Passion: Diaphonic Symphonia Novel - Chapter 77

Christoph smiled again. This time, it was a more plausible smile. The corners of his eyes even curved slightly.

“You’re hurt. If you leave it, it might get worse. Wait a moment, I’ll get some medicine.”

“Huh? No, there’s no need for that…”

But before Richard could decline, Christoph stood up and left the room.

The room was filled with silence until he closed the door behind him.

Richard still wasn’t smiling. As if lost in thought, he raised one hand and slowly covered his mouth and chin.

The unnatural silence was broken by Malik, who had been quietly observing the scene. His voice, filled with admiration, emerged softly.

“From the first time I saw him, I thought he was a very, um, handsome man, but now I see he is truly elegant and splendid. Haha, I can’t imagine him ever having been in a rough place like the mobile unit.”

Jeong Taeui nodded, listening to his honest admiration.

Of course. How many twisted people would imagine such a dangerous world upon first seeing that man?

By the way, he wondered why he had smiled so awkwardly; it seemed it was to smoothly leave this place.

Indeed, even if he didn’t return, there didn’t seem to be any particularly important topic to warrant going to find him and dragging him back to continue the conversation, nor was there anyone who would do so.

“I can’t imagine him holding a weapon… Have any of you here seen him with one?”

Malik asked, still not erasing the look of admiration.

Another short silence fell.

In this mansion, it would be faster to find someone who hadn’t seen him.

The one who answered him was Richard, who had finally regained his smile. With a warm smile in his eyes, he nodded.

“Despite his appearance, Christoph is a very excellent warrior. I heard he was among the top in T&R’s mobile unit.”

Ilay didn’t deny it and nodded.

“Hmm… Speaking of which, a distinguished person, a close friend of my superior, is looking for suitable talent to recruit as a leader for his private security force. I’d very much like to see his skills sometime.”

Malik nodded and mumbled. Suddenly, Ilay opened his mouth, as if smiling faintly.

“Someone close to Rahman who would have a private security force… It would be possible to take someone from Tarten and build a strong relationship.”

His tone was a murmur to himself, but no one was so deaf as to not hear his voice.

…Ah. There it was again. Another hidden meaning in his words.

Jeong Taeui sensitively noticed the subtle shift in the air, however brief.

And Malik, one of the people who created that subtle shift, was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth with a resigned smile.

“In fact, those I serve wish for a close relationship with Tarten to be maintained even after the loan repayment is finalized. An exceptionally close and intimate relationship, that is.”

Malik finished his words, slowly drawing out the end, and wore a deep smile.

Silence fell for a while.

In that silence, where various thoughts flowed, Jeong Taeui suddenly thought, “Ah.”

An “exceptionally close and intimate” relationship with Tarten. That is, one that could transcend even 150 years of time.

What Malik symbolized was not just a state-owned company. Behind him was the immense power of a nation. Incomparable to a mere company.

A place where 150 years of acquaintance continued, and a nexus of wealth and power. If he had to choose between the two.

Jeong Taeui awkwardly scratched his cheek.

He wasn’t a child, and this situation, where such a choice was presented right before his eyes, was somewhat comical.

Richard seemed lost in thought for a moment, then soon smiled calmly and said,

“So, you wish to introduce Christoph to that esteemed person? I don’t know what choice he will make, but I hope they can form a good connection.”

Indeed, it seemed he had no intention of dragging the conversation on any further here. He smoothly changed the subject.

Malik, who quickly caught on, also readily followed his lead and chuckled. He feigned a friendly frown and winked playfully.

“That’s right. Haha, but please don’t misunderstand. I have no intention whatsoever of suddenly snatching away your beautiful lover without any consent.”

Gasp.

Jeong Taeui inhaled sharply.

He almost spat out the tea he had just drunk.

“……”

Jeong Taeui unnecessarily wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, raising his head in embarrassment.

This was a direct hit. A direct strike.

In front of Malik, who was smiling warmly, unaware of what he had just said, Richard, whose hand had paused on his teacup, looked at Malik with a strange expression.

He seemed to tilt his head, as if he didn’t quite understand, and pondered for a moment, but even after a few seconds, he still looked puzzled, frowning slightly.

“Excuse me, but what did you just say…?”

“Yes? Ah. I meant Mr. Christoph Tarten, who just stepped out. Even if his skills are highly coveted, surely I wouldn’t forcibly take him without consent, would I?”

Malik still hadn’t grasped the flow of the situation.

Richard’s gaze, lost in thought again, now turned towards Jeong Taeui. He slowly looked around at everyone present, not just Jeong Taeui. Was he simply mistaken, or was there something he didn’t know?

It would have been better if he had pretended to be unfazed, but cold sweat unnecessarily trickled down Jeong Taeui’s back, and he subtly averted his gaze. At that moment, Richard’s eyes narrowed.

