Chapter 98: Let Go

“Just a moment.”

Bodam waved a hand at Jo Yeon and coughed a few times, then pressed his ears firmly.

‘It seems my hearing has gone wrong because of that Min Ji Oh bastard. There’s no way my friend Jo Yeon would tell me to go back to Attack Team 3, so my ears must be the strange ones.’

“Just for the time you’re remaining at the Center.”

“To your team?”

“No. Attack Team 3.”

“As backup for your team?”

“No. To Attack Team 3.”

“Right. A backup guide isn’t bad either.”

Bodam pretended not to hear Jo Yeon’s words until the very end.

These were not words that should come from Jo Yeon’s mouth, of all people.

Jo Yeon had ground his teeth at those bastards just as much as he had.

“It’s different from before. That Min-something-or-other even got on his knees.”

‘Lee Tae Hwan got on his knees too, though…’

“Use them. Set limits on the guiding. Say you’ll only do hand contact. You’re good enough even with just that, aren’t you?”

‘I am pretty good, but…’

“Don’t forgive them. Don’t accept their feelings either. Just take the money. A whole lot.”

‘Money… the more, the better, but…’

Jo Yeon sat the pensive Bodam on the bed and took out a change of clothes for him.

He didn’t forget to find a fever reducer and place it on the table with some water.

“Yoon Bodam.”

Jo Yeon, having returned to his usual bright tension, called out to Bodam lightly.

‘After all, it’s a friend’s role to joke around even in serious situations.’

“You wanted to do it. The paid loafer of this district.”

Jo Yeon, who left behind words that should have remained a joke, handed him the fever reducer, telling him to think about it.

“For today, just get a good night’s sleep.”

“Are you leaving?”

“It’s late. I have to go sleep too.”

“Get some guiding before you go.”

“It’s fine. I can get it from Yeon Yeok.”

“…Okay.”

There was no reason to stop him when he said he would get guiding from his exclusive guide, who had a higher matching rate.

Jo Yeon and Yeon Yeok’s matching rate was quite high.

Utterly uselessly so.

After Jo Yeon left, Bodam changed his clothes, washed up roughly, and lay down on the bed.

He thought he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep easily because his head was heavy with various thoughts, but he fell into a deep sleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

It had been that tiring of a day.

His consciousness, hazy from the medicine, delved into a dream.

The thoughts that had been tailing each other made him worry even in his dream.

Bodam, who opened his eyes in a dream with a white background and a floor painted pitch black, stretched wide.

His body didn’t hurt and his heart was light.

‘Is this the effect of the dream? Or is it thanks to receiving their apologies?’

‘A paid loafer…’

He pondered Jo Yeon’s words carefully as he strolled through the dream.

He mulled it over, comparing the lottery-winning me who could now confidently say “sue me” to the old me who was tied down by debt.

‘If the me of now were to return to Attack Team 3?’

The crying Lee Tae Hwan who said he was sorry, the clinging Han Seung Ho, and the kneeling Min Ji Oh flashed by in succession, and well.

It seemed worth a try.

Except for this Kang Yi Jun fellow.

“Hey. Let go.”

For once, he thought he was alone and tried to walk leisurely.

But Kang Yi Jun, who appeared in his dream today without fail, revealed his presence.

‘It seems the guy who always appeared without a form is now planning to show himself.’

“I said, let go.”

Bodam ignored the force pulling on his clothes from behind and walked on, looking only forward.

He believed that since he was the master of the dream, he would be stronger than Kang Yi Jun.

And so, he really did move forward as he wished.

Bodam’s leg strength was stronger than the force pulling on his clothes.

So much so that Kang Yi Jun, who was holding onto Bodam, was dragged along.

“Let go, you bastard!”

Unable to stand Kang Yi Jun who was being annoying even in his dream, Bodam turned around to shake his hand off.

He tried to push him away roughly, mimicking the bald man’s angry boar-like expression.

But,

“…Kang Yi Jun?”

What he saw before him was not a big, hateful man, but a small child.

A young Kang Yi Jun, with a face the size of a fist and round eyes that looked like they would roll, was looking up at him.

‘This punk, he’s uselessly and excessively cute.’

‘And why are his eyes so big and innocent?’

“What, punk. Let go.”

Bodam, trying not to be deceived by that angelic mask, scowled even more fiercely and picked a fight first.

“What’re you gonna do about it.”

This was his dream, and the Kang Yi Jun here was much shorter than him, so it was clear he would win if they fought.

Not that he would get into a physical fight with this pint-sized kid, though.

‘…I would win if we did.’

Bodam, who made a fist and sized up the fight, soon shook his head.

Since his opponent was who he was, the will to fight had arisen even seeing his child form.

Still, he held back, thinking it was something a well-raised adult shouldn’t do.

“I’ll count to three, let go of my clothes. Or you’ll be in big trouble.”

Bodam warned the young Yi Jun, showing off his adult fist.

