Chapter 119: Farewell Address

A week had already passed since the Crow’s death.

Bodam took another nap today on the bed in his room in the now-familiar Team 3 waiting area.

With the most comfortable posture and expression in the world.

“Hak.”

He opened his mouth wide in his sleep, inhaled wrong, and startled awake.

His heart pounding, he stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment, then his head tilted towards the window, and he admired the sky.

A smile naturally formed at the sight of the clear, sunny sky, from which the dark clouds had lifted.

It was a smile as refreshing as his sprawled-out limbs.

“I think I had a dream…”

He felt at ease.

Of course he did.

There was no longer anything holding Bodam back.

Currently, Bodam’s daily routine consisted of eating well, sleeping well, and working moderately.

He was lazily enjoying the sweet life as the temporary dedicated guide for Attack Team 3 until all the unregistered Espers remaining in the civilian areas were caught.

And when even that honey was occasionally a nuisance, Tae Hwan would practically beg him to eat it and spoon-feed him.

“Was it Lee Tae Hwan…?”

Bodam, frowning as he couldn’t quite remember the dream he just had, fell into thought.

Someone had appeared in his dream, but their face was blurry.

Given their tall height and unusual build, it was definitely an Esper.

‘Who could it be?’

He fumbled with his watch as he tried to recall the dream.

The mysterious Esper who appeared in the hazy dream had unfastened his watch.

Speaking to him silently with slowly moving lips.

‘Could it be Kang Yi Jun?’

Yi Jun, who had been appearing frequently in his dreams for a while, naturally came to mind.

Kang Yi Jun.

Thinking of him, Bodam got out of bed and went to get a closer look at the clear sky.

Seeing the weather shining so brightly, as if it had never rained drearily, made the events of that day feel like a dream.

The day the Crow died, and his natural imprinting with Kang Yi Jun was broken.

“The weather is really nice.”

He felt as if his heart had been cleared out, just like that sky.

So much so that his heart, which had become limitlessly vast, had embraced the unconscious Kang Yi Jun.

“Team Leader.”

Coming out of his room, Bodam smelled the coffee from the kitchen and knew it was Seung Ho.

Seung Ho, who had set down his coffee cup, waited for him to continue.

Seeing Bodam’s bed head, a sign he had napped after lunch, Seung Ho’s right hand twitched.

‘I want to fix it.’

“How is Kang Yi Jun’s body?”

Seung Ho’s slightly moving hand stopped at Bodam’s question.

In the late dawn, after successfully completing the operation to sweep out the Crow and the gate, Yi Jun had come back from the dead.

“He hasn’t left yet, right?”

“Why.”

Tae Hwan had first wrapped Yi Jun, who was falling from the rooftop, with his psychokinesis, and it was Seung Ho who had subsequently revived him after he was safely placed on the ground.

At Bodam’s sobbing gaze, calling out “Team Leader-nim,” Seung Ho had found himself healing the wound on Yi Jun’s torn neck.

Min Ji Oh, on Seung Ho’s orders, had gotten the antidote from Team Leader Baek and roughly stuck it into Yi Jun’s arm.

Everyone had moved in perfect sync, following Bodam’s wishes.

“Is he still hospitalized?”

Even after the treatment was finished, Yi Jun did not regain consciousness.

Bodam, who had realized in that moment that the natural imprinting had been broken, had hugged Yi Jun in surprise.

Thinking he was dead.

“Why are you asking?”

“I asked you first.”

“What are you going to do with that information?”

Fortunately, Yi Jun was still breathing and was transferred to the medical center.

He was now hospitalized not in the Esper-exclusive ward, but in a private room in the guide ward.

Yi Jun was using the very same hotel-like private room that Bodam had stayed in.

He was now.

“I’m going to see him.”

Not an Esper.

“Why are you going? There’s no need for you to go.”

Tae Hwan, who had walked out from the first-floor hallway, cut in.

His hair was in a similar state to Bodam’s, as if he had also just woken up from a nap in his room.

Bodam and Tae Hwan looked at each other’s messy hair, one clicking his tongue and the other finding it cute.

“Mind your own business and go back to sleep.”

“I wasn’t sleeping. I was just lying down.”

“I didn’t ask, so go back inside.”

“Why are you looking for Kang Yi Jun? Just forget about a guy like that.”

Tae Hwan approached Bodam and naturally straightened his messy hair.

Even as Bodam swatted his hand away, telling him to mind his own head, he continued to fix his hair.

Bodam didn’t seem to be genuinely pushing Tae Hwan away either.

The two looked intimate, as comfortable as they had become with their skinship.

That’s how it looked to Seung Ho.

“Want to eat? You’re hungry, right?”

“We just ate.”

“You said you’d eat dessert later. Let’s eat it now.”

As Tae Hwan took out his phone to open a delivery app, Bodam, seeing his lock screen, shrieked.

“Change the picture!”

Tae Hwan, who still had the bizarre composite sketch Bodam had drawn as his lock screen, stretched his arm up high and hid his phone.

He dodged Bodam’s hands here and there, but he never used his psychokinesis.

Bodam, squawking at him to delete the picture immediately, grabbed Tae Hwan’s chest and jumped up and down.

In the meantime, Tae Hwan was subtly supporting Bodam’s back to keep him from falling over.

“Yoon Bodam.”

