Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 54

He understood the feeling of waking up one morning to find himself a celebrity… but it was by no means welcome. He didn’t want to be that kind of celebrity. It felt the same as when he suddenly found himself a terrorist splashed across the newspapers.

“Since then, I haven’t taken on many external jobs, so this is the first time I’ve seen him in quite a while.”

Christoph bent his fingers one by one as if counting how long it had been, then suddenly looked at Jeong Taeui. And asked.

“How does he live at home? With you.”

“With me?”

Jeong Taeui frowned.

If he had just asked how he lived at home, he could have answered, but asking how he lived with him made it difficult to answer.

“How do you mean…? We just live, each doing our own work. When both are busy, neither knows what the other is doing, and if only one is busy, the other might help out a bit, or bring them a beer to drink, or just leave them alone to play by themselves. If both are free—though that rarely happens—we just laze around at home or go out somewhere.”

“Hmm… I see, so you can live like that too.”

Christoph mumbled as if it were a strange thing. His voice, whispering to himself, “There’s a way to live like that too,” sounded as if he had just realized something new. As if he had never lived that way or even thought about it.

“You know, I always thought Rick wouldn’t die a peaceful death.”

Christoph suddenly blurted out. It wasn’t a pleasant topic, but Jeong Taeui nodded. He had thought so too. In fact, even now, he felt he would understand if that guy were found as a gruesome corpse.

Although Ilay Riegrow was a tolerable bad guy to him, there were undoubtedly many people in the world who considered him an intolerably bad guy. And since that was the result of his own actions, they couldn’t be blamed.

“Well, that can happen.”

“As you just said, I never thought he could live such an ordinary, uneventful life. I always thought he’d live in a place reeking of blood, where screams and shouts erupted.”

Jeong Taeui didn’t answer, but he couldn’t help but agree with this statement. Even he thought Ilay looked more suited to living amidst danger than in peace.

“But living like this now…”

Christoph trailed off, as if talking to himself. Then he suddenly looked at Jeong Taeui. Jeong Taeui subtly frowned, feeling somewhat burdened by the sudden gaze.

Suddenly, Christoph rose from the sofa. He approached Jeong Taeui and sat on the bed.

He met the intense gaze of that face.

That face, whose thoughts were unreadable, stared intently at Jeong Taeui, then subtly tilted.

“Then maybe I can too.”

Christoph said. He wasn’t speaking to Jeong Taeui. He whispered softly, just his lips moving, as if speaking to himself.

“Maybe I, too, won’t have a headache anymore, and won’t hear those painfully loud noises in my ears.”

“Chris…”

“It’s like this every day. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. It’s like this every day. Continuously. Last time, it was so loud and my head hurt so much, I almost smashed my head with a hammer. But when I came to, it was still loud…”

“Chris.”

Christoph silently rubbed the bedsheet. His hands were as white as the plain, pure white sheet. Though equally white, Christoph’s hands were different from Ilay’s. Christoph’s hands were like porcelain. As if they would break if touched.

Christoph raised his head and looked at Jeong Taeui. Even with his usual impassive face, he seemed somehow precarious and unstable. Thinking back, he had always been like that. Beneath that indifferent face.

“Stay with me.”

“Christoph.”

“I can treat you well too. I can do that too.”

His voice reached Jeong Taeui’s ears, sounding pathetic. At the same time, Christoph leaned over Jeong Taeui. And gripped his two wrists.

The next moment, their lips met.

“…?!”

Jeong Taeui frowned. Their lips lightly touched, but if he tried to pull away, Christoph followed. It was a kiss where only their lips gently brushed. His lips trembled, as if in fear, or perhaps in horror. Perhaps this was the first time he had ever had such physical contact with another person.

Jeong Taeui struggled, shaking his wrists to break free from his grip. But he couldn’t pull his wrists away.

He was flustered.

He didn’t seem to be holding him very tightly, but no matter how much he thrashed and shook, Christoph’s hands didn’t budge.

It was then that he realized Christoph possessed a strength incomparable to his appearance.

“Hey, that’s too much!”

He cried out, turning his head, but Christoph followed regardless. And yet, he could clearly feel Christoph flinching every time their cheeks or lips brushed, as if such contact was utterly foreign and terrifying to him.

A while ago—though it was over clothes—he was kneading someone else’s crotch, and now it’s his mouth? Enough already, you crazy bastard.

He wanted to scream that out, but first, he needed to get these wrists off him, Jeong Taeui thought, wildly shaking his unmoving wrists. But his hands still didn’t budge.

