Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 31 - Fragile

Realization always comes abruptly.

It’s unclear if this applies to everyone, but at least for Jeong Taeui, it was true.

Looking back, it seems that most of his important realizations didn’t slowly accumulate but rather struck him suddenly, like a light switching on in his head.

Even when he was a teenager, hiding in the bathroom with friends, giggling and secretly smoking cigarettes, coughing, and then suddenly realizing he liked men. Or a few months ago, when he was watching the evening news with Kyle, exchanging a few trivial words, and heading to his room saying, “Then please rest,” he abruptly realized he would no longer spend such moments with his original family. And on several other occasions, when a sudden “Ah” thought came to him, these realizations came out of nowhere, unrelated to the actions, thoughts, or feelings he was experiencing at the time.

Perhaps countless small, unconscious daily occurrences accumulate and ripen, then burst open like a touch-me-not flower at a certain moment, leading to a sudden understanding.

As far as Jeong Taeui could remember, it was mostly like this. At some point, he suddenly realized something. Without any reason, just like that.

It was the same recently when he was watching some classic movie at home.

Watching a boy with a tilted head walk through a quiet, foreign alley on the screen, Jeong Taeui reached for a plate beside him. As he tried to pick up a piece of fruit, his hand brushed against another. Ilay, sitting on the opposite side of the plate, also had his eyes on the screen and his hand on the plate.

Their hands brushed, effortlessly picked up fruit slices, and brought them to their respective mouths. That was all.

The moment he swallowed the fruit, a sudden thought struck him.

This is where I’m supposed to be, he thought.

Neither positive nor negative, just that.

At that moment, he realized. Perhaps this was the most natural place from the very beginning.

Later, after he came to his senses, he found this realization incredibly painful and fell into a brief melancholic state. But at that time, he felt it was simply a natural thing, neither good nor bad.

It was always like that.

Realizations would suddenly bring into his mind things he had perhaps never even considered before.

Yes… things he had never even considered before…

Jeong Taeui blinked, deep in thought.

Facing a situation he had never imagined, he suddenly had that thought. Realization always comes abruptly…

Jeong Taeui opened his eyes and for a moment wondered what the face directly above him was. For a few seconds, he couldn’t recognize it.

Of course, he knew whose face it was. A face one could never forget or confuse after seeing it even once. There couldn’t be two living sculptures like that.

“That’s odd… Why is Christoph’s face there…?”

He thought it was a sculpture carved remarkably accurately, but its eyelids occasionally blinked and moved.

Logically, based on past experience, Christoph couldn’t possibly be there.

This was Jeong Taeui’s room — specifically, the guest room given to Jeong Taeui within the West Wing — and it was an early hour, not even seven o’clock. A man who always woke up when the sun was high in the sky unless he had other plans—and who struggled terribly with low blood pressure even then—couldn’t possibly be standing there.

“Am I still not fully awake?”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head, still lying on his pillow, and stared intently at the face. That face silently looked down at Jeong Taeui, with a hint of displeasure.

Ah, now that he looked closely, it was slightly different from the face Jeong Taeui knew. The facial contours were different. The Christoph Jeong Taeui knew didn’t have such a swollen face. A sharper, smoother facial line was one of the characteristics of that sculptural face.

“It looks remarkably similar, though.”

Jeong Taeui muttered to himself and stretched out his arm.

The moment he reached out to touch the face standing motionless by his bed, looking down at him, that face changed to an annoyed expression and recoiled.

“For someone sponging off others, you sleep well until this hour. Get up, lazybones.”

As that sculptural face spoke coldly, Jeong Taeui finally realized. Suddenly, abruptly.

It’s real.

That realization abruptly jolted him wide awake.

“What’s wrong with your face?”

Jeong Taeui shot up to a sitting position. He recoiled another step, as if to avoid being accidentally touched.

Christoph rubbed his face in annoyance and grumbled, “You should look at your own face before you say that.”

“Huh? My face is…”

He mumbled a dazed reply, instinctively turning his gaze to the half-length mirror on the wall opposite his bed. In it, Christoph and Jeong Taeui himself were reflected. Half of his face was roundly swollen.

“Huk…”

Jeong Taeui cautiously rubbed his cheek, and only when he felt a throbbing pain from a cut inside his mouth did he remember what he had completely forgotten. Right, he had been hit yesterday. Severely.

Jeong Taeui slowly looked at Christoph. His face was a sight to behold, far worse than Jeong Taeui’s. It was very plumply swollen.

“You’ve added flesh to a sculpture.”

