TTOA Chapter 16

#16

“Are you crazy? Are you deliberately trying to go insane? What are you singing right now?”

Is Seo Eui-woo out of his mind? It’s not the sweltering summer, but winter is coming. Why is he acting like this?

Even as Kwon Jae-jin stared at him in astonishment, Seo Eui-woo only curved his beautiful eyes into a smile. He leisurely swept back his wet hair after being splashed with water. Transparent droplets clung to his long, thin eyelashes like decorations.

“Why are you like this? I’m not kidding. I’m not teasing you. Kwon Jae-jin, your flesh is really soft and chewy.”

“What… this freaking… psycho…”

“Here, touch it.”

Seo Eui-woo grabbed Jae-jin’s wrist and made it touch his own forearm. It felt like touching a warm rock.

Looks like a peach on the outside, but a rock on the inside.

‘Seo Eui-woo is a hard-core peach.’

Anyway, Kwon Jae-jin was already well aware that Seo Eui-woo’s body was not just firm but hard. How long had he been living with him, skin to skin? He knew it well even without touching it.

“You see, Espers train in combat from a young age, constantly getting injured and recovering, so naturally, their skin and bones become hardened. It’s not soft like Jae-jin’s.”

I know. I know already.

‘Don’t you think that’s not the problem?’

Kwon Jae-jin, who had lived as a regular person, was just a soft body in Seo Eui-woo’s eyes, no matter how much he enjoyed exercising and rock climbing, even if he was muscular.

Espers live together in the Special Residential District, and there are hardly any opportunities to interact with ordinary people, so Kwon Jae-jin, who was born as an ordinary person, might seem fascinating to him. He understands that, but even so, babbling about babies and whatnot still makes him feel disgusted, now and then.

“Then just compare it to something else soft. Don’t bring up babies carelessly. What did the babies do wrong? Don’t you feel sorry for those little ones?”

“But Jae-jin is just so cute… soft…”

“Shut up. Close your mouth.”

“I like you so much.”

“So what! Damn it! Get your hands off me. I’ll wash myself. Don’t touch a single strand of my hair.”

“Ah, I understand, I won’t do it anymore. Are you angry, Jae-jin? I won’t, I really won’t.”

An unexpected scuffle broke out.

Kwon Jae-jin pushed Seo Eui-woo away forcefully to keep him from touching him, and Seo Eui-woo grabbed Jae-jin with a smiling face and hugged him tightly. Kwon Jae-jin had no choice but to be held captive as Seo Eui-woo put strength in his arms and even put his entire weight on him.

‘Damn it, I should have learned boxing or jiu-jitsu if I knew this would happen.’

Of course, even if he knew martial arts, he wouldn’t be able to beat Seo Eui-woo. He’d just be crushed with telekinesis. Still, wouldn’t he be a bit more of a match than he is now? It’s frustrating in many ways.

“Hey, didn’t I clearly… say it? Seo Eui-woo is the real brat…”

“Yeah, you said it. I remember it clearly.”

“Then what is it? You know, so why are you still acting like a child? Are you giving up on trying to win me over now?”

“Of course not. I’m doing everything Jae-jin tells me to do. Just say anything. Eui-woo will do anything.”

“Anything, really…?”

“Yes. Next time I receive Guiding, I’ll lick you more. I’ll spend more time and carefully… gently… hmm? Sounds good?”

Seo Eui-woo rubbed his lips against Kwon Jae-jin’s cheek, then his chin. He made kissing sounds as he lifted Jae-jin’s captured forearms one by one and continued to wash them. When he rubbed the inside of his armpits with a foamy hand, his movements were particularly slow and deliberate in one spot.

Kwon Jae-jin twitched the tips of his toes in the invisible bathwater, enduring the ticklishness. It felt like Seo Eui-woo was crawling on his thin skin.

“Ah, right… speaking of Eui-woo. Can’t you tell me what happened now? How you know me?”

Seo Eui-woo sat Kwon Jae-jin on his lap and washed his chest. There was semen stuck in his large, muscular cleavage, so he had to clean it thoroughly. When he lifted the folded part of his lower chest, the inside was sticky.

Seo Eui-woo carelessly fondled Kwon Jae-jin’s chest a little as he urged him.

“Tell me how Jae-jin knows me. No matter how much I think about it, I don’t have any memories that come to mind. But how did I become Jae-jin’s Eui-woo…”

Seo Eui-woo lowered his head and whispered in Kwon Jae-jin’s ear. A drop of water from his wet hair trickled down Kwon Jae-jin’s shoulder. Seo Eui-woo glanced down at the flowing stream of water.

