TTOA Chapter 34

Ah.

It’s space again.

A desolate and vast space, with the 82 satellites orbiting Saturn visible. Titan, Enceladus, Mimas, Dione, Iapetus, Tethys, Hyperion, Epimetheus… Kwon Jae-jin’s dream. Manifestation of the subconscious.

Jae-jin was once again escaping into space.

Borrowing the universe, Kwon Jae-jin’s inner self was shouting.

As if this resolves everything.

As if revealing the regression to Seo Eui-woo would fulfill all of Kwon Jae-jin’s desires.

He barely managed to protect his memories, but the core of the problem remained unchanged.

The essence of Kwon Jae-jin changing the future.

Seo Eui-woo had changed.

Whether he’d changed for the better or worse, he couldn’t yet judge. What was certain was that the previous Seo Eui-woo had disappeared without a trace.

The second-round Seo Eui-woo was so different from the first-round Seo Eui-woo that Kwon Jae-jin, even if he hated it, had to accept the rejection.

He didn’t know what the future held.

His subconscious was shouting anxieties.

Kwon Jae-jin tossed and turned all night, dreaming of space, Saturn, and the 82 satellites.

When he opened his eyes the next morning, the dream from the night before had faded like a lingering image, and he soon forgot it, but the anxiety that had sunk into the depths of his subconscious still remained.

Kwon Jae-jin still missed the Seo Eui-woo who had disappeared.

The past four years, painted with love and hatred…

*

This was unbelievable. Kwon Jae-jin was at a loss for words.

‘Gasoline has different performance…’

The state of the living room was beyond description.

To describe it, it looked like everything had burned except the window glass.

The ivory-colored leather sofa was charred black, and the butterfly-pleated curtains and pure cotton carpet had turned to ashes, unrecognizable. The flooring was burned and sunken, and the wallpaper, door frames, and doors were the same. It was all black, making it impossible to tell where the wall was and where the door was. Even the ceiling was a mess with traces of embers and sprinkler bursts…

Standing in front of the hallway, Jae-jin looked at the living room and let out a hollow breath.

There was no way he could walk barefoot through this ruin.

He looked around for slippers, and Seo Eui-woo, who had followed Kwon Jae-jin out of the bedroom, yawned and asked.

“What are you looking for?”

“…Slippers.”

It seemed he had slept soundly after wrecking Kwon Jae-jin last night. Like a spell to gain eternal life by sacrificing a human sacrifice, he must have achieved the feat of a comfortable sleep by sucking out all the energy through Guiding.

You son of a bitch.

Somehow Seo Eui-woo seemed to be sleeping better every day, while Kwon Jae-jin seemed to have more and more trouble sleeping. A cold chill ran down the back of his neck.

“I think your feet will get dirtier even if you wear slippers. I’ll just move you.”

Seo Eui-woo held out his right hand.

When he took his hand, the two of them floated into the air side by side. Flying in the sky.

He used telekinesis to lift and carry all sorts of things, so there was no reason why he couldn’t do the same with people. It looked like being in the air was as comfortable and natural as walking for Seo Eui-woo.

“Where do you want to go?”

Kwon Jae-jin gave up on everything and replied with a tired expression.

“…The dressing room. Let’s get some clothes on.”

“Ah. Okay.”

It was hard to argue with Seo Eui-woo.

If he moved him, he moved him, if he flew, he flew, if he looked happy, he was happy, he had a comfortable sleep, our baby did it, well done… he just had to let it go. What else could he do?

Kwon Jae-jin felt like a balloon as he floated to the dressing room. He took out two of any t-shirt and any pair of pants, threw one set to Seo Eui-woo, and put the rest on himself.

Seo Eui-woo always bathed him after Guiding, but he never dressed him. He seemed to prefer physical contact, so he always left him naked and hugged him to sleep. That’s why getting dressed as soon as he opened his eyes became Kwon Jae-jin’s morning routine.

He looked back to see if Seo Eui-woo was dressed, but he was just standing there leisurely with the clothes in his hands. It seemed he had been carefully watching Kwon Jae-jin get dressed.

“Aren’t you going to put them on?”

When he urged him, Seo Eui-woo chuckled and put the cloth on his endlessly long legs. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a white hoodie, similar to what Jae-jin was wearing.

It seemed that’s how it turned out because he took out two of each type of clothing from the shelf. Jae-jin had a subtle expression because he felt like he was wearing a couple look, although he didn’t intend to. Of course, Seo Eui-woo didn’t seem to have any thoughts about it.

He was ignorant of ordinary people’s relationships, and he probably didn’t know what it generally meant to date and become lovers. The first-round Seo Eui-woo didn’t know at all until Kwon Jae-jin told him.

“I’m all dressed.”

“Very well done. Now let’s go to the kitchen.”

