Chapter 24: Confrontation

A large body strode towards Bodam, whose eyes were glaring at the ‘b*stard.’

Since backing up only led to stairs, Bodam calmly kept his large eyes open and held his ground. He had the composure of ‘come if you dare.’

“Are you okay?”

“Don’t curse!”

The moment that Lee Tae Hwan b*stard opened his mouth, Bodam instinctively let out a dignified shout and blinked.

He had yelled because he naturally assumed the first word out of his mouth would be “fck.”

He had intended to shut that bstard’s hateful cursing, which would always resort to numbers, right up.

“…What?”

“Are you deaf? Are you hurt? F*ck, can’t you hear?”

Bodam’s mouth, which was about to strongly retort that he wasn’t deaf, only gaped when he saw that Tae Hwan was asking him sincerely, not trying to pick a fight.

Tae Hwan, finding this even stranger, scanned Bodam up and down, then spun him around to check his back.

And at the subsequent sigh of relief, Bodam couldn’t believe his ears.

“What… are you doing?”

“I thought you died in an accident, you son of a b*tch, Yoon Bodam.”

‘Does he wish I had, and is he disappointed that I didn’t?’

Bodam, flustered by Lee Tae Hwan’s expression, shook off his hand, adjusted his precious eco-bag, and continued the warning he hadn’t finished.

“I said don’t curse!”

“Where did you go? Is it fun to ignore all my calls? Hey, give me your phone.”

“Don’t touch it!!”

Bodam, startled by Tae Hwan suddenly trying to grab his bag, ran backward.

Tae Hwan, who also stumbled backward at Bodam’s frantic arm-waving, opened his mouth wide.

It felt as if his heart had tumbled to his feet. Along with his guide, who was falling down the stairs.

“Yoon Bodam!!”

Even in that fleeting moment as his body fell down the stairs, the small body that tightly hugged his bag first floated in the air.

Bodam, who tightly closed his eyes at the sensation of his body tilting backward, was pulled by psychokinesis towards Tae Hwan.

“Ha….”

Bodam, clutching his chest, which had dropped with a thud, with his bag wrapped around it, opened his eyes to find himself in Tae Hwan’s arms.

F*ck.

Just when he thought his heart couldn’t drop any further, familiar curses filled his eardrums.

To summarize Lee Tae Hwan’s b*stard-like cursing, which was filled with his favorite numbers, baby animals, and all sorts of nasty words, it meant ‘act like you have two legs.’

There was also a profound question of how he would live with such a weak body that couldn’t even maintain its balance.

“Are you done?”

Bodam asked.

Tae Hwan, who had been huffing and puffing, pouring out curses, only glared with fierce eyes.

Bodam, who would have been intimidated by that fierce glare just last week, asked again with the face of someone who hadn’t received any curses.

“Are you going to do more?”

Tae Hwan, whose neck had turned red from earnestly cursing, only gazed at Bodam’s calm brown eyes.

This wasn’t the Yoon Bodam he knew.

Those eyes, calmly looking up at him while being held in his arms without resistance, were something Lee Tae Hwan had not expected.

“Do more.”

Bodam subtly moved his thin chin.

His empty eyes contained no emotion, yet an inexplicable, heavy weight was conveyed.

Tae Hwan’s dark pupils trembled subtly.

Bodam, who even slightly curved his lips as if to say, ‘do as much as you want,’ continued speaking clearly.

His mouth was clearly smiling, but his cold expression was chilling.

“Because I won’t have to listen to those filthy words anymore.”

Had Yoon Bodam ever made such an expression?

“Let’s have a mental test today, you fcking piece of sht.”

As Bodam’s voice gradually rose, Tae Hwan’s heartbeat also soared.

Yoon Bodam, who skipped work without a word. Yoon Bodam, who was unreachable all day. Yoon Bodam, who went to an expensive restaurant in Seoul even though he only sought cheap things.

What the f*ck.

“Do more, you son of a b*tch! Coming to someone else’s home without permission! Did you come here for guiding?!”

Bodam, speaking in short, choppy sentences, yelled with all his might, putting strength into his abdomen.

He even punched Tae Hwan’s firm chest with all his might, a chest that wouldn’t budge an inch.

He wanted to scream much louder than Lee Tae Hwan, who always publicly scolded and yelled at him, even in front of everyone.

