Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 15

And so, he led the expectant Jeong Taeui to this very place. Christoph’s private study on the second floor.

“Good. I was just thinking of organizing some books. You’ve memorized the decimal classification system, right? Then please organize them well.”

Christoph pointed to the study, speaking calmly as if giving a trivial errand. Inside, a vast collection of books, enough to take a lifetime to read, were haphazardly arranged.

“What? No, I haven’t memorized it… No, wait. Why am I organizing this?!”

Jeong Taeui, who had almost blankly accepted the words, shouted in protest. Christoph frowned.

“You haven’t memorized it? Why not?! Tsk. Then I’ll write it down. Don’t forget to categorize the subcategories by author name.”

“Listen to me to the end!”

Jeong Taeui roared at Christoph, who had taken out a memo pad and begun writing down the classification system, but Christoph didn’t even look up until he finished writing.

“Why am I organizing this, when will I finish organizing all this! I can’t do it, I won’t do it!”

“Don’t you want to find the books?”

Christoph, who had torn off the memo with “900 History, Geography” written on it and looked up, said nonchalantly. The words “If you don’t want to, then don’t” seemed to echo like a hallucination.

Christoph extended the memo to Jeong Taeui, who had instantly become speechless. Jeong Taeui silently looked down at the memo.

He really didn’t want to take it. If he took it, a period of hardship would begin.

“Can’t you do it?”

“…”

“Won’t you do it?”

“…I can’t be held responsible for the outcome.”

Jeong Taeui muttered gloomily and clutched the memo. The crinkling sound of the paper in his hand was unusually clear. It was the sound of comfort being crumpled.

“But… damn it, where are those blasted books hidden?”

Jeong Taeui grumbled curses and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. A dark smudge of dust remained.

Picking up a few books with a weak hand and dividing them again according to the classification code, Jeong Taeui suddenly recalled a person. A man who, though not as extreme as the man now returning from his horse ride and heading to the stables, still possessed a personality that belied his looks.

Jeong Taeui knew one more such man.

If one were to see him walking casually around the house, he would appear to be a handsome, refined man, but once you peeled back the surface, he was the kind of person you shouldn’t even associate with. He hadn’t seen him for about two months, but he was a person who couldn’t fade from memory. A type of person you’d never forget once you experienced their true nature.

He didn’t know what he was doing or where he was now. He hadn’t heard from him for about two months. …No, to be precise, he had contacted him recently. If that counted as contact.

Recalling the memory of their last contact made his head ache again. Then Jeong Taeui sighed.

Anyway, he had to get home as quickly as possible, or at least earlier than him. Otherwise, the man who had received only ambiguous answers from Rita, which could easily be misunderstood, might cause some serious trouble.

Surely he wouldn’t appear like a ghost, telling him not to run away a second time as he once did, threatening to kill and swallow him. He feared that this time, he wouldn’t even be given time to explain and would just have his neck snapped. In fact, what he feared more was how easily he could imagine Ilay chewing on his corpse, but Jeong Taeui tried hard to erase that chilling image from his mind.

No. He definitely didn’t run away. Even if Rita hadn’t explained that much, Jeong Taeui could use the words he had previously told Kyle as evidence. He had no intention of repeating the foolishness of risking his life due to a trivial misunderstanding.

“It’s okay. I guarantee you, he would never think you left with the intention of running away. He’s not that stupid to not know right from wrong.”

Kyle said that, perhaps pitying Jeong Taeui’s pale face. Jeong Taeui also knew. The person named Ilay Riegrow, though called ‘Crazy Rick’ because he was so unpredictable and insane, was actually a person with terrifyingly rational and logical thinking skills. He already knew this well.

Since Ilay knew Jeong Taeui as much as Jeong Taeui knew him, he would also know that Jeong Taeui was not a person who was so fond of his life as to do something like that.

So, even if he wouldn’t outright kill and swallow him out of the blue.

