By Zephyria 
A firm, confident voice—yet words that would drift meaninglessly like a light breeze if one didn’t listen closely, a low voice that was barely that much—suddenly brings even the churning hunger to a halt.
“Jeil Heon.”
Memories thought to have been eroded overflow.
Son, the generational character for the grandchildren is Il (壹), so make the eldest son’s name Heon (獻).〉
〈Then is it Jeil Heon? That is a wonderful name.〉
〈Heon-ah.〉
〈Hyung.〉
〈Oppa.〉
〈Sunbae.〉
〈Head of department.〉
Jeil Heon.
He realizes that the word he had dismissed as meaningless was his own name. There are those who call his name. Relationships with others are connected through the names exchanged. In the vast universe, it is the only name that refers solely to him.
〈Mister.〉
And then, there is a call that rushes in like a tidal wave and sweeps him away.
“Jeil Heon.”
The resonance created by a fragile voice reaches him. The textures of a heart he thought he had eroded and withered—or so he had deluded himself—begin to bloom. Like a flower that had withered and died, only to bloom beautifully with a single drop of dew, it soaks his soul.
An utmost devotion manifested through terrible selfishness. A longing so intense that carving out one’s heart to offer it would not be enough. A brilliant light that never tarnishes, no matter what form it takes. A thrilling wonder that re-establishes the existence of a monster who has fallen onto the path of the inhuman. A uniqueness worthy of being held solely throughout an eternity of time. The one and only name engraved upon the soul.
Jeil Heon finally understands the name of this feeling.
My love.
Yoo Jiha’s pupils, which had been slit vertically like a beast’s, gradually rounded out, and he captured every moment as countless emotions intersected and melted within him. Finally, the passion overflowing from the other man soaked him, and a hand trembling slightly caressed his face several times, until a stifled voice, sounding as if it were pushing him away, barely managed to utter, “Jiha-ya.”
It is Jeil Heon.
It was Jeil Heon. An intuition no different from certainty grips his heart. Though the body was cold, a feverish heat, as if it might burn, slowly circulated through the fingertips stroking his cheek, coloring his face. From the gaze directed toward him to the cautious and tender gestures, every resonance of the soul that composed the human before him was screaming that he was Jeil Heon.
He has returned. To me.
“……Mister.”
The voice calling him would no longer wander emptily, unable to find anyone to reach.
As reality slowly seeped in, the sorrow of the days spent agonizing over how to turn him back into a human finally burst forth. He wanted to pour out his resentment, asking why he had lied again. He wanted to be angry, asking if he thought the version of him left behind would be okay.
However, a torrent of emotion swept through, instantly collapsing the accumulated disappointment, and Yoo Jiha threw himself at him.
“You bad bastard……. You always lie…….”
He called him with a voice crumpled and messy from sobbing, he pounded on his chest and shoulders while cursing him as a bad man, and he gave empty threats that if he kept secrets and got hurt alone, he wouldn’t even save him.
Only after crying for a long time did his heaving shoulders finally settle. Jeil Heon, who had accepted the shaking and stroked his back, bowed his head. The lips that gently covered his red, swollen, and stinging eyes—the softness of lips he might have never encountered again—were so missed and so sorrowful that tears welled up once more.
Jeil Heon quietly wiped away the flowing tears with his lips, then moved to his ear and whispered shyly and low.
“I love you, Jiha-ya.”
He thought there was nothing left to be surprised by, but in that moment, his heart thundered as if it were exploding from within, and the world surrounding him crashed violently. Just because the resonance of that whisper—that he loved him—had reached him, he realized he was already deeply entwined with the man.
Yoo Jiha lowered his flushed face and buried his head in the man’s shoulder. He fanned himself frantically with his hand, but the burning sensation would not subside. Hoping his heated cheeks would look like he was appalled, he opened his eyes primly and blurted out.
“Y-you only just realized?”
There was no need to let on that the voice he used to act pretentious was, in reality, trembling quite a bit. Jeil Heon smiled brightly and kissed his beloved lover, the jewel who held a light that would never fade.
* * *
Epilogue.
In the midst of sobbing and clinging to Jeil Heon, Yoo Jiha had forgotten one thing. That Mae-gu had said, ‘I will buy you some time.’ Jeil Heon had also forgotten. That there had been the presence of someone approaching.
