# Chapter 105
After showing conflict in his eyes for a while, Jade finally poured out his words.
“I used to send that guy to bars regularly. Made him grab anyone and drink with them. After creating traces of him frequenting various bars, I reported that Kang Taesung was roaming around at night picking people up.”
“Ah…”
“Then those idiotic relatives would feel somewhat relieved.”
For some reason, I almost felt bad hearing that he had been drinking with just anyone. Although it wasn’t a pleasant story, Lee Hwan could immediately understand what kind of situation it had been.
His uncle’s family had grown to dislike Lee Hwan more and more. Every time he achieved high grades or received positive evaluations from others, they seemed to think it crushed the spirit of his underperforming cousin.
So how much worse must it have been for this family with vast wealth at stake? If Kang Taesung had truly lived an upright life, not only Kang Dongying, who had gone crazy with inexplicable jealousy, but also all sorts of unheard-of relatives would have put effort into tearing Taesung down.
As Lee Hwan calmed his twitching eyebrows, Jade continued.
“So next I thought of Kang Dongying. That pervert might gather information on everyone who drank with Kang Taesung, find overlapping preferences, and send spies based on that.”
“That’s ridiculous, I—!”
“I know it’s not true. That’s just what we thought back then.”
It was bad enough being entangled with Kang Dongha, but Lee Hwan had no desire whatsoever to bear Kang Dongying’s sins as well. As Lee Hwan flared up in protest, Jade calmed him down.
“Anyway, that’s how it was. I couldn’t help but know. Kang Taesung doesn’t grill meat for his friends.”
“That’s…”
“Let alone renting out an entire theater to watch a movie with a friend? Kang Taesung?”
The sound of his derisive snort stung Lee Hwan’s ears. Lee Hwan looked at him as if he was saying something strange, then sharply turned his head away.
“Anyway, he watched it with me.”
Suddenly, his chest felt very uncomfortable. Jade’s words seemed to poke at his insides, giving him the strange sensation of dragging out thoughts he had been deliberately ignoring.
In the end, Lee Hwan couldn’t finish the last spoonful of the black porridge. As he stirred it with his spoon, it seemed impolite, but he didn’t feel like swallowing it.
Lee Hwan eventually put the spoon back down and got up from his seat. The outside had looked quite dark when he’d seen it through the veranda earlier, and if he left any later, the buses might stop running.
Just as he was about to say goodbye and leave, Jade, who had turned his eyes back to his book, abruptly warned him.
“Take care of yourself for a while. I think there’ll be some trouble in Building D sooner or later.”
Lee Hwan still didn’t know what he had been thinking when he pulled that stunt. His original plan had just been to secretly search for fragments of causality.
Besides, it was a drug he had taken out on his own without Jade even asking for it. If asked whether he regretted it, he honestly couldn’t answer.
So he thought Jade might be displeased by the sympathy contained in it. Even though he had taken it out for Jade’s sake, there was no guarantee that some self-satisfaction hadn’t crept in.
“And anyway… thank you.”
Hearing this unexpected gratitude, Lee Hwan felt some of the previous day’s hardship dissipate. He couldn’t hide his expression and opened his eyes wide.
“Your goal was to help him find his memories, right? Contact me if you need anything. I think I might need to call you because of that idiot too.”
It was a quite kind and friendly goodbye. Lee Hwan nodded at those calm words as he twisted the doorknob to open it.
Click.
As the door closed and he walked down the corridor, Lee Hwan felt a strange emotion. He felt satisfied yet uncomfortable. It was like lying on an expensive mattress placed over a hard toy.
Was getting closer to Jade the problem? No, he had no particular complaint about that. Rather, it felt quite reassuring that he could be a good ally. If there was anything that bothered him…
Lee Hwan tried to erase the uncomfortable feeling from his mind when he felt something catch in his memory. Moments that played back in fragments, like cut film reels.
Taesung’s home, his eyes staring at him in that darkened living room.
Pulling his arm to press him down on the sofa, a face approaching so close their noses nearly touched. The sound of breathing.
Lee Hwan clenched his fist, forcibly shaking off the fragment of memory that was stuck in his mind.
‘Right, um… friend.’
He also swept away Jade’s voice that had been repeatedly questioning him, throwing it out of his head. Because it suddenly felt hard to breathe. That’s why.
However, he ultimately failed to block other thoughts that were about to surge up one after another.
“Haaaah…”
Lee Hwan let out a long sigh. At some point, he found himself sighing whenever he thought of Taesung. Not because he disliked him, but because it was strange. Strange that he kept ruminating on what had happened after the regression and feeling an unfamiliar satisfaction.
Every time he recalled those dark eyes gazing at him, every time he remembered Taesung’s breath rushing into his mouth, Lee Hwan felt a shiver from the nape of his neck and a soft, warm sensation deep in his throat.
It felt exactly like drinking well-melted chocolate. He felt a sensation of wanting to pour it endlessly into himself.
