Chapter 102

“Sun Choi. What is it?”

“While we have a moment... would it be all right if we talked briefly?”

Sun asked Gyeol for a conversation with a distinctly solemn expression.

Gyeol found it strange, but accepted his request.

Sun rose first, and Gyeol followed him to his feet.

For a moment, a disappointed look seemed to pass across Tommy’s face, but unlike before, he did not ask Gyeol to talk with him too. It seemed he was probably conscious of Hee Jun sitting beside him.

...I should talk to Tommy too before it gets any later.

Turning over what he had to do today, Gyeol followed Sun out of the lounge. Just then, Isu Yoon, who was returning at the same time, waved from a distance.

“Oh. Where are you going?”

“Just going to talk for a bit.”

Gyeol answered, and Sun only greeted Isu with his eyes. Isu waved his arm broadly as if telling them to have a good time.

Gyeol felt relieved.

Leaving Jun Shin between Tommy and Hee Jun had been bothering him.

Both of them were close with Jun, but there was a certain atmosphere between them. Isu would probably take good care of Jun.

Are you insane, Gyeol Go? Is this really the time to worry about Jun Shin?

It was not the time.

And he did not have the right.

Choices always came with responsibility. Repeating that fact to himself, Gyeol silently followed Sun.

“Everyone will probably be back soon, so rather than going far, shall we just take a light walk on the beach?”

“Yes, sounds good.”

As if the commotion caused by Woo Seok Jung had never happened, the weather on Pheromone Island today was endlessly bright and peaceful. The sea was relatively calm, the sky scattered with small drifting clouds was blue, and the sunlight was warm without being too strong.

Gyeol walked after Sun, quietly watching the waves wash in near his feet and draw back again.

Once he left the place where everyone was gathered and stared blankly at nature, his mind grew strangely calm.

All the worry, impatience, and wariness faded away...

When he raised his eyes, Sun was waiting for him three steps ahead.

Now, Sun looked different in Gyeol’s eyes.

His expression was not silent, but composed. His gaze was not sharp, but serious. His quietness was not a lack of words, but a cautious nature.

Everything that made up Sun gave Gyeol a sense of stability.

There was an unwavering constancy in Sun, something that did not go astray.

A person who seemed made only of things Gyeol could predict.

A person whose front and back did not differ.

Those things made Gyeol feel reassured.

It was trust built in an astonishingly short time.

It wasn’t because I was looking at the sea.

Gyeol redefined the reason stability had settled in his heart.

It was because I was alone with Sun.

He could not deny it.

Sun was someone who made Gyeol comfortable.

Sun seemed to have taken Gyeol’s words in a completely different direction, but for Gyeol, who had lived a life like a roller coaster, the feeling of being “comfortable” was rare.

When Gyeol reached him, Sun began walking beside him in step.

Gyeol knew Sun naturally walked on the faster side.

Right now, he was deliberately matching Gyeol’s pace.

“Sun.”

“......?”

“You’re really warm.”

“Yes. ......Yes! Yes?”

Sun’s answers burst out one after another.

He quickly pressed his mouth shut, but Gyeol could not hold back his laughter.

“...I wanted to show you a cooler side of myself, but I’ve failed again.”

Sun, flushed red all the way to the top of his head, rubbed the back of his neck.

“You don’t have to. You’re already cool.”

“I don’t mean to deny what you said, Gyeol, but to be honest, I’ve shown you an embarrassing side of myself quite often... My face turns red at every little thing, too.”

This time, Sun rubbed his cheeks with his palms.

Of course, it did nothing to lower the heat in his face.

“I thought it would get better little by little... but it doesn’t seem to be getting better.”

“I like it when your face turns red.”

Like.

That single word struck Sun’s eardrums with brutal force.

Sun froze where he stood, his ears turning red too, and blinked. Startled, Gyeol flinched and waved his hands frantically.

“No, I didn’t mean it in a weird way...”

“I know. I know that, but......”

Sun took one step closer to Gyeol and carefully grasped his wrist.

It was his uninjured hand.

Then he gently leaned his cheek into Gyeol’s palm.

“As I told you, I can’t control it.”

The cheek filling his palm was unbearably hot.

Gyeol froze, unable to move, and Sun soon came back to his senses and quickly let go of his hand.

“I’m sorry. I just...”

This was driving him crazy.

Was embarrassment contagious?

This time, Gyeol felt shy along with him, and even his own cheeks seemed to grow hot.

“No, it’s fine. It’s fine. I should be more careful with what I—”

“You don’t need to!”

Gyeol’s eyes widened at Sun’s booming declaration.

A silence followed, filled by the cry of a gull circling over their heads as if mocking them.

“...I don’t need to. Right. Ha-ha. Yes.”

“......”

Sun looked pointlessly after the retreating gull, then smoothed a hand over his mouth and said,

“...You speaking comfortably. I also. Like... like that.”

