Chapter 10
Among the countless nights they’d slept together and woken up together, Raon had never covered his face like this. Jaehwi had seen him countless times with messy hair, sitting on the bed with puffy eyes that hadn’t fully awakened.
Since Raon loved sleeping in, Jaehwi had often woken up early just to watch Raon’s sleeping face. It felt almost unfair that he’d forgotten this face.
“I look a mess right now. Coffee? Or something else to drink?”
Raon spoke casually with his head lowered. The small kid had suddenly grown so tall. His handsome face still held traces of his childhood appearance, but an inexplicable distance had formed between them.
“Coffee.”
As Jaehwi, who had been right in front of him, said one word and moved to sit on the sofa, Raon pressed a speed dial number. After ordering two coffees and some light snacks, Raon leaned against his desk and tapped his thigh with his fingertips.
He needed to speak first. Jaehwi was quiet and liked listening. Raon sat across from Jaehwi with his legs crossed, beginning to choose what seemed like the most neutral topic.
To be honest, he wasn’t sure how to treat Jaehwi.
The moment they’d faced each other in the training room, he’d been enchanted by Jaehwi’s gentle smile and had stumbled into this situation, but he felt he needed to establish clear boundaries. Despite the relief of finding the lost child, Jaehwi’s changed appearance and the voice calling his name had intoxicated him, preventing clear thinking.
As Hyukjin said, though they’d shared a brief time when Jaehwi was young, they’d been apart much longer, and his memories might be more idealized than he thought. While he felt regret for not protecting Jaehwi and was full of compassion for the struggling child, he had no idea about the other’s thoughts or feelings.
Though he’d acted comfortably during his confusion, Jaehwi was no longer a child. The mysterious Nox, about whom little information was known, was truly a difficult person even for him. The time they’d spent apart, not knowing each other, was dozens of times longer than the time they’d spent together, and he wondered if it was appropriate to treat Jaehwi so familiarly.
He couldn’t just act as he pleased because Jaehwi was younger and he knew him somewhat (and even that was just his childhood image). More than anything, creating this distance helped the mix of happiness, confusion, excitement, and unfamiliar emotions find their proper place.
“E1101S Min Jaehwi-ssi. I am Kang Raon, head of the management team at MK Center. I heard you expressed your desire to contract with MK Center. Do you have any conditions you’d like to propose first?”
“Hyung.”
As Jaehwi, sitting on the white sofa and looking up at him, once again uttered the word “hyung,” Raon gave an awkward smile. Fortunately, his mask covered it.
“Since you’ve chosen MK, we’ll try our best to meet your conditions as an Esper…”
“Why are you acting like this?”
Though Jaehwi’s large frame was visibly moving, Raon couldn’t sense his presence. With his vision completely blocked by darkness, Raon closed and opened his eyes, hesitating as he moved his upper body slightly backward.
Jaehwi’s face was right in front of him as he placed both hands on the desk Raon was leaning against. Though nothing was actually touching, Raon felt completely enclosed in Jaehwi’s space. Above all, he could see himself clearly reflected in those black eyes staring directly at him.
“Do you find me difficult too, hyung? Because I’m Nox? Because I’m a violent Esper? I’m Min Jaehwi—can’t you speak comfortably with me? Can you call me ‘Hwi-ya’ like before, instead of Min Jaehwi? You just did it a moment ago. And stop using formal speech too.”
The Hwi-ya in his memory was handsome, but that was a child’s appearance, and he certainly wasn’t such a perfect beauty that Raon didn’t know where to look, nor was he this tall.
The Hwi-ya he’d protected, guarded, and loved had never whispered in his ear with a deep voice that made his heart flutter.
“Uh, well. Back then you were little Hwi-ya, and now we’re establishing a partnership relationship…”
“…I don’t have the ability to shrink or return to a younger form.”
As Jaehwi made an expression that seemed quite troubled, his fingertips moved, removing the mask and glasses from Raon’s face.
“My condition is you, hyung.”
After placing the removed glasses and mask on the desk, Jaehwi smiled, gently curving his lips.
“You asked, right? What I want to propose first. I just want you to be my hyung. And to treat me like before.”
Raon, who first avoided the eyes of Jaehwi still not moving from in front of him, cleared his throat with a small cough. The innate Esper temperament was unavoidable. That unique atmosphere and aura—the higher the grade of Esper, the more difficult people found them to deal with.
