"So please. Please don't get hurt like that ever again."
Jaegyeom couldn't push Yoon Taehee away. But he couldn't embrace him back either. Suddenly, the scene he had seen in his dream earlier overlapped with reality.
In the dream, Yoon Taehee, stabbed by Jaegyeom's knife, had buried his forehead in his shoulder just like this. Jaegyeom's hand, which he had reflexively raised to push Yoon Taehee away, couldn't settle anywhere and hovered around his back.
"..."
As he hesitated, Jaegyeom missed the timing to push Yoon Taehee away. Unable to do anything, he remained still in his embrace.
I should say something, anything...
"By any chance, a very long time ago..."
Just then, Yoon Taehee, who had his forehead pressed against Jaegyeom's shoulder, spoke up.
"Did you ever take any strange medicine?"
It was an unexpected question.
"Medicine? What kind of medicine?"
Jaegyeom glanced at Yoon Taehee, taken aback.
"Just. Something like a pill."
A pill? Jaegyeom frowned slightly as he tried to recall.
But nothing came to mind immediately. After staring into the distance for a moment, Jaegyeom shook his head.
"No. But why do you ask?"
If he were to answer why, where should he start and where should he end?
That he had been looking into ways to break the curse of immortality for some time now, that there was something called the 'immortality pill' which, if eaten, would grant immortality, that perhaps jaegyeom wasn't cursed but had eaten this pill…
And if he were to find a way to break Jaegyeom's curse, if there was a way to escape immortality and live normally, age normally, and die normally. If that were really possible. Would it make Jaegyeom want to live even a tiny bit longer, even just one more day?
"..."
But nothing was certain yet. The reason for his immortality might not be related to the Pill of Immortality. Without concrete evidence, all of this was mere speculation, and he couldn't jump to conclusions based solely on what he had heard from Kim Yekwon.
It would be better to speak only after obtaining more definitive clues.
"No, it's nothing."
After a long silence, Yoon Taehee's lips moved slightly.
In the end, he couldn't say anything to Jaegyeom.
Above all, Yoon Taehee lacked confidence. He knew how much Jaegyeom had longed for and yearned for death. If no one else, at least Yoon Taehee understood the weight of that desire.
Despite hating exorcists so much, despite loathing his master who was an exorcist, Jaegyeom had decided to become an exorcist based on the single possibility of being able to die. Moreover, despite having the fox clan and ginseng child who had been with him for ages, despite having such precious beings by his side, he had unhesitatingly taken the hand that offered to
'kill him'.
You don't have confidence in winning his heart, do you?'
Suddenly, Paehyeon's words echoed in his ears. If so, Yoon Taehee wanted to ask the opposite. How, in what way, could one stand against that desire?
"Hey, so..."
It was then. Jaegyeom gripped Yoon Taehee's shoulders with a stiff posture. He felt like he was dying of awkwardness and discomfort, wondering how long they had to stay like this.
Jaegyeom gently pushed Yoon Taehee's upper body away and asked,
"Uh... what exactly happened yesterday?"
Pushed back, Yoon Taehee slowly raised his head.
His mind was already a chaotic mess. Apart from the newly discovered existence of the Pill of Immortality, who was the 'teacher' Kim Yekwon mentioned, to what extent was the headquarters involved in this incident, what were the black insects that came out of Kim
Yekwon's body, and why was Jaegyeom affected by the spiritual energy spray...
Various issues overlapped and flooded his mind.
"It seems someone within the main office deliberately planned this."
Yoon Taehee briefly explained what had happened yesterday. However, he didn't mention the existence of the 'teacher', the Pill of Immortality, or the spiritual
energy spray.
Having been hit by the spiritual energy spray as soon as he went on a rampage, Jaegyeom didn't remember the situation accurately. Listening attentively to the explanation, Jaegyeom asked,
"So you're saying the office issued a fake mission?"
"Yes. It could be that Choi Wonyoung, the Head of the Undercover Department, planned this on his own, or he might have been acting under orders from the headquarters."
"Why? What's the reason?"
Yoon Taehee was silent for a moment. To explain the reason, he couldn't avoid talking about the existence of the Pill of Immortality and the alchemy that required sacrificing a gwijae.
...I'm not sure."
