Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 26

With such a corpse-like face, he was trembling faintly and whispering something. Jeong Taeui asked, “What are you saying?” but there was no reply. He just kept muttering to himself as if possessed.

This kind of incident—this state of clearly being detached from reason, rushing to kill someone not as a threat but genuinely—didn’t seem to be the first time. Jeong Taeui felt it in the gazes of the people who watched him dragging Christoph by his clothes into the mansion.

Their gazes, closer to disgust and fear than shock or surprise, indicated that this was not the first time such an incident had occurred. It didn’t seem to happen very often either, though.

While going up to Christoph’s room, Christoph, quietly following Jeong Taeui, still seemed to be out of his mind. It was the same after they arrived in the room.

He thought that once Christoph returned to his own room, where a quiet calm enveloped him, cut off from people’s stares and their whispering, he would slowly come to his senses. It might take some time, but he believed that once his mind calmed down, he would return to his usual self.

However, it wasn’t long after they returned to the room that Jeong Taeui thought, ‘This might be a bit dangerous.’

Jeong Taeui, who had been sitting on a chair by the door, catching his breath after seeing Christoph settle down somewhat, watched him curiously as his trembling didn’t subside even after some time passed.

Perhaps it was his imagination, but his complexion seemed to grow even paler, faded to a yellowish tint. His body was still sporadically trembling, and his low muttering voice gradually grew louder, becoming audible even to Jeong Taeui.

With a corpse-like face devoid of blood, he was glaring at the air. His almost unblinking eyes trembled unstably, unfocused.

“…Won’t… leave it alone… I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him…! …Ugh…”

His hoarse voice, dry as metal, growled like a beast. That voice was no longer his own. As if possessed by a ghost, he muttered with a choked voice, his gleaming blue eyes trembling faintly.

“Christoph. …Chris,” Jeong Taeui called him quietly from the side. But his voice didn’t reach Christoph’s ears.

It wasn’t just his eyes and voice that trembled. His body was trembling too.

His faintly convulsing shoulders gradually shook more violently, and soon the tremor spread throughout his entire body.

Hugging his trembling body tightly, Christoph bit his lips, which were deathly pale, and groaned like an animal.

“Chris, calm down. Chris.”

He called out several times, but it was no use. Christoph didn’t even look at him. Yet Jeong Taeui patiently called him. Quietly. Slowly.

How much time had passed?

His voice, which had been gnawing at his lips until they bled, spewing terrifying curses and groans, gradually grew softer. The sound became so faint that it was hard to hear, until it was nothing more than trembling breaths.

Christoph, who had been huddled up, clutching his shaking body tightly, his trembling lips moving, finally seemed to show signs of calming down, if only slightly. Glimpse, he turned his eyes.

As their gazes met, his eyes still shaking unstably, Jeong Taeui called his name once more.

“Chris. …It’s okay.”

“…My head hurts…” A faint voice was heard. His trembling voice and shaking body were like those of someone who was unbearably cold.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. You’ll get better.”

Though he knew it wasn’t okay and he wouldn’t get better, Jeong Taeui had no choice but to say so. Even as his clenched fists, with nails digging into his palms, turned white, there was nothing else he could do.

“Noisy… I keep hearing sounds… Noisy, my ears hurt. My head hurts…”

Christoph muttered to himself as if his mind was gone. His words weren’t directed at anyone. With his gaze fixed somewhere in the air, those softly muttered words were meant to make him hear other sounds in his own ears.

“What sounds do you hear?” Jeong Taeui asked quietly. But Christoph only mumbled, “Noisy, noisy.” His face gradually contorted. His face, beyond mere pallor, seemed as if he would roll his eyes and collapse at any moment.

Jeong Taeui thought it was dangerous.

“Chris.” 

Jeong Taeui pulled at his clothes. Christoph, who had been standing stiffly, staggered as if suddenly pushed, taking a few steps. His swaying body looked precarious, so Jeong Taeui unconsciously grabbed his arm to support him.

At that moment.

