“……Get away from my little brother. Right now.”
Choi Jaeheon’s rationality, which had held firm even before the terrible demonic energy of the S-rank gate, finally snapped. The heavy air in the hospital room sank under the murderous intent pouring from his entire body. At the same time, Choi Jaeheon kicked off the floor and moved.
However, Vermouth’s reaction—who had pacified the continent of Lancia and boasted fearsome military prowess—was infinitely relaxed. With the plate of apples he’d offered to Ian held lightly in one hand, he avoided Choi Jaeheon’s approach with graceful steps.
“Mr. Choi Jaeheon. No matter how angry you are, this is still a hospital room. Ian-nim needs to rest, so please withdraw your killing intent.”
“Don’t you dare speak my name with that mouth.”
Choi Jaeheon growled low as he tried to grab Vermouth by the collar, but Vermouth retreated lightly as a feather once again, defending Ian’s bedside like an iron fortress.
“In my heart, I made a hundred-year promise with Ian-nim long ago. According to Lancia’s customs, we are already soulmates.”
Ian had no idea when Vermouth had learned the term ‘hundred-year promise.’ Ian watched the two with dazed eyes.
“Stop your nonsense. Without my permission, absolutely not. You’re just a dangerous outsider.”
Choi Jaeheon’s cold fury and Vermouth’s arrogant composure clashed tensely in the air. Watching this suffocating battle of wills, Ian pressed his throbbing temples.
Just then, the hospital room door opened like a savior.
“Bwahahaha! Hey, Choi Jaeheon! Did you see the real-time search rankings? ‘Choi Jaeheon’s nape’ is number 4, crazy!”
Hong Seoyoon, who had opened the door and entered, was laughing breathlessly while looking at his smartphone screen. Clutching his stomach as he laughed, he looked ready to shed tears. Though Choi Jaeheon glared at Hong Seoyoon with murderous eyes, Hong Seoyoon paid no attention and sneered at Vermouth.
“Hey, Vermouth. I knew it from when you were going on about your ‘beloved’ on the news. But our Ian’s standards are way too low. Getting involved with a bastard like that. Isn’t this a national loss?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“None of my concern? He’s my friend’s little brother! Hey, Choi Jaeheon. If this guy starts making a fuss about booking a wedding venue, tell me. I’ll turn that venue into a sea of flames.”
Hong Seoyoon stood beside Choi Jaeheon with a nasty smile. Though he spoke with a laugh, his eyes looking at Vermouth were filled with clear hostility. And the man who followed him in wasn’t in much better shape. He was just too exhausted to react as strongly as Hong Seoyoon.
“…Everyone, please be quiet. I really feel like I’m going to die from overwork.”
It was Yoon Taegyeom. Dark circles that had begun under his eyes were flowing all the way down to his cheeks.
“What’s wrong?”
At Ian’s question, Yoon Taegyeom glared at Vermouth with bloodshot eyes.
“Remember when he made that public love confession on the news before? Back then no one knew who it was about so it seemed to quiet down, but at this S-rank gate scene you openly embraced him, so the people who witnessed it started digging up the past.”
Yoon Taegyeom continued with a sigh.
“The netizens all caught on, so now both Stigma headquarters and the Management Bureau’s phone lines are simultaneously on fire. Foreign reporters, people from other guilds, even the Blue House is calling. We already did all that media play saying you were just business partners before, so how are we supposed to clean up this situation now!”
His low voice gradually rose to become a bloodcurdling cry. Hearing this, Hong Seoyoon chimed in with a laugh.
“What’s there to clean up? Just have Stigma officially deny it saying ‘Our healer-nim has nothing to do with that blond punk.'”
“I was already planning to do that.”
Choi Jaeheon drew a firm line, but Vermouth tilted his head leisurely.
“Unfortunately, the public has already sensed the truth. Is there any need to hide it? Taking this opportunity to officially establish that I am Ian-nim’s partner would be…”
“Safety-wise, you’re the most dangerous.”
Choi Jaeheon and Hong Seoyoon glared at Vermouth simultaneously. With the noise and pressure the four men were emitting, Ian literally felt his energy being drained.
‘…I really want to rest.’
Ian bit his lips tightly at this maddening farce that had started the moment he opened his eyes. To escape this exhausting situation, he carefully pushed back the blanket. The moment Ian, who had been trying to sneak off to the bathroom, stepped his bare feet on the cold hospital room floor—
“Huh…?”
Ian’s legs buckled like a deflated balloon.
“Aah!”
