“Think about it carefully. If you’re troubled and don’t know the answer, tell me anytime. I’ll help you make a wise decision.”
“Hyung. I have no intention of getting married right now, and even if I did, if the other person were you…”
“Wait. Kang Raon. I don’t like deciding anything hastily. Especially the more important something is. I also have no intention of hearing your answer right now.”
It was absurd how calm he was after dropping a bomb on someone who had been sitting quietly. And he’s telling me not to refuse right away either? What is this? If we had some kind of special relationship up until now or if even subtle feelings had been exchanged, it wouldn’t be this absurd.
The out-of-the-blue talk about marriage was ridiculous, but the words telling him not to come to work for two weeks were equally flustering.
Someone would take over the work he was doing, but what about Jaehwi? He couldn’t summon him to this house, and it was obvious that going to his house in this condition would be impossible because of those watching with eyes blazing. Then the only place he could meet him was the Center, but he’s telling him not to go there for two weeks?
Raon sighed and slowly closed his eyes. His head was dizzy, his body ached, and he could feel his heart beating rapidly. His body was crying out for him to rest immediately. He needed time to organize his complicated thoughts and be calmly alone.
“One week.”
A deep sigh came back in response to his words.
“I’ll go to work in one week. I’m going back to my house tomorrow. If I rest enough, I’ll get better, right? I can’t rest comfortably here. I get more tired because of people constantly coming in and out checking if I’m doing well and if there’s anything uncomfortable. And you know the answer to what you said without me having to say it, right?”
Opening his eyes, Raon didn’t avoid the gaze of Hajun, who was still sitting on his bed watching him.
“Who could beat Kang Raon? Going home tomorrow and going to work in a week… it’s your business so I can’t force you, but the last part is rejected. Let’s discuss that separately later.”
He quietly watched as warmth seeped into Hajun’s face, which had been gentle from the start. Unable to avoid Hajun’s hand reaching toward his head while saying to rest well and see him later. Normally he would have avoided it with an appropriate joke, but now it wasn’t a situation for jokes, nor was it a situation where he could move flexibly to avoid it.
The sensation of a large hand landing on his head and stroking it felt unfamiliar. Neither his mother’s touch full of worry and love nor Hajun’s touch containing affection different from his mother’s brought peace to Raon. Rather, they only stirred up uncomfortable feelings.
After even Hajun left the room and Raon was left alone, he exhaled a long sigh as if spitting it out and raised his hands to bury his face in them. So what about Jaehwi? Where is Jaehwi and what is he doing now? There was only one person filling his head.
* * *
“Jay. Explain the situation.”
As soon as Raon set foot inside his house, he spoke without hiding his uncomfortable mood.
“We couldn’t contact you by phone, Young Master, and you weren’t coming to work, so we couldn’t keep hiding it. Publicly, the reason for your injury was handled as a traffic accident. The people who know that Team Leader went into the dungeon are Team Leader Choi’s team who went to rescue you, Min Esper, me, Madam, and Park Hajun. The Chairman also knows it as a traffic accident.”
“Is it true that it wasn’t just you who brought me here, but that Mom came directly to Jaehwi’s house?”
“Yes.”
As soon as he received the new mobile phone Jay handed him and corrected Jaehwi’s phone number, Raon’s fingertips moving toward the call button stopped.
“What conversation took place?”
“She asked about the situation in the dungeon and why you were at Min Esper’s house, Young Master.”
“So what was Jaehwi’s answer?”
Raon stopped in front of the bedroom and looked at Jay who had been following.
“He said you accompanied him to the dungeon, and that you were injured due to a sudden variable. He didn’t know your family’s contact information or your home, so you were at Min Esper’s house.”
It would have been the most appropriate answer Jaehwi could give from his position. His mobile phone was lost inside the dungeon, and Jaehwi really didn’t know his home. Before regression, they lived together at his hotel, but now he hadn’t even visited that hotel.
Last time, if Jaehwi had permeated into his life, now was it the opposite—he had entered Jaehwi’s world? Not the hotel where he stayed nor the newly bought house. Conversely, he knew nothing about himself.
“So did Jaehwi readily allow me to go?”
