HG | Chapter 15

“Cough!”

He properly choked.

Hakyung covered his mouth and coughed heavily. Luckily, he only took a small spoonful, like a bird’s feed, or he might have spat out all the food if he had taken a big bite.

“Wha, wha, what…!”

His skin, which had been lightly tinged with a rosy hue, turned red in an instant. His neck and ears turned so red that the heat seemed to transfer to the other person.

Cheonghyeon grabbed his son’s neck and pressed his lips against his red cheek. Soft and hot cheek. Even his startled reaction was delightful to my son.

“Why are you so surprised, child? Didn’t I tell you before? Daddy’s breakfast is Hakyung’s pussy.”

“Hmph…!”

“Did you think I was lying? Haha… how cute.”

His elegant eyes drew a deep arc. His smile was exceptionally fresh and lively.

“Still, which parent would take care of their own meal first when their child is starving? Eat more. Our son is so skinny that when we fuck, our bones clash.”

Hakyung covered his mouth with the back of his hand. He felt like he was going to die of shame. The memories he had tried so hard to suppress resurfaced. The hot stream filling him, the sour fishy smell, the utterly filthy sex….

Clang!

Eventually, the spoon slipped from his weakened hand. Cheonghyeon propped his chin on his right arm on the table. His half-closed eyes blinked lazily. The golden eyes that disappeared and reappeared were as deep as honey.

“Indeed, my son can’t do without me….”

His animalistic muscles twitched, and his massive body leaned over. He blocked the sunlight as if to cover Hakyung’s slender body entirely. Naturally, a shadow fell on Hakyung’s upper body beneath him.

Hakyung accepted the descending lips absentmindedly. He had no choice.

Because he was smiling so joyfully.

‘Ah….’

I can never defy this person….

It was a fact he had to follow, like a law. It seemed as if Cheonghyeon was gently scolding him not to forget that fact, no matter what massive wave came crashing down.

He is not my biological father. Yet, he is by my side.

As my only ‘ally.’

The energy that intertwined so naturally also emphasized that fact. Hakyung slowly closed his eyes and spread his thighs. Cheonghyeon took his place between them as if he had been waiting. The moment their tongues touched, Hakyung gave up thinking any further.

‘Don’t think about anything.’

The command Cheonghyeon had once whispered occupied his mind.

Don’t think about anything….

***

That Saturday, it rained from dawn. It was a heavy downpour. Cheonghyeon frowned and pushed Hakyung’s back into the building.

“We really picked the wrong day.”

“Yeah….”

Cheonghyeon’s black suit was soaked on one side. Hakyung took out a handkerchief and tried to wipe his arm.

“You’re too wet, Father.”

“It’s fine. Let’s go in.”

Cheonghyeon lightly grabbed Hakyung’s wrist and pulled him along. As if he had already noticed Hakyung’s hesitation upon arrival.

Just then, someone came out from beyond the entrance. It was a man Hakyung recognized, whom his father called ‘Secretary Song.’

“Director.”

“Where is it?”

“I’ll guide you.”

Secretary Song had a stern expression. His impression was vague, but his mechanical politeness was memorable. Cheonghyeon intertwined his fingers with Hakyung’s and started walking.

“Nervous?”

“…A little.”

“The suit looks good on you, my son.”

Cheonghyeon suddenly complimented him and winked. Hakyung let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. Thanks to that, his tension eased a bit.

“This way.”

“We’re here.”

“The third row from the top in the front.”

“I’ll handle the rest, so you can leave.”

“Yes.”

Secretary Song bowed briefly and returned the way he came. Cheonghyeon led Hakyung straight ahead. Thus, Hakyung reached his destination, half willingly, half unwillingly.

“Lift your head, son. We came all this way to see.”

Half-buried in Cheonghyeon’s embrace, Hakyung lifted his chin.

In the center of the third row from the top, right in his line of sight.

There were photos of two people smiling brightly.

“Ah….”

“Say hello. Hakyung’s biological mom and dad.”

Without hesitation, Hakyung reached out toward them.

