By Zephyria 
It was shortly after he had been promoted, so he was strictly disciplined and his nerves were on edge. He had spent a week on a stakeout near the home of a wanted criminal’s girlfriend with Detective Park, and in the process, he had completely forgotten that his own birthday had passed.
“We took turns rotating, but since my studio apartment was far away, I just slept and washed up at the police station. I was away from home for several days. By the time I returned, my birthday had already passed by two days.”
When Kim Si-baek finally arrested the suspect and returned home, exhausted and drained, what he saw was Tae-un collapsed unconscious in front of the entrance. The child had spent two days crouching in front of the house, waiting for his return. Kim Si-baek’s birthday fell in early spring.
Since it was common for Tae-un to visit and stay for a few days during Kim Si-baek’s days off or vacations, the nuns hadn’t found it strange that Tae-un hadn’t returned. Having spent two days overnight in the early spring—when temperatures plummeted after sunset—hardly eating anything, Tae-un suffered from a severe case of pneumonia.
〈…Hyung. You’re here?〉
The single phrase uttered by the child, who had barely managed to open his eyes with chapped, cracked lips; the narrowed eyes filled with joy rather than resentment—Kim Si-baek could not forget them for a very long time. Even now, he remembers it as vividly as if it happened yesterday.
“It wasn’t an era where children carried smartphones like they do these days, but if I had asked a supermarket or a shop, they could have given me a phone call. Later, after agonizing for a while and asking why he had just waited blindly without calling, he finally answered.”
In the hospital room, Tae-un, munching on an apple slice Kim Si-baek had peeled for him, hesitantly moved his lips.
〈I thought I might… get in the way of Hyung’s work…〉
It was a trivial reason compared to the internal turmoil Kim Si-baek had felt, wondering if there was some serious problem. And it was the reason why a mere elementary school student had spent two nights alone outside. Kim Si-baek felt a sudden release of tension, and a hot surge in his chest made his eyes sting.
Tae-un was that kind of child.
A child whose center of existence was Kim Si-baek.
Even if Kim Si-baek had not returned home for a very long time, the child would have sat there forever, waiting for him. Just as he had waited for Kim Si-baek in that semi-basement room long ago.
〈You can go back, Hyung.〉
〈I’m not going.〉
He recalls another answer from that child.
The child, who had relied on him as if Kim Si-baek were the only element constituting the world, had grown up. The child who had endured twenty-one years alone, carrying memories isolated from others, was now okay even if he wasn’t necessarily the center of his life.
〈I don’t want to lose you, who is my family.〉
Perhaps it was he who was bound by the frames of the past. Just as the phantom of his dead younger brother had remained a shackle tightening around his heart.
Was I the one who failed to grow?
If so, how should I look at you?
He cupped Tae-un’s pale cheek with his hand. Long eyelashes, casting a faint shadow, fluttered open languidly as if responding. Deep eyes, blinking slowly as if exhaling a labored breath, finally focused on Kim Si-baek and broke into a bright smile.
“…Ah, it’s Hyung.”
Tae-un had grown. He was composed even knowing that Kim Si-baek might not be in his future. Nevertheless, the smile of the child who had waited for him forever remained unchanged, and just as he had done when the child woke up in the hospital room back then, Kim Si-baek held his face and rubbed his cheek.
Even a simple inquiry of whether he was alright wouldn’t come out easily, so he simply embraced that smile deeply. Although the churning pain in his chest gradually subsided, Kim Si-baek could not let go of his warmth for a long time.
✽ ✽ ✽
Following the Management Center, another magical beast seed germinated in the city center, where the purification of magical energy had been proceeding relatively smoothly. While the public worried about the new situation, they were also excited by the successful subjugation and the activity of the new S-class hunter who achieved it. Interviews and testimonies from people who had personally witnessed and experienced Kim Si-baek’s healing abilities naturally fueled the enthusiasm.
Because of this, instead of Tae-un’s phone, which had blocked all external contact, Yang Eun-ho’s phone was blowing up.
“Manager Yang, Eun-ho. I’m not asking for a difficult favor, am I? It’s not like I’m sneakily trying to steal a guild member. I just want to invite him as a guest for a high price, huh? Let’s just go hunting together.”
“No, Guild Master Yu.”
Holding his phone, Yang Eun-ho could only sigh deeply at Justina on the other end of the line.
“I already told you what our Guild Master answered.”
“Now, come on, we’re both Koreans, we have ‘jeong’. Try talking to Tae-un for me.”
