Passion Raga Novel (Completed) - Chapter 6

He knew that couldn’t be true. The young man he had seen when he was barely ten years old had been a good swimmer even then. But the young man wrinkled his nose and frowned his lips.

“I almost drowned when I was little, so after that, I didn’t even want to look at the sea. I know how, but I don’t do it. I don’t even like pools.”

He hunched his shoulders as if he didn’t even want to think about it, and even feigned a frown. Although there was a playful light in his eyes, it seemed he genuinely disliked it.

Almost drowned when he was little… Yuri had a hunch. Unless he had almost drowned multiple times, the experience the young man was talking about was probably one Yuri also knew.

“But you survived…?”

“Still, I don’t like it.”

He answered immediately, and his smiling expression was extremely resolute. His face showed no room for reconsideration or persuasion on that matter. To dislike water, what a regrettable thing.

He didn’t intend to persuade him, but Yuri’s feelings seemed to be clearly visible on his face. The young man, who had been scrutinizing Yuri’s face, suddenly burst into laughter.

“Ahahaha, you look like you’re dying of regret. Why are you like this when it’s not even your business?”

“Because it’s a waste.”

How beautiful it is… Yuri looked back at the sea he had just emerged from. He didn’t know how beautiful that calm water was, how rich and serene. To push such a thing away, saying he disliked it, was truly regrettable.

Yuri looked at the sea, then turned his head back. Dawn was slowly breaking. He needed to go back, shower, and prepare to start his day. Before that, however, he probably had to finish the business of this young man who seemed to have come to find him.

As Yuri looked at him, the young man, who had been scrutinizing him as if exploring him, smiled thinly like an inscrutable cat. Yuri had expected him to immediately rush at him, yelling, ‘You shot me then?!’ if they met again, but this unexpected reaction made him feel uneasy, so he stepped back slightly. The young man, however, smiled even more broadly, as if amused.

“I got a call from Big Brother. He said you two know each other.”

“…Ah.”

It seemed Ling Tangyun had contacted the young man in the meantime. Yuri had called him just last night, so he was certainly quick.

“You two must be really close. To even defend the culprit who shot his own younger brother.”

His tone was so friendly and amiable that it took Yuri a beat to realize it was sarcasm. The young man had been the first to pull out a gun, and what Yuri had shot was not the young man but the gun he was holding, but he spoke as if that didn’t matter at all.

Yuri had no intention of dwelling on it and remained silent.

“Is your expression always like that? Indifferent, or perhaps blunt, I can’t tell what you’re thinking. People with no expression are really hard to deal with.”

The young man frowned and smiled. Yuri looked down at the face that held two contrasting expressions with a slightly strange feeling, and unconsciously ran his palm over his own face.

Although he didn’t try to, he often heard that his expressions were sparse. Sometimes it was a compliment, sometimes a reprimand, but now it seemed to be the latter.

“It’s easier to deal with people who are obvious and easy to figure out. Because it’s easy to hold them in your hand and manipulate them.”

The young man grumbled, looking at Yuri as if to say, ‘But why is your expression like that?’ Yuri met his gaze, slightly perplexed but still with an indifferent expression at his unhesitatingly rude words.

The young man smiled beautifully again, as if nothing had happened. His changes were so rapid it was hard to keep up.

He still couldn’t figure out why he had come. At any rate, he didn’t seem to have come for revenge.

“I came to make up. Let’s be friends.”

The young man said so, then grabbed Yuri’s hand and made a gesture of shaking hands. Yuri looked back and forth between his grabbed hand and the young man’s face. Unlike his pretty face, his hand was a fairly large, knotty man’s hand. Yet, it was surprisingly soft, like touching the hidden claws of a fluffy beast’s paw.

“Make up…”

Yuri, uneasy about the claws that could emerge at any moment, subtly glanced at the young man and muttered. The young man’s black eyes narrowed.

“It means we’ll act like nothing happened. Well, our first meeting wasn’t great, and thinking about it still makes me uncomfortable, but still, he’s Big Brother’s friend, so what can I do? Right?”