“…….”

The faces were familiar, as he had often seen them in textbooks or class materials.

At the same time, he was seeing them for the first time.

The smiles that bloomed so brightly felt excessively personal. Both were not in their suits as espers and guides on duty, making it even more so.

Tap. He carefully brushed his biological mother’s photo.

“Is this where they originally were?”

“Yes. We couldn’t find the bodies, so there are no remains.”

The place they were at was a memorial columbarium for the awakeners who sacrificed themselves during the outbreak 17 years ago.

It was a place where the president came every year to give a memorial speech, so Hakyung was familiar with it. He also knew that most of the columbariums housed empty urns due to the inability to find the bodies, as Cheonghyeon mentioned.

Nevertheless, the awakeners whose identities were confirmed were given a place by the state. They said that merely engraving their names on a stone would diminish their sacrifice.

Among the awakeners who were buried in the irradiated area, the identities of at least 1 million were confirmed. That was a very conservative estimate. Considering that more than half of the Korean awakeners sacrificed themselves, it was less than half of the victims.

Conversely, it meant that many couldn’t even retrieve their bones from Haegakryeong.

“Did you recover my parents’ bodies, Father?”

“Yes. There were things to identify.”

Hakyung fainted shortly after his skill manifested, so he didn’t know the subsequent situation.

Cheonghyeon shoved both hands deep into his pockets and tilted his head crookedly. He stared intently at the two people preserved in the past.

In fact, it was the state’s responsibility to recover their bodies. Im Juhyeong and Choi Seonyeon were undoubtedly heroes. Thanks to them standing at the forefront and establishing a defense line, South Korea could maintain its national form until now.

Therefore, it was only right to report to the government and follow the national procedures, but Cheonghyeon handled everything personally. Without even informing Hakyung.

Hakyung, who had been hesitantly touching the photo, pressed the corner of the frame. The chip embedded in the frame reacted, projecting a hologram screen in front.

“Oh?”

“A video.”

Hakyung stepped back from the photo, startled. He stood beside Cheonghyeon, staring blankly at the screen.

– Guiding is life.

It was a heavier voice with a more mature impression than the photo. It was the ‘Choi Seonyeon’ Hakyung originally knew.

It was a famous speech. Just before leaving to handle the outbreak, she calmly delivered a speech to the gathered guide unit.

Guiding is life. We are beings who enter the place of death to lead a life to continue. Even if death comes, not a single breath of ours will be wasted, and the life that continues will eventually reach our precious ones.

The content he had memorized from hearing it so often flowed smoothly in his mind. When he watched it during class, he didn’t realize it, but knowing that his younger self was there after that speech made it sound different from before.

– Do not forget. Guides are leaders. They are beings who find and draw out life even in places filled with death.

The heavy sentence concluded with a period.

– Lead life.

And she, who defended the last line with her partner esper, disappeared buried among the monsters.

Instead, ‘South Korea’ survived.

It was the event that firmly engraved the name of S-class guide ‘Choi Seonyeon’ worldwide.

“Before… when you said my parents were excessively good people…. Did you say that because they left knowing they would die?”

“No. They were always like that. Always, even usually, they would preach endlessly about saving people. They actually went around saving people without rest.”

“…….”

“They were like people born for justice, like in superhero movies. Even when everyone pointed fingers, they only emphasized the righteous path.”

“…….”

“They were too good for a country like this.”

“Ah….”

The sneer he had witnessed before appeared on his lips again. Hakyung felt anger from the clear ridicule. He acted as if he didn’t resent his parents, but it was hard to believe that was truly the case.

The anger might have been directed at both the state that sacrificed ‘good people’ and his parents, who pursued only justice and died.

‘It’s fortunate that my parents weren’t villains….’

But that fact didn’t bring peace to his mind. In Cheonghyeon’s tone, there was a hint that their goodness was tiresome.

Excessive goodness could become a nightmare for someone. Literally, because it was excessive, it could be envied by someone….

