Heegang’s smile and warmth kept trying to come to mind. How could he not even say goodbye?
If this was a game, if he had to face this kind of ending with Taerim or Siyeon too, Wonyoung didn’t want it anymore.
……He wanted to go home.
“Hahahaha, look at this bastard crying! What a pathetic bastard! Are you scared? Did you piss yourself?”
Wonyoung didn’t care at all what some gangster had to say. He felt like if he opened his mouth, sobs would leak out, so he just bit his lips tightly and let tears drip down endlessly.
Then the man who had been quietly watching Wonyoung gave instructions to his subordinate.
“Hey, take off this bastard’s blindfold.”
Soon his vision brightened a little. Across from him sat a man with a scar on his temple, and gangsters who were his subordinates surrounded him.
When Wonyoung blinked, the teardrops that had formed fell down. At that sight, somehow, an unpleasant gaze seemed to sweep over Wonyoung.
“This bastard is interesting. Wasn’t that guy his lover instead of a friend?”
“What are you saying……?”
“You’re going to die anyway or end up worse than dead…… right?”
Wonyoung panicked. The man’s hand tried to dig into his clothes. Wonyoung, growing desperate, called for Siyeon’s subordinate who must be hiding somewhere.
“Junseok-ssi!”
Wonyoung shouted with all his strength. But there was no word from him. Wonyoung shouted again.
“Jung Junseok-ssi! Come out quickly!”
“Looking for the Guryong Faction lackey? What to do. We already took care of all of them earlier.”
“……What?”
That couldn’t be. How did they know in advance……
“Someone came and told us? That Guryong Faction bastards would be hiding. Who was it……”
The next moment, an unbelievable name came from the man’s mouth.
“Was it Heo Wonyoung?”
“What?”
Wonyoung doubted his own ears. Heo Wonyoung told these men that Siyeon’s subordinates would be waiting here in advance?
Heo Wonyoung……?
Heo Wonyoung is me…….
“What’s going on, wait, don’t touch me!”
Bewildered by the completely unexpected development, Wonyoung struggled in horror when the man tried to undress him. This couldn’t happen. Someone, someone help.
Before his eyes blurred with tears, Heegang’s image appeared and scattered.
And the moment Wonyoung’s knit sweater was half removed.
Creak.
The iron door of the warehouse where Wonyoung was trapped opened with an eerie sound.
And there stood Heegang, whom Wonyoung had been so desperately searching for.
With eyes more emotionless than ever before.
“What, who’s that bastard? How did he get here……!”
“Rae…… Haa. Anyway, keep your eyes closed.”
Wonyoung knew those words were directed at him and hurriedly closed his eyes.
With Heegang were several figures who appeared to be bodyguards. Without anyone’s instruction, they immediately rushed toward the organization members.
Heegang also slowly stepped inside and approached the man who had been across from Wonyoung. While walking, he suddenly picked up a pipe that had rolled to his feet.
“Don’t come closer! Unless you want to see this bastard’s throat slit!”
Wonyoung flinched at the sensation of cold steel touching his neck. Heegang said nothing.
“You, you don’t care if this bastard dies?! You think I won’t stab him?”
“Stab him.”
It was a statement colder than the blade.
“I don’t care.”
Wonyoung’s heart sank, but Heegang’s expression was sincere. As if he truly didn’t care whether Wonyoung lived or died.
“But you’ll die too.”
“……”
“If you let go now, I won’t kill you.”
The man looked back and forth between the trembling Wonyoung and Heegang slowly approaching, then cursed and swung the knife.
However.
Thwack!
Before he could stab Wonyoung, the man was hit in the head from behind and collapsed. It was a stun baton wielded by Heegang’s bodyguard.
Heegang stepped on and crushed the hand holding the knife.
“Urk……! You……”
“When did I say I’d kill you myself?”
Heegang said that with a smile and threw away the pipe. When Heegang nodded, the bodyguard raised the stun baton threateningly.
“Wait, wai……”
Thwack!
A second dull sound and silence. Wonyoung still couldn’t see anything.
“Get rid of him.”
“Yes.”
The bodyguards who had already subdued the other organization members carried away the fallen man and disappeared.
How much time passed like that? The bustling sounds continued for a moment, then silence soon filled the surroundings.
“You can open your eyes now.”
At the familiar yet unfamiliar voice, Wonyoung slowly raised his trembling eyelids. The tears that had formed fell to the floor once more.
“Hello.”
“……You…… Baek Heegang…….”
It was Baek Heegang. It was Baek Heegang. Wonyoung bit down hard on his teeth trying to hold back tears.
“I didn’t kill them. I didn’t think there was any need to leave corpses next to you. So don’t worry.”
“……”
He was still as kind and gentle as before. That’s why Wonyoung was even more scared. He couldn’t understand what was inside him, not this time either.
On top of that, it was currently during Forced Correction. His true feelings wouldn’t be conveyed properly either.
But Wonyoung asked without realizing it.
“Why did you come……?”
“……”
Heegang, who had been silently staring at Wonyoung, smiled.
“I don’t know. So right now, I feel really bad.”
Heegang bent his knees to match Wonyoung’s eye level, then grasped his neck with his large hand.
“What should I do with you?”
“……Hee, Heegang.”
