‘Should I just take him away like this?’
It wouldn’t be bad to steal before being stolen from. If he locked him up while making excuses again, this naive prey who thinks he’s smart would enter the cage on his own feet and more.
How nice would that be? Heo Wonyoung who only eats what he gives, only wears what he dresses him in, only listens to what he says.
‘I found you first this time too. So.’
Shouldn’t you at least do that much?
What stopped his dangerous thoughts was Wonyoung’s innocent laughter. He laughed out loud and said.
“I can’t breathe, Baek Heegang. At this rate you’ll break my bones.”
“…….”
“Baek Heegang? Baek Heegang-ssi? Heegang?”
“Really annoying.”
Wonyoung, who didn’t catch Heegang’s quietly muttered words, asked back.
“Huh? What did you say?”
“…….”
When Heegang didn’t answer at all, Wonyoung’s face quickly filled with worry.
“Why? Are you angry again? About what? Ah, I got it, I got it. Break my bones. Is that okay?”
“……Are you joking?”
“No, why…….”
Heegang bit Wonyoung’s cheek hard in a fit of anger as he made an expression of really not knowing.
“Ow!”
Wonyoung, whose cheek was bitten in an instant, shouted in bewilderment.
“Are you crazy?!”
Heegang, who was looking proudly at the cheek swelling up red, shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s punishment.”
“What punishment!”
“Do I have to tell you even that? Think about it yourself.”
Wonyoung glared at Heegang while stroking his swollen cheek.
But Baek Heegang was Baek Heegang. He went even further.
“And you seem to be mistaken about something.”
“About what……?”
“Just because I still like you doesn’t guarantee others will too.”
“What?”
At Heegang’s bombshell statement, Wonyoung’s expression went blank.
“You know, right? I’m a bit crazy. Enough to make one person my everything. But will Ki Siyeon and Kyung Taerim be the same?”
“…….”
“Especially Kyung Taerim—you fought with him then. Even when his favorability was high, he did that, so now he might not want to see you.”
Heegang’s words weren’t wrong. Maybe Heegang was the unusual one. Like last time, Taerim and Siyeon might suffer again because of him.
‘How stupid.’
Seeing Wonyoung deflate in an instant, Heegang clicked his tongue. It wouldn’t be enough even if he got angry asking why he’d say such things, but he thought he must be severely affection-deprived.
But there was no reason not to use that either. If it meant getting Heo Wonyoung.
“So just stay by my side. My side is safest.”
“…….”
However, Wonyoung shook his head while completely dejected.
“Still, I have to meet them…… I need to explain properly to Taerim-ssi, and Siyeon too…… I’m worried. I won’t run away anymore.”
Unexpectedly, it was Heegang who didn’t react much. Because he knew this was the kind of person Heo Wonyoung was. In one way, Heegang found himself accepting it calmly a bit amusing too.
But what could he do? He liked this Heo Wonyoung.
Heegang embraced his beloved world once more.
“Come back to me whenever you want to run away.”
“……Heegang.”
“Even if you don’t come, I’ll go to you anyway.”
After a moment of silence, Wonyoung smiled slightly and answered ‘Yeah.’
* * *
―Just because I still like you doesn’t guarantee others will too.
Though he’d resolved not to run away, he couldn’t help those words continuing to circle in his mind. What if Siyeon pushes me away, what if Taerim hates me?
‘Anyway, if I choose one person for the ending, I might grow distant from the remaining two.’
He knew trying to hold onto all three was greed. But he couldn’t run away even from that greed. Every time he ran away, didn’t bad results come back in the end?
Even if they ended up parting, this time he would say goodbye properly. Not by the game’s will, but by his own will.
On the way back after stopping by the cafe to greet the boss, Wonyoung slowly organized his thoughts that way.
But when he was getting close to his house, the sound of ‘tap, tap’ reached Wonyoung’s ears.
When he raised his head, he saw a shadow leaning against the door kicking at the ground with their toes. As soon as Wonyoung saw that shadow, he ran toward them.
“Siyeon!”
“Wonyoung hyung!”
Siyeon, who had been standing with a slightly downcast face, brightened up when he saw Wonyoung. While feeling relieved by that, Wonyoung hurriedly grabbed his hands.
“Why are your hands so cold? How long were you waiting?”
“I came during the day and you weren’t here. So…….”
“You kept waiting until I came?”
Siyeon nodded. Wonyoung scolded him while vigorously rubbing his hands.
“You should have contacted me! Why wait like a fool?”
“I don’t know. What if you didn’t answer the contact…… What if you didn’t come back…….”
As Siyeon continued speaking, his gaze gradually lowered toward the ground.
“Then, I…….”
Just then, Wonyoung’s face suddenly entered Siyeon’s view. Wonyoung, who had grabbed both of Siyeon’s cheeks and lifted his head, said.
“Siyeon, I’m here.”
