Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 48

No, given his personality, he rarely burst into belly-aching laughter, so to be more realistic, he would likely find it very amusing and his eyes would light up.

Come to think of it, he liked incidents and accidents. Or rather, he was always followed by incidents and accidents.

If something noisy happened unrelated to him, he would watch with interest, and if something noisy happened related to him, he would be annoyed but then quickly and swiftly resolve it.

However, this incident wasn’t even something that could be called an incident or accident.

Honestly, Jeong Taeui racked his brain, thinking and thinking, but couldn’t understand why Christoph liked him—or why he said he liked him—but regardless, this was something that shouldn’t have happened but did. So, that man would likely find it very amusing and watch with interest.

The only thing that bothered him was.

“How much should I tell him…?”

Jeong Taeui muttered, pressing his chin against the railing and resentfully staring at the pool in the distance.

No matter what, if he said, “He kneaded my crotch and told me he liked me,” then…

…Even I think it sounds strange when I say it.

And another thing that bothered him was that he hadn’t firmly said “No” until the very end.

“…”

He was a guy who was strangely obsessive about some things, but in this case, he might just laugh and watch. Somehow, if Christoph was the other party, he felt that would be the case. Fortunately, he was a possessor of a pure mind who firmly believed that physical relationships between people of the same sex were platonic.

But still, such minor issues bothered him.

“Should I just keep my mouth shut entirely?”

However, after a moment’s thought, Jeong Taeui shook his head.

That wasn’t a good method either.

Considering that Christoph and that man were soulmates in subtle ways, there was a high possibility that Christoph would go directly to him and pick a fight.

One worry, another worry, yet another worry…

“…Ugh, why did I end up having to worry about this…? I was planning to leave Berlin for a change, see the outside world, and have some fun, but what kind of fate is this…?”

Jeong Taeui slammed his forehead against the railing. Thump, thump, he kept hitting it two, three times.

Then the worries would reach a single conclusion again.

It’s the book’s fault after all. He felt that if he became a little more mentally and physically exhausted here, he might even say that the book was the root of all evil.

Then, Jeong Taeui suddenly had a somewhat cunning and cowardly thought.

If you truly like me, give me that book back.

Should I make such a demand? …Is that too petty?

Jeong Taeui sighed. He simply rested his arm on the railing and propped his cheek on it.

“Oh dear… I don’t know. Everything will turn out as it’s meant to.”

“What is?”

“…”

Now, even if someone suddenly spoke to him from behind without a sound, he barely flinched.

Jeong Taeui only turned his head slightly and looked over his shoulder. Ilay was approaching from the stairs.

“Why are you alone? Where’s Richard?”

He always appeared with Richard when he showed up in front of him, but today he was walking alone.

Ilay chuckled with an exasperated tone.

“Do I always go around with him? Well, now that you mention it, I guess I was almost always with him when I ran into you.”

“But what good would it do to be with him even on a holiday like today?” he added, then came and stood behind Jeong Taeui.

Only then did Jeong Taeui recall Richard walking along the path with a woman like a sugar candy earlier. He had been too preoccupied with his own worries to remember.

“Ah, right, that’s right. We ran into each other on the forest path earlier.”

Jeong Taeui nodded as he spoke, then looked at Ilay.

“He was with his lover. She was beautiful.”

“Lover? Hmm… A frail woman with curly hair down to her waist, fair-skinned and small, looking easily frightened?”

“Oh, you must have seen her.”

“No. I haven’t seen her.”

Jeong Taeui frowned with a peculiar expression. He spoke disapprovingly to Ilay’s profile, who was now right beside him, looking at the sunset over the railing.

“How did you know if you haven’t even seen her?”

“That’s exactly the type of woman he brings around.”

He added, “It hasn’t changed in over ten years,” and chuckled. But as his laughter subsided, he looked slightly puzzled.

“A walk with a woman… Did something happen when you ran into him?”

“Me? What could have happened with me? We just happened to run into each other at the entrance to the path, said hello, and passed by.”

Jeong Taeui tried to rewind his memory to recall any ‘something’ that might have happened between him and Richard, but there was nothing significant between them. If there was anything, it would be more likely with…

…Ah.

Jeong Taeui glanced at Ilay and subtly asked,

“Why, did something happen with me?”

“No. I ran into him briefly in the main building on my way here, and his complexion wasn’t good. That guy, who always wears a smiling mask, had his true nature all over his face and wasn’t even pretending to smile.”

