Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 69

Ilay was standing in the hallway.

Again, by the door, dressed in a neat suit, not a single hair out of place.

However, that impeccable posture, even in his demeanor, subtly became crooked the moment the elder entered the room and the door closed.

To be precise, it wasn’t his posture that became crooked. It was his aura.

The feeling of a benevolent and upright young man, which had been there just seconds ago, was gone without a trace; instead, ‘Ilay’ was there.

“Were you having a good time?”

As Jeong Taeui closed the door and came out, replacing the elder who had gone inside, Ilay tilted his head slightly and smiled faintly. A glimpse of white fangs showed between his lips.

“Good time, my ass…”

Jeong Taeui mumbled with a sigh.

He must have been truly exhausted to death today. He felt tired himself, but he was clearly hundreds of times more tired than he felt. So, unless his head had gone a little strange, there was no way he would feel even a vague sense of relief the moment he saw this man.

Jeong Taeui silently pulled at the lapel of Ilay’s suit and slipped his hand inside. Ilay subtly raised an eyebrow but chuckled, letting Jeong Taeui rummage through his chest.

“Was your passionate moment interrupted? Why are you being so impatient in the hallway where everyone passes by, so early in the evening?”

“Impatient, my ass… Besides, there’s no one here anyway.”

Jeong Taeui grumbled sulkily, rummaging inside his suit. Then he found what he was looking for in the inner pocket and pulled it out. It was a cigarette.

He went to the window at the very end of the hallway, lit the cigarette, and took a deep drag. Ilay leisurely followed him.

“Don’t you have to be a doorman? Weren’t you supposed to be a doorman until the elder came out?”

Jeong Taeui, who didn’t even look back at Ilay, who had escorted the elder here, exhaled smoke out the window, propped his arm on the windowsill, and rested his chin.

“In this hallway, where ‘there’s no one anyway,’ you’re the only one I have to keep an eye on.”

Ilay, leaning against the window next to Jeong Taeui, curved his eyes in amusement and looked down at Jeong Taeui. Jeong Taeui stubbornly stared out the window, clearly feeling his gaze.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you so twisted.”

Ilay said. There was a hint of laughter, as if he were watching a growling puppy.

Jeong Taeui flicked the ash from his cigarette. Whether he had smoked it too fiercely or if it was just how the cigarette was made, it was already more than half gone after only a few drags.

“Did Christoph bother you? He’s not the type to be sad about being banished from Tarten anyway.”

“…I need to go back to Berlin.”

Ilay closed his mouth for a moment and looked down at Jeong Taeui. He raised an eyebrow, watching Jeong Taeui, who had uttered something out of context, staring at the distant tree-lined street and just smoking.

“That’s good news, but I’m curious about the sudden change of heart.”

Jeong Taeui didn’t answer. Instead, he tossed the quickly burnt cigarette butt and put another one in his mouth. Even while doing so, he didn’t even glance at the man standing next to him. And another one. When he had half-smoked the third one.

“There’s even me, whose life is so messed up that I feel a sense of relief just by seeing you, of all people, when I’m this depressed.”

Jeong Taeui blurted out. His gaze still stubbornly fixed on the distance.

Looking down at Jeong Taeui, Ilay made a strange face for a moment. A slightly bewildered expression, as if he had heard something difficult to understand or completely unimaginable, flashed across his face, but Jeong Taeui just stared straight ahead.

“…And yet.”

Ilay slowly prompted him to continue. Jeong Taeui exhaled a long puff of smoke again before muttering.

“But that guy, he doesn’t even have that. He doesn’t even have that.”

“Ah-ha.”

Ilay nodded, as if he roughly understood. Then, as Jeong Taeui, who had finished his third cigarette, reached for another, he snatched the cigarette pack from his hand.

Only then did Jeong Taeui finally turn his gaze to Ilay and glare at him in dissatisfaction.

“Well… anyway, since he’s been banished, if he leaves here, I’ll go back to Berlin too.”

“Hmm. If Christoph leaves, you’ll go back with him?”

“Yeah. I came here to get a book from him anyway, so I have no other business.”

“Right…”

This time, Ilay took out a cigarette for himself and put it in his mouth, then put the cigarette pack back in his inner pocket. He quietly exhaled smoke out the window, muttering to himself.

“Then I guess I’ll be staying here longer.”

“Huh?”

“Christoph will leave after the succession decision is made, anyway.”

Jeong Taeui stared blankly at Ilay’s words. Then he subtly frowned. Ilay just looked at Jeong Taeui with amused eyes.

“The decision was made for him to leave Tarten immediately, wasn’t it?”

“He won’t leave. Not immediately.”

Jeong Taeui looked at him in bewilderment. Then he suddenly looked at Christoph’s door.

The elder who had entered the room had not come out while Jeong Taeui smoked three cigarettes in a row.

…Ah.

“Was the decision overturned? Did the elder himself reverse the decision?”

“It wasn’t the elder who reversed the decision. You heard it too, didn’t you? Richard’s words about getting what he wanted from Christoph.”

But Christoph refused.

So, if the elder had personally stepped in to persuade Christoph, that might be understandable, but he didn’t seem like the type to be moved by Richard’s words alone.

“The elder won’t tell Christoph to stay here and help Richard.”

Ilay said, as if reading Jeong Taeui’s thoughts. Ilay, exhaling smoke as if eating a light snack, seemed somewhat amused.

“But he also won’t tell him never to return to Tarten again.”

“…What, then?”

“Always follow your own heart. Never forget the name Tarten. That’s what he always says.”

Jeong Taeui followed Ilay’s exhaled smoke with his gaze out the window. He watched the grayish smoke quickly dissipate into the air, then sighed.

