This was the first time Jaehee had properly seen the crown.
The crown wasn’t what one would typically imagine. Instead of gold, silver, and jewels, it was woven from tree branches. However, the crown itself possessed an indescribable dignity and aura.
The crown was woven from white and blue branches, with the longest ones nearly a meter long. If Jaehee were to wear this, it would look like the antlers of a stag.
A faint bluish light flowed from the branches. Between the branches, small silver gem-like objects sparkled. These gems weren’t actually attached to the branches but floated in the air, making them look like stars.
Jaehee stared at the crown for a long time. Just by taking it out, a subtle blue light and cool fragrance filled the room where Jeongwoo lay. Could this really be called a crown? Rather than a crown, it felt like a sacred relic. They said it was a crown created directly by the system and the planet, and it certainly was different.
“Whew.”
Jaehee grabbed the crown and slowly raised it over Jeongwoo. His heart pounded. He had already made his decision, but now that he was about to carry it out, it wasn’t easy.
Jaehee applied more and more force to the hand holding the crown. At some point, with a crackling sound, blue flames burst from the crown. But Jaehee didn’t back down and continued to apply force. The sound of the branches breaking felt like screams. He bit his lip hard. Breaking the crown felt eerily like killing something noble and alive. But there was no other way.
“I’m sorry, but I have no choice…!”
When the crown finally snapped in half, Jaehee staggered and fell forward. A huge shockwave burst from the crown and swept the surroundings. No sound came out, but the ground caved in and the air trembled violently. His ears rang dully, unable to hear any sound. Jaehee staggered to his feet.
“Urgh…”
Though he heard nothing through his ears, Jaehee instinctively felt that it was the scream of a planet losing its king. As the crown broke, everything on Earth was writhing. Only now did Jaehee realize what he had done.
The power of life and death over everything on the planet, including the planet itself, was in his hands. Realizing this, his hands trembled.
…But how could he just let Jeongwoo go like this? It was the same as having no other choice.
With trembling hands, Jaehee pushed the broken crown into Jeongwoo’s chest. The crown’s branches slowly disappeared into Jeongwoo’s chest like soft cream.
“Jeongwoo… wake up.”
It felt like he heard thunder. No, it was the wailing of a mother who lost her child. Jaehee quickly wiped away tears that flowed without his knowing. His tears would only be hypocrisy.
Though he had done this without fully understanding the crown’s true meaning, even if he had known, he would have made the same choice.
He couldn’t ignore Jeongwoo, who had gone through such terrible years because of him. The last branch remaining on Jeongwoo’s chest swayed thinly as it looked at Jaehee. It seemed like both an accusation toward Jaehee and a death cry begging to be saved.
Jaehee silently watched until the crown completely disappeared into Jeongwoo’s chest. And the moment it completely disappeared, Jeongwoo’s chest moved greatly up and down.
“J-Jeongwoo! Are you conscious? Jeongwoo!”
“Hnngh!”
Jeongwoo’s chest swelled and deflated repeatedly. Jeongwoo’s mouth opened and rough breaths burst out. Jaehee urgently grabbed Jeongwoo’s trembling body.
Then a system window appeared. It was the first to appear since the selection of the king called the Judgment of the End had finished.
[Emergency Notice! Emergency Notice!
An emergency evacuation order is issued to all residents of planet Earth[email protected]#$%
Residents must @[email protected]$^^&_!+ smdf evac spv b uate [email protected]$%105
[email protected]$ outside the planet[email protected]&*&*(% collapse@@$#%^ danger#*^$# destruction!!$%^ㄴㅇㄹ[email protected]$]
System windows with incomprehensible text kept appearing. The word “emergency” written in bright red letters was ominous.
And at that moment, a whirring sound could be heard from far away. It sounded like a huge beast wailing. Jaehee knew it was the sound of the earth crying. He was hearing it for the first time, but somehow he just knew. The earth began to split with a loud sound. It was an earthquake. A threatening rumbling sound resonated through the air.
Jaehee embraced Jeongwoo. Jeongwoo still hadn’t regained consciousness.
If Jeongwoo couldn’t wake up and Earth ended like this, it would be the worst ending. Caused by his own hands at that.
“Damn it. Blazing Flame! Do something! You said this was all I had to do!”
