Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 7

But it seemed he had understood.

“……An unlucky name.”

He heard the young man’s cold voice, muttering low.

Jeong Taeui smacked his lips bitterly.

He had heard his name called strange or difficult a few times, but “unlucky” was a first.

Jeong Taeui frowned intensely and looked back at the young man. ‘I’m really meeting a unique kind of person today.’

However, the moment he saw the young man, his frown smoothed out.

The young man was smiling. No, to be precise, his eyes were curved so subtly that it was hard to tell if he was smiling or grimacing.

Still, he was beautiful.

‘They say a beauty is a beauty no matter what they do,’ Jeong Taeui grumbled and opened the door to leave. This time, there was no voice to stop him.

The rain was still pouring.

Running out into it towards his house, Jeong Taeui repeatedly pushed back his hair, which instantly became soaked and dripped with rainwater. Then he suddenly thought.

This place, where nothing but the sound of rain could be heard, as if deafened, felt like the bottom of the sea, just as the young man had said.

Even before he stepped through the front door of his house, Jeong Taeui felt something strange.

Two or three hours ago, Kyle’s car, which had left the house with Jeong Taeui that morning to go to work, was in the garage.

James, who had been smoking a cigarette in front of the house, staring blankly at the pouring rain, raised his hand slightly in greeting when he saw Jeong Taeui. His expression was unusually cheerful, so Jeong Taeui nodded curiously and entered the house.

“……?”

The air inside the house felt strange.

Rita, who had been pacing with a serious expression, didn’t utter a single scolding word even when Jeong Taeui came in dripping rainwater all over. She merely said curtly, “Go take a shower first.”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head in confusion, but first called the emergency room of the nearest hospital, then quickly washed himself and changed clothes.

However, even after towel-drying his wet hair, the air in the house was still suspicious, and Jeong Taeui, noticing Rita’s unusual expression, looked up. There was a presence coming from the study on the second floor.

“Kyle must be back already. It hasn’t even been three hours since he left. Did he forget something?”

“Well, the timing’s right, so he can have lunch before he leaves,” he said to Rita, but Rita merely nodded curtly again.

‘Something’s definitely off.’

Jeong Taeui rubbed his head with a towel and went up to the second floor study.

“Kyle, what brings you home at this hour?”

However, no answer came back to Jeong Taeui’s cheerful greeting.

‘The study door is open, so he must be inside,’ he thought strangely as he went up the stairs, then peeked inside. He wondered if the door was just open and he wasn’t there.

But Kyle was there.

Standing motionless in the middle of the study.

“What’s wrong?”

Jeong Taeui scratched his cheek, looking at Kyle, who stood like a statue without moving, and asked. He wondered if Kyle was deep in thought and he was bothering him unnecessarily.

But Kyle, who usually responded even when deep in thought if someone spoke to him, still said nothing. Not only that, but he stood stiffly in place, not even twitching a finger.

“…… ……Kyle?”

Jeong Taeui approached Kyle from behind and called him. At this distance, his voice certainly should have been heard.

Even when Jeong Taeui’s hand touched his shoulder, Kyle didn’t budge.

Only then did Jeong Taeui notice Kyle’s wide, staring eyes, and followed his gaze.

Kyle was glaring at the bookshelf. The third shelf from the top, right next to the chair. The most accessible spot. The place where he kept the books he most frequently took out and handled. Among the countless rare books in this study, the spot where he kept the books Kyle had particularly struggled to acquire, books he could confidently say he cherished more than his own life.

In the middle of that spot, there was an empty space. A space that would have held about ten books.

‘Oh, was that spot originally empty like that?’

Jeong Taeui thought bewilderedly for a moment.

Except for times when Kyle was cleaning and organizing his books, there was never a gap like that. Unless it was a few books he had taken out to read.

“Oh… somehow, here…”

Jeong Taeui tilted his head and reached out his hand towards it.

But then.

Kyle, who had been standing still like a stone sculpture, not even blinking, seemed to flinch. From his fingertips, his body, which had been cringing, then began to tremble from his arms, legs, and torso in sequence. Correspondingly, his complexion turned deathly pale.

“…… ……Ris……”

“Yes? ……Kyle? Are you alright?”

Jeong Taeui, seeing Kyle trembling like a ghost with his teeth chattering and a pale face, approached him in surprise. But Kyle still didn’t take his eyes off the bookshelf, and mumbled as if barely moving his frozen tongue.

“Kris… Chris… Chri… Th-that…!!”

And the next moment, Kyle, who had been unconscious with his eyes open, truly fell backward.

