# Chapter 98
Jaei was lying in bed, wandering through the world of social media in search of a “young and handsome man.” He felt there was a very slim chance that he would hear from the young man he had tried to cast today.
Jaei knew this well from his own experience, having lived his entire life from birth until debut: exceptionally good-looking people usually receive business cards not just once or twice, so they emit a certain aura the moment they receive a card. The person giving the card can immediately sense it too—whether the other person is interested in the proposal, or if they have the expression of “as someone living well as an ordinary person, I’ve just added another business card today.” The young man he saw earlier belonged to the latter category.
Feeling that the day when he would lose the title of “The Only Jewel in Lee Jaei’s Jewelry Box” was not far off, Doha fidgeted his toes anxiously. He turned his body completely toward Jaei and rubbed his cheek against Jaei’s arm, silently craving attention. Jaei, with his gaze fixed on his phone, lazily extended his arm to provide Doha with an arm pillow and asked a question to soothe his heart.
“Doha, why do you like me so much?”
It wasn’t a question typically exchanged in a relationship approaching its 20th anniversary. But Doha answered as if he had been waiting for it, like someone who had prepared an answer in advance.
“I get excited when I see you. I want to hug and protect you. I’d like you to hug me too. And I want to sleep with you. Just seeing you smile makes me feel that way.”
The child who once gave the simple and clear answer, “Jaei, you’re pretty, kind, and um, also cute,” had grown up vigorously to become twenty years old and now gave an evolved answer. Still simple and straightforward, but Jaei was satisfied with Doha’s response.
One time they started as friends, and another time they started as family. That’s how 19 years had passed. Nevertheless, he couldn’t express how happy he was that he could still be the object of Doha’s excitement and desire. As he looked at Doha, about to say that he felt the same way, their eyes met, and he was pulled into Doha’s arms as if being sucked into his embrace.
Doha, who had not interfered with the CEO’s work until now, took Jaei’s phone in his hand. He looked at the photos of ordinary men that Jaei had been examining and made a pained groan. After glaring for a moment at Jaei, who was rolling his eyes around, he flipped the phone over, put it down, and for the first time honestly expressed his anxious feelings.
“Stop looking at other men. I especially hate young and handsome men.”
Once his complex was being much younger than Jaei, but now Doha, who had started to use it as his strength, looked very serious. His eyes, slightly tinged with anger, contained a desperate plea.
Jaei, who didn’t reply, traced the veins and jawline of Doha that became prominent whenever he was angry. Though his face was as pretty as a peach, when angry, he gave the impression of becoming a handsome man with overall strong facial features. After stroking Doha’s beautiful face with his hand for a while, he also entrusted his own face to Doha’s touch.
Doha carefully touched Jaei’s face, which was sculpted like a work of art, then kissed his nose and lips in turn, as if handling something precious. Jaei knew that Doha treated his face with particular care. Probably because he was an actor, he was slightly rougher when touching parts that weren’t visible to the outside world.
“Doha, thank you so much for still being jealous. Next year, please be jealous again as a celebration of our 20th anniversary of meeting.”
Jaei buried his face in Doha’s chest. They fell asleep tightly bundled together like two lumps of clay sticking to each other. It was a night no different from usual.
The next morning, when Jaei woke up, Doha wasn’t beside him. Jaei noticed that all 51 dolls they had kept in a box together had disappeared. Even the Hong Duyoung doll, which they had hung from the window with a terrifying chain around its neck and a needle stuck in it, had vanished. If the Hong Duyoung doll hadn’t disappeared along with the others, he would have thought Doha had gone out to sell the dolls at the Danggeum Market.
With his phone in hand, he got up from the bed and left the room. It was time to go exercise with Doha. However, not a single pair of Doha’s shoes remained at the front door. He hurriedly opened the shoe cabinet. All of Doha’s shoes had disappeared. That wasn’t all. Not a single trace of Doha remained in the house. Even Doha’s share of bowls, spoons, and cups had vanished. Had Doha moved all his belongings to the upper floor? Suddenly?
Before going up to the 10th floor, he calmly checked his phone. Surprisingly, Doha’s number, the messages exchanged with him, and even his photos had all disappeared. All data related to Doha had truly been deleted. So did Doha erase this too? After all, he knew how to unlock Jaei’s phone. Come to think of it, the sub-phone used for dating had also disappeared from somewhere. It wasn’t in the place where it was always kept.
He rushed to the dressing room and opened the built-in cabinet where he kept traces of Doha. Fortunately, traces of Ryu Doha remained intact. But truly, not a single trace of Lee Doha remained. Sensing a strange energy, Jaei searched “Ryu Doha” on a portal site. According to the search results, there was no such actor.
With trembling hands, he searched for “Lee Jaei.” Lee Jaei’s profile showed his last work as Director Hong Duyoung’s film “Detox.” His legs gave way, and he sank to the spot. Finally, he searched for “Hong Duyoung.” His profile hadn’t changed from yesterday, but instead of articles related to “charges of killing a child actor,” articles were pouring out about his film “Detox” being invited to another film festival.
