‘Is he a god or something?’
He didn’t know what was going on, but the fact that Seoho knew about the red thread put his mind at ease.
If he knew about the red thread, it would be easier for him to accept the concept of fate, and he might open his heart to him a little more easily.
“Really? So your world has the red thread too.”
“Your world…. As I thought, this is a completely different place from where I lived, right?”
“That’s right.”
Rosetta keenly checked Seoho’s face. He needed to figure out what kind of mood he was in right now.
“I can’t go back, can I?”
As he asked the question, Seoho turned to look in the direction of the mirror, and a dark expression briefly crossed his face. However, despite that, he didn’t seem as desperate and sad as one might expect.
‘No, I can’t be sure. He might be sad inside, just like that time.’
Rosetta examined his face and answered a bit late.
“…Yes.”
At Rosetta’s answer, Seoho muttered quietly.
“What a truly skilled shaman.”
Though it was a very quiet voice, Rosetta’s hearing was incomparably better than ordinary people’s, so he caught Seoho’s words.
‘Shaman?’
Not understanding what that meant, Rosetta grew a bit anxious. While his reaction was milder than expected, he was still unsettled by the dark expression he’d glimpsed.
Rosetta put a bit more strength into the hand holding Seoho and called to him.
“Seoho.”
“Yes?”
Before Seoho could ask, Rosetta spoke the words he thought he would say first.
“By any chance, do you want to go back?”
Seoho blinked and answered.
“You said I can’t go.”
Of course he had. Rosetta had never heard of anyone who came to this place through the mirror returning to their world.
But you never knew. Angel had said that because the mirror was a very old object, little was known about it. So there might be a way to return. Rosetta grasped Seoho’s hand and spoke earnestly.
“But if you want to go back….”
Seoho, whose hand was being held by Rosetta, looked at Rosetta and asked in surprise.
“Why, why are you crying?”
Rosetta shook his head and answered.
“I haven’t cried yet.”
In fact, Rosetta hadn’t cried yet. Tears had just pooled a little in his eyes. Seoho smiled faintly as if bewildered and pointed at Rosetta’s eyes.
“You’re about to cry though.”
Rosetta put strength into his eyes.
“I won’t cry.”
Seoho let out a laugh and wiped away the tears pooled at the corners of his eyes with his hand that wasn’t caught by Rosetta, asking.
“What’s wrong?”
Rosetta rubbed his face against Seoho’s hand that was wiping his eyes and said.
“Even if there is a way to go back, I hope you won’t return. Or you could take me with you when you go back.”
Seoho’s eyes widened as he looked at Rosetta.
“What?”
Rosetta said once more.
“I want you to be with me.”
If Seoho didn’t want to stay here, Rosetta could just go to his side. Rosetta didn’t want to lose this ecstatic feeling.
“If we find a way to go back, I want to go with you.”
He knew it was burdensome for someone he’d only met for a few hours to cling to him saying he wanted to be together. So Rosetta decided to use Seoho’s kind personality and his own appearance.
Rosetta didn’t think much of his own face, but thanks to all the fuss people made around him, he knew that objectively speaking, his face was very beautiful.
Rosetta made the expression he used to make whenever he asked his mother Shinshi for something, and asked Seoho.
“Is that okay?”
Seoho’s cheeks flushed red as he rolled his eyes around in confusion and answered.
“Um…, I mean, Rosetta, you have family here, a home, and all that, right?”
Rosetta answered.
“My mother passed away, I’m not on intimate terms with my father, and I’m distant with my siblings.”
At Rosetta’s answer, Seoho blinked blankly and spoke hesitantly.
“Still, you have other connections….”
Rosetta answered quickly, worried that Seoho might say he’d leave without him.
“I’ve never had friends, and I’ve never had a lover.”
Rosetta continued speaking as if pleading with Seoho.
“I have no one. So I want to follow you.”
His heart ached with worry that he might say he had no intention of taking him along. The tears that had been welling up as he spoke finally overflowed from his eyes and streamed down.
Then Seoho, who had been listening to Rosetta’s story in a daze, smiled bitterly and said.
“You ended up crying after all.”
Rosetta answered with small gasps.
“I’m sorry.”