“What the fuck is this.”
As a result, the scene of them kissing was witnessed by Kang Suk-young (his boss and his mother’s best friend). Her face froze in a pale expression, her head creaking as she scanned the two, and soon, a lion’s roar of fury erupted.
“You crazy bastard! What are you doing to a kid like that! He’s Yeo-jin’s son! Dammit!”
“Uh……. I’m speechless, Suk-ja.”
“Ack, Director! I-it’s a misunderstanding!”
“I saw it with my own two eyes, what kind of bullshit misunderstanding!”
“I was the one who pounced on him first—”
“Jeil Heon! Just drop dead, you son of a bitch!”
After a commotion where he was nearly murdered immediately upon returning to human form, Jeil Heon was dragged away by researchers who looked horrified, as if their eyes were about to pop out, and only after a long time was it confirmed that he was indeed human. He was a human without a single speck of Contamination, and even the wavelength of the Aberration he had possessed as a Bearer had completely vanished.
Kang Suk-young kicked the two out with an expression that looked like her head was about to explode. Only after Gong Ran-sa, who had been waiting anxiously at Pilgyeongdang, poured out a round of tears did they finally get some time alone.
The man who had slept silently without a single movement for such long, long days was finally alive and breathing before him. It didn’t feel real all of a sudden, so he lightly cupped the man’s face with his hand. It was warm. Unlike the skin that had been cold in the isolation room.
“Jiha-ya.”
As if knowing his cautious heart, Jeil Heon clasped his hand and gently pressed his lips to his palm. The breath delivered with the soft kiss tickled his tender skin. For a moment, a surge of heat rose from deep within his chest, feeling as if it would overflow from his eyes, so he spoke pointedly on purpose.
“You aren’t hiding anything else from me, are you?”
“Hmm…….”
Instead of a crisp answer like ‘Of course,’ Jeil Heon let out an ambiguous sound and shifted his gaze to the side.
The tears vanished instantly.
“I’m seriously appalled, really! What are you hiding! Again!”
“Isn’t a man with secrets sexy?”
“You’re sexy even without that stuff!”
If he could, he wanted to grab him by the collar and shake him violently until he spat out the secret. As he glared with anger, Jeil Heon smiled sweetly and pecked his eyes with kisses.
“Just let me slide on this one thing. From now on, I’ll never make secrets from our Jiha. Okay? Pretty please?”
Since he was playing along and even using aegyo—something he never normally did—Yoo Jiha’s heart, which was already like a reed, weak and swaying before him, fluttered.
No. He couldn’t just let it slide. Yoo Jiha forced his softening eyes wide open.
“Just promising isn’t enough.”
“What else should I do for you?”
“A cute rabbit, like when you were drunk. A set with rabbit ears and a tail and all that.”
“……Eh?”
“I’m going to film that and preserve it for generations. If you make another secret, I’ll send the full video to the Director. You know I have the Chairman’s contact info, right?”
“……O-okay.”
Having achieved the feat of making Jeil Heon’s voice tremble—something no other human or Aberration had ever done—Yoo Jiha decided to be generous. Between lovers, one can tolerate a single secret. Because they are lo-lo-lo-lovers……!
〈Even so, I do not know if this emotion is love, Jiha-ya.〉
He would no longer have to dwell on those words alone in a melancholy mood……. No, wait. A word he had forgotten for a while because he was so preoccupied with Jeil Heon’s problems, even after learning the truth entwined with him, suddenly surged up.
〈The jewel, who was already beautiful, has become even more lovely.〉
〈I lost everything for the sake of the jewel, but I have never once regretted it.〉
Jewel. The word he had always recalled with utmost affection. His lips parted slightly as a thought occurred to him.
“Um, Mister. You said the hubae who asked you to protect the jewel was my mom.”
“Yes.”
“P-perhaps that jewel, then, is…….”
Feeling too shy to directly ask, ‘Is that actually me?’, he just stole glances to gauge the reaction, and then Jeil Heon asserted.
“Nope.”
Aaaah. Yoo Jiha felt his face turn bright red, as if red paint had been spilled over it. It was too embarrassing. To say something so nonsensical without even knowing properly…….
Just then, a light kiss landed on the bridge of his nose with a ‘chu’ sound. Then, a low whisper flowed softly into his ear.
“My jewel.”