Chapter 69
Han Jaemin tossed me a set of unopened new clothes and casually left the walk-in closet. The room was surprisingly large, packed with clothes—he must have had a real passion for fashion. I slowly began to take off my jacket.
“Wait.”
“You want me to turn around to change?”
Hyunjae nodded. I threw the jacket onto the floor and turned my back to him. After putting on the T-shirt, pants, and jacket, the lingering discomfort eased slightly.
“You bled a lot earlier. Aren’t you dizzy?”
“Not really. I’m fine.”
“If you feel sick, tell me anytime.”
“Hyunjae.”
I called his name softly and turned around. Our eyes met just as he was about to pull up his pants. His face flushed instantly. I quickly turned away again.
“S-Sorry.”
“N-No… It’s okay.”
Hyunjae stammered, trying to act like it was no big deal. I tried not to imagine his bare body—the firm arms, the defined abs—but it wasn’t easy. I forced myself to stop thinking about it.
“Are you dressed?”
Only after the rustling sounds stopped did I cautiously ask. I didn’t want to risk seeing him again. Hyunjae answered meekly.
“Yeah.”
“Turn around.”
I turned to face Hyunjae. The awkwardness I thought had vanished resurfaced between us.
“……Did you see everything?”
“N-No, not really. I didn’t look that closely.”
“Closely…?”
I realized my choice of words might have been off. I hurried to correct myself.
“I mean, not in detail.”
“Oh… Good.”
Though your body was amazing, honestly. I swallowed the rest of my words and continued what I was going to say.
“Anyway, I’m sorry.”
Hyunjae looked at me, blinking, and then cautiously replied, as if he finally understood.
“So, the apology yesterday was about this.”
It wasn’t just about this. There were other things I truly needed to apologize for, things I needed to atone for. But I found myself nodding without thinking. Even as I blindly trusted Hyunjae, I couldn’t shake the feeling that one day, his limit would explode when he learned the final truth. No, I didn’t even need to think about it. The coward in me found comfort in the sight of Hyunjae smiling at me. It was easy now to cling to this small possibility of happiness, this everyday life I didn’t want to lose, with just one lie. Han Jaemin was wrong. I didn’t show everything on my face. To be precise, I never showed what I truly didn’t want to reveal.
“No matter what your intentions were, I know it’s not like that now.”
“What if I was lying?”
“Then it’s my fault.”
“I tried to kill you.”
“But you didn’t.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is.”
Hyunjae answered firmly.
“It’s simple. Just don’t think about the past.”
How could he say something like that so easily? I felt like a condemned man, dangling from the gallows of the past, tongue lolling out, gasping for air, my vision blurring as I clung to life. I stared at Hyunjae, trying to see through him. I couldn’t. There was no way to know. Reading someone’s heart was more impossible than bringing the dead back to life.
“Can you really do that?”
“I wasn’t sure if I could, but I did. Look. We’re the proof.”
“You’re really…”
“Someone might say we’re stupid.”
Hyunjae continued softly.
“But someone else might think, ‘Wow, Hyunjae really loves Chanhee so much.’”
That was enough. Hyunjae took a step closer to me. Just as we were about to embrace, a cheerful knock echoed from the door.
“You done changing? You’re not doing anything fun in there, are you? If you are, I’m gonna puke and abandon this room, seriously.”
Han Jaemin’s voice made our eyes meet for a moment. Despite the situation, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was a fleeting moment of happiness. We held hands briefly before letting go and opening the closet door.
“Chanhee.”
Han Jaemin was sitting on the sofa, holding a glass of whiskey on the rocks. The sofa was large enough for four people to lie down comfortably. The house seemed similar in size to ours, but since he lived alone, the interior felt even more spacious.
Han Jaemin suddenly threw something at me without warning. I caught it reflexively and looked down. It was an ordinary-looking phone.
“Use this for all future contact with us.”
