By Zephyria 195
Eui-jae stared as if possessed at Lee Sa-young and Cha Eui-jae, who was embraced in his arms. He certainly knew the face, and it was also his own appearance, but it didn’t feel real. It was like watching a scene from a movie.
His gaze soon turned to Lee Sa-young. Vacant, unfocused eyes groping the air. The face before him was strangely familiar. Not just because he had seen it a moment ago. A little further back, that is…. Eui-jae soon let out an exclamation.
“Ah.”
‘I can finally give up.’
Yes. It was similar to the expression Ham Seok-jeong had when she heard the news of her aunt’s death. Eui-jae rubbed his mouth for no reason. Strangely, his mouth tasted bitter.
“…….”
The world hidden beneath the ideal. Lee Sa-young’s real world. Unlike the perfect and flawless ideal, this place was desolate, quiet, and unchanging. He had an inexplicable premonition.
Perhaps Lee Sa-young here would hold Cha Eui-jae forever. His world had stopped the moment Cha Eui-jae died.
It was then. A low whisper was heard.
“Really, you’re still a cruel person….”
Rustle, rustle…. Footsteps approached from somewhere. Eui-jae didn’t turn around. The footsteps stopped exactly three steps away from him. An emotionless voice muttered.
“Digging everything up like a mole.”
“…….”
“So, are you satisfied?”
“…….”
“You destroyed a world by sacrificing yourself.”
Eui-jae turned around. Lee Sa-young was looking at him with an expressionless face. Only an endless emptiness lingered in his lilac eyes. His parched lips twitched.
“You should have been satisfied….”
A hint of gloom flickered across his delicate face.
“I told you…. You won’t find what you’re looking for.”
“…….”
“I have nothing more to show you. This is all that’s left.”
Lee Sa-young, who had slowly walked over, passed Eui-jae and stood in front of the embalmed two. There was no emotion left on his face as he looked at his past self. As if everything had burned and only ashes remained. His attitude was drier than the desert wind. Eui-jae suddenly asked.
“You’re a little…. Different in attitude?”
“Huh?”
“That, why. I neck….”
Eui-jae made a circle with his hand. Sa-young glanced back and replied nonchalantly, “Ah.”
“It can’t be helped. After being alone in the Destroyed world.”
“…….”
“Self-harm is only fun once or twice. If you keep doing it, it’s not stimulating at all…. The Destroyed world won’t change either. It’s faster than you think. Becoming like a walking stone.”
“…….”
“Contacting you in that state…. Hmm, the stimulation was quite intense. I couldn’t control myself. Were you surprised?”
This guy is out of his mind.
He stealthily took a step back. Lee Sa-young was only looking at his past self, regardless. He shouldn’t get buried there. Eui-jae deliberately started a conversation.
“You told me to sleep with you. What were you going to show me then? You said you’d show me memories or something.”
“Huh? Where else….”
The pale corners of his lips tilted up. But there was no laughter in his eyes at all. Only the same emptiness lingered.
“The place you destroyed yourself.”
Hong Ye-seong and the slick Jung-bin, who had been away a little longer, floated vaguely in his mind. Eui-jae unwittingly spat out with a sullen expression.
“…No, wasn’t it completely distorted in your own way there?”
“Ah, it looked that way. I tried to piece it together as best I could….”
Lee Sa-young tapped his lips lightly with his finger. His eyelashes drooped over his eyes as if lost in thought.
“It can’t be helped. Everyone I know is dead….”
“…….”
“I made it by groping through vague memories, but I guess I failed…. Sorry?”
Damn it!
Eui-jae gritted his teeth. Strangely, this Lee Sa-young was difficult to deal with. The energy closer to the System than a human, the face and voice without emotion. But there was a last human side left to him. Right here.
A person who had abandoned all emotions to wander alone for a very long time. Joy, anger, sorrow, rage. He had abandoned all joys and sorrows, but the one thing he couldn’t abandon was here.
Cha Eui-jae was seeing the origin of a human being.
It was heavy. Everything.
“…….”
Eui-jae clenched and unclenched his fists for no reason. The muscles stiffened with tension moved stiffly. Lee Sa-young muttered.
“Don’t be so nervous.”
“…….”
“You don’t think I’m going to kill you or something….”
Eui-jae tried to joke as if nothing was wrong.
