Free Web NovelAwkward and embarrassed, Yohan felt a strange itchiness somewhere in his body.
He rubbed his arm and looked at Lee Hyunmook — and his heart gave a jolt. The man’s eyes crinkled in an easy, warm smile, the very same handsome expression Yohan had often seen in the videos from before he fell into the Abyss.
“Just teasing you.”
The heat in Yohan’s face flared even hotter.
“You can call me whatever you like. I do prefer it when people use my name, though. It’s been a long time since anyone has — everyone just calls me team leader.”
This was bad. Looking at Hyunmook smiling like that, all Yohan could think was that he was in big trouble.
Before he knew it, his eyes had drifted to Hyunmook’s lips, and suddenly, for no reason at all, he found himself craving an apple. Swallowing, he met Hyunmook’s gaze — the man still wearing that lingering smile — and heard him ask in that impossibly gentle tone,
“What is it, Yohan?”
“No... it’s just...” ƒreewebɳovel.com
Being called Yohan-ah in that kind voice felt every bit as itchy and flustering as calling him Hyunmook-hyung. Sweat prickled down Yohan’s back, but the smile faded slowly from Hyunmook’s face — not in a negative way, but with a look of intense focus.
“It feels like something warm, like hot water, is flowing out of you right now.”
“Hot... water?”
Embarrassed and flustered, Yohan still couldn’t pull his eyes away. Hyunmook rested a hand on his shoulder.
“When I’m touching you like this, it’s like thawing hands frozen all winter. You have no idea how good that feels, do you...?”
Oh, no — Yohan had a pretty good idea of what that might feel like. Now, not just his face but his entire body felt hot. Then, from who knows where, a surge of courage rose in him. He took Hyunmook’s hand. Despite the hot water comment, the man’s skin was warmer than his own. With his face bright red, Yohan asked,
“Would this... make you a bit warmer?”
If the hot water thing was true, it must have been, because Hyunmook’s brows, eyes, and lips all relaxed into a languid expression.
“Yeah... it’s warmer...”
Holding Yohan’s hand as if it were something precious and rare, Hyunmook slowly drew it toward him. He rubbed his cheek against the back of Yohan’s hand and closed his eyes. Yohan couldn’t move at all — the only thing filling him was the fierce desire to make the other man warmer.
Scree! Screeeech!
The sudden noise snapped Yohan out of it. By the time Hyunmook let go of his hand, there was a sharp pang of disappointment. The mood had been so good... And before he could even check what was making that sound outside, the door burst open. Yoon Seungryong strode in, clutching something strange as if gripping a handful of hair.
“I think we’re gonna have to move.”
* * *
When Seungryong told them to follow, he led them to the outskirts of the black forest an hour away. Within moments, all three of their expressions darkened.
“Team leader, you ever seen anything like this?”
“...No.”
It looked as if it had pushed its way out from deep inside the forest — a line of massive blisters or boils growing in sequence, oozing some revolting, foul liquid that churned inside them. They didn’t need to burst one to know exactly what it was. Standing well back and even turning his gaze slightly away, Seungryong pointed with his spear tip.
“Feels like overflow.”
“Seems so.”
Even as they spoke, the cracks split further, and the blisters inside swelled. It wasn’t nearly as much as they’d seen in the ruined city, so neither Hyunmook nor Seungryong seemed particularly affected. Still, uneasy, Yohan tugged at their collars.
“If that’s what it is, we should probably move back a bit more.”
Both men looked at him, then stepped back without argument. Hands on his hips, Seungryong grinned.
“Yeah. If I turn into a centipede monster again, our Yohan’s in trouble.”
He said it in the tone of an adult humoring a child’s worry — even though he was only two years older than Yohan. Irritated but still anxious, Yohan glanced back at the blisters. Just looking at them made his stomach churn, and he, too, turned his gaze aside.
“Think it overflowed from the ruined city all the way out here?”
“Maybe, but to me, it’s the direction that’s suspicious.”
Seungryong pointed his long spear toward where the blisters were growing. Barely visible at the end of that line was a building — their current shelter.
“Doesn’t it seem odd this is headed straight for where we live? Never seen anything like it before.”
“Better to move the base farther away, then.”
After a moment’s thought, Hyunmook decided. On the way back, Yohan’s mood soured. Packing food into his backpack, he sighed — remembering the painful time he’d had to abandon supplies he’d carefully collected from a convenience store.
“It feels like such a waste to leave all this behind.”
“No way! Why throw it out? We’re taking everything!”
Helping pack, Seungryong’s expression sharpened. Yohan gestured at the big hiking pack.
“There’s no way it’ll all fit in there. And dragging it in a cart would be too much trouble.”
“Tsk, tsk. Watch closely, Yohan.”
Seungryong scooped up an armful of canned goods and shoved them into thin air. Something invisible crumpled like paper, and the cans vanished. Yohan clapped both hands over his mouth.
“N-no way—!”
“Yep! We can take it all! Not a single thing needs to be left behind!” freewebnovёl.ƈom
Grinning proudly, he pulled the cans back out to prove it — and he had every reason to be proud.
“Woooow!”
They wouldn’t have to throw food away! Overjoyed, Yohan jumped and spun around the room with Seungryong, his eyes sparkling with admiration. He thought of the times he’d had to abandon supplies, counting and recounting the remaining food with anxious dread. Seungryong’s ‘pocket’ was even big enough to hold a mattress — meaning a comfortable bed was coming with them, too.
“Oh, right. I caught some fruit earlier. Let’s eat before we go.”
After stuffing everything inside, Seungryong remembered his earlier find. Out in the yard, Hyunmook was already ‘preparing’ the fruit — cutting the throat of something that had been screeching earlier. Once purified, what appeared was an enormous tangerine.
“Guess this must be Jeju Island. There’s pigs, there’s tangerines... Perfect dessert after dinner.”
They ate a few, packed the rest, and then Seungryong suggested,
“While we’re at it, let’s hit a mart, too.”
The look in his eyes burned with the intent to strip the entire area of food. With no reason to object, they headed straight to the store — leaving with sacks of rice, a mole-pig, and all sorts of other goods as they departed the black forest swampland.
* * *
“Kid sleeps like a log...”
Propping his chin on his hand, Seungryong muttered in a flat voice. His gaze was fixed on Yohan, who lay on the mattress between them, snoring softly. Neither he nor Hyunmook took their eyes off him, yet Yohan remained blissfully unaware.
He was right in the middle of the mattress, squeezed between two massive bodies — a clearly burdensome position, but neither man moved to give him more space. They both insisted on keeping Yohan in the safest spot. To them, his purification ