Jeong Uijin showed no sign of surprise.
“You’re better off not knowing.”
But beneath his flat tone, there was an unmistakable change.
Yoonji Huh did not miss the faint warmth that had entered Uijin’s usually indifferent gaze.
Well, look at that.
Come to think of it, there had been something strange about his eyes from the moment he first saw Lee Jaeo.
Almost as though he wanted to devour him alive.
I’ve never seen him look at anyone like that.
Overwhelmed by that intensity, Yoonji had ended up going along with the lies Uijin had casually invented. She had found the whole thing far too strange and intended to question him carefully, but she had never imagined she would see this side of him.
“Hmm…”
After studying Uijin’s face with a meaningful look, Yoonji suddenly grinned.
“Okay. I’ll turn a blind eye.”
She slapped his shoulder a few times and raised her thumb.
“I’ll tell his team the meeting ran long. I’ll also let them know he might stay here for the night afterward, so don’t worry.”
“All right.”
Uijin looked at Yoonji’s oddly expectant expression with puzzlement, but he made no attempt to stop her. He wanted to end the conversation and return to the room as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, Yoonji turned away with light steps.
“The briefing is at ten, so make sure you bring him on time.”
She waved before heading downstairs to speak with Jaeo’s team. A faint hum drifted back up the staircase.
After returning to the room, Uijin placed his hand against the palm-sized square security item attached to the door. A green pattern appeared across the pad after it scanned his hand. Now only the leader and Uijin could open the door. Not even Yoonji would be able to enter without permission.
Uijin went inside, still without turning on the lights, undressed, and took a shower. After roughly drying his hair with a towel instead of using a hair dryer, he stared at the living-room sofa for a moment.
It was a slightly worn sofa spacious enough for two people to sit comfortably.
Tall as he was, Uijin pictured himself curled up asleep on it, then glanced toward the other room.
The leader’s bedroom.
It was currently empty.
Even so, I can’t use someone else’s bed without permission.
His gaze then shifted, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, toward the door of his own bedroom.
For some reason, his eyes darted around a few times before he picked up his two cherished swords and headed into the room where Jaeo was sleeping.
Jaeo still slept as though dead.
Swallowing the bitterness that rose at the sight, Uijin set his swords beside the bed out of habit, then let his eyes wander again.
He cautiously lifted the blanket.
Jaeo’s slender body was visible beneath it, lying exactly as Uijin had placed him.
Uijin remained frozen like that for a moment before slowly slipping under the blanket.
His movements were so painstakingly slow and careful that anyone watching would have beaten their chest in frustration.
He finally managed to lie down beside Jaeo and pull the blanket over himself, but with both of them in it, the bed suddenly felt rather narrow. Normally, Uijin had thought nothing of it as long as there was enough space to close his eyes for a while. Now, however, he found himself wondering whether he should have acquired a larger bed.
He shifted beneath the blanket.
Turning onto his side to reduce the space he occupied, he moved a little closer to Jaeo.
…It’s narrow.
After remaining awkwardly pressed against him for a while, Uijin hesitated before carefully sliding one arm beneath Jaeo’s head.
Slowly.
Slowly enough not to disturb his sleep.
Once he finally succeeded in letting Jaeo use his arm as a pillow, a faintly proud look entered Uijin’s eyes. He wrapped his other arm around Jaeo’s waist, drawing their bodies closer.
It doesn’t feel narrow anymore.
With a faint smile on his lips, Uijin closed his eyes while breathing in Jaeo’s subtle scent.
And so time passed until seven in the morning.
***
So, to sum it all up…
I suddenly fell asleep, and returning me might have caused the wrong kind of commotion, so he simply let me sleep here?
I thought Uijin had made the right decision. Considering how Seo Wonil had even engaged in a silent battle of wills with him out of concern for me, there was no denying that moving me might have attracted unnecessary attention.
Still, had we really needed to lie together in a bed that was not even particularly large?
I was certainly grateful that he had put me on the bed rather than leaving me on the floor, but opening my eyes to find Uijin’s face directly in front of mine had been unbelievably startling.
He’s pointlessly handsome.
My impression of Uijin had remained the same both then and now.
His features were so sharply defined and sculpted that no one could forget his face after seeing it once. His glasslike eyes, which lightened whenever sunlight touched them, and the elegant curve of his lips, far too refined for his age, were especially striking.
When expressionless, he radiated an overwhelming presence that made him seem impossible to approach. Yet the slightest curve of his eyes and lift of his lips transformed him into someone warm and gentle. Anyone whose entire atmosphere could change so completely from such tiny movements of the face would surely have become a hugely successful actor.
And then there was the body beneath that face.
He stood nearly six foot three, with a long-boned frame that extended even to his fingers, and firm muscles naturally honed as his Level rose.
