By Zephyria Thud.
‘Huh?’
Thud, thud, thud, suddenly the sound of his heart started to beat loudly. Strangely. Nothing had changed.
Eui-jae rubbed his chest. Meanwhile, Lee Sa-young had taken a step forward. A languid voice echoed, mixed with a sweet scent. In the bright hallway, only his black back was visible.
“I was originally going to include an interview with the Director, but he kept refusing…”
“……”
“Jung-bin also refused, probably because of the Director’s orders. So, I played a little trick.”
“……”
“Ah, Song Jo-heon was rather easy. I don’t know if it was because of his image management… but he agreed right away.”
With every word, a subtly joyful air was evident. Pale skin glimpsed between the black hair, a neck mottled with handprints, a swaying coat, the bridge of his nose and lips revealed when he glanced back, and purple eyes that captured only him. The emotion in those eyes was….
“…Hyung?”
“……”
“What’s wrong?”
Cha Eui-jae looked at Lee Sa-young anew. Had Lee Sa-young’s shoulders always been this broad? Had he always been this tall? His crown was half a head above Cha Eui-jae, who wasn’t short himself. When Eui-jae didn’t follow and stopped in his place, Sa-young turned to face him.
Ironically, the boy he had saved was nowhere to be found. A fully grown adult man stood before him. Eui-jae blurted out.
“Why did you make it?”
“What? …Ah, the documentary?”
“Yeah.”
Sa-young blinked. As if he were saying something strange, as if it were too obvious.
“I told you. I made it because those stupid guys kept forgetting Hyung.”
“The dead are bound to be forgotten. Eventually, everyone….”
“Who’s dead…? Ha, why are you suddenly like this?”
“Anyway, it was known that you were dead. They even erected a memorial.”
“Did you hit your head because you’re hungry?”
Sa-young snapped, sounding displeased. He unfolded his arms and pointed at Eui-jae’s face with his index finger. Beyond his finger, clear purple eyes stared straight at Cha Eui-jae.
“In the first place, it was Cha Eui-jae, you, who grabbed my hand first.”
Eui-jae remembered the face he had encountered in the ruins. The barely sustained breath, the small heartbeat that seemed about to stop at any moment, the faintly heaving back. The lips moving silently. A quiet request for salvation.
‘Please save me.’
Cha Eui-jae reached out his hand. And,
‘It’s okay.’
He grasped the hand that had melted and shriveled from the Poison. Without the slightest hesitation.
Eui-jae blinked. The shriveled hand was nowhere to be seen, and a large, strong-boned hand was pointing directly at Cha Eui-jae. Lee Sa-young said as if spitting out the words.
“You, who saved me, promised.”
“……”
“That you’d come back.”
“……”
“I just kept my promise.”
Eui-jae opened his mouth slightly. He thought it was a selfish request. At that time, Cha Eui-jae had no certainty that he could return. As he was being pushed towards the cliff, he had only reached out his hand to the only hand he could grab. Like a person drowning in deep water, grabbing at anything.
But at that time, that boy.
Lee Sa-young.
Had not let go of his hand. Even after 8 years, even now.
His throat felt blocked, and he couldn’t speak. What was the basis of this blind faith? The source of this endless belief? Sa-young sighed and lowered the hand that had been pointing at his face. He fiddled with his hair with his black fingers.
“Are you satisfied now?”
“……”
“If you are, follow me. I need to feed you first, this won’t do….”
Sa-young clicked his tongue and turned around. But Eui-jae didn’t move. No, he couldn’t move.
“……”
He felt as if the floor he was standing on was melting. His fingertips and toes were tingling. His heart was beating faster and faster, to the point where he was gasping for breath. His head was blank.
Eui-jae barely swallowed. He became unnecessarily conscious of every natural action, such as breathing, blinking, and swallowing. All the senses in his body were keenly focused on one place. On Lee Sa-young.
The sight of Lee Sa-young turning around again seemed like slow motion.
He blinks. With each movement of his eyelids, his long eyelashes flutter, and his thick lips part slightly. His chest moves up and down slightly. His eyebrows twitch a little, and he furrows his brow. His head tilts slightly to the right. At the same time, his hair sways. A sweet scent wafts. The tips of his black fingers, which are touching his cheek, tremble slightly.
Eui-jae covered his face with both hands over his mask. Even if he blocked his sight, he couldn’t block his sense of smell and hearing.
“Hyung?”
An questioning voice called out to him. His shrunken fingers groped at the mask. Damn it.
‘Why all of a sudden?’
Eui-jae let out a slightly quickened breath. He felt like he was suffocating. Even though he wasn’t underwater.
If he continued to face Lee Sa-young like this, he felt like he would collapse soon. A premonition that he shouldn’t do this flashed through his mind. Without realizing it, he stepped back a little. And quickly looked around. Next to the elevator they had gotten off, he saw the emergency exit door. The green emergency light was flashing.
