I crossed the sky and raised my head for a moment. The yellow moonlight was half-covered in the dark clouds. I thought the weather was bad, so I increased my movement speed.
On the terrace where I arrived after a long flight, a welcome person was waiting for me.
“Han Yi-gyeol.”
“Ha Tae-heon-ssi.”
Ha Tae-heon greeted me with a blanket in one arm and a mug in the other. Ha Tae-heon, who was standing with his back against the light from the living room, passed the railing and put a blanket over my shoulder when I went down safely to the terrace.
“Thank you.”
Even if it wasn’t, it was a little chilly, so I picked up the mug that he was holding out with grateful. The glass was filled with steaming hot chocolate.
I felt a little relieved from the smell of chocolate coming up.
“I was going to contact you sooner, but something happened and I was a little late.”
“It’s doesn’t matter.”
“Can I take off my shoes here for a moment?”
After seeing Ha Tae-heon nod, I took off my shoes on the terrace and entered the living room. The warm interior gently wrapped around my frozen body.
I looked around the living room, which had not changed much from a few days ago, and opened my mouth.
“It looks like it will rain soon.”
“Aren’t you dressed too thinly?”
“I know. I think it would have been better if I wore a coat.”
It was late, past 1 in the morning. Standing next to the sofa in the dark living room with only the standing lights turned on, I shifted my gaze to Ha Tae-heon.
“How long is your vacation?”
“About two weeks left. I purposely added another vacation.”
“I’m sorry for making you use your precious vacation on me.”
“Don’t apologize.”
Ha Tae-heon’s warm hand gently stroked my cold cheek.
“I want to hear something else.”
Something else? After thinking for a while, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Um… thank you?”
Maybe it wasn’t a bad answer at all, he somehow passed the topic of conversation.
“Did you clean up before coming?”
“To some extent.”
I smiled bitterly as I touched my empty wrist. Ha Tae-heon, who stared at me for a while, put on an expression that was hard to believe.
“Are you sure?”
“You really don’t trust me.”
I joked lightly and took a sip of the hot chocolate. The sweet scent spread throughout my mouth.
“Items with a risk of location tracking were removed, and I left my cell phone behind. I brought nothing but the cell phone that Ha Tae-heon-ssi first gave me.”
“What about the Requiem Guild employees?”
“Yes?”
Ha Tae-heon raised one eyebrow.
“It seems that there are quite a few people close to you. At the Requiem Guild.”
Recognizing the meaning of his words belatedly, I bowed my head and pondered for a moment.
“There is, but…”
I couldn’t speak easily and my lips were moist. In fact, even after leaving, I had no idea how they would behave.
“I didn’t tell anyone. As I said to Ha Tae-heon-ssi, there are talented people with mental ability.”
“Are you going to go back there after you meet the Prophet?”
“…I hope to see them again someday, but it will take some time. There are a lot of problems to solve.”
I said as I put the mug, still steaming hot, on the table.
“So, Ha Tae-heon-ssi, you don’t have to overdo it yourself. It’s okay if you just tell me the way to get to the Prophet when we arrive in China.”
“No.”
Ha Tae-heon grabbed my wrist, which was empty because I wasn’t wearing a bracelet.
“We will continue to be together. The way to find the Prophet, and the way back to Korea.”
“What? That…”
“I don’t know what kind of accident you’re going to have, so it’s better to have me by your side.”
“……”
Having him say that, I had nothing to say. I rubbed the nape of my neck out of awkwardness.
“But I may not come back to Korea after meeting the Prophet.”
“Whatever it is, stay by my side during the vacation. After the vacation is over, you can go and think about it then.”
Ha Tae-heon, who spoke firmly, turned his back on me, not listening to my answer.
“It’s late, so it’s better to go to bed first and move in the morning. I will lend my clothes, so change it.”
“Hang on. Won’t you tell me how to get to China?”
“Sleep for now.”
“But…”
“Han Yi-gyeol.”
My body flinched immediately at the cold voice. Did anything bad happen? He looked very low mood.
“…um, yes. I understand.”
I couldn’t be stubborn in a situation where I was helped. As I looked at him and nodded, Ha Tae-heon looked at me with slightly softened eyes.
“I understand the rush, but if you plan to be away for such a long time, it is better to prepare and move properly. If you act hastily, you will only miss a lot.”
Ha Tae-heon, who took my hand and led me to the front of the bathroom, handed me clothes and underwear that seemed to have been prepared in advance.
“The size will fit to some extent. Wash up and come out.”
“Thank you.”
It was true that he cared about these little things, no matter how he felt. After I thanked him with sincerity and smiled, Ha Tae-heon sighed deeply with a complicated expression.
“Ha Tae-heon-ssi?”
“Wash up.”
