“How’s your body? Are you okay?”
Hyukjin was about to spit out curses first upon seeing Raon entering with an awkward smile, but closed his opened mouth after seeing the huge thing following behind him.
At Raon’s words, “Our Bbobbo is a bit strong. It was urgent so… Well, that’s… Here’s the cake you like,” it was Jaehwi who moved.
Hyukjin’s gaze, lying in bed occupying the hospital VIP room that was no less than a hotel, didn’t leave Jaehwi, who was putting down drinks and cake on the table. He couldn’t believe what he had seen until closing his eyes. He had so many things he wanted to ask Jaehwi, not Raon.
Was it right that he had shattered his arm bone just for the reason that he tried to touch Raon? If not that, there was no way to explain that situation. Besides, those dark red pupils? He who could be believed to be a yaksha from hell sat in a chair by the window with an indifferent expression.
“What happened?”
Since asking him didn’t mean he could get an answer, Hyukjin, who sighed, pressed the remote control button to adjust the bed head’s tilt and sat up with his upper body upright. Even at that small action, groaning sounds naturally flowed from his mouth.
Because the Gem Kitten that Raon called affectionately as Bbobbo or something threw him away, his collarbone and 4 ribs were broken. The bruises on his side and back were a bonus. That bastard looking out the window didn’t cleanly snap his arm bone in two but shattered it into pieces, so several metal rods were inserted to align the bones.
When he lost consciousness and opened his eyes, it was in a hospital VIP room. Since it was due to an accident that occurred in the dungeon, they said the Center would provide paid leave until fully recovered and full medical expenses including the VIP room fee, but more urgent than that was the truth.
According to A Alpha Team who came to visit before these two, he couldn’t understand the situation at all. After the Gem Kitten threw him into the black energy, he disappeared into the black energy and A Alpha Team immediately started attacking. However, the black energy devoured all their attacks as if absorbing them. And less than a minute after he disappeared, the black energy disappeared in an instant and Nox appeared holding Raon.
He was knocked to the floor and had fainted.
And they said that following Raon’s orders, collecting as much ore as possible on the way out was all A Alpha Team had done. What he was curious about wasn’t such a timeline of events but what the black energy was, how Nox and Raon entered that dungeon and cleared it—these kinds of things.
“What?”
Raon, sitting in a chair beside the bed drinking an iced americano, threw him that one word and then looked at Nox and said, “The iced americano here doesn’t seem very good.” Before those words even finished, Nox, who had stood up from his seat, approached and handed Raon the drink he was holding and took the iced americano Raon had been drinking.
“You and Nox in the dungeon.”
Watching the two’s movements that were as natural as flowing water, Hyukjin sighed deeply and opened his mouth. If he hadn’t brought that thing along, he would have grilled him thoroughly with profanity, but strangely, he became conscious of Nox.
“Isn’t it all content you know? Hwi beat down the dungeon master, and in that process, our Hwi almost went berserk but I stopped the rampage.”
…According to what you’re saying, I’m asking you now to tell me all the compressed process in that short explanation!
Instead of yelling out in frustration, Hyukjin glared at Raon while putting strength in his eyes.
“I know because I’ve had cracked and broken ribs too, but you suffer for about a month. Move as little as possible, and if it hurts, take painkillers—that’s all you can do. Since it’s processed as paid leave, rest as much as you want.”
At Raon’s action of grinning while sipping the drink Nox had handed him and left, it wasn’t easy for Hyukjin to suppress his rising anger.
“Explain in detail!”
Why am I lying here injured like this! When he bit his teeth hard and muttered lowly, Nox’s gaze, which had been only looking out the window, turned toward Hyukjin.
“You first.”
Though he had asked first, at Raon’s words that came back, Hyukjin released the strength from his eyes and also released the strength from his tightly closed jaw. It absolutely wasn’t because he was scared of Nox but to resolve things gently through conversation.
“Since only black energy was rippling at the end of the dungeon, while I was in the middle of telling Esper Choi Nayeon to attack with wind attribute, the Gem Kitten suddenly threw me inside. I suddenly tumbled on the floor and got shattered like this. You know all this content too.”
Even at Raon’s words that lacked a precise subject or object, Hyukjin faithfully answered.
“That’s because our Bbobbo couldn’t say not to attack since Hwi and I were inside, so it acted hastily. Anyway, the result is good, isn’t it? Thanks to the ore collected then, we completely replaced equipment for our Hwi and A Alpha Team. We also upgraded all the equipment stored in the Center. We lightened the burden of Center operating costs for at least several decades. It was a profitable business in many ways.”
“Kang Raon. That’s not what I’m asking.”
“Hwi. How’s the visiting hours? Don’t tire out the patient, we saw he’s okay so let’s go.”
Even though he clearly understood, Raon continued to try to slyly gloss over it superficially like a cunning snake.
“Just what was that dungeon’s dungeon master, how did Nox handle it, and how did you care for the rampaging Esper!”
In the end, Hyukjin yelled out, and soon groaned while holding his upper body with both arms in pain that assaulted his entire body.
“The dungeon master was a dragon. The handling method was through our Hwi’s excellent abilities. And the method of caring for a rampaging Esper? My love.”
Until Raon laid out answers in a voice tinged with laughter as if in a good mood and left a greeting saying we really must go now and left the hospital room, Hyukjin couldn’t unfold his curled-up body. He just ground his teeth more at the ambiguous words Raon had left.