“…Hiss.”
Eui-jae took a short breath. And,
Thud, thud!
He sprinted towards the emergency exit door. Lee Sa-young, who had been staring at Cha Eui-jae in a daze, gritted his teeth and swept back his hair.
“What… ha, what are you doing now!”
Eui-jae started running down the long stairs. Soon after, he heard the sound of footsteps running down behind him. The footsteps closely followed behind him. He could vaguely see the black coat fluttering. Lee Sa-young shouted.
“Why are you suddenly like this, are you crazy?”
It feels like I’m going crazy if I stay there, why!
Eui-jae gritted his teeth and started running down the stairs several steps at a time. Thud, thud, thud, his legs held up easily. But Lee Sa-young, who was following behind, was not to be underestimated. He thought he heard a small curse, and then the sound of footsteps started to be heard with a little pause. He was jumping down the same way. Only then did Eui-jae shout.
“…Don’t follow me!”
“Tell me why you’re suddenly like this! Are you really going crazy? Or are you suddenly sorry?”
“It’s not that, so don’t follow me!”
“Damn it, how am I supposed to know if you don’t tell me!”
“You’re not telling me either!”
“Are you saying that here? What are you trying to do now?”
Lee Sa-young flared up in anger.
“If you have something to say because you’re upset, you should at least look at each other’s faces in a place where there’s no one around! Does it make sense to do it while running down the stairs!”
He was right. Eui-jae was about to retort, but he quickly looked down. And he flinched. Someone who had opened the emergency exit door and was standing there was staring at them with their mouth wide open.
Looking at their clothes and name tag, they seemed to be a member of the Wave Guild. Ah, I didn’t think of this. There’s no way people wouldn’t come out to see what’s going on when we’re shouting this loud!
Eui-jae gritted his teeth and moved his feet even faster. Thud, thud, thud, he heard Lee Sa-young sighing in annoyance. The aura he felt from behind became even more intense.
“Aren’t you going to stop? How far are you going to go?”
I’m going to hell!
“Stop first! We need to talk, damn it!”
But Eui-jae, who had the heart of a rebellious person, didn’t stop his feet. The lower he went, the more he sensed people, and the more Guild members opened the emergency exit door and came out to see what was going on.
They screamed and exclaimed when they saw Cha Eui-jae wearing a black mask, and screamed when they saw the dark Lee Sa-young chasing after him with a murderous aura.
5th floor, 4th floor, 3rd floor, he was getting closer and closer to the lobby. Eui-jae quickly recalled the structure of the Wave Guild that he had visited last time. If he went out the main entrance, he would attract attention, so he could either hide somewhere, go out the back door, or break the window and escape. Good. That’s a perfect plan.
2nd floor,
1st floor.
Squeak, the Walker slipped as it rubbed against the smooth floor. Eui-jae grabbed the doorknob of the emergency exit iron door. Clunk, the doorknob spun uselessly as if it was locked.
He glanced up to check, and Lee Sa-young looked like he wasn’t tired at all, except for his disheveled hair. And he had the coldest expression he had ever seen. His heart was beating chaotically. He couldn’t tell if it was because he had run down dozens of floors at once, or because of Lee Sa-young.
Eui-jae roughly grabbed the doorknob and pulled it out. And without hesitation, he kicked the door.
Bang―!!
Bright light poured in. Eui-jae scanned his surroundings. The open lobby of the Wave Guild had a full view of the outside scenery thanks to the glass.
There were a lot of people gathered beyond the main entrance, and there were several Hunters belonging to the Wave Guild in the company cafe on one side of the lobby. There were also familiar faces. He thought he had made eye contact with Bae Won-woo. Bae Won-woo spat out his coffee with a dazed expression.
A murderous aura surged from behind. If he got caught, he would die. Eui-jae quickly ran out. Lee Sa-young, who followed him out, shouted in a fit.
“Wait a minute, Hy…”!
Sa-young quickly looked around and swallowed the title of Hyung. Instead, he called out the name he had repeated many times a long time ago.
“J!”
J glanced back, but it was only for a fleeting moment. He started running again with the determination to die. Lee Sa-young looked at the scene in the lobby and let out a hollow laugh.
“Ah…. I’m going crazy, really.”
“Oh….”
Bae Won-woo let out a dumbfounded exclamation. He didn’t even have any coffee left to spill.
At that moment, a black head popped out from Lee Sa-young’s shadow. It was Min-gi Seo wearing sunglasses. Min-gi Seo clumsily climbed up to his upper body and put down a paper bag with a thud. The logo of a Korean restaurant near the Guild was printed on it. Min-gi Seo looked around and blinked in confusion.
“Huh?”
“……”
“Guild Leader? Why are you in the lobby? Weren’t you in the Guild Leader’s office?”
“…Immediately.”
“Yes?”
Lee Sa-young pointed to the back of Eui-jae, who had already become a black dot and ran far away.
“Chase after him immediately!”