‘Hey, Director Im. The living must live. What good is it to die with such great power? I’ll use it well.’

Hakyung tightly closed his eyes. The question that had been lingering in his heart sprouted without fail.

“Were my parents… murdered?”

He had asked before but fainted before hearing the answer. Cheonghyeon remained silent. Somehow, it seemed he wouldn’t have answered even if he hadn’t fainted.

Hakyung tried to draw out an answer by revealing some of the cards he held.

“I saw the bodies… they were damaged here and there.”

He still didn’t respond.

It was an unusually long silence. Hakyung found a clue there. Not answering, perhaps that itself was the answer.

His parents were murdered.

He had a clear conviction. Hakyung clung to Cheonghyeon.

“I, I want to know. Why did my parents have to die like that?”

“…….”

“Please help me, Father. Please….”

“If I help you?”

“…What?”

Hakyung asked back with a blank face. He had expected an ‘okay’ as a response. He thought he had the right to know about his parents’ death, and Cheonghyeon seemed to be angry about their death, so he expected him to easily tell the reason or help him find it.

Cheonghyeon embraced his son’s back. He was careful not to break him if he applied force.

“If I help you, what will you give me, Hakyung?”

“Wh, what…. No, wh, whatever. I’ll do anything.”

“Hmm.”

Cheonghyeon raised his eyebrows as if contemplating. His demeanor was playful, as if he hadn’t been silent heavily.

“Well… Hakyung is already mine, so there’s nothing I want to receive.”

“Then what should I….”

“Well… if you guide me every day, I might feel like helping?”

“…….”

Hakyung suddenly thought the face looking down at him was unfamiliar. The overly glamorous features, the kindly smiling lips. The sweet voice. They were all the father he knew, but….

‘Was he originally like this?’

A somewhat crooked, protruding fang-like attitude.

In fact, it was a reaction Hakyung couldn’t quite understand. His biological parents were his colleagues and friends too. Wasn’t he sad? Judging by his tone, he seemed angry.

He was a father he believed he knew well. But after matching as an esper and mingling bodies, his reactions were all unexpected, leaving Hakyung confused.

‘Guide Kwon Hojin didn’t run away as soon as he met Father for no reason. There must have been a reason, a basis for it.’

There was definitely a hidden secret.

Whether it was his intimate personality, a deliberately concealed incident, or something else.

Hakyung was engulfed in a desire to find out. Don’t think about anything. The words Cheonghyeon had instilled like a spell lingered, but he couldn’t comply.

I want to know about you. I want to know why my parents died like that.

I want to know everything.

“…Alright. I’ll do it, guiding.”

Cheonghyeon’s embrace deepened.

“Open your mouth.”

A kiss soon followed. Hakyung closed his eyes, intertwining breaths with the man.

– Guiding is life….

He felt as if his parents were watching.

***

It seemed like things were settled for now.

After returning home, Cheonghyeon laid the exhausted Hakyung on the bed and quietly headed to the study. Honestly, he was in a bit of a dilemma.

The child found out about his parents’ identities. And in the worst possible way.

‘I knew this day would come eventually….’

But he never expected it to be by discovering the bodies. He thought the people he knew wouldn’t leave bodies behind, and even more so, they wouldn’t set it up for their son to ‘directly’ find them.

Seventeen years. During that time, he wandered the dungeons, gradually becoming disheartened.

Were they eaten by monsters….

The monsters in Haegakryeong devoured humans, bones and all. Even if they were already dead and only corpses remained, there were no exceptions. For that reason, there were countless bodies from which not even a piece of flesh could be found.

Now, too much time had passed, and he thought Hakyung’s parents might have ended up the same way…. Cheonghyeon secretly speculated so. He just couldn’t accept it.

But then.

‘To think there was a spell cast.’

He stretched out in the chair, tapping the desk with his index finger. It was a habit that emerged when he was deep in thought.

‘Hakyung seemed to have seen something…. What did he see?’

What he replayed in his mind was Hakyung’s reaction right after the bodies were revealed. He seemed to be in shock, momentarily dazed, but upon reflection, his eyes were moving finely. As if ‘confirming’ something that appeared before him.