“……Hyung.”
“I came back safely thanks to you. Can you see?”
Wonyoung was fully contained within Siyeon’s pupils. Wonyoung conveyed in a clear voice.
“I won’t disappear now. I won’t vanish in that way.”
“But that’s not something you can control. Don’t make such promises. If you offer something more than memories again, then I’ll really…….”
Wonyoung cut off Siyeon’s words and said firmly.
“I won’t do that, I promise.”
“……Really?”
“Yeah.”
Only then did Siyeon let out a sigh and pull Wonyoung into an embrace. Yet still seeming anxious, he asked again.
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“For real?”
“I said so.”
“……Then that’s fine.”
Even as Siyeon answered that way, he burrowed into Wonyoung’s arms. Though Wonyoung was taller than Narae, he still fell far short of Siyeon. And to be held in such Wonyoung’s arms, Siyeon had to scrunch up his body with all his might this time too.
Still, it didn’t matter. As long as he had this warmth.
But there was no guarantee he could do so forever. He’d been thinking constantly. For you who even offered up memories for my sake, what can I do?
Though I’m far lacking. Though I don’t suit a pure you.
‘I want to stand beside you at least.’
While waiting for Wonyoung all day today, there was something he’d resolved to do if Wonyoung appeared.
Though it might worry Wonyoung again…….
“Hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“……Never mind. I’ll tell you later.”
“?”
Wonyoung, who had question marks on his face, pinched Siyeon’s waist with a just-in-case thought.
“Ow! Why, hyung?”
“You’re not thinking something weird, are you?”
“Something weird? Like what?”
“Like…….”
“Like doing hyung……?”
Wonyoung, who had been quietly lost in thought, pinched Siyeon’s waist once more after hearing his whisper.
“Ow, it hurts!”
Though Siyeon whined that it hurt, Wonyoung’s face had turned red like a tomato.
“Sh-sha-shameless! Who taught you such things!”
“I’m smart, so if you teach me one thing I know ten. Surely you also wanna…….”
“No! This game is all-ages!”
“Ehhh? Lies! Then I can’t do this and that with hyung either?”
“No!”
At those words, Siyeon made a shocked face.
“I’m an adult, you’re an adult, how can we just hold hands and play……? Pat-a-cake?”
“Do you know how hard I worked to maintain all-ages? If you don’t appreciate that effort, don’t talk.”
“Is there a way now at least…… Ah! Stop hitting me, I get it!”
Siyeon, who got beaten terribly by Wonyoung, made a surrender declaration. Seeing Siyeon pouting with both hands up, Wonyoung suddenly chuckled.
“Is it funny? After pummeling this pretty face.”
“I didn’t touch your face though.”
“Then after pummeling this pretty body.”
“…….”
Even Wonyoung had nothing proper to say back to that. Still not wanting to lose, he was about to open his mouth when choices appeared.
[Okay, I’ll blow on it for you~!]
[Aw, Siyeon, your body is solid though //>-/]
‘Ah…….’
Why is this appearing? It’s been quiet lately, hasn’t it?
He felt like he’d die of shame even with Narae’s face, but now he had to say such things with his own face, his own voice?
‘No! I can’t! System!’
Then, a ‘pop’ sound came. It was the sound that came when the System appeared. But the System wasn’t visible. And from far away, the System’s voice was heard.
“Why― are you doing this― Player-nim―?”
Only then did Wonyoung spot the System far away and frowned. Why is it so far away?
“System-ssi! Come here!”
“I don’t want to―! You’re trying to use me to break choices again!”
“…….”
“I appeared before the conquest characters this time and helped you, Player-nim, right? Right? With that, the debt is all paid!”
Then the System went pop again and disappeared.
Wonyoung looked at that sight in disbelief and ended up wasting the entire minute.
How could he measure exactly one minute when he didn’t even have a stopwatch?
“Okay, I’ll blow on it for you~!”
At the “blow~” sound that came out without him knowing, Wonyoung hit his own mouth.
“Hyung?”
At Wonyoung’s sudden unexpected action, Siyeon made a puzzled face. Wonyoung said with a completely red face.
“……What I just said wasn’t sincere. It’s like something Narae would say.”
Siyeon, who roughly understood it as the game’s tricks, his expression instantly turned mischievous.
“I already heard it though? Can you take it back?”
“……I can.”
“You can’t though? Blow on it. Please?”
“Hey…….”
“Siyeon hurts here, and here, and also here.”
Ha, there was probably only one Ki Siyeon in the world for whom it wasn’t awkward even for a full-grown man to refer to himself in third person.
Noticing Wonyoung’s agitation, Siyeon made a cupped hand under his face and smiled.
“Hyung, you gave me the illness, so you have to give me the medicine too.”
Ugh, if not for that face, really!
Wonyoung ruffled his hair roughly, then eventually muttered in a voice as small as an ant.
“Blow.”