Seung Ho, who had been watching them, poured his coffee into the sink and said, “Let’s go. To see Kang Yi Jun.”

“Hyung!”

Tae Hwan, who had snapped at Seung Ho, soon met Bodam’s stinging gaze.

No matter how much Kang Yi Jun had become an ordinary kid, he was still Kang Yi Jun.

Only his powers had disappeared; there was no way that crazy bastard’s personality had changed.

“Then I’m going with you.”

“Hey, Tae Hwan-ah, come on.”

Bodam, who grabbed Tae Hwan as he stepped forward, ready to follow them immediately, called his name.

Just his name, without the surname.

“….”

Tae Hwan’s body froze at the familiar address.

It had become Tae Hwan’s weakness at some point.

Whenever Bodam called him “Tae Hwan-ah,” he didn’t know what to do.

It was funny how he became dazed just from having his name called once.

Bodam sometimes called his name without any reason, just because his expression was amusing.

And Tae Hwan would react the same way, over and over again.

Tae Hwan’s reaction, blushing and stiffening, made Bodam laugh every time.

“Don’t follow me!”

Bodam, taking advantage of the moment Tae Hwan’s brain had stopped, quickly ran out and waved his hand at Seung Ho to hurry up.

Then he briefly had to deal with Ji Oh, whom he ran into at the door.

“Where are you two going! I’ll take you!”

“I said we’re fine!”

Bodam often yelled, especially at Tae Hwan and Ji Oh.

He couldn’t communicate with them unless he raised his voice.

He would especially raise his hand to Tae Hwan, not only when hitting him but also when calling him or talking to him.

Skinship that Bodam himself was unaware of was becoming more and more frequent.

***

As they moved to the medical center, Seung Ho updated Bodam on Yi Jun’s condition.

Yi Jun, whose powers had been extinguished, had returned to the body of an ordinary person.

He no longer needed to be confined at the Center and was given his freedom.

The Center Director cleanly let Yi Jun go, as he had made the biggest contribution to catching the Crow.

“Is he still sleeping a lot and collapsing?”

“No.”

Yi Jun’s body was fine.

He was just showing severe nutritional deficiencies and a weakened immune system due to losing the abnormal body of an Esper.

He said that once his stamina recovered, he would be sent back to where he originally lived.

“Do you really have to see him?”

Seung Ho asked as they arrived at the hospital corridor they had once frequented tirelessly.

He didn’t stop Bodam.

He was just curious about the reason.

Why Bodam, who was no longer bound to Kang Yi Jun by a matching rate, was worried and concerned about his condition.

“Yes.”

After a short reply, Bodam calmly walked towards the door.

He wanted to see Yi Jun’s condition with his own eyes.

He was worried about him.

And he felt sorry for his life.

Drrk.

Upon opening the sliding door, the first thing that caught his eye was a broken vase.

Bodam, who had hesitated for a moment without crossing the threshold, soon began to walk slowly again.

Surveying the messy hospital room.

The legs of the overturned table were broken, and everything except for the fixed furniture was scattered on the floor.

Bodam kept his mouth shut as he looked at the hospital room, which was in such a state of disarray that it was hard to believe it was the space he had once stayed in.

He continued to walk inside, avoiding the objects that Kang Yi Jun must have thrown and knocked over.

“Get out.”

Yi Jun’s voice came from the sofa, not the bed from which the mattress had fallen.

Having lost the exceptional senses of an Esper and the ability to detect wavelengths, he couldn’t recognize Bodam by his footsteps alone.

“I said, get out.”

He tried to drive away the approaching person without even checking who it was.

Without even considering that Bodam might have come.

Clang!

Yi Jun threw the object that had been decorating the table at the intruder who had entered his space without permission.

He threw the object he could grab without even turning to look at the presence, his eyes closed.

The object he had thrown haphazardly didn’t even go far and fell right in front of him.

A shard from the broken ceramic grazed the back of his hand.

“I’m not going.”

Yi Jun muttered.

He probably thought Bodam was a member of the medical staff or someone sent by the Center Director.

Bodam continued to keep his mouth shut, just looking down at Yi Jun lying on the sofa.

“It hurts, so don’t touch me.”

Bodam, recalling Seung Ho’s words that he would be sent back as soon as his strength recovered, quietly examined Yi Jun’s body.

It was a body that used to be left without a single scratch even after rampaging through a gate site.

Now, there were many small wounds all over his body.

His delicate hands had bloody scratches and bruises from the shards, and his feet, which had walked on the dangerous floor without slippers, were in even worse condition.

The blood that had pooled at the tips of his white toes was staining the sofa fabric red.

‘This is serious. Kang Yi Jun.’

“If it hurts, get treatment.”

Yi Jun’s eyes opened at Bodam’s sudden voice.

He shot up into a sitting position and looked up at Bodam with a shocked face.

As the mask that had always been full of composure disappeared, his pale, ashen face revealed his anxiety.

“I said get treatment.”

Bodam’s voice was even calmer and more subdued.

Realizing that this was not a hallucination, Yi Jun’s lips parted slightly.

His gray eyes, which looked particularly murky, were shaking violently.

Yi Jun, who opened and closed his mouth repeatedly before he could make a sound, seemed dazed.

So much so that he couldn’t easily utter the word “hyung” that he had called out so tirelessly.