“Did you say ‘beautiful lover’?”

Richard asked again in a quiet, nonchalant voice. The smile still lingering around his eyes was gentle.

Malik seemed to have taken the question in a different way. “Ah,” he exclaimed, shaking his head admiringly.

“He is beautiful. It’s hard to find someone so beautiful elsewhere. Moreover, he’s not just outwardly appealing; if such a person were my lover, I would simply be envious. …Praising someone else’s lover isn’t rude in this culture, is it? I was merely admiring him in a pure sense, with no other intentions.”

Malik, who quickly realized that a strange glint appeared in Richard’s expression even as he smiled, politely restrained himself midway and added respectfully. However, that wasn’t the part he had misjudged.

Richard’s gaze flew back to Jeong Taeui. Jeong Taeui flinched again and turned his head.

Damn it, why is he only looking at me? …Well, he probably already knows it’s useless to stare at Ilay, who boasts an impenetrable poker face.

He tried hard to maintain a blank expression, but the fact that he couldn’t meet his gaze clearly revealed Jeong Taeui’s fidgeting.

Richard silently gazed at Jeong Taeui, who was subtly turning his head away. Then he soon smiled faintly again and shook his head.

“It seems you misheard something. Christoph and I are cousins. Although I receive a lot of help from him, there’s no way that could be true. I also have a lover. A woman, of course.”

That man must not properly understand the meaning of the word ‘lover’, Jeong Taeui muttered to himself, recalling Richard’s sexual activity he had coincidentally witnessed at that bar a few days ago. That was more of a sado-masochistic master-servant relationship than a lover; what a pervert.

Malik blinked for a moment, saying nothing, as if surprised by the remark. Then he slowly began to speak again.

“Oh… wasn’t he? Oh, then I’ve made a terrible mistake. I must have misheard.”

This time, Malik apologized with an embarrassed expression. The roles were reversed, with Richard smiling generously and shaking his head.

Jeong Taeui smacked his lips, hoping Richard would quietly let it go—or, even if he were to inquire about the rumor, that he wouldn’t be the target.

…But.

Jeong Taeui cast a glance at Malik, who was smiling amiably.

He was surprised. Not just by the content of the words, but also by the fact that he knew such a thing.

It was a trivial rumor, if anything. Although he didn’t know how far that secret rumor had spread, it certainly hadn’t gone beyond the Tarten mansion.

If he already knew such things, he clearly wasn’t just the amiable, well-smiling man he appeared to be on the surface.

After all, a person who came for final negotiations couldn’t be an easy opponent.

Jeong Taeui let out a light sigh, “Hmm.” Anyway, if an opponent who is more likely to be an enemy than an ally is formidable, it’s not a good sign.

By the way, the air here was terribly bad. The atmosphere seemed very amicable, yet his spine tingled, perhaps because people were sitting in a cramped space, only exhaling carbon dioxide.

Just as Jeong Taeui was about to get up to open a window, partly to escape this prickly situation.

Suddenly, the door burst open without a knock, and someone entered.

Christoph, whom Jeong Taeui had thought had found a suitable excuse to leave the room, strode in.

“Chri—”

But before Jeong Taeui could inadvertently call his name, he smiled again.

It was a very natural smile. His eyes sparkled like a child’s, as if something truly joyful and happy had occurred. And surprisingly, that smile was directed at none other than Richard.

Wait, just a moment ago, that ominous rumor had reached Richard’s ears, and it had been less than a few minutes since he denied it.

But at this timing, approaching Richard with such a bright smile would only deepen the suspicion.

Jeong Taeui wanted to somehow stop Christoph, but Christoph reached Richard’s side before he could even get up from his seat.

“Richard, I’ll put some medicine on it for you. It wouldn’t be good if a scar was left around your eye. I happened to bring some good medicine. I’ll apply it myself. With my own hands.”

Richard, who had erased the expression from his face and was staring intently at Christoph, even Jeong Taeui was surprised by his innocent and bright smile, remained still, looking bewildered, as Christoph readily approached and examined the small wound near his eye.

He seemed to have a lot to say, but as Christoph seriously looked at his face and examined the wound, he closed his mouth. Perhaps he judged that the situation was not good for speaking up now.

And Christoph, who had no idea what the atmosphere in the room was like, confirmed the location of the wound, which had narrowly missed Richard’s eye, and opened the medicine container with a flower-like smile.

“It must hurt a lot. Just a moment. This medicine works really well.”

Even with a feigned sympathetic tone of concern, Christoph generously applied ointment to his fingertip.

At that moment, a familiar, pungent smell wafted to where Jeong Taeui was sitting.

“…!”

Jeong Taeui hastily rose to stop Christoph, but he was a step too late.

