Side Story 3. Free flight (7)

Once the floodgates opened, a few more similar questions followed.

"Um, Lecturer Jin Soram! I'm curious if hunters can close one eye when poking both cheeks with their index fingers, which is supposedly impossible for normal people!"

"Really? If that's how human anatomy works, hunters shouldn't be any different. Han Tae-un, come up here."

Soram poked Tae-un's cheeks with both index fingers, making a squishing sound, and told him to try closing his eyes.

"What's this? Is it that you can't close just one eye because you're frowning?"

"My cheeks are painfully pressed between my teeth..."

"But is this really impossible? Oh, I think I can do it. Han Tae-un, you try too."

"...I think it's enough if just the lecturer does it."

There were disappointed pleas for Tae-un to try as well, but he just bowed his head briefly and went back down from the podium.

"Soram-ah, I'm going to report you!"

"Ah. I don't know what you know, but it would be troublesome if I got a criminal record and lost my civil servant job. Please let it slide."

"I'm going to file a marriage registration with you..., no... But why aren't you denying that you did something wrong, it's scary..."

And there was also this question:

"I'd like to ask this to both Hunter Jin Soram and Hunter Han Tae-un. Aren't you scared when facing the big monsters coming out of the Great Rifts? I'm curious how you can fight by throwing your bodies at them like that."

"Ah, I feel like I should give a really cool answer to this."

Despite his playful tone, Soram took a moment before answering.

"To be honest, I've never fought with as great a sense of duty as you might think."

Even recalling the few large battles that passed through his mind now, he couldn't remember what he was thinking at the time. Though all the scenes that had vividly unfolded before his eyes were etched in his memory.

"If you ask whether it's scary or not, of course it's scary. But awakened people instinctively know. That even if I step back, I'll only live a few more days at most. That if we don't face and fight at the front, it's the end. I've fought with this thought, but I'm not sure about Han Tae-un."

"I step forward so that people like Hunter Jin Soram don't have to fight alone."

"Gasp, I'm touched..."

Soram made an exaggerated emotional expression, clenching his fist in front of his heart. As he did so, he checked the clock hanging at the back of the auditorium. The one-hour lecture time was almost up.

"I meant to keep it brief, but quite a bit of time has passed. Don't you all want to go enjoy the festival? Can the student in the front row ask the last question?"

Soram leaned forward on the podium and made eye contact with the student closest to him. In fact, the student who had been disappointed that the previous class ended with just a cancellation notice and had slipped into the afternoon class to see the atmosphere, seemed dazed, not expecting to be chosen.

Soram smiled, and it was impossible to tell whether he had noticed something or was just pointing to the closest person.

"Um..., um..., then, please brag about your lover!"

"Oh..."

Soram scratched his cheek with his fingertip.

"You're not asking if I have a lover."

"We all know!"

"Well, I have been talking about it a lot."

Soram unconsciously rubbed his left ring finger, and when he heard a subtle cheer that resembled a jeer, he smiled and showed the back of his left hand to the people. There was a ring that was noticeably thick to be just an accessory. As he stretched his arm forward as if to show off, louder voices were directed at him. Tae-un's head dropped a little below the podium.

"They're beautiful. Their face, their heart, their actions."

His voice, which had been tinged with playfulness, gradually gained weight as he continued.

"Without that person, the current me wouldn't exist. Actually, it's my first relationship, and because we're in a special situation, there have been many ups and downs, but now we're stable and living happily together. Hehe."

Wow, look at that expression. Hearing the student sitting in the front row, Tae-un turned his head slightly to the side.

Ah.

Soram's expression had turned rosy. His face wore a round smile as he lowered his gaze to the very small ring on his finger.

"Thanks to that person, I endured difficult times and am living now. ...No matter what happens in the future, that person will always be by my side. I'm really loved a lot."

Tae-un's left thumb rubbed his ring finger inside his palm. Soram placed one hand on his hip.

"Ah, talking about it made me miss them, so I should go meet my lover. That's all for questions. Everyone enjoy the festival. Class dismissed!"

He waved both hands without hesitation and put down the microphone. Then he jumped down from the fairly high podium without hesitation. The direction he walked in was where Tae-un was.

Soram, who had approached Tae-un, mouthed:

"I missed you. Lover."

Tae-un answered with a smile not much different from Soram's expression.

"Me too."

***

The time after sunset was usually a bit cool, but today it felt a bit warmer because lights were lit everywhere and there was a large crowd. Popular idol performances were scheduled to start in earnest from the evening.

It would have been nice to watch that too, but a group of KTubers had even emerged, coming to the school from outside to see the two hunters under the cover of the festival. In the end, they came to the professor's office assigned to Soram, avoiding public places. It was a small room with just a desk, sofa, and small refreshment table.

While Tae-un was leaning his sword against the wall, Soram, who had already flopped down on the sofa, patted the seat next to him. What Soram indicated was the narrow space between the armrest and himself. When Tae-un squeezed his hips in as instructed, they ended up pressed tightly together without any gap.