“Hmm? …Maybe he fought with his lover.”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head.

He had had a somewhat tense encounter with Christoph earlier, but that was no different from usual. Even the other day, when they had fought much more fiercely, he had only shown a grim expression for a very brief moment, and then returned to his cold, if not smiling, demeanor.

However, Ilay did not agree with Jeong Taeui’s plausible deduction. Instead, he chuckled, looking down at him from the corner of his eye.

“He’s not interesting enough to fight with a woman, nor is he naive enough to let a fight show on his face.”

“Hmm… Then perhaps it was because he fought with Christoph earlier? Since they fought in front of his lover, it might have left a more resentful impression on him than expected.”

“Christoph? Did you go to the forest with Christoph?”

Ilay asked with a faint hint of curiosity.

He knew that Jeong Taeui couldn’t ride a horse, and Christoph only went into the forest on horseback.

“Ah. No, I ran into Christoph while I was on a walk. And Richard happened to show up there.”

“It must have been hard to run into each other in such a vast forest…”

Ilay’s gaze narrowed as he looked at Jeong Taeui.

“Oh, I was bathing and playing in the stream, and Christoph came on horseback…,” Jeong Taeui, who was casually explaining, suddenly fell silent.

He had been so engrossed in the dispute between Richard and Christoph that he had forgotten. Come to think of it, there was one more thing he had been debating whether to say or not.

Jeong Taeui stood at a crossroads of choice again. The one with a higher chance of regret later, and the one without.

If so, there was no need to think long. When things got complicated, the one who would regret it more later was the one who kept silent and deceived.

“By the way, Christoph said something quite interesting to me.”

As lightly as a joke, Jeong Taeui began to speak.

Just as the body controls the mind and words control emotions, once he spoke, it didn’t seem entirely untrue that it was suddenly a truly interesting matter.

Come to think of it, at his age, to hear such words from such a guy, in such a situation, was truly an interesting experience. More than interesting, it was quite rare.

Jeong Taeui suddenly found it amusing and smiled, looking at Ilay. For some reason, Ilay was also smiling. With a wide smile, Ilay asked, his eyes round with amusement,

“Why? Did that guy tell you he liked you or something?”

“Oh, you know well. Hahahaha.”

He replied as if joking to a joke, laughing aloud, but there was no response to his laughter.

Huh? Jeong Taeui subtly stopped laughing and looked at Ilay again. Then he completely wiped the smile from his face.

In that short time, all traces of a smile had vanished from Ilay’s face. Instead, his gaze, looking down at Jeong Taeui with his head slightly raised, was utterly chilling.

Strange. The atmosphere suddenly died.

Only then did Jeong Taeui think, I stepped on it. He instinctively felt that he had truly ‘stepped on it.’

But if even Jeong Taeui were to sink into this mood, the atmosphere would become irreversible.

Smiling wryly, he lightly patted Ilay’s arm.

“Hey. Why are you suddenly so serious? It’s Christoph, Christoph. No one else. I thought you’d find it very amusing.”

“If it were anyone else, I would have found it amusing.”

Ilay’s voice was simply cold.

Jeong Taeui no longer had the courage or confidence to lighten the mood, so he just shut his mouth.

But to become this serious…

“…Aren’t you going to ask what I replied?”

Jeong Taeui desperately tried to ease the suddenly tense atmosphere. But it was counterproductive.

Ilay muttered, “What did you reply…?” then looked down at him with an even colder face.

“You tried to flat-out refuse, but since that guy didn’t understand and kept clinging, you had no choice but to put it on hold, saying you’d think about it for a bit longer, right?”

“…”

Jeong Taeui was speechless.

He had always thought he was a scary person, but at times like this, he truly felt it again. A truly terrifying guy.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue bitterly, thinking that his own behavioral patterns might be too easily read.

“Why are you so serious about it? You laughed it off when Kyle said something similar to me before. It’s the same this time. There’s not much difference.”

Sometime before, after living together for several years, Kyle, who couldn’t help but know what kind of relationship Jeong Taeui and Ilay had, once came home after drinking heavily at a business dinner and confessed his drunken thoughts.

‘You should ditch a guy like that and meet a decent person like me. How did a good person like you get caught by a guy like him and have your life twisted like this… Oh, how pitiful…’

Jeong Taeui, touched by the grateful Kyle who was sobbing for him, embraced Kyle and agreed, saying, “I know, right,” and was caught red-handed by Ilay.