But then.

Just then. As if perfectly timed, at that exact moment.

The door opened.

Jeong Taeui’s door opened, and the leisurely footsteps that had been entering the room suddenly stopped.

…Ugh.

Over Christoph’s shoulder, Ilay appeared, walking in with a large box tucked under one arm.

He stared at their ambiguously intertwined figures on the bed with an expressionless face for a moment, then at some point, his eyes narrowed slightly.

He didn’t rush at all, slowly approaching the table and setting the box down. A heavy thud of something hard colliding inside could be heard.

Then, he approached.

Still with leisurely steps.

Without changing his expression.

However, by the time his steps reached the bed, they had quickened considerably, and an unreadable expression, perhaps a smile, had appeared on his face. It was simply terrifying.

“I clearly told you.”

A low voice reached his ears.

“Why can’t you understand and do this crap?”

‘I clearly told you,’ and the hand gripping Christoph’s nape separated him from Jeong Taeui with ‘why can’t you understand,’ and as he spoke the last words, he mercilessly punched him in the stomach.

Thwack, a horrifying sound, like pounding a meat sack, echoed.

“Snap out of it, you fool. Can’t you even tell whether you can touch someone or not anymore? It’s best to avoid dangerous things that don’t suit your station, did you forget that too? Get a grip, Christoph.”

Two, three times, the sound of punches landing on the same spot echoed consecutively.

It was a peculiar sight.

Even with such unrestrained punches to the stomach, and the chilling sounds that echoed, there were no screams. Christoph merely frowned faintly, not a single groan escaping his lips.

—He endured it, thinking that if he uttered a single word of pain, he wouldn’t be able to stop complaining about the pain afterward.

He could have said it hurt. It would have been okay not to suppress the screams that would gush out like a flood once he let out one.

His chest ached.

Jeong Taeui raked his hand through his hair with a heavy sigh as Ilay swung his fourth punch. Then he called him.

“Ilay.”

At that voice, Ilay paused his fist for a moment. His cold gaze turned towards him. As if to say, ‘Go on, say whatever you want.’

Oh dear, he’s really in a bad mood again.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head. And tasted a bitter flavor in his mouth.

“In this situation, I seem to be the victim, so couldn’t you let me have a turn hitting him too?”

When Jeong Taeui spoke in a weary voice, Ilay, who had been clenching his fifth punch, stared intently at Jeong Taeui for a moment, then slowly unclenched his fist. And threw Christoph onto Jeong Taeui’s bed.

As a result, Christoph’s knee hit the edge of the bed. It made a sound that also seemed very painful, but he didn’t even blink. It was almost as if he had no sense of pain.

Christoph lifted his head. If it weren’t for the hand clutching his stomach, one wouldn’t have known that he had just been hit with such terrifying sounds.

“…You reap what you sow, Chris. But, I agree with ‘snap out of it’.”

Jeong Taeui got up from the bed and stood on his knees. He shook his wrists a couple of times and approached Christoph. Immediately after, he swung his fist. He, too, showed no mercy, aiming directly for the solar plexus.

Christoph’s breath caught for a very brief moment. His eyebrows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

“You don’t like others touching you, so what do you do when you do it? Get a grip.”

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue and said. Only then did he turn around.

Ilay stood by the table, arms crossed, watching them, looking somewhat displeased. Jeong Taeui just clicked his tongue, feeling awkward about what to say.

Seeing Jeong Taeui like that, Ilay unwrapped the box he had brought, pulled out an aluminum can, and threw it without a word. Jeong Taeui instinctively caught it, his eyes wide.

“What’s this? …Ah. Could it be.”

“My brother sent it for you. …So, how was it? His lips.”

At his casual question, Jeong Taeui, who had been happily checking the beer, instantly deflated.

This guy’s found another fault. He’s been lying in wait, just itching to devour someone, and now’s his chance.

“Well… lips are just lips, I guess.”

“That’s what happens when you get unnecessarily close. Be more selective about your friends.”

Jeong Taeui’s breath caught for a moment at Ilay’s words, as he clicked his tongue.

‘This guy, telling me to be selective about friends?!’

He glared at him, eyes wide with disbelief, but Ilay still wore a displeased expression, pulled another beer from the box, and chugged it down in one go.

‘Oh, the specialty beer Kyle gave me to drink…’

He felt a momentary pang of regret, but since he was guilty—though he felt unfairly accused since he hadn’t done anything—he couldn’t say a word, just mumbled and glared at the can.

