Passion Raga Novel (Completed) - Chapter 7

“He ran away the moment he saw me, wouldn’t that be suspicious? What on earth did he do behind my back?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Then there’s no reason to run away.”

“I didn’t run away.”

“But I clearly saw you flee the moment you saw my face?”

For a moment, Yuri was speechless.

He hadn’t intended to run away, but hearing him say it, it was true that he had turned away the moment he saw him. It might have looked like he was running away. But that wasn’t it…

Without waiting even one or two seconds for Yuri’s momentary confusion, he rattled off a barrage of questions like a machine gun.

“Why did you run away? Did you commit some sin against me? Did our eldest brother tell you to keep an eye on me without me knowing? Or did you perhaps badmouth me to Taeui hyung? Otherwise, there’s no way you’d suddenly bolt like someone who’d bitten into an unripe persimmon the moment you saw me.”

“No… that’s not it…”

He didn’t know how to shut this man up.

Embarrassed, Yuri frowned slightly and opened his mouth, but seeing Yuri’s face, he narrowed his eyes like a satisfied cat. Seeing that, Yuri quickly realized. He came here to pick on me. But why me?

As Yuri awkwardly watched his expression, the man, who had been intently scrutinizing Yuri’s face, subtly tilted his head. Then he let out a short, scoffing laugh, saying, “Oh, for goodness sake.”

Stepping back, he seemed somewhat satisfied, releasing the venomous playfulness from his eyes and opening his mouth coolly.

“You’re so hard to read, yet why are you so quick to read others? You read everyone’s expressions. And then, you quickly reveal a face that says you’re at a loss because you’ve read my expression. It just makes people feel worse.”

“…Did I do that? I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”

Yuri meekly bowed his head. Although it wasn’t his intention, if he was upset enough to chase him all the way here, an apology was appropriate.

This man seemed to intensely dislike anyone discovering his vulnerable side whether it was envy, anxiety, or sadness which he hadn’t intentionally revealed.

Well, perhaps it was the same for everyone. It wouldn’t be pleasant to have someone see right through your weaknesses.

Yuri nodded, coming to his own understanding.

“Wow, you’re stronger than you look, though. Running off so fast carrying two watermelons. I thought you were carrying some kind of watermelon-patterned rubber ball. …Ugh, it’s heavy.”

Suddenly, he felt a coolness in one hand, and when he came to his senses, the watermelon strap he had been holding in his right hand was gone. The watermelon the young man was now effortlessly holding seemed to be the one Yuri had been carrying.

“Uh,” Yuri tried to say something, but before he could, the young man walked off briskly. “Wait a moment,” Yuri opened his mouth, and the young man turned back with a puzzled expression, tilting his head.

“Aren’t you heading back to the backpackers’ now? This should be the right way?”

“Yes, it is, but… aren’t you going back to the market?”

“Do you want me to leave? …That’s strange, was I really that unlikable? What’s the problem? My face?”

The young man frowned, continuously tilting his head as if something was very odd. He muttered to himself that no one had ever disliked him this much before. Then, the young man, who had been looking back at Yuri, who stood blankly staring at him with watermelons in his arms a few steps away, smiled sweetly and said flatly.

“I’ll just go for today. I do want to see Taeui hyung more, but there’s something so unsightly clinging to him that I can’t stand it, it makes my stomach churn.”

“…Mr. Ling Xinlu, your lodging isn’t this way, is it?”

“How did you know that?”

Seeing him blink innocently as if surprised, Yuri shut his mouth.

It was basic to find out about someone who might be a dangerous person. Even the young man himself wouldn’t have thought that the other person wouldn’t care, especially when he appeared right in front of him.

“It’s too much to suspect such a kind person who coincidentally met me and even carried heavy watermelons.”

“………”

“Did you tell Taeui hyung everything about meeting me?”

The young man asked, matching his pace with Yuri, who had no choice but to start walking behind him. Yuri shook his head. He had no intention of helping the young man achieve his goals, but he also had no intention of deliberately putting him at a disadvantage by telling everything though he thought there wasn’t much more disadvantage to be had since everything was already exposed.