“There’s no need to be sorry. Well, we do have some things in common.”
“Things in common?”
Rosetta seized upon Seoho’s offhand comment. Then Seoho hesitated for a moment before slowly opening his mouth.
“My parents passed away too, and I had some friends but we’ve grown distant lately. I’ve never had a lover either.”
The tears that had been streaming down no matter how hard he tried to hold them back stopped abruptly.
Rosetta tried not to let his lips curl up. No parents, not many friends. No lover either.
In other words, Seoho didn’t have any of the relationships people generally consider important. That meant Seoho had no reason he absolutely had to return to that world.
Moreover….
‘He has no lover.’
Seoho had never had a lover, just like Rosetta.
No one had ever possessed Seoho, and no one had ever entered Seoho’s heart. His heart pounded and his body heated up.
He took a deep breath to calm his excitement, and somehow interpreting that, Seoho, who had been wiping away his tears, gently soothed Rosetta and asked.
“But you’re so handsome, why have you never had a lover?”
Rosetta hid his greedily rising desire and answered innocently.
“I wasn’t interested.”
There were so many things he wanted to add after that, but Rosetta put everything off for later. If he showed this enormous emotion now, Seoho might feel burdened and run away. At his bland answer, Seoho nodded readily.
“I see.”
Rosetta asked Seoho, who was about to sink into thought again.
“What about Seoho?”
Once he’d heard a story about him, his desire to know about him grew even stronger.
“Why didn’t you have a lover?”
“I didn’t particularly want to date, and I thought I should focus on my studies.”
At Seoho’s answer, Rosetta smiled broadly and looked down at Seoho’s hand he was holding. The callus on his middle finger.
As he’d suspected, he was someone who had been studying. Rosetta rubbed his finger over the callus protruding slightly on the pretty hand and said.
“Yes, I could tell from your hand. Your hand is one that has studied a lot.”
“I did work hard at it.”
Seoho flinched his hand a bit but didn’t pull it away. Since Seoho didn’t react much, Rosetta got a bit greedier and continued fondling Seoho’s hand.
“I want to know about you. And I want to become close with you. I want you to be with me.”
Rosetta continued speaking while looking down only at his hand, unable to look at Seoho. He was worried that if their eyes met, Seoho would realize all of Rosetta’s feelings and become frightened.
“I know this is still very confusing and this situation is hard to understand. I won’t rush.”
“Okay.”
“So if there’s a way to go back, take me with you.”
The tears that had stopped welled up again. This time, they were tears he shed on purpose. Rosetta had already figured out from his short conversation with Seoho that he was weak to tears. Rosetta let tears drip down pitifully and begged Seoho.
“I want to be with you.”
***
The man shed jewel-like tears once again. The tears spreading across his beautiful face looked so forlorn that anyone who appreciated beauty would feel their heart ache. Seoho fidgeted restlessly and wiped Rosetta’s tears.
“I told you not to cry…, okay. Fine. But if you come with me, you won’t be able to live in such a nice place.”
Seoho looked around the room he was in. Actually, nothing in the story he’d just heard wasn’t surprising.
‘Fate, he says.’
While the term fate could apply to various situations and relationships, it was amazing that there existed someone who could actually see the red thread that directly connected that abstract concept. And the mirror used to bring him to this place didn’t reflect people at all.
But more surprising than those two things was this very room.
‘Those first two things, how should I put it, don’t feel real but….’
But this room was different. A room much larger than his own home. The blanket that wrapped softly around his body and the fluffy bed, the furniture filling the room all looked very luxurious at a glance.
So Rosetta, who claimed to be his fate, seemed to be incredibly wealthy. And Seoho wasn’t confident he could maintain the wealth Rosetta currently enjoyed if he followed him to his world.
So Seoho spoke honestly.
‘No matter if he’s my fated partner, wouldn’t he dislike suddenly becoming poor?’
At Seoho’s words, Rosetta tilted his head slightly and answered.
“I know where you live too. As long as you’re there, that’s enough.”
Seoho tried to understand Rosetta’s words and recalled the story he’d heard earlier.
“Right. You said you were watching me?”
“Yes.”
So Rosetta had been watching him through the mirror for half a year. Seoho looked at the mirror once again.