The young man made a gun-shooting gesture with his finger and playfully winked.

That wasn’t the first time, Yuri thought, but he had no intention of boasting about saving him when he was a child, so he said nothing. No, more than that, only then did he guess why the young man had come, after his words about making up.

“Still, no useful information about Jeong Taeui will come out. I don’t know much either.”

When Yuri said that, the young man burst into laughter.

“Hey, why are you like this? I said I had to make up. Besides, I don’t even need to ask about Taeui hyung. I probably know more than you. There aren’t many people who know more than me, you know?”

“And I have no intention of helping you to your advantage. I don’t want to pick a fight with Rick.”

Yuri cut him off sharply, as if he hadn’t heard the young man’s words.

Indeed, this time the young man also fell silent. The gaze that held a subtle smile and stared intently at Yuri was somehow unsettling.

“Well… it’s okay. I don’t have great expectations of you. But a catalyst is always made from something very trivial, as small as a mustard seed.”

Perhaps you might create that catalyst? A gaze filled with laughter flew towards him. At any rate, it seemed he would seize any promising opportunity.

“Besides.”

The young man was about to say something, then paused and tilted his head obliquely. His scrutinizing gaze was overtly exploratory, yet because of his large, black eyes, he looked innocent. This person would surely get by on their looks alone.

“Big Brother seems to have seen you very well. He said you’re a trustworthy and kind person, even if you seem a bit blunt because you don’t talk much, and that you’re not someone with malice, so he asked me to just let it go if possible. And my Big Brother is quite stingy with compliments, you know.”

“…Thank you.”

“Ahahaha, I didn’t compliment you. You should thank Big Brother.”

The young man laughed aloud and patted Yuri’s shoulder intimately. Perhaps the thought that the young one was impudent didn’t even cross his mind because the cheerful sound of his laughter was pleasant to hear.

Yuri pulled up the towel that was about to slip down and silently watched the young man.

He was definitely beautiful. Yuri couldn’t understand why Jeong Taeui had chosen that volatile bomb instead of this beautiful young man. If the contents were both troublesome to deal with, making them equal, then in terms of looks, this one was overwhelmingly better, wasn’t he?

“Is there something on my face?”

The young man slowly asked, looking straight back at Yuri, who was staring at him. He knew why Yuri was staring at his face and was already accustomed to such gazes. Yuri shook his head and averted his eyes.

He understood. It must be because of those tiger-like eyes. Eyes that seemed to pierce through a person were certainly burdensome.

“I should get going soon. I purposely set an alarm to meet you and woke up at dawn, so I’m sleepy. You should go get dressed too, right? You seem cold coming out with a wet body… Ah. I got goosebumps.”

The young man reached out to Yuri’s forearm, which was exposed below the towel. Without time to dodge, he ran his palm from just below the shoulder to the elbow. Only then did Yuri realize that he had goosebumps on his arm that his body was hunched from the cold and at the same time, he became aware that only the place where his palm had touched was incredibly warm.

It was a soft and gentle hand, yet one that could become rough and fierce whenever necessary.

Yuri averted his gaze from the hand that quickly withdrew and stood rooted, watching the young man retreating back for a long time as he said, “Then, goodbye,” leaving a final eye-smile, and then turned and walked away as readily as he had arrived.

It was a strangely novel feeling that Ilay Regrow looked like an ordinary person.

There was a small night market about ten to twenty minutes’ slow walk from the backpacker’s. This night market, held every other day, wasn’t as large as the Bahel night market, which had a big market once a week, and was just a small open space with about ten outdoor stalls, but it mainly sold fresh seafood and food, so nearby residents often used it.

Yuri, who had come out to buy a watermelon at Anna’s the backpacker owner’s? request, stopped walking when he spotted Rick and Jeong Taeui amidst the bustling crowd.

The two, standing in front of an outdoor stall enveloped in acrid smoke and eating grilled crayfish, looked so ordinary that he would have simply passed them by if their faces hadn’t been familiar.

“………”

He had never imagined in his life that this man would appear as an ordinary person for even a single moment.

