Passion Novel - Volume 1 - Chapter 24

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue inwardly. One shouldn’t show their weaknesses to others, especially to such a threatening and ferocious man. But in that instant, he had exposed his vulnerability completely.

“Xinlu. Go on now.”

Jeong Taeui said quietly over his shoulder. Xinlu seemed to hesitate for a moment. Xinlu’s gaze briefly touched Riegrow. A cautious look, assessing, swept over Riegrow.

“Hyung…”

“It’s alright, go back. Let’s see each other again later.”

Jeong Taeui gently patted Xinlu, who was muttering while clutching Jeong Taeui’s sleeve. Xinlu hesitated for a while longer, but then gave Jeong Taeui a brief nod and turned back. He looked back once, twice, as he returned to his room. Xinlu’s gaze was fixed on Riegrow. Riegrow, too, was looking at Xinlu with a subtle expression.

Soon, Jeong Taeui heard the sound of a door closing behind him, and Riegrow, who had been staring intently at Xinlu’s retreating figure over Jeong Taeui’s shoulder, finally turned his gaze back to Jeong Taeui.

Jeong Taeui looked at him uncomfortably.

He had encountered someone he didn’t want to meet, in a situation he didn’t want to be in. What rotten luck.

However, even after Xinlu disappeared, Jeong Taeui’s unease didn’t fade. He had seen Riegrow’s gaze following him over his shoulder. Until the moment Xinlu entered his room, Riegrow had been staring intently, with a disturbingly keen and narrowed look.

“Such a pretty thing.”

Riegrow finally spoke. A hint of delighted desire was woven into his voice. Jeong Taeui’s expression hardened further. He stared straight back at him and said stiffly, “What’s with calling a guy ‘pretty’?”

At Jeong Taeui’s words, a mocking expression immediately appeared on Riegrow’s face. Wrinkles of amusement formed around his eyes.

“Ah ha. A guy. Yes, that’s right. I don’t discriminate between men and women if they catch my eye, but you seem to. How unexpected──.”

Riegrow chuckled, drawing out the end of his sentence meaningfully. Jeong Taeui’s mouth felt bitter. That had been a clumsy remark. This man would have already noticed the moment they first met how Jeong Taeui felt about Xinlu. He might have been better off acknowledging it instead of trying to make a ridiculous diversion.

A heavy feeling settled in his chest. The subtle look in this man’s eyes as he watched Xinlu lingered in a corner of his heart, refusing to be erased. It was like a glass bead he thought he had finally grasped, teetering precariously.

Jeong Taeui clicked his tongue. It seemed pointless to drag out the conversation. Besides, when he thought about it, the very situation of being face-to-face with this man was nothing but disadvantageous for Jeong Taeui.

“What are you doing here? This is off-limits.”

Jeong Taeui said this, even though he knew he wasn’t exactly in a position to ask such a question, and looked in the direction the man had come from. That was the direction of the guards’ rooms. The European branch guards who had escorted the European division members were also staying on this floor, but their rooms were in the opposite direction.

Jeong Taeui suddenly tilted his head. What business would this man have meeting a guard from this side privately? Or was he perhaps scouting out the branch building? But no particular reason for that came to mind either. UNHRDO didn’t have any particularly antagonistic counterpart organizations, so there weren’t any obvious agencies or groups that would try to spy on them.

Jeong Taeui briefly considered the possibility of Riegrow being a spy, but it led to no clear conclusion.

As if sensing Jeong Taeui’s thoughts, Riegrow offered a faint smile. But he didn’t answer the question, instead giving a reply that seemed to dismiss it.

“This isn’t off-limits just to me, is it? What brings you here? ──Though it seems the answer is already obvious without asking.”

Riegrow murmured slowly. Then, he suddenly tilted his head to the side and chuckled derisively.

“But what were you doing with that pretty young man just now? Your face looked quite deliciously flushed.”

At his low words, Jeong Taeui’s expression instantly hardened. The way he murmured “what were you doing,” with that subtle intonation, brought back the sensation of Xinlu’s cheek against his lips. His face grew hot.

Jeong Taeui involuntarily raised his hand and wiped his face once with the back of his hand. But immediately, he regretted the pointless gesture. It only made his face feel hotter, and Riegrow in front of him let out a soft laugh.

