Bang, ba-boom…! It was so surreal. Unable to believe it, Woonghee opened his mouth wide.
What the hell is all that…?
Ba-boom, a rice cooker exploded. Like dominoes falling, explosions continued in succession. Bang, bang, bang, bang bang!
“…….”
It was like fireworks. As he stared at it blankly, that moment floated up. The moment when that man, Gi Junhyuk, had first become deeply embedded in his life.
‘An Omega? You’d better be more careful. Anything can happen here.’
He thought, you’re really such a stubborn son of a bitch like a stake. No matter how much he tried to pull it out, to extract it, it was rooted inside him like a spine.
If you disappear, what about me? What happens to me? Why are you so suddenly trying to disappear from me without even asking for my permission!
I have nothing, if I lose even you like this, I, what happens to me?
No.
No, who said you could…!
Woonghee immediately launched his body. He stepped on the wind and straightened his knees into a ㄱ-shape. He slammed his hard kneecap straight into Tula’s skull.
“Gweok…!”
The swaying bastard’s body, he trampled mercilessly several times more with his bare feet. Thud, thud, thud! When the guy turned the pistol toward him, Woonghee kicked even that pistol away.
Finally, thud, he crushed his nose with his heel.
“Uuk…!”
Tula unconsciously clutched his nose. As both hands released the rope completely, his body quickly began to be sucked toward the seawater.
Got you, you son of a bitch! After confirming that, he also jumped down to the floor.
Splash, plunge…!
The seawater was cold as ice. Every time he breathed, a chill flowed as if his heart would freeze. A damp salty smell rose up his throat. I have to go, I have to go! Woonghee moved forward, cutting through the rushing water.
“Ha, heu, heu, heok….”
Cutting through the icy sea, he headed toward where the man was. Mustering every last bit of strength, he climbed up onto the cruise ship. Water dripped down, grabbing at his ankles. Every time the sea breeze blew, it felt like his breath was being cut off.
Still, he couldn’t stop. He had to climb up again, again.
Bang, ba-boom…!
He finally climbed up to the deck. The place was already a complete mess. People who hadn’t been able to evacuate were screaming like mad in this pandemonium, pushing each other away. Footsteps and cries mixed together in a chaotic free-for-all.
Everyone was rushing toward the exit.
‘Ha, haa, heuk…!’
But in that chaos, there was one person going in the opposite direction. It was Woonghee. He was running backwards, into the flames and smoke. It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid, nor did he have anything to rely on.
‘Please….’
He just, just had something to find.
He had something to say to you, even if his head cracked open and he died, even if he had to grab onto you as you died with your brain matter dripping out, he had something he needed to tell you.
Heuk, heok! Woonghee led his body, heavy as a thousand pounds and drooping, running to the dining room. At the end of the corridor, he found and grabbed the small door leading downward. He lifted it with trembling hands.
Please, please, please, please, be alive.
Muttering like that, he ran down the stairs as if tumbling down.
His heart was pounding like it would burst and his breath was choking. The basement was very dark, as if light had disappeared. As if something had been smashed somewhere, whenever the ship rumbled, ceiling fragments fell down in a shower.
It might already be too late. All that might remain could be just one arm dripping blood like a pig’s trotter. Still, still, Woonghee didn’t give up.
No, he couldn’t give up. He had to find him, if there was one last chance, he really wanted to see his face just one more time. And he had to tell him.
“Gi, Gi Jun…hyuk!”
Where are you, where the hell are you, his voice was horribly cracked. The smell of blood and water, the smell of oil, the smell of burning metal mixed together like dog food, stabbing his nose.
“Gi Junhyuk!”
His voice echoed off the steel walls. There was no answer. His head screamed that there was no way he could be safe when a bomb had exploded right next to him, but his heart wouldn’t listen.
You’re a smart person, aren’t you, you’re a terrible man who couldn’t bear to see me stuck with another person even if it killed you? You should have chased after me when I left with Tula, instead of giving up like that, that’s like you!
If, even one in a million, if you had even the slightest will to live, where would you have thrown your body?
Woonghee turned his head sharply left and right. Where, where the hell…! Then something caught Woonghee’s eye. In one corner, huge water tanks stood in a row. One of them had burst and was gushing water.
The roughly bursting current of water hit his ankles. Woonghee approached it as if possessed. Right, to hide that man’s large body, wouldn’t it have had to be that big? Wouldn’t it have had to be that large and thick?
Co-could it be, could it be there?
It was the only thread of hope encountered in the darkness. No matter how dim and thin it was, Woonghee had to grasp that hope.
