By Zephyria A long silence flowed.
Lee Sa-young looked at the hand reaching out to him with dazed eyes. A hand calloused and tough. A clean hand, without any traces of skin melting away and recovering from the Poison. His parched lips asked.
“Can you do it?”
An immediate answer returned.
“I will.”
“…….”
“I’ve already failed twice. I… believe there’s something to learn from failure.”
“…….”
“You wouldn’t want your efforts to be in vain either, would you? Or do you?”
“…….”
“So, help me.”
Lee Sa-young didn’t answer. But Eui-jae could guess what he was thinking.
He was the one who held onto the world for a third chance. He wouldn’t want to waste the chance he barely got. After being silent, Lee Sa-young tilted his head. He didn’t seem to want to take his hand, so Eui-jae awkwardly withdrew his hand.
“Just answer one thing for me.”
“What is it?”
“In that world, why do you think I was sick?”
“…….”
“He didn’t answer until the end. That person. Even until the moment he died….”
The reason he was sickly in the second world. Eui-jae rolled his eyes. Hong Ye-seong had said. That Cha Eui-jae in the first world was so powerful that the clock didn’t break even after using it.
Strangely, Cha Eui-jae seemed to know the answer. No, he knew. As if someone had inputted it into his head, knowledge he didn’t know surfaced. He opened his mouth without realizing it.
“When I turned back time in the first world, I became the axis.”
“…….”
“The human who becomes the axis is restricted in power until the past world is completely destroyed. They keep having their lifespan eaten away until the world is destroyed. That was the clock’s penalty.”
“…….”
“Still, it’s because it was me that I lasted that long… Usually, if you became the axis, you’d die as soon as the world turned back. From the backlash.”
…Was that so?
“Ah….”
Sa-young lowered his head, making a low groan. He crossed his arms and muttered.
“Was that what Hong Ye-seong said he fixed and removed….”
Hmm, I guess so?
Eui-jae recalled the fragments that suddenly surfaced. Memories that were his and memories that weren’t his were surfacing in a jumbled mess. Seeing that Lee Sa-young looked like he was about to say something, Eui-jae hurriedly held out his palm to stop him.
“Hey, hey! Wait, be quiet.”
“…….”
Could there be any clue? Eui-jae hurriedly began to organize his memories. Unfortunately, most of them were trivial memories that could be classified as useless.
Dinner menus, the feeling that a stray cat on the street was cute, the memory of thinking the music playing at the convenience store was good, nagging he heard from Jung-bin, scolding he heard from Honeybee….
‘Damn it. My memory is only good in useless places. The important things aren’t coming to mind.’
Eui-jae ruffled his hair irritably. Whose memories are these? But he soon changed his mind. It might not be meaningful to distinguish the owner of the memories.
‘All….’
All of them would be ‘Cha Eui-jae’s’ memories.
Funnily enough, the song he had never heard was his taste, and the cat yawning while crouching on the roadside railing was also his taste. But why is it surfacing only now?
The fragments floating on the surface of the water were becoming increasingly blurred, like waves breaking. And soon, they disappeared as if they had never surfaced.
In the meantime, Lee Sa-young, who had been silent, suddenly raised his head and looked at the empty air. Eui-jae also messed up his hair and stared at the empty air together. There was a thin black crack in the air. Lee Sa-young tapped his cheek with his finger, with an expressionless face.
“I was wondering when you’d come.”
“Huh?”
At that moment, the small crack tore open like a snake’s mouth. Eui-jae immediately took a step back and took a fighting stance. Soon, a jet-black blade popped out from the torn gap. The blade flashed strangely. It was a familiar shape. Eui-jae slightly straightened his body and frowned.
“…Fang?”
It was the Basilisk Fang. The one he had stabbed into his own sternum.
The next moment, a hand holding the sword’s handle popped out. A red hand with bulging veins. Eui-jae’s eyes widened.
‘Isn’t that Sa-young?’
As if to support his thoughts, a cold voice echoed in the air.
“I… didn’t say I’d wait for you.”
Black Walker and long legs appeared, tearing through the black gap, and the hem of the coat fluttered. Soon, a pale face appeared from the top of the gap.
Sa-young, who had torn through the gap and was standing in the air, landed lightly on the ground. White dust rose. Sa-young skillfully swung the sword, shaking off the blood and black things attached to the sword. The end of the straight blade aimed at Lee Sa-young’s neck from afar.
“Time out.”
What?
“What’s this situation again?”
Eui-jae looked back and forth between the two Lee Sa-youngs with an absurd face. From what he heard, it seemed like the two had some kind of contract or promise. Eui-jae had no idea.
Lee Sa-young, who was looking at Sa-young, shrugged his shoulders, raising both hands.
“You have no patience.”