But afterward, a faint rationality always put the brakes on that sweet satisfaction. Lee Hwan shook his head vigorously to stop his spinning thoughts, not even knowing what he wanted to avoid.
Under the streetlight, he saw goosebumps rising on his arms. As he hurriedly left the apartment complex and walked to the bus stop, Lee Hwan kept stroking his arms and kneading them firmly.
Different thoughts. Somehow he felt he needed to think of something different. Different thoughts… right.
Suddenly, he remembered something he had forgotten. After that day when he left Taesung’s house after receiving an IV, Lee Hwan had to stay cooped up at home for a while to recover. Being so bored, he had searched for Taesung’s name along with “mushroom” and found a fan site that seemed to have quite low accessibility.
The reason he matched those two was because he remembered Taesung enjoying a dish with large shiitake mushrooms with their caps fully opened. There was no particular meaning to it; he just put them together out of boredom.
Anyway, at that time, Lee Hwan had signed up for membership and applied for an upgrade just to read one post. And then completely forgot about it. What would have happened to it by now?
He could barely remember when he last visited the fan site. He only vaguely recalled reposting his upgrade request a few days after signing up.
After boarding the bus that had just arrived, Lee Hwan searched for Taesung’s fan site on his phone, actively pushing away the memories of the ordeal that kept poking at the back of his head. Indeed, once again, a post from the site came up when he combined “mushroom” and “Kang Taesung.”
[Kang Tae.sung that jacket over the combat suit is so m.ushroom]
It seemed that even with a dot inserted in the middle of words, searchable posts would still be found. Lee Hwan licked his lips once and stepped confidently into the familiar page.
The fan site he accessed after a long time had the same design and atmosphere. However, judging by the changed rank name in his personal information section, it seemed his account had successfully settled as a regular member.
‘Oh.’
Then he could read the post he had tried to view before but couldn’t. Lee Hwan pressed the search box while raising the corners of his mouth, and hesitated for a moment in front of the blinking cursor.
Come to think of it, how should he find that post again? The title had some really cute and strange nickname in it…
‘Since it’s Kang Taesung… Kang Tae? Kang Sung? No, it wasn’t like that…’
But after entering the free board and scanning through the posts again, Lee Hwan realized that he actually didn’t need to worry about it at all.
[Thanks to you, there have been fewer Aesung sightings lately] 5
[Day 32 of praying for Aesung to appear on the End-of-Year Hunter Special <(_ _)>] 0
[That’s the problem, the controversy-makers don’t even realize they’re making controversies lol] 12
[Why we can’t let privacy invasion slide] 9
[Aren’t photos privacy invasion?? Taking hidden camera shots] 33
[Aesung, just set fire to it all, it’s self-defense] 2
‘Ah, Aesung…’
Everyone seemed to prefer the nickname, as no one called him by his real name.
Right, Aesung. It still sounded like a really strange nickname. He made sure to remember it this time. Now if he searched with the date as well, the post should come up.
As Lee Hwan scrolled through the list of posts while looking for the search box again, he suddenly noticed that the atmosphere here was quite different from last time.
‘What’s… all this commotion about?’
Unlike when he first visited, each post had numerous comments, and everyone’s tone was sharp. As if there had been a big fight.
Moreover, certain words strongly caught his attention.
‘Privacy invasion…?’
What should he do? The post he originally wanted to read wouldn’t run away in the meantime, so would it be alright to look at this first?
In the end, Lee Hwan clicked on one of the eye-catching posts, deciding to enjoy the pleasure of now being able to read the posts.
Title: Aren’t photos privacy invasion?? Taking hidden camera shots
It’s hypocritical
After posting sighting verifications all the time and uploading hidden camera shots whenever possible to track schedules
Suddenly wiping your mouth clean and going “privacy invasion~ protect privacy~”
Comments 33 ▼
[Jinbul-i] Seems like they have no intention of understanding the point of the controversylol Is that the same as renting a taxi to follow someone?
└ [Mirong] What’s different?
└ [Jinbul-i] There are already prior offenses of privacy invasion but pretending not to knowlol
└ [Yorang] Yes, paparazzi is legal and stalking is illegal~
[Seong-anae] Is that the same as renting a taxi to follow222
[Songsal] Good thing they blocked new registrations nowlol Bringing all the toxicity from other fandoms
└ [Yorang] For real, please just keep fawning over your oppa and stop ruining decent hunter fans
└ [Hinki] 222222
└ [EH-seongLOVER] 3333
└ [Mirong] Even before blocking registrations, several people were already sued for privacy invasion? I guess you erase your own dark history and don’t remember^^
└ [Mapdal-taesung-cheese-tteokbo…] Why are you looking for that here?
└ [Mirong] There were news articles but you’re pretending not to knowlol http://www.nhwolrdnews.co.kr/2258591 Did you sell your kidney to pay for the foreign car repair?
⤷ Show more comments (21)
‘Hmm…’
