By Zephyria 
Tae-hwon always thought Kwon Rae-i only talked about a dreamlike future, but perhaps he himself was the one lost in a dream. He never imagined that Kwon Rae-i would commit murder. He only thought that Kwon Sang-oh would unilaterally and mercilessly abuse him. And if that happened, Tae-hwon thought he would have to protect him.
After turning off his smartphone, he threw it next to Kwon Sang-oh’s body and boarded the elevator. The indicated floor changed as it slowly ascended. Reaching the third floor, he got out of the elevator and approached Tae-hwon, covered in blood.
“Did I take too long? I tried hard to watch until the end, Tae-hwon-ssi. Let’s go rest now.”
Seeing his brightly smiling face, Tae-hwon’s legs gave way. He staggered pathetically, grabbing the glass railing. Kwon Rae-i rushed over and put his arm under Tae-hwon’s armpit to support him. Tae-hwon couldn’t breathe properly.
He smelled strongly of blood and faintly of gunpowder.
“Huk…….”
“What should I do? Can you walk?”
He looked at the pale, stiff, and panting Tae-hwon with pity and caressed his face. The familiar touch of stroking his cheek felt strange and bizarre. Everything was alien, and it was hard to even guess where to start.
“…….”
Tae-hwon frowned.
In fact, the person who had more trouble walking was Kwon Rae-i rather than Woo Tae-hwon. Blood was flowing from his feet, which had stepped directly on the shards of glass on the floor. Judging from the bloody footprints along the path he had walked, both of his feet must have been severely injured. But Kwon Rae-i didn’t seem to feel any pain and was only worried about Tae-hwon.
“Just now……. With Kwon Tae-oh doryeonim…….”
“That’s right. I declared war.”
“Why, why. I still, I don’t know why. How……. Doryeonim, you’re like this…….”
“It’s because Tae-hwon-ssi keeps thinking unnecessary things.”
Kwon Rae-i gently stroked Tae-hwon’s cheek again and lightly kissed his bloodless, pale lips. He made a smacking sound and pulled away, meeting his gaze and bringing his face close. His handsome and beautiful face, the vivid red blood covering his fair skin, was too noticeable and painful.
“Now you know for sure, right? Tae-hwon-ssi doesn’t need to worry about me.”
“Doryeonim…….”
“I. Really, I didn’t need anything. I wanted to go far away with Tae-hwon-ssi and live happily together, but Tae-hwon-ssi keeps being anxious. Trying to abandon me. Trying to run away.”
“…….”
“Saying you’re going to die alone.”
“…….”
“Foolishly. I knew that no matter how many times I said no, you would never understand, so I just decided to change my approach.”
Kwon Rae-i was an impossible mystery.
Something cruel and sacred.
He was pure and cruel at the same time, blindly devoted and self-willed. Young but not young. Woo Tae-hwon had never encountered such a contradictory being. The time he spent with him was both salvation and crisis for Tae-hwon.
“I’m going to turn Gyeongjeong upside down.”
Kwon Rae-i was light, darkness, past, and present.
A great destiny that would devour Woo Tae-hwon’s life whole, an irresistible disaster.
“I’ll become the chairman, get rid of the wanted status on Tae-hwon-ssi, and kill all the annoying bastards. Once I’ve neatly purged Kwon Tae-oh, Kwon Hyeon-oh, and the old fogeys in the back room, then Tae-hwon-ssi and I can finally live together in peace, right?”
Even Woo Tae-hwon, who was born with a harsh life and had overcome countless crises, didn’t know how to accept him. He was someone who shook Tae-hwon, Tae-hwon’s life, to its very core.
“From now on, it’s just Tae-hwon-ssi and me……. Just the two of us.”
He was truly the one and only, irreplaceable Kwon Rae-i of Woo Tae-hwon.
“We’ll live together, and we’ll die together. And we’ll fall into the same hell side by side.”
Kwon Rae-i’s voice penetrated deep into his heart. It was unstoppable. Then Tae-hwon couldn’t help but realize that he had reached a point of no return.
“We’re both murderers. Both Tae-hwon-ssi and I are paying the same price. So…… don’t ever say things like only Doryeonim should live, or Doryeonim is in danger because of me. We met in the muddy bottom from the beginning, and that’s where we started. Don’t forget whose blood I am.”