When Jeong Taeui blurted that out, Christoph immediately glared. Jeong Taeui quickly shut his mouth. He scratched his head and looked around the room again.

Although his face in the mirror had changed slightly, the scene in the room was no different from yesterday. It was business as usual, except for the fact that this man was standing in this room at this hour.

Though that one difference was stirring up a considerable sense of incongruity.

“…What brings you here? At this hour. Here.”

“You…”

Christoph drew out his words, opening his mouth. For some reason, he seemed even more displeased today. Jeong Taeui scratched his head and looked up at him worriedly.

“What? Your head hurts again? Tsk…”

“—It’s because you covered me with something like chloroform.”

Ah, that’s right.

Christoph’s fierce words reminded Jeong Taeui of one more thing he had forgotten.

Jeong Taeui glanced at Christoph. Then he let out a meaningless ‘ehehe’ laugh and made a gesture of lightly hitting him with his pillow.

“I thought you wouldn’t remember, but you remember everything… Then you must know why I had no choice but to do that. I just barely managed to endure my sadness to prevent you from committing an unexpected crime against me…”

It didn’t work at all.

Christoph seemed to snatch the pillow Jeong Taeui was swinging, then mercilessly whacked Jeong Taeui’s head with it.

“Ugh…”

It wasn’t that painful since it was a cotton pillow, but his head swayed for a moment.

However, he rubbed his head as if in great pain, grimacing. It was to avoid a second attack.

Whether his acting had an effect or if Christoph had only intended to hit him once, Christoph threw the pillow at his feet.

“Your arm.”

After a brief silence, Christoph suddenly asked.

Jeong Taeui, who was rubbing his head after being hit by the pillow, asked, “Huh?” Christoph frowned at his dazed face.

“Yesterday. It brushed against the baton.”

“Oh, right. It did. It seems fine, though.”

Today is a day of many realizations.

Jeong Taeui nodded. He had completely forgotten about it since being hit, so it probably wasn’t a big deal, but he rolled up the short sleeve of his left arm.

“…Oh.”

He thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, but there was a deep black bruise just above his elbow.

“Oh, it seems fine?”

Christoph repeated Jeong Taeui’s words and emotionlessly pressed the bruise with his index finger.

“Aargh…! Cancel, cancel…!!”

Jeong Taeui shivered and flinched. Christoph, who had been persistently poking the center of the bruise, finally withdrew his hand when a tear welled up in the corner of Jeong Taeui’s eye.

“Don’t ever block my path again when I’m holding a weapon. Yesterday, you were lucky that Richard was loitering around, so I decided to deal with him first. Any other time, I would have killed you first.”

Christoph spoke, staring at Jeong Taeui with bleak eyes. Listening to him add, “If you do it again, know that you’ll really die,” Jeong Taeui smacked his lips bitterly.

It was an unlucky morning from the start. He woke up seeing things he shouldn’t, and the first thing he heard was a death threat.

“Why are there so many people who want to kill me?”

Jeong Taeui let out a sigh and mumbled. The moment Christoph heard that, he suddenly glared fiercely.

“Who else said that? Which bastard said that?”

“…Ilay.”

Why is this guy getting agitated on my behalf again? Jeong Taeui thought, then named the person who had said “If you do that again, you’ll die by my hand” just last night. Christoph fell silent.

“That guy… … … He’s not the type of person who would… but it’s possible…”

Muttering contradictory words within the same sentence, Christoph looked down at his feet for a moment. For some reason, his expressionless face looked a little sad.

Anyway, he couldn’t guess the sudden reason for his visit. …If he hadn’t come holding a grudge about the chloroform, then it seemed like he had come to warn him not to interfere with him when he was holding a weapon again.

Jeong Taeui pulled at his messy, sticking-out hair and stared blankly at him. It was truly a shame to see that sculptural face bruised. Maybe next time, he should tell Ilay to hit him instead of Christoph. For the sake of art.

…But if he said that, something terrifying might happen, so he’d better not…

“I won’t block you going forward, if possible… You came to hear that, didn’t you?”

Jeong Taeui, seeing him standing still and showing no signs of moving, tentatively broke the silence.

Christoph, who had been silently staring at his feet, raised his head. His gaze at Jeong Taeui was somehow displeased. He had an expressionless face, yet that was the feeling he gave off.

“…?”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head. Christoph grumbled irritably.

“Yes. I came to say that. Don’t go getting yourself beaten up again unnecessarily.”

Hearing him say that, it almost sounded like he was worried. Jeong Taeui smiled sweetly.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“Thanking the guy who hit you…”

Christoph clicked his tongue. His cold gaze was like looking at an utter idiot. But even those words somehow made him happy, and Jeong Taeui smiled broadly.