Jeong Taeui felt a surge of anger. There was no reason for him or Xinlu to be ridiculed by this man.

“Whatever I was doing is none of your business.”

“Well, I wonder about that. I’m curious. What kind of reaction would that pretty young man show if I did this or that to him? How warm is his breath, how adorable is his crying voice? Things like that──, you see.”

Riegrow whispered, drawing out the end of his sentence. Jeong Taeui glared at him coldly.

Damn it. He’d had a bad feeling since earlier, and it seemed this was it.

He grew anxious. As his unease mounted, his mouth went dry. Anyone would feel unpleasant if someone looked at Xinlu with such obvious desire, but with this man, it was even worse. Beyond unpleasant, a profound anxiety washed over him. It was an overwhelming sense of danger.

Moreover, even though this madman’s personality and inclinations were what they were, his appearance was perfectly normal. He had a useful body and face, enough to have a dozen people flock to him with a mere flick of his hand.

He had to admit it honestly. The only thing he was better than that bastard at was his humanity.

Whether it was looks, physique, or strength, there was nothing he could claim to be superior in. The only reason he could confidently assert his superiority in humanity wasn’t because he was exceptionally virtuous, but because that man was terrifyingly depraved.

“So what you’re saying is, you like Xinlu?”

“Xinlu? Ah ha, so that young man’s name is Xinlu. Yes, not bad at all. No, quite excellent, that one.”

Riegrow said. At the same time, he took one step towards Jeong Taeui. And then another.

The moment he began to walk slowly towards him with a leisurely gait, Jeong Taeui frowned.

He had momentarily forgotten. There was nothing good that could come from encountering this man. No, rather, he should have run away the moment he saw even the tip of his hair from a mile away. The feeling of that man’s neck against the muzzle of his gun was still vivid.

He flinched, almost reflexively stepping back, but Jeong Taeui quickly composed himself and stood his ground. When he thought about it, it was already too late to run. Doing so would only make him look foolishly retreating. Besides, surely he wouldn’t kill someone in a hallway like this… Or would he?

“What’s wrong?”

Riegrow shrugged and smiled as he looked at Jeong Taeui, who was standing stiffly in place. But that smile was all the more sinister. He continued to walk, slowly but steadily, and was now only a few steps away from Jeong Taeui. Yet he kept coming.

One step, two steps, one more step.

Jeong Taeui met his black eyes, which were fixed on him, and tensed his entire body.

How far is he going to come? He’s already within arm’s reach.

But even so, Riegrow took another step. One step, and then he finally stopped.

They were less than two or three spans apart. From there, Riegrow looked down at Jeong Taeui. His eyes were as cold as ice. Even though there was a faint smile on his lips and around his eyes, his gaze was as sharp as a blade.

This was a dangerous position. No, it had gone beyond dangerous. Jeong Taeui once again blamed his own foolishness. In this close proximity, if this man made a move, there was a high probability he would be done for. He wouldn’t even be able to try any clever tricks to escape. He should have at least made him stop a few steps back.

“How strange… Where did all that nerve from the other day go, hmm?”

Riegrow said quietly. It even sounded like he was humming with pleasure.

Jeong Taeui stared straight at him. Such coldly frozen eyes; he didn’t seem human. A chill ran down his spine. He couldn’t believe such a man existed.

“Jeong Taeui.”

The voice slowly called his name. That clear and precise pronunciation seemed to assert, “I know you,” as accurately as the pronunciation itself.

Riegrow tilted his head slightly. Slowly, his hand came up. His hand, which had been watching Riegrow silently as if frozen, seemed to touch Jeong Taeui’s wrist, then slowly, caressingly, crawled upwards. From his elbow to his shoulder, to his neck, the touch of the cold leather glove was as smooth and soft as a snake. The dark blue glove, so deep it was almost black, was impeccably clean without a hint of blood, yet it felt like the stench of blood was emanating from somewhere.

That hand brushed his cheek, then his ear, then swept up his hair. It was a soft and gentle touch. That hand was the same hand that could snap Jeong Taeui’s neck at any moment.

The hand reached the back of Jeong Taeui’s head. The wide palm that enveloped his head gently pulled Jeong Taeui towards him. As if in a light embrace. His shoulder came close to Jeong Taeui’s eyes.

