# Chapter 28
If I say these words, I’ll surely regret it. I’d definitely regret why I conveyed such utterly useless emotions to him.
But I couldn’t suppress the emotions that had already burst forth.
“…Boss, I like you.”
My time was too short to erase this longing.
After several attempts, I finally let out the sentence that felt like it would crumble and break apart. A confession I was making for the first time in 10 years.
A confession that would make neither the giver nor the receiver happy.
But I felt a sense of liberation, as if my blocked lungs were suddenly filled with air. It was something I had always wanted to tell him.
Deceiving myself, these abandoned words could only be spoken after death had come for me.
And so, my first act of selfishness took the form of a confession.
* * *
Hans had gone on vacation for a week. No one questioned this fact. Except for Ben.
Sitting in the chair that had now become his designated seat, Ben continued his train of thought. His calmly downcast eyes and expressionless face suggested this wasn’t a trivial matter.
Taking a vacation wasn’t particularly strange.
But the timing of this vacation made things different. Especially if it came after someone had infiltrated Peace.
That day, Ben had met the intruder. And he had also discovered their identity.
“It wasn’t Hans…”
He clearly knew it in his head. The face that the intruder had shown belonged to that executive from ‘Alice’ that he knew.
Kay, was it? Brown hair and eyes so light brown they appeared golden. A sturdy build befitting an adult man. Everything matched the Kay he knew.
“It definitely wasn’t Hans, but…”
His eyes, filled with confusion, stared into empty space. Over the empty spot where Hans should have been, faint memories of the past overlapped.
In this place, Hans had endured his ability. Hans, a regular employee, had endured an ability that no one else had ever withstood.
From this, Ben knew that Hans wasn’t an ordinary employee. And he became interested in him.
He wanted to observe the life of someone who could withstand his ability. That’s why Ben approached Hans.
It was pure interest. Peace would criticize such behavior from Ben, but he didn’t want to let go of the person who had entered his life, which otherwise rolled on like clockwork.
So he observed Hans without reporting to Peace. He knew that if he alerted the higher-ups about Hans’s existence, Hans would disappear without a trace.
He didn’t want his source of enjoyment to vanish. But what had clearly started as a casual feeling gradually grew in intensity.
It was strange. He thought it would end with mere interest. This was all because Hans treated him as a human being, not just as an S-class ability user.
He neither praised him excessively like others did, nor did he try to forcibly belittle him. Was that why being with Hans made him feel at ease and smile naturally?
It was a pleasure he had never felt before in his life. Not something that approached like a storm, but a pleasure like a gentle spring breeze.
Was that why? Ben wanted to get closer to him. When he was with Hans, he felt like an ordinary person. How could he distance himself from Hans, who seemed to tell him that he too was human?
It was an unfamiliar sensation to have someone acknowledge him even without superpowers.
It was then that Ben thought for the first time that they were wrong. They had told him this:
That without abilities, he was worthless.
That superpowers were his value, and the only way he could live.
It was a ray of light discovered in darkness. To survive, he had to become a superhuman. To be acknowledged by someone, he had to become a superhuman stronger than anyone else.
That determination became the driving force for him to manifest his superpower. But was that light back then really light? Or had he mistaken an abyss appearing in resignation for light? It was a question he had never considered until now.
Their words were law and the reason for living. How could they be wrong?
Yet despite thinking this, Ben still hadn’t reported what happened that day.
He looked away and stared at his phone. Above the countless missed calls, another call rang in.
It was a number he had vowed not to answer until he shook off the confusion consuming him.
Ben, who had been staring blankly at the vibrating phone, moved his finger. With a hand full of hesitation, he swiped the screen and answered the call.
He still couldn’t shake off the confusion and anxiety. But he had decided what to say.
“Not reporting and not answering calls—do you think I’m a joke now?”
The other person’s voice reached Ben’s ears. Though the words were clearly meant to be sarcastic, Ben didn’t even blink.
He was the type to calmly brush it off as if it were routine.
“I had something to check first.”
“You just need to shut up and follow orders. Has your training been lacking lately? Why are you so ignorant of your place?”
