Passion Novel - Volume 2 - Chapter 54

Jeong Taeui looked directly at him. The figure slowly approaching from the dark depths of the bookshelf somehow looked like a scene from a horror movie. But strangely, thankfully, it wasn’t a particularly terrifying sight. Actually, when he thought about it, Jeong Taeui was in a deserted library, in a corner of the bookshelf not easily seen by others, facing a murderer. Yet, he didn’t feel that much of a sense of crisis. It seemed he had gotten used to this man.

Jeong Taeui clicked his bitter tongue and asked him,

“Are you going to settle this ‘getting annoyed with each other’ thing here?”

He tried to gauge how long it would take for people to find him if he got beaten and sprawled out here. The bookshelf right in front was for novels, so people often came here, but this side was for complete works. Not many people looked for them.

If he was lucky, he’d be found quickly, and if he was unlucky, he’d be found when they cleaned up the library in the evening… He hoped that even if he was found in the evening and moved, it would only be bothersome enough not to endanger his life.

As Jeong Taeui stared intently up at Ilay, Ilay chuckled. Then he tilted his head to the side and looked down at him intently.

“You really are an interesting fellow……”

The small murmur that escaped his lips brushed past his ear and disappeared. Suddenly, he bent down slightly. He met Jeong Taeui’s gaze and looked at him intently, as if examining something unusual. His eyes traced from his nose to his lips, looking at each feature as if it were precious. Jeong Taeui raised an eyebrow.

“Jeong Taeui. This is the last time I’m telling you.”

Ilay’s voice suddenly lowered. Just like people often did when speaking their true feelings, Ilay spoke clearly in a serious yet slow tone.

“I certainly have no desire to fight you right now, but I have no intention of tolerating people to the point where I get annoyed. So, no matter who I’m confronting or how, you are never to interfere.”

From a distance of less than a hand’s breadth, Ilay looked at Jeong Taeui without blinking, whispering softly. His pitch-black eyes held no emotion, and for a moment, Jeong Taeui even felt the illusion of looking at a glass doll. A sudden chill ran down his spine.

Jeong Taeui looked at him unhappily. What he was unhappy about wasn’t Ilay himself, but this situation. And the object included in his words.

The person he had no intention of tolerating to the point of getting annoyed was Jeong Taeui.

Right, so I was too cocky with you. I guess I have to manage my own life.

Jeong Taeui nodded. He had no intention of forgetting his top priority for the next six months now. More than half of that time had already passed. He had endured all that hardship and overcome those crises to survive until now, and he didn’t want to make it all go to waste in the remaining half.

His goal should be to safely survive and escape from this branch in six months.

Seeing Jeong Taeui nod, Ilay smiled faintly. The smile suited his neat and pleasant face well, but for anyone who knew his true nature, it didn’t put their heart at ease.

“Yeah, good. I also want to keep you safely stored away as much as possible.”

Though, if the situation doesn’t allow it, I can break that thought at any time, the unspoken premise echoed like an auditory hallucination. Jeong Taeui sighed and mumbled discontentedly.

“Because I’m your uncle’s nephew, or Jeong Jaeui’s hyung, or Gil Sang-cheon?”

The last part made him chuckle a little at himself, but surprisingly, it didn’t seem that amusing to Ilay. He had his usual faint smile, but without any hint of amusement, he tilted his head, seeming to ponder for a moment.

“Hmm… let’s pass on the last one for now. As I said before, I don’t need something to bring me luck. It’s interesting, but it’s not enough of a condition to fully capture my attention.”

Jeong Taeui looked at Ilay, surprised. He had thought that would be the last reason, but he hadn’t expected him to dismiss it so easily.

Ilay seemed to be seriously considering Jeong Taeui’s question. He slowly stroked his chin, deep in thought, then smiled a little more deeply and came to a conclusion.

“If I had to choose, it would probably be because you’re Jeong Jaeui’s brother. His talent is certainly something to covet.”

“My brother will be pleased. I’ll be sure to tell him later.”

Jeong Taeui shrugged and began to walk towards the outside of the bookshelf.

It had been an excuse to avoid running into the three men from earlier, but Instructor McKen would probably be alone in the officer’s room by now. Sitting there alone, he’d likely be etching Ilay, who was supposed to be off duty but whose whereabouts were unknown, into his memory in a negative way.

“I don’t need to go out of my way to be friendly with him, but there’s no need to be hostile either, so getting along well with McKen wouldn’t be bad.”

