“Hey, you crazy…!”

The curse slipped out by force majeure. Suddenly baring his teeth and biting like some wild beast, this man had absolutely none of the careful strength modulation Geon-joo usually employed. He bit down hard enough to leave teeth marks, hard enough that Sa-yoon genuinely feared a chunk of flesh was about to be torn off.

As Sa-yoon’s brow furrowed in pain, he heard a wet sound. Having bitten down full force, the man was now sucking slowly on the skin. Scowling, Sa-yoon grabbed a handful of the blond hair.

He yanked hard. The man offered no resistance, tilting his head back to look up at Sa-yoon. His red lips were slick and glistening with saliva. His pupils, half-transformed into vertical slits, confirmed without a doubt that he had lost his mind.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Sa-yoon growled the question like a threat, and the tension in the man’s eyes loosened. Whether it was softening or simply losing focus because he’d lost his reason, Sa-yoon couldn’t tell.

“The symbol of the snake is more diverse than you might think. Do you know why people worshipped me? Why my temples were built?”

The man, seemingly uninterested in answering the question about his assault, began rambling about something Sa-yoon hadn’t asked.

Some come to me praying for death, some for greed. Some come to announce a blessing of life, others a wish for reincarnation. But recently…

Speaking softly in the quiet room, the man’s eyes curved into a smile. It was definitely a gentle smile, but a strange chill raked down Sa-yoon’s spine.

A sudden tension seized him, turning his body cold. Immediately after, the man answered his own unspoken question.

“Lust.”

“Crazy bastard.”

“They say it has that meaning, too.”

As he spoke, the man, his hand covering the one Sa-yoon used to grip his hair, slid his fingers between Sa-yoon’s palm and his scalp. The blunt fingertips scratched slowly against the sensitive inner skin. Sa-yoon snatched his hand away and shook his still-captured foot violently.

“Just let go and talk, you bastard.”

His voice was low and menacing enough to be a threat, but the man didn’t seem to feel any danger. On the contrary, he laughed as if he found the situation amusing, lifted the foot he was holding, and sank his teeth into the protruding ankle bone.

“…!”

The sensation of something hard scraping against bone made his toes curl. The man slid his thumb into the hollow beneath the ankle bone, licking the spot he’d just bitten as if treating a wound, and placed his other hand on Sa-yoon’s thigh. His gaze started at the toes, traveled up the leg to the pelvis, abdomen, collarbone, and finally fastened onto Sa-yoon’s face. The entire sequence was so creepy Sa-yoon bit his lower lip and glanced at his trapped foot.

Should I kick him?

Even if the will of a god had awakened, if he used his full strength, he could definitely land a kick. As he seriously contemplated kicking the man’s head hard enough to knock him out, the man, perhaps intending to test his flexibility, hooked Sa-yoon’s leg over his own shoulder and leaned his body in. Sa-yoon’s hip joint popped, and a sharp, tingling pain shot through the inner thigh of his raised leg.

“Haha… they’re making such a racket.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just things.”

Never one to give a straight answer, he laughed to himself and kissed Sa-yoon’s knee. The kisses traveled down his thigh, closing the distance between them. As if in response, Sa-yoon pushed off the mattress with one hand to raise his upper body. The man, smiling in delight, moved in close and lowered his head. Their breaths mingled. To anyone watching, it would look like the moment just before a kiss.

Sa-yoon, who had been gauging the timing, grabbed the man by the collar. He yanked hard, simultaneously putting power into the leg hooked over the man’s shoulder. The man’s body tilted instantly, tumbling toward the bed. Sa-yoon used the recoil to vault over the man’s shoulder and land on the floor. Regaining his balance, he kicked the man in the back, sending the blond figure crashing face-first into the mattress.

“…”

Blink, blink.

Perhaps having never experienced such a reversal, the man blinked blankly, trying to process the situation. Sa-yoon tapped his fists against his hip to loosen the stiffness, then climbed onto the man lying obediently on the bed, pinning his back down with a knee. At the sudden reversal of positions, a breathy, coquettish laugh burst from the man’s lips.

Is he insane?

Seeing him laugh like he enjoyed being subdued was bizarre enough to twist Sa-yoon’s expression into one of sheer perplexity. Regardless, the man, having laughed his fill, turned only his head to look at Sa-yoon, the smile still lingering on his lips and in his eyes.

“What?”

“What do you mean ‘what’? You let your guard down.”

“I did. I let my guard down. I honestly never expected this to happen.”

The man’s easy admission looked entirely too amused. It pissed Sa-yoon off again. He pressed down harder with his knee and pulled a weapon from his inventory. Heris’s Dagger was leveled at the man’s neck. The sharp, honed blade hovered, threatening to pierce the pale skin at any moment.