His body, which Jeong Taeui touched, seemed to stiffen. Almost simultaneously, Christoph violently shook his arm free. As a result, Jeong Taeui was hit hard in the face by his fist and pushed back.

“Don’t touch me!” Christoph screamed, as if a fire that had been dormant, drawing heat from his trembling body, had suddenly burst forth. He shrieked roughly like a scream and glared at Jeong Taeui. His piercing blue gaze fell upon Jeong Taeui like a terrifying knife, slicing through his entire body.

“Noisy, …noisy! Noisy!! I said, noisy!!!” 

He wasn’t looking at Jeong Taeui. But Jeong Taeui was where his gaze was directed, and he took steps towards Jeong Taeui with an increasingly violently trembling body.

Seeing his precariously swaying steps approaching him, Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue.

“Damn it… Calm down, you bastard…!” Jeong Taeui retreated as Christoph advanced. One step, two steps, the distance neither increased nor decreased. But if this continued, he would soon hit the wall behind him.

Jeong Taeui let out a grunt and a sigh.

Thankfully, there were no visible weapons in this room, nor any guards carrying iron batons. So, he wasn’t facing an urgent and desperate threat to his life.

…Still, he didn’t think he’d look good if he got caught in that grip.

What should he do about this? Is there anything that could help? Not a weapon, but something—

He fruitlessly rummaged through his pants pocket, even though he knew he hadn’t put anything helpful there. Something brushed his fingertips.

“…!”

A hard glass bottle. Small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

He lightly shook the bottle, feeling the sloshing inside, and gently clenched and unclenched it.

“Whatever, as long as it helps, otherwise I’m going to get angry.”

Thinking he might as well vent his anger, even if misplaced, Jeong Taeui took out the glass bottle. Now, will a gold nugget come out of this gourd, or a goblin? …Surely it’s not hydrochloric acid, is it?

Jeong Taeui looked straight at Christoph and opened the glass bottle with one hand. Even though Christoph must have seen him take out the bottle, he showed no sign of noticing. No, his eyes were no longer seeing such things.

As he opened the glass bottle, a sharp, penetrating smell spread through his nostrils.

Chloroform.

“… “

Jeong Taeui unconsciously frowned. It was because a dark past suddenly flashed through his mind. Perhaps it was his imagination, but Ilay’s face, as he threw this bottle, seemed to wear a meaningful smile.

But now was not the time to be picky. This was certainly something that could be used excellently in this situation. When he opened the gourd, a gold nugget came out.

He took out a handkerchief he had haphazardly put in one pocket. And poured the contents of the glass bottle onto it. Feeling his vision sway slightly from the instantly pervading smell, he quickly held his breath.

“…!”

A wall behind him.

The distance to Christoph quickly closed.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and gritted his teeth. Then, he got close to Christoph and grabbed him by the nape of his neck.

Christoph flinched as Jeong Taeui’s hand touched him. He violently swung his arm to shake off the hand. His elbow hit Jeong Taeui’s ear hard. His vision swayed for a different reason than before.

“Tsk…!”

Jeong Taeui frowned but didn’t let go. With his other hand, he covered Christoph’s nose and mouth with the handkerchief. He was relentlessly punched in the solar plexus and lower abdomen by Christoph, who was thrashing wildly.

Damn it. Getting hit in the same spot again hurts more. It hurts so much it feels like he’ll die. His face was already badly swollen from the monstrous blow he took earlier.

It seemed like today was the day he was getting beaten up from all sides.

Jeong Taeui grumbled, “It hurts, it really hurts,” but didn’t release his grip on Christoph.

Not long after, Christoph’s movements became sluggish. The strength slowly drained from his grip, which had been clutching Jeong Taeui to push him away. A low groan of “Uh…” escaped him, and soon his body collapsed.

Jeong Taeui quickly supported Christoph’s body, which fell like a heavy ragdoll. His drooping weight settled heavily on Jeong Taeui’s shoulder.

“… …Phew…”

Jeong Taeui exhaled a long breath only after confirming that Christoph, whose entire weight was on him and who had gone limp, was no longer moving.