Christoph carefully applied the ointment to Richard’s eye area, who was looking at him with a subtle expression. Tiger Balm.

And it wasn’t long after that Richard, who had been staring intently at Christoph with suspicious eyes, as if wondering if this guy had eaten something wrong, changed his complexion.

“I feel like I’ve aged decades in just a few tens of minutes…”

Jeong Taeui muttered, groaning, as he lay sprawled face down on the bed.

Indeed, it’s not good to be in the same room as people who use their heads for scheming. It was easier to talk to guys who worked with their bodies. You didn’t have to think about hidden meanings in words or consider your and the other person’s positions for political conversations.

“Why on earth did you drag me into that situation?”

Jeong Taeui narrowed his eyes and glared at Ilay, who was sitting on the bed right next to him, pulling a table closer and fiddling with something.

Ilay, who was opening a large bag and touching complexly tangled wires inside it, glanced at Jeong Taeui, then turned his head back.

“They wanted you.”

“You mean they actually said they wanted to see a person named Jeong Taeui, surely not…”

“To be precise, they said, ‘Speaking of which, Mr. Jeong Jaeui’s younger brother is staying here, isn’t he?'”

“…You had no intention of hiding it, and couldn’t have hidden it, but they already knew everything when they came.”

Jeong Taeui smacked his lips, then shifted his body slightly to lie on his side.

Now, he even felt a little grateful to Christoph.

After all, thanks to him, that uncomfortable conversation broke up, and he could come back and rest, couldn’t he?

Otherwise, he might still be sitting on that bed of nails, glaring at a teacup, Jeong Taeui thought, shaking his head.

As soon as the ointment was applied right below his eye, Richard, who had been silent for a moment, unhesitatingly stood up. Even though it must have been burning so much that he couldn’t open his eyes, he lightly covered his eyes with one hand and said, “Excuse me for a moment,” with a nonchalant smile.

He didn’t immediately rush out either. He wrapped up the meeting around that point, saying they would meet again at dinner after he rested in his room for a bit, and only left after perfectly tidying up the situation.

When Richard left the reception room, Christoph, who would usually return to his room saying, ‘Today’s duty ends here,’ also stood up and followed him.

When Jeong Taeui asked where he was going, Christoph just said, ‘Oh, to watch,’ and quickly left, which made it seem like he was determined to see Richard miserably rubbing his eyes.

“Christoph is really, what should I say…”

“He has a personality that invites dislike.”

Following Jeong Taeui, who was hesitating to choose his words, Ilay spoke concisely. Jeong Taeui frowned, “Hmm.”

“Why? You could say he has a certain cuteness, though.”

“From a spectator’s point of view, yes.”

Jeong Taeui, who sensed something more than simple words in Ilay’s straightforward remark, gazed intently at him.

Come to think of it, this man also said he had been involved with Christoph several times in the past. Even if they weren’t involved in the exact same incidents, they were in the same organization, so they must have clashed quite a bit.

Although the two might surprisingly get along well if they worked together, such people, when they clash, can go endlessly astray.

“You mean there were times when you two chased each other and fought?”

“That’s right.”

“If you think about it, considering your family ties and how you often hung out together as children, it must have felt similar to being cousins. How could you push each other to such extremes?”

Only after speaking did Jeong Taeui realize he had asked the wrong question.

This was the man who had pointed a gun at his own brother.

Moreover, in the current reality, Christoph and Richard, who were actually cousins, treated each other almost like lifelong enemies, didn’t they?

Ilay, as if it were a foolish question, merely glanced at Jeong Taeui and chuckled, not bothering to answer.

“You must not have had sibling fights with Jeong Jaeui. You two must have been very good brothers.”

“No… I don’t think you’d find sibling fights as intense as in this neighborhood, I mean…”

Jeong Taeui waved his hand dismissively. Then he turned over, lay on his back, propped his head on his arm, and stared at the ceiling.

“But my brother and I really hardly ever fought. There was nothing to fight about, and while I’m like that, my brother especially had no belligerence. No competitive spirit. No greed. It’s hard to fight with someone who has no desires.”

Thinking about it as he spoke, Jeong Taeui truly had no memory of fighting with Jeong Jaeui. He didn’t have many memories of them playing together amicably either, but they never fought or argued.

“It’s a pity that such good brothers haven’t seen each other much in the past few years.”

“Hmm… Come to think of it, we’ve hardly even called each other.”

Jeong Taeui scratched his head.

He would contact him once a year around his birthday, but other than that, he hadn’t had any special phone calls. He didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable or lonely, and he knew the other person felt the same. Still, he knew that if any serious problem arose, his brother would inform him first. So, even if contact was almost cut off, he didn’t worry much. They were dry brothers in that regard.