By Zephyria 
An answer did not come for a long time. Jeil Heon waited for the child’s choice with a sense of desperation and despair. Who would welcome someone who spouts such selfish nonsense after rejecting a confession? Even the last handful of Essence he had left would likely vanish. If the child were to push him away and leave him like this… Just the thought of it brought a terrible sensation, as if his insides were being churned and a sudden hunger was surging up.
It is easy to lure and tempt a child who trusts you with sweet words. Jeil Heon was confident that he could perfectly hide his wretched true nature. He could play the part of the good person, the good man, the good mister that the child desired. It would be easy. A simple task. And the end of that—the end of those lies and deception—would be a distortion of the heart, causing even the precious light held within the Heart’s Depths to fade.
He would no longer be a human named Jeil Heon. He would be nothing more than a mere Aberration.
Jeil Heon wanted to be human. Even if the child despised him and turned away, even if he were to cling piteously to the dark shadow cast by that brilliant light, he wanted to be by the child’s side as a human.
Yoo Jiha’s tightly closed lips parted slightly.
“The reason you’re thinking this is because I stabilize your Corruption Level, right? Even if it’s not the only reason.”
“……Yes.”
Yoo Jiha fidgeted for a long while again before cautiously continuing.
“You mentioned it before. That the fact that I stabilize your Corruption Level is also a Value I possess, so there’s no need to feel an Inferiority Complex……. Mister, what do you think if I say I like you because you’re handsome?”
“Huh? Suddenly, why…?”
“To be honest, part of the reason I like you is because you’re handsome. You’re so handsome that I never get tired of looking at you. I finally understand why my Noona watched the same movie in the theater over twenty times because she was fangirling over an actor. If you were an actor, I would have watched it a hundred times. So, how does that make you feel?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected words, Jeil Heon answered sincerely.
“I’m grateful to the mother who gave me this face…”
“Me too.”
Yoo Jiha took a deep breath, having intentionally spoken quickly to hide the thumping of his heart. He wasn’t even sure what words were coming out of his own mouth.
However, he was certain of one thing. Through the man’s affirming whispers, he realized that he was a person who was needed. He knew he could be of help to him. He had learned from him that this was his own unique Value.
As expected, he is a good person.
“I’m happy that I can be of help to you, and I like that this is what attracts you to me. Is that not allowed?”
“…….”
“I’m asking because I really don’t know, but does dating have to start only after we’ve officially certified that we love each other? In dramas, people date just fine even when they’re just in the ‘some’ stage with mutual interest……. It was like that when my friends got partners, too……. Was it different in the 20th century?”
Since he was an old-timer, perhaps things had to be serious from the start. Since he himself was already overflowing with seriousness, he could wait as long as it took for Jeil Heon to become serious. As he reaffirmed this to himself, Jeil Heon, who had been listening blankly, let out a low laugh.
“It wasn’t like that twenty years ago either. No, more than that, twenty years ago isn’t even that long ago. We had cell phones, computers, everything.”
“It’s before I was even born, so it’s totally ancient to me.”
Yoo Jiha pouted slightly and pulled his face away from Jeil Heon’s chest, stealthily gauging his reaction.
“Then… are we, l-like, d-da-dating?”
The corners of Jeil Heon’s mouth curved into a soft arc, and a gentle warmth spread across his entire face. It was the smile that always made Yoo Jiha’s heart flutter.
“Yes, let’s date, Jiha.”
Whoa.
Wow.
Wow.
His mouth hung open instinctively. Even though he heard it directly from his lips, it didn’t feel real. Dating. Dating. Dating. Wow.
His heart was thumping similarly to before, but he could feel a distinct difference in the color permeating that vibration.
“Since you’re my boyfriend, can I call you Hyung from now on?!”
“Sorry. Seriously, don’t.”
The traces of laughter vanished instantly, and ‘1-Heon Hyung’ returned with an expression that almost bordered on self-loathing. Jiha wanted to pout, but realizing that the man had been feeling paternal love for a boyfriend twelve years his junior, he decided to be generous and understanding, as a young and cute younger boyfriend should.
“Then, instead, give me a k-kiss…!”
He wouldn’t be able to refuse this either. Yoo Jiha squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation, and soon, a soft sensation descended.
Chu.
Not on the lips, but on the forehead.
“……?!”
“You asked for a kiss, didn’t you?”