“Gi Junhyuk, Gi Junhyuk, Gi Junhyuk…!”
Even though his throat felt like it was burning up like charcoal soot, Woonghee wailed as he tore through the collapsing steel frame gaps. He threw his body toward that one possibility.
It was a person’s arm. A long, thick wet arm. The arm, familiar as if drawn in his eyes, was hanging limply, caught on a steel pipe.
“Gi Junhyuk!”
A tearing sound of “hyeok” echoed wetly off the walls. Woonghee ran through the water. His fingertips slipped, water was rising to his knees, but he couldn’t stop.
When he pushed his body through the gap in the tank, a huge body was revealed in the darkness.
It was Gi Junhyuk. His upper body half-submerged in water, his head caught on machinery. His face was wet with blood and water, his features blurred.
Woonghee grabbed his shoulder, then almost let go for a moment. He was too cold. Because it wasn’t the Gi Junhyuk he knew, because it wasn’t his body temperature, his heart sank.
“Gi Junhyuk, Gi Junhyuk…!!”
He shook his body. He tried putting his ear to his chest, tried pushing his finger under his nose, but he couldn’t tell. Thump thump, the cruise ship was rumbling softly as it collapsed, and the sea breeze was blowing in through the holes.
He wanted to confirm he was alive, but he couldn’t. His heart became frantically anxious. It felt like his tongue was being clipped close, close by nail clippers.
Right, for now, for now, let’s drag him out of here, we have to get out of here.
He gritted his teeth like that. Inside the tilting cruise ship, he grabbed his shoulder and dragged him out. His feet scraped on the floor, and occasionally his legs would lose strength and he’d stagger and fall to the ground, but still, he had retrieved Gi Junhyuk.
I, I can save him, I can save him. Every time he felt the arm dropping from his shoulder with a thud, Woonghee felt like tears would burst out.
“Please, please live, please….”
Having moved him almost by dragging, Woonghee barely managed to lay him down at the dock. The man’s soaked body drooped like a corpse. His eyes were still tightly shut as his head fell. The moment his nape hung powerlessly, Woonghee inhaled as if swallowing a scream. His hands moved on their own. With crossed arms, he pressed down on his thick ribcage.
Please, please, please. Putting all his prayers into it, he hoped his heart would beat again. The prayer leaked out not from his mouth but from Woonghee’s entire body.
And then it was.
The limp nape gurgled. Only after water burst out with a gulp, gulp from his open mouth did Woonghee collapse onto Gi Junhyuk’s body, almost exhausted. Gulp, gulp, water mixed with breath flowed down his nape.
Only then did all the tension in his body collapse at once. Woonghee collapsed with a thud onto Gi Junhyuk’s body. Almost exhausted, like someone whose breath had all left them.
“Who’s the baby here?”
Before he knew it, Woonghee’s face was completely stained with tears. He struck his chest with his fist, thud thud.
“Why, why me of all people……!”
Thick teardrops fell, drip drip, onto his chest.
“You go back, fuck! Go back to how you were…!”
Uh, heuk, from his throat vomiting out tears like an outcry, the taste of blood flowed. Fresh red blood drops spread on his lips, drip drip.
“You have a home and a car, and so much fucking wealth! You have parents!”
Who’s the baby here? Are you still that baby who lost its bird…!
“Why the hell do you have that expression like you’ve lost everything, I really can’t fucking understand!!”
Do you even know what state of mind I was in when I first boarded your cruise ship? Even if you don’t know how the world works, there’s a limit—do you even know what it’s like to give up everything you have?
Tears flowed down pitter-patter. His throat felt like it had shattered into pieces and glass ampoules were overflowing.
“Is it enough for you to just whine like this? I can’t even speak honestly.”
He couldn’t cry comfortably, had never properly lamented his situation, it had always been a life of swallowing it down, suppressing it, busy enduring.
“I’m the one losing everything.”
This suffocating feeling. Woonghee too wanted to someday let out the frustration trapped inside him until his throat burst. He wanted to shout out loud, but he couldn’t. He always hadn’t been greedy for more than what he had. He really didn’t know it would end up like this, vomiting blood.
“I don’t have much to begin with…!”
Blood burst out. His throat now felt like it was melting rather than burning.
“I’m the one losing even you now!”
Even if poison spread through his entire body, his head broke down, his eyes were plucked out, and he went deaf forever, he felt like he couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“How many times do I have to say it before you understand.”
Woonghee’s lips trembled.
“I love you, I said I love you, you fucking son of a bitch!”