He wanted Tae Hwan to hurt as much as his own ears had ached and his heart had been wounded.

“Do I! Do you guys think I! Am that ridiculous?! Because I’m weak?! Have I caused any trouble?! Huh?!”

How could he have?

Bodam was the type to never let go of guiding even when he was feverish.

His fist, which had been hitting his chest where there would be no bruises, suddenly went up as Bodam couldn’t control his sudden surge of anger.

His widely spread shoulders and outstretched arm cut through the air, heading towards Tae Hwan’s jaw.

“Must be nice to be so great, you f*ckers!!”

Thwack, with a sound, Tae Hwan’s stiff face turned away.

The puncher’s hand looked sorer than the receiver’s.

His expression, turned towards the wall, was unseen.

Just then, the neighbor, who had been enduring Bodam’s shouts echoing in the hallway, opened his door.

“Can we please have some quiet!”

Bodam couldn’t see the neighbor’s face because he was shielded by Tae Hwan’s body.

Instead, the one facing the man was Tae Hwan, whose head had turned from the punch.

The man, who had intentionally rolled up his sleeves to show off his cool tattoo, quietly went back inside, thinking the hallway echoed more than he expected.

Click.

Clank.

Bodam tightly bit his lower lip, listening to the neighbor’s door, which was meticulously locking even the auxiliary lock.

Since childhood, when he got angry, tears would come first.

He had never won an argument with his friends.

In a fit of rage, his mind would go blank, and only wet breaths would come out of his mouth.

His friends, tired of watching Bodam huffing for a long time, would laugh and end the fight as they pleased.

Even though he was still angry.

“I’m not doing guiding anymore. Leave before I call someone.”

But now it was different.

His mind was calm even after punching an S-class Esper.

He absolutely didn’t want to cry. He no longer wanted to show weakness in front of them.

“Are you dying?”

Lee Tae Hwan, as if his mind had gone blank from being punched by a guide, said something unexpected.

On his face, which was now turned back to Bodam, there was only confusion and surprise, not anger.

Within his sharply slanted eyes, pupils as dark as his personality flickered uneasily.

“Yes.”

Bodam replied.

His face, well-fed with sugar from good food, was only full of vitality.

His pale face, with even the shadows under his eyes—which were always there due to not working—faded, looked healthier than anyone else’s.

“Don’t die.”

Tae Hwan, who truly believed Bodam’s words about dying even after seeing such a face, grabbed Bodam’s shoulder.

“Ha.”

He couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

Bodam was so dumbfounded it felt like a dream that the person holding him, telling him not to die, was Attack Team 3.

“No, right? You don’t have some illness, do you? Huh?”

“It hurts. Let go.”

At the sound of ‘it hurts,’ Tae Hwan’s hand on Bodam’s shoulder instinctively loosened.

He too was acting uncharacteristically for Lee Tae Hwan.

Looking at him again, he scowled and asked, glaring at Yoon Bodam’s face, which looked incredibly healthy.

It was something he hadn’t even considered while waiting for the guide, who had left his home, in front of the door.

“Are you perhaps saying you’re quitting? Is that it?”

He had thought it was at most a protest because he didn’t want to work. Or that he had really been kidnapped. Or that he was sick somewhere.

“Is that surprising to you? Is it?”

Bodam’s expression, mimicking Tae Hwan’s tone with a more vibrant complexion than ever before, seemed unusually light.

Compared to his usual self, always weighed down by fatigue with drooping lips, he looked as if he would float away right before his eyes.

“Don’t go.”

Tae Hwan grabbed Bodam’s shoulder again.

His hand, merely placed on it without force, fell listlessly at Bodam’s slightest movement.

“You told me to leave. You said that ever since I first joined.”

Tae Hwan would always find fault with Bodam, who hadn’t adapted to Attack Team 3, click his tongue, and curse at him.

He would endlessly nag him about his naturally thin body and poor stamina, which couldn’t be helped by effort.

“So I’m leaving.”

Bodam, who no longer wanted to speak with him, pushed Tae Hwan’s chest.

Unbelievably, when pushed, that large body actually recoiled.

Bodam, who had cleared his expression, tightly endured, trying not to show the emotion of a hot thrill rising within him.

“Don’t go.”

Lee Tae Hwan, without using his hands or abilities, blocked Bodam with his body.

