“Kim Jongsik!”
Sa-yoon threw open the basement door, yelling Jongsik’s name with the desperation of someone searching for lost family after a disaster. The executives, startled by his sudden entrance, turned to look at him. The owner of the name was no exception.
“Hyung-nim?”
The man turned toward the door, his voice laced with confusion. Sa-yoon’s brow furrowed as he spotted the small piece of paper held in the bear-like man’s hand.
“Cards?”
“Playing cards?” He muttered reflexively, and startled hands flinched, attempting to hide the cards scattered across the table. Sa-yoon stared in disbelief at the group who had set up a gambling den in a basement that reeked of blood. Look at that heap of chips and the cards strewn everywhere. It was a full-blown gambling house.
Someone rushes over here, leaving their sleeping lover behind because of a terrifying premonition, and someone else is playing cards?
These bastards have gotten too comfortable.
He didn’t hide his displeasure, narrowing his eyes. Gyeongjin and Chan-hee hurriedly cleared the table. Yen, who was tactless—no, who pretended to be tactless despite being sharper than anyone—waved a hand above her head in greeting.
“Welcome, Hyung-nim. Wanna join if you’re free?”
Her nonchalant attitude made Sa-yoon’s eyes crinkle into a deceptively sweet smile.
“Yen.”
“Hm?”
“You look like you have free time.”
“…”
“Gambling and all, looks like fun. Doesn’t it?”
At his benevolent smile, Yen laughed, Haha. Sa-yoon smiled back, then immediately hardened his expression and gestured toward the open door.
“I’ll count to three. Anyone who isn’t out there working gets it. One.”
Clatter!
Steel chairs scraped loudly against the floor as Gyeongjin and Chan-hee bolted. Yen, feigning annoyance at his pickiness, ambled over slowly. Sa-yoon grabbed her arm as she passed and smiled, the expression chilling enough to stop her in her tracks.
“Three.”
“…What about two?”
“There is no two, you brat.”
With that dry remark, Sa-yoon simply picked Yen up and hurled her out the door.
Kuek!
A clearly exaggerated scream echoed, followed by the rough sound of a sturdy body tumbling down stairs. Listening to the genuinely unfeigned groans that followed, Sa-yoon smiled with satisfaction and raised an eyebrow at Jongsik, who was still sitting awkwardly in his chair. Unlike that impudent one, this guy was genuinely simple-hearted for a Night Rats member. He scratched his cheek.
“Um… do I get thrown too?”
“What are you talking about?”
He had come running in shouting his name, so Jongsik knew he had business with him and stayed behind, yet he asked such a question. If it was intentional, he’d call it cunning, but doing it out of genuine ignorance made him a true character. He was frustrating and baffling at times, but this was exactly why Sa-yoon couldn’t hate Jongsik.
That’s why I ran here.
Even knowing he wasn’t going to die right this second, just the ominous premonition, just the realization that Jongsik would one day choose sacrifice, made him anxious enough to run.
Sa-yoon read his own heart, calmed the frantic beating caused by his anxiety, and sat down opposite the man standing blankly. As he pulled up a chair, Jongsik naturally served tea. His movements were so practiced it made one wonder if he’d been a butler to a noble family in a past life.
Where the hell did he even get tea?
It was absurd, but Sa-yoon picked up the teacup familiarly. His gaze fell on the empty seat.
“Sit down. We need to talk.”
“Did something happen?”
“You could say something happened… or that something will happen.”
“Pardon?”
“Jongsik-ah.”
Sa-yoon sat the diligent man down in front of him, the man currently struggling to interpret his cryptic, riddle-like words. Their eye levels roughly matched. Facing those transparent eyes that seemed to hide nothing from him, Sa-yoon hesitated before speaking.
“Do you have any intention of dying?”
“Yes?”
Jongsik was flustered by the sudden question dropped without any preamble. Sa-yoon didn’t want to drag things out, so he decided to just be blunt.
Trying to hide his intentions or speaking in circles had backfired more than once or twice. In this regard, the mistakes he’d made with Han Geon-joo were actually helpful. At least he wouldn’t make a fool of someone twice.
“Jongsik-ah. I would like it if you didn’t die.”
“Why are you saying such things all of a sudden? Did you hear some bogus prophecy that I’m going to die?”
“Bogus prophecy…”
It was a little funny hearing that from the guy most likely to believe in superstition. Sa-yoon wished it was a bogus prophecy. He bit at a hangnail on his lip and tilted his head back.
If only my Original Soul had acted up, maybe. But with the Snake God acting like that too, how can a person not be anxious?