A gentle, low voice whispered in his ear.

“That… is it yours?”

Umph, Jeong Taeui twitched subtly, as if he understood but didn’t quite.

Riegrow was looking past Jeong Taeui’s head, towards Xinlu’s room. Perhaps even at Xinlu himself, who was just beyond that one door. With narrowed, cruel eyes.

“Not yours?”

Riegrow found the answer himself, in place of Jeong Taeui, whose tongue felt frozen.

He laughed with pleasure. He stroked Jeong Taeui’s hair a couple of times, then willingly released him. Jeong Taeui, who had been trapped as if in his embrace, took a step back. All he could do was glare fiercely at Riegrow.

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s not like I’m going to take all of it from you. I’m satisfied with tasting it occasionally when I want.”

He said with a smile. That languid voice spread through his chest like a thick fog of unease.

“Riegrow. Don’t.”

Jeong Taeui said stiffly. But he didn’t reply. As if Jeong Taeui was already beneath his notice, he turned his gaze back to Xinlu’s room once more, then turned away.

“Riegrow!”

Jeong Taeui shouted. Riegrow, who had walked a few steps ahead, seemed to turn his head for a moment, but he didn’t stop walking or change direction, simply saying mockingly as he continued to move away,

“To properly claim your share, you need to have the qualifications. Do you have the confidence to even preserve your own life if you were thrown naked into hell?”

He waved his hand lightly. And then he turned towards the stairs and disappeared.

Jeong Taeui stood alone, blankly staring at the hallway where no one remained.

“The weather’s absolutely awful. They said it would clear up tonight, what a load of crap. The weather forecast guys should all be fired.”

A grumbling voice came from ahead. Judging by the voice, it was Tau. They were only a few meters apart, but they had to identify people by their voices.

It wasn’t just because it was night. It wasn’t just because there were many obstacles obscuring their vision in the forest.

The fog that had started falling in the evening had thoroughly permeated every corner of the forest. It was so thick that as they moved through it, the collar of his jacket had become damp before he knew it.

“More than the weather forecast guys, I want to strip all the guards who make us do night marches in this kind of weather naked.”

The guy muttering a little behind Tau was Ching. The laughter next to him was Carlo’s.

“I can put up with the night march, but I absolutely cannot forgive them for exhausting us with martial arts sparring all afternoon and then telling us to leave immediately without any warning.”

Judging by the unfamiliar voice, it must be someone from another team. Listening to the sound of teeth grinding as he spoke, he seemed to still have plenty of energy.

Even as he thought that his uncle would definitely say, “They didn’t wear you out enough,” if he heard that, Jeong Taeui couldn’t help but chuckle. Moro, who was walking right next to him, looked at Jeong Taeui and grumbled,

“Do you feel like laughing? My legs are dragging.”

“There are days like this, what can you do?”

“It’s not just one day. We have extreme training right after we get back from this march, you idiot. There’s no rest.”

Moro ground his teeth as if he was angry. This guy also seemed energetic enough to not need much rest for a while. Jeong Taeui chuckled silently, but the smile soon faded.

It was true that there was no rest. Every day was a continuation of tension, and in the afternoons, they mostly did group sparring, spending time that was hardly different from a brawl with the European division members. Today, they had listened to a lecture as usual in the morning—but after a few days, even during lecture time, they would gnaw at each other with words and engage in verbal sword fights—and in the afternoon, they had done martial arts sparring all day. It probably wasn’t any different for the other teams either.

It was a martial arts sparring where even if you knocked someone down and then knocked them down again, the next opponent kept coming. If they were sparring with their own team members, they would be considerate and take breaks, or deliberately go easy and lose, but if the opponent was a European division member, their sworn enemy, it was different. Most of them thought that even if they felt like they were dying of exhaustion, they had to 멋지게 throw that guy down and maybe even break an arm.

Jeong Taeui didn’t see any reason to hold such a grudge, so he wanted to go easy on each other, but it was regrettable that the other side didn’t think the same way. He couldn’t just offer up his arms and legs to those who were charging at him with the ferocity of wanting to devour him.

The regular schedule ended, and he barely thought the day was finally over. But just as they were tidying up and about to return, the instructor suddenly called them back. And then he said it: there would be a 20-kilometer night march tonight, so they should go to the cafeteria right now, eat, and reassemble within 30 minutes.