Christoph, still with a frowning, displeased face, muttered in a voice as displeased as his expression.

“Give me your arm. For your face… apply ointment.”

“Huh? My arm?”

Jeong Taeui momentarily didn’t understand what he was saying. Then he saw him pulling out tape and tubes from his pocket and mumbled, “Oh…” once more.

“You’re going to treat me?”

When Jeong Taeui blurted the question, Christoph frowned slightly. After a few seconds of silence, opening a tube cap and tearing open a compress package, he curtly said,

“It’s unsightly. It’s annoying to have such an elbow dangling in front of my eyes.”

“Oh, okay… …Should I do it?”

Jeong Taeui awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck with his other arm, and quietly watched Christoph’s hands, which were grabbing his arm and beginning to spread and rub some ointment on it.

Jeong Taeui offered his hand, saying he would do it himself, but Christoph didn’t even look at it. Hesitantly, Jeong Taeui withdrew his hand.

“You don’t like touching other people, are you okay with this?”

Jeong Taeui asked, watching Christoph carefully rub over the bruise. Christoph grumbled as if to say, “Don’t say something so foolish.”

“What do you take me for? Of course, it’s fine for me to touch. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to take down enemies.”

Jeong Taeui heard Christoph muttering that it was inevitable to touch the opponent, whether by shooting them with a gun or cutting them with a knife or hitting them with knuckles, and he smacked his lips, saying, “Ah, yes.”

It was a simple reason, but as he thought about it, something felt strange. This unique, pungent smell was quite familiar.

Jeong Taeui stared intently at the ointment Christoph was rubbing on his arm. The cloudy color, this smell, the gradually warming sensation…

“Is this, by any chance…”

“Hmm? When I went to Hong Kong to meet Jeong Changin a while ago, a staff member from the medical unit there, Gyoho, gave it to me as a gift. I haven’t used it myself, but he highly praised its effectiveness.”

“…”

More than hearing a familiar name from Christoph’s mouth unexpectedly, the origin of this medicine lingered in his ears longer. It was surprisingly widespread in an unknown way, and the accidental connection was astonishing. It seemed this pharmaceutical company should appoint Luther as an honorary salesperson.

“Isn’t this that famous Tiger Balm, which they say works for bruises, muscle pain, insect bites, and even headaches…?”

“You know it too? Hmm, is it a common medicine in the East? That friend praised it so much he almost foamed at the mouth.”

Christoph seemed a little pleased to hear such words from someone completely unrelated to the medicine’s origin. It was natural to be happy when told that an item one possesses is good. It was natural, but…

“Turn your head. I’ll put some on your face too. …You have a bruise near your eye. Here too…”

“Agh, wait! You shouldn’t put that near your eye—!!!”

He cried out in a hurry, but it was too late.

Before Jeong Taeui could even shout, Christoph had already dabbed a generous amount of ointment and rubbed it over the bruise next to his eyebrow, saying “Here too.”

“…! …!! …!!!”

Long ago, when he was still in school uniform, a friend had told him that he applied Anti-Phlamine near his eyes to stay awake while studying for exams, and that it instantly woke him up. Jeong Taeui, being naive, had believed him and tried it.

Now, that memory vividly came back to him as if it were yesterday.

Yes, it did wake him up instantly back then. Though he wasted the entire night crying, so he ruined his exam studies.

In front of Jeong Taeui, who quickly rubbed his eyes with a towel and then clutched them, groaning for a while, Christoph stood silently.

He was just staring at Jeong Taeui with a sullen expression, fleetingly visible through his normal eyes, but signs of bewilderment were evident in the hand that clutched the ointment bottle tightly.

Jeong Taeui pressed one hand to his eyes, while his other hand waved, signaling that he was okay. Then, he voiced another question that came to his mind.

“Speaking of which, Jeong Changin, my uncle? How do you know each other?”

“Ah? Oh, right, your uncle. I know him casually through Kyle’s introduction. I sometimes borrow books from him.”

Indeed, there was that connection.

Jeong Taeui nodded. He took out a wet wipe from the side table drawer, rubbed it around his eyes, and looked at Christoph.

Christoph was quietly looking at Jeong Taeui. More precisely, at Jeong Taeui’s eyes, which were covered by the wet wipe and thus invisible.

“…It feels a little better now.”

Jeong Taeui, still wiping his warm, tearing eyes, replied casually, blinking his eyes open. Christoph said nothing, looking at his reddish eyes.

Perhaps he feels a little bit guilty?