Chapter 103 : The Mark That Was Always Mine

“That again!”

Hae-jin’s face crumpled in a deep frown.

“It’s something I have to say. We have to be prepared.”

“Prepared? You mean like finding another S-rank guide in advance?”

“That’s not what I meant……”

Lee Chae let out a long sigh and continued.

“I want us to be lovers. My family is stable now, so the only person I have to look after is you, Hyung. So, I’ll stay by your side, guiding you and loving you, and I’ll protect you. But, in case of an emergency, I don’t want us to imprint so that any S-rank can guide you if needed—”

“Let’s stop the crazy talk right there. I’m starting to get angry.”

Hae-jin stared at Lee Chae as if he were listening to a different language.

His glossy black eyes turned sharp.

“No, Hyung, don’t just get mad, listen to me. First of all, we’ll be lovers and……”

“F*ck, are you insane? How can you tell me not to imprint just so I can be guided by some other S-rank? Do you think that makes any sense? What if you fall for another Esper in the meantime? What if you run away then because you say you hate me?”

His voice was thick with fury.

“No…… Didn’t you say you trusted me earlier?”

“What does trusting you have to do with not imprinting?”

Isn’t saying he wants to imprint because he’s afraid I’ll fall for another Esper the same as saying he doesn’t trust me?

To think he’s insisting on something he just contradicted…… Was that mature act earlier just a performance?

Lee Chae calmly grabbed Hae-jin’s wrist, pulled it down, and held his hand with both of his own.

“Don’t get excited and think about it slowly. You’re so f*cking strong, Hyung. Is there even a chance you’ll die? There isn’t, right?”

“F*ck, if there isn’t, why even make the assumption? It’s bad luck.”

“Haah…… Hyung, let’s talk after you calm down first.”

“I can’t calm down. No imprinting? Does that make sense? No imprint means no mark, and you should know better than anyone how much of a struggle it was not being able to know each other’s location. Imagine you disappear again. What do you think will happen to me then? You want to go through that sh*t again?”

“Why would I disappear? I can stay by your side 24 hours a day. Now my workplace is the same as yours……”

“Ha? 24 hours a day? Give me a break. As if a workaholic like you would stay glued to my side. You’ll leave me alone while you work, and if I try to stick to you, you’ll get sick of me. Isn’t that right?”

“…Why go that far? Is that really how you see me?”

Hae-jin roughly brushed his hair back and met my eyes.

“Listen carefully, Jung Lee Chae. I’ve thought about this for a long time, and I’ve already set up a countermeasure.”

“What more of a countermeasure could there be……”

“You’re the one who needs to listen when someone speaks. Stop interrupting.”

Lee Chae nodded. He intended to at least hear him out.

Hae-jin grabbed his chin and made him look at him.

His black eyes were sunken deep. It was the look he often had when he wanted to say something serious.

“I am going to imprint. I’d rather bite my tongue and die than live in anxiety not knowing when you might vanish again. Even if I live for just one day, I want to live as Jung Lee Chae’s Esper.”

“Then you’re saying you’ll just die?”

“I’m not saying I’ll do that. I’m too spiteful to ever die and leave you behind. And I’m not going to lose my abilities because that would be too embarrassing.”

Lee Chae stared at Hae-jin with wide eyes.

His expression said he couldn’t understand a word of it.

Hae-jin added:

“You’re wondering how that’s possible?”

Hae-jin stopped and pulled out his phone with a confident expression.

As Lee Chae leaned in to look at the screen, Hae-jin scrolled through several photos in his gallery.

“This is the strategy that makes it so we have no choice but to win the battle against Lamia. And the next one is information about the Quiklops I heard from Yong-yong. And the one after that is what’s truly important.”

Lee Chae looked at the materials being flipped through with a dazed feeling, then his eyes widened in shock.

“Th-this is……”

“Right. It’s the development status of a defense skill. It’s not perfect yet, but with a little more work, it’ll be near-perfect. Your lover isn’t just bluffing; he’s truly become invincible. The only thing I can’t do is guiding, but you’re going to do that for me, so what’s the worry?”

“H-how is this possible? Abilities are supposed to be determined at the moment of awakening. So how can a new ability…… Ah!”

Looking at Hae-jin’s confident face, something he heard in a general education class suddenly came to mind.

It was said that attack-oriented Espers focus all their energy on a single attack skill to maximize it, but among some Espers, there are those like Hae-jin or Jae-hyung who are born with two or three skills simultaneously. It was also said that some, like Jin-woo, could have both attack and defense skills, though the defense might be weaker compared to the attack.

‘Then what? Cha Hae-jin had a technique I didn’t even know about?’

“Jung Lee Chae.”

Lee Chae snapped out of it at the feeling of someone tapping his thigh.

“Do you get it now?”

