“Did you find what you were looking for?”
“...”
“J.”
There was no hint of surprise on his delicate face. It was as if he had known he would et J here. A faint glint of mischief flickered in his narrow violet eyes. Lee Sayoung muttered as he slid his gloved hand, the black fabric disappearing over his fingers.
“I deliberately left so things behind, didn’t clear everything out.”
The neatly arranged files, the monitors turned on as if guiding him, and the survivor’s voice he heard just as he finished reading the files—it was all prepared for one person.
And the gift’s owner...
“Did you read it?”
Cha Uijae.
Of course. The files on the desk and the displayed corpses were indeed left there for show. Uijae thought cynically, seeing how everything had been handled so cleanly. He glanced at where the man had fallen. There was nothing left but a faint bloodstain on the floor. In a voice that had been altered beyond recognition, Uijae responded.
“Yeah. I read it. Is this record from the facility?”
“Hmm, it's just a part of the records.”
“...”
“I filtered it down. If there was too much, you might not have co to .”
“Minggijeok must have told you I’d co here.”
Sayoung only responded with a quiet smile. Minggijeok, that so-called “Tiny Miracle,” and Romantic Opener—they might have helped Uijae, but ultimately, they were Lee Sayoung’s people. Considering the ambush at Incheon Port, it wasn’t that surprising. Uijae answered his own question instead of waiting for a reply.
“Of course. You didn’t seem surprised by my sudden arrival. And you even prepared these materials.”
“Oh, I was surprised. I just didn’t expect J’s first activity after returning in eight years would be...”
Sayoung shrugged as he looked around.
“...raiding a Protheus research facility.”
“...”
“And it’s not like I asked you to do it, either.”
Sayoung silently took a few steps closer. His black-gloved hand reached out and gently removed the black cap Uijae was wearing. Uijae didn’t swat the hand away. Sayoung tidied Uijae’s slightly tousled hair as if arranging it, whispering.
“When we made that contract, I only ntioned a group luring people in with drugs, said I was chasing them. That’s about all I rember telling you.”
“...”
“And yet, you went and ntioned the na Protheus first, didn’t you?”
Sayoung lightly flicked the brim of the cap with his fingers. His long eyelashes fluttered slowly, and the corners of his mouth stayed lifted in a subtle smile.
“Where did you hear it from... and why did you co all the way here?”
Though it sounded like he was interrogating Uijae, the mood was different from usual. The Lee Sayoung Uijae knew would have been irritable by now, pressing his opponent down until his mood improved. But this Lee Sayoung...
“It’s a skill, keeping secrets every ti.”
“...”
“Liar.”
In his violet eyes...
“How about we have a Q&A session for old ti’s sake? Ask each other questions, give answers. Guess what we’re hiding.”
Those eyes, void of any light, feigned indifference, but beneath the calm surface, sothing fierce was thrashing violently.
And instinctively, Cha Uijae realized it—Lee Sayoung wouldn’t let him go. One wrong move, and he’d be swept away by the current.
Catching a raging monster or dealing with an angry Sayoung would be easier. At least there were clear strategies for that. This calm Sayoung was a different challenge entirely. His gaze t Sayoung’s, and it made Uijae’s insides itch.
He clenched his hand in his pocket, pressing his fingernails into his palm. He was glad his mask hid his expression.
“I’m not curious about anything.”
“Hm, but you don’t have a choice.”
Sayoung’s voice ca back with a laugh, his head tilting slightly. His curly hair swayed softly.
“I’m really curious about you... Hyung.”
“...”
“Shall I make the first guess?”
A large gloved hand wrapped around the back of Uijae’s neck. Sayoung’s soft voice whispered.
“You know, don’t you? That I’m a forr test subject of Protheus.”
The sudden question made Uijae’s fingers twitch. Sayoung, still tilting his head, murmured.
“It’s obvious who told you. Very few people know that fact, and they’re all dead.”
“...”
“The only ones left alive are Ham Seokjeong, Jung Bin, Nam Woojin, and Baewonwoo. You’ve avoided Ham Seokjeong and Jung Bin, so it can’t be them. Baewonwoo is too clueless to realize you’re J. That leaves...”
His thumb gently brushed behind Uijae’s ear.
