Side Story 1. Private Rescue (4)

Tae-un, who went out first, held the door open and waited for him. The outside felt dazzlingly bright after being in the dark interior for so long.

"Come out quickly. It's getting colder."

"Okay."

Tae-un's large hand was extended towards Soram, either meaning to help him up or gesturing him to come out quickly. Seeing Tae-un reaching out his hand with the bright light behind him from the pitch-black place conjured up some kind of angelic descent... visual. Though the location was a bit lacking in holiness.

Anyway, it was an undeniable fact that Han Tae-un was his savior. Soram placed his hand on the outstretched one.

That's when it happened.

Thud.

"Ah."

By the time he said "Huh?", his balance had already shifted backwards and his shoes had scraped across the gravel on the storage room floor.

Plop.

Soram pushed away Tae-un's hand extended to him and fell backwards from the recoil. Soram, who had sunk into the shadow of the storage room as if being sucked in right in front of the light, blinked his eyes.

Ugh.

A chilly sensation brushed through his hand, just like at the rest stop. This time, a clearer presence remained in his hand than before.

What's this. Why on earth is this happening...

Before he could sort out his confusion, Tae-un strode in. He looked down at Soram with a hardened expression as he came down from the light into the darkness. This time, Soram couldn't immediately brush it off by mentioning chrysanthemum bread or something.

"..."

"What are you doing? There's a lot of dust there. Get up."

Tae-un wrapped his arm around Soram's waist and lifted him up. He held onto him as if pulling him into his arms and led him out of the storage room. He set Soram down two steps away from the storage room and locked the door.

"You're not hurt anywhere, right?"

"...Of course not. Not from just that much."

"Then that's fine. Let's go inside."

***

The meal that started a little after lunchtime was very abundant. The "moderate" cooking by Tae-un's mother included whole chicken soup, braised short ribs, seafood stew, soy sauce marinated crab, various vegetable side dishes, and pancakes.

Even Soram, who didn't enjoy overeating to the point of feeling heavy, put more food in his mouth than usual. The same was true for Tae-un, who usually ate more than him. After cleaning up, the two went out for a walk to settle their full stomachs.

Han Tae-un made no mention of the strange behavior from earlier. Not while returning from the storage room to the house, not while eating, and not until now. Did he think it was just a prank like usual? It would be fortunate if he didn't think deeply about it and just let it pass. Because there was no excuse that could be given if he were to question it.

The direction they first headed was towards the mountain spread out behind the annex. Most of the mountain had snow piled up to half their calves. They just went up to the spring water source, lightly jumping over paths where their shoes would sink in, and then came back down.

The next destination was the path through the fields below.

"I was really surprised when I found you leaning against a tree by the rice paddy ridge wearing hospital clothes."

Soram looked at Tae-un with slightly widened eyes. It was the first mention of their past life since arriving here. And Soram, who had been fixated only on their last moment, belatedly recalled the memories before that event. Right. There were many memories then too. Young Han Tae-un was funny, absurd, and kind even then.

A bare tree that looked vaguely familiar even to Soram's eyes could be seen in the distance. Their steps moved in that direction. Their footprints crunched next to the tire tracks left by Tae-un's car a few hours ago.

This area was also a place with another memory. Soram pointed to one side with his fingertip.

"That's where Dr. Jin brought scary men to take me away."

Instead of the grooves Soram had dug with blue mist, or the footprints of the many people who had suddenly rushed in, only white snow was piled up here. Among all those people, the clearest memory was of Tae-un holding onto him, telling him not to go. So this memory belonged to the category of non-nightmares.

At that moment, Tae-un approached right in front of him. And as if stealing it, his lips touched Soram's cheek.

Smooch.

Huh?

"Remember it as somewhere else, not where you were taken away."

On the other hand, Tae-un's sentiment about losing Soram here seemed different. His quite upset face was a bit cute, but the sudden action was also startling.

"Hey, we're outside."

"How about where I introduced you as the person I'm going to marry to my relatives?"

"What are you suddenly fixated on, stepping on the gas like this...?"