He thought he might die at any moment, but Ilay just snorted and let it go. He only gave Kyle, who had passed out drunk, a harsh slap on the cheek.

It was somewhat different, but he thought it was similar in context to that time.

However, this time, Ilay let out a hollow laugh, “Ha.”

“The person is different. Christoph is a headache.”

He clicked his tongue as he spoke. Then he suddenly narrowed his eyes and stared intently at Jeong Taeui.

“And.”

“Hm?”

“He said he liked you, and nothing else. Nothing else happened?”

At his low, probing voice, Jeong Taeui instantly fell silent.

What flashed through his mind was that face, red as a persimmon. And that clumsy hand moving around his crotch.

He instinctively realized. If he told that story, nothing good would come of it.

As Jeong Taeui stared up at Ilay, saying nothing, Ilay’s eyes narrowed further.

“Taei.”

“What ‘nothing else’? He just recently claimed that physical relationships between men are pure.”

Jeong Taeui said sulkily. Ilay, still narrowing his eyes, stared intently at Jeong Taeui, then muttered, “I see,” somewhat suspiciously, and straightened his posture again.

Ilay frowned annoyedly and quietly looked down at the panoramic view below the makeshift tower. The hand resting on the railing lightly tapped it. He felt extremely uneasy about what thoughts were swirling within that gesture.

Suddenly, his fingers stopped. Ilay remained still for a while after that, then suddenly turned around.

“I’ll have to talk to him directly. Though I doubt he’ll listen.”

Leaving only that self-muttering remark, he strode towards the stairs.

Jeong Taeui, left alone behind him and momentarily blank, suddenly came to his senses and hastily followed him.

It was a truly awkward situation.

Jeong Taeui thought that when he and Ilay stood side by side in front of Christoph’s door.

Perhaps it would have been better to just pretend not to know and not say anything. Then, trying to achieve natural disappearance by returning to Berlin would have been a good method too.

As Jeong Taeui stood beside Ilay, head bowed and dispirited, Ilay, who was just gripping the doorknob, said without even looking at him,

“If it’s Christoph, if he doesn’t understand to his own satisfaction, he’ll chase after you and stick to you even after you go back to Berlin.”

Jeong Taeui gasped, sucking in a breath, and subtly glanced at Ilay.

This guy, what is he, a ghost? He’s been looking into my head like it’s his own since earlier.

Then, this time too, he said a word.

“Sometimes you do things that no one can predict what you’re thinking, but generally, everything you’re thinking shows on your face. Well, you never really try to hide your thoughts anyway, do you?”

He concluded his words with a brief laugh.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head, “Is that so?” As he said, he rarely felt the need to hide his expressions or emotions, so he didn’t try to hide them.

But it wouldn’t be easy to read him so well, Jeong Taeui grumbled, but Ilay had already entered Christoph’s room.

Christoph was in the study. He was sitting on a single couch by the window, his legs propped on a stool, turning the pages of a book in a lazy posture that suggested he could fall asleep at any moment.

When his gaze, after opening the door, fell upon Ilay and then Jeong Taeui, Jeong Taeui let out a low click of his tongue. This situation was utterly awkward.

To put it metaphorically, it felt like bringing an adult to a children’s fight.

“You came later than I expected.”

Christoph muttered languidly, without even getting up from the couch, as if he had already anticipated their arrival. He closed the book and placed it on the windowsill, showing no intention of getting up.

Ilay stood beside him, looking down at Christoph with a skewed posture. Then, suddenly, with a faint, almost-a-smile, he asked in a light tone,

“Chris, what are you going to do?”

“Give him to me.”

“…”

Jeong Taeui suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu from that short exchange. This feeling of disjointed conversation felt like something he had experienced very recently.

However, while immersed in that inexplicable emotion, he briefly wondered, But where did my opinion go?

Being surrounded by two men, arguing over who gets me, Jeong Taeui is quite popular.

Jeong Taeui thought that, self-deprecatingly.

If those two men were Ilay Riegrow and Christoph Tarten, anyone who knew them would undoubtedly look at him with sympathetic pity in their eyes.

But somehow, fortunately, it didn’t escalate into the dangerous situation Jeong Taeui had worried about from the start. Surprisingly, the conversation seemed to be flowing quietly.