Outside the house was truly pandemonium.
In what would normally be a quiet residential area with no one around, dozens of people had swarmed and created chaos. The reporters who had at first merely gathered had crossed the line at some point. The dull sound of pounding on the gate, the shouting as cameras were thrust over the fence. It was a well-soundproofed house, but it couldn’t block the noise when they were deliberately raising hell.
“Mr. Choi Ian! We know you’re in there!”
“Since when have you been in a relationship with Mr. Vermouth?”
“Does your hyung, Mr. Choi Jaeheon, know about this? Did he condone it?”
It seemed they’d already found out Ian’s name.
All he could do right now was list off curses about Vermouth. Even when dimensions changed, why didn’t that bastard’s behavior change? His humble dream of returning to Earth and living peacefully had been shattered by a single ‘scoop’ bomb that bastard had thrown.
What would happen if hyung found out about this? A chill ran down his spine for a moment. Just as he was thinking that far, the murmuring sounds outside cut off abruptly. A chilling silence came as if someone had forcibly turned down the world’s volume.
Then a strong force pressed down on the atmosphere. The windows trembled faintly and dust jumped up from the floor. Ian instinctively raised his head. It was an energy too familiar and too missed.
It’s hyung.
Choi Jaeheon released his ability without even getting out of the car.
The sight unfolding before his eyes was a spectacle. Hyenas who had thrown privacy protection to the dogs were clinging to his house’s wall. How dare they, at that house where Ian was holding his breath.
“Everyone.”
Jaeheon muttered as if chewing as he opened the car door and got out.
“Get lost.”
CRACK!
With one gesture of his hand, the lens of the broadcasting station camera standing in front shattered. As glass flew and the machine crumpled, only then did the reporters scream and turn around.
There stood S-rank Awakener Choi Jaeheon with murderous eyes.
“Ch-Choi Jaeheon-ssi?”
“What the hell are you doing in front of my house right now?”
With each step Jaeheon took, the reporters backed away like the parting of the Red Sea. But among them, there was someone clueless enough to thrust a microphone forward. Someone who had lost their survival instinct, blinded by a scoop.
“Choi Jaeheon-ssi! About your sibling and Mr. Vermouth’s relationship— Urk!”
The question couldn’t continue to the end. An invisible giant hand choked the reporter’s neck and lifted them into the air.
“Kk, kkeuk…!”
The reporter struggled, but Jaeheon’s expression was cold. The surrounding air froze instantly. The pressure from an S-rank Awakener wasn’t at a level ordinary people could handle. It was murderous intent. The primal fear that they could really die struck the reporters.
“I told you not to touch my younger sibling.”
Jaeheon’s voice was low, but it stuck in their minds more clearly than any shout.
“You must be prepared to stake your lives for an article, right?”
The reporter suspended in the air shook their head with a deathly pale face. Jaeheon threw them to the ground like discarding trash.
“I’ll give you 3 seconds. Disappear from before my eyes, and from in front of my house.”
There was no need to count to three. The reporters fled in a panic without even gathering their equipment. It didn’t matter if cameras broke or not. They had to survive first.
Once not even an ant remained, Jaeheon roughly ruffled his hair.
“Thank you for driving.”
He then turned around and gave thanks to the driver who had driven the car here.
“Not at all. It was something I had to do.”
Though she’d been called by her cousin oppa in the morning to take the wheel, she had no regrets. Yoon Sora, she had also often suffered at the hands of reporters.
“Those things are trash reporters.”
Yoon Sora shook her head while watching Jaeheon quickly open the gate and enter the house.
“Ian!”
As soon as Jaeheon opened the front door and entered, he saw Ian standing and pacing in the living room. He didn’t seem frightened, but his complexion was pale. How much mental anguish must he have suffered during this time? Jaeheon’s heart sank at the sight of him. He ran over in one breath and pulled Ian into his arms.
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt anywhere? Did those bastards say anything to you? You didn’t open the door for them, did you?”
“Hy-hyung. I can’t breathe.”
Only after Ian struggled did Jaeheon loosen the strength in his arms. But he didn’t let go of the hands gripping Ian’s shoulders. His eyes shook anxiously. It was a murky gaze mixed with relief and anger.
“Pack your bags.”
