# Chapter 39
“Jay. What day is it today?”
Raon laughed dejectedly at the answer he received. If it had been anyone else but Jay, they might have lied to him. Without needing to ask again, what had just happened was exactly like a moment from the past. Though some things were different, it was like the day he woke up after going into the raging Fire Dungeon and meeting Jaehwi, who had grown up.
If he wasn’t dreaming, the current situation could be viewed in two ways: regression or a parallel world. In a world where dungeons suddenly appear and all sorts of things like Espers and Guides cause chaos, going back a few months wasn’t such a big deal. Either way, Jaehwi wasn’t dead but alive. He didn’t die in the raging dungeon, nor did he die from his own outbreak. That alone was okay.
Because he was alive, because Raon could see him, because he could touch him.
It didn’t matter how Jaehwi looked at him or treated him.
As long as both of them were alive… Raon buried his face in his hands, regardless of whether there was blood on his face. His head was ringing, and his left chest ached. It didn’t feel like he could breathe properly, and no strength was entering his body…
Before he could sink down, what Raon saw was black.
“Don’t the security guards even properly check the owner’s condition? If you can’t protect the owner in a situation like this, you should quit. If it had been an attack, Team Leader Kang Raon would have…”
Though his physical strength wasn’t good, he wasn’t so weak that he would collapse at any time. At the moment he was about to sink down from loss of strength, Raon gritted his teeth at the fact that the one who embraced him with the wind was Jaehwi.
As the strength left the hands that had firmly held him and Jaehwi tried to distance himself, Raon grabbed his hands again and looked up to examine his face.
Nothing had changed, yet there was a completely different Jaehwi, though they had only gone back in time.
Raon was reflected in his black pupils, but not contained in them. He didn’t playfully raise his eyebrows, nor did he show a sleek smile.
It was the coldly frozen face that Raon only occasionally saw when he was blankly staring out the window alone.
“Would you please let go of this?”
Seeing him slightly raising his hand to indicate that he should let go on his own, rather than pulling his hand away like before, Raon bit his lower lip.
It was just him feeling this way. Only he had a painful heart, only he was sad, and his head was filled with so many things he wanted to ask but couldn’t. Even after carefully choosing his words, there was nothing he could say, so Raon slowly released Jaehwi’s wrist.
He noticed Jay standing silently as always and Hyukjin watching this awkward situation.
“If you’re injured, you should get treatment.”
To these words, which were merely polite or a formality, Raon covered the back of his right hand with his left hand.
“With all the confusion, we didn’t properly introduce ourselves. It seems like Team Leader Kang already knows, but Mr. Min Jaehwi, this is Team Leader Kang Raon of the MK Center Management Team. Since he manages Espers and Guides, you could say he’s the actual powerful figure at the MK Center. And this is Jay, Team Leader Kang’s security guard.”
With Hyukjin’s words, the stiffly tensed atmosphere relaxed a bit.
“Hello. I am E1101S Min Jaehwi.”
“Yes.”
Raon simply bowed his head in response to Jaehwi’s polite greeting and kept his mouth shut.
Although the atmosphere seemed to soften briefly with Hyukjin’s words, the elevator carrying Jaehwi, Raon, Jay, and Hyukjin moved in silence.
Though he needed to go up five more floors to reach his office, when the elevator stopped at the floor with the treatment center, Raon had to get off following Jay, who moved first. Instead of walking straight ahead, Raon turned around and watched the elevator doors close. Only after receiving the slight bow Jaehwi gave just before the doors closed did he turn around.
“Give me a situation report. I don’t understand what’s going on.”
“About 30 minutes after you went into the dungeon, Jaehwi came out carrying you. Since people were looking, we moved as secretly as possible. Jaehwi said he had received the stabilizer you had brought in, and expressed his intention to move with us… He also told Team Leader Choi that he wanted to transfer to our side.”
As Raon had guessed, apart from Jaehwi’s changed attitude towards him, the situation didn’t seem much different. At the treatment room, Raon laughed dejectedly after receiving a diagnosis that anyone could have given—that a blood vessel had burst and the skin had torn a bit due to the rough removal of the IV needle.