When he thrust forward his fist, clenched as if to strike, Yi Jun instead pulled on his clothes even harder.

When the provoked Bodam raised his hand with a “Damn you,” Yi Jun even threw himself into a hug.

“Hey Kang Yi Jun! Get lost! Just go!”

Unable to bring himself to hit a child, he raised his voice with sincerity.

He used his strength to try and pull him off, grabbing his small, slender shoulders that were unimaginable for the present him.

Kang Yi Jun just clung to him, his arms wrapped around Bodam’s waist, his face buried deep.

“Stop acting weak! Do you think I’ll fall for it if you act pitiful?!”

‘If he had been quiet, I would have at least sympathized with him, but Kang Yi Jun keeps trying to hold onto me.’

“This is why I hate you! Just leave me alone!!”

Bodam shouted and pushed Yi Jun’s shoulders with all his might.

At the same time, Yi Jun’s arms went limp and he fell backward, and behind him was only pitch-black darkness.

The young Yi Jun was helplessly sucked down into that darkness.

Thwack!

Bodam caught Yi Jun, who had fallen to the black floor in an instant.

Bodam, who gripped the tiny hand tightly, pulled Yi Jun up from the floor.

He had told him to get lost, but he hadn’t known he would actually get lost like this.

‘To just leave him be, that young child’s expression was too…’

“Hey!”

He was so calm that his hand moved on its own.

Surprised by that emotionless face that didn’t even know where it was falling.

“You should have tried to grab something!”

Bodam, who flicked Yi Jun’s head, shouted.

Forgetting it was a dream, he scolded Yi Jun, asking if he was dying to die.

Yi Jun, who had been listening intently to Bodam’s tirade for a while, said something nonsensical with a dazed expression.

Somehow, in a kneeling position between Bodam’s legs, who had sat down.

“Here for me.”

Yi Jun pointed to his round face with his shrimp-snack-like index finger.

‘I think it hurts.’ The words he added were close to a whisper.

“Or here.”

Next, pointing to his chest, Yi Jun looked down only at the tip of his index finger.

At the thin voice that hadn’t even gone through puberty, Bodam couldn’t help but soften.

Even a bald man wouldn’t be able to shake off this gentle voice.

As Bodam let out a long sigh, Yi Jun’s long eyelashes fluttered in the wind.

“How does it hurt.”

Following Yi Jun’s hand that had pointed to his head and chest, Bodam asked back if it hurt here.

“……”

Yi Jun remained silent even as Bodam’s palm covered his forehead to check for a fever.

He just quietly closed his mouth and lowered his gaze.

Like a child being punished.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

Then, instead of an answer, he quietly disappeared.

“Kang Yi Jun…”

‘Kang Yi Jun?’

Tae Hwan, who had visited Bodam’s hospital room late at night, froze at the unexpected name.

The deeply asleep Yoon Bodam was muttering and looking for Kang Yi Jun in his sleep.

‘…Is he having a nightmare?’

Tae Hwan sat at the head of the bed and debated whether to wake Bodam up.

If he was having a nightmare, he wanted to wake him up immediately, but seeing Bodam cough severely even in his sleep, he thought it would be better for him to keep sleeping.

“Eung…”

Feeling hot from the fever, Bodam tossed and turned, kicking off the blanket Tae Hwan had pulled up to his chin.

Tae Hwan was about to pull the blanket back up but stopped.

He had intended to just look at his sleeping face for a moment and leave, but that moment was turning into an hour.

Seeing that his slight fever had not subsided and he had ended up catching a cold, he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

‘He really is weak.’

Tae Hwan chewed on the bitterness of Bodam’s newfound lack of stamina.

If possible, he wanted to tear off his own crazy healing ability and give it all to him.

Tae Hwan’s body, which had been a wreck just a few hours ago, had already recovered to the point where he could move without difficulty.

Even his melted pinky finger had grown back.

‘If I could implant the S-class’s exceptional self-regeneration ability into Yoon Bodam, I would worry a little less.’

Tae Hwan became serious as he scanned Bodam’s frail physique, which looked like it would break with a snap if an Esper so much as tapped it.

It was a small, thin body that seemed like it would just fall ill if he tried to make it exercise.

Even before manifesting as an Esper, Tae Hwan had grown up among robust people.

In Tae Hwan’s eyes, Bodam was now beginning to look like thin glass that would shatter in an instant.

He found himself watching more closely, as if a crack might form at the sight of him coughing and tossing.

‘He doesn’t seem to hate eating, so why doesn’t he gain weight. Are all his organs in that body? Isn’t something missing?’

Tae Hwan’s thoughts, comparing his own over-190cm body with Bodam’s, went down a strange path.

It was a thought he had whenever he held Bodam.

‘Could his waist be so thin because he’s missing a few ribs?’

“Can’t exactly cut him open to see…”

“What?”

Bodam, who had opened his eyes while coughing, heard Tae Hwan’s chilling mutter.

‘Cut open? Me?’