By Zephyria 
The Last Tagger
“I want to try that.”
One day, my quiet son, who never seemed to want anything, said that while watching TV. It wasn’t a program for children. It was a typical morning drama.
“With that hyung.”
Lee A-gon pointed to one child. One of the supporting characters. A character who played the protagonist’s son.
“Do you want to be friends with that hyung?”
To his mother’s question, Lee A-gon nodded. His mother doted on her late-born youngest son. There was no reason not to grant his wish.
Soon after, Lee A-gon was cast as the child actor for the protagonist in
He was in the same space as the hyung he wanted to befriend, but Lee A-gon was shy. It was difficult to approach Hae-jun hyung.
The other children on set disliked Lee A-gon. They bullied him behind his back, and their methods were petty.
Lee A-gon always ate alone. No friends spoke to him. He couldn’t play ball with them. When Lee A-gon walked by, someone would trip him. When Lee A-gon performed a difficult scene, other children would cause an NG. His rice was once sprinkled with dirt.
By then, Lee A-gon was getting annoyed.
‘Should I just stomp on them?’
Instead of his busy mother, the person picking him up was his mother’s employee. The elderly lady didn’t know much about the on-set work. If Lee A-gon had just told his mother with tears, it would have been easy to crush Gu Min-sung, who acted so boldly relying on his father’s influence.
There was only one reason he didn’t. Every time he was bullied, Hae-jun hyung would look at him with pity.
“Eat this and cheer up.”
Hae-jun hyung, seeing Gu Min-sung ostracizing him, said that and brushed past him. At the same time, a candy fell onto Lee A-gon’s lap. It was from hyung.
His heart pounded. His hyung’s indifferent action was so cool and wonderful.
Lee A-gon ♡ Park Hae-jun
Lee A-gon wrote his and hyung’s names with a heart on the last page of his notebook. How could hyung’s name be Park Hae-jun? Hae-jun. It was such a sophisticated name.
Lee Park Ah Hae Gon Jun
2 8 3 6 6 7
0 1 9 2 3
1 0 1 5
1 1 6
27%
Lee A-gon even checked the compatibility score between his and hyung’s names. The result was a mere 27%. Seeing that, Lee A-gon tore the notebook in frustration.
27%. It couldn’t be. He must have made a mistake somewhere because he wasn’t good at math. But in the second calculation, it came out to 26%, and Lee A-gon felt like crying.
As filming for
He later learned this was called ‘goljil’, a term for deliberately messing with a co-actor.
While filming in the rain, Gu Min-sung’s gang stood under umbrellas. Lee A-gon, shivering, had to film a scene where he was hit and rolled in mud.
“I’m sorry.”
After the scene ended, Hae-jun hyung approached and draped a blanket over his shoulders. Hyung’s eyebrows were furrowed downwards.
“I know they’re bullying you. Actually, some adults know too. But Gu Min-sung’s father is a powerful man, so there’s nothing we can do.”
Then, hyung put a bandage on the scrape on his knee. He asked, “Does it hurt a lot?”
At that moment, it felt like his chest had been struck. How could hyung be so indifferent, cool, and handsome, yet have the heart of an angel?
Lee A-gon no longer found the bullying by Gu Min-sung’s gang annoying. Every time they bullied him, Hae-jun hyung looked at him more. He frowned, his heart aching.
Lee A-gon wanted to approach hyung, but strangely, he couldn’t find the words when he was in front of him. So he only ever answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Then one day, a miracle happened. Hyung was the one who actively approached him first.
“So, don’t you watch Z-tube?”
Hae-jun hyung asked. Lee A-gon shook his head.
“Then what do you do during your breaks?”
“I read books.”
“You read books?”
Hae-jun hyung’s jaw dropped. Lee A-gon grew anxious. What if hyung thought he was a boring, uninteresting kid?
Hae-jun hyung showed him a video on his phone. It was a video of a pretty girl idol. Hyung seemed to like such videos, but Lee A-gon found it not at all entertaining. Rather, he felt sad thinking hyung watched these kinds of videos.
When Lee A-gon didn’t react, hyung thought hard and then suggested playing rock-paper-scissors.
Lee A-gon, who kept losing on purpose so as not to hit hyung, accidentally won. When the moment came where he had to hit, Lee A-gon did his best to gently tap hyung’s forehead. Even then, he worried if it would hurt, so he wiped hyung’s forehead and blew on it.