Only after saying that did he remember that Ilay’s direct superior was Mao, and McKen’s direct superior was his uncle, Rudolf. If he had to categorize them, the two were rivals. Thinking that maybe getting along well with McKen might actually be bad, Jeong Taeui closed his mouth, which had been about to say, “So, try to get along.”

Jeong Taeui, who had been walking ahead, was just about to step out from the bookshelf when, as if he’d had a sudden thought, Ilay grabbed Jeong Taeui’s shoulder from behind. And before Jeong Taeui could even turn around, he grabbed his chin from behind and lifted it. Tilting his head back, Jeong Taeui looked at Ilay with slight bewilderment, then smiled faintly as he saw Ilay’s face approaching him.

“─….”

A stinging pain was felt on his cheek. Following that, a moist piece of flesh licked up his cheek in a long stroke. That piece of flesh, which had traced from his cheek to his ear, slowly licked his earlobe. And then, another sharp pain on his earlobe.

That sensation then moved down to his nape, and Jeong Taeui slightly shrugged his shoulders. Then, he cupped Ilay’s cheeks with both hands, whose lips were pressed against his neck, and pulled him away. Jeong Taeui stared intently at Ilay, who was wiping his lips with an indifferent expression, with a strange look, then tilted his head.

It wasn’t like this bastard had suddenly gone crazy, and he probably wasn’t planning on immediately biting his throat and tearing him apart, and it was certainly not a suggestion to play territory games here. He was, as expected, too crazy for Jeong Taeui to understand.

As Jeong Taeui stared intently at Ilay, pondering what to say first, Ilay, who had wiped his lips with his thumb and licked it, chuckled at Jeong Taeui.

“But putting all that aside. Instructor Jeong, Jeong Jaei, the goddess of fortune, all aside, you’re quite decent in other ways too. Very interesting, I must say.”

“……Were territory games that fun?”

Jeong Taeui asked, looking at Ilay suspiciously. He’d suddenly grabbed him and kissed him, and then said he was decent in other ways, so that was the only conclusion his brain could come up with. Besides, he seemed to recall hearing the word “interesting” back then too.

As Jeong Taeui said that, Ilay, who had been looking down at him with a smile, suddenly closed his lips. The smile briefly disappeared from his face. And then, as he silently met Jeong Taeui’s gaze, who was looking at him with a quite serious expression, he suddenly burst into laughter.

The door to the instructors’ room closed. The hallway and the instructors’ room became separate worlds. Even if the soundproofing wasn’t perfect, it was clear that the air on either side of the door was cut off.

Beyond the door were the six instructors of this branch. And in front of them stood their respective adjutants, lined up.

When the time to finish regular work hours approached, the instructors gathered in the instructors’ room every day to briefly share their opinions on the events of the day. It was a short conversation that couldn’t even be called a meeting. Even the meeting held on Friday afternoons, after finishing the week’s work, tended to drag on a little longer than usual. Still, it was only about half an hour at most. The moment Jeong Taeui sent Ilay into the instructors’ room and closed the door, he acknowledged to himself that his work as an adjutant for the day was over. When they finished their meeting and came out, the adjutants would give their respective instructors a final report before finishing their own work for the day.

In Jeong Taeui’s case, even though he was called an adjutant, he had been appointed so hastily that it was hard to call him a formal adjutant. In fact, there was no formal report he needed to give as a final report. He just needed to ask if there was anything urgent or any remaining tasks after they came out of the meeting.

If I had known we had to do this annoying thing every evening, I wouldn’t have become an instructor, Ilay had said bitterly before entering the instructors’ room. Jeong Taeui, who remained in the hallway to wait for him to come out, let out a sigh of relief that the day had ended without any major incidents. Now, when he returned to his room, he should cross off today’s date on the calendar.

“You look tired. Are you alright?”

Someone approached Jeong Taeui, who was leaning against the window, taking a breather while looking at the darkening sky, and spoke to him. Jeong Taeui just turned his head to look at the person and replied vaguely, “Yeah, well.” It was the person still imprinted in Jeong Taeui’s mind as the driver, his uncle’s adjutant. Seeing his face briefly like this every evening, he had become quite familiar.

“Being tired isn’t a one- or two-day thing, this much I can handle. What about you? Your uncle seems busy these days, so you must be busy too, right?”

“Hmm, a little.”

Adjutant Kang didn’t elaborate and just gave a small smile. Even though Jeong Taeui was Instructor Jeong’s nephew, he didn’t convey overly detailed information. He had said before that it wasn’t his place to judge how much information to pass on.

He was a taciturn and quiet man, but once you got to know him, he was easy to get along with. He didn’t say much, but he knew how to say what was necessary at the right time. Moreover, he was one of the rare branch members who would initiate a conversation with Jeong Taeui.

