those lips tickled Jaehee’s skin.
“…Ah…”
A very small, thin sound escaped from Geonwoo’s mouth. Fragmented words mixed with tears flowed out with his crying. As if suffering from a nightmare, Geonwoo just kept crying. He was in severe distress.
Thinking that he needed to calm Geonwoo somehow, Jaehee stopped pushing him away and instead embraced Geonwoo, sending him Guiding energy. He needed to suppress the wave pattern first. But even so, Geonwoo couldn’t easily calm down.
“…Hyeo…”
It was then.
“…Hyung…”
A very small voice clearly reached Jaehee’s ears. Jaehee’s body stiffened. Among the many memories he couldn’t discard, the image of Geonwoo calling for him appeared before Jaehee’s eyes.
But soon after,
“…Hyeo… Hyung-a…”
An endearing word flowed from Geonwoo’s mouth. Hyung-a. A term of address unlikely to be used by the current Geonwoo, more like something children would use.
“Haah…”
The one Geonwoo was looking for wasn’t ‘Hyung’ but ‘Hyung-a’. With the tension released, Jaehee exhaled. And let out a slight hollow laugh. Jaehee found his own reaction amusing.
‘What was I thinking… I’m the only one who regressed…’
So, there was no reason for Geonwoo to call him hyung and look for him. He wouldn’t remember him either. There was no reason for him to be tense just because of hearing the word hyung. After all, whether it was ‘Hyung’ or ‘Hyung-a’, the person Geonwoo was looking for wouldn’t be him.
Jaehee was relieved by that fact. He felt that way because he strongly didn’t want to face a Geonwoo who remembered him. If he were to face a Geonwoo who remembered him, it would be much harder than now…
“…Hyung, a…”
At the sorrowful resonance, Jaehee lowered his head. Jaehee’s eyes were complex as he looked down at Geonwoo in his arms. Geonwoo kept repeating the same words. And such a sight of Geonwoo was too familiar to Jaehee. A story not of the present, but of the past and future. Hearing “Hyung-a” after a long time, Jaehee recalled an old memory.
‘You’re having that dream again, I see.’
It was the same before the regression. Despite being an S-class Esper with unstoppable power that no one in the Center could touch, Geonwoo would often cry like this in Jaehee’s arms late at night. Back then, Geonwoo would also crumple his large body somehow to burrow into Jaehee’s embrace and cry.
Geonwoo, who always embraced Jaehee firmly like an older brother despite being younger when awake, would act like a child like this particularly on days when he had dreams.
‘What kind of dream do you have that makes you cry like this?’
Jaehee from the past had asked Geonwoo this. Geonwoo had made a peculiar expression then and said:
‘Oh, that dream? It’s… a happy dream.’
‘While crying like that?’
‘I think I cried because it was too happy.’
Geonwoo had said such incomprehensible things.
‘Then who is that person, ‘Hyung-a’?’
This time, Jaehee asked Geonwoo who that person was that he called for so desperately.
‘Someone… very precious to me.’
Geonwoo had said that, with his eyes twisted, while smiling very brightly.
Jaehee recalled that memory and made a complex expression. And then called out to Geonwoo in his arms again.
“Esper Choi Geonwoo?”
But Geonwoo didn’t wake up. He continued to tremble and just cry. The spiking wave pattern wasn’t easily controlled. Jaehee’s gaze wavered as he looked at such a Geonwoo. After hesitating for a moment, Jaehee reached out to Geonwoo. He embraced Geonwoo’s neck and brought his face close to Geonwoo’s.
And after hesitation, he whispered into Geonwoo’s ear.
“…Geonwoo.”
A soft, small resonance was transmitted to Geonwoo. And it was a reenactment of the past.
‘Geonwoo, do you know how to stop you from crying?’
At Jaehee’s words, Geonwoo had opened his eyes wide and asked how. In response, Jaehee approached Geonwoo, put his arms around his neck, and pulled Geonwoo’s upper body down to meet his eyes.
‘Do it like this!’
Jaehee had said that, and then embracing Geonwoo, he ticklishly whispered into his ear:
‘Geonwoo.’
An affectionate, tender calling touched Geonwoo’s ear. At that small resonance, Geonwoo’s body stiffened. Jaehee repeated the whisper, calling Geonwoo a few more times, and then loosened his arms and smiled brightly at Geonwoo.
‘When I do this, you stop crying!’
And the reaction Geonwoo showed afterward was very different from what Jaehee had expected.
‘Geonwoo, what’s wrong?’
‘…’
‘Did I make a mistake? Why do you look like you’re about to cry?’
Surprised, Jaehee held both of Geonwoo’s cheeks and pulled them towards his face. He wasn’t mistaken. Geonwoo had a face that looked like he would shed tears at any moment.
‘…Hyung.’
‘Yes?’
‘…Jaehee hyung.’
‘Yes, Geonwoo.’
Geonwoo wrapped his large hands around Jaehee’s hands that were holding his cheeks, and rubbed his face against Jaehee’s hands. A gesture that craved more affection despite already receiving it, expressing ‘please love me.’
In that state, Geonwoo desperately said to Jaehee:
‘If I… if I cry like that again, please do this for me then too. Call me tenderly, saying ‘Geonwoo.”
Jaehee, who had been very tense due to Geonwoo’s unusual behavior, relaxed completely at those words and said:
‘Oh, is that what you wanted to say? That’s not difficult. I’ll gladly do that for you!’
‘…You promised. So you have to stay by my side and comfort me like that. So I won’t cry anymore…’
‘Yes, don’t worry, Geonwoo! But didn’t you say earlier it was a happy dream?’
At those words, Geonwoo made an expression as if he would cry even more, then moved a little closer to Jaehee. He gently placed his lips on Jaehee’s lips. Like courting, like being unable to contain his affection, yet because Jaehee was so precious to him, such a careful kiss, Geonwoo left on Jaehee’s lips.
‘That dream, it is a happy dream. It’s so happy that I’m scared to wake up… But I prefer now to the dream. I’m happier now, being with you like this. So, keep reassuring me that you’re by my side. When I cry, tell me that Lee Jaehee, who loves Choi Geonwoo, is here beside you like this. So don’t cry while having that happy dream because you’re afraid to wake up. Let me know that way. Then I think that dream… won’t be scary anymore…’
Geonwoo said that and finally showed his tears. While smiling such a radiant smile.
That memory of the past passed vividly before Jaehee’s eyes. So vivid that it was sad.
“…Geonwoo.”
Jaehee reenacted that moment. A feeling of ‘what if’ and a hope that it wouldn’t be so. A desire to comfort him somehow, and a wish that his trembling wouldn’t stop with this call. Such contradictory emotions crossed his mind.
And the more Jaehee’s unabandoned, desperate emotional calling continued, the more Geonwoo’s trembling body gradually calmed down. The sorrowful crying began to cease, and peace came to Geonwoo’s face. The spiking wave pattern subsided. Geonwoo no longer shed tears.
But then, plop.
A tear fell, wetting the pillow. That tear wasn’t Geonwoo’s.
“…Geonwoo.”
Recalling the memories of the past, calling out to the Geonwoo from then, Geonwoo’s tears transferred to Jaehee. Jaehee continued to repeat until Geonwoo found stability. Not knowing that his own body was trembling, and sadness was welling up.
He just called Geonwoo’s name.