“Nam Woojin. That bastard.”
Sayoung was sharp, his information-gathering skills exceptional. There was no longer any reason to hide the truth. Uijae had revealed the secret he had once tried to keep. He nodded in acknowledgnt.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“You must have heard it when you took his grandmother to safety, along with the story about Protheus.”
“Exactly.”
Sayoung clenched his teeth for a mont before letting out a small sigh. He pulled his hand away from Uijae’s neck, the warmth fading.
“Now it’s your turn.”
“...”
After a pause, Uijae asked.
“I heard there were no successful cases with Protheus experints. They all died.”
“Ah...”
Sayoung let out a slow, drawn-out sound, lifting his head with a calm smile. The corners of his mouth rose slightly in a mocking grin.
“Did Seomin say that? Well... it’s not wrong. Protheus never succeeded. Not once. All the subjects either collapsed from the strain or beca sothing less than monsters.”
“...”
“But I guess you’re curious about this—how am I still alive, after being one of their test subjects?”
Sayoung placed a hand over the center of his chest.
“It’s simple. I Awakened.”
His lazy voice continued.
“Not because of their experints, but because the System chose .”
The conversation they’d once had over a hangover soup, after a ssy contract and a bloody battle, flashed through Uijae’s mind. The small black figures that had followed Sayoung’s every move...
“So, what does the System look for in an Awakener?”
Sayoung’s voice, lazily drifting again.
“The System responds to desperate wishes...”
That knowledge had beco common after the Day of Cracks.
“When a human has a desperate wish, the System is drawn to that energy and finds the person.”
From out of nowhere, a pair of burning white eyes stared at Uijae. The surrounding area had shifted into a forest. Uijae rembered the conversation he’d had with Nam Woojin in the Seo-won Guild. Woojin, in his white lab coat, whispered to him.
“Was it Protheus’ experint that Awakened Sayoung, or did the System respond to his desperate prayer?”
Again, the surroundings morphed, and Uijae found himself in a devastated ruin, clutching his parents’ bodies, huddled in the wreckage. The acrid sll of blood and smoke filled the air, the coldness of their bodies unbearable. Boom, boom—the monstrous footsteps of a creature echoed in his ears.
At that mont, what had Uijae thought while teetering on the edge of death?
‘I want to live.’
He wanted to live.
‘I don’t want to die.’
He didn’t want to die.
And then, a brilliant white light burst before his eyes. It was the mont he t the System.
Uijae lifted his head. The room was dark and small, with only a sliver of light streaming in from a half-open door. Sayoung was watching him silently. A question suddenly ca to mind—what had been Sayoung’s desperate prayer? What had driven him to Awaken?
Strangely, Uijae felt like he knew the answer.
As if soone were telling him. His heart raced. Was it excitent, expectation, fear, or confusion? He couldn’t tell. Slowly, he opened his mouth.
“You...”
The words caught in his throat. He couldn’t say it easily. He wasn’t sure. He didn’t want it to be true, but at the sa ti, he hoped it was. Conflicting emotions crashed within him.
The boy who had been poisoned and was dying, and the man who wielded poison—Lee Sayoung. The boy erased from Protheus’ records, and the man who escaped as a test subject—Lee Sayoung.
‘It couldn’t be...’
Uijae looked at Sayoung with bewildered eyes. In that mont, Sayoung smiled. His eyes narrowed, gleaming like a child waiting to open a present he had prepared.
‘This is too strange.’
Uijae swallowed all the words he wanted to say.
‘It’s too convenient...’
Miracles didn’t happen to people like him. He knew that. He had long abandoned the hope of miracles. Yet, despite everything, he barely managed to whisper a single word, his voice cracking.
“...Is it you?”
The black boots stepped forward, closing the distance between them. There was only a small space left between them now. Sayoung extended his hand. Uijae, as if hypnotized, took it. Just like he had eight years ago.
The black-gloved hand gently pulled Uijae
’s hand to his cheek. The warmth of his skin was soft, far different from the rough texture of the bandages.
Sayoung rubbed his cheek slowly against Uijae’s palm. His gloved hand covered the back of Uijae’s hand. A soft voice whispered.
“Yes, Hyung.”
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