He blocked Bodam’s path with his large body and silently whined.

“Don’t go.”

Bodam, holding his eco-bag strap tightly, slowly raised his head.

It was Lee Tae Hwan’s expression, one he had never seen before.

He was not at all curious about his uneasy face or the reason he was stopping him.

“Don’t stop me.”

“Yoon Bodam.”

“If I stay with you any longer, I feel like I’ll die.”

Tiny red veins burst in his round eyes.

He gripped his bag strap even tighter to hide his slowly trembling hands.

Bodam warned Lee Tae Hwan. His voice, quickly hoarse from yelling, cracked.

“Just try to stop me from leaving. I’ll bite my tongue and die.”

Contrary to his worry that an even bigger outburst might come out, like ‘just die already,’ Lee Tae Hwan didn’t hold him back further.

He didn’t even look back at Bodam, who struck his shoulder and walked towards his apartment door.

He just stood there quietly, like someone whose soul had been sucked out. An unstable wavelength, as if barely suppressed by artificial guiding medication, flickered.

Bodam ignored even the Esper’s wavelength, which needed guiding, and locked his apartment door.

He even dragged a chair to guard the firmly locked door, ensuring no one could enter.

‘Why would I die?’

After staring at the quiet door for 10 minutes, Bodam’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the bed.

The words he exchanged with that Lee Tae Hwan b*stard flashed white. He tried to forget all the unknown expressions and words he had shown him.

He hugged his bag tightly and buried his face in the bed.

‘Just try and stop me. I’ll report everything. Just you wait.’

He punched the blanket repeatedly, as if magnificently punching Lee Tae Hwan’s jaw, and mumbled.

There was nothing to fear anymore. The strongest support in the world was in his hands.

Bodam turned over in bed and let out a refreshing sigh towards the ceiling.

He felt completely relieved.

He had slapped an S-class Esper’s face and cursed him out coolly. Far from having red eyes, he ended it as a cold, adult figure who had completely erased his emotions.

“Ha. Yoon Bodam is so cool.”

Bodam, who clapped for the cool adult he was, suddenly missed his mother.

He wondered if he had finally accumulated enough experience after six years as a guide.

He won a psychological battle with an Esper and won an argument.

Since he also hit him, it was like he won a physical fight too.

Bodam believed that.

Bodam, full of momentum, smiled with satisfaction and took out his phone.

He quickly wanted to tell his mother the good news.

He would just hint at the surprise over the phone and tell her properly when they met.

He danced a joyful butt wiggle on the bed and called his mother.

His laughter was endless.

His blooming face seemed to have no room left for shadows.

While the call tone continued for a short while, Bodam,

-Oh, son. What’s up at this hour?

He had vowed never to cry again.

-Our Bodamie~ Are you doing well?

-Yoon Bodam~

Unexpected tears, which he hadn’t known he was holding back, suddenly burst forth at just his mother’s and aunts’ voices, who were happily greeting him.

“Yes, I’m doing well!”

Bodam, startled by the burst of tears, quickly covered his eyes.

In the house, where no one was watching, he wiped his tears with small hands and tightly shut his mouth.

-Just a moment.

Tears that hadn’t burst even in front of Lee Tae Hwan flowed continuously as if on cue.

He was so sad that his mother answered his call so happily.

-Yes, tell me. Son?

Unable to give even a short answer through the unstoppable tears, he only clenched his jaw.

Fearing that his sobs might escape, he pulled the phone away and pressed his hands to his face.

At his mother’s gentle voice asking, “Bodam?” the tears that had burst truly took hold.

-Are you crying?

To his mother, who asked playfully, Bodam shook his head vigorously.

-It’s okay. Tell Mom everything.

‘If I tell her now, Mom will faint, won’t she?’

He managed to compose himself from crying, focusing on the lottery, and cleared his throat.

His mother’s voice, calling his name once more, was infinitely warm.

He felt a sense of peace.

“Mom, I want to eat your food.”

Bodam, leaning into his mother’s voice with a tearful smile, laughed brightly.

He told her he would come home soon and asked her to cook him lots of delicious food. It was a perfect surprise.

Bodam, feeling choked up again at his mother’s words telling him to come quickly and that she missed him, finally hung up without being able to reply.

He missed his mother.

Now, all that was left was to truly go home.