What it was, even Cheonghyeon didn’t know. Even if a status window popped up, it would only be visible to himself, not to others. Unless it was a system message for everyone….

“…Status window?”

Cheonghyeon muttered suddenly. His thoughts had led him to this conclusion.

‘No. It’s ambiguous to call it a status window.’

Firstly, there was no way Hakyung would suddenly awaken again, and secondly, Hakyung’s gaze was fixed on the bodies. Status windows usually appear slightly above the front. If he saw something, it was likely related to the bodies.

The problem was that the child wasn’t talking.

Cheonghyeon’s brow furrowed in displeasure. He couldn’t exactly demand to know what he saw…. The clues seemed within reach but remained elusive.

“Phew….”

He broke off his thoughts and leaned deeply into the chair’s backrest. His upper body tilted back smoothly.

It’s already been 17 years since the outbreak.

“Has it been that long….”

He reached out to open the top drawer of the desk. Then, with his palm facing up, he inserted his hand into the drawer and pressed a specific spot with his middle finger.

Click.

After completing the fingerprint recognition, a hidden compartment in the drawer opened. Inside the thin compartment, about the size of a finger joint, were two photos, a rectangular ID card, and an old document envelope.

He picked up the photos. One was a picture of three people, and the other was a ‘family photo’ of four people.

He traced the youthful face in the photo with his thumb. Cheonghyeon at 14, and Cheonghyeon at 17.

In the photo where three people were smiling brightly, the woman noticeably had a swollen belly. In the other photo, the belly had shrunk, and a small child was in the woman’s arms.

The child was Hakyung.

This time, he picked up the ID card to examine it. Im Cheonghyeon (林請娹). The ID card bore a youthful face similar to the second photo.

It was the first ID card Cheonghyeon ever made. And it was also the ID card with his correct age.

‘Wow! Look at this kid’s features already. He’s going to make a lot of girls cry, huh?’

‘Well, unlike you, who barely got saved by me, right?’

‘Wha, what? I was in my school days too-.’

‘Oh, that school days talk again. Who doesn’t have school days? Remember, we went to the same school?’

‘Ah. That’s right, huh? Haha…. Cheonghyeon, this is what your mom is like. Ouch!’

‘What am I? Why? What? Are you going to keep talking nonsense in front of the kid as a dad?’

‘S, save me… ugh!’

A familiar yet unfamiliar scene flashed through his mind.

In the illusion, what lay before the three people was a freshly issued resident registration and family relationship certificate. It was proof that Cheonghyeon, or the nameless nobody, had a proper name and a ‘family.’

Those paper scraps that could be torn up defined a person’s life, which was an indescribably strange feeling.

But… it wasn’t bad. Especially if it meant being part of Juhyeong and Seonyeon’s family, it was even more delightful.

‘Now I’m your dad. Not your brother, but your dad. Want to call me dad, son?’

‘I wish I had actually given birth to you… sigh. It’s such a shame. But please call me mom?’

They were the ones who willingly picked up and embraced the trash discarded by the world.

At most, there was a twelve-year age difference. They weren’t that old either. But when a child, not even registered at birth, appeared as Korea’s first S-class esper, and was used as a tool, going in and out of dungeons without any protection, they were the first to come running and extend a hand.

The face that had been nostalgically tracing the distant past suddenly twisted.

「Exclusive Report! Why did an S-class esper adopt another S-class esper? The truth of goodwill?」

「Whistleblower A, “Esper L had severe inferiority issues since school…”」

Unpleasant memories intruded like noise in his mind. Cheonghyeon stopped reminiscing at this point. He swept the ID card and photos back into the drawer and closed it roughly.

His eyes, which he had closed and opened slowly, were filled with cold chill.

Revenge.

If he were to embody the chill in letters, it would be those two.

Cheonghyeon was no longer confused. Im Cheonghyeon. There was no one left in this world to show the ID card with his name and age correctly printed.