‘What if hyung hates me?’
He felt like if he acted too clingy, hyung would leave him soon. The name compatibility score was only 27%, after all.
‘If it were over 70%, I wouldn’t worry like this.’
Lee A-gon was so, so sad that the name compatibility score was only 27%.
He was eight years old.
Even in the pit, Hae-jun hyung took care of Lee A-gon coolly and manfully. Because he was with hyung, Lee A-gon forgot his fear. Honestly, halfway through, it felt like a fun camping trip with just hyung.
Lee A-gon acted as weak as possible in the pit. Hyung tended to become more affectionate the weaker he seemed, so Lee A-gon whined in a weak voice, said he was scared, and hugged hyung. He even got a promise that hyung wouldn’t watch girl idol videos anymore. It was rewarding.
However, hyung didn’t promise not to make friends with anyone other than him.
Lee A-gon felt hyung was unreasonable. Why wouldn’t he make such an easy promise? What was so difficult about being friends only with him, playing only with him, and spending time only with him?
So, he provoked hyung with words he didn’t mean. He said he would befriend Ji-hoon hyung when they got out. He threatened to say he was closest to Ji-hoon hyung if anyone asked.
The plan worked. Hyung became jealous of him and Ji-hoon hyung. When he pushed a little harder, hyung completely caved and said he would delete the video app and all his contacts.
He wanted to dance with joy, but Lee A-gon maintained his composure. He had heard that men needed to play hard to get.
Hae-jun hyung said, “Since you might become friends with other people besides me, let’s do hypnosis.” Lee A-gon agreed immediately and received hypnosis from hyung.
Lee A-gon only likes Park Hae-jun. Lee A-gon wants to continue only with Park Hae-jun. We are a team. Best friends. Lee A-gon will never betray Park Hae-jun.
‘What? It’s the same as now.’
When the hypnosis ended, Lee A-gon thought to himself. Why would he bother with hypnosis? Even now, Lee A-gon wanted to do everything only with Hae-jun hyung and wanted to be best friends with Hae-jun hyung. And he had no intention of betraying Hae-jun hyung, no matter what.
After being rescued from the pit and completing a short hospital stay, Lee A-gon immediately went to find Hae-jun hyung. He wore a bow tie and a suit and prepared a bouquet of flowers.
But he couldn’t meet Hae-jun hyung. He couldn’t meet him a week later, or a month later.
“Why can’t I meet Hae-jun hyung?”
Lee A-gon, bewildered, soon became angry. He, too, had endured alone in the darkness where nothing could be seen.
You promised to be my closest friend. We said we were a team. We promised not to betray each other. Why won’t you meet me? Why?
His mother said hyung was very ill. So he couldn’t meet Lee A-gon, she said.
Lee A-gon couldn’t understand that either. Surely hyung would want to see him too. Because they were partners, the only two. Because they had sworn to be like that forever.
‘I shouldn’t have separated from hyung.’
Lee A-gon deeply regretted it. He should have kept his wits about him and chased after hyung. He never dreamed they would be apart for so long.
He shouldn’t have let go of hyung. He should have chased after him. If he lost hyung, he couldn’t find him again. Doesn’t hyung want to see me? Why isn’t he looking for me? That’s a betrayal, hyung…
Time passed, and Lee A-gon turned nine. That’s when Lee A-gon started to get sick. He suffered from severe headaches, and sometimes his heart had problems.
Lee A-gon underwent numerous tests to find the cause of the pain, but no diagnosis appeared. At ten years old, Lee A-gon ended up frequenting psychiatric hospitals, but that too was useless.
At eleven years old, Lee A-gon was truly very ill, and only then was the child’s condition diagnosed.
The child was an Ability User.
It was an excessively early age for manifestation.
“Usually, Ability Users show symptoms around puberty at the earliest, but in your son’s case, he showed symptoms from age nine, which is quite early. In this situation, his ability level is also predicted to be very high.”
These were the experts’ opinions.
To Lee A-gon’s mother, Woo Cheong-su, the child’s ability level meant nothing. This child was born on a golden path. He could live his life doing whatever he wanted without any worries. If he wanted to be an actor, he could be an actor; if he wanted to be a chef, a chef; if he wanted to live his life doing nothing, that was also possible.
There were many Assistants in the world who lived in hiding. Woo Cheong-su thought it would be easy to persuade a few of them with money and place them by Lee A-gon’s side.
That was until she learned the child refused assistance.