When Jaehee cried out with a face turned pale, red flames burst up centered on Jeongwoo. The bright red flames instantly covered both the loudly rumbling roar and the shaking earth. Jaehee took a deep breath. He couldn’t understand what kind of situation this was. In Jaehee’s view, bright red flames surged from top to bottom.
“Blazing Flame…! Wh-what is this…? Y-you are helping us, right?”
A chilling thought occurred to him. Could Blazing Flame have deceived him?
Was a Constellation really something no one should trust after all?
Jaehee hugged Jeongwoo tightly. All he had left now was Jeongwoo. Belated regret and lament flowed out, but things had already reached a point of no return. Jaehee slowly lost consciousness like that.
* * *
“Woo Jeongwoo! Is studying going well? Huh? You’re going through puberty quite late and intensely.”
Jaehee poked the back of Woo Jeongwoo walking ahead and giggled.
My goodness, who would have known that Woo Jeongwoo of all people would end up retaking the college entrance exam?
Right now Woo Jeongwoo was walking without looking back, but he knew. He knew Jeongwoo was embarrassed right now.
Look at that. Even now, aren’t his ears red?
“You didn’t even come to school for a month before the college entrance exam, and now have you graduated from puberty? Hey, tell me now. Why did you do that back then?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hey, I’m really curious. Back then, no matter how much I tried to persuade you, you wouldn’t listen, but now you suddenly feel like studying?”
“Ah, I said I don’t know. Stop teasing me.”
Jaehee grinned looking at Jeongwoo pouting his lips and grumbling.
Woo Jeongwoo couldn’t go to university not because his scores were low, but because he didn’t take the exam. In fact, Woo Jeongwoo could get accepted anywhere if he just applied. So even though Jeongwoo’s parents saw their son going through late puberty, they probably didn’t say much about it.
When Woo Jeongwoo held out and didn’t take the exam, they said that various experiences were important when you’re young and told him to do what he wanted. They’re really amazing people.
“Jaehee, how are you these days?”
“What do you mean?”
“Living at home. Is it okay?”
Jaehee smiled awkwardly at Jeongwoo’s question. Well, it wasn’t only Jeongwoo who went through puberty intensely. He himself went through a tumultuous period that was just as bad.
He had wandered for a while, unable to adapt to his father’s remarriage. Things were awkward with his stepmother, and he didn’t know how to treat his suddenly appearing half-sibling young enough to be his niece or nephew.
“If it’s hard for you to live at home, want to live alone with me?”
“Live alone? Your parents said you could live alone?”
Jeongwoo shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
“Not exactly, but now that I’m an adult too, I thought about living alone and looked for a place. Isn’t it kind of far for you to commute to school from home too? How about we live together while we’re at it?”
“Hey, your parents didn’t even give permission for you to live alone, so what are you going to do? Doesn’t living alone cost a lot of money?”
“Uh, actually I secretly invested in stocks and crypto, and they hit it big this time.”
“…Huh? What? You did what how?”
“Stocks and crypto.”
“H-how big of a hit are we talking?”
Jeongwoo looked at Jaehee and lightly shrugged his shoulders.
“I just bought them without much expectation, but they all went up big this time. While I’m at it, I thought I’d liquidate the crypto and stocks and invest in real estate. Well, I have enough money to buy one or two apartments in Seoul. Even if my parents object, it’s my money. So what do you think? Feel like living together now?”
“Hey, what is all this talk…?”
“Hey, Shin Jaehee. You really have no sense and no style. Why did I fall for a guy like this?”
“W-Woo Jeongwoo! You retaking bastard! You suddenly asked to meet and now what is all this out-of-the-blue talk? What crypto, what house? A-and you fell for me…!”
Woo Jeongwoo, who had been looking ahead, spun around to look at Jaehee and grinned. For a moment, Jaehee’s face reddened without realizing it.
“You confessed. To me. That you liked me. No, that you loved me. Was all that a lie? Were you playing with me? You’re a bad man, Shin Jaehee.”
“Hey! You…! You, Woo Jeongwoo, you really!”
When Shin Jaehee couldn’t say anything else and shouted with a flushed face, Woo Jeongwoo laughed again.
“Let’s get married. I’ve prepared a house for us to live in together, so all that’s left is to get married.”
