TTOA Chapter 130

“You want to live as if it’s just the two of us, as if there are only two of us in the world…?”

“Yes, yes, that’s it… Please.”

“It’s what I want too. I wish we could. But…”

Jae-jin’s dry lips moved. His tongue tickled. He hesitated, stopping after trying to say something, and then trying again, repeating the process.

After agonizing, Jae-jin muttered with a sense of resignation.

“How can we live as if it’s just the two of us when the world is in this state…?”

“…What did you say?”

“The Creature Wave hasn’t ended yet. No… it’s just beginning. The battle will continue at least until the Alpha Creatures crawl out of the Gates.”

“…”

“Espers on the front lines will die miserably, and no one will remember them. Espers will Runaway, and Guides will have to perform mucous membrane Guiding until their orifices are torn apart. Even at this very moment…”

“…”

“Knowing full well that the world is going crazy like this, even if we love each other to death, we can’t just look at each other, can we…? To be honest, yeah… I can give you my eyeballs and toenails, whatever Seo Eui-woo wants. Those things don’t matter at all. But, honestly, I…”

Kwon Jae-jin turned his head slightly. He couldn’t bring himself to look directly at Seo Eui-woo.

However, as soon as he shifted his gaze, Seo Eui-woo grabbed Jae-jin’s chin, forcing him to look back at him.

“Honestly? Tell me. Honestly, what is it?”

The strength in the hand gripping his face was intense. It was as if it contained the desire to hold Kwon Jae-jin in his grasp, firmly holding his head and refusing to let go.

Kwon Jae-jin barely managed to squeeze out a reply.

“…I still want to change the world, after all.”

It wasn’t that he wanted to prioritize change over Seo Eui-woo. It meant he wanted to be with Seo Eui-woo.

“If we live in a changed, different world… wouldn’t that be enough? Not here, in this terrible place.”

“So…? Keep talking. You still have something to say, don’t you?”

A chilling vibration was felt from all directions.

The ability Seo Eui-woo was emitting was violent and dangerous, as if it would explode at any moment.

“…Guiding.”

“Yes.”

“Guiding, hah, yeah… if I were to spill my true feelings, I still have the desire to try it.”

Crack!

A huge cracking sound, deafeningly loud, erupted, and the thick steel walls and floor of the underground bunker were damaged. Deep cracks, as if torn by beast claws, appeared everywhere.

Seo Eui-woo exhaled roughly, his shoulders trembling. His eyebrows were distorted with rage and shock, and his once-pale complexion was now dull and lifeless.

“Jae-jin, how… how could you do this to me?”

Before Kwon Jae-jin could interject, Seo Eui-woo shouted rapidly.

“Is it because I said I wanted to confine you? Did you hate that I wanted to do terrible things to Jae-jin? And… and were you afraid that I would hurt you again, that it would hurt? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, wait a minute…”

“I clearly told you not to! Espers, Guiding, those fucking bastards are not allowed! Don’t even think about touching them!”

Seo Eui-woo reached out as if to strangle Kwon Jae-jin. He grabbed his neck with his large hand, but couldn’t bring himself to apply force, trembling instead. His gray eyes were rolled back, turning blue, and his distorted lips seemed to be screaming.

A violent outcry silently echoed in his ears.

Kwon Jae-jin flinched, holding onto Seo Eui-woo as he rushed at him with raw emotion, pushing him away, and ultimately accepting him as he was.

Mixed with his panting breaths, a stifled voice squeezed out.

“Just… just holding hands. It’s different from you…”

Kwon Jae-jin hunched his shoulders and trembled slightly in his back.

His expression faltered for a moment. His eyebrows gradually drooped, and small red bumps began to form around his eyes.

“Seo Eui-woo, you… you’re different.”

“What, how am I different! Espers are all the same. All of them are vulgar and base…”

“No, you know that’s not all there is to it. We’re more than that.”

Kwon Jae-jin paused to catch his breath. He was out of breath just from exchanging words. It felt like their souls were colliding.

“Seo Eui-woo, did you… did you hate me when I came back from Guiding Ma Tae-o… when I had Guiding from that person?”

“What, what? There’s no way!”

“Then what about earlier? You said you were confused. You said you wanted to confine me and do terrible things to me. Are you tired of dating me now?”

“No? No!”

“That’s what I’m saying… We decided to do this. Unwavering. Firmly.”

“But…”

“Giving my hand doesn’t change anything. Of course, I understand a hundred times over that the innate instincts of Espers are bothersome. I hate it too. But, even so, we’re us, aren’t we? You and I… are different.”

He decided to live a proper life.

Just as he couldn’t properly date with countless corpses beneath his feet, he couldn’t properly live while ignoring the blood-soaked world. Sadly, Kwon Jae-jin was that kind of person.

If he had chosen to run away from the beginning, it might have been different, but Kwon Jae-jin was already walking the path of confrontation. He didn’t want to stop here. The Espers dying, the Espers being used as weapons and running wild, the Guides being exploited like tools. The most effective card to overturn this dirty world had been in Kwon Jae-jin’s hand all along.

An S-rank Late-Blooming Guide.

A bottom-tier Mutant who wasn’t even treated as an Awakened person rebelling with unprecedented ability. Could there be a more perfect revolution than that?

“…Then what about me?”

Seo Eui-woo muttered emptily, slowly tightening his grip. The muscles on Kwon Jae-jin’s neck, held in his hand, tightened little by little.

“I have to kill all the bastards who touch Jae-jin’s hand…”

“Ugh…”

“I feel like I’m going crazy just wanting to confine Jae-jin…”

“Eui-woo…”

“I… I don’t even know anymore. I’m broken. You said you like it, but I keep getting contradictory impulses. I feel like, I feel like I’ve become a monster…!”

“Ah…”

“Maybe it’s because I’m an Awakened, because I wasn’t born as a normal person, that something went wrong…? Maybe I was the kind who could never date Jae-jin from the start… I, I’m… disqualified. I don’t even deserve to be your lover.”

All sorts of contradictions were covering him. He wanted to beg and kiss Kwon Jae-jin, but at the same time, he was confused by the brutal impulse to strangle him.

Seo Eui-woo grabbed Kwon Jae-jin by the neck and pulled him closer. Their dry lips met, and his tongue, rough and eager, invaded violently through their parted teeth. The moment their tongues touched, a fervent heat was felt.

His whole body, rushing towards him, was like a ball of fire.

Leaving himself to the boiling passion, Kwon Jae-jin’s eyelids fluttered.

Far from being disqualified as a lover, Seo Eui-woo was only now approaching the true nature of love.

Concepts like jealousy or possessiveness between lovers, which adults raised in ordinary residential districts would know as common sense, were unfamiliar and unknown to Seo Eui-woo. But these negative feelings of jealousy were simply natural emotions that came with a relationship. It was a hurdle that would have to be overcome someday.

“So, Seo Eui-woo, you thought dating would only be good…?”

Kwon Jae-jin lowered his eyes and squeezed out his voice with difficulty.

“I guess, heuh, I should have told you there were vicious things…”

“If you love… you can’t help it.”

“…Love?”