Yang Eun-ho didn’t know why this person, who wasn’t even Korean, kept bringing up Korean ‘jeong’. Today, Yang Eun-ho’s distress continued to pile up in proportion to the external commotion.
Regardless of what noise and excitement occurred in the world outside the guild, for Kim Si-baek, there was no great significance other than the objective fact that the recovery of divine power was proceeding smoothly. What was important to him right now was the temperature of the porridge.
“Ah, hot.”
“Is it too hot?”
Startled, Kim Si-baek quickly blew on the spoon. The porridge on the spoon, which was already cooling, cooled even faster.
Tae-un, who had a ‘cat’s tongue’ when he was young and still claimed to have one, yet had eaten hot dishes just fine when dining with Kim Si-baek until recently, primly opened his lips, and Kim Si-baek carefully inserted the spoon. Only after Tae-un chewed and swallowed the porridge did Kim Si-baek look relieved.
“This is okay, right? Does it taste good?”
Tae-un only gave a beaming smile, and Kim Si-baek felt gratified that a child who couldn’t even leave the bed because he was sick was at least eating well.
The only one breaking into a cold sweat in this scene was Biyendwe.
‘…Is he faking it?’
The crow’s pupils trembled with emerging suspicion. The suspicion that he was already fully recovered but was lingering in bed just to receive Kim Si-baek’s nursing care.
However, he didn’t say it because it was obvious that if he brought up that suspicion, Kim Si-baek would simply answer, ‘How sorrowful must the child have felt being sick that he would fake it just to be with me.’
“Hyuuung, that. That one.”
“Hmm? This? Braised beef? Do you want the braised beef?”
“Ung.”
The way he acted so innocently, even using baby talk, made it believable that he was five years old rather than thirty-five.
‘….’
Biyendwe’s suspicion grew even stronger, but he kept his beak shut. Because the reason Tae-un could be so brazen, whether his faking it was discovered through infantile regression or not, was entirely because of Kim Si-baek.
Fortunately, this time of agony did not last long today. It was thanks to Yang Eun-ho’s visit, which served as both a get-well visit and a report.
“Hello. How is Tae-un hyung doing?”
Yang Eun-ho, whose face looked somehow haggard after only a few days, flinched at the glare from Tae-un, who was displeased that his intimate time was being interrupted.
“…?”
When Kim Si-baek looked back in curiosity, Yang Eun-ho witnessed Tae-un’s eyes instantly curving into a bright smile, which somehow made him feel even more appalled.
He felt a sense of crisis that if he tried any small talk before the main conversation, he might incur Tae-un’s grudge. Yang Eun-ho cleared his throat and quickly got to the point.
“Ahem, cough. I’ve gathered all the magic stones the mentor mentioned. They’ll arrive tomorrow.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Though he didn’t understand the principle, Yang Eun-ho cooperated actively upon hearing that magic stones from several highly toxic magical beasts were needed to create medicine to treat Tae-un.
The magic stones registered in the exchange and released on the market were refined, but what Kim Si-baek had requested were unrefined magic stones. Because of that, for the past few days, the hunters of the 7777 Guild had been diligently hunting the magical beasts Kim Si-baek specified. Even then, it wasn’t enough, so they had even looked into foreign auctions.
Having delivered the gist of his business, Yang Eun-ho stole a glance at Tae-un.
“….”
Since there was still tension in Tae-un’s eyes, he quietly stood up from his seat.
“By the way, has the cause of the anxiety fog’s occurrence not been revealed yet?”
“Currently, it’s leaning toward natural germination. During the Management Center incident, there was at least Kim Dae-ho, but this incident is clean. There were no suspicious people on the CCTV either.”
Though slim, as Yang Eun-ho said, the probability of natural germination wasn’t zero. However, Kim Si-baek’s heart still leaned toward the idea that Edokus was behind it.
When he looked at Biyendwe to see what he thought, the crow was fast asleep with its face buried in a cushion.
Unable to withstand Tae-un’s glare, Yang Eun-ho soon left. After putting Biyendwe to bed in the room, Kim Si-baek sat by the head of Tae-un’s bed.
The bedroom, where the lingering echoes of conversation had vanished, became quiet, like a lie.
Tae-un, who had been pretending to be tired and sending glares to tell Yang Eun-ho to get lost behind Kim Si-baek’s back, now leaned softly against him. The weight resting on his shoulder felt familiar yet strange. As much as he had grown into an adult while he wasn’t looking.
Kim Si-baek agonized over how to start the conversation, but since no suitable words to set the mood came to mind, he just threw a direct question.
“You… you don’t actually like me, do you?”