“So this was all developed by you, Hyung……”

“Yeah. A defense skill that will soon be perfect, and there’s even a skill that doubles in power when used with Yong-yong. When I figured out that skill, I had this thought: seeing as even the Yong-yong that Jung Lee Chae saved ended up helping me, maybe you, Jung Lee Chae, are the ultimate skill yourself.”

“That can’t be…… A skill used together with a dragon? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Of course you haven’t. Because I developed it. Do you still not get it? As long as I have Jung Lee Chae, I am invincible!”

Lee Chae felt like he was still dreaming.

He couldn’t believe that a problem so complex and difficult had been resolved so easily just because they reunited.

His heart rate accelerated wildly, and his thighs felt numb.

Moreover, the thought that Hae-jin had put in his absolute best effort while they were apart just to ensure they wouldn’t be separated again moved him deeply.

“Since I’m invincible, promise me now that you’ll stay by my side forever.”

“I already did that.”

“I mean I want you to leave proof through an imprint.”

Hae-jin slowly looked up at Lee Chae.

All movement stopped as if time itself had frozen.

Lee Chae forgot to think for a moment and just stared at him blankly.

As the face he loved so much filled his vision, Lee Chae felt an emotional surge.

It was because he remembered the day the imprint was erased.

On that day, which lacked any sense of reality but was filled with excruciating pain, how many times had he prayed inwardly?

He prayed that it was all a dream.

That when he woke up, Hae-jin would approach him as if nothing had happened and ask if he’d had a bad dream.

They say if you pray fervently, it comes true—how could this be?

It felt like a miracle had happened.

“Hyung, I… I’ve been having a bad dream for so long.”

At Lee Chae’s voice, which sounded like he might burst into tears at any moment, Hae-jin closed and opened his eyes as if encouraging him to say more.

From the day the imprint was erased until this very moment, it had been a long and painful dream. Now it was time to reclaim the imprint.

“I’ll…… take the mark back. It was mine from the beginning anyway. Actually, I never wanted to have it taken away.”

Just thinking about it made him feel so sorrowful he felt like crying.

Lee Chae paused for a moment to calm his heart, then looked straight at Hae-jin.

“You think you’re the only one with an obsession, Hyung? I’m even worse. I only endured it because I loved you. I’m obsessed, too.”

“Crazy…… Listen to Jung Lee Chae talk. I can never win against your words.”

Hae-jin placed his hand on his chest and let out a long sigh. Then he grinned at Lee Chae.

“Haah…… I thought I was going to die worrying that you’d say no.”

Hae-jin leaned his head on Lee Chae’s shoulder with an expression as joyful as an Esper who had just won a battle.

Every time he took a heavy breath, his body shook so much that Lee Chae’s shoulder trembled.

Cha Hae-jin was someone whose instincts preceded his reason.

I could feel how much he had endured to suppress those instincts and act rationally.

How must Hae-jin have felt during that time, when even enduring the pain in his heart must have been difficult, while calculating every possible scenario to solve our problem?

‘Compared to that, I……’

I just gave up based on assumptions and ran away like a coward.

Feeling so sorry for that, Lee Chae tightly held the hand of the Hae-jin leaning on his shoulder and spoke.

“I don’t think I could ever become as cool as you, even if I died and came back to life.”

“What? I can’t hear you. Say it a bit louder.”

Hae-jin, who had been leaning on him with a face like he was about to die just a moment ago, raised his head and his eyes sparkled as if he had never been like that.

That look seemed so foolish yet lovely that Lee Chae willingly repeated the words he wanted to hear.

“I like you because you’re not just a person full of bluster, but a real adult. I’m proud of you because you’re a person whose actions precede your words.”

Hae-jin laughed as innocently as a child receiving a gift and pulled Lee Chae into a hug.

He clung to him as if their bodies would never separate.

While their bodies were apart during their separation, their hearts had never been.

He had always hovered around Hae-jin, dreaming of going to his world.

Hae-jin’s embrace, which was even better than he had imagined, was the perfect center of the world for Lee Chae.

Slowly pulling back, Hae-jin whispered in Lee Chae’s ear:

“Jung Lee Chae, it’s time to imprint.”

Lee Chae nodded, took Hae-jin’s hand, and walked toward the parking lot.

The bus stop, which represented both their past and a new beginning, gradually moved further away from them.

In front of the old Legion building, Lee Chae looked up at the structure with a face that looked like he was dreaming.

Just looking at it made his heart throb.

All sorts of indefinable emotions rushed in at once, so he couldn’t go inside even though Hae-jin was pulling at him.

“I’m in a hurry, but my wifey isn’t cooperating.”

“Just a moment. Let me look.”

“Do you like the building? Or do you like me?”

Lee Chae glared at the childish Hae-jin and then looked up at the shimmering building again.

Countless things that happened here flashed through his mind.

The sense of loss he felt this morning seeing how much Legion had changed felt completely compensated for the moment he saw the old building.