He had seen people dying with their entire body’s skin bursting and bleeding, so what kind of wound was this? Jay was even saying that the torn skin might need stitches, not just disinfection and dressing.
After having the wound that barely looked like a wound dressed and a thick gauze attached, Raon left the treatment room and tapped his thigh with his fingertips. There was no rush. At least Jaehwi had expressed his willingness to transfer to the MK Center, and it would take a few days until the final decision.
Even that was because Jaehwi was rushing; if they actually scrutinized each clause of the contract, it wouldn’t be strange even if it took a few months. But definitely, unlike last time, it didn’t seem like he would blindly agree to join MK.
Returning to his office, Raon walked to the window. A completely red sky was spread out. Looking at the sun that was as red as blood, Raon asked, “Has he been guided correctly?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s fine. Where is Jaehwi staying now?”
“Team Leader Choi has provided dormitory accommodation within the center.”
“I’ll go home today, so as soon as I come to work tomorrow, set up an appointment with a guiding coach.”
Raon tossed the blood-stained cardigan he had been wearing over his shoulders onto the chair. Then he opened the closet door on one side of the office. Walking around in treatment center attire, really. With indifferent fingertips, he unbuttoned his top.
* * *
“Kang Raon!”
Even at Hyukjin’s voice, who barged in opening the door at the same time as knocking, Raon didn’t stop unbuttoning.
“Does Nox properly remember you?”
Along with his words, which didn’t hide his excitement, the top Raon had just taken off fell from his fingertips.
“He says he doesn’t remember?”
When he extended his hand that had dropped the top, Jay handed him a shirt, and Raon put his arms through it.
“He said they met briefly at NCSC.”
“So he does remember.”
He buttoned the shirt from the bottom up, unlike the treatment clothes with fewer buttons.
“Fuck. You spent years because of him… And even risked your life going in there. What? He says he’s grateful for the guiding help?”
“So what does Jaehwi want to do?”
“He says he moved with you because he received excessive guiding causing you to faint and the situation was complicated, but now that he’s seen you’re okay and has seen the center facilities well, he’ll contact us once his residence is determined and asks for the contract to be sent. Says he’ll review it.”
“Now he looks normal.”
Raon couldn’t help but smirk at the fact that he wasn’t the thoughtless youngster who would blindly say that having Raon was enough, signing without even checking the contract. Jaehwi was more mature than Raon thought, and he might even take better care of himself than Raon did.
“What are you saying? He acted like he was going to contract with us right away, and then suddenly he’s keeping his distance and going on about contracts!”
“Nox is the one with the upper hand. Everyone’s trying to catch Nox now, can’t you do that much? Were the stabilization numbers good?”
“How long can guiding received from a C-grade last? He took the stabilizer. We need at least that to quickly make replicas and secure an advantage on our side. How could he not leave a single pill and take them all?”
Raon listened to Hyukjin, who was sprawled in his chair—not even the sofa, but the chair Raon used for work—spinning around while talking, as he changed into the rest of his clothes.
“There’s my blood sample at the treatment center. Pass that on to the lab. I had them draw blood during treatment, so it should help.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Jaehwi. The stabilizers he’s taken now can’t be used anymore. Try making them again with my blood. Keep it secret that I’m the blood donor.”
At a flick of his fingertips, Jay stood by with his coat.
“Do you know something?”
When Hyukjin stopped spinning his chair and looked at him, Raon shook his head and comfortably put on his coat.
“I knew, but now I don’t. I have to try again. At least now I know exactly what I need to do, so I’m trying to minimize unnecessary disputes. Again, if you need blood, just tell me right away. I can provide as much as my health allows.”
Getting into the back seat of the car driven by Jay after leaving the office, Raon lay down comfortably on his side and closed his eyes. Though he wanted to have Jaehwi in front of him right away, he wasn’t mentally prepared to face him calmly. Raon, who went to a hotel instead of home, stopped in the middle of taking off his shoes and blankly looked around the room.