Calm down. Soram let out a short sigh. Still, Tae-un was always more cautious than Soram, and he wasn't someone who would out him in any way. Because he was the person who wanted Soram to be accepted more than anyone.

But did he know? That I also want you to have everything.

Unlike Soram, who only had connections left from after becoming a hunter, Tae-un was connected to more people like family, relatives, school friends, and so on. Soram had no intention of taking them away from Tae-un. That's why, at least here, Soram became a bit more careful and soothed Tae-un. Soram opened his hand and held it out in front of him.

"How about the place where we first held hands walking in the snow?"

Tae-un's expression wasn't completely satisfied, but he took Soram's hand. The two went down the hill a bit more with their fingers intertwined.

Where the ridge ended and flat ground spread out, wide rice paddies began from there. In this season, the fields were also all white. Of course, it would be much prettier when there were crops, but the wide-open scenery and the cold wind passing their faces were welcome now.

Even though they had left early in the morning, they had spent a lot of time on the road, and after staying at home for a while including the meal, it was already time for shadows to lengthen. The hands that had been tightly held while walking for about 30 minutes were released as they went deep between the rice paddies and the path narrowed. It was a path just wide enough for one person to barely pass, so Soram went ahead and Tae-un followed right behind.

Soram put both hands in his padded jacket pockets and tightly clenched his fists.

A narrow path where one could roll into the rice paddy if not careful. As they came onto it, the strange symptoms appeared again. He bit the end of his lip and put strength into his bent fingers.

No. Two times is enough for strange actions.

Unlike the stairs or storage room, pushing here would be too much to be considered a prank.

Having experienced it twice, he now knew. What kind of trauma lay at the base of his unconscious making him act like this. What else could the action of pushing the other person in a safe direction while he himself was pushed towards the road or into the dark storage room be? It was what Han Tae-un had been doing all along.

'I guess it wasn't possible to be completely fine after all...'

He had thought that accumulated wounds might cause problems when drawn up here, but he didn't expect it to be like this.

Jin Soram had reached the perfect ending to his long regression in this life. That didn't mean he thought all the remaining time ahead would be without any ups and downs like a fairy tale after a happy ending. He knew himself that he was a person with wounds left here and there, and part of his remaining life would be used to recover from that. Beside the person who knew all his wounds and still said he loved him.

However, it was a different story if the aftermath of those wounds was directed not at himself but at Tae-un. It had to stop.

Two more days ahead. They would sleep just two more nights in this place that evoked these strange sentiments and return to Seoul. Fortunately, he now understood exactly in what situations these impulsive actions popped out. The conditions were places with a bit of lurking danger. Roads, sloped storage rooms, narrow paths, and so on.

It was simple to avoid such places for two days. As soon as they passed this path, they would go straight back to the annex, and not come out of the room until the day they left. What to do in voluntary confinement... of course, there was something. He was confident he could make two days pass in an instant by holding onto Han Tae-un.

"I want to drink alcohol with the braised short ribs as snacks when we go back."

"Absolutely not."

"Why are you controlling me when we're not even lovers yet?"

"Your alcohol tolerance needs to be controlled even if we're not lovers."

"But I want to drink..., get a bit tipsy."

"If you want to see a drunk atmosphere, I'll drink instead."

"You have to drink a lot."

"...Alright. So you don't drink."

Soram smiled quietly to himself. He knew Tae-un would fall for it. Because he was such a kind person.

The end of the narrow path came into view and a wide ditch appeared. As they got closer, the sound of water trickling under the thin ice on the surface could be heard. The bridge crossing the ditch was at least wider than this path. Soram hopped onto it. The cold wind coolly blew through his hair.

"Wow, the scenery over there is amazing."

Though there was a sense of deliberately heightened tone, the snowy mountain view was truly beautiful. The place without a single tall building allowed the distant landscape to be taken in at a glance.

"It must be really amazing here in summer."

"It does look nice when it's all green, but it's better if you don't come here in summer."

"Huh? Why?"

"There are a lot of bugs."

Huh, he thought it was some great reason.