Chapter 180

Soram gripped his bangs and made a scissoring motion with his hand. Glancing at that hand gesture, Tae-un answered briefly.

"Do as you like."

He knew Soram had no talent for grooming, and he didn't care much either, so if Soram had a preference, that was fine.

"Hmm..."

But Soram didn't seem entirely satisfied with the answer.

While his hands were still in Tae-un's hair, Tae-un's palm moved up to the slightly dried area above Soram's waist. He knew Soram would get angry if he called him small, but Tae-un still thought he looked small and thin.

His body with little fat sometimes looked even more slender inside the black suit. Among the voices opposing the Rift Phenomenon Management Headquarters' uniform attire, there was such an opinion. Wearing dark clothes made them look too timid compared to the already dazzling foreign hunters.

...That's right. It was difficult to see Soram as having a sturdy and solid impression.

"Han Tae-un, Jin-Han Treaty Article 2."

Suddenly, the tip of his nose was pressed firmly. Soram's mouth corners were raised, but his nose bridge was also wrinkled, showing his dissatisfaction.

"What are you thinking about? Your face looks like your mind is spinning while looking at me."

Article 2 was something both of them had simultaneously suggested with similar opinions.

If you're going to hide something, don't get caught. If caught, confess immediately. Never lie under any circumstances.

Before Tae-un could open his mouth, Soram cupped his face with both hands.

"Just try saying it's nothing."

Tae-un looked at the face close to his nose for a moment before keeping the treaty.

"I was thinking... why it was you, of all people, who regressed."

Soram raised his eyebrows, but that was his only reaction, as if it wasn't particularly remarkable.

"You said it was the wish of people who wanted to save the world."

"It's true that countless people wished for your survival. It was clear that many people's wishes gathered to revive you, but the reason being that they wanted to save the world was my speculation. I was absolutely certain then, but..."

Tae-un firmly gripped Soram's slender waist again.

"I liked you from the start, and that feeling was so natural that I thought everyone in the world thought like me. Back then... I didn't know anything, so you were everything in my world."

"Oh, so now that you know something, I'm not everything anymore?"

"Not getting annoyed."

"I'm not annoyed."

Soram, not getting annoyed, pressed his elbow into Tae-un's chest. Indeed, the Jin-Han Treaty was the most unfair treaty of the century. Even the application of the treaty was the epitome of unfairness.

"I wonder if people who thought like me were really the majority."

If his past self had stayed at the headquarters a little longer, or at least observed other chiefs, he wouldn't have been able to say things like "I thought you were the person who would save the world" to Soram.

Soram was strong but precarious and immature. Even if he was recognized as a powerful hunter, would countless people see him as Noah leading a massive ark? That wasn't the case.

Even today was like that. People in the same chief position saw him as a pitiful child. Even younger team members under him tried to fight together rather than entrusting everything to Soram.

Then who were the ones who wanted Soram to achieve something, even if it meant reviving him?

Moreover, Soram said that his 1st round self was swayed by his family, caused discord at the headquarters, and didn't properly fulfill his role as a hunter. Thinking about that made it even more incomprehensible.

"I don't know well, but Han Tae-un, don't think about it for too long."

Soram fiddled with Tae-un's hair again. Instead of messing it up like before, he rubbed it gently between his fingers.

"If you keep thinking about why it had to be me... thoughts flow to why it wasn't 'someone else' but me. That's more painful than you might think."

"..."

Soram didn't know the exact reason either, but he had believed that regression gave him the chance to save the world. When that failed, and failed, and failed again, he must have thought about why this happened to him of all people.

If only Director-nim had been the regressor, if it had been Shin Gi-hyeon from the strong-willed Busan branch, if it had been other adult hunters, or even Kim Ga-eul or Seo Min-ki who were in the same condition as him, why me among them.

And did he feel even more self-loathing for harboring such thoughts?

Tae-un took in Soram silently with his eyes.

The information from before regaining his memories, the facts he learned anew after regaining them. And a certain strangeness he could sense from being in a position to observe closely, rather than being Soram himself, the person involved.

It was that feeling again. He had a sense of déjà vu that the ends of information he thought had no connection seemed to be shaped similarly like the edges of a puzzle.

However, the premonition couldn't immediately become certainty. What was it, he felt anxious that he was missing something, but the puzzle ends kept colliding tick-tick without forming a clear picture.

