“After the Gate accident, I thoroughly searched the cleanup crew like catching rats. Then I found a report they had hidden away. Inside it said that this emblem was discovered at the Gate.”
“……”
“I pressed them about why they hid something like this. They said the Management Bureau had ordered them to conceal it. They’d been keeping their mouths shut until now because they’d even signed a confidentiality agreement.”
A confidentiality agreement. Once again, a contract appeared to keep certain facts top secret in preparation for social chaos.
Gu Baekyoung had thought there must be some clue in that emblem and took it.
“I see.”
Na Geonwoo, who had been listening attentively to the explanation, examined the emblem up close.
A small emblem engraved with a snake biting its own tail. It was somewhat unusual but definitely familiar.
“Team Leader, do you know what this bizarre snake is?”
At Gu Baekyoung’s question, Na Geonwoo slowly nodded his head.
“Ouroboros.”
“What’s that?”
Na Geonwoo continued his explanation calmly, as if he naturally expected Cha Hyeran wouldn’t know.
“It’s a monster from Greek mythology. A being that endlessly repeats eating its own tail and regenerating it.”
“Why does it eat its own tail? Is it hungry?”
“……”
Na Geonwoo’s gaze behind his glasses didn’t leave Cha Hyeran. He didn’t say anything, but countless expressions were condensed in that look.
“Geez, don’t curse at me with your eyes.”
…Did it show? Ahem, Na Geonwoo cleared his throat.
“Hyeran. It’s not because it’s hungry… That’s symbolic. Destruction and creation, death and life… it represents eternity. It means there must be death for regeneration, and there must be destruction for creation.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“So, if people die or the environment is destroyed by Gate rampage, a new cycle is created from that. It means destruction is necessary for the universe, or this reality, to be maintained. Understand?”
When he explained it at Cha Hyeran’s level, she finally seemed to understand.
“Ah, I get it. Aren’t the ones who caused the Gate rampage dreaming of an Ouroboros-like world? Deliberately destroying things to dream of a new world, like you said, Geonwoo?”
“Oh, you understood perfectly.”
“How stupid do you think I am…”
Gu Baekyoung, who had been silently listening to their conversation, also agreed with Cha Hyeran’s thought.
As far as he could guess, some organization that worships Ouroboros seemed to be connected to that Gate rampage incident.
The Esper who had the emblem said he didn’t know about that organization. He said he hadn’t investigated anything related to the emblem in the first place because of the confidentiality agreement.
Since he’d interrogated him properly, the man probably hadn’t lied.
Gu Baekyoung had an organization in mind. It wasn’t the anti-Management Bureau symbol they’d often clashed with, but rather something older…
“……”
Memories Gu Baekyoung didn’t particularly want to recall circulated in his head.
Na Geonwoo also seemed to vaguely know the identity of that organization. Na Geonwoo’s face, unable to take his eyes off the emblem, was quite serious.
“Team Leader, you know an organization that worships Ouroboros, don’t you?”
Gu Baekyoung threw out a sharp question.
“…Let’s talk about it again after I’m more certain.”
Na Geonwoo also seemed reluctant to bring that organization up out loud. As if he would tell him once everything became certain.
“Yes, understood.”
Gu Baekyoung decided to wait for Na Geonwoo. He also planned to tell Na Geonwoo about what he’d experienced once things became more certain.
He just had to investigate that organization and do what he could.
While striving never to lose Onyul, whom he’d finally met again, and wishing for happiness with him.
***
Two days later, the long-awaited contact came from the Management Bureau. It was that Onyul’s convenience store had won the bid for the Gate training event.
“I got it!”
At Onyul’s exclamation as he sat at the dining table, Gu Baekyoung turned around.
He happened to be preparing dinner, so he was wearing a cute apron and holding a ladle.
“The convenience store won the bid?”
“Yeah!”
Gu Baekyoung put down the ladle and approached Onyul. Then he naturally hugged him.
That embrace had the clear justification of ‘congratulations.’
“How is there nothing you can’t do, honey? Congratulations.”
Even though he pressed Onyul’s back tightly, no particular sound was heard.
He was intoxicated with joy and didn’t realize that Gu Baekyoung’s embrace was intense.
“Ahem. I’m pretty confident in interviews.”
Honestly, Onyul thought it would have been stranger if he hadn’t been selected.
The energy drink infused with special power was something that couldn’t be tasted anywhere else.
