# Chapter 38
Lee Hwan couldn’t answer for a while. He didn’t even hesitate. He just silently stared at Taesung. Despite having to cover his face, position, and appearance with the mask, at least his eyes could meet the other man’s directly.
Seeing Lee Hwan’s wavering eyes, Taesung opened his mouth again.
“I know it’s sudden. I’m not asking for an answer right now, so think about it carefully and contact me.”
At Taesung’s gesture of tapping his watch, Lee Hwan slightly lowered his head to look at his wrist.
‘No way…’
He’d thought there was absolutely nothing, but in the device’s data there was just one thing—Taesung’s number.
“…”
Lee Hwan ultimately had no choice but to press his lips together and nod. Despite knowing his answer would only be a refusal.
Only after getting Lee Hwan’s affirmation did Taesung cleanly exit through the gate. Following behind him, Lee Hwan wiped his mouth. A little blood came off. Thinking that he had been trying to look cool with blood on his face was slightly embarrassing.
‘Tch…’
Still, although his mood had sunk, it wasn’t entirely negative, so Lee Hwan just quietly clicked his tongue.
The back ahead of him walked without hesitation on its own path, while Lee Hwan wavered, staring at him before stopping to look at a road in another direction.
“Haah…”
Hearing the sigh and sensing something, Taesung slightly turned his body to look back. Then he briefly glanced down. He didn’t say goodbye to Lee Hwan. Instead, he silently unhooked his hip pack, tossed it, and walked briskly away, disappearing toward where he had probably parked his car.
Opening the zipper revealed expensive emergency medicine and sterile patches. Lee Hwan stared blankly at them before separating from Taesung and walking alone to the main road.
As he emerged from the gate, just like last time, Kang Dongha was waiting with his car. The black vehicle had a reddish tint in the sunset.
With one hand on his ear, he flashed a grin when he saw Lee Hwan approaching.
‘Why is he suddenly smirking like that…?’
Lee Hwan frowned as he trudged over. While doing so, he reattached the lower part of his mask to cover his face. He didn’t want to show his expression to that guy. He might still look foolish.
Kang Dongha still had a hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth, but perhaps due to his naturally unpleasant personality, his eyes looked dirty. To the extent that if you covered his mouth, he would just appear coldly intimidating.
“Get in.”
Because he suddenly spoke like that, Lee Hwan frowned his invisible eyebrows and climbed into the passenger seat.
Whenever Lee Hwan went to a gate with Taesung, Dongha always abandoned his driver and drove himself. Was this also his own kind of confidentiality? Not wanting anyone to know about his agreement with Lee Hwan.
Thanks to that, in the uncomfortable atmosphere, Lee Hwan just stared blankly ahead.
“It’s strange when you think about it. Alliances.”
In the quiet car. Instead of just focusing on driving, Kang Dongha suddenly spoke. It was almost like a monologue, but the content definitely sounded like something Lee Hwan was meant to hear.
“In the end, people stick together purely for their own benefit.”
‘That came out of nowhere.’
Though thinking this, Lee Hwan deliberately didn’t respond. He didn’t want to exchange small talk with Kang Dongha outside of work. If Dongha wanted something, he’d probably try to cajole him with idle chat, but there didn’t seem to be anything particular right now.
The two were connected solely by the regression, and excluding their mutual exploitation, they didn’t have a particularly strong relationship. They even watched and tested each other at every opportunity. Though he didn’t know about Dongha, Lee Hwan had rarely ever liked him.
Moreover, having just rejected Taesung, Lee Hwan wasn’t in a good mood. He didn’t want to fill that space with conversation with Kang Dongha.
Of course, whether Lee Hwan ignored him or not, Dongha continued speaking as he always did, in his own way.
“But it’s quite nice that there’s still a kind of business ethics.”
It was a rather meaningful remark. Well, was he asking for praise because he’d come to pick Lee Hwan up personally?
“…It’s convenient having a ride.”
Human relationships sometimes feel like they can communicate deeply without words, but usually they’re service work where people deliberately speak to fill each other’s self-esteem.
At Lee Hwan’s comment, Kang Dongha snorted and finally closed his mouth, smoothly changing lanes.
* * *
Contacts.
Back.
Contacts.
Back.
Lee Hwan rolled around on his bed, repeatedly tapping his watch. Each time, Taesung’s number—not even registered with a name—appeared, disappeared, and reappeared.
Lee Hwan didn’t know if this was the same number as before the regression. In an era where people could carry contacts for ten million people in their phones, who would memorize a friend’s number?
He had no family, but even if he had, he probably wouldn’t have memorized their numbers either.
Even though he wouldn’t be contacting the number anyway, just having it gave him a sense of reassurance. Lee Hwan rolled across the bed, placed his watch on the nightstand, and stretched wide.
Was there still a way to return to Taesung? Even though he wasn’t the Taesung he knew. Perhaps they could build a new relationship again.
Lee Hwan thought that far and then smacked his forehead with his fist. He felt his resolve weakening in real time.
‘If I can’t prevent the doom, I’ll lose Kang Taesung forever anyway.’