At that moment, a faint breath touched the forehead exposed by the swept-up bangs. Brown eyelashes blinked, lowered towards somewhere that might be hair or the crown of the head.

"Jin Soram."

"Yeah?"

"Don't you have any worries?"

"Oh, it's been a while since I heard your dialect."

"Seeing you change the subject, you do have some."

"What? Am I being led into a trap?"

"There's a way to know everything. Speak quickly. Article 2."

"It's not really a worry, just a useless thought."

Soram gave a deflated laugh. He seemed to roll his eyes for a moment before resting his cheek on Tae-un's chest.

"What if, by some miracle, we overcome the 4th with all our might and become happy, but then the 5th and 6th approach?"

The ticklish breath that had been on his forehead was now felt near his heart.

"I just had that thought. That's all."

Because this was a problem that no one could offer a solution to or comfort for, Soram tried to quickly wrap up the topic with just the confession. He still hid his expression at the crucial moment after seeming to cross the line greatly.

Tae-un ran his hand up Soram's back and firmly cupped the head on his chest.

"This will be the last Great Rift to torment you."

"How do you know?"

He used the good thing he had learned from Ayoung earlier.

"A hunch."

"...?"

"I have good intuition, don't I?"

"Huh."

"I'm serious."

If the 3rd Great Rift had been a calamity that approached suddenly, it felt like the 4th Great Rift would have not just a breakthrough but a problem to solve.

Recalling the glimpse he had seen in the last moment of the previous life, the world would be destroyed by the 4th Great Rift that broke out on Korean soil among numerous rifts and dungeon incidents.

Of course, it was unknown whether complete peace would come to the world even if that was overcome. But he guessed that at least the shackles binding Soram were related to the approaching Great Rift.

...If this was just a wish, then at that time, he would have to find a way to be together in Soram's endless eternity.

"Right. For now, I'll just think about what's right in front of me."

While Tae-un hadn't opened his mouth, Soram interpreted his words in a different direction. Tae-un raised his hand and gently stroked Soram's hair.

"Okay."

"..."

Soram slightly regretted bringing up unnecessary words, and received more comfort than that regret. It really felt like a miracle of happiness would come if the 4th Great Rift ended.

Soram lay leaning on Tae-un and traced his body with his palm. When Tae-un said "Okay" and stroked his head, it felt exactly like receiving praise for doing well. His body tingled and he couldn't keep his limbs still. It was like an involuntary reflex reaction. Tae-un underneath twitched, either ticklish or feeling the weight.

Eventually, a long sigh was heard.

"I was trying to hold back, but why do you keep rubbing against me?"

Soram looked down at him with slightly rounded eyes and then looked further down. Soon after, he firmly pressed his body against the hot heat felt in his lower abdomen.

"I didn't know until just now, but now it's intentional."

The outlines of two genitals revealed through the sweatpants rubbed against each other. The two genitals, which had gradually increased in hardness, now rubbed elastically instead of being pressed down when weight was applied from above.

"Han Tae-un, today you seem... a bit quick."

"There were a lot of things to get the blood flowing."

Tae-un grabbed Soram's face and kissed him. The unusually gentle invasion and leisurely movement were clearly meant to tease. Soram also responded leisurely with a smile. With their lips lightly touching, Tae-un asked.

"Can I put it all the way in from behind?"

Soram's smiling expression twitched nervously.

Insertion from behind is much deeper than in the missionary position. When Tae-un pressed down with his body weight and persistently dug into the inside, his genitals entered to a place that felt like it was piercing through the stomach. Soram, whose place that shouldn't be opened was excavated, shook in a chilling flood of what might be pain or pleasure, and Tae-un, several times more excited than usual, roughly shook his partner for a very long time.

Soram narrowed his eyes and smiled a different smile than before.

"Do it without a condom."

***

Soram fell into a deep sleep. After using his body consecutively for training and sex, he probably wouldn't wake up easily now.

Tae-un watched Soram sleeping with his arm as a pillow, then placed his finger under the rising and falling nostrils. Even after feeling the properly continuing breath, he kept his hand there for a long time.

He too had a scene painfully engraved in his mind from the previous life.

When he had to send off the boy who suited the blue sky best in the dark night. The moment when he had to embrace the non-breathing Soram in his arms and accept that he had departed to a place where Tae-un himself wasn't.