Kwon Rae-i wrapped his long arms around Tae-hwon’s waist. He firmly supported and held up the Tae-hwon, whose legs had given way, and sweetly whispered in his ear. The ticklish whisper left his heart empty. Now he knew what recklessness he had committed when he had tried to shatter his puppy love, his fantasies, or whatever illusions he had.
Kwon Rae-i had never had any illusions from the start. It was Woo Tae-hwon himself who had been mistaken.
The illusion that he had recognized him as merely a young and helpless being shattered and scattered like snowflakes.
Kwon Rae-i, although unstable, precarious, and seemingly insane, was, nevertheless, living a more ruthless reality than anyone else.
“Remember my words, Tae-hwon-ssi. There’s not a single person in this world who deserves to live.”
“……Yes.”
“We’re living because we’re living, undeservedly. The reason why thirty-year-old Tae-hwon killed his father and betrayed Gyeongjeong was probably because of that. Because he was sick and tired of breathing and begging in this world. It’s hard, isn’t it? Living like this.”
“……Yes. I think so.”
“So I didn’t want to tell you until the end. To the current Tae-hwon-ssi. I wanted you to just look at me without knowing anything…….”
Kwon Rae-i paused for a moment and let out a long sigh. Tae-hwon stood still, trying to regain his composure, which was shaking uncontrollably. Their bodies, embracing each other, seemed to have hardened into one. It was as if two monstrous creatures were struggling while hugging each other tightly.
“I’m sorry. Doryeonim.”
Tae-hwon apologized to Kwon Rae-i. It was hard to even put into words what he was sorry for.
He had feared that Kwon Rae-i would be in danger because of him, and that his existence would be a bomb in Kwon Rae-i’s life, but in reality, Kwon Rae-i’s life had been buried in a powder keg from the start, ready to explode at any moment. He was the son of Chairman Kwon, the dragon who was born in war. So his life was like a fuse lit from the beginning.
“I…… I really, I think I only saw Doryeonim as young.”
“That’s right. Tae-hwon-ssi did.”
“I didn’t know anything about Doryeonim’s situation, the present.”
“Because I didn’t say anything. I wanted to hide quietly like this, as Tae-hwon-ssi wanted, and then go far away and live normally like ordinary people. What good is there to see in this kind of carnage that I would cling to the chairman’s position?”
“Ah…….”
“But, as you can see, it seems that things will only end when I sit on the throne.”
“That’s, but, isn’t that not an easy thing to do, as you said? There’s Kwon Tae-oh doryeonim, and, the second Kwon Hyeon-oh doryeonim, and Gyeongjeong isn’t just a small neighborhood grocery store organization.”
“That’s right. It’s actually quite difficult? But Tae-hwon-ssi will be by my side, right?”
Kwon Rae-i buried his face in Tae-hwon’s neck. Then the posture of supporting him collapsed, and his legs gave way. His body, leaning against the glass railing, sank down. Kwon Rae-i also fell to the floor with Tae-hwon, entangled and clinging to him. The chain on Tae-hwon’s ankle made a metallic sound.
“You can’t abandon me now, right? You’ve seen my resolve.”
That was right. Tae-hwon now felt a greater sense of responsibility for Kwon Rae-i’s life than for taking responsibility for Chairman Kwon’s death.
“I don’t know how things will change when Tae-hwon-ssi’s memories come back someday, but at least for now, you have to be with me.”
“……Yes. Doryeonim.”
Tae-hwon nodded with difficulty.
By killing Kwon Sang-oh and even declaring war on the firstborn Kwon Tae-oh, Kwon Rae-i had already detonated a huge bomb with his own hands. Even if one more charge was added, that he was hiding Woo Tae-hwon, it wouldn’t change anything.
Now it was all-out war.
Even if the ending was only being annihilated by Gyeongjeong.
“Good. That’s it.”
Then Kwon Rae-i smiled contentedly and stroked Tae-hwon’s waist. He was squeezed tightly as if crushed by a thick body. The smell of blood and gunpowder, and Kwon Rae-i’s touch, created a strange feeling. He was empty and disappointed, but he was angry because he couldn’t escape.
“It’s not good. In fact, it’s not resolved either.”
Tae-hwon raised his trembling arms and hugged him back. Blood stuck and was sticky.
“Even if we’re just being chased together like this, even if you risk Doryeonim’s life to hold onto me, if the situation is like this, in the end…….”
“That’s why I said I’m going to become the chairman of Gyeongjeong.”
It was dark and distant.
Falling into that distant abyss. Together.