But as soon as he firmly made up his mind, he seemed to hear a seductive whisper in his ear just like before.
Maybe… even if he couldn’t be with Taesung, couldn’t he meet him privately just once, as long as he wasn’t discovered?
Or even professionally.
It wasn’t that he wanted to spy for anyone, but if he wanted to dig into the other party’s information, wouldn’t he inevitably need to meet a few times, pretending it was by chance or out of interest?
It made enough sense that it wasn’t just an excuse. Nevertheless, thinking that if Kang Dongha heard this, he would dismiss it as nonsense, Lee Hwan picked up his watch again. The number he had unintentionally memorized from looking at it so much was captured wholly on the small screen.
And then…
Beep beep beep!
Lee Hwan was so startled he almost threw his watch.
Suddenly a small, low signal sound rang out, and like a lie, a short message appeared on the screen.
[Do you wear the mask even when meeting outside the gate?]
A message from the contact saved with an empty name field.
* * *
Lee Hwan had been choosing clothes for an hour. As the weather was getting hotter, should he wear short sleeves? No, it wasn’t quite that warm yet. Moreover, Awakened people weren’t greatly affected by temperature differences of just a few degrees.
In the end, after going back and forth, he put on a thin shirt and ordinary pants, and also diligently worked on his hair. Parted it to the left, parted it to the right, tried slicking it back, then curled it and let it down again.
But no matter what style he tried, he wasn’t particularly satisfied, and once he put on the suspicious-looking white mask, all his styling efforts were ruined.
‘Shit, how am I supposed to look normal in this…’
Then he thought of Jade, whose face he still didn’t properly know. Sunglasses. He could cover his eyes with sunglasses. Then what about the lower face?
‘A mask.’
Fortunately, a store-bought mask covered his face generously. Lee Hwan pulled a cap down low and smiled with joy.
His appearance looked quite suspicious, with his face completely covered to the point that even his smile wasn’t visible. But at least he didn’t look insane like with the mask. That would do. Lee Hwan rushed out of his house, clenching his fist.
Regardless of why Taesung wanted to meet, judging by their last battle, the atmosphere wasn’t entirely negative. Though it was a bit suspicious to ask to meet after just one day.
And indeed. The address he’d been given led not to a back alley perfect for dying without a trace, but to a cafe that was spacious, well-lit, and strangely empty despite these qualities.
Seeing only one employee far away at the counter, it seemed he had either rented the entire place or driven everyone out, but since the atmosphere wasn’t hostile, Lee Hwan guessed he had probably just paid to rent it.
A familiar person was sitting at the window edge. The tall man with his hair styled down for once, Kang Taesung. His handsome, well-defined face shone especially bright under the sunlight.
Taesung, who had been drinking something, froze the moment his eyes met Lee Hwan’s. Then he carefully looked Lee Hwan up and down with his eyes before his expression turned strange.
Lee Hwan quickly realized it was because of his appearance, with his face completely covered by a cap, sunglasses, and mask.
“…The mask would have been even weirder.”
When Lee Hwan blurted out what sounded like an excuse, Taesung gestured to the chair across from him as if he didn’t mind.
“We already have sunglasses on our side too.”
How could that monotone voice sound so affectionate? He must be really crazy. Lee Hwan hesitated before gently sitting on the chair and staring blankly at Taesung.
“There are a few matters I want to tell you about, and I’d prefer not to go through that guy.”
Taesung put down his cup without a sound and stared steadily at Lee Hwan.
“Before that, would you like to order anything?”
At the same time, the employee who had been observing them all along made eye contact with Taesung and immediately walked over. Lee Hwan hesitated momentarily with the menu he suddenly received. Did he really have to order? Well, since he was told to order…
“Coffee… an iced Americano. And a raspberry mousse cheesecake, two mini lemon pound cakes, an Earl Grey chiffon, and two salted caramel madeleines.”
But if someone was buying, Lee Hwan would eat it up, even if it was Kang Dongying’s money.
Awakened people had high energy consumption. They wouldn’t die from eating too little, but particularly in Lee Hwan’s case, he always had a good appetite and got hungry quickly. Before his awakening, he didn’t eat much, and on days when he wasn’t feeling well, he often skipped meals.
Since using his ability, food seemed to go down endlessly, and after the monster wave, he had developed the habit of eating as much as possible when he could.
Seeing the table quickly filled with baked goods, Lee Hwan flinched as he picked up a fork. He was currently wearing a mask. If he took it off, everything below his eyes would be exposed.
Fortunately, he was wearing large sunglasses, and anyway, Taesung had already seen his face from the mouth down while at the gate…
‘He must have seen up to my chin, but probably not my nose. If I lower my head a bit, the cap brim might cover it?’
Yum.
His hesitation was brief. Lee Hwan hooked the mask on his chin and took a big bite of the pound cake. As the sweet, tangy, and nutty flavors filled his mouth, a smile unconsciously spread across his face.
“Don’t mind me, just eat while you listen.”
Taesung’s voice came from beyond the cap brim covering his face. The tone was still businesslike, but since he was treating him to food while saying such things, it only sounded kind to Lee Hwan’s ears.