Does it make sense for a dragon to appear! And what ability did Nox use? Was it flame? Lightning? Or did he mix everything? And how much ability value did he draw out and how did he rampage… Lastly, that damn love is bullshit…
Though his frustration was bursting, at the fact that he couldn’t know the accurate truth, Hyukjin groaned more.
* * *
Raon, who left the hospital humming, intertwined his fingers between the fingers of Jaehwi, who was walking matching his stride. Long, straight fingers playfully pressed his fingers tightly without hurting, and soon their palms fit together perfectly.
“But Hwi. What really happened inside there?”
At Hyukjin’s question, Raon had given the best answer he could really give. Because he also didn’t know the exact facts. He had been in a different space from the egg. And when he came out, Jaehwi was already rampaging, and all he did was embrace him.
“I told you. A dragon appeared, and I mixed flame and lightning and beat it up wildly. I couldn’t feel hyung’s energy, and a dragon was rampaging before my eyes. Since I had to kill that bastard first to find hyung, I did whatever worked without thinking about ability values.”
“…So that’s why you went berserk?”
“Even though I beat it all down, I couldn’t find hyung. So at that time, in that position, I released all my energy. To find hyung.”
Jaehwi’s answer that felt light rather pressed down on Raon’s chest. Though he speaks so nonchalantly now, he couldn’t fathom Jaehwi’s feelings at that time. Just imagining if he were in his situation was horrifying.
“Haa.”
“Why is hyung sighing? Anyway, hyung and I are like this.”
Jaehwi, who had been lightly shaking their clasped hands, slyly pulled his hand and kissed the back of Raon’s hand.
“Nothing else is going to happen, right?”
“There won’t be such things anymore.”
“How do you know that? Did the dragon you killed leave words like ‘Everything before was all my prank. Since I died, there will be no more regressions’ or something?”
Raon, who walked forward with slightly faster steps than Jaehwi, still holding hands, turned around to face him and walked backward while speaking.
“Ask that when something is born from the egg we brought. If it’s the same dragon, wouldn’t it know something? If it’s not a dragon, there’s nothing we can do, and it seemed to be saying something but I killed it without listening properly…”
At Jaehwi’s answer laid out with an awkward laugh, Raon laughed.
At first, he was anxious about the trapped time, restless, and wanted to escape somehow. But now, whatever it was didn’t matter. Because he wasn’t living tomorrow but living today and living this moment right now.
Right now he was holding hands with Jaehwi like this and facing him. Before worrying about things that would happen in the future that he couldn’t even guess and were headache-inducing, Raon, who chose to be faithful to the present, looked around.
“Hwi.”
“Yes.”
Raon, who approached Jaehwi who obediently answered the call and lifted his heels, placed his lips against his lips.
“Thank you for being alive.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t die.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t rampage either.”
“Yes.”
“Also…”
“I won’t die, won’t rampage, and will always be careful, so for now, let’s start with a kiss.”
Raon’s words that were trying to ask him one by one were completely devoured by Jaehwi’s lips. And while coveting Raon’s lips, Jaehwi turned off the alarm ringing in his pocket.
Whether it was an NCSC call or a Center call, such things weren’t important right now. Whether dungeons turned out however or the world met its end, those were things unrelated to Jaehwi. Because Jaehwi’s world was Raon. And Raon was the same too.
“…So where was the call from?”
“NCSC.”
“Let’s go.”
Raon spoke calmly while wiping his red, plump, heated lips with the back of his hand, and Jaehwi silently sat in the driver’s seat.
“…Are you okay?”
Raon, who had been sitting in the passenger seat looking at the red sunset outside the window, turned his head to look at him at Jaehwi’s careful words. Not unaware of the many meanings implied in those words asking if he was okay, rather than answering immediately, Raon lightly shrugged his shoulders.
“Just try getting hurt. I won’t kiss you.”
“Eh. Where’s such a thing?”
“Right here.”
Patting Jaehwi’s hand who immediately got upset at the words of not kissing, Raon smiled brightly.
“Instead, if you come back without getting hurt, I’ll love you a lot. From head to toe!”
At Raon’s words, the car that had been running well swayed and soon stopped on the shoulder. And the moment he saw Jaehwi’s eyes approaching him, Raon lightly and quickly patted the back of his hand he had been holding.
“Depart. Depart! Dungeon…”
“No one will say anything if we arrive a little late.”
Yeah. No. How urgent must NCSC have been to call you? Don’t cross over. Why are you crossing over to the passenger seat… Hey! Why are you slyly pushing back the passenger seat!
“We can’t be late…”
In the end, they arrived an hour later than the expected arrival time, and Raon, whose condition wasn’t good, had to wait outside the dungeon.
And…
“Hyung! Look. I didn’t get hurt at all…”
Though he was covered in dust, at Jaehwi’s words bursting out in less than 30 minutes after entering, Raon could neither laugh nor cry. Because when they were alone together, a kiss never ended with just a kiss.
“Wait! Wait. My waist! My waist!”
“You promised.”
If you can’t change fate, what else can you do but enjoy it? As an ability user who must come when told to come and go when told to go… It’s not an ability you can eliminate just because you want to eliminate it. And if we’re happy together like this, that’s enough.
Raon’s face, embracing back Jaehwi who came hugging him while scrunching his large frame, was full of a bright smile.
Hold on – The End.
