# Chapter 101
Intermission
At some point, Sunday became the busiest day. The days without work meant there was twice as much to take care of.
Jade looked around the empty penthouse and picked up a wine glass that seemed to be Taesung’s trace.
“This bastard… went out after just drinking again.”
Tsk, after clicking his tongue briefly, he walked into the kitchen where a spotlessly clean sink and table that didn’t look lived-in caught his eye.
He was never the type to cook at home anyway, but at this point, it was a waste of resources. Though Jade himself barely managed to eat meals that were closer to sustenance than dining, so he didn’t have much room to talk.
It had always been like this since Kang Dongying had bribed several employees to do household chores. So this was already a story from several years ago. It was quite unfortunate, but he didn’t particularly feel like cooking anything for him. They weren’t that kind of relationship anyway.
Just not wanting to neglect the house, since then, Jade simply came on weekends to dust and ventilate the place.
♪♬♩♪-.
Just then, a loud ringtone sounded from his pocket. Jade quickly took out a phone that was at least four years old and hastily answered.
There was no need to check who it was. Taesung was the only person who contacted him.
“Where are you?”
―I bought a house.
At the sudden statement, Jade frowned. What nonsense was this now? As soon as the thought occurred to him, it escaped his mouth without filtering.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
―I bought it under a different name, so it won’t be traced. Stay there.
“Sell it back.”
―I just made the deposit after hearing you say that.
Jade pressed his fist against his forehead as if he had a headache. He seemed determined not to listen to anything Jade said. Jade’s stiffened voice warned him in a low tone.
“Don’t do anything flashy. If things get big, I’ll have to report it anyway.”
And for a few seconds, silence flowed without any answer. This was quite a normal flow of conversation between them.
Jade always hated how the other end of the phone went quiet when he said such things. From when they first met, Taesung had a stern expression and cold speech pattern, acting like an old soul, but in any case, it was Taesung who had lived much less in the world without guardians.
But he needed to make it clear that the one holding him captive under the name of employment was not Taesung but someone else, so that even if they came to a crossroads in the future, he’d feel less hurt.
So before, even though he didn’t show it, he felt quite pitiful toward Taesung. Wasn’t it like turning his back even on someone who had nothing left?
He still thought that was a mistake. In his otherwise clean life with no attachments, he ended up with one burden to hold onto.
Moreover… now even that sentiment had changed quite a bit.
‘He’s really quite a funny guy.’
Taesung had undergone quite a significant change since this experiment began. In the process, as the guy revealed his true colors, Jade came to realize that all along, he had just been creating an atmosphere to try to shut Jade up when he was being annoying.
And in a very economical way, without even moving his lips once.
‘Cunning bastard.’
Living extremely reticently in the world, he still managed to take care of his share each time. Should he call this being well-raised or being shrewd?
Come to think of it, what was his name… Joo Lee Hwan? That future boy. Whatever moves he had made on him, when he brought him home that day, all the adjectives he used to describe Taesung were unbelievable words like kind, caring, and perfect.
If he had heard descriptions like ugly-looking, unpleasant, or unsociable, he would have believed them right away without even checking their veracity.
If all of that wasn’t a delusion, surely Taesung must have put on an act in front of him beyond what Jade could imagine. It was so predictable that it was boring.
When Jade thought of Taesung pretending to be kind, he felt proud that this guy was living properly after he was gone, but also somehow got goosebumps.
‘By the way… regression?’
To think he would grab onto that nonsensical story like a drowning man clutching at straws.
Every time he thought of Lee Hwan, Jade felt an inexplicable ambiguity. It was because he was in a situation where he could neither fully trust nor distrust him.
Moreover, the way he had obediently followed him home when called—such behavior without any sense of danger. For a day or two, he had felt dubious about whether it was good to have shared his backstory with him.
Of course, he had followed him at the beginning and investigated his background, so he knew he wasn’t an easy person. During their gate runs together, he didn’t talk much, but whenever he opened his mouth, his tongue was remarkably eloquent.
Also, according to his own words, he had lived much longer before regressing, so he wouldn’t be an age that couldn’t discern right from wrong. If Jade wasn’t around, he would be better than Taesung in many ways.
Then, the fact that he had followed his instructions and even eaten with him that day was probably not because he was naive, but entirely because of Taesung. Because he was close to Taesung.
‘A friend…’
Jade still remembered his first meeting with him. That face that didn’t look easy. If it weren’t for Taesung, even if Jade had pretended to die right in front of him, he would have just called 119 and walked away with those eyes.
In the past, no, he didn’t know how close they would become in the future. He had only heard that he himself wouldn’t be there in that future.
But seeing his face that grew wistful every time he talked about him, and the way he had carelessly walked into Taesung’s house at the beginning of the year, Jade judged that he was probably not just a mere friend.
‘Come to think of it, that guy was really weird too.’
Jade thought of Taesung again. His life and personality weren’t smooth, but he was a guy who was stable in his own way. Such a person suddenly started showing really strange reactions to matters related to Lee Hwan.