Therefore, he decided to hold his tongue. Jaegyeom fell into thought for a moment. From the beginning, Jaegyeom, who distrusted Naryecheong, wouldn't be greatly surprised even if told that the headquarters was an organization that exploited exorcists. Anyway, what was certain was that for some unknown reason, this incident was planned to lure Exorcism Department exorcists out, and Yoon Taehee could be the bait.
"Then aren't you in danger?"
"Danger? How?"
"You never know when something like this might happen again."
"Well... I knew it was dangerous yesterday too."
That was true.
Yesterday, Yoon Taehee had said, "This is a trap," and entered alone, leaving Jaegyeom behind. It meant he already knew the situation could be dangerous.
Finally, Jaegyeom's face hardened as he looked at Yoon Taehee.
"If you knew it was dangerous, why did you walk in there on your own?"
He couldn't understand why Yoon Taehee had infiltrated alone when he couldn't even use spiritual energy. What if he had been caught and something had happened to him? Thinking that he had knowingly walked into a trap and put himself in danger made Jaegyeom slightly angry.
Jaegyeom thought Yoon Taehee had entered the place empty-handed without any preparation. However, Yoon Taehee, as the leader of Byeoksadan, had intelligent ghosts he could summon anytime, anywhere. As long as he had the ghosts, there was no situation he couldn't break through.
But when Jaegyeom, who was thought to have returned, came back to the scene, Yoon Taehee couldn't call the intelligent ghosts. If Jaegyeom hadn't come back, he could have resolved the situation more cleanly, and neither of them would have been injured this badly.
"Well. that's what I want to ask you."
But unable to tell the truth, Yoon Tehee turned the question back, "Why did you come back when I told you to return?"
Why did he come back? As if that wasn't even a question, Jaegyeom narrowed his brows. Yoon Taehee, sitting across from him, blinked his eyes and asked slyly,
"Were you worried about me?"
Jaegyeom opened his mouth without hesitation.
"Of course."
At this straightforward answer, Yoon Taehee paused.
"So from now on, don't go around alone when something happens."
Jaegyeom muttered gruffly, lowering his gaze.
"..."
Yoon Taehee's expression became peculiar as he sat facing Jaegyeom at arm's length. Staring at Jaegyeom, Yoon Taehee slowly leaned forward. The bed tilted silently, and before he knew it, his face was right in front of his nose. Jaegyeom, who had barely managed to keep some distance, flinched and pressed his back against the bed's headboard. Yoon Taehee, face to face with him, said,
"Thank you."
Jaegyeom was now trapped between the headboard and Yoon Taehee. They were close enough to feel each other's breath. Jaegyeom, crumpled up, stammered,
"W-w-what for..."
At a distance where their noses almost touched, Yoon Taehee whispered,
"For saving me."
Yoon Taehee's face was just a hair's breadth away.
Suddenly, he felt tense as if he couldn't breathe.
Jaegyeom tilted his head to the side awkwardly, as if avoiding eye contact, and lowered his gaze. At that moment, a word popped into his mind.
Kiss.
The feeling that they might kiss. A vague tension that something was about to happen. This was some kind of premonition. It was something he had never felt before in his life.
Come to think of it, the kisses Jaegyeom had experienced were always sudden. It was true that he had always been 'caught off guard' by Yoon Taehee.
But this time was different.
Jaegyeom experienced for the first time in his life what felt like an atmosphere leading to a kiss.
Although nothing had happened yet, he felt that Yoon Taehee would soon kiss him. Jaegyeom, who was only used to being suddenly kissed in flustered situations, didn't know how to handle this kind of atmosphere. So he blurted out whatever came to mind.
"What's there to thank for. It's, it's natural for me to save you."
His eyelashes fluttered frantically as he added incoherently,
"If something happens to you, everything will be for nothing."
Just before their noses touched, Yoon Taehee stopped abruptly.
"..."
His eyes, which had stopped at the tip of Jaegyeom's nose, moved back and forth, following his features.
The eyes that had been carefully examining
Jaegyeom's face slowly sank. Yoon Taehee, who had been looking down, soon muttered as if to himself,
"As expected, you know things."
Jaegyeom, who had been frozen in an awkward posture, hesitated and asked,
'What?"
It was a statement he couldn't understand. However, without any further response, Yoon Taehee slowly got up from the bed. Contrary to Jaegyeom's expectation, there was no kiss. Walking to the door, he grabbed the doorknob and muttered,
"Get plenty of rest today. I'll go to work."
As he said this, Yoon Taehee's broad back looked strangely lonely.