Yuri gazed at them, feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

Ilay Regrow anyone who knew him would immediately frown and shake their head at the name. This was because of the countless ominous past stories associated with that name. As far as Yuri knew, no one wanted to be in the same place as that man.

But now, he was offering grilled scallop skewers to his companion, who had finished off the grilled crayfish, and muttering an unenthusiastic ‘thanks’ as he took the sauce container from the stall owner. He blended into the market scene as perfectly ordinary.

Yuri stared intently at him, then at some point, he murmured, “Ah.” He realized why he looked ordinary. It was because of the companion standing next to him, casually biting into the scallop skewer he offered. Because Jeong Taeui treated him as if he were truly an ordinary person, the man blended in among them like a human.

“……..”

Suddenly, Jeong Taeui seemed extraordinary.

Yuri now looked at Jeong Taeui. He put down the two chunks of watermelon he was holding and carefully observed him.

What about this ordinary man who had drawn him in? He couldn’t tell. After speaking with Jeong Taeui several times, Yuri also grew fond of him. Although he occasionally showed unpredictable, quirky sides, he was a well-mannered and well-raised young man.

However, what was certain was that Regrow would not let go of this man, and in reality, people falling for each other isn’t always because of some grand catalyst or a great reason.

“………”

No, but perhaps there was something about Jeong Taeui. To have two such men trailing after him was not something just anyone could do.

Yuri, who had put down the watermelon and was now watching them like a mere spectator, spotted a familiar face in the opposite direction, forming a triangle with the two men as vertices. It was the youngest master, sitting cross-legged at the end of a long bench where three or four people were seated, propping his chin and looking at them with a thoughtful expression.

It was the youngest master.

Since there were so few East Asians in the area and his appearance was like that, he stood out immediately. The young man himself seemed to be sitting naturally, as if he didn’t care whether they noticed him or not, so it didn’t seem like he intended to hide and watch. No, it even seemed like he was burning with resentment that they hadn’t discovered him quickly and were only talking among themselves.

“……..”

Yuri thought, Oh, no.

The other side had also discovered Yuri.

No, it wasn’t a sudden discovery, after all. He seemed to have already known Yuri was there but hadn’t paid attention, and now that Yuri was looking at him, he was meeting Yuri’s gaze as if it were nothing.

After their eyes met, Yuri felt an even stronger Oh, no. Why was the timing so bad? Or rather, he should have quickly pretended not to see him as soon as he saw him.

This time too, he looked subtly displeased, despite pretending to be calm. As if he had shown a face he didn’t want to reveal to others. It probably stung that he had shown others his forlorn gaze at Jeong Taeui, or his envious gaze at Regrow.

If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have sat in such a conspicuous place.

Yuri, while telling himself it wasn’t his fault, quickly picked up the watermelon and turned to leave. He needed to get back to the backpacker quickly. Yes, Anna would be waiting for the watermelon too…

Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, he felt inexplicably uneasy and hurried his steps. His brisk walk slowed a little after he left the open space where the yellow lights of the night market flickered and entered a dark alley.

But

Could it be that good?

Yuri recalled the young man, propping his chin and endlessly staring only at them. Envious, regretful, wronged, angry. He had looked at the two with such fervent expressions. Just look this way once. How can you not look even once when I’m staring so hard?! With such a resentful and sorrowful face.

…Just look once. If it were me, I would have stared intently.

It was then, as he thought such thoughts and let out a quiet sigh, “Hmm.”

“Why are you running away? As soon as you see someone’s face.”

A hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder from behind. Without a sound perhaps deliberately suppressing his presence the hand approached and gripped him mercilessly. Yuri flinched ever so slightly under the tight grip. Though it wasn’t outwardly visible, the owner of the hand gripping his shoulder probably noticed.

The one who had stopped Yuri, smiling thinly with narrowed eyes, was none other than the youngest master.

“…What are you doing here?”

Yuri asked suspiciously, finding himself in a situation where the person who had just been fervently staring at the two in the market was suddenly standing behind him.