In the end, Gyeol burst into laughter again.

The two of them took a leisurely walk along the beach for a while.

Gyeol found a seashell on the beach and placed it on Sun’s chest.

“Wow, now you really are the Aqua Emperor.”

“......!”

Sun’s pupils shook violently.

He could not deny Gyeol’s words when Gyeol said them with such an innocent smile, but he also could not exactly say, “Yes, I am the Aqua Emperor.” He was plunged into inner conflict.

Fortunately, Gyeol soon lost interest in the seashell.

His next target was a tiny crab scuttling across the beach, so small it would not even make a single bite. For some reason, Gyeol found it fascinating enough to crouch down and peer at it, making the 180-centimeter young man look like a curious child.

“There are crabs here. This is a crab, right, Sun?”

In truth, this was not the conversation Sun had intended to have with Gyeol.

“Yes, it is a crab.”

“It’s so tiny, but it’s still a crab. That’s amazing.”

He had asked to talk because the conversation they’d shared during their night at Ivory Mansion had stayed on his mind.

The look in Gyeol’s eyes, as though he was conflicted over something. The face that had eventually turned resolute.

Even though he had been terribly drunk, Sun had not been able to fall asleep until late that night. With his head barely working, he had thought he needed to speak with Gyeol again.

But the next morning, before he could even see Gyeol’s face, Gyeol had gone on a date with Jun Shin.

Sun could not say he did not hope Gyeol’s feelings would be the same as his.

But he did not want Gyeol to come to him only by enduring and overcoming something.

Sun wanted to respect Gyeol’s feelings exactly as they were.

Even if Gyeol’s heart turned elsewhere and, in the end, chose someone else...

No.

Was that really true?

“They’re called mud crabs... People fry them whole and eat them. Have you never tried them?”

“...They fry crabs this small? But they’re not even fully grown yet.”

Could Sun truly, willingly send Gyeol to someone else?

“They, uh, they’re a species that’s originally small. It’s not eating baby crabs. I’m not that shameless......”

“How did you know I was looking at you like that?”

“When you say ‘like that’......?”

“Like I was looking at a shameless person.”

Looking at Gyeol’s teasing smile, Sun knew he had crossed some kind of line.

He had passed the point where he could afford the composure to send him to someone else, exactly as he was, willingly.

But that did not mean his earlier feelings had not been sincere.

The Sun from before had been able to cheer Gyeol on with a pure heart and nothing else.

What do you think? Am I still cute?

But now...

I dislike being only comfortable to you, Gyeol.

Now.

“Oh, Sun, you’re scary. Eating little crabs and everything. I’ll have to be careful around you.”

“...Are you going to keep teasing me on purpose like that? You would like fried mud crabs too, Gyeol.”

“Now you’re dragging me into this too?”

It seemed he had grown a little greedier.

“Yes.”

“What?”

The tiny crab ran toward the sea.

Gyeol, who had been watching its backside, looked away and gazed up at Sun.

Sun held out his hand to Gyeol.

Gyeol’s hand touched Sun’s.

Sun grasped it firmly and helped him stand.

“So, please go eat fried mud crabs with me someday.”

***

In his dream, there was an enormous monster.

It was black, with huge eyes and an enormous body.

It was as big as Mina’s apartment building, the one he had visited only once.

The monster smashed buildings apart with bang, bang, bang sounds as it chased Yuli.

Yuli fell, rolled, and ran.

He was so scared that tears kept falling.

Cold wind poured endlessly from the monster’s mouth, so Yuli was cold again and again.

Scared, hurt, and freezing, he ran while calling for Dad.

Dad.

Dad.

Dad said he would protect Yuli.

Dad said even if ghosts came, even if monsters came, Dad would beat them all.

But Dad, why not this time?

Why won’t you come this time, no matter how many times Yuli looks for you and calls for you?

After running while screaming and sobbing, Yuli tripped over a fallen utility pole and collapsed.

Yuli could not get up anymore.

The monster had reached right in front of him.

Yuli grew colder and colder, so he tried to cover himself with anything he could find nearby. Wishing Dad would hold him, he desperately squeezed his eyes shut.

And just as the monster was about to eat him—

Yuli opened his tear-soaked eyes.

A familiar ceiling came into view.

Home.

His whole body felt heavy, and he could not breathe properly. Even though the blanket was pulled all the way up to his neck, his hands and feet kept growing cold, and his whole body was freezing.

Uncle Hyesung noticed Yuli had woken and came over, asking him something.

But Yuli’s ears were muffled, and he could not understand a single word Uncle Hyesung said.

“Da...d......”

“Yuli. Yuli!”

Uncle Hyesung urgently called Yuli’s name, then turned sharply and moved away.

It seemed like he was calling someone.

“Dad......”

Feverish, the child kept searching for Dad until the very end, and then he lost consciousness.