“Don’t call me that.”
The next words that followed shocked Wonyoung.
“You’re not Rae.”
“……”
“Right, Heo Wonyoung?”
How…… how did he know that?
To Wonyoung’s astonished question, Heegang answered.
“There’s nothing I don’t know about you…… about Rae. And yet I kept feeling something off about you. It’s just that you looked like Narae on the outside and it was true that you knew about our past, so I just covered up my suspicions.”
“Bu, but?”
“You ate cinnamon, you see. When you originally hate it.”
“Cinnamon……?”
At the sudden topic, Wonyoung asked back in confusion. Cinnamon? As Wonyoung blankly searched his memory, he finally recalled that the chocolate latte Heegang had ordered for him on the day he bought coffee had cinnamon in it.
That’s why he gave him cinnamon candy before disappearing. To confirm that.
All those strangely odd behaviors that day were also…… because of that. Because he confirmed that he wasn’t Narae.
“You just simply hated it. For no reason. But this time you’re okay with it for no reason. You were strange, again.”
“……”
“Who could Heo Wonyoung be? Who could he be that he must not be shown or caught? While pondering that question deeply, I thought of the cinnamon.”
“……”
“What if you’re not Rae? What if you’re Heo Wonyoung? You didn’t forget the past but didn’t know it, you didn’t forget me but didn’t know me, and you didn’t like me…… but it was some kind of play.”
Wonyoung’s face turned white as a blank sheet. If the game character found out that he was a character…… what would happen?
What kind of shock would Heegang receive? Just the fact that he wasn’t Narae would be shocking enough.
Wonyoung stammered and opened his mouth.
“Rae, Rae is fine. Like you said, I pretended to be Rae. Because our faces look a bit similar……”
“I never asked where Rae is, Heo Wonyoung.”
Wonyoung’s heart crashed to the floor. He thought at some point he wanted to hear his real name from those lips, but everything felt like an illusion.
“I, I didn’t mean to deceive you. I, well, I had to replace Rae.”
“……”
Wonyoung tried to continue making excuses somehow, but unfortunately a choice appeared.
[Do you want to kill me?]
Only one choice. As if that was all you had to say.
And Heegang’s gaze was exactly on that spot.
“……”
Wonyoung looked at Heegang. The choice would automatically be selected after time passed anyway. Since time hadn’t stopped either, Wonyoung ignored the choice and spoke.
“I know your everything is Narae. I also know that I’ve taken that away.”
“……”
“Whether it ends if I die here or goes back to the beginning, I don’t know that either.”
“The beginning?”
Wonyoung didn’t explain any further. He didn’t want to either. Heegang probably already had a vague idea.
“I’m sorry.”
That was the only thing Wonyoung could say.
“I’m sorry, Heegang.”
“……Don’t call me that.”
“Right. Then I’m sorry, Baek Heegang-ssi. This is me. Heo Wonyoung.”
At that moment, someone with a forlorn face overlapped with Narae’s appearance. And the choice was selected.
“Do you want to kill me?”
Then for the first time, wavering passed through Heegang’s eyes. At that moment, the warehouse door opened and someone rushed at him.
“You crazy bastard!”
Thwack, the person who punched Heegang’s face kicked the fallen Heegang once more. Heegang made a “keurk” sound and rolled on the floor.
“Si, Siyeon?”
It was Ki Siyeon. Siyeon twisted his face and shouted at Heegang.
“What the hell are you doing!”
“……”
“Psychopath bastard. This is why I shouldn’t have kept you by hyung’s side.”
“Si, Siyeon. No. This is……”
Wonyoung belatedly opened his mouth to make excuses, but closed it at Siyeon’s cold tone.
“Hyung, shut up.”
“……”
“I feel like I’m going crazy trying to hold back right now, so please just shut up.”
“……”
Siyeon soon untied the bindings on Wonyoung’s wrists and ankles without a word. Then he turned his back to Wonyoung.
“Get on.”
“Siyeon, I can walk……”
“Just get on.”
Wonyoung had no choice but to get on Siyeon’s back. Even until then, Heegang, who had been silently watching the two, suddenly burst into laughter.
“Haha, hahahaha!”
“That crazy bastard. Hyung, don’t mind him. Don’t ever meet him again.”
At Siyeon’s warning, Wonyoung couldn’t say anything. After leaving the warehouse like that, Wonyoung rode in Siyeon’s car and reached the alley in front of his house. Even while getting out of the car and going to his home, still being carried on Siyeon’s back, Wonyoung kept watching for his reaction before speaking.
“……I’m sorry, Siyeon.”
“……”
“Are you very angry?”
“……”
“Should I shut up more?”
“……No.”
Siyeon, who finally answered, added as if sighing.
“I’m sorry, hyung. For saying mean things to you.”
“What’s there to be sorry about for that?”
After a moment of silence, Wonyoung spoke again.
“I have something to tell you.”
“……I heard briefly. That hyung isn’t Narae.”
“……”
“I don’t care. That bastard may have been hyung’s friend, but I’m not someone who knew him from before. It was hyung who saved me, not Narae.”
At those words, Wonyoung couldn’t continue speaking. He couldn’t bring himself to explain that you’re a game character, saving you back then was a mission, and this is all a game.