“…When your mother stepped forward directly, Young Master, there wouldn’t have been anyone in the world who could stop that.”
Even to the foolish question, Jay faithfully gave an answer.
“Any other words?”
“Words spoken out of worry for you, Young Master.”
Much was omitted from their conversation. Even without asking specifically, Raon was sufficiently anticipating what would have happened at Jaehwi’s house.
Upon hearing news of his accident and knowing that where he was staying was Jaehwi’s house, given his mother’s personality, she would have had to come see for herself. What was he doing there? Was he sleeping on the couch? Was he occupying his bed in Jaehwi’s bedroom?
He must have been flustered. He must have been surprised.
Given Jaehwi’s personality, he wouldn’t have told lies to get out of that situation. Just as Mom said, he was short-sighted. I’m sorry. He would have only said things like that.
As a headache came over him, Raon moved one hand to send Jay out, then moved his hesitating fingertips to press the call button. At the end of the steady ringtone, a guidance message was heard. He called once more, but after hearing the same guidance message again, Raon bit down hard on his left index finger.
He opened the message window but couldn’t type a single letter. It wasn’t something he could convey through a message. It wasn’t something he could convey with just his voice either. He wanted to see his face.
As Jaehwi said, he was the one causing the accidents, and Jaehwi was always the one cleaning them up. Last time was better, wasn’t it? His chest felt heavy at the situation that became tangled like thread the more he tried.
More force went into his jaw biting his finger.
“Young Master.”
Unable to enter the bedroom and standing there, Raon raised his head and looked at Jay, who hadn’t left yet.
“Madam has replaced the caretakers with new people.”
Only then looking around the house, Raon caught the meaning hidden in Jay’s words, let go of the finger he was biting, changed the message recipient, quickly typed a message and sent it. Jay, standing across from him, took out the mobile phone he had put inside his jacket, checked it, and moved his fingertips.
[May I check the bedroom?]
“Help me change clothes before you go.”
When Raon turned and headed to the bedroom, Jaehwi soon followed. While Jay, who received the cardigan he had been wearing, walked around here and there in the bedroom and entered the dressing room connected to the bedroom, Raon stood still in front of the bedroom door.
“I’ll look around the house once before leaving.”
“There won’t be anything. Just as I know Mom, it’s not like Mom doesn’t know me either. Contact the people who were working originally and tell them to think of it as a few days of paid vacation and rest well. We’ll have to return things to normal at an appropriate time.”
“You have many worries. Your body isn’t in good condition either, Young Master.”
Whether Jay had many worries or Mom was peculiar. Raon, who stepped aside from the door so Jay, who came out empty-handed with nothing special found, could leave, shrugged his shoulders.
If he followed Mom’s words, currently his body wasn’t well, and since no one knew when something might happen, she would have needed a means to contact him immediately. He was the disobedient son who didn’t even pretend to listen to the words about marriage and insisted on returning to his own house.
What parent can beat their child—she earnestly entreated Jay and allowed him to return home, but to think she’d replace the caretakers. Since there weren’t even cameras, he knew he should appropriately fold on this matter, but his every move being reported to Mom’s ears wasn’t a pleasant thing.
“Jay.”
“Understood.”
As they had spent a long time together, Jay gave the answer he wanted without long words and asked once more if there was anywhere uncomfortable.
“I sincerely want to be alone.”
He brought up paid vacation to Jay, who said he would come tomorrow morning at work time, but he firmly shook his head. At this point, who was the employer and who was the employee? His going to work wasn’t the problem; checking and reporting on his health condition daily would be the most urgent task given to Jay right now.
Even now, he would have been told to stick right next to him and not take his eyes off for a moment, but Jay would be exercising appropriate flexibility.
Raising his hand slightly to Jay, who greeted him once more saying he’d see him tomorrow morning, and sending him out, Raon looked around the room with soft lighting on.
After unintentionally moving from house to house for several days, even his own bedroom felt awkward. Though it took quite some time, making it pointless to have asked for help, somehow changing into pajamas and by the time he lay on the bed, Raon called Jaehwi three more times, and all three times the call didn’t connect.
A problem had arisen in the relationship they had barely narrowed, but there was nothing Raon could do now.