In fact, as long as it didn’t hinder finding Jeong Jaeui, Yuri had no intention of interfering at all.

“Yuri Gable. 36 years old. Born March 30th, Aries. Blood type O. Only child born to German Gustav Gable and British Natalie Watson. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, but moved to Berlin, Germany, less than a year after birth. Parents divorced at 13, spent adolescence in Birmingham, England, but returned to Berlin to attend Free University. However, dropped out of university after six months, then briefly worked at T&R before moving to the National Intelligence Service at 27. However, retired after two years and transferred back to T&R, where he is currently.”

In a secluded alley, where few people passed but felt no danger, the young man’s casual voice continued at length. Yuri glanced at the young man, who recited the long details without a hitch, as if it would have been hard to memorize. The young man, who hadn’t been looking at Yuri, only turned his head after saying ‘where he is currently.’ And he smiled sweetly.

“Is anything wrong?”

“No.”

“Actually, I know more detailed parts, but I deliberately shortened it so you wouldn’t get bored.”

“I did well, right?” Yuri silently watched the young man’s smiling face, like a child waiting for praise.

Indeed, it meant, ‘I’ve found out enough about you, just as you’ve found out about me.’

Yuri, who had no unspeakable past, nodded without any hint of displeasure.

“Aren’t you offended?”

The young man, observing Yuri’s expression, asked with a smirk. Yuri thought for a moment and then replied calmly.

“If I were Jeong Taeui, I would have answered, ‘I wasn’t offended by the fact that you looked up my personal information, but I am offended by you asking if I’m offended right now.'”

The young man fell silent. The smile instantly vanished from his face. Yuri stared at him and added indifferently.

“But I’m not really offended.”

“…….xxxx………”

The young man muttered something. Even without trying to interpret the language he muttered in his native tongue, Yuri could guess its content. Roughly, it would be something like, ‘This son of a bitch.’

At the young man’s sullen, fierce face and the desolate, unfamiliar language he murmured, Yuri somehow felt a little lighter.

“But you said that knowing full well it would offend me, didn’t you?”

Yuri didn’t answer, even as he heard the cold words. At the non-response, which implied affirmation, the young man glared fiercely at Yuri once more. However, perhaps aware that he had provoked first, the young man seemed to decide to drop the subject there.

“I know this much about Taeui hyung too. No, I know much more than this, incomparably. I know what hospital he was born in, at what time, minute, and second, and what vaccinations he got at what age and on what day.”

“…You have an exceptionally good memory.”

The young man’s eyes sharpened again. He only hid the sharpness after reading from Yuri’s expression that the remark was a genuine compliment.

“I don’t know if you know this, but Taeui hyung originally liked me. But that crazy guy appeared late and stole him away.”

“Is that so?” Yuri sent a gaze that conveyed this meaning and walked alongside the young man, who had started walking again.

“Things were going well between us without any problems, but that guy sneakily stole him away. We had even agreed beforehand not to lay a hand on hyung, but he broke that promise too.”

“What a vile and shameless human being who doesn’t even know common decency,” the young man cursed, his eyes blazing. It seemed as if a sharp light would emanate from his gaze.

“I’ll never forgive him.”

The young man whispered to himself, barely audible. Yuri glanced at him and then silently turned his gaze forward.

Silence flowed for a while. Only the slow footsteps on the firmly packed dirt road could be heard.

“Mr. Gable, do you not have a first love, one you dedicated a part of your youth to?”

Then, the young man suddenly asked. First love, Yuri rummaged through his mind but couldn’t recall anything immediately, so he asked back.

“Isn’t that information included in my data?”

“Dolores, the girl next door you often played with at 12? Brenda, who you dated for two months at 16 but dumped you for another man? Annette, who worked as your partner at the intelligence agency for a while?”

Hearing those names, Yuri, the heartless man who only then remembered the women who had briefly passed through his life, thought for a moment and then shook his head.

“I don’t seem to have one. …I don’t.”