“Kyle!!” Only Jeong Taeui’s startled cry remained in the room.

It was about an hour after Jeong Taeui and Kyle had left the house that an unexpected guest reportedly arrived.

Rita, who reluctantly ushered the guest they absolutely couldn’t refuse into the reception room, immediately contacted Kyle. Kyle seemed to have dropped everything and rushed back home as soon as he received the call.

However, he was a step too late.

When Kyle burst into the house, looking as if he would break down the door, the guest had already left without Rita even noticing. Along with a few books that Kyle treasured more than his life.

“That’s… more of a thief than a guest,” Jeong Taeui mumbled in disbelief, sitting next to Peter under the shed roof that Peter had fixed just a few days ago, munching on snacks as he listened to Peter’s rough explanation.

Come to think of it, he seemed to have heard a similar conversation when his uncle visited recently.

“Christina… was it?”

He muttered, chewing crisply on a snack. Kyle’s face, turning utterly pale upon hearing that name, came to mind.

‘If I had known this would happen, I should have hidden the books somewhere beforehand,’ he thought, then shook his head. As a person of proper sense, who would have thought a guest would come to an unoccupied house and just make off with books?

Anyway, thanks to that, Kyle, who had fainted, was now groaning and lying in his bedroom. With an ice pack on his forehead, which Rita had brought him, he truly looked like an invalid.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue.

Though he couldn’t remember exactly, if they were the books that had been in that empty spot, they were probably items Kyle cherished so much that he had even said he had ‘fulfilled a lifelong wish’ when he finally acquired them recently.

He remembered Kyle smiling foolishly just looking at how the books were placed, too precious to even turn their pages.

“Those books were probably Ruhehrn Steiner and Edmond Thiersant, and… … … He deserves to be laid up.”

Jeong Taeui mumbled, looking at his bent fingers as he recalled each one and counted them.

Just then, drip, a drop of water fell onto his finger. He looked up to see rainwater leaking from the awning. A few seconds later, another drop fell.

“Oh… Peter, it’s leaking again.”

“Huh? Oh, you’re right. Dang it, I ran out of what I was using, so I used some American waterproofing material. You really should use domestic waterproofing material.”

Peter clicked his tongue and stood up. Jeong Taeui smiled and followed suit.

“Are you going to fix it now? The rain has lessened a lot compared to before, but it’s still coming down heavily. Why don’t you just fix it after it clears up?”

“No, might as well finish it quickly while I’m at it. It’s actually good that it’s raining. I can tell if it’s leaking or not.”

Jeong Taeui chuckled, watching Peter’s back as he went into the shed to gather a ladder and tools, then he began to tidy up the snack bags and beer cans he had spread out below.

Putting them into the trash can next to the shed and re-entering the house, Jeong Taeui looked up at the rain, which had significantly weakened compared to the morning.

‘Come to think of it, was that man safely transported to the emergency room? Even if an ambulance didn’t come, it’s not a deserted church, so surely someone must have found him.’

‘Today’s turning out to be quite eventful,’ he thought, shaking his head as he entered the house, when he suddenly stopped.

Come to think of it, since leaving the church, he hadn’t thought about his past life’s karma even once. As soon as he got home through the rain, he called the emergency room, and then Kyle collapsed, leaving him no time to even think.

Perhaps it’s true that when a person has an immediate problem in front of them, other worries don’t come to mind.

Well, with Kyle laid up, how much of a big deal could that guy be? …He is a big deal, but he’s not right in front of him, so whatever.

Jeong Taeui thought of going to his room but turned and headed towards Kyle’s bedroom.

He felt he wouldn’t be at ease until he checked on him and asked how he was doing. It was heavy on his mind that someone in the same house was sick. If he was still groaning too much to be seen by others, he’d go back later.

Kyle’s bedroom was on the immediate left after descending from the study, further down the hallway.

Jeong Taeui muted his footsteps and approached the door, about to knock, when he realized the door was open by an inch. And through that gap, a voice was leaking out.

“……? Kyle, are you awake?”

Jeong Taeui cautiously spoke and pushed the door open. Inside the silently opening door, he saw a large bed and someone lying on it.

Kyle was sitting up in bed.

Jeong Taeui, who was about to speak again upon seeing him sitting up, closed his mouth. Kyle was holding the phone, talking to someone.

“……No, I mean, how can someone just come and go when no one’s home, huh? You know how important guest etiquette is to me, and you… No, that’s not it.”

The person Kyle was speaking to in a low voice on the phone seemed to be that problematic guest.

