Endemic Love Chapter 68: Sora still wished him well

If he knew him even a little, and if he said everything would be as it should, then yes—Le An trusted Taras.

Because until now, apart from his cruelty toward Le An, he had almost done nothing else.

Considering what he could have done with his shadow form... he could have caused disasters; but he hadn’t hard anyone else.

Le An had once told him he was a good person. Now he rembered it more clearly.

And he had been right.

Since Taras had saved even his life, even though he hated him, no matter the reason, he really was a good person.

It was hard not to compare, Le An sighed. When he told Theo that he trusted him, Theo had apologized to him. But when he told Taras that he trusted him, he... had kissed him.

Le An rubbed his face roughly and murmured. "What should I think..."

His thoughts scattered the mont Erald entered the lounge. And, oddly, Tracker wasn’t by Erald’s side.

"Good news," Erald grinned. "Tracker will no longer be involved in your communication with the house staff Le An."

Erald placed a cup of tea, carrying the sll of dicine, on the table in front of Le An. "So, finally we’re alone now."

Le An nodded. Most likely, after his horrified escape from the experint, GAC had decided to grant him a needle’s width of air to breathe, and that was why they made this decision.

Like consoling a child.

Le An parted his lips as he lifted his gaze toward Erald. "Theo... where is he?"

While he had been dodging Theo for days as if playing hide and seek, Le An hadn’t seen him today at all.

"Ah..." Erald scratched the back of his neck and forced a smile. "His rut has started. He asked to let you know."

"I see." Le An nodded again. The two of them... they were no longer speaking, and that, though painful, was sothing that brought Le An relief.

Perhaps by telling Theo these now-outdated feelings, Le An had only then fully recovered from the magnitude of the blow he had suffered from Theo.

And... only then could Theo understand that what he had done to him was irreversible.

Erald sat in the armchair in front of him and took Le An’s hands into his own. "Listen, let tell you sothing."

"Tracker told he wanted to order flowers to cheer you up. So I told him to bring sothing endemic. He’s... a funny man. He’s been on the phone in the garden all morning, like a worried father looking for a gift for his child."

While Le An gave a faint smile, it was obvious that Erald’s comparisons didn’t cheer him up—in fact, the opposite. Still, he said nothing.

At least enough ti had passed since those things he had overheard in the lab, and now Le An could smile around others, even if it was fake.

On the other side, when Erald saw that faint smile, his heart filled with even deeper worry.

As he held Le An’s hands more tightly, for a mont Erald felt as if he could only rein in his body; Le An’s mind was now... far away and detached from him, from them all.

"I knew it would lift your spirits," said Erald, with his own fake, helpless smile.

And he couldn’t find the courage to ask once more if Le An was truly alright. The answer was plain as day anyway.

"Whatever it is that troubles you, you can always tell , Le An," he said, as he had been reminding Le An constantly in recent days.

Le An nodded and thanked him once again. He knew talking would change nothing.

And now... Le An had a plan in mind, and if it worked, then at least... he could finally do sothing that mattered. That way, selfish as it was, when everything turned upside down and these seemingly uneventful days turned into hell, at least he would have a few things he could feel good about himself.

---

His sick leave ca to an end rather quickly.

The next morning, still weighed down by sleep he couldn’t shake off, Le An heard a few clattering noises nearby. Finally, when he rose from the heaviness of exhaustion and sleep, he found himself alone in the room again.

Yawning, he suddenly bolted upright when he saw the huge vase by his bedside.

He rubbed his eyes quickly, unsure whether he was seeing right.

The sun had barely risen, and the room was still dark, but Le An would recognize these roses anywhere.

On the nightstand by his bed now stood a large bouquet of Sayubin roses. "How..."

As Le An reached for the flowers, letting his legs dangle from the bed, he didn’t dare touch the roses, not knowing what to do—and instead, his hand went to the note tucked beneath the vase.

The flowers were from Tracker. How had Tracker managed to get Sayubin roses? Was Sora... still alive and well?

Le An quickly read the note.

Dear Treasure, when I spoke with the worker in charge of the greenhouse, I learned you loved these roses. It was a little difficult to find them, but I managed through a supplier. The grower also left a note for you, which I had to read for work reasons—sorry. I hope these can make you smile, even just a little!

Le An imdiately reached for the small envelope tucked among the petals. As Tracker had said, the envelope had already been opened. Excitedly, Le An pulled out the tiny slip of paper inside and read it.

Treasure, I’m happy that after such a long ti, I was finally able to send you roses again. And it is also a joy that you are alive and healthy. We were so worried for you. I hope all is well.

My daughter removed the thorns from the roses, but please still be careful with your fingers. –Sora.

Le An covered his mouth with his hand, his heart now pounding wildly with the shock of receiving joyful news for the first ti. He read the note again and again.

He stood up and compared this new note with Sora’s old one, unable to believe it. The handwriting was the sa. This was Sora’s handwriting. With both notes in hand, Le An laughed. Sora was alive and well.

And... Sora still wished him well.

As Le An’s eyes filled with tears and he began sobbing, Erald entered the room to wake him, and soon the entire house was in a stir.

But when Le An pulled himself together, he looked almost more refreshed, as if the crying had done him good.

"I was told by the supplier that despite my long search for these roses, the greenhouse owner had stopped selling them," said Le An while walking down the corridor of the last institute with Tracker, side by side, for his guiding task.

Tracker spoke with pride, seeing Le An’s revived expression. "I had to call in a few connections, dear Treasure, and through that I learned the seller was still running his business, albeit as a boutique."

Boutique... Le An nodded as if it wasn’t worth thinking about. He knew it was a lie.

Tracker’s connections were probably people who knew how to reach Sayubin from outside the borders. And making this happen must have cost a lot of money. Or... maybe Tracker also knew what was happening in the outskirts.

"It’s good to see you... well again," said Tracker, looking at him sincerely. While Le An smiled, he realized he didn’t mind Tracker being in his life at all anymore. On the contrary... this middle-aged man sotis really did look at him with a kind of fatherly affection.

Strange.

"Thank you." Le An murmured, unsure what else to say, and quickly turned his head toward the gathering crowd of espers. He didn’t know what to do with that kind of... affection. Maybe only those who had families could understand it’s worth. Or maybe... only those who accustod to this affection would easily accept it.

While the fact that he would be heading to the laboratory soon was already draining his body, aside from all that, hearing news from Sora had beco Le An’s last branch to cling to life.

Now, while guiding the espers one by one, with a faint smile, Le An, for a short while, forgot to hate who he was.

---

That night, when his phone vibrated with a call from an unknown, strange number, Le An was just... waiting for Taras.

The test drugs injected into his blood for the experint had left him in a daze, and for a mont, unsure what to do, he stared at his phone.

The first thought that ca to his mind was Awakening.

That attacker... before dying, had said Awakening had a ssage for him. That soone could reach him sohow, day or night.

Although Le An had been certain this person was Taras, once Taras had told him he wasn’t with Awakening, that possibility had vanished. So... would they still be trying to reach him?

And his phone was tapped; whoever was calling him must have been soone who knew, as the whole country could guess, that Le An’s phone was being monitored. So why...

As Le An was about to answer with a trembling hand, the call ended, leaving him frozen.

"Idiot..." He muttered to himself as he stared at the phone screen returning to darkness. By the ti he had decided, the call was already over.

Would the caller try again? Just then, a notification appeared on the screen, and Le An panicked as he saw the ssage.

’Treasure, it’s . Maxim.’