His gut feeling, which was practically a misfortune detector, had reacted. Maintaining composure was already a difficult task. But this was in front of Jongsik. In front of the loyal subordinate who had followed him for years. Trying not to waver, Sa-yoon chewed on the words the Snake God had left him and emptied his teacup.
He gulped the tea down like it was alcohol. Jongsik gave him a bewildered look. Sa-yoon slammed the cup down—Kwang!—and swallowed a breath.
“…It’s not bogus, I heard a prophecy with some potential. Interested?”
He said it lightly with a smirk, but perhaps gauging the weight hidden in that laugh, Jongsik fell silent for a moment and straightened his posture. He poured water into his own teacup.
“It sounds like it will be a long story.”
Saying so with a gentle smile was his way of agreeing to listen.
Sa-yoon debated, then relayed to him what he had heard from his Original Soul and the hint from the Snake God. He didn’t want to lie, and there was no reason to. Before Lee Jae-hee appeared, Jongsik had been the one filling that role, so it wasn’t anything new.
It meant that confiding in Jongsik about the System wasn’t strange at all.
Is that why it’s you? Because you know the most information, because you know me best? Is that why, out of all the candidates, I suspect you the most?
His heart was complicated, his mind refusing to settle. Hiding his agitation, he spilled everything. Jongsik’s expression darkened.
“…So, does that mean you can only awaken your power if someone dies in your place, Hyung-nim?”
“Hey, why is it being interpreted like that again?”
He had a talent for reinterpretation. Sa-yoon had clearly said someone would die for him, but Jongsik seemed to understand it as ‘Someone MUST die for me to use my power.’ Words could differ vastly in nuance, and seeing the ample room for misunderstanding, Sa-yoon raised an eyebrow. He saw Jongsik bite his lip. It was a reaction he usually showed when making a resolve.
Just as Jongsik knew Sa-yoon’s old habits, Sa-yoon knew his inside out. His expression hardened, and he released a frosty aura. The biting cold froze the basement threateningly. Jjeojeojeok. The edge of the table froze over.
“Don’t get any funny ideas. Why do you think I told you this?”
“You thought I was going to die.”
“Yeah.”
“…”
“Fuck. I said yes, so why make that face? Isn’t this the timing where you deny it?”
“…”
“Kim Jongsik. Telling you not to get funny ideas sounds ridiculous to you, doesn’t it?”
Even when he spoke coldly on purpose, Jongsik’s strangely sad expression showed no sign of returning to normal. Sa-yoon watched anxiously as the man seemed lost in the dilemma of a lifetime. He wanted to stop him, but the atmosphere suggested he wouldn’t listen to anything right now, so Sa-yoon had no choice but to watch.
Tik-tik.
Long fingernails tapped on the table. While the intermittent sound rang out fourteen times, Jongsik remained deep in thought. Only after another ten minutes passed did he speak.
“Hyung-nim.”
“No, you bastard.”
“Why do you say that when you don’t even know what I’m going to do?”
“I said no.”
“Haha.”
“You’re laughing?”
Is this funny right now? Huh?
His insides were burning blacker than coffee, and he didn’t like seeing the guy laugh so peacefully alone. He warned him not to be cocky, but Jongsik smiled gently as if even the reprimand was welcome. Sa-yoon stopped breathing, glimpsing a certain future in that curve of his lips. Jongsik confessed the opinion Sa-yoon had blocked.
“Of course, my dream is to assist you by your side for a long time, Hyung-nim.”
“That’s a good dream. Keep it forever. A man’s neck flies if he goes back on his word.”
“However, if someone must die in your place… I would like to have that honor.”
“Are you crazy? Why is that an honor?”
He looked perfectly sane but was spewing words fit for a lunatic. Sa-yoon narrowed his brow fiercely and shouted, but Jongsik didn’t bend his honest will.
“So please, protect the others, Hyung-nim. Guys like Gyeongjin, Yen, and Chan-hee. And Geon-joo, whom you cherish.”
“I cherish you too.”
“That is why I am telling you this. You have many precious things now, so shouldn’t you lose as little as possible?”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
I’m sitting here doing this because I don’t want to lose YOU.
Perhaps reading the sentiment shot from his eyes, Jongsik laughed low and reached out. A large hand grabbed Sa-yoon. It was a rough hand, calloused in many places.
Realizing anew how big he was, Sa-yoon shut his mouth and met Jongsik’s gaze. The young man, who had been looking at Sa-yoon’s face for a long time, grinned.
“A war without sacrificial pawns is impossible. So if there must be a losing card, please set it as me. That is what I wanted to say.”
“…”
“Please don’t lose anything other than me…”
Trailing off carefully, Jongsik squeezed Sa-yoon’s hand tight.
“Have everything you desire. You can do that, Hyung-nim.”