# Chapter 187
The mood took over and nonsense flowed easily. Honestly, I was still pissed about getting my neck choked.
“Running away… I don’t know. You’re too handsome, so you’d stand out wherever we go. Let’s go to a deserted island. You can make the fire, and for hunting… should I do it? I like chicken, so I’ll catch birds every day. You have to make jelly from palm trees once a month.”
As I rambled on, Taesung’s face finally calmed down. I pressed my forehead against his and murmured.
“But that’s all just a last resort. I want to live in a city with blazing fast internet while enjoying world-class cuisine.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And do activities with you too. Even though it’ll be a bit difficult because of the penalty.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“So although I can’t promise not to get hurt at all, I’ll try to keep it under six weeks of treatment.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“If you don’t plan to live long either, stop saying weird things and focus on what we need to do. Otherwise, Jade will have something to say.”
“…Mm-hmm.”
Since he kept repeating the same answer, I glared at him, and he smiled faintly. As if that was really all he had to say.
“Ah. The mood was so good.”
I sighed, lifting my head away, and Taesung pushed his face forward just enough to press his forehead against mine again.
His forehead, which had been bulging with veins, was now smooth as if nothing had happened.
“Indeed.”
“You should make it up to me.”
“Should I?”
Before I could finish asking, he brought his lips to mine without waiting for an answer. His soft lips landed wetly on my mouth.
The flesh that pressed and rubbed with desire was hot and slick.
Woooong-.
With bad timing, Taesung’s phone rang, but after his hand, as big as a pot lid, touched it firmly, it became silent as death.
“Haaah… Isn’t that Jade?”
“…Then he’ll understand what we’re doing that made me not answer.”
Crazy bastard. He wasn’t originally like this; I’m seriously going to die of embarrassment. Despite thinking this, I sat obediently and wrapped my tongue around his as it parted my lips.
* * *
—The call cannot be connected. After the beep, you will be connected to the voicemail…
Jade gave up on the call cleanly as soon as he heard the clear voice. Since he could roughly guess the situation, he didn’t want to contact them further.
The scene he had just witnessed still lingered before his eyes. Perhaps it had been etched under his eyelids from the shock.
“…Unbelievable…”
Jade shuddered. He had suspected their relationship was more than it seemed since their first meeting. Despite their talk of friendship, he was too perceptive not to have noticed.
Even someone slow would have noticed. Before considering whose taste Lee Hwan was or anything else, the fact that Kang Taesung made such eyes was the beginning of an anomaly.
Jade would probably have believed in the regression even if Taesung hadn’t presented any evidence. Otherwise, how could Kang Taesung give such a look to a living being, let alone a person, and even an Awakened person?
Thinking about it sent shivers all the way from his wrist to the tip of his shoulder. Even if he wanted to think Taesung had changed because of romance, the very word “romance” didn’t suit him at all.
Well, given his age, it wasn’t Jade’s place to criticize what he did. Rather, he had been worried that his social skills were completely ruined because he hadn’t had any deep interaction with anyone at that age.
But speculating about such a relationship and witnessing them tangled together before his eyes were completely different situations.
‘They must have heard the elevator sound, that bastard really…’
It was obvious without seeing. He didn’t care whether they were caught or not. This was more important for setting the mood, right?
He wanted to close the door and leave forever, but he needed to know why Lee Hwan had met with Kang Dongying first.
Jade was the kind of person who needed to have no doubts before an important day to feel at ease. After all, life and death on the battlefield often hinged on the smallest things.
‘Bringing a person from the restricted area to the center? I’ll deal with you later.’
‘No! He’s just a child! He came to get food because he was hungry for a long time!’
‘Get out.’
Bang-!
The gunshot from that day still echoed faintly in his ears. Jade had been dispatched to a country in civil war to help government forces, and he shot and killed a child of about ten who had crawled into the military zone.
He had no regrets. The child was actually from the rebel forces and had entered carrying a bomb along with various devices. If he hadn’t shot the child that day, the entire unit would have died.
However, the look in the eyes of the child who probably didn’t choose to suicide-bomb of their own will was quite memorable before dying.
That might be why he felt déjà vu when he first took charge of Taesung. That look in his eyes, showing little resistance or anger, facing a man who had obviously come to monitor him.
Later, he heard that he had tried to contact his former tutor’s number before awakening, but it had been disconnected. The housekeeper who visited twice a day to clean the house and prepare meals had also disappeared.
It was what the VIPs had done to check and suppress him after he awakened as an S-class. After he lost his family, they removed everyone he cared about and planted their own people.
Jade didn’t blame them. They were just aiming a gun at a dangerous element. Only, Jade had succeeded, and they had failed.
The surviving Taesung became a bomb to destroy them.