He barely managed to support Christoph’s body, which kept losing balance and slipping, and moved him to the bed. Thump, he practically threw him onto the bed.

“This guy is surprisingly a lot of work too…” 

Jeong Taeui frowned, rubbing his back, which had strained as he leaned back to lay Christoph on the bed. With that same frown, he silently looked down at Christoph.

He was no longer trembling or muttering about noise. His pale, corpselike face, not moving a single finger as if dead, very slowly, little by little, began to regain some color.

“…”

Jeong Taeui silently looked down at him. Perhaps because he had broken out in a sweat, he felt chIlay. Even though the weather was rather muggy, he somehow felt a coolness inside his body, and he ran his hand down his arm.

Christoph lay with his eyes closed, so quietly that it was hard to imagine he was the same man who had been screaming like a madman, his eyes blazing, just a few minutes ago.

“Hey… You really have problems… Huh? Not just one or two. What are you going to do about it…?” 

Jeong Taeui sighed, sitting on the corner of the bed.

Suddenly, something felt clogged and suffocating in his chest, so he patted his chest near his solar plexus a few times with his palm. Only then did the pain from being hit in the solar plexus by Christoph earlier return, and he groaned, bending at the waist.

He was a punching bag today.

Jeong Taeui sighed deeply and slowly, carefully felt his body.

It throbbed and hurt whenever he touched the bruised spots, but otherwise, he didn’t feel much discomfort, so it seemed he wasn’t seriously injured.

Still, he grumbled that it would definitely ache for a few days, and Jeong Taeui looked at Christoph.

With his eyes closed, unconscious, he was like a sculpture briefly placed on the bed.

Could there be another person so beautiful? His face alone would be enough to captivate everyone. He could be loved by anyone if he wished.

Yet.

“…Huh? So what are you going to do…?” he whispered like a sigh, even though Christoph couldn’t hear him.

For a while, he silently gazed down at him. Then, he suddenly reached out his hand.

Jeong Taeui’s hand hovered over that pristine, beautiful face, which he wouldn’t dare touch even if the world split in two while Christoph was awake.

Even though he couldn’t possibly wake up yet, he somehow hesitated to touch him, leaving his hand suspended just above his forehead, neither lowering nor retracting it.

Very, very gently, his hand, which couldn’t quite reach his skin, carefully brushed the hair that had fallen over his forehead.

But then.

“If you leave chloroform right next to you and don’t ventilate, you won’t be fine either.”

A voice, sharp as a dagger, pierced his chest from behind.

That familiar voice, tinged with a faint smile, had approached without a sound.

Flinch, Christoph’s forehead was lightly touched by Jeong Taeui’s trembling fingertips. It was cool and smooth. Truly like a sculpture.

Jeong Taeui silently withdrew his hand and turned around.

“Any news from Richard’s side?”

“Ah, I got a call a little while ago. Oliver apparently regained consciousness shortly after arriving at the hospital. Some of the test results are out, some aren’t, but for now, it seems there’s nothing serious based on the known results.”

“Right…” 

Jeong Taeui nodded. Only then did the lump that had been choking his chest feel like it was releasing, if only slightly.

“I should chew some headache medicine myself…”

His head throbbed, perhaps due to the release of tension. Jeong Taeui, who knew well where the headache medicine was after seeing it several times, opened Christoph’s drawer and took out a medicine bottle.

“You should have ventilated right away, tsk tsk.”

“No, no. My head hurting isn’t just because of the chloroform.”

As Jeong Taeui muttered grumpily, the man who had walked to the window and was opening it wide chuckled.

“If we’re talking about headaches, it won’t be as bad as mine when I saw you here.”

“Not because you always carry chloroform with you?”

“I wouldn’t carry such things if I didn’t have reason to associate with Christoph. See, it helped just now.”

“…You must have had a hard time carrying anesthetic with you for two months away from home, Rick.”

Hearing Jeong Taeui’s displeased mutter, the man’s eyes gleamed with a faint smile on his face.

