By Zephyria 
“Then I will contact you once the results are out.”
After exchanging greetings with the Attending Physician, I stepped out into the hallway.
Thanks to the machine being broken, the examination ended quickly, but perhaps because I had spent an hour in close physical contact with Vasily for guiding, I was exhausted. All I wanted was to lie down and rest anywhere.
“Where are we going now?”
“I don’t know… there’s nothing else on the schedule after this.”
Come to think of it, did he say they had cleared all the Gates? If so, things should definitely be relaxed for a while.
“Then let’s go home.”
Vasily’s private room bed flickered momentarily before my eyes, but there was no need to stay at the association when I had nothing to do. I followed Vasily straight to the parking lot.
* * *
I slowly opened my eyes. As I blinked a few times, the dark ceiling dimly entered my field of vision.
Is it still night…?
Groping beside my pillow, I found and picked up my smartphone. Checking the screen, I saw that it was past 3 AM.
I should sleep a bit more.
I must have woken up in the middle of the night because I had gone to bed early due to fatigue. Since it was too early to get up, I rolled over, intending to try and fall asleep again.
Just then, a faint sound drifted in from beyond the bedroom door. Was it the sound of rain? No, judging by the clinking, it sounded like glass hitting glass…
Is Vasily in the living room? I listened intently with my eyes closed.
As I focused on the sound, my drowsiness vanished. My mind became clear, and it seemed impossible to fall back asleep. Since I had slept enough, I decided to check what the sound was.
I pushed myself up and stepped outside. Entering the brightly lit living room, I saw Vasily sitting on the sofa and a glass bottle containing a light brown liquid on the table in front of him.
It’s alcohol?
I asked as I approached Vasily.
“Are you drinking alone and acting miserable at this hour instead of sleeping?”
“You know I can’t sleep without Guide Kwon Gi-dam.”
Vasily tilted his glass without a single change in expression.
The identity of the light brown liquid sloshing in the glass was the whiskey he usually drank. The expectation I had felt upon spotting the brown glass bottle quickly subsided. Then again, there was no way Vasily would be drinking beer.
I looked around and asked.
“Is there no beer?”
“Unfortunately, there’s only whiskey. Do you want some too, Guide Kwon Gi-dam?”
“I put some beer in the refrigerator…”
“If you’re talking about the refrigerator from where you lived before, it’s gone now.”
Tsk, what a shame. I had been saving it to drink after work. If I had known I’d be moving this quickly, I would have drunk the entire pack on the spot as soon as I bought it. I didn’t know how long I’d stay in this house, but I should probably refill the stock.
Vasily stood up and spoke to me.
“Stay seated. I’ll bring a glass.”
“Alright.”
I nodded and sat on the sofa. Perhaps because it was near where Vasily had been sitting, I felt a cold sensation beneath my hips.
I stared at Vasily as he quickly returned with a glass.
He’s definitely noticed something… but strangely, he isn’t saying anything.
How much had Vasily figured out? He was someone who suspected me every single time. Yet now, he wasn’t asking me anything, which was oddly unusual.
I spoke to Vasily as he sat beside me and poured the liquor into the empty glass.
“Vasily.”
“Yes?”
“How much have you found out?”
I chose to ask him outright.
It would be difficult to get the answer I wanted by vaguely watching his reaction and testing the waters. Rather than worrying for nothing, it was better to confront him head-on. The atmosphere happened to be appropriate for a conversation.
Vasily stared at me intently, then slowly curled the corners of his mouth upward.
“Have you decided to stop acting now?”
“I wasn’t acting. At first, I really didn’t remember, but my memories returned halfway through. Stop dodging the question and just answer.”
As expected, there was no sign of flusteredness. I had my suspicions, but it seemed he already knew that my memories had returned.
After staring at me for a moment, Vasily spoke.
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam, did you regress after being caught in my rampage at the Gate?”
I guessed he would have figured it out, but I didn’t expect the correct answer to come out so instantly…
Since he might be testing me, I denied it once for now.
“Do you think something as absurd as that is even possible?”
“I thought so at first too… but other than that, the things Guide Kwon Gi-dam showed me couldn’t be explained.”