At 3 PM on D-day, Jade was planning to wait near Naru, then head to Building D 20 minutes before the Management Bureau burst in, to clear the path to the underground laboratory.
The official pretext for the announcement was illegal human experimentation for human and monster modification. The story about the gate and the true purpose of Semi-Awakening were kept hidden for now.
Lee Hwan had agreed to infiltrate Building D together. Since Taesung attracted too much attention, he would just hang around the Hunter facility where he originally worked.
There wasn’t much concern. Lee Hwan was a capable person. It was obvious just from watching him train briefly.
He was only puzzled by how his movements sometimes leaned to one side when he kicked off from a wall and fell, but he realized only after seeing how Taesung’s combat pattern had changed.
Before the regression, those two had formed a pair and fought together for a long time.
Come to think of it, he was exactly Taesung’s type. Not too small in height, light eyes, a sleek and solid silhouette, and a handsome face with clear lines despite its delicacy.
Quick thinking, well-polished social skills, and a sparkling smile.
When he reluctantly sent Taesung to bars to report to the Kangs, he would choose people who irritated him less and casually mix words with them.
If he gathered each of those characteristics and sorted out the commonalities, someone just like Lee Hwan would emerge, and he thought that’s what his type would be, if he had one.
But he never imagined it would be a boy his age.
‘That guy, he emits a scent that stimulates something. It’s pheromones. If I were a monster, I’d go beyond being enchanted and just want to tear him apart?’
‘If I were a monster.’ Although he clearly used the subjunctive, it was funny how Kang Taesung tried so hard to hide Lee Hwan for several days.
Moreover, he never expected adjectives like kind, caring, and perfect to be attached to Taesung.
That damned personality of his wouldn’t have gone anywhere. Even now, after reportedly regressing, he was far from becoming a gentleman.
Yet with that attitude, just how did he seduce him?
“Ha.”
It’s unknowable. Jade probably didn’t see them together in that world before the regression.
He hadn’t told Taesung, but he was keenly aware of his deteriorating condition.
At most 3 years. He didn’t even expect more than 2 years. So, barring any major events, he was planning to enter a laboratory from the year after next and leave Taesung’s side.
Jade knew very well why he kept himself by Taesung’s side despite the risk of going berserk.
Although he had never spoken warmly to prevent the guy from feeling loss, human lives eventually intertwine with other humans, and he ended up becoming attached.
So he had planned to keep him company for a while as he wished, then find a place to die as quietly as possible, like an animal seeking a place to die…
But unexpectedly, the situation changed.
‘T.D.F. It’s a drug that Joo Lee Hwan found during his first regression.’
After injecting the drug, his eyes, which always throbbed and caused headaches, settled down unbelievably.
The black blood vessels that had been creeping up like spider webs around his eyes disappeared.
Finally, when even his eerie jade-colored eyes took on a reasonably human-like color, he felt joy for the first time in a long while.
‘Now if only the Chairman disappears, I won’t have to use a stupid name like Jade anymore.’
When he became the first test subject to survive the experiment. The old man from Naru, whose head was stuck in the 1960s, asked him inside the cage if he preferred the new name Jade or Okchul-i.
He naturally chose Jade and was somewhat less ridiculous, but thinking about it now, either one was equally absurd.
‘Don’t explain it to me. I’ve never heard of those experiments of yours. But now, I should easily be able to live for more than 10 years.’
After hearing the story, he was dazed for a while as it didn’t feel real. Many things had changed. A long time he hadn’t dared to hope for was given again, and he no longer needed to wrap up his life.
There were more than a dozen things he had given up doing since being bound to Naru. He had only intended to help Taesung and then leave, but somehow, he now had the opportunity to achieve all of them and enjoy them leisurely.
In that case, to properly enjoy this newfound freedom, he should deal with any potential troubles in advance. Jade thought he should start this opportunity with the collapse of the Naru kingdom.
The operation was formed through the cooperation of those who wanted more rather than being just. That’s why Jade believed in this operation even more.
People became most thorough and persistent in the face of money and desire. All wars and accidents in this world happened that way. So while Naru wouldn’t completely collapse and disappear after being bombed domestically and internationally, it would never enjoy its former glory again.
[Why.]
Finally, the guy who had finished his business sent a message.
Though he had a purpose of revenge that he had crushed and swallowed under cold judgment, it must be because of Lee Hwan that someone who didn’t care whether the world thrived or perished was digging into Naru through repeated regressions.
[Just keep doing what you were doing]
Then he must ensure his well-being as a priority. Jade also didn’t care much about whether the world thrived or perished. Originally, operations were better when they were simple and clear.
Save Joo Lee Hwan and push Naru, wounded, into the midst of hungry hyenas.
Jade flashed his pale green eyes.