Jeong Taeui held his breath.

Kyle seemed to sense Jeong Taeui entering and glanced at him for a moment, but showed no sign of caring, concentrating solely on the phone call.

“Do you know what kind of books those are?! …No, you know them, and you just took them like that…! Hey, Christina… Ugh, wait! Don’t hang up! I won’t call you that! I misspoke for a moment, okay. …So, Chris, those books, please…”

Jeong Taeui, leaning against the doorframe, watching Kyle, who was utterly pale and clutching the receiver with both hands, concluded that Kyle must have been thoroughly blackmailed by that guest. Otherwise, how could he be so weak when his books were practically stolen…?

“Hey! Don’t burn them!!! You can’t burn them! If you burn them, I’ll die!!!”

…Now he understood why Ilay was leaving.

Come to think of it, he had said he was Ilay’s childhood friend. And even that they had worked together in the past.

“Wow… as expected of Ilay. To find a friend just like himself…”

‘It must have been hard to find him,’ Jeong Taeui muttered, shaking his head.

As Jeong Taeui pondered “birds of a feather flock together,” “green is the same color,” and so on, Kyle’s expression grew increasingly somber.

“You say to come and get them, but you won’t easily give them to me even if I go there. It was just the other day I came back from the rare book fair; if I leave now, James will truly resign… Hey, hey! …Then let’s do this. I can’t go myself…”

Jeong Taeui nodded, listening intermittently to Kyle, who was shouting as if he were about to run out of breath.

Of course. Now was the time when the company was incredibly busy with the first-half settlement; if Kyle left his post now, James would really go into hiding this time.

While Jeong Taeui was nodding, the door opened. He turned his head to see Rita bringing in some medicine or vegetable juice.

He mouthed “I’ll give it to him after he finishes his call” and took the tray, giving Rita a forced smile.

At any rate, Kyle was sitting up and talking on the phone, seemingly fine. Although he had suffered a great emotional blow, there was nothing for the people around him to seriously worry about.

After Rita left with a worried expression, Jeong Taeui turned back to Kyle with the tray.

Kyle, who had finished his call, had put down the receiver and was glaring at the phone. His extremely fierce and serious expression was like someone facing a mortal enemy.

“Did you finish your call?”

“……”

Jeong Taeui held out the cup and asked, but Kyle was deep in thought and gave no answer. Only after mechanically taking the cup held right under his nose and gulping it down, did he belatedly say, “Oh, thank you.”

“……What did he say? Is he returning the books?”

Jeong Taeui subtly asked, taking back the empty cup.

Kyle, who had been silently glaring at the phone with a pale face, suddenly snapped his head towards Jeong Taeui. And this time, he glared at Jeong Taeui instead of the phone. Jeong Taeui unconsciously took a step back.

“……Why?”

“Taei. You know what books are missing, don’t you?”

“Huh? Yes, well… roughly. But I don’t know exactly.”

“Even if you don’t know exactly, you’d know if you saw them, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, I’d know if I saw them.”

Since they were particularly rare among rare books, he couldn’t say for sure, but he felt he would recognize them if he saw them.

Jeong Taeui, who had been scratching his chin, recalling the books that had been in the empty space one by one, suddenly flinched, startled by Kyle’s firm hands, which abruptly clasped his own.

“Taei. You go and get the books back for me.”

“Yes, yes? Books? Me? No, where…?”

He tried to pull his hands away instinctively, but Kyle gripped Jeong Taeui’s hands tightly, as if he wouldn’t let go, and stared intently at him.

“As much as I’d like to rush over and retrieve them myself right now, he’s not the kind of person who’d just hand them over easily if I went. He’d make me suffer for a week, no, a month, before he even considered giving them back. And if that happened, James would really quit.”

“Yes, if you were gone for a month, James would happily clear out his desk and disappear without a trace.”

“Exactly, Taei. I’m entrusting this to you.”

Jeong Taeui hunched his shoulders and blinked back at him.

It seemed he wasn’t joking.

The tension gradually drained from his shoulders. Jeong Taeui straightened his hunched body. Sensing this, Kyle’s grip on Jeong Taeui’s hands also loosened.

“It’s fine if I go… but if he won’t give the books to you easily, will he really give them to me?”

“So it won’t be easy. If worse comes to worst, you can just find the books and run off with them. I’ll already tell him that someone else will be going in my place.”

Kyle’s face was extremely serious. In half a day, his complexion had turned completely grim. He looked gaunt, as if he’d lost weight, perhaps due to his mood.