“No, even if I say it clumsily, you should understand perfectly! Ki, ki……. I mean, ki, ki…….”
As his lips struggled with the embarrassing and flushing word ‘kiss,’ a soft yet hot breath touched him. A tongue that licked up his lips, nibbling gently so as not to hurt, carefully parted his teeth, and sweetness flooded his mouth.
It was the beginning of a first love.
* * *
While Jeil Heon had taken several days to fall asleep when he only spoke with Yoo Jiha over the phone, today, after meeting him in person, he fell asleep almost immediately. It was likely the exhaustion resulting from the rebound of suddenly regaining stability after nearly transforming completely into an Aberration.
While conducting Choi Beom-seok’s funeral, his gaze had remained ambiguous, as if he couldn’t distinguish where a person’s face was even while looking at them. It was worrying in many ways, but Kang Suk-young let him be, believing that as long as Yoo Jiha was nearby, it wouldn’t worsen. Her guess was correct.
Watching his progress, Kang Suk-young concluded that she could continue to leave him in Yoo Jiha’s care. She seemed relieved, but for some reason, a sense of déjà vu kept nagging her. The face of the boy who looked distressed while holding onto Jeil Heon, who had fallen asleep instantly like a narcoleptic, was strangely familiar.
After pondering for a long time, Kang Suk-young slapped her knee and pulled an old album from the study. The photo she found while flipping through an album from about thirty years ago was a wedding photo of Lee Yeo-jin.
The person Kang Suk-young’s gaze landed on was the man linking arms with Lee Yeo-jin, wearing a happy smile—his husband, Nam Hyeon-woo.
‘He definitely has a similar vibe to Yeo-jin’s husband.’
Upon confirming the photo, the déjà vu became clearer. The image of Nam Hyeon-woo, who had been at a loss when Lee Yeo-jin was severely injured by an Aberration in the past, overlapped with the face of Yoo Jiha she had seen today. And the only child of this couple, an only daughter, had gone missing twenty-two years ago along with Lee Yeo-jin. Before the disappearance of the mother and daughter, Nam Hyeon-woo and his mother, the Mansin Nam Soon-ho, were murdered by an Aberration.
To ensure that those contaminated by anomalies or foreign spies did not infiltrate, the Management Bureau thoroughly investigates new employees. Yoo Jiha was no exception. According to the investigation, he was adopted by his current parents at the age of four. That didn’t mean the suspicion that he might be the child of that couple who disappeared twenty-two years ago didn’t arise. Since the gender was opposite and there was an age difference.
‘Rather, isn’t it possible that Nam Hyeon-woo had a son with another woman?’
Of course, for this scenario to be feasible, it required the premise that Nam Hyeon-woo, who was tentatively concluded to be dead, was actually alive. How a person whose limbs were torn off one by one and then disappeared could have survived was a matter that required thought.
‘If the rumor that Nam Hyeon-woo wasn’t an ordinary person but a Hybrid with an Aberration is true, he might be alive…….’
If Yoo Jiha really was Nam Hyeon-woo’s son, she would have to provide him with extensive support. Not for Nam Hyeon-woo, but as a way of repaying Nam Soon-ho, who had been in a cooperative relationship with the Management Bureau.
Lost in thought, Kang Suk-young suddenly gave a bitter smile. Her thoughts were excessive, based solely on the fact that a distressed expression looked slightly similar.
As she traced memories while flipping through photos of Lee Yeo-jin for the first time in a long while, Kang Suk-young suddenly found a connection between the matter she was struggling with and her friend.
‘Come to think of it, Yeo-jin was the granddaughter of Prince Ui.’
Shortly after the passing of Prince Ui, the second son of Emperor Gojong, a woman in shabby clothes carrying a young child visited the Sadonggung (Prince Ui’s palace), weeping that the child was the Prince’s offspring. Since it was an era without DNA testing and there was no token to prove the relationship with Prince Ui, the child was not registered in the Prince’s family genealogy. However, the Princess Consort of Prince Ui felt pity for the woman and child who had nowhere to go, gave them some wealth, and allowed them to use the surname Lee. That child was Lee Yeo-jin’s father.
After Lee Yeo-jin joined the Management Bureau, a DNA test with the descendants of Prince Ui confirmed that she was indeed his granddaughter.
‘If the next Sealed One of the Ten Thousand Waves Flute is the missing Yeo-jin or her daughter…….’