At that moment, Jeong Taeui probably wasn’t the only one who wanted to throw the headgear in his hand at that instructor. The rewarding feeling of having finished another day, despite being exhausted, had instantly frozen into a deadly chill.

20 kilometers wasn’t a distance long enough to make them look like they were about to die. That distance, which would take them about halfway around the island, was something they could usually finish marching in about five hours. Normally, they would have walked it lightly, like a picnic, laughing and chatting.

But they were exhausted. Even during the dinner that was only allotted 30 minutes, they couldn’t properly chew and swallow their food because they were all complaining about the guards in response to the unexpected news of the sudden night march. What was even worse was that they had to go on the march fully equipped.

Uncle. You said this wasn’t the military. Then what is all this? Why are we marching, and why are we carrying full gear?

Jeong Taeui fully accepted the heavy pile of luggage pressing down on his shoulders, inwardly cursing his uncle for what felt like the hundredth time since coming to this island.

“If the guards can’t take off their clothes, I’d rather strip naked and run out of this damn island myself.”

It was when someone grumbled that from the front.

“Take them off if you want, after the joint training. And anyone who wants to strip my clothes off, you’re welcome to come find me after the march anytime.”

This vibrant voice, without a hint of fatigue, came from behind Jeong Taeui. An icy silence fell in an instant. The men who had been talking in front not only shut their mouths, but those behind were also startled as if they had jumped. They had never dreamed that an instructor would be mixed in among the people they hadn’t properly checked.

Jeong Taeui flinched in surprise at the unexpected familiar voice so close by. He couldn’t have possibly heard his inner curses, but he still felt subtly self-conscious for no reason.

“Sir… Instructor Jeong, are you going with us too?”

“As if I could just sit around in the instructors’ office. How would I know when some kind of accident might happen? Besides, we’ll start running into the other teams in another hour or two.”

His uncle muttered irritably, from who-knows-when—he definitely hadn’t been there when they started. Just as he said, although they had set off at different times, they would likely start encountering other teams after wandering through this much of the forest. If that team was from the same Asian branch, it wouldn’t matter, but if not, it would be troublesome.

“With this much fog, if we go any deeper, you could kill someone and bury them secretly, and no one would know. Honestly, if you dug up this whole forest, you’d probably find several bodies.”

His uncle spoke casually, as if joking, but it sounded like the truth. Perhaps it really was the truth, Jeong Taeui thought, glancing at his wrist device. A little over an hour had passed since they started.

“We’ve probably come about three or four kilometers by now. If it’s 20 kilometers, we should be able to finish and get back by midnight.”

“I wonder if we can even find the way properly, in the middle of the night,” Jeong Taeui muttered, scratching the back of his neck.

It was already pitch-dark all around. It was a gloomy place even during the day because of the densely grown forest, and now that it was night and the fog was thick, it was even darker. It wouldn’t be strange to get lost.

“Well, it’s not that big of an island, so even if we get lost, we won’t go too far astray,” Jeong Taeui added, muttering to himself. His uncle replied as if asking what he meant.

“We won’t be back by midnight. We’ll be staying in the forest tonight and returning.”

“Huh?”

“We’ll go about another ten kilometers and set up camp in a suitable place. I told you to bring a sleeping bag. Didn’t you bring it?”

“No, well, I just brought the packed duffel bag as it was, so there’s probably a sleeping bag in it, but that’s not the point. You mean we’re staying in the forest and returning? We’re camping out?”

“Hmm. People need to toughen up by sleeping outdoors sometimes. We’ll take turns standing watch and keep a bonfire going.”

“I heard there are snakes here, venomous snakes!”

“That’s why we’re setting up watch. You need to be able to trust your comrades and fall asleep.”

“No, how can you release people into a forest where venomous snakes come out at night and have them sleep there!”

“Even if they’re venomous snakes, their venom isn’t that strong, so if you get bitten and treat it well right away, you won’t die, I think I told you that.”

“That’s not the point, Uncle. There are things more dangerous than snakes roaming around──.”

Jeong Taeui was about to explode, ready to lash out with more words, but the others remained silent. Seeing their attitude, as if they had experienced this many times before and weren’t surprised, Jeong Taeui keenly felt that this was reality, not a joke.