Jeong Taeui hummed and tilted his head.

Actually, going in his place was fine. Even if he had to suffer a bit because the books weren’t given easily, he could endure that much for Kyle’s request.

However, whether he could successfully fulfill his request was questionable, and also…

“Will it take a long time?”

“He probably won’t give them up easily…”

Jeong Taeui hummed again and lowered his head.

If it took too long, he’d be hesitant.

More than anything, it was right after he had fiercely hung up on Ilay just yesterday.

When he made the call, he had impulsively shouted, almost bursting with emotion, that he would leave for good before that guy came back, but he didn’t actually think he had to make that declaration a reality.

If he were to leave the house in this situation, those words he shouted yesterday would become true.

“…… …… ……”

‘Should I really put my life on the line like this?’

But on the other hand, he also thought that since he had said it so confidently, perhaps he should go. If he just waited quietly at home for that guy to come back, that would be a funny sight too.

Jeong Taeui was torn between comfortable reality and proud self-esteem.

The conclusion of that dilemma, any other time, would have leaned towards comfortable reality.

“Taei. ……You can’t do it?”

But for that to happen, the debt of gratitude he owed Kyle, who was pleading right before his eyes, was too great.

Moreover, even if it wasn’t strictly out of gratitude, it’s human nature to want to help a friend in distress.

“Of course not. I worry whether I can fulfill your request, but I’ll try my best.”

Jeong Taeui smiled broadly and nodded. Kyle’s expression immediately brightened.

“Yes, thank you. I’m counting on you.”

“No problem. I’m happy to be of help.”

‘Yes, since I’ve already said it. I told that guy who told me not to go out that I would leave so boldly. Maybe it’s not so bad to assert myself this time.’

He could see him going absolutely wild later, but surely he wouldn’t kill him…?

… …He wasn’t so sure.

Jeong Taeui subtly steered the conversation towards Kyle, who was beginning to jot down the address and contact information with a very pleased expression.

“Excuse me, but…”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Ilay, you see… once when something happened, he flat out said he’d kill me and eat me if I tried to run away…”

Kyle, who had been writing something on the memo pad, stopped his pen and looked up at Jeong Taeui.

Jeong Taeui, feeling sorry for himself for not being able to be completely confident, mumbled on.

“If I were to be misunderstood that I left without contact, I’d only be left with bones…”

“Ah, I see. Don’t worry about that. I’ll make sure to talk to him separately. Well… I highly doubt he’d ever think you ran away to avoid him.”

Kyle, who immediately understood what Jeong Taeui was saying, readily guaranteed Jeong Taeui’s life.

Although a faint unease remained when recalling the memories of last night, Kyle’s guarantee still provided some comfort.

At any rate, in the worst-case scenario, he’d save his life.

‘Jaeui-nim, Jaeui-nim, please share some luck with me,’ Jeong Taeui mumbled to himself, looking so pitiable that Kyle, as if to offer more reassurance, patted Jeong Taeui’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about that. If he contacts me, I’ll make sure to tell him separately.”

“Please do. Otherwise, I’ll die…”

As he spoke, a vague sadness welled up, but Jeong Taeui decided to forget that sadness for now.

He hadn’t expected his assertion to be carried out in such a way, but it seemed he would have to leave this house for a while.

A worry crossed his mind about whether it was alright for a wanted criminal to casually wander around, but Kyle would take care of that part.

How long had it been since he had stayed outside this house for more than a few days?

He didn’t feel much regret or inconvenience, but the thought of leaving this neighborhood and going somewhere else after a long time made his heart flutter slightly.

Still, it would be nice if Ilay contacted him one more time before he left.

Regardless of whether Kyle relayed the message well to Ilay, if communication was cut off for a while after the harsh phone call, he would still feel uneasy. But yesterday’s call had also come suddenly after a couple of months, so it was a bit much to hope for another contact within a few days before he left.

Jeong Taeui scratched his head.

Meanwhile, Kyle, who had filled the memo pad like lightning, checked the written contents once more, then tore off the paper and gave it to Jeong Taeui.

“Then, it’s a bit urgent, but please depart as soon as you’re ready.”

Overwhelmed by Kyle’s clear eagerness for him to go and find the books as soon as he was ready, Jeong Taeui thought, ‘There’s probably no chance of receiving a call from Ilay before I leave,’ and looked down at the note.

It contained a lengthy destination, probably the address of that troublesome guest.

Having no way of knowing the neighborhood or street names, Jeong Taeui only confirmed the place name “Dresden” written on it and folded the note.