TTOA Chapter 106

#106

Even the Generals are getting emergency calls.

Normally, the classified strategy meetings are held regularly once a week and are just for show. However, when a crisis arises that threatens national security, all general-rank officers are summoned to the headquarters of the Military Strategy Headquarters. This is because it is necessary to urgently convene and come up with countermeasures.

And the sudden destruction of the inner perimeter wall of the Special Residential District was naturally an emergency call that fell into the first stage.

It’s not just me who has to rush when the bell rings.

So, when the strategy meeting is convened, Seo Eui-woo will manipulate the brains of the generals gathered in one place. All at once. Simultaneously. All of them together…….

Jae-jin recalled the collapsed inner perimeter wall, raising a cloud of dust.

Seo Eui-woo, floating high in the sky, gathered his telekinetic power like lightning and plunged it down all at once, and the 9-meter-high perimeter wall instantly turned into a pile of concrete and collapsed. The Espers guarding the inner perimeter wall gate didn’t even realize what was happening and were busy communicating with the Center in a panic.

Seo Eui-woo took Kwon Jae-jin straight to coordinate teleportation before being discovered, and that’s how the two of them ended up standing on top of the Center’s Central Building.

“……Hoo.”

I felt it when the mansion was raided and the search party invaded, but Seo Eui-woo was really unbelievably omnipotent.

Every time he called Kwon Jae-jin a baby or said he was weak, I got annoyed and felt repulsed, but when I saw Seo Eui-woo fighting with his abilities, no, obliterating them one after another, it seemed like Kwon Jae-jin looked like a mite weaker than a hamster in Seo Eui-woo’s eyes.

Jae-jin always provoked Seo Eui-woo without thinking, and Seo Eui-woo tried to suppress the abilities that he unconsciously spewed out when he was excited. But looking back, that was a really dangerous moment.

If Seo Eui-woo had failed to control his power, Kwon Jae-jin would have died on the spot.

Kwon Jae-jin’s life. I’ll cherish it……. Tremendously.

I’ll really treat you well.

Preciously…… the only one, I’ll do that.

Seo Eui-woo was always sincere.

He’d go easy on me, cherish me, treat me preciously…….

That was all true…….

It was a straight-up answer without any exaggeration or lies.

Beyond just coordinate teleportation, using a little telekinesis, and flying in the sky, which are harmless and amazing abilities, after clearly seeing his power to change the terrain, destroy the perimeter wall, and knock down a bunch of Espers, I finally seriously understand his intentions.

Seo Eui-woo called out to Kwon Jae-jin, who was lost in thought for a moment.

“Hey, Jae-jin. Actually, I…….”

He murmured as if bursting.

“I’m saying this now, but I was really looking forward to going to the 6th Residential District.”

“Yes?”

“I was curious about where Jae-jin grew up and how he lived. I wanted to let Jae-jin know about the family he had forgotten.”

“…….”

“I even thought about whether the sky would look a little different there, whether the air would be clearer, and I hoped spring would come soon.”

When I slowly turned my head to look at Seo Eui-woo, he was looking in the same direction as Kwon Jae-jin with a gracefully smiling face like a painting.

The Northern Perimeter Wall. Beyond that was the 6th Residential District.

“And, I thought it would be fun to build a house and cultivate a field and grow a bamboo forest with Jae-jin. Well, of course, if I lived with Jae-jin, I’d be happy anywhere…… but I still thought it would be really nice. If the two of us did that.”

……Seo Eui-woo said something obvious, too obvious.

Kwon Jae-jin swallowed hard.

The sunlight pouring over his back looked like a halo illuminating Seo Eui-woo. His slightly disheveled hair reflected the light and shone transparently, and his round ears and well-shaped jawline were even more clearly visible.

It’s different to see him in natural light than indoor lighting. Such a silly thought flashed through my mind.

“Yes, I thought so too. If I was with Seo Eui-woo…… I thought it would be nice.”

“Jae-jin was looking forward to it too? Like me?”

Seo Eui-woo whispered cautiously.

Kwon Jae-jin nodded without much thought.

“We feel the same way, then.”

“…….”

“Then later. When this is all over…… do you want to try living like that?”

Seo Eui-woo continued to say obvious things.

“Oh, but the new house that Jae-jin wanted is almost finished. So, we can live there too, and live here too, and go back and forth to the residential district whenever we feel like it. Right?”

“……Having multiple houses, like a vacation home?”

“Yes.”

“Shall we? Sounds good.”

To the mountains, to the sea. Changing every day, every season.

We’re talking about something we talked about a long time ago.

Back then, it was about choosing a vacation home that was a safe prison to keep Kwon Jae-jin in, but the difference is that it’s not like that now.

“And that canyon too. Let’s go there again too.”

“Canyon…….”

“Yes, I definitely have to go on a date with Jae-jin there. No matter how many times I think about it.”

“…….”

“I feel like I’d be wronged if I couldn’t do that with Jae-jin.”

“…….”

“Let’s go together. Just the two of us. Let’s go with rings on too.”

“…….”

“Haha, let’s even wear matching outfits, let’s……”

Kwon Jae-jin couldn’t help but burst out laughing. A leaking sound, *put*, came out.