“What kind of contract condition…”
“Do I seem like I’m joking? I’m being more serious and sincere than I’ve ever been. If you don’t accept this condition, I have no reason to contract with MK. I told you. Speak comfortably.”
“Min Jaehwi.”
“Hwi-ya.”
He’d thought Jaehwi had quite a firm character, but it seemed that, both as a child and now, Min Jaehwi was the exception. When Raon called him by his full name with surname, Jaehwi promptly corrected him to “Hwi-ya,” making Raon laugh a little.
Who would have thought the taciturn, sharp Jaehwi, who remained silent no matter what questions were asked, would turn out so persistent? Raon had thought that since Jaehwi wasn’t very talkative as a child and always listened, he’d grown up that way, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Raon looked at Jaehwi’s large hands resting on the desk before picking up the sunglasses and mask lying beside them and putting them back on.
Jaehwi might be purely happy and pleased to meet his old self again, but Raon was only confused. Though they’d spent nights looking into each other’s eyes and talking, now Jaehwi’s gaze was perplexing, and his smooth way of talking made Raon’s chest tingle.
“I’ll review our contract when it’s finished, but you should also look at conditions from other places. Someone like you could get the best treatment anywhere. Make your desired conditions clear.”
Having covered his expression with sunglasses and a mask, Raon adopted a casual tone without honorifics as Jaehwi wanted.
“I said you, hyung.”
“Are you sure it’s me?”
“Yes. If I belong here, I can see you often, hyung.”
“That’s true, but even if you’re not affiliated here, we can contact each other and meet if we want to.”
“Do you want me to contract with somewhere else?”
As Jay entered with a knock, followed by Hyukjin, Raon unknowingly raised his hand to Jaehwi’s shoulder, which was blocking him, and applied pressure.
He’d intended to push away Jaehwi, who was blocking him, but since Jaehwi didn’t budge, Raon instead found himself sitting on the desk he’d been leaning against.
“Do you need anything else?”
Jay, who entered first, placed coffee and snacks on the conference table in the team leader’s office, while Hyukjin, who’d entered without permission, sat on the sofa at the table.
Other people have come in—why isn’t he moving away? Only after Raon patted the shoulder he’d been holding a few times did Jaehwi straighten up and plop down on the sofa across from Hyukjin.
“Ahem. Jay, wait outside.”
After clearing his throat with a small sound and speaking to Jay, Raon fixed his gaze on the blue sky with occasional fluffy clouds while swinging his loafers that hung from his toes.
Though he heard Jay leave and the door close, Raon didn’t take his eyes off the window. Out of habit, he gnawed on the second knuckle of his right index finger. In this awkward situation, having Hyukjin present seemed better.
A deep silence settled in the office with the three men. Raon bit his finger a little harder. Suddenly, something pulled at his wrist. Something warm and soft wrapped around his wrist, and he felt no particular sensation in his finger where there should have been pain.
Raon didn’t resist the force he felt. Letting it guide him, his hand stopped above a small biscuit in front of him.
“Don’t you have something like a sandwich instead of biscuits?”
It was Jaehwi who broke the silence.
“A sandwich? Do you want one?”
“Hyung, have you eaten anything since you woke up?”
When his question was met with another question, Raon shrugged his shoulders.
“When would I have had time to eat?”
Jaehwi’s gaze, which had been on Raon until now, shifted to Hyukjin in front. The once fresh and warm gaze had turned cold and heavy. Hyukjin slowly leaned back at the gaze that seemed to reproach him for not taking care of Raon.
“How can I believe you’re Min Jaehwi?”
At Hyukjin’s words, the tip of Raon’s foot, which had been swinging his loafer, stopped.
Raon had known he was Jaehwi from the moment he first saw him. But Hyukjin, who had never met either Nox or Min Jaehwi, was checking that aspect first.
“E1101S Min Jaehwi. You should have received my file from NCSC.”
“Anyone can bring a code name and name. For the past few years, E1101S was a code that couldn’t even be searched. It appeared to be a code that was never issued.”
“How can I prove who I am?”
At Hyukjin’s rigid words, which sounded like an interrogation, Jaehwi slightly raised both hands, then leaned back comfortably on the sofa and crossed his long legs.
