“I wonder what sins I committed in the past to make my life so hard now... that kind of thought. And there’s this person who just won’t leave me alone, making my life miserable...”
“Because you sinned stupidly. Those who sin smartly live their lives just fine, no hardship at all.”
Jung Tae-ui was momentarily speechless at the immediate, unapologetic reply.
This guy... his face looks like an angel straight out of a painting or a sculpture, but somehow...
“...Why did you come here through this rain?”
Jung Tae-ui scratched his head and asked again. The young man was gazing up at the colorful stained glass glowing softly in the dim light. In the stained glass, the Virgin Mary was holding baby Jesus, looking very loving. The young man muttered without taking his eyes off it.
“Someone was chasing me.”
“Huh?”
“I was walking when someone kept following me, bothering me. So, to lose them and avoid the rain, I just came in anywhere.”
Jung Tae-ui nodded. Even without knowing the exact details, he roughly understood. The same conclusion as before came to mind.
There’s truth to ‘too much is as bad as too little,’ but really, with that kind of outstanding looks, some annoying troubles are inevitable.
“You must have your own hardships in life too.”
Muttering with a sigh, Jung Tae-ui glanced at him, but the young man soon looked back at the stained glass. He seemed quite fond of the Virgin Mary’s image.
Then—
The church door suddenly swung open.
A cold sound of rain and damp air rushed in together.
Jung Tae-ui, thinking “Another person coming in this rain,” turned to see the figure at the door and immediately felt something was off.
A large man stood there, panting heavily. He was breathing roughly, his shoulders heaving. Seeing the young man silently staring at the stained glass a few steps away, the man bellowed thunderously.
“Hey, you bastard, you were here!”
Signs of trouble were clear.
Jung Tae-ui glanced sideways at the young man. Though the loud shout surely reached him, the young man didn’t look his way but kept staring at the stained glass as if entranced.
The man strode forward with heavy, rough footsteps shaking the floor.
Now that Jung Tae-ui looked closely, one of the man’s eyes was bloodshot. Not just bloodshot—the whites of his eye were completely red, as if all the tiny veins had burst. It was questionable whether the eye was functioning properly.
Though reasonably handsome, the man looked utterly enraged, as if losing his mind. His clenched fists seemed ready to smash someone’s face at any moment.
Is this the guy who’s been bothering the young man? The situation felt extremely tense. Should I get out of here? No, if I leave it like this, someone might get killed. I can’t just stand by and watch that beautiful young man get hurt...
Just as Jung Tae-ui took a step to intervene between them, the young man quietly spoke.
“I’m in an incredibly good mood today because I finally got what I’ve wanted all along... So I was going to just let it slide... But it seems best if you just go away. Even if I tell you that, you probably won’t listen, huh?”
Should he first mention that despite saying he’s in a great mood, the young man’s eyes looked too bored and gloomy? Or that muttering like a madman seemed more fitting? Or that what he said was hard to understand?
These thoughts flashed through Jung Tae-ui’s mind in a split second.
“The guy who suddenly threw a punch and ran away is talking nonsense. We tried talking to you nicely, but now you better die today.”
Ignoring the young man’s words with a scoff, the large man took a step forward and rolled up his drenched sleeve, exposing a thick, strong forearm. If that forearm grazed the beautiful, statue-like young man, it would shatter him to pieces.
No way. Before judging right or wrong, I have to at least stop a bloodbath on that artwork-like face right in front of me.
As the man quickly closed the gap in a few steps, Jung Tae-ui, overwhelmed, had no time to think and just jumped between them.
Then something blue flashed right before Jung Tae-ui’s eyes.
Almost impulsively, his heart pounding with chilling speed, Jung Tae-ui desperately grabbed the most threatening hand flowing smoothly like water. Just before the knuckle was about to smash some bone in the man’s torso—barely in time.
“...!”
“Huh...?”
Without a moment to think, reflexively stepping between them to block the most dangerous move, Jung Tae-ui immediately sensed something was off.
The slender wrist he was holding was not the large, hairy, muscular forearm he had just seen.
“Huh? ...Huh?”
But on that slender wrist was definitely a beautiful hand wearing a bluntly shining metal knuckle. In front of Jung Tae-ui’s eyes was a statue-like face staring at him with slightly widened eyes.
Jung Tae-ui muttered again, “Uh...,” and slowly turned to look behind.
Behind him, the man with the bloodshot eyes was looking down at Jung Tae-ui. The man seemed still unaware that he had nearly been smashed by a metal fist. He stared at Jung Tae-ui with a puzzled look, then at the young man’s hand in Jung Tae-ui’s grip, where the knuckle was snugly embedded.
Once more, Jung Tae-ui muttered “Uh...” blankly and looked at the young man in astonishment.
Then the young man shook his hand sharply as if flicking off a bug, roughly throwing off Jung Tae-ui’s grip and brushing his wrist off. He glared coldly at Jung Tae-ui, clicking his tongue.
But before the young man could say anything, the man noticed the knuckles and seemed to somewhat grasp the situation. His face reddened with anger.
“This arrogant bastard... Who are you? Get out of the way!”