“I think you could trap me.”
“…….”
Strangely, no denial came back. It was still like that after waiting for a while. This bastard, were you really trying to trap me? Eui-jae glared.
“Were you really going to do that?”
Lilac eyes averted his gaze obliquely.
“Not confinement…. I was going to evacuate you.”
“Evacuate?”
“Because Doomsday is coming soon, even to that world.”
“…….”
“I could have taken care of one of you. In the world I created.”
He recalls the world that was strangely perfect. A world that was obsessed with realizing reality to the point of feeling a kind of compulsion. A place where only one person’s seat was left empty. The moment Cha Eui-jae came, his utopia would have been completed.
Lee Sa-young continued in a gloomy tone.
“…But you destroyed it with your own hands.”
Eui-jae bit his lip. There were many things he wanted to say, but it was difficult to bring them up easily. He pondered for a long time and barely asked one thing.
“Did you think I would go there in the first place?”
“You wouldn’t have come.”
“…….”
“There’s no way you would have come.”
“…….”
“I know that much too. But….”
His gaze, which had been looking obliquely at the floor, stared straight at Eui-jae. Cha Eui-jae was clearly reflected in his empty eyes. Only Cha Eui-jae.
“It was quite helpful. While I was holding on. The thought that you might come to the world I created….”
“…….”
Funnily enough, Cha Eui-jae could understand his words. There were days when he could endure just by thinking about what he would do when he returned.
At first, he thought about returning safely with his aunt, as well as his fellow Hunters. Even after losing his aunt, he thought about returning with all his colleagues. And after losing his colleagues….
He thought about living with the boy. Because that was all that was left for him.
Thinking about what kind of house to buy, how to decorate the room, and what the boy’s reaction would be, his loneliness subsided a little. It was only a little, but.
So Cha Eui-jae came to understand ‘Lee Sa-young’.
And ‘Lee Sa-young’ did not miss that gap.
A black hand carefully grabbed his sleeve. An empty voice said.
“Don’t go. Stay here. I can create the world again.”
“…….”
“Don’t throw your life away in vain again.”
“…….”
“You’ve sacrificed enough….”
As he went on, his voice became smaller and smaller, and his head only went down. It was the smallest and most pathetic of his appearances so far.
Would ‘Lee Sa-young’ have ever said these words to Cha Eui-jae? No. He would never have done it. Perhaps he was now uttering the words he had regretted not being able to say. There was that much weight to it. In those words that he had chewed over and over again.
However.
Eui-jae took a deep breath. And grabbed ‘Lee Sa-young’s’ arm.
“Lee Sa-young.”
Empty eyes stared blankly at Eui-jae.
“I may not be exactly the same person as the Cha Eui-jae you know, but I’ll still say it.”
“…….”
“I know what you’re saying. I know what you’re worried about. I’m really grateful for that. But I’m going to do it.”
“…….”
“Actually, I don’t have any confidence. Because I’ve already failed twice.”
“…….”
“But I have conviction. Thanks to you, I’m convinced.”
Eui-jae put strength into the hand holding his arm. His eyes shone blue.
“Hong Ye-seong said this is the last chance. Originally, it should have ended in the last world. But you grabbed the world and forcibly created it.”
Eui-jae said, chewing each word as if spitting it out.
“It’s the last chance you gave me. I have no intention of letting this opportunity pass by. I’m going to stop Doomsday.”
“…….”
A faint glow flickered in his empty lilac eyes. His pale lips moved silently. Eui-jae let go of the arm he had been holding. He was unknowingly breathing heavily. Ha, he let out a small sigh and rubbed the back of his neck for no reason.
Before, he wouldn’t have even tried to talk to this guy like this. Because he thought there was no way to communicate.
But….
‘I…. I like that we’re special.’
‘More than any other Lee Sa-young and Cha Eui-jae.’
‘You promised me, the one who saved me, that you’d come back.’
‘I just kept my promise.’
‘You can do whatever you want. Because you’ve hesitated.’
Cha Eui-jae could be sure. He could be brave. Because there were words that grabbed him, who was drifting anxiously in search of a place to return to. Because there was someone who firmly laid the unstable foundation. Because there was him who endured the endless wait.
There was only one way to repay that person.
Eui-jae held out his hand.
“Help me.”
He must stop Doomsday. For the days to come together.