“Let’s negotiate. Will you go back inside quietly, or do you want to be beaten back in?”

“It seems my only option is ‘going in’.”

“There’s a big difference between going voluntarily and being forced.”

He spoke as if he were offering a great mercy. The blond man’s shoulders shook with laughter. Honestly, moments like this made Sa-yoon acutely aware of just how different he was from Han Geon-joo, despite the resemblance.

Han Geon-joo had never, not once, laughed like this.

“This is the kid you cherish. Are you okay treating him like this?”

“He’s a tough guy, he’s survived being thrown around plenty of times. I doubt one knife will kill him.”

Sa-yoon retorted nonchalantly, and the man shot him a probing look, trying to gauge the truth. Sa-yoon met that gaze without a flicker of emotion.

Read me if you can.

The man pondered for a moment, then raised both hands in surrender.

“Alright. I’ll go back. So stop being angry.”

“Then why did you act up in the first place?”

“I just felt mischievous.”

Even as he said it, there was zero sign of remorse. Gods are all like this, Sa-yoon thought, eyes filled with disgust. He waved his hand as if shooing away a swarm of gnats, telling him to get lost quickly. The blond man, watching him quietly, suddenly frowned.

“…Kuh!”

A sound like his windpipe being crushed escaped his lips.

“…What’s with this sudden act?”

Panicked because he hadn’t done anything else to harm him, Sa-yoon looked down. Keok, keok. The man beneath him convulsed, his expression twisted in agony as he began to claw at his own throat. His nails raked mercilessly across the pale skin. Seeing the vivid red welts rising, Sa-yoon realized the severity of the situation, got off him, and turned him over.

“Hey, you…!”

The sound of his breathing was so ragged it wouldn’t be strange if it stopped right then. Goosebumps rose on Sa-yoon’s skin. Thinking the aftereffects or whatever had returned, he leaned in close—

And two hands shot out, yanking Sa-yoon down. Arms like snakes coiled around his neck and shoulders.

Something wet touched the tip of his chin, and in the moment his mouth opened in surprise, lips crashed against his. Soft flesh invaded his mouth, churning inside. Only then realizing the situation, Sa-yoon’s eyes snapped wide open.

This bastard, seriously.

Finally, Sa-yoon grabbed a handful of hair again and tore the man away. The man went limp, leaning all his weight into the hand holding his hair, and smiled faintly.

“See you again.”

With a weak whisper that sounded like a last will, the man’s eyes closed. It was a farewell that left Sa-yoon no room to even get angry at the final act of bullshit.

Thud.

Han Geon-joo, eyes closed, fell back onto the bed. Ssaek, ssaek. The sound of shallow, feverish breathing returned, and Sa-yoon felt his body temperature spiking again. It was proof that the divine power had gone dormant, and the penalty it had been bearing was once again ravaging Han Geon-joo’s body.

It meant the man from the past had fallen asleep. Sa-yoon sighed and swept his hair back. He had acted calm, but his mind was in chaos.

“Fuck, acts just like a fox, exactly the same…”

Jongsik, who nagged him every other day to stop smiling like a Gumiho, really needed to experience Han Geon-joo’s past self. If Sa-yoon was this flustered, that innocent guy would probably have a heart attack.

It was infuriating how easily the man could shake a person’s mind if they let their guard down for even a second. That much, at least, was undeniably Han Geon-joo’s trait. Sa-yoon put his hands on his hips and steadied his breathing. The memory of the hands that had been groping him just moments ago made his eyes narrow.

Just then, he sensed a presence beyond the door. Judging by the aura, it was Lee Jae-hee. Sa-yoon turned to open the door for him.

Grab.

Sa-yoon’s wrist, as he tried to turn away, was caught.

Creaaak.

The door opened on its own, pushed by the new arrival, without Sa-yoon needing to touch it.

“Sa-yoon-ssi, about the error progression rate…”

Jae-hee, looking exhausted from dealing with reporters and wrapping things up with the Association, walked in speaking but abruptly shut his mouth.

“…Let’s talk after you finish what you’re doing.”

Muttering dully, he carefully closed the door again. Creaaaaak. Keong! Hearing the beast bark, a soothing “Shh” followed.

“He says he’s busy.”

Lee Jae-hee’s voice, making excuses for him, filtered through the door. Sa-yoon wanted to shout that it wasn’t what it looked like, but he couldn’t. His cheeks were still being held in a vice-like grip, and his mouth was full.

“Mmph…”

He tried to say something, but the kiss continued without giving him a single gap. The person kissing him, unlike usual, had his eyes wide open the moment Sa-yoon opened his. He tilted his head, glaring at Sa-yoon.

The emotion in those eyes, now returned to their natural black, was unmistakable resentment.