“Could it be that we ran into each other in a tense battle situation and I don’t remember? That’s the only time I’d meet ordinary people. When Gates explode or creatures invade, while doing relief work…”

Just counting the number of ordinary people Seo Eui-woo has rescued so far, it must be close to ten million. Maybe Kwon Jae-jin was mixed in with them. Seo Eui-woo, lost in thought for a moment, narrowed his eyes. His long eyes without double eyelids narrowed. Soon, he shook his head.

“Hmm, no. I don’t think that’s it.”

Sharp certainty, like broken glass shards, pierced Seo Eui-woo’s brain.

If it was just a fleeting connection like that, Seo Eui-woo couldn’t be Kwon Jae-jin’s Eui-woo.

“Jae-jin isn’t that kind of person. He’s stubborn and picky. He wouldn’t act friendly, saying things like, ‘You only saved my life once, how can you not remember me?’ or ‘Eui-woo’.”

He doesn’t know how long it’s been since he met Kwon Jae-jin, but Seo Eui-woo was very confident.

In his judgment, Kwon Jae-jin was a very difficult person. He was a person with a firm heart, who didn’t tolerate errors that deviated from the standards he had set, a straight and upright person.

“He doesn’t like this, he doesn’t like that, whining like a baby… Ah, sorry, a slip of the tongue. But that’s all because Jae-jin has a set answer in his head, so he’s just being petulant. If I guess the right answer, Jae-jin doesn’t hate it. I know that for sure now.”

So, the fact that Kwon Jae-jin knows Seo Eui-woo must mean that there was a solid connection between the two.

“Am I right…?”

Seo Eui-woo’s glossy gray eyes stared intently at Kwon Jae-jin, scrutinizing him obsessively.

He carefully examined everything from his bubbly, foamy chest to his attractively defined muscles and ribs, his concave navel, his lightly haired groin, and his water-submerged lower body. His gaze reached his white thighs and bruised knees, stopped at his protruding anklebones, and then returned to his instep.

It felt like he could melt his skin with just his gaze.

Kwon Jae-jin, who had been silent all along, exhaled a hot breath and lowered his eyes.

“…House.”

Kwon Jae-jin’s low voice echoed in the steamy bathroom.

As if he had found the answer after a long period of deliberation, he muttered again.

“A house would be nice. A newly built house.”

“Huh? A house?”

“Just now, you said to just say anything. You said you’d do anything. I want a new house.”

Kwon Jae-jin disguised his voice with a nonchalant tone and continued the conversation as if nothing was wrong.

This was because the question Seo Eui-woo had was a problem that Jae-jin couldn’t solve yet. To answer that question, he would inevitably have to reveal that Kwon Jae-jin had regressed, but it was too early for that now.

‘It’s too early.’

Of course, Kwon Jae-jin was planning to reveal all the truth someday.

He didn’t intend to hide the fact that Kwon Jae-jin died and regressed, and that he and Seo Eui-woo were lovers in his first life.

He probably wouldn’t be able to hide it even if he tried to hide it from Seo Eui-woo. No matter what lies he told Seo Eui-woo, they would never work. So, when the time came, he planned to tell him the circumstances as they were and seek Seo Eui-woo’s cooperation.

However, that someday is not now.

‘Even if I reveal the truth now, I don’t know if Seo Eui-woo will believe it, and even if he does, it’s not a gain for me, it’s a loss. It’s already hard enough to deal with Seo Eui-woo as it is, how much more would I be swayed if he knew about the regression?’

He can already see the future.

‘Jae-jin has been my Guide for four years… If I had known that, I wouldn’t have needed to be considerate from the beginning. You’re probably familiar with how to use the Healing Factor, right? He’ll smile excitedly and tear my butthole apart.’

So, for now, he plans to hide it as long as he can.

It would be good for Kwon Jae-jin’s mental health to have at least one hidden card.

‘Maybe after I’ve fixed all three of Seo Eui-woo’s deep-rooted imbalances… I think I could talk about it around that time… but I have no idea when that will be.’

Jae-jin, who had quickly organized his thoughts, continued his act.

He maintained a expressionless face without the slightest tremor, and his voice flowed out smoothly without trembling. Kwon Jae-jin had quite a talent for acting.

“Seo Eui-woo, you should think about it too. I’m in a position where I have to live in hiding for the rest of my life. I’ll be shot if I go outside. So, wouldn’t it be okay for me to be a little greedy about the house I’ll be spending so much time in?”

“Ah… I guess that’s true.”

Seo Eui-woo leaned against the bathtub and stretched out lazily.