TTOA Chapter 151
by VolareTaming the Obsessive Maniac – Chapter 151
#151
Kwon Jae-jin stopped breathing and looked at Seo Eui-woo.
Seeing his white face, straight forehead, perfectly sunken eye sockets, and beautiful eyes drawn as if with a brush, his heart ached terribly. The longing condensed in every single one of his delicate eyelashes held Kwon Jae-jin captive, and his nose, like a ray of light, and his jawline, like a high wave, begged for forgiveness.
“I don’t like you.”
Kwon Jae-jin had been dividing and separating the Seo Eui-woo of the 2nd timeline and the Seo Eui-woo of the 1st timeline, but in fact, they were the same person.
The only difference was the passage of time; Seo Eui-woo was one person from beginning to end.
Neither could not be Kwon Jae-jin’s Seo Eui-woo.
The 1st timeline and the 2nd timeline were always the same.
Even trying to distinguish them by parting his hair on the opposite side was ultimately useless.
Even if Kwon Jae-jin tried to separate Seo Eui-woo, they were always one.
“You don’t want to let me go.”
“……”
“I don’t want to let you go either.”
“……But.”
“Let’s go together. Let’s just do that.”
“That’s absurd… This isn’t like you, Jae-jin-ssi.”
“I know.”
“What about that other me, that twenty-year-old me?”
“We have to go back to him too.”
“Pardon?”
“So, let’s go. Together.”
Kwon Jae-jin took Seo Eui-woo’s hand and walked back the way they came. Seo Eui-woo stopped dead in his tracks, then followed very slowly as Kwon Jae-jin led him. His expression was frozen. As if he were having a dream he couldn’t wake up from.
“I’m sick and tired of choosing one of the crossroads. What I thought was the right answer was never the right answer. You and I have always just failed and regretted. This time, I just want to do what my heart tells me to do.”
“Even so… how?”
“Don’t worry. I know because I regressed first, Kwon Jae-jin was one person from the beginning. Only the memories of the past four years were revived, he was originally the same person.”
“……”
“Even if you go, Seo Eui-woo is Seo Eui-woo. It’s not like he’s turning into someone else, it’s just that the memories are coming back. It’s stranger to worry.”
Abandoning the Seo Eui-woo of the 1st timeline here and Kwon Jae-jin only returning to the Seo Eui-woo of the 2nd timeline,
Abandoning the Seo Eui-woo of the 2nd timeline there and dying here with the 2nd timeline’s Seo Eui-woo,
He couldn’t choose between Seo Eui-woo and Seo Eui-woo.
Because they are both Seo Eui-woo.
“But, if I go, I’ll Runaway.”
The twenty-year-old Seo Eui-woo is still unbalanced. He can’t handle the ability of the twenty-four-year-old Seo Eui-woo.
“I guess so.”
Kwon Jae-jin answered messily.
“There’s no guarantee that the two of us will return safely! One person might be okay, but two is too…”
“Oh, that’s really dangerous.”
Originally, time travel itself was a gamble.
Kwon Jae-jin had no guarantee of success when he first regressed.
But Seo Eui-woo did it, and finally succeeded.
“Why… Why are you doing this, Jae-jin-ssi? Are you giving up?”
“No…”
Kwon Jae-jin dragged Seo Eui-woo to the end of the path they had returned on.
Seo Eui-woo was still looking at Kwon Jae-jin as if he couldn’t believe it. His eyes were filled with doubt and disbelief. Kwon Jae-jin reached out and touched Seo Eui-woo’s cheek, then carefully swept back the hair covering his forehead.
The hair that brushed against his fingertips was as soft as ever.
“Why are you like this? Why do we have to choose one?”
“……”
“You want to live with me, and I want to live with you. I love Seo Eui-woo.”
“……”
“Then that’s enough.”
“……”
“I couldn’t even think about helping you last time, but this time I think I can help you, Eui-woo-ya.”
Kwon Jae-jin concentrated quietly.
Strangely enough, he could feel something.
Kwon Jae-jin’s Core had been shattered twice, four years later and now. The crumbled fragments met in the corridor of time connecting the past and the future. Even if they were small and incomplete Cores, connecting the two was as good as one complete Core.
Kwon Jae-jin felt Seo Eui-woo’s wave with his large Core.
He knew instinctively how his Core and his Core were resonating.
Now, he could resonate.
“Even if you Runaway, I’ll bring you back.”
“……”
“Just like you revived me when I was dead.”
“There’s no way that’s possible…”
“A Runaway is when an Esper can’t control their unbalanced ability. It seems possible if it’s just a matter of reversing the contaminated ability. Really.”
“……”
“Trust me a little. I think it’s possible now.”
“……I trust you. I always trusted Jae-jin-ssi.”
“I’ll Guide you.”
“……Yes.”
“I’ll definitely bring you back. Let’s go together.”
“Yes… I want to do that too. I really wanted to do that.”
“Yeah…”
“I want to be with Jae-jin-ssi. Together, please, really please… just once.”
“Yeah… We’ll all be okay. We’ll go back together.”
Kwon Jae-jin nodded.
Seo Eui-woo’s expression finally crumbled.