Ha Tae-heon, who forced my bewildered back into the bathroom, closed the bathroom door with a bang.
‘What is really going on?’
Worried about Ha Tae-heon’s condition, which I couldn’t catch on, I took off my clothes.
* * *
After I washed up and dried my wet hair, it was already past 2 a.m. I sat on the sofa in the living room, looked at the tablet PC, and approached Ha Tae-heon, who was waiting for me.
“This, did you buy a new one because of me?”
Looking at Ha Tae-heon’s face, where the yellow light from the standing lights flickered, I asked him, who was turning off the tablet PC screen and getting up.
“Yeah. Is there any problem?”
“No, that’s not…”
The clothes Ha Tae-heon gave me to change into were pyjamas that looked classy at first glance. I awkwardly smoothed the sleeves of the pyjama with a light grey check on a white background.
“But I don’t think I will ever wear it again.”
“That’s something you don’t know.”
Ha Tae-heon, who smiled strangely at me, walked to the bedroom. I followed behind as if possessed by his smile and woke up late on the large bed in front of me.
‘Wait. Why are you going into the bedroom naturally?’
It was back then that I accidentally fell asleep and had no choice but to sleep here, but now the situation was different. I had no intention of sharing the same bed with Ha Tae-heon after experiencing the bottled water incident. (생수병사건을 겪어 놓고 또 하태헌과 같은 침대를 쓸 생각은 없었다, the bottled water incident refers to morning w**d but I’m not sure how to translate this)
“That, I’m going to sleep on the sofa.”
I hurriedly took a step back, but as Ha Tae-heon had expected it, he closed the bedroom door and said.
“Don’t be silly, go and lie down.”
“No, it’s not. The sofa is enough for me.”
“Do I look like a man with no sympathy who puts guests to sleep on the sofa?”
A man with no sympathy? I thought about that for a while.
‘You don’t seem to have the heart to admit it.’
No matter how much I liked the main character, it didn’t mean I wasn’t.
“Just throw me a thin blanket.”
“There are no blankets left. Since I live alone. Stop whining and go lie down.”
Ha Tae-heon’s voice gradually lowered, but I couldn’t readily answer that I would. I didn’t want to go through such a cold sweat twice.
Ha Tae-heon sighed at the sight of me, who was standing still and rolling my eyes.
“I won’t do anything, so listen to me.”
“……”
I heard that kind of thing from a man in front of his bed. (살다 살다 침대 앞에서 남자한테 저런 말을 들어 보는구나)
“…all right.”
I hesitated for a moment then nodded my head. I didn’t have the courage to disobey the landlord anymore.
As I walked to the bed and lay down slowly, the room lights went out. Tension soared as I had to share a bed with someone in a dark room with no moonlight due to dark clouds.
Swallowing dry saliva, I lay outside the bed as much as possible. The bed was quite wide and I got close enough to fall to the floor at any moment, Ha Tae-heon, who was lying next to me, didn’t care at first.
‘The problem is… how to sleep like this?’
It was quite late, so I was tired, but my eyes didn’t close. All attention was focused on Ha Tae-heon, who was invisible because I had turned my back. My body flinched involuntarily when I heard the sound of the scraping of cloth.
So stiff in the corner, I just rolled my eyes for a while. It was very quiet in the dark bedroom, where no sound was heard other than the faint sound of Ha Tae-heon’s breathing.
I exhaled slowly and deeply, relaxing my body. When I glanced back, Ha Tae-heon was lying facing down toward me, his eyes closed. Seeing that there was no movement, it seemed that he was really asleep.
Well. The time had passed for a while. I carefully turned my body in the direction facing Ha Tae-heon. Even in the dark, his handsome features were clearly visible.
“……”
Come to think of it, this was the first time I was looking at Ha Tae-heon so calmly. Looking over the messy bangs, the neat head, the straight forehead, the neat eyes and the straight nose, I felt the fact that I was with the main character again.
I hadn’t been able to ask properly because there had been so many things going on in the meantime, but I thought Ha Tae-heon’s life had probably changed a lot from the novel. Because all the people involved with me were like that.
Still, I was relieved to see Ha Tae-heon’s sleeping expression on his face, looking quite calm. I looked at Ha Tae-heon’s face for a long time and then slowly closed my eyes.
The bed I was lying on with Ha Tae-heon felt comfortable, and then the sleepiness I had forgotten about because of the tension came like a tsunami.
‘After meeting the Prophet…’
I didn’t catch the fading consciousness as I organized the future work in mind.
The moment I was about to fall asleep, the mattress shook slightly with the sound of the blanket brushing past. I tried to open my eyes to see what was going on, but my body didn’t move.
Finally, I fell asleep completely with the warm body temperature that gently wrapped around my shoulders.
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