So once you tasted it, you could never forget it. Because it boosted vitality despite being just a beverage.
“You persuaded the judges with the drink Yoon Jihyuk brought last time, right?”
Gu Baekyoung, who had a history of drinking the energy drink, seemed to have caught on to the secret of his success.
“You knew after all.”
“Yeah. Is that also a special ability you have, honey?”
“I guess so.”
Only after hearing the pointed question did he slyly escape from Gu Baekyoung’s embrace.
He absolutely couldn’t say that he’d infused it with therapy ability, not guiding.
“It’s amazing no matter how many times I see it. It must be your first time as a Guide, so how do you use your ability so well without anyone helping or teaching you from the side?”
He also absolutely couldn’t answer that it was because he’d worked as an Esper for 10 years.
Onyul just acted cocky and boasted.
“I guess I’m talented.”
Rather than mocking such an Onyul, Gu Baekyoung looked at him as if he were lovely. Even though he himself was S-rank, he seemed to endlessly think Onyul was amazing.
Onyul didn’t dislike Gu Baekyoung treating him without lies.
Of course, he couldn’t give him the same amount of love that he gave Onyul, but at least he didn’t want to make him sad.
The wish for Gu Baekyoung to be happy and not hurt still remained deep in his heart.
Come to think of it, only one week remained of their one-month contractual relationship.
How should he maintain this relationship afterward so Gu Baekyoung wouldn’t get hurt?
How about continuing the current light relationship where he wasn’t forced into burdensome skinship and just received affection?
Onyul didn’t want to return to being strangers with him whom he’d met again either.
But would Gu Baekyoung be satisfied with that relationship? The answer didn’t come easily, so he pursed his lips.
“Do you want a kiss?”
…Hey, man. What kind of interpretation is that!
Onyul, who became embarrassed for no reason, lowered his gaze.
“I get it, you want me to do it myself, right?”
“Huh?”
Before he could deny it, something hot landed on his cheek.
“Yaa!”
“I’ll finish preparing the meal!”
Gu Baekyoung didn’t even give him time to respond and suddenly turned around to start cooking.
Onyul, left alone at the dining table, scratched his cheek for no reason.
I’m in trouble getting used to these kisses too.
He didn’t feel like pressing him about it at all.
After a satisfying meal, he washed for a long time in hot water. His relaxed body naturally sought Gu Baekyoung’s bed.
Onyul half-closed his eyes and settled into the embrace of Gu Baekyoung, who was already lying in bed. From him, who was close, came the scent of the same body wash.
Gu Baekyoung carefully patted Onyul’s back and began putting him to sleep. Onyul completely closed his eyes without resisting that touch. He’d become so accustomed to it that his eyes wouldn’t close unless those large hands touched him.
A perfect environment for sleeping soundly, he thought.
Whether it was because of the good environment and Gu Baekyoung’s warm embrace, or because he hadn’t been using his Guide ability to the maximum, he hadn’t had nightmares recently.
But for some reason, that night he had a terrible nightmare.
The nightmares he had were always similar.
It was about his comrades who had died together in the rampaging Gate resenting Onyul.
Inside was like a blazingly hot furnace. His comrades’ limbs, consumed by the sweltering heat, were gruesomely melting.
<Why are only you happy?>
<Why did only you meet the person you longed for?>
No, I didn’t just wish for my own happiness. I wanted us to survive and get out together.
No matter how much he shouted, as always, Onyul’s true feelings didn’t reach them.
His comrades’ condemnation grew fiercer.
The reproaching sounds rang loudly in Onyul’s ears, making his head dizzy. His legs, which had barely been standing, wavered.
Onyul covered his ears tightly and slumped down on the spot.
At that moment, one of the melting comrades firmly grabbed his wrist. When he looked, the comrade’s face was unrecognizable.
A feeling that the horror wouldn’t disappear even after waking from the dream. Onyul felt nauseous.
‘Let go… please let go.’
But the comrade absolutely wouldn’t let go of his wrist. While doing so, he babbled strange sounds.
<Remember… remember.>
Suddenly, when he looked down, there was some kind of tattoo engraved on the comrade’s arm. It was a very small pattern, but Onyul saw it clearly.
‘…A snake?’
His thoughts went only that far.
“Gasp!”
Onyul, who had escaped from the nightmare, gasped for breath intermittently. He felt warm body heat on the wrist that the dying comrade had been gripping in the dream.
“Are you okay?”
It was Gu Baekyoung.