…However, even if he didn’t misunderstand it as running away, a whirlwind would surely erupt. He had stressed repeatedly that Jeong Taeui should stay quietly at home and not go out, so if he found out that Jeong Taeui had slipped out of the house, it was highly unlikely that he would calmly say, “Oh, really?” Given his personality, he might treat Jeong Taeui like a rat again…

“Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know. What do I care? Let him get angry, let him throw a fit, who cares. You only die once. … … … If I quickly find the books and get back home before he returns, it’ll probably pass without incident…”

Jeong Taeui, who had shouted fiercely, then pondered for a moment and mumbled, began to shelve books, lamenting his own weakness.

It had only been a few days since he came to this house.

Already, it was so difficult.

Jeong Taeui almost mechanically categorized the books—by now, he had learned the trick of putting books he couldn’t distinguish into the general section or roughly assigning them—and after finishing a pile of books, he groaned and stretched.

He checked the clock and saw it was almost five o’clock.

Even after working all afternoon, a mountain of unclassified books still awaited Jeong Taeui. Still, he seemed to have done more than a third of the total.

Jeong Taeui looked at the piles of books, unable to decide whether to be dismayed that it was still only one-third despite his diligent work, or to be proud. He wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead and bridge of his nose, then suddenly realized his clothes were soaked.

“I took a bath in sweat…”

Jeong Taeui fanned the front of his damp shirt.

Indeed, even though it wasn’t small, it was understandable, given that he had diligently bustled around, carrying books in a confined room densely packed with them.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue, looking down at his hands, which were blackened with a mixture of sweat and dust. Surely among these books, there must be some worth hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, and touching them with these hands would leave black fingerprints.

“No, no… Should I take a shower?”

Jeong Taeui rubbed his palms on his pants, which were as dirty as his hands, out of habit, and emerged from between the bookshelves.

He walked heavily towards the door, pushing through the dust fluttering in the slanting golden sunlight, then looked back once.

Sparkling, dancing dust in the yellow light, and books scattered haphazardly within it. It looked quite plausible if one didn’t know the sweat and toil hidden within. His mood suddenly lightened a little.

When he returned, should he meticulously organize Kyle’s study too? That one was as vast as this, but at least there was no dust, thanks to Rita’s touch. Yes, he’d ask Kyle, and if it was okay, he’d invest a day to organize it neatly.

Anyway, to go back, he had to find the books.

Jeong Taeui looked at the pile of books, feeling perplexed.

Among the books Jeong Taeui had organized so far, Kyle’s books were not there. He had quickly scanned, but they weren’t among the remaining books that he hadn’t yet organized. Indeed, they probably wouldn’t be placed so carelessly.

Where could they be? If not here, then perhaps in the bedroom. But Christoph’s bedroom, from what he had already seen, didn’t have those books. Unless they were hidden in a drawer or something, they weren’t visible.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head. If it came to it, he might have to sneak into the bedroom and rummage through drawers or closets like a thief.

In any case, Jeong Taeui didn’t have much time.

He had bravely declared his intentions, but he wanted to return home as quickly as possible.

He had to get back before Ilay, who had left home two months ago and disappeared without a trace—though he did contact him sporadically—returned, so that he would at least suffer less. The only problem was that he didn’t know when that guy would return.

“But, you know… people’s personalities don’t usually change without reason…”

Jeong Taeui mumbled, tilting his head.

Actually, that wasn’t what was truly bothering him.

Of course, to exaggerate a bit, it was a matter of life and safety, so it would be a lie to say he wasn’t concerned, but something subtly bothered him in a different way.

Jeong Taeui himself didn’t often go out of the house, and even if he did, it was usually just for a walk in the neighborhood. However, Ilay had never heavily interfered with Jeong Taeui’s outdoor activities.

Jeong Taeui was not a prisoner confined to the house under surveillance, and just as Ilay went out and about, Jeong Taeui also wasn’t heavily restricted in his movements. It was just that Jeong Taeui himself didn’t try to go far.

However, two months ago, just before suddenly leaving home without any warning, he had looked straight at Jeong Taeui, almost in passing, and told him to stay quietly at home for a while.

When he didn’t return after a few days, a few weeks, Jeong Taeui thought it was just a simple farewell.