When we first met, he had been nothing but a tall, scrawny beanpole. Now he had become so strikingly handsome that it was difficult to believe he was the same person.
Having watched that gradual transformation over the past two years, I could not help envying him as another man.
…And feeling a little jealous.
Annoying bastard.
He looked even better in the light.
I grumbled inwardly while staring at Uijin in front of me. Whether he knew what I was thinking or not, he sat cross-legged on the bed just as I did and spoke calmly.
“How much do you remember? No—where do your memories begin, and where do they end?”
I did not even get a chance to ask why we had slept in the same bed.
Unlike yesterday, Uijin’s voice was extremely calm and serious.
Countless emotions churned in his eyes, but he seemed to be desperately controlling his expression to keep any of them from showing.
For some reason… he also gave off the air of someone calmly explaining a situation to a patient with amnesia.
“Do you know that you’re an NPC? Do you understand why you fell asleep the moment midnight arrived? You’ve been like that since you were the NPC of the Special Supply Station… Ah, do you remember what the Special Supply Station is?”
“Um…”
“I’m sorry if you didn’t know. You must be confused, but everything I’m about to tell you is true, so I hope you’ll believe me.”
“What I’m trying to say is…”
“You and I met at the Special Supply Station. I was a customer, and you were a shop NPC. I was one of your regulars for two years…”
“Mr. Jeong Uijin.”
“Ah. It would probably be better if I started from the day we first met.”
You bastard, listen when someone is talking.
Uijin had already decided that I had amnesia and looked ready to explain our entire relationship in exhaustive detail, all the way back to two years ago. This was the first time I had realized he could talk so much.
You and I were just a shop NPC and a regular customer at the Special Supply Station. Was that really something that required such a long explanation?
“The truth is, I nearly died long ago. If I hadn’t met you two years ago, I definitely would have…”
“Uijin.”
Faced with the possibility that I might have to sit still and listen to his entire lengthy story, I abruptly called him by his given name.
Perhaps because of the change in address, Uijin immediately fell silent. His startled eyes trembled faintly as they fixed on me.
I had already decided, just before falling asleep, that I would tell Uijin the truth.
Why I was pretending to be a Player now that I was free.
Why I had tried to join Eclipse with the others, how I had ended up being mistaken for a monster tamer, and why I had eagerly adopted that misunderstanding as my cover story.
I felt that I could tell him.
Because he was the only Player who had always treated me like a human being.
I smiled at the confused Uijin, exactly as I had whenever I saw him at the Special Supply Station.
“First, I’ll return the handkerchief. Ah, I left my bag behind… Is it all right if I bring it to you later?”
Had I known I would reveal myself this quickly, I would have brought my bag when I followed him yesterday.
At the word “handkerchief,” Uijin’s eyes widened. His lips parted and closed several times.
“Jaeo…?”
“I’ll have you know I only used it once, then folded it neatly and put it away. No matter how desperate I was, I’m not the kind of person who would carelessly use something I borrowed from a Player.”
“You remember?!”
Uijin, who had looked completely dazed, grabbed both my arms and abruptly brought his face close to mine. The uncomfortably short distance and the intensity blazing in his eyes made my shoulders shrink instinctively.
“You remember me? You really remember me, don’t you?!”
Despite the tremendous pressure around both my arms, it strangely did not hurt at all. I almost wondered whether he had been practicing how to control his grip when handling an NPC.
“Yes, yes. I remember you perfectly well, so please let go.”
Uijin’s expression began changing by the second.
The confusion, suspicion, and bewilderment in his gaze gradually gave way to joy. His eyes shone transparently as though filled with moisture. Their raised corners softened, forming a graceful curve like something from a painting.
“…Thank goodness.”
His previously rigid lips slowly formed a beautiful smile. That alone seemed to warm the entire room.
The strength gradually left the hands holding my arms. I thought he was releasing me, but instead, he slowly pulled me into his embrace.
I flinched instinctively at being hugged by another man, but I did not push him away.
Uijin held me carefully, afraid of using too much strength, and the relief he could not conceal flowed directly into me. I did not want to ruin that feeling for him.
“Thank goodness. Truly… I really thought you had lost your memories…”
Uijin’s voice trembled violently. He looked as though he might even start crying if this continued, leaving me more flustered than he was.
I’d better never tell him I don’t remember something again…
Such an excessive reaction over a mere NPC losing a few memories.
Even jokingly asking, “Who are you?” would probably make me the greatest bastard in history.
At the same time, I could not help thinking he was rather remarkable.
He remembered an NPC whose face he didn’t even know this deeply.
I had sensed it whenever he readily offered potions and expensive items to an NPC, but he was far more affectionate than I had realized.
And talkative. And emotional.
Yesterday he had seemed relentlessly menacing, but seeing him like this made him look exactly like a child.