HRB 98

When he first opened his eyes in this world, everything was unfamiliar, and he couldn’t say he knew anyone. He just suppressed his sadness alone and shed tears, but now, there was no need for that.

Because now Eddie had someone who would lend him a broad embrace whenever he was sad.

Eddie headed to the next room without hesitation. He didn’t even have the mind to knock, barging in as if it were his own room. Only then did Eddie belatedly remember that it was the middle of the night, but he couldn’t bear it.

“Ket…”

Eddie called out to Ketron. In his vision, accustomed to the darkness from lying blankly, he felt Ketron looking at him with eyes completely devoid of sleepiness.

Eddie went straight onto Ketron’s bed. He lifted the blanket Ketron was covered with and rushed headfirst into his warm embrace. Unlike Eddie, who hadn’t been properly covered, Ketron’s body was warm, not cold.

“Hold… hold me.”

“…”

“Ket, hold me.”

He babbled incoherently as he burrowed into that broad embrace, but Ketron understood Eddie’s intentions without difficulty.

Ketron embraced the body of the scoundrel who suddenly barged into his arms in the late dawn.

Eddie was held tightly in Ketron’s broad embrace.

Eddie felt a sense of relief first and foremost at the fact that he was held in a firm and warm embrace.

Ah, it’s okay.

Eddie couldn’t know what was okay, but nevertheless, Eddie thought so.

It wasn’t that anything was resolved or that the situation had improved at all, but even so, being by Ketron’s side gave him a vague feeling that everything was okay.

A feeling that nothing was wrong. Without knowing ‘what’ wasn’t wrong, Eddie felt an unknown sense of relief. It was always like that when Ketron was by his side.

The two of them hugged like that for a long time.

“…I wasn’t going to ask until you said something first.”

Eddie, who hadn’t been able to sleep at all but had been quietly closing his eyes and hugging Ketron, opened his eyes wide when Ketron, who had been patting his back, finally spoke after a long time.

“What did you talk about with the Emperor that made you like this?”

“…Ah.”

Emperor? Eddie belatedly realized that Ketron must think Eddie was suffering after his meeting with the Emperor and had suddenly run over.

Explaining the dream would make the story long. Of course, he couldn’t tell it as it was.

It wasn’t like the story about the Emperor was short, but either way, if he had to talk about something, this was better.

He still felt uneasy, but it was much better than when he had just woken up from the dream, so Eddie took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

“You heard me call him ‘hyung,’ so you know, but the Emperor is my brother.”

In terms of movies or dramas, it was a secret of birth on the level of ‘Actually, I’m your dad.’ All along, he had been a commoner, and even in the face of suspicious gazes, he had always insisted he was a commoner, but it turned out he was the Emperor’s brother.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in advance. Actually, to be honest, I lived as if I had forgotten until recently.”

Eddie mixed in some truth appropriately. He knew himself that it was vague, but he couldn’t help it. He had almost no time to think of a proper excuse.

“You don’t look alike at all, though.”

That was also true. It would be strange if they looked alike since the Emperor’s face was Lee Jeong-han’s, and according to the Emperor, this side was a copy-paste of the Late Emperor, so they would look like complete strangers.

That was why Ketron, even knowing the Emperor’s face, hadn’t guessed Eddie’s identity.

“Still, he’s a precious brother to me.”

Even if he wasn’t the real Lee Jeong-han, he was an existence with the same face and personality as Lee Jeong-han. Even in this world where he knew nothing, he was an existence he could confidently call ‘my brother.’

“They’re trying to bring down the sky.”

So, even though he knew that his brother wouldn’t be easily defeated, Eddie couldn’t help but react sensitively to the news that the noble faction was targeting his brother.

He had already lost his family in another sense. If he lost that precious existence in this world as well, he knew he wouldn’t be able to bear it.

Precious…

Eddie’s gaze turned to Ketron’s face without him realizing it. When he lifted his head, which had been buried in Ketron’s chest, he met Ketron’s dark eyes, which seemed to have been looking at Eddie all along.

If that precious existence to him, if Ketron disappeared…

“…Ah.”

Eddie felt his heart sink at the thought of such a possibility.

Just imagining it made his heart feel constricted. For a moment, his chest felt a stinging pain. He couldn’t breathe.