Calmly, indifferently. He let go of himself, who had been holding on without shaking.
Seo Eui-woo had endured well. He had done well. He had waited well.
Seo Eui-woo, who was so good at waiting, deserved to be rewarded.
“Now… let’s go.”
“Yes, Jae-jin-ssi… Let’s go together.”
Light exploded and burst.
The universe, the Milky Way, and Saturn collapsed, and the creature legions plummeted.
The straight corridor connecting the time coordinates began to overturn from the far end at a fierce speed and began to devour four years of time.
Seo Eui-woo and Kwon Jae-jin held hands and gently closed their eyes.
No one needed to give up.
There was nothing to regret.
The time they had been waiting for was now, and Seo Eui-woo and Kwon Jae-jin already had each other. To the point where they didn’t need to long for anything. Without lacking. To the fullest.
Brighter than ever, drops of light spread out like celebratory fireworks, and time, which had stopped, began to flow again.
Kwon Jae-jin returned.
To Seo Eui-woo.
Together with Seo Eui-woo.
*
A strange light flickered in his cold, dead eyes.
Life returned to Kwon Jae-jin’s fallen skin, and his stiff muscles relaxed. The first breath permeated his lungs warmly, and from the second breath, his fingertips and toes came to life.
The sight of a corpse whose breath had been cut off reviving was a miracle in itself.
Time had been turned back, and the Core had been grafted and restored to its original state, and it was in perfect shape, as he had felt in the black space. As if it had been that way from birth.
And Kwon Jae-jin was able to handle the Core so naturally. As if he could see with his eyes, breathe with his nose, and make sounds with his mouth without anyone teaching him. He could feel the pulse through the Core.
Seo Eui-woo is at the origin of the surging.
His heart pounded with the clamor of the resonance tearing apart. His body, perfectly recovered by pouring out Healing Factor, stood up from the ground on its own. His tireless legs were reliable.
He could see a waterfall soaring backwards in front of him.
A black aura beyond control was exploding and overflowing from Seo Eui-woo. Having exceeded his limits, half of Seo Eui-woo’s face was dyed jet black. Even the whites of his eyes were black.
“Emergency situation. Emergency situation. Lieutenant Seo Eui-woo has Runaway! Immediately contact the Center!”
“There’s no time to delay. We have to stop him now!”
“Supply Guiding alternative drugs! All members who can respond, destroy his Core at the same time!”
The Espers who survived the Creature Wave surrounded Seo Eui-woo and began to engage.
They consumed the little ammunition they had left to shoot at Seo Eui-woo, but his fierce ability didn’t leave a single scratch. Everyone was swept away and ground to dust. It was impossible to even approach Seo Eui-woo.
“It’s impossible! There are far too few people who can respond!”
“Lieutenant Colonel! You have to make a decision! Evacuate the troops…!”
“At this rate, not only the Frontier District but also the General Residential District will be swept up.”
Kwon Jae-jin walked through the Special Task Force members who were frantically exchanging communications. The closer he got to the source of the Runaway, the more his heart resonated fiercely, as if it were tearing apart. He felt Seo Eui-woo. His existence. Desperately.
“Lieutenant Colonel Jang.”
Kwon Jae-jin called out to Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san, who was standing in front of the battle line. He turned to look at Kwon Jae-jin, his clothes covered in blood and blood flowing from his ears, with eyes that looked like he had seen a ghost.
Well, it was no wonder he was surprised that a Guide who had died with his Core shattered was standing up.
But there was no time to explain the details.
Kwon Jae-jin held out his right hand to him.
Lieutenant Colonel Jang, who had a face like a stone statue, looked at Kwon Jae-jin and his hand and suddenly realized. He hurriedly threw down his gloves and grabbed Kwon Jae-jin’s hand.
“I need to get closer to Seo Eui-woo. So I can reach him.”
When he said that while Guiding Lieutenant Colonel Jang, who was caught in the aftermath of the Guiding, he asked back in a hoarse voice.
“Reach? What are you talking about?”
“There’s no time to explain. Just help me get close enough to touch him. That’s all I need.”
“What…?”
“Is it impossible? To break through that aggregate of abilities.”
Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san’s expression twisted remarkably. But he knew that this was not the time to reason about the situation.
Kwon Jae-jin, who had died, was alive, and Seo Eui-woo had become the greatest disaster on earth.
Just holding his hand had filled his depleted ability like a spring, so what hesitation was needed? Lieutenant Colonel Jang replied seriously first.
“Yeah. It’s difficult for me alone.”
“Then it doesn’t matter how many people there are. I’ll Guide as many as I can. Until it’s possible.”
“Espers?”
“Yes. There’s no time. If I can just contact Seo Eui-woo…”
“…You’re thinking of Guiding him. An Esper who is Runaway?”
Lieutenant Colonel Jang narrowed his eyes. It would be one thing before the Runaway, but Guiding an Esper who has started to Runaway is useless. It’s just a futile struggle. He didn’t know if it would become an irreversible decision if he was caught up in an uncertain act. It might be better to evacuate all the members than to cling to an uncertain act.
“Ask me first. Being a Defense Type, I’ll be useful.”
Then, Ma Tae-o cut in and suddenly held out his hand.