Was it all a dream? Was everything that happened to him really all a dream? Then, from where was it a dream…? From when Doha returned to him, appearing younger again? He had always thought that this unbelievable event might have been a lie from the beginning. But if it was a dream, he never wanted to wake up from it.
Blinking his eyes slowly, Jaei called the number of Doha’s phone that he remembered. As expected, the person who answered the phone was not Doha. With his head bowed low, Jaei called his mother and asked:
“Mom, you know Doha.”
“Doha all of a sudden? You mean Ryu Doha? Our Jaei… still misses Doha a lot, I see.”
His mother spoke with a sad voice. Jaei replied with trembling lips:
“No… I’m talking about Lee Doha, not Ryu Doha.”
“Lee Doha? I don’t know who Lee Doha is. Did you have a friend called Lee Doha?”
“So Mom, I grew up without siblings, alone. Our family is just the three of us.”
“Yes, that’s right. Why suddenly? Do you want me to make you a younger sibling?”
The moment his mother’s answer came through, Jaei hung up the phone without saying a final goodbye to her. After being lost in thought for a moment, Jaei wiped away the tears that had pooled in his eyes and stood up straight, putting strength into his legs. Soon, Jaei’s expression brightened. After looking at himself in the full-length mirror, Jaei left the dressing room with a smiling face. Standing in front of the refrigerator, Jaei compared the height of the top of his head with the height of the refrigerator.
“Oh, Lee Jaei. You must be about 185cm. You’ve grown a lot in just one day.”
He sat comfortably on the sofa and turned on the TV. News was streaming that global warming had been completely solved by human efforts. He smiled contentedly while watching a video letter from polar bears to humans, then closed his eyes and sat cross-legged. He put his hands together, gathered energy on his forehead, and when he opened his eyes wide, Doha appeared before him.
Doha was standing in a very cool pole dance outfit. This outfit was put on him by Jaei. Jaei was now aware that not the experiences he had with Doha so far, but the sad events that had befallen him since the moment he opened his eyes were the “real dream.” From that moment on, he was developing everything according to his own will. So the costume Doha was wearing now, though not actually put on by Jaei, might as well have been put on by him.
To turn the nightmare that had come to him into a pleasant time, Jaei started the “Princess Maker” game that he had enjoyed playing with dream-Doha in his childhood.
While Doha was lying on the floor mopping and doing laundry by hand, Jaei bought a Pungyuhwan (enhancement pill) from a peddler who came to the house. After completing two weeks’ worth of household chores in an instant, Doha fell ill and collapsed on the living room floor. Jaei suggested a rest to Doha.
“Doha, let’s go on vacation!”
Before leaving for vacation, he fed the Pungyuhwan to Doha to increase his chest muscle size a little more. What Jaei chose was, of course, a summer vacation. He rolled around earnestly on the beach with Doha, who appeared wearing a triangular swimsuit the size of a palm.
After returning to daily life from the vacation, Jaei was excited about the idea of raising Doha to be a demon lord. Lacking money to buy him new clothes, he had no choice but to make him work at a bar. However, by the end of the first month of his bar part-time job, Doha, who had become a bad boyfriend due to serious side effects, began to glare at Jaei with his arms crossed.
Just as things were getting really fun, Jaei felt the energy to wake up from his dream. With a very regretful expression, he fiddled with Doha’s chest and said goodbye.
“Doha, I’ll save this. Next time, if I feel like I’m going to have a sad dream, come find me and make sure I’m not anxious, okay?”
<Do you want to save this dream?>
<Yes♡>
Slowly, he opened his eyes. Jaei, lying flat on the bed, met eyes with Doha, who was straddling his body. In his sleepy state, Jaei had extended his hands into the air and was kneading Doha’s upper body, and Doha was just offering his chest. Doha, who had wrinkled his brow, blinked slowly and asked:
“Jaei, what kind of dream did you have?”
“What did I say?”
“You said, ‘You must become a demon lord! I’ll dress you in leather clothes with a devil’s tail! You need to go make money right now to buy clothes!'”
Jaei tightly wrapped his arms around Doha’s neck, laughed brightly, and said shamelessly:
“Doha, I can now enjoy nightmares too. I’ve really become stronger.”
Doha heard from Jaei about the nature of the dream he had. Looking at Jaei with sympathetic eyes, he made him draw on paper the game costume that Jaei had consciously tried to dress him in within the dream. He was thinking of ordering a costume with a similar design. Doha, who had Jaei sitting on his knees, made a grand resolution to soon realize his desires, and gently caressed his chest, which must have hurt even if just for a moment.
“Jaei, play with me anytime by toying with me like that. You can even do things that can’t be expressed in words.”
He tightly embraced Jaei’s body. How strongly must Jaei have lived with the anxiety that all of this might be a dream? He loved and admired Jaei, who had finally overcome his anxiety. He hoped that Jaei would never have sad dreams again, as he would fulfill all his desires in reality.
Because this miracle is definitely reality.