His dark eyebrows arched somewhere between frowning and smiling. His lips trembled slightly, and after a while, the corners of his lips lifted up.

Kwon Jae-jin looked at Seo Eui-woo with a helpless laugh.

“……Jae-jin, are you laughing now?”

“Yes, I’m laughing.”

“Your eyes are, a bit…… they look like you’re about to cry.”

“No. But I’m still laughing.”

Seo Eui-woo’s words kept pushing Kwon Jae-jin up.

It felt like Seo Eui-woo was pushing Jae-jin on a swing from behind. We’re already standing in the sky above the top of the Center, but it felt like I was going even higher, higher, even higher, and floating up.

“Seo Eui-woo…… do you know what the word ‘admirable’ means?”

“I know. Of course.”

“Ah, I see. I was just checking in case you might not know.”

Seo Eui-woo, you’re admirable.

Jae-jin reached out and swept Seo Eui-woo’s hair back.

After tidying up his scattered hair, he grabbed his cheeks and touched them. It wasn’t pink now. It was white, smooth, and had a flawless color like marble.

“Eui-woo.”

Jae-jin called out to him, touching Seo Eui-woo’s face carefully, Eui-woo.

“Yes.”

“Eui-woo……”

“Yes, Jae-jin.”

“Hmm…… then, do you also know what the word ‘free’ means?”

“Of course…….”

Just like Seo Eui-woo said something obvious, Kwon Jae-jin also said something obvious.

The two of them were thinking the same thing and looking at each other with the same heart. I could feel the temperature of our emotions matching.

Neither hot nor cold, neither overflowing nor lacking.

It was mixed just right and harmonized.

Kwon Jae-jin. Seo Eui-woo.

Kwon Jae-jin Seo Eui-woo.

Like that.

“I think I’m free now. That’s exactly how I feel.”

“Really?”

Seo Eui-woo smiled comfortably, his expression greatly relaxed. Color appeared on his cheeks.

“I see…….”

“…….”

“Yeah, then I guess I feel that way too.”

It was a beautiful color.

It was stable, bright, and precious. So much so that I was sure that no one could dare to take it away.

“We’re free, then. Right now.”

Seo Eui-woo hugged Kwon Jae-jin and spun him around. Now, even such a small action was as familiar as a habit. On the sea, in the exhibition room, the two of them did this like decorations on a music box.

“Good.”

“…….”

“Ah…… I like it.”

Seo Eui-woo repeated the same words, *I like it, I like it,* in a sweetly melting voice. And just then, the faint sound of propellers could be heard in the distance. A transport helicopter flying from very high in the sky could be seen.

If we just wait here, we’ll be discovered.

“Tsk.”

Seo Eui-woo clicked his tongue and frowned. He felt like a good moment had been interrupted. But the timing was just right.

It was about the time that the emergency strategy meeting of the military leaders, the general-rank officers, would begin.

“Shall we go? Hold my hand.”

“Yes, here.”

As soon as Kwon Jae-jin took Seo Eui-woo’s hand, abilities swelled from Seo Eui-woo.

A faint white light spread out into the sky, and I felt a sensation of being sucked in from my toes to my head.

For some reason, this time it felt like the coordinate teleportation was happening particularly slowly.

The moment felt like an eternity. My heart pounded.

‘Ah…….’

Jae-jin’s heart rate gradually increased and his body became hot.

My body hair stood on end and I heard a piercing ringing in my ears.

‘I’m…… at the Center.’

Center.

It was a place I never thought I’d have a connection to in my life.

When I was living as an ordinary person, I thought it was a different world that I could only see through the media, and after developing as a Mutant, I thought it was a military base, the lair of the Espers who were trying to kill Jae-jin.

Kwon Jae-jin is setting foot in such a place.

This kind of thing…….

It’s actually happening…….

‘……Haha.’

Jae-jin swallowed a laugh as he chased the flow of scattering light.

At that moment, I could realize it.

The Habitus of Kwon Jae-jin, who used to be an ordinary person, has completely changed.

Habitus. A term defined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, meaning ‘second nature’, that is, the habits and customs of a familiar social group.

When I think about whether I want to go back to the 6th Residential District and live like an ordinary person again, of course I do feel that way. There is an endless longing that comes from my hometown. Decorating a bamboo forest with Seo Eui-woo and living there would surely bring peaceful and simple joy. But, Kwon Jae-jin’s future could not end with just that.

There will be a mansion in the Special Residential District, and we will go on dates in the canyon where nine streams of valleys and seven-colored rainbows overlapped, practice shooting with an affectionate rifle, and shoot creatures. In preparation for the creature wave.

So now, entering the Center…… Jae-jin felt a sense of stability.

Kwon Jae-jin’s Habitus is that of a Mutant Guide.

Seo Eui-woo’s Guide.

Therefore, the act of setting foot in this Center was not scary or awkward.

It was a feeling that Kwon Jae-jin had arrived in a place where he should be, at a time when he should be, naturally and obviously.

Kwon Jae-jin had already adapted to life in the Special Residential District, and he was also a member of the Espers.

And he was ready to fight.