“Eddie?”

Ketron looked down at Eddie, seemingly puzzled. His hand, reaching out to gently caress Eddie’s cheek, seemed to be checking his temperature as if he were sick.

Ketron’s warm hand touched his cheek.

I definitely won’t be able to bear it if I lose you.

Perhaps even more than losing the Emperor with Lee Jeong-han’s face.

That was too much of a belated realization.

Maybe he liked Ketron more than he thought. No, maybe he had come too far to simply express it as ‘liking’ him.

“Ket, what would it be like if you lost someone precious?”

Eddie asked, looking quietly at Ketron’s face. I don’t think I can live without you, and it would be painful to lose my brother too.

Ketron’s expression hardened at those words. His face, staring intently at Eddie’s face, seemed a little angry.

“To me, you’re the only person like that now.

Ah. Eddie belatedly realized that he had made a slip of the tongue.

“Isn’t it too cruel to ask me to imagine losing you?”

“Sorry.”

Eddie immediately admitted his mistake and apologized. Even so, his heart was pounding recklessly.

His heart was pounding as if it would jump out of his mouth at the single phrase ‘you’re the only one.’ It was probably because of excitement.

It was funny how his body, which had been struggling with the lingering effects of a dreamlike dream, changed its attitude in an instant, as if he hadn’t been asking Ketron to hold him because he was having a hard time.

Come to think of it, he had really been acting spoiled.

Towards a man who was four, no, eight years younger than him. Seeing Ketron accepting it naturally, it seemed that Eddie had unknowingly been acting spoiled towards Ketron until now.

That was embarrassing, but somehow his heart was beating even faster than before, so Eddie buried his face in Ketron’s chest. It was warm.

“I’m sorry.”

Eddie apologized once again. Looking back, what he had just said was really a slip of the tongue. To ask such a question when he already knew what kind of existence he was to Ketron.

He wasn’t one to keep many people around him in the first place, and after the ending of Part 1, there were actually only a very small number of people within that fence. Among them, Eddie was probably at the very center.

As if to accept his apology, Ketron gave Eddie a short kiss on the forehead.

“If I were to lose you, I probably…”

Ketron murmured with a sigh.

“Wouldn’t be able to live.”

The words that followed were quiet but firm.

“Does that answer your question?”

By then, Eddie couldn’t bear it any longer, so he lifted his head from where it was buried in Ketron’s chest and stared intently at Ketron. Eddie, staring intently at the handsome face that was clearly visible even in the darkness, made up his mind.

Eddie grabbed Ketron’s cheeks. Holding the handsome face that he admired inwardly every time he saw it, Eddie brought his face closer.

As their lips touched, Ketron immediately parted his lips, unlike the first day when he couldn’t even open his lips properly and stammered. It was an excellent result born from repeated learning.

Eddie intertwined his tongue without hesitation. It was a little unfamiliar to try to find the tongue that Ketron had been searching for all along since that first kiss, but as an experienced person, he quickly got used to it.

As he intertwined his tongue thickly and stared intently at Ketron, he felt that Ketron, who always looked at Eddie as if he would devour him when moments like this came, was looking at Eddie with even more excited eyes, perhaps because of the special circumstances of being on the bed late at night.

So, when he separated his lips after mixing his tongue for a long time, Ketron was as excited below as he was in his expression.

The volume rubbing against him below was amazing. When Eddie made a sound of pure admiration, Ketron hugged Eddie tightly, revealing his excitement.

“If you keep doing this, I won’t be able to stand it either.”

To do this while knowing full well what kind of feelings Ketron had for him, even Eddie felt it was provocative. Hot breaths mixed as kisses landed all over his face.

Even though he said he couldn’t stand it, Ketron only pressed his body close, not starting any particular action, perhaps because he knew that Eddie was still hesitating.

Maybe Ketron couldn’t start because he wasn’t confident he could stand it, as he said.

“Ket, should I do it for you with my hand?”

So Eddie suggested an alternative.

Of course, it was a second-best option for Eddie, who still had a fear of the story’s coercion, as Ketron thought, so he couldn’t recklessly accept Ketron’s feelings, nor could he recklessly mix bodies with him.

When Eddie even made a motion of moving his hand up and down, he saw Ketron closing his eyes tightly.

Ah, is this not it?