The voice, mixed with static, slashed at him indiscriminately. Ben silently listened to the verbal abuse without making any excuses. He had expected this. Whenever he didn’t act exactly as they wanted, they always came out with this kind of talk.
Normally, the right choice would be to agree and do what they wanted. But Ben didn’t choose that easy path.
“Enough. So who was the bastard who broke in? You must have seen his face.”
“I didn’t see him.”
“What?”
“He ran away too fast for me to catch him.”
For the first time, Ben lied to Peace, which had been everything in his life. You shouldn’t question Peace’s orders.
Discard your emotions and carry out orders like a machine. That’s what he’d always been told. Those words came to him like brainwashing, and he came to think it was natural.
That hadn’t changed now. Peace was where he belonged. He would continue to carry out their orders.
But the faint crack in the solid glass window wasn’t enough to destroy everything yet. Therefore, it couldn’t erase Ben’s belief that Peace’s orders must be carried out no matter what.
However, he could accept the droplets coming through that crack.
“Is that supposed to be—”
“I’m sorry. I’ll definitely catch him next time.”
That moment was now.
And so, Ben took a step toward the glass window that would eventually shatter.
* * *
“What am I going to do with this…”
Zenon muttered while looking at the coffee in his hand. It was given to him by a member of the organization, and since this happened occasionally, he wasn’t surprised. The problem was that it was sweet.
Thinking Zenon must like sweet things because he looked young, the member had handed him a sweet latte.
Normally, Zenon would have refused, but since it was given by a new member who didn’t know better, he ended up accepting it.
In conclusion, Zenon disliked sweet things. He found the sweetness that spread in his mouth unpleasant.
But perhaps due to his appearance, people who didn’t know him well often brought sweet drinks or snacks. As a result, his drawer was filled with sweet snacks he couldn’t eat.
Drinks were difficult to store, so normally he would give them to Kay. After all, Kay liked sweet things.
But lately, Kay seemed strange no matter how Zenon looked at it. Sometimes he’d be spaced out, other times he’d work tirelessly like someone racing against time.
That appearance seemed so precarious to Zenon, as if Kay might break at any moment, that even Zenon couldn’t casually strike up a conversation with the current Kay.
“Should I give it to someone else…”
Zenon, who had been staring at the coffee, sighed and walked down the hallway. He’d probably run into someone who liked sweet things along the way. If all else failed, he could just throw it away.
That’s when he was thinking this. An appropriate figure entered Zenon’s field of vision. Seeing Fenil in the distance, Zenon exclaimed “Perfect!” and ran to her.
Fenil originally didn’t like sweet things, but at some point, she started eating them frequently. She would probably like this coffee too.
“Fenil! Want to eat this?”
Zenon, who arrived in an instant, held out the coffee to her. But Fenil, who he thought would accept it without hesitation, didn’t raise her hand.
“I don’t like sweet things.”
“Didn’t you start liking them? You’ve been eating them often lately.”
If his memory wasn’t wrong, he remembered seeing her eating cake even a few months ago. She was frowning as if she didn’t like the taste much, but still.
At Zenon’s question, Fenil scratched her cheek. As if she didn’t expect him to remember, she clicked her tongue.
“Hmm… I started disliking them again.”
“That quickly?”
He’d seen people start liking things they used to dislike, but never seen someone start disliking something again.
But if that’s what she said, that’s how it was, so Zenon pouted briefly before withdrawing the coffee. He’d have to give this to another member then.
“Oh, right. Come to think of it, how was your vacation? I forgot to ask.”
Instead, he changed the topic and walked beside Fenil. Being preoccupied with rescuing Alice, he only now got around to asking.
The vacation had ended about a month ago. It was a long six-month vacation, so at first, there were rumors that Fenil had caught a terrible disease.
When she reappeared not just fine but even healthier, the rumors quickly subsided.
“You’re quite interested in me, aren’t you?”
Fenil, with a mischievous smile, patted Zenon’s head as if pressing it down. With a touch rougher than what she gave Kay, Zenon frowned and brushed her hand away.
“Ah, seriously! Stop patting my head!”
“Sorry, I can’t help but pat people who are shorter than me.”
“I’m going to grow taller!”
Zenon glared at her, fuming. But Fenil, unfazed by his anger, only showed a playful smile.