From the beginning, when he made strange remarks about bringing someone of unknown identity to the team, Jade wasn’t pleased. Especially if it was someone who somehow gave him déjà vu. Still, he understood at the time. Their combat synergy was almost at the level of one body, so he was a talent too precious to just let go.
Looking back now, it wasn’t just good chemistry, but tactics thoroughly researched and tailored to Taesung. Seeing traces of his efforts to match his pace with him, there must have been significant interest and effort.
‘Your parents named you Jung, Al… I should have hit him on the head once.’
How seriously he spoke such nonsense. For days, he had played detective believing that. Of course, there was no such person or trace to be found.
Thinking about how he kept checking if his mask was properly attached during battles, he should have anticipated that he would hide his identity.
Taesung originally disliked uncertainty and was the type to remove elements of anxiety by any means necessary. So Jade initially thought their gate excursions would fall apart before long.
However, after going through gates twice together, Taesung continued to meet the phantom of the opera mask-wearer despite Jade’s opposition.
When he asked casually how it went and heard that he ate food like a squirrel, Jade was so shocked that he dropped the lighter he was holding.
He immediately went into another investigation. This time more thoroughly. Build, hair color, ability used, residence, areas of appearance…
That’s when he realized the masked person was Lee Hwan. He deliberately didn’t inform Taesung. It was because he judged there would be no benefit in telling someone who was already talking nonsense.
At the time, he had poked around quite a bit gathering information, and perhaps sparks from that further irritated Kang Dongha.
Anyway, after returning from receiving that shitty experiment for nearly a week, Taesung had added a strange love-hate to his gaze toward Lee Hwan.
When asked what had happened, there was no particular answer, and following him only revealed that he had sought out Lee Hwan and beaten him to a pulp.
‘And after that, he kept digging for news about that guy.’
If asked directly, he would absolutely make a face saying no, but what else could his actions be called but interest—trying to find out what Lee Hwan was planning and where he was trying to go, interfering one by one?
Finally, one day he even came back carrying the unconscious guy.
‘If left there, Kang Dongha would have probably picked him up anyway.’
‘…I could have settled that debt with this.’
Such an absurd excuse. The way he turned it to sound plausible was really annoying. Jade was about to flare up in irritation but was distracted by Lee Hwan’s poor condition and ended up just letting it go.
Well, treating him was a good choice. Thinking about him these days, if he hadn’t received treatment then, he might have collapsed and died somewhere already.
Still, when Taesung ran around picking fights here and there to prevent Kang Dongha from diverting gates, and when that interference failed, he rushed to the gate early in the morning with a battle suit—Jade genuinely thought he had gone mad.
Jade let out a small sigh recalling that time. Since returning from the gate, Taesung had been reacting even more sensitively whenever Lee Hwan was mentioned. Though his expression showed no particular change, it was obvious he wanted to change the subject.
He had always revealed a hint of anxiety behind his expressionless face when dealing with him. Jade couldn’t shake the feeling that the extreme rejection he showed somehow resembled avoidance.
What on earth did he do there and come back with?
‘Should I have asked about that too?’
Should he bring up that topic again, even now? Jade was having thoughts that wouldn’t work anyway as he left the empty penthouse behind.
Looking at the time, it was just about the appointed hour. Even though it was a nearby neighborhood, to arrive on time, he had to leave now.
‘Hmm… I didn’t expect to receive a contact so quickly.’
Jade touched the disconnected phone a few times and brought up the text he had received in the morning.
[Is this Mr. Jade?]
It had been a while since someone other than Taesung’s calls had arrived on his usually quiet phone.
[I’d like to meet today.]
[If you say it so suddenly, I can’t make time.]
[I still want to meet.]
The reason he couldn’t firmly cut off the message that arrived early in the morning was because Jade himself had given out his number first.
Also, Lee Hwan didn’t seem like the type to cling to him just because he bought him a meal, and since he still didn’t seem to like him, he likely wouldn’t call him out without something important.
Fortunately, recently, he had only been repeating light experiments above ground, so he had both the time and condition to meet the boy.
[Find a place where we won’t stand out.]
[Sure. We were photographed last time too.]
After returning to the experiment, he had already sensed that someone had started following him. He had complied with their instructions to reduce unnecessary suspicion, but they seemed even more anxious about that.
Well, from someone’s perspective, it might seem strange to seek a path of death. Especially for someone who had been independently running gates to survive all this time.
So perhaps even Taesung had started acting on his own because he couldn’t understand him.
“Really…”
He doesn’t think Taesung would side with those shriveled old men. He wouldn’t have suddenly become thirsty for power and started following a suspicious line.
Jade sensed that Taesung was jumping into a bonfire to save him. It’s a sincerity that he’s grateful for but would like to decline. It left a bitter taste of intense anxiety and worry whenever he chewed on it.
The exchanged texts weren’t long. Just setting location and time without any personal conversation.
[Come near my house. Around 11 AM.]
[Won’t someone recognize us?]
[Wait inside the entrance.]
[Sure.]
Jade fixed his slightly drooping sunglasses, hastening his steps while thinking of him who would probably be already there, wandering around the meeting place.