True, even I thought it was suspicious. Since I knew about events that hadn’t happened yet, it was only natural for him to suspect the possibility that I had regressed.
Losing the will to hide it further, I admitted it readily.
“That’s correct. We were the only two inside the Gate, and because of your rampage, the way back was blocked, so we would have frozen to death.”
When I told him of our end, Vasily looked at me with an intrigued expression. He was so focused that he had completely let go of his glass.
Seeing him treat my story as mere curiosity, I began to feel irritated. Now that I realized Vasily knew everything, it was my turn to hold him accountable for the things he did while I had lost my memory.
“By the way, why on earth did you lie and say that you and I were in a romantic relationship?”
“I thought Guide Kwon Gi-dam needed to learn how to be suspicious. You believed it too easily.”
“…There are articles all over the internet saying we’re lovers; how could I not believe it?”
Letting out an irritated sigh, I downed the liquor on the table. The pungent liquid slid down my esophagus, pulling the frustration along with it.
Using the alcohol as a catalyst, I poured out the grievances I had accumulated as if complaining.
“Do you have any idea how confused I was because of you? You demanded ridiculous things, claiming we were lovers, and your way of speaking was strange. I really thought it was a parallel world.”
“My way of speaking is strange?”
“You didn’t originally speak like that. Even now, you speak down to everyone else.”
“Then can I speak comfortably? I was actually starting to find this uncomfortable.”
“Don’t even dream about it.”
“That’s a shame.”
Vasily answered playfully, lifting one corner of his mouth. Yes, that kind of behavior was what was strange. Before the regression, he had only shown a cold and sensitive side, but now he had completely changed. He was so unfamiliar that I sometimes wondered if he was a different person.
“And why did you take me into the Gate?”
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam said he wanted to go in first.”
“You should have stopped me; how could you just watch? That’s a breach of contract.”
“So, are you asking me to terminate the exclusive contract?”
Vasily’s voice turned cold in an instant.
I snorted and sipped my drink. Even if I mentioned contract fulfillment, he would just ignore it since the original contract had disappeared.
And I had already decided to remain as his Guide. If I weren’t here, Vasily would rampage again, and then I would have to return once more to stop it. It was a predetermined conclusion from the moment I stepped off the plane from China and returned to Vasily.
Turning my head away, I spoke.
“Forget it. I’m not going into any more Gates in the future. As long as you keep that, I’ll continue to be your Guide.”
“Is that all it takes?”
“Is there a problem?”
“Like last time, the contract or other conditions…”
“I only have one condition, so there’s no need to bother with a contract. In the first place, was there anything in the contract we wrote that was actually followed?”
There were no complex conditions or contracts. It was essentially the same as removing all penalties for breach of contract and all restrictions on each other’s behavior.
When I finished speaking, Vasily blinked, looking slightly surprised. He probably hadn’t expected me to agree to stay as his Guide so easily.
Since I had only tried to escape from him until now, it was inevitable that he couldn’t trust me.
“The matching rate results will be out soon, so it doesn’t matter if I’m announced as the dedicated Guide. In exchange, please take down the dating rumors.”
If I were to be precise, I wanted to add one more condition. Just getting rid of the dating rumors that had been bothering me?
I thought Vasily would readily accept this. However, as soon as I finished speaking, Vasily’s expression became slightly sullen.
“I don’t want to do that.”
“No, why not? If you release a correction article along with the matching rate announcement, it would be just right—”
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam, you know too.”
Vasily cut me off and pressed down firmly on my shoulder. My body tilted, and I flopped right onto the sofa.
The glass I was holding slipped from my fingers and was dropped. I heard the liquor spill onto the floor and the glass roll away.
Just as I tried to push myself up to check if the glass had broken, Vasily climbed on top of me. I tried to escape him in a hurry, but I couldn’t budge under the pressure on my shoulders.
“Or, are you pretending not to know that part even though you remember everything?”
Vasily’s silver-grey eyes gazed steadily at me.
It was a gaze that wasn’t threatening, nor did it hold a trace of a smile, but strangely, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.