Jeong Taeui accepted the canned coffee Adjutant Kang offered and took a sip, looking around. Besides them, four other adjutants were standing here and there in the hallway. However, Jeong Taeui had never even heard their voices. To be precise, their voices speaking to him.

Adjutants were basically the same as regular members. Although they often couldn’t participate in activities with them, their basic way of thinking and behavior weren’t much different from the regular members. The only difference was that, having been around instructors, their perspective on things might differ in some aspects, but fundamentally, there weren’t many differences between them and regular members.

Therefore, they too, for the same reasons as the regular members, didn’t look upon Jeong Taeui very favorably. They treated the instructors respectfully, but their wariness towards Ilay was for the same reason. So, even though the adjutants formed their own relationships and were close to each other, Jeong Taeui had no memory of ever joining their conversations.

Of course, Jeong Taeui didn’t care at all. Worrying about such relationships was tiring, and it was only half a year anyway. Half a year, half a year—repeating those words like a mantra, the troublesome things within this island seemed like bearable inconveniences.

In an atmosphere almost like being ostracized, Adjutant Kang was one of the few branch members who spoke to and treated Jeong Taeui without hesitation. It might have been because he was his uncle’s adjutant, but it also seemed to be due to his personality, as he didn’t care much about such competitive relationships.

Still, whether or not Jeong Taeui himself cared about such things, he felt grateful whenever someone spoke to him. In Jeong Taeui’s mind, this driver had become a truly humane person.

“You don’t seem to go to Instructor Jeong’s room much at night these days.”

Around the time he had drunk half of his canned coffee, Adjutant Kang suddenly said, as if he had just remembered. Jeong Taeui went, “Hmm?” and turned to look at him, briefly racking his memory. Come to think of it, as he said, he hadn’t visited his uncle’s room in a while.

“Well…, my body and mind are exhausted, so even trying to do anything feels dull. But you know it well. Did Uncle say anything about me not going?”

“No, it just seems like the number of beer cans in Instructor Jeong’s room hasn’t been decreasing much lately.”

Adjutant Kang said with a faint smile. Jeong Taeui looked at him with a mixture of admiration and surprise. He didn’t know how he knew such a thing. As if Adjutant Kang had read Jeong Taeui’s expression, he readily added,

“I’m the one who cleans Instructor Jeong’s room. I also refill the things that run out in the refrigerator.”

“You do even that?”

“Most adjutants probably do.”

Jeong Taeui stared at him blankly before slowly turning his head back to sip his canned coffee.

He was surprised by the room cleaning, but to even have to know the refrigerator situation in someone else’s room… being an adjutant was not something anyone could do. It really seemed like his becoming an adjutant was a mistake in the selection process by his uncle and the other instructors.

Jeong Taeui had never been to Ilay’s room. He hadn’t even thought about going. Of course, Ilay hadn’t called him either. Going to his uncle’s room anytime and freely opening the refrigerator to take out and eat things was enough.

Thinking that the world of adjutants was also deep, Jeong Taeui finished the last sip of his canned coffee when Adjutant Kang suddenly murmured, “Oh…” Jeong Taeui turned his head without much thought at the sound. He spotted Xinlu, carrying a stack of documents or something similar, heading towards them from the office across the hallway.

From the moment Xinlu came out of the office, he seemed to know Jeong Taeui was there, as he was looking straight at him. His face looked a little worse than the last time Jeong Taeui had seen him, which had been quite a while ago.

Recently, Jeong Taeui hadn’t had a proper conversation with Xinlu. The awkward and cold atmosphere that had settled between them after Jeong Taeui became Ilay’s adjutant still remained. Even when Jeong Taeui tried to contact him, he was hard to reach, and Xinlu rarely contacted him either. So, Jeong Taeui had been quite disheartened.

Seeing Xinlu gradually slowing his pace as he approached, Jeong Taeui gave Adjutant Kang a brief “Well, see you later,” and walked towards him. As Jeong Taeui got closer, Xinlu stopped walking altogether.

“Where are you going? It looks heavy, I’ll help you.”

“……”

Xinlu kept his mouth shut and didn’t answer. Jeong Taeui went ahead and tried to take most of the books he was holding. Then Xinlu slightly shifted his body, trying not to hand the things over to him. Jeong Taeui made an awkward face at his avoidance but reached out his hand again.

“It’s heavy. Give it here.”

“……No. I’ll carry them. Taei hyung, please don’t carry things like this.”

Xinlu finally opened his mouth when Jeong Taeui stubbornly tried to take the load. And he hugged the documents tightly, as if determined not to hand them over.