“Huh?”
“You can’t stay here anymore. The address has already been exposed, so those bastards will come again. And even if that weren’t the case, I was planning to move anyway.”
Because Vermouth knew where they lived. This time he planned to go somewhere that bastard couldn’t easily approach.
Jaeheon tried to enter the room without even hearing Ian’s answer. Ian grabbed his clothes at the sight of his back oozing with urgency.
“Hyung, wait! Pack bags to go where?”
“There’s a safe house. It’s under the guild’s name, so not only reporters but Vermouth can’t enter carelessly either. There’s also an underground bunker, so if necessary it’s fine to stay there.”
“Hyung!”
Ian raised his voice. Jaeheon stopped and turned around. He bit his lip and then spoke resolutely.
“I’m not going. I won’t hide.”
“…What?”
“If I hide, it’ll be like admitting it. And do you think Vermouth will give up just because I hide? That crazy bastard will chase me even if I run to the ends of the earth. You know that.”
Ian’s words weren’t wrong. Vermouth was a monster who didn’t work by this world’s common sense. But Jaeheon couldn’t accept it. No, he didn’t want to accept it.
Leaving Ian in this situation was torture for him.
“So? Are you saying you’ll confront that bastard head-on? Will you do an interview in front of reporters saying ‘Yes, we’re dating’?”
His words naturally became rough.
“It’s not like that! I have to face it head-on and resolve it. I can’t hide behind hyung forever.”
“Hide!”
Jaeheon shouted explosively.
His voice was so loud the living room echoed. Ian’s eyes widened in surprise at that action. Hyung had always been affectionate. Since meeting again after 5 years, no, even before that, he’d never seen him angry like this.
Jaeheon roughly dry-washed his face. It felt like his insides were burning up.
After realizing his feelings at Hong Seoyoon’s house last night, everything had become a mess. Every time Ian spoke Vermouth’s name, every time he worried and suffered because of that bastard, a hot mass surged up from his stomach.
Jealousy. Yes, this was ugly, sticky jealousy.
He hated that crazy bastard stirring up Ian’s life. He couldn’t stand that his head was full of nothing but that bastard. A dangerous impulse raised its head wanting to lock him away somewhere no one knew and make him live looking only at himself.
“…Do you like him?”
Jaeheon’s voice sank low. It was a calm like the calm before a storm.
“What?”
“That bastard, Vermouth. You’re so terribly entangled with him, have you developed feelings even if they’re bitter ones? Is that why you don’t want to avoid him?”
Ian was dumbfounded. He couldn’t understand how such a question could come out in this situation.
“Hyung, what are you talking about? Why would I like that bastard! I’ve said countless times that I hate him. That he makes my skin crawl!”
“Really?”
“I said really! That bastard is a stalker, a criminal, just a crazy…!”
Thud.
Jaeheon strode forward and pushed Ian against the wall. Ian stopped speaking at the suddenly close distance.
Hyung’s eyes were different from usual.
The eye shape that always curved affectionately was coldly hardened, and within it rippled a desire too sticky, deep, and dark to be called brotherly concern.
“Then what about me?”
Jaeheon asked.
“Huh?”
“You said you hate Vermouth. Then what about me? Do you like me?”
It was such an out-of-the-blue question. Normally he would have answered ‘Of course I like hyung.’ Because we’re family. Because you’re my only ally in the world.
But the ‘do you like me?’ that Jaeheon was asking now had a different nuance somehow. It wasn’t to confirm simple affection. A voice that seemed to crave something more.
Cold sweat ran down Ian’s spine.
Jaeheon’s hand traveled down Ian’s cheek and brushed his nape. His thumb pressed firmly under his chin and lifted his head. It was excessively dense and overbearing to be called physical contact between siblings.
“Ian, answer me.”
Jaeheon’s face came right up to his nose. Hot breath seemed to touch his lips.
“How do you feel about me?”
Ian stopped breathing.
His heart beat like crazy. There was an unfamiliar scent he’d never smelled from hyung before, no, the smell of a male.
This wasn’t a question a hyung should ask his younger sibling.
Ian’s eyes shook, unable to find a place to go. Jaeheon persistently met his gaze as if he wouldn’t miss even that trembling.