The instant Ian let out a short scream and squeezed his eyes shut, the four men threw their bodies forward simultaneously with beast-like reflexes. The first thing that reached him were Vermouth’s solid arms. Choi Jaeheon quickly supported Ian’s shoulders, Yoon Taegyeom grabbed the IV stand, and Hong Seoyoon took his hand.
“Ian, are you okay? That’s why you shouldn’t suddenly get up. The doctor said absolute rest.”
Choi Jaeheon, who had turned pale with none of his cold demeanor from moments ago, examined Ian. Vermouth simply lifted Ian up and laid him back on the bed.
Ian pulled out a weapon to end this situation. Namely, ‘frailty.’
“Ah, my head hurts. It’s so noisy my head is spinning…”
At those words, the hospital room was instantly enveloped in silence. With only his eyes peeking out from under the blanket, Ian opened his mouth heavily. Since it had come to this, let’s push through with what he’d wanted to do for a while.
“I want to get away from the bustle and rest for a bit.”
“Where? If there’s somewhere you want to go, I’ll look into it for you.”
Choi Jaeheon said this while trying to hold Ian’s hand, but Ian quietly pulled his hand back.
“I want to be alone, somewhere with no one around. For five years in Lancia, I wasn’t alone for a single moment. I thought it would be different when I came to Earth, but from when the gate opened until now lying in this hospital bed, I keep feeling like I’m being watched.”
Ian’s voice was low, but deep fatigue was embedded in it.
“I really need time alone with no one following me. Not Hyung, not Vermouth, not anyone else. I just want to exist as myself for a bit. If you don’t listen to me this time either and secretly follow me… I really won’t look at your faces until I die.”
It wasn’t a simple tantrum. It was the desperate plea of a young man who had shouldered the lives of tens of thousands under the name of Saint. At the extreme threat, Choi Jaeheon’s shoulders trembled, and Vermouth bit his lips.
Ian rode this momentum to solemnly declare:
“Hyung. Make an official announcement in Stigma’s name. Healer Choi Ian used all his strength at this gate and is currently in a critical condition requiring ‘absolute rest.’ All outside visitors refused. So no questions about dating rumors or anything else for the time being. Release it like that.”
“Okay. I’ll contact the guild’s PR team right away and release that article, so calm down, Ian.”
In the end, unable to break Ian’s desperate stubbornness, they spent several days searching before renting out an entire private pension complex deep in the Gangwon-do mountains. While pretending to respect Ian’s wishes on the surface and let him have a ‘solo vacation.’
The dawn air in Gangwon-do was cold but refreshing. Ian stood in the pension yard and took a deep breath. It was real forest air, not Seoul mixed with exhaust fumes or a battlefield mixed with demonic energy.
“Ah, this is really nice.”
Ian stretched and looked back. The main building of the pension was a space solely for Ian.
‘…Hyung and Vermouth really didn’t come, right?’
Ian glanced suspiciously at the adjacent ‘Pine Breeze Building’ and the distant ‘Moonlight Building.’ Choi Jaeheon had definitely said, reluctantly, that he would stay in Seoul, and Vermouth had also sworn not to cast even his shadow.
But Ian didn’t know. The fact that this entire pension complex had been rented long-term by Stigma Guild. And the fact that Choi Jaeheon and Vermouth were ‘staking out’ in the adjacent building at the shortest distance from the main building where Ian was staying. Originally they had tried to use different buildings, but because they didn’t trust each other, they ended up in the same place.
Inside Pine Breeze Building, Choi Jaeheon was anxiously holding binoculars between the curtains.
“…Ian came out into the yard. The air is cold, so why is he only wearing a thin cardigan?”
“Please calm down. It’ll be trouble if we’re discovered.”
From a corner of the room, Vermouth replied coldly. Though he wasn’t flashily using binoculars like Choi Jaeheon, he was checking everything down to Ian’s heartbeat with the unique senses of a knight.
Unaware of anything, Ian finally sat down at the living room table and took out an old notebook. And wrote the title.
[ Choi Ian’s Honey-Sucking Bucket List ]
– Try eating every type of cup ramen sold at convenience stores.
– Lie around all day with no purpose whatsoever.
– Go to a manga cafe, order jjajangmyeon, and stay up all night.
– Go to a shopping mall, pick out and buy clothes myself, and walk around.
– Get together with the hyungs and have a strong drink together.
Ian giggled as he wrote down each item. Others might ask if this was all he wanted, but for a Saint who had lived on the front lines of battle, there was no greater luxury than this.