“Why is the kid like that when he was raised by someone like that?”

“Why do you think?”

Jeong Taeui didn’t answer Ilay’s rhetorical question. Even if he had a guess, he didn’t want to voice it.

“…I should go back to my room and rest. If I’m going to leave with Christoph tomorrow morning and go back to Berlin, it’s better to rest early today.”

“Tomorrow, huh. …I don’t think so.”

Ilay only said that, then subtly curved his eyes.

Jeong Taeui was just about to open his mouth to say something, frowning slightly as he looked at him.

Christoph’s door opened. And from inside, the elder walked out, looking as generous and relaxed as when he had entered, as if he had finished his business.

The moment he heard the door open, Ilay, who had thrown his cigarette butt out the window, startled and peered down to see if the flowerbed below was on fire, leaving Jeong Taeui behind and approaching the elder.

“Have you finished your business? Then I’ll escort you to the main building.”

“No, no. There’s no need for that. You two seem to have more to talk about, so finish your conversation and rest today. Since I’m already here, I think I’ll go downstairs and see what my nephews are up to.”

The elder waved his hand and smiled. And behind Ilay, he turned belatedly and saw Jeong Taeui, who was smiling awkwardly at him.

“You’ll be busy for nothing too. But while you’re staying at Tarten, try to enjoy yourself. Don’t they say, if you can’t avoid it, enjoy it?”

The elder said only that, then smiled gently and turned to walk away. Ilay approached, following the elder, but the elder waved his hand, throwing a few words of refusal over his shoulder. Ilay, too, seemed to have no intention of insisting on accompanying the refusing elder, so after offering to escort him a couple more times, he promptly bowed and stepped back.

The elder leisurely walked down the hallway and soon turned into the central staircase, disappearing from sight. Jeong Taeui remained there for a moment even after that, then walked over to Ilay’s side—or rather, to the path leading to his own room.

“I thought this before, but he’s a truly good-natured old man.”

“Ah, now he is.”

At those words, which implied he was different before, Jeong Taeui looked at Ilay in bewilderment but didn’t ask. Ilay also didn’t answer questions that weren’t asked.

Indeed, to build a family of this stature, one couldn’t just be good-natured and warm. He must have possessed his own negative traits. Such things, unless one was in a deeply intimate relationship, were better left unknown. It was better not to know.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head.

“Anyway, I’m going back to my room. …Should I say goodbye to Chris?”

He seemed to be in a bad mood, Jeong Taeui muttered, then went to Christoph’s room, hesitated for a moment, and quietly knocked on the door.

There was no answer from inside.

Jeong Taeui knocked again, this time a little more carefully. Ilay, who had approached him from behind, opened the door without hesitation.

“Christoph, are you sleeping?”

Jeong Taeui lightly touched his forehead at Ilay’s unrestrained attitude, thinking to himself, ‘Right, he was always like this,’ as the inside of the room was revealed.

It was natural, given that the elder had just left, but Christoph was not sleeping.

He was sitting neatly in front of the table, probably in the same posture as when he was talking to the elder. Staring at the empty chair opposite, where the elder had sat.

Jeong Taeui looked at Christoph in bewilderment, who was staring blankly into space without blinking, as if deep in thought—or like a thoughtless doll.

“Christoph. Are you okay?”

Jeong Taeui asked, and after a moment of silence, Christoph slowly lifted his head.

He suddenly stood up and strode towards Jeong Taeui. At his direct approach, like a charge, Jeong Taeui paused his steps into the room, saying, “Oh?” But where he was heading was not where Jeong Taeui was.

Christoph brushed past Jeong Taeui. He seemed not to see Jeong Taeui at all, passing so close their shoulders almost touched, yet not even glancing at him. Ilay, who was standing right behind Jeong Taeui, was the same.

As if possessed, he burst out the door and walked down the hallway. His somewhat anxious footsteps gradually faded away.

“Uh…?”

Jeong Taeui looked back blankly. But Christoph was no longer there where he had just been, and only Ilay, looking out the door with a ‘hmm,’ remained. He too soon lost interest and averted his gaze from outside.

“That guy…”

‘Where did he suddenly go…?’ Jeong Taeui trailed off, not finishing his sentence. He wondered if he should follow Christoph, who had rushed out as if possessed, but seeing Ilay, who was completely unfazed and casually walking to the window, his urge to panic diminished.

“He must have thought of some sudden business.”

Ilay, standing by the window with his back to Jeong Taeui, looking out, mumbled. His voice somehow sounded amused. It seemed this man was in quite a good mood tonight.

Jeong Taeui stood blankly for a moment, frowning, then scratched his head and sank comfortably onto the stool at the foot of the bed, just a few steps away.

Should I go back to my room? Yes, let’s go back to my room. A quick shower and going to bed seemed like the best option right now. A can of beer before bed would be perfect.

However, as he stood up to leave, the sudden disappearance of the room’s owner bothered him.

“Surely he’s not riding a horse, lost in thought, at this dark hour, that would be dangerous.”

Just recently, he had suddenly rushed out to ride a horse in a somewhat precarious state. There was no guarantee he wouldn’t do it again now.

“Well, even if he is, Christoph wouldn’t be in danger. …But Taei.”

Suddenly, Ilay’s voice seemed to lower slightly. Jeong Taeui lifted his heavy head and looked up at Ilay.

“Before you worry about him, didn’t we have an unfinished conversation between us?”

Ilay, who had been leaning against the window frame, looking out at the darkening outside, had somehow turned around and was now leaning against the window, looking at Jeong Taeui.