“You were the one who violated it first….”
A murderous aura rose from Sa-young. Lee Sa-young also cracked his black knuckles. If left like this, it looked like they were about to have a big fight. Ah, geez, I’m dying because I’m so busy. Eui-jae hurriedly intervened between the two.
“Talk so I can understand, please. What’s going on, now?”
Eui-jae, who had been looking at Lee Sa-young, turned his head and looked at Sa-young, and was startled.
Sa-young’s expression was not much different from the last expression he had seen. It was gloomy and the face of someone who knew loss. His eyes were also darkly shadowed. His gaze was directed behind Eui-jae. Eui-jae turned around, following his gaze. The place where his gaze was fixed was….
“…….”
It was the taxidermied Lee Sa-young hugging Cha Eui-jae. Ah, damn it. Eui-jae bit his tongue. Come to think of it, Lee Sa-young’s hands were soaked red. There were also a few drops of blood splattered on his face.
Eui-jae stabbed his sternum with the Basilisk Fang.
And Lee Sa-young is now holding the Fang. With hands soaked in blood.
“…….”
“Ah.”
Sa-young, who had followed Eui-jae’s gaze, let out a short exclamation. He slightly shook his red hand and raised the corners of his lips.
“Someone from somewhere kindly told me…. That I can use this sword to cross over here.”
“…….”
The sound of grinding teeth was heard.
“Thanks to you, I had a very disgusting experience…. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Lee Sa-young replied indifferently. Eui-jae examined Sa-young’s face. His dark, dead eyes were fixed on the dead Cha Eui-jae. Damn it. Eui-jae took a step to the side to block his view and asked.
“Are you… okay?”
“About what?”
His words were strangely short, but a sinner couldn’t nitpick. Eui-jae glanced at Sa-young.
“No, that…. That thing.”
“Eung…. I don’t know what you’re talking about….”
A bright smile appeared on his face. At the same time, the emergency lights in Eui-jae’s head began to ring loudly.
“I’d be more okay than someone who stabbed themselves…. I only pulled out the stuck knife. Isn’t that right?”
“No, I’m really okay. Look at this. Wanna touch?”
“I don’t need to.”
A cold answer!
Eui-jae opened his mouth wide. Sa-young grabbed Eui-jae’s arm and placed him behind him as if protecting him. Lee Sa-young was indifferently watching the scene, as if he had never clung to him. Sa-young snorted and sneered.
“Anyway…. You held on for so long. But it seems you failed after all?”
Lee Sa-young replied coldly.
“You and I both knew that I would fail.”
“Haha…. That’s why I told you. Since you’re going to fail anyway, don’t even try.”
“Well…. Cha Eui-jae’s opinion was different. He said we should try even if we fail.”
Sparks flew. The two Lee Sa-youngs started arguing again.
Ah, these guys, really. Eui-jae let out a short sigh, then took a deep breath. And…
“Hey, you bastards, explain properly!”
He shouted loudly, with a voice pulled up from his diaphragm.
A little later, the two Lee Sa-youngs were sitting on the broken ruins, keeping a little distance from each other.
Lee Sa-young was sitting with his arms crossed with an expressionless face, and Sa-young was resting his chin on his hand with a sulky expression, and Eui-jae was busily going back and forth between them. Eui-jae muttered, repeating going here and there, and then burst out.
“Hey…. What’s wrong with you guys?”
According to the explanation, the context of Lee Sa-young pulling out the Basilisk Fang that was stuck in Eui-jae’s body and breaking through the Shield was as follows.
Sa-young said that he had been fighting with Lee Sa-young for his body from the moment he woke up after three months. A feeling that his body wasn’t his own. A feeling like a part of his body had been taken away. Eui-jae got angry again.
‘No, you should have said something if that was the situation!’
Anyway, Sa-young, who hated losing the initiative more than death, obsessively tried to stay close to Eui-jae. For some reason, the uninvited guest Lee Sa-young couldn’t use his power while he was close to Eui-jae. Eui-jae recalled Sa-young, who had been strangely touchy since the moment Lee Sa-young woke up until now.
‘…….’
Eui-jae cleared his throat. Um, let’s not think about it anymore.
In that precarious tightrope walking situation, Eui-jae ran away.
For a whole week!
Sa-young had no choice but to have several conversations with the uninvited guest during the week that Eui-jae was gone. And Lee Sa-young kept whispering. That Doomsday cannot be stopped. Because it is a disaster that comes without form. That he had already failed twice. But there is a way to save only Cha Eui-jae. Don’t you also want to save Cha Eui-jae? Give me a chance to persuade him.
At this point, Eui-jae got angry again.
“You believed that?”
Sa-young, who was resting his chin on his hand with a sulky expression, twisted his lips.
“Would I believe it? Nonsense.”