Behind him, Christoph, who had been sitting motionless on the bed for a while, pressing his stomach, slowly got off the bed. His steps seemed unsteady, somehow.

“I don’t want to fight with you…”

Christoph mumbled in a weak voice.

The moment Ilay heard that, his eyebrows, which had been putting down the beer can, twitched. His icy gaze turned towards Christoph.

“That’s a coincidence. I also prefer not to fight with you, if possible. I don’t want a fight where the damage to me is great.”

Ilay said in a low voice.

He tapped the table with his knuckles, remained silent for a moment, then asked again.

“Still covetous…?”

“Yes.”

Christoph didn’t hesitate. His quietly answering voice was lower than usual, but his tone was as emotionless and cold as ever.

The sound of knuckles tapping on the table became a little clearer. Ilay’s knife-like gaze did not leave Christoph.

“Christoph. Don’t misunderstand. You’re just placing unnecessary hope on that guy. You’re hungry and want to satisfy that hunger, and because that guy is visible, you’re reaching for something that isn’t yours. That guy isn’t your share. He’s mine.”

“Rick. You said you wanted to live quietly while you were here. That you didn’t want to lay a hand on me.”

Christoph said quietly, looking at the knuckles tapping the table. A hollow laugh formed on Ilay’s lips.

“Yes. So?”

“Then I’ll take it in the meantime.”

Christoph said calmly. And Ilay did not reply.

For a while, a deafening silence hung in the air.

In the midst of it, Jeong Taeui was drinking beer, glaring alternately at the two of them.

The beer Kyle had specially sent was indeed unique and excellent, but now he couldn’t taste any of it. These damn guys were ruining the taste of his beer.

He wanted to say, ‘What about my opinion?’ but the atmosphere was not one where such a remark would be heard.

Jeong Taeui had no choice but to let the two of them talk it out, just as he had done a while ago. Let the guys who talked freely without considering others talk, and he would make his own decision.

Jeong Taeui watched them, only regretting that the beer tasted worse due to the heavy atmosphere.

However, that carefree state didn’t last very long.

In an instant, the temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees.

The faint smile that had lingered on Ilay’s face vanished. That chillingly frozen expression, those icy black eyes like glass, stared at Christoph.

Jeong Taeui knew that face.

He had that same face when he tore people apart with his bare hands.

“Il…”

But even as he tried to call him, his chest froze, and the words wouldn’t come out.

Eyes he hadn’t seen in a long time.

An atmosphere that hadn’t lingered in a long time.

For a very brief moment.

Madman Rick was there.

His hand seemed to move. That white, beautiful hand twitched.

The very next moment.

Clink, a small, clear sound echoed in the silence.

It was the sound of Jeong Taeui’s unconsciously clenched beer can hitting the edge of the bed.

For a very brief moment, Ilay’s gaze landed there. His eyes met Jeong Taeui’s.

Jeong Taeui looked at ‘Madman Rick’ with an expressionless face.

“…—.”

Ilay frowned slightly. At that moment, his expression returned. The emotion, still tinged with cold fury, reappeared on his face.

A low sigh seemed to reach Jeong Taeui’s ears.

Then Ilay spoke in a low voice, as quiet as a terrifying beast holding its breath.

“Christoph. Making an enemy is not a good choice.”

“Making you an enemy is an even worse choice.”

Christoph retorted in a voice as quiet as Ilay’s. Ilay raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Still covetous?”

“Yes. I am covetous. I want to have it. …I want to have it too.”

Christoph said expressionlessly.

Listening to his words, Jeong Taeui’s expression vanished.

He understood nothing, but if there was one thing he knew, it was that what he desired was not here.

And perhaps the only one who didn’t know that fact was himself.

“Alright. …Then I suppose I’ll have to remove you from my sight, my way.”

At Ilay’s words, Christoph shrugged slightly. As if to say, ‘Do as you please.’

Ilay said nothing more. He merely raised an eyebrow and nodded lightly.

These past few days had been particularly severe.

Christoph would always rub his temples and curse, saying he couldn’t stand the loud noises in his ears, which grew louder and softer, making his ears and head ache.

The intensity varied from day to day.

Some days, he would spend the whole day calmly and peacefully, saying it wasn’t that loud, while on other days, he would chew pain relievers from morning.

However, for the past few days, Christoph had been complaining of severe headaches every day. Every morning, when Jeong Taeui woke him up, his pale face would be drenched in sweat, and he would mumble softly.

‘It’s loud, be quiet, please shut up…!’

That low, rough voice, mumbling to no one in particular, had not stopped for a while.