Feeling a little embarrassed by his outstretched hand, Jeong Taeui silently withdrew it. Noticing this, Xinlu hesitated for a moment, looking slightly anxious, and then mumbled,

“It’s because I don’t want Taei hyung to carry heavy things. I’ll carry them, so it’s okay. They’re not heavy.”

“No, but still, they look heavy. I overheard earlier, and it sounded quite heavy──.”

“Taei hyung.”

Xinlu cut Jeong Taeui off sharply. And then he spoke to Jeong Taeui clearly and earnestly.

“Actually, I was the top of our class when I entered UNHRDO. Not just the intelligence test, but the physical fitness test too. So, originally, I would have entered as a regular member and gone through the promotion course, but my mother strongly opposed me doing dangerous work, so I came in as an instructor’s aide.”

“……Oh. I see.”

That was all Jeong Taeui could manage to say, blankly. It felt like he had heard something strange. This lovable and cute young man was at the top of his class in the UNHRDO entrance exams? Even the physical fitness test in the UNHRDO exams was known to be grueling and difficult, and he was at the top there too…?

Jeong Taeui blinked, feeling somehow completely out of touch. Suddenly, something his uncle had said once with a meaningful smile flashed through his mind.

—But that guy, you know, he’s got an unexpected side to him. You’ll slowly come to know it as you spend time with him.

“……”

He had thought that meant the way he tried to take up space on the bed with that pretty face, but could it have been this? No, maybe it was an unexpectedness that was similar yet somehow connected to both.

Jeong Taeui stood silently next to Xinlu. Xinlu also stood silently. He could feel the adjutants’ gazes flitting towards them, but he didn’t care. Xinlu wasn’t even glancing at them.

“……I’m sorry.”

After a while of lowering his head without saying anything, Xinlu suddenly mumbled something quietly. Jeong Taeui, who hadn’t quite caught the words because his voice was so small, asked back, “Huh?” Then Xinlu lifted his head, which had been deeply bowed.

Jeong Taeui flinched when their eyes met. Xinlu was looking at Jeong Taeui with a somewhat resentful gaze. His eyes looked unusually moist, as if he was forcibly holding back tears.

“If I had known it would be like this. I should have… I should have entered as a regular member too.”

The end of his sentence trembled faintly. He really seemed to be barely holding back his tears. Jeong Taeui looked at him, bewildered. Once Xinlu started talking, words poured out of him as if a dam had burst.

“If I had entered as a regular member, I would have been qualified to be appointed as an instructor in a few years. If I had waited just a little longer, I could have become an instructor too. Then, then I could have been with Taei hyung like that… I shouldn’t have become an instructor’s aide.”

Xinlu cried out, sounding utterly wronged. Jeong Taeui could only stare at him, flustered. He felt like he should say something, but he didn’t know what would be best to say.

“Bu…but being an instructor’s aide is harder, isn’t it? They say that if you work as an instructor’s aide for a few years, you get to go work at headquarters.”

Jeong Taeui stammered, trying to comfort him. It was the first time he’d heard someone say they should have become a regular member rather than an instructor’s aide. Even though their personalities were different, he had heard that being an instructor’s aide was a slightly easier path to success than being a regular member.

However, Jeong Taeui’s comforting words didn’t work. Xinlu shook his head and cried out regretfully,

“What good is that? Even if I go to headquarters, it’s not like hyung will be my adjutant there…! If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have become an instructor’s aide…!”

Xinlu finally broke into tears. The sight of him clutching a stack of books that looked heavy at a glance, yet weeping sorrowfully, seemed somewhat unbalanced, but Jeong Taeui didn’t care about such things. He was simply flustered, not knowing what to do in front of Xinlu, who was sobbing.

“Xinlu… don’t cry. Please, don’t cry.”

He resented his own lack of eloquence, only able to repeat those words. In truth, Jeong Taeui had never been told he was bad with words. After coming to this island, he had even received a curse from someone, saying that his silver tongue would one day get a knife stuck in his back.

But all that eloquence was useless. It was of no help if he couldn’t comfort the young man sniffling before his eyes.

Jeong Taeui, at a loss, carefully reached out and patted Xinlu’s shoulder. The shrugged shoulder flinched and trembled slightly. It was heartbreaking. His own heart ached, and he didn’t know what to do. It was then, as Jeong Taeui was helplessly standing before Xinlu, that a cold voice, unmoved by the pitiful sight, spoke.

“…Alright, Xinlu, stop crying now and move that luggage. Taei, you stop loitering too. If you want to help carry things, move my luggage. It’s too heavy for me to lift.”