The man wildly struck Jung Tae-ui, who was blocking between them. A sharp blow hit the side of Jung Tae-ui’s head like lightning.
“Ouch,” Jung Tae-ui instinctively cried, looking unfairly at the man. “Helping you and you don’t even appreciate it...!”
But the man didn’t care about the staggered Jung Tae-ui and lunged toward the young man. Watching the young man calmly readjust his fist, sensing a strange discomfort and clear looming danger, Jung Tae-ui didn’t hesitate and stepped in between them again.
This time, with clear intent, he blocked the man and stood behind him, facing the young man.
The real threat wasn’t the burly man.
The young man, about to take a step forward, saw Jung Tae-ui blocking him again and barely frowned. His eyes instantly grew cold.
“If you don’t want to end up like me, don’t interfere and stay quietly in the corner, yellow Oriental monkey. I won’t forgive you again.”
It had been a long time since Jung Tae-ui heard such a racist remark. But before he even realized those cruel words came from those pretty lips, a dizzying blow struck his jaw and everything went white.
For a brief moment—maybe a few seconds—Jung Tae-ui seemed to lose consciousness without realizing it.
When he came to, the situation was already over.
He clearly remembered blocking in front of the young man, but why was he suddenly lying down? Blinking, sitting up, Jung Tae-ui stared blankly at the scene before him.
The man was lying sprawled on the floor. The man lay unconscious on the church floor with his limbs loose. His eyes were rolled back white, and a little foam was rising from his mouth.
Seeing blood mixed in the foam, Jung Tae-ui hurriedly stood.
The young man took off the knuckles, put them in his pocket, and pulled out a spotless white handkerchief to wipe his hands. Then, as if nothing had happened, he looked indifferently back at the stained glass.
Jung Tae-ui stared at the young man in shock, then checked the man. Carefully pulling back the man’s clothing.
“Where did you hit him...?”
“Next to the solar plexus. He won’t die. Only one rib broken.”
Without looking back, the young man said calmly.
Jung Tae-ui looked at the young man with a stunned face and examined the man’s exposed abdomen. The mark was clear; he immediately knew where he had been hit.
“We need to call an ambulance... Damn it, I didn’t bring my phone. Hey, give me your phone.”
Jung Tae-ui clicked his tongue and held out his hand to the young man. The young man just stared at the hand and replied coldly.
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“Why? Because he’s dying!”
“Why?”
“...”
“Ah, no. He’s not dying. That’s why.”
Although the young man corrected himself, saying he wasn’t dying from that, his earlier “Why?” sounded sincere.
Whether he dies or not, why care?
Jung Tae-ui looked at him blankly. The throbbing pain in his jaw was completely forgotten.
“...”
Is this place cursed? Illay must have stepped away for a moment, and suddenly this slightly crazy guy showed up.
Jung Tae-ui thought about running out into the rain to call an ambulance but first checked the man. Carefully brushing around the bruised, darkened skin, he glanced at the unconscious man, then pressed lightly nearby. The man moaned something strange but barely audible, so Jung Tae-ui ignored it.
As the young man said, it seemed like one of the ribs was broken. After carefully feeling around, there was nothing else particularly wrong.
A sigh from Jung Tae-ui was answered by the young man, who suddenly asked, tilting his head slightly.
“Are you a doctor?”
“No, not really. But...” The young man shook his head after asking and answering himself.
Having somehow survived a life balanced on the edge, Jung Tae-ui muttered inwardly, “I’ve become an all-around multi-tool person unintentionally.” He removed his hands from the man’s chest and abdomen.
Confirming the man’s life wasn’t in immediate danger, Jung Tae-ui gazed at him blankly, then suddenly rolled up the man’s sleeve, brought his hand to the man’s forehead, and seriously snapped his middle finger right in the center of the forehead.
Snap. A sharp, harsh sound echoed from the man’s forehead. Even in his unconscious state, the man muttered groans. The forehead quickly reddened and would soon bruise.
“Trying to help someone, and they punch you back?”
Jung Tae-ui grumbled, rubbing the side of his head where he’d been hit earlier.
But then he suddenly realized something.
The person who dealt the far stronger uppercut was the one quietly looking down at him.
“...”
“...”
Jung Tae-ui slowly turned his head and looked up at the young man. They locked eyes.
“...Did you want to hit my forehead too?”
The young man asked, and Jung Tae-ui looked at him with a troubled expression.
Setting aside whether he could even give this mysterious young man a playful bop on the forehead, Jung Tae-ui worried more whether it was even okay to bruise that refined forehead.
Reading Jung Tae-ui’s frowning glare, the young man’s eyes narrowed slightly. His tightly closed mouth softened faintly.
Ah. He’s smiling.
There wasn’t really a smile on the young man’s face, but the subtle change made Jung Tae-ui think so. As if he had never really smiled before and didn’t know how, the young man smiled that kind of smile.
“If you can hit me without touching my body, I might let one pass.”
But the young man’s words, as if it was a big concession, left Jung Tae-ui dumbfounded.
That precondition doesn’t even hold up... so basically, you’re saying don’t hit me at all, right?
Muttering to himself, Jung Tae-ui got up from his seat.