“Okay. Hold my hand.”

Seo Eui-woo held out his hand again, and Jae-jin took it. He felt more comfortable now that he had put on clothes and become a civilized human, and he arrived at the kitchen.

“Are you going to cook? Are you hungry, Jae-jin?”

“No, coffee.”

With an extra shot. Strong.

He felt like he couldn’t start the day without sucking on an iced Americano. Jae-jin pulled a shot, put in a lot of ice cubes, and made an iced Americano that was so cold it made the back of his neck tingle.

Seo Eui-woo was watching Jae-jin gulp down the iced Americano without a straw from the side. His gaze was blatant, but Jae-jin didn’t want to pay attention, so he ignored it. Instead, he held out his hand.

“Where do you want to go now?”

When Seo Eui-woo took his hand, Kwon Jae-jin tilted his chin upwards while holding the coffee.

“The rooftop.”

“The rooftop? Why there?”

“There’s the sea. Up there.”

“Yes, but?”

“It was blue.”

Seo Eui-woo bent his eyes without complaint. It was nice to see his smooth eyes bending.

“It might be a little dizzy.”

With those words, his belly button spun around.

The light was bright all around, and flashing lights burst one after another. He turned his head because he was blinded, and the sea breeze tickled his hair.

When Kwon Jae-jin slowly opened his eyes, he was already on the roof.

The open sky and the crashing blue welcomed the audience silently.

Around the two of them, small droplets of light danced and flew like fireflies.

“Do you like it?”

Jae-jin didn’t answer.

Instead, he reached out and pointed to the distant sea.

“Over there.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s go over there.”

Kwon Jae-jin stared at Seo Eui-woo.

If he could fly in the sky and teleport instantly, couldn’t he fly over the sea? He wasn’t supposed to go outside, but if it was the sea, no one would see him or find out.

Seo Eui-woo burst out laughing. His pleasant laughter sounded ordinary, like that of other people his age.

“Aren’t you trusting me too much? What if I drop you?”

“Are you going to drop me?”

“No, never.”

Again, the light was bright.

He closed his eyes and opened them to find himself in the middle of the vast ocean. The dazzling sunlight scattered in various colors and illuminated the waves, and the white foam rose beautifully and splashed on his bare feet without shoes.

Really, the light was bright. It was so bright that he couldn’t tell whether it was bright because of the traces of instant teleportation or because this sight was dazzling.

Kwon Jae-jin was inwardly satisfied with the special experience of a lifetime and sipped on the iced Americano he had brought.

It was the best taste.

The best coffee he had ever had in his life.

Jae-jin’s lips relaxed. The haggard face of a salaryman, who usually had a blank or frowning expression, softened a little. He smiled faintly.

Seo Eui-woo didn’t miss that moment.

“Jae-jin likes this kind of thing…”

He didn’t blink and imprinted Kwon Jae-jin’s relaxed face on his retina.

“The house we’re moving to. Not by the sea, so I thought you didn’t like the sea. That was a complete misunderstanding.”

“…As you know, it was because of the Gates. I was trying to get away from here.”

“Then should we just go back to the sea? To another beach.”

“Not really. I also like the mountains. I used to rock climb as a hobby.”

“Ah, is that what you call sports? The kind of extreme sports that ordinary people do?”

“Yes. It might have been a kind of training for Seo Eui-woo…”

Seo Eui-woo reached out and hugged Jae-jin’s waist. Kwon Jae-jin just let him do it. He took another sip of coffee.

“I’ve decided. Let’s have several houses. Let’s live in the mountains and live by the sea. You can just move around with me.”

“…”

“I can teleport, so there’s no difficulty. We can go to the mountains in the morning and go to the sea in the evening… That would be fun, right?”

Kwon Jae-jin just nodded silently.

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea. To have several houses like villas and change houses every day or every season.

Kwon Jae-jin, who came from a poor background, thought of buying his own house as a miracle, so he couldn’t easily imagine the path of owning multiple homes. You wouldn’t know this unless you’ve lived in a monthly rental.

Anyway, he was always living at the company because he was working overtime, and his salary was disappearing every month as rent. And that’s not all? What about the management fee? After poking holes in his salary with food expenses, transportation expenses, congratulatory and condolence expenses, insurance fees, and communication fees, there was nothing left, and all he could do was save a little money.

Even if he tried to achieve his dream of buying his own house with a loan by scraping together all the money he had, the interest rate was stuck at the top of the ceiling, and the market price of houses was already soaring through the clouds and flying in the sky.

Would Seo Eui-woo know this kind of life of ordinary people?

He probably wouldn’t.

You could tell just by the fact that Kwon Jae-jin’s hobbies were running and rock climbing, which he could do with his bare body without any special equipment. He couldn’t afford to have expensive tools.