"It seems too narrow."

"It's because your body is big, so bear with it."

"I guess so."

The only light illuminating the unlit room was the evening sun that had turned vermilion. Tae-un put down a plastic drink cup next to the sofa. The half-melted ice rattled. The fluorescent drink that Soram had taken one sip of and made a face at earlier had been left at the law department's drinking tent, but he had insisted on buying another one on the way and put it in Tae-un's hand. He also took one sip and furrowed his brow but steadfastly emptied about half of it. As the vermilion sunlight mixed with the remaining drink, it became an even more mysterious color.

Tae-un put his arm on the back of the sofa, and Soram naturally leaned towards Tae-un, sitting at an angle. Though it was noisy outside, the clustered noise from outside the window made the small sounds inside the space more audible.

It was a good timing for a ticklish atmosphere to flow. Soram completely relaxed his body and pressed his cheek against Tae-un's shoulder.

"Han Tae-un, but why were you so excited even though you didn't know it was a festival?"

"Excited?"

Though his voice denying it was nonchalant, Soram, who had witnessed his strange behavior countless times since this morning, was also confident.

"Don't pretend. You were in really high spirits this morning."

"..."

From the morning, he had been so excited that Soram wondered if he had drunk alone after putting him to bed, and he had been strangely enthusiastic when taking him to the department booth earlier. He seemed normal when walking around the school or breaking the rift, but...

"You're like that again now."

His eyebrows and bridge of nose were moving more than usual. Han Tae-un's expressionless face wasn't all the same expressionless face to Soram.

After thinking for a moment, Tae-un said:

"I guess I was excited. You're right."

He smiled at Soram.

"...Yeah, I'm a bit excited."

"Why?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"Yeah. So I can refer to it sometimes. So tell me quickly."

"Looks like you're going to make me excited."

"What is it that you're beating around the bush about while being excited again."

"No, I really can't explain a clear answer. Hmm..."

Tae-un touched Soram's cheek with the hand draped over his shoulder.

"Because my lover is pretty."

Just as Soram's eyebrows were about to rise, thinking he was changing the subject:

"In a world without any worries, living with dating as the biggest concern, there might be days when you get excited because your lover looks especially pretty."

"..."

Even the slightly parted lips had changed color, reflecting the sunset. Soram felt he understood what Tae-un was saying. After all, he was the one who had longed for peace more than anyone.

"I bit the back of your head all over yesterday, didn't I? You still like it?"

"Ah, thanks to the festival atmosphere, I was able to forget about it almost completely."

Tae-un rubbed the back of his head and looked down at Soram.

Soram often asked questions to confirm love. Why do you like me? Do you still like me even like this? And Tae-un always gave new reasons attached to the answer "I like you." As if after going through countless reasons, the final choice was always one.

This time it was this:

"I like you. If you keep biting until I go bald, you'll have to take responsibility for me for life to compensate for the damage."

"It'll be a long time before you go bald. Your hair is really thick."

"At least say you won't bite from now on."

Tae-un approached Soram, who had an expression that said 'not a chance', and bumped their foreheads together.

"What about you, Soram?"

Ah, he's excited again.

Tae-un, who rarely demanded answers from Soram, had asked back, and he was wearing a clearly bright expression even in the shadow. Soram wrinkled his nose to endure a strange ticklish feeling and answered:

"I'd like you even if you were someone who received confessions once a day in your first year."

"Why has it been exaggerated like that again."

"Tomorrow it'll be ten times a day. That's how rumors work."

Tae-un let out a short sigh and then shook his head, rubbing Soram's bangs.

"Okay. Let's be together tomorrow too, no matter what we do."

The color illuminating the surroundings turned purple. It darkened very slowly, not erasing each other's appearance at all. For some reason, Soram didn't want to turn on the lights right now. It seemed Tae-un felt the same way.

A day when they focused only on the very small things held in their two hands, in a world without worries about the future to come.

If they were to write a report about today's events, there would be no meaningful information left, but there was so much to leave only in their memories.

The festival, the strange menu of the law department, arm wrestling, the rift that disappeared in 5 minutes, and a very happy Han Tae-un.

Peeeng, a vermilion crack rose in the darkened sky. When it reached the sky, it scattered into various shapes and colors.

Bang, boom!

The shouts of many people were heard from afar.

It wasn't the sound of people running away because monsters had appeared, but the sound of joyful laughter. The exploding sounds and sparks were not from battle, but from a spectacular fireworks display.

It was perfect peace.

By his side was Han Tae-un, pressed so close that his presence couldn't be forgotten for a moment.

They turned their heads, and without anyone initiating, their lips met. Like the final scene of a movie criticized for being too peaceful to the point of boredom, they kept their lips pressed together for a long time in front of the window dyed in brilliant colors.