Due to long experience, Jeong Taeui quickly recognized that dangerous glint and glared at him.

“What now? What’s the problem?”

“It’s not a very pleasing nickname,” he muttered to himself. Jeong Taeui stared at him with a momentarily dumbfounded expression.

It hadn’t been even a few hours since he had threatened not to leave him alone if he called him that name.

“Stick to one tune, just one.”

“There’s no need to keep our distance where no birds hear day-words and no mice hear night-words, Taeui.”

Jeong Taeui glared hatefully at the lips that spoke with a smooth smile, then let out a grunt and a sigh. Right, do as you please, do as you please.

“Who would have thought I’d run into you here, after barely getting out of Berlin? …You look quite refreshed, Ilay.”

As Jeong Taeui grumbled, Ilay Riegrow chuckled pleasantly once again.

He quietly counted to himself.

A little over two months and ten days.

That’s how long it had been since they last met face to face in the same room like this.

Looking at Ilay, who stood leaning against the windowsill with his arms crossed, having opened all the windows instead of closing the door, Jeong Taeui somehow felt a renewed sense of strangeness.

Once people become familiar with each other, even after a long time apart, they tend to feel familiar, as if they saw each other just yesterday. This was especially true for him and this man. How many years had they lived meeting each other every day in the same house? There was no reason for it to feel so unfamiliar after only a little over two months apart.

Yet, somehow, it felt new, and as Jeong Taeui wondered why, he soon nodded, “Ah,” and then abruptly said to him, “What’s with that attire? I thought you were some fashionable new entrepreneur.”

At that, Ilay, who was leaning against the windowsill with his arms crossed and facing him, raised an eyebrow.

“Is that how you see it? Just recently, a new accountant cornered me and started talking about auditing fraudulent accounting.”

“…Now that you mention it, you don’t not look like some villainous lawyer lackey.”

As Jeong Taeui muttered to himself, scrutinizing Ilay’s suit, his neatly styled hair, and his glasses which he wore for no apparent reason despite having no prescription, Ilay raised an eyebrow and smiled subtly.

With that smile, an unreserved gaze approached him.

His familiar black eyes weren’t smiling at all. Only his lips were curved in a smile.

At that moment, a warning light flickered. A signal of instinctive danger buzzed in his head.

Right, come to think of it, since leaving Berlin and entering this mansion, since running into Ilay unexpectedly, this was the first time they were confronting each other alone—to be precise, not just the two of them, as Christoph was lying unconscious beside them—.

He was facing the man who had left with a brief threat, saying he would die if he left the house, outside the house now.

Jeong Taeui, timidly thinking that it was a good thing he was close to the door, asked him awkwardly, “Is it okay for you to be here like this? Didn’t you say you always had to remain neutral and not personally contact specific factions?”

Jeong Taeui, who wanted to at least secure his safety here, unconsciously clenched his fists and looked at Ilay’s lips very seriously. His safety in his current reality depended on the answer that came from those lips.

Ilay, who couldn’t have been unaware of Jeong Taeui’s thoughts, silently looked at him with a faint smile on his lips and cold eyes, then, as if he had finished thinking, slowly opened his mouth.

“Yes. While I’m here, I must be a sound and trustworthy member of Riegrow, from head to toe.”

The tension in Jeong Taeui’s fists loosened.

It seemed he wouldn’t reveal his true nature here.

Jeong Taeui struggled to keep the flush of relief from showing too overtly on his face. If he showed too much happiness now, he might offend some unpredictable sentiment of this man.

Ilay, who had been watching Jeong Taeui with a subtle smile as he diligently tried to maintain a poker face, suddenly straightened his posture. His relaxed steps approached the bed where Jeong Taeui was sitting.

“…I was going to, but it’s really not helping, is it? Hmm?”

“—What?” Jeong Taeui muttered, watching the shrinking distance with wary eyes. Meanwhile, Ilay continued to close the gap.

For a moment, he felt an urge to quickly stand up and confront him with the bed between them, but he gave up on it a second later. Wild animals are always more dangerous if provoked clumsily.