But Jeong Taeui still remembered the subtle sense of incongruity he felt the moment he heard those words.

“…”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head.

But even standing still like that for a while, his mind didn’t clear.

“Ugh… I don’t know. What else could possibly go wrong in my life?”

“There’s nowhere left to fall,” Jeong Taeui muttered, and then stepped out of the study.

Yes, what else could possibly go wrong? In this situation where externally he was a wanted fugitive, and internally, he was encountering a daily loss of human dignity.

But the people he encounters are human failures at home, and here too—though with a slightly different direction—human failures. Where on earth is my life going…?

Jeong Taeui lamented and headed to his room. He sighed as he walked towards the central staircase to go up one floor to the guest room at the very end of the third floor.

Anyway, the immediate priority was to find Kyle’s books. So he could quickly return home before Ilay caught him…

Swallowing endless sighs, Jeong Taeui shook his head. It was best to put aside worries that wouldn’t be solved by thinking. For now, the given task was to return to his room, take a shower, then it would probably be dinner time, eat, and then return to the study to finish organizing the rest of the books.

He was a few steps away from the central staircase, which was covered in red carpet.

He heard someone coming up from downstairs. From the snippets of conversation, it sounded like about two people.

The first thought Jeong Taeui had upon hearing that sound was “Awkward.”

Though he had only been here for less than a few days, he had already grasped the dynamics of the young people in this house. It was a clear-cut gang war divided into two sides.

They were said to have incredible solidarity against outsiders, but in Jeong Taeui’s eyes, they were almost frantically engrossed in factional fighting.

And they perceived Jeong Taeui, who was being tormented by Christoph, as Christoph’s person. Even though Jeong Taeui himself had not the slightest interest in the gang war, he had somehow gotten caught up in it against his will.

“I shouldn’t have flipped the table after all…”

Jeong Taeui, who had recently drawn all their attention by flipping the table during dinner, was labeled as an “unbearable brute who flips tables regardless of the situation” by the young people hostile to Christoph, with a touch of malice.

It was too late to grumble, “What the hell is this, after I just calmed down the fight?”

In reality, Jeong Taeui was now receiving unpleasant glances and curses every time he brushed past Richard’s people when moving around the house.

“Anyway, I’m not going to see them for long, and being glared at doesn’t hurt, and curses don’t rip me open, but it’s still not very pleasant.”

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue, feeling the approaching presence from below.

It was fine if the people he encountered were older adults. Generally, older adults only moved between the main building and the East Wing, so he rarely encountered them in the West Wing. However, they were actually the instigators of the fight, yet they would smile kindly and tell him to keep up the good work. But if the age group was even slightly younger, the story changed.

Jeong Taeui was uncomfortable with both Richard’s side and Christoph’s side, regardless of whether they were allies or enemies.

Firstly, the very idea of a gang war didn’t suit his personality, but even the side friendly to Christoph made him uncomfortable by looking at him with curious eyes and pretending to be close, while the opposite side made him uncomfortable by glaring at him with hostility.

The only saving grace was that they didn’t openly pick a fight with Jeong Taeui, who was considered an outsider.

Anyway, he didn’t want to run into either side…

Jeong Taeui smacked his lips at the “awkward” feeling that flashed through his mind and slowed his steps. Meanwhile, the sounds of conversation from downstairs ascending to this floor were getting closer.

When the sounds reached the landing between the two floors.

Jeong Taeui, who had been about to turn around and go back into the study, suddenly froze. His expression instantly vanished as if possessed by a ghost.

Uh…?

The voices, growing clearer as they approached from downstairs, were low and quiet, so he couldn’t quite make out the content of the conversation, but the voices themselves were clearly audible.

A voice he could never mistake.

That low, calm voice, concealing an icy distinctness within, was one Jeong Taeui knew very well.

“Uh… …?”

It was when Jeong Taeui tilted his head slightly and blinked once.

Two men appeared, coming up the stairs around the landing.

The figure of a man walking a couple of steps ahead and saying something to the man behind him appeared first.

It was a face Jeong Taeui knew.

He had barely spoken to him, but he had seen him a few times since arriving here.