“Why…”
“Answer immediately every time, and don’t use this phone to contact anyone else. I trust you’re not that stupid, but just in case.”
I was about to protest but ended up nodding. I didn’t have the energy to argue further, and besides… it was true. Even if it wasn’t me, Yu Chanhee’s fate was already tied to Han Jaemin. In fact, the truth was that Hyunjae knowing about my actions behind his back had drastically reduced the chance of me dying at Han Jaemin’s hands. That was a relief.
“And obviously… don’t tell your dad about any of this.”
“I won’t.”
“Your dad already knows you’re thick as thieves with Han Jaemin, anyway.”
I chose silence instead of answering. It was a fact I had confirmed with my father not too long ago.
“That great Chief Security Officer wouldn’t miss a thing like that. Doesn’t matter. If anything, it’s better if he knows we’re close—he won’t be able to mess with us. But—”
“But?”
“Don’t tell him you’ve gained Yu Dohyun’s power.”
I already knew that. I had performed forbidden necromancy to summon my dead brother and absorbed his power. If my father, who kept Dohyun’s photo in his office, and my mother, who prayed for his return every night, found out, they would despise me. Even if I was their last remaining child.
“I got it. We’re leaving now.”
“Take the car.”
“No, we’ll take a taxi.”
I declined Han Jaemin’s offer and headed for the entrance. Once we were out of the mansion and in a taxi, the tension finally drained from my body. I slumped against Hyunjae’s shoulder, and he naturally wrapped his arm around me, patting me gently.
“You must be exhausted.”
“Yeah. A lot.”
“Let’s go home and rest. Get some sleep.”
But the more my body relaxed and fatigue set in, the clearer my mind became. I knew why. I asked Hyunjae in a slightly tired voice.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“My brother… Did he really look exactly the same?”
“Huh?”
“His face, his build, his appearance.”
“If my memory’s right, probably. He looked the same as the last time I… saw him.”
I see. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. It wasn’t a mistake. I forced a laugh and said,
“It’s funny, but we don’t look alike at all.”
“Your brother took after your dad. You took after your mom.”
Right. That face definitely resembled my father. Not my real father, but the father of Yu Dohyun and Yu Chanhee. That was the problem.
“Yeah. I’m tired. I’ll close my eyes for a bit. Wake me up when we get there.”
In the end, I chose to avoid further conversation and closed my eyes. When we were together, I wanted to enjoy the quiet more. Even if it meant facing greater demons when I was alone.
***
After half-listening to my mother’s nagging about how I’d been coming home late, we went upstairs. Hyunjae, knowing I was tired, tucked me into bed, covered me with a blanket, turned off the light, and left. I slowly opened my eyes. Finally, I was alone. The thoughts I needed to confront rushed back in.
Yu Dohyun, who hated us.
Yu Dohyun, who knew our future.
Yu Dohyun, who knew about our present.
Everything was strange. Did he have a skill to predict the future? In this world, skills were limitless, so it wasn’t impossible. With the existence of a system, a top-tier ranker like Yu Dohyun could easily possess such a skill. But why would that make him hate me and Hyunjae? Why would the fact that we loved each other be something he despised so much? Was it because he hated love between men? No, that couldn’t be it. He had something with Cha Suhyun, after all.
But there was an even bigger problem.
I turned on my phone and opened the camera app. Switching to selfie mode, a faint image of “Yu Chanhee” appeared in the darkness. When I thought about it, everything was strange. Even though I knew I had been transmigrated into this book, I never felt any attachment to my past life—except right after the transmigration. No, I didn’t even think about it. I wasn’t curious about who I had been, who I had been with, or what I had done. It simply never crossed my mind.
I recalled the face of Yu Dohyun slowly emerging from the Gate. Everything I couldn’t remember suddenly flooded back like a ghost when I saw his face. Every scene played vividly in my mind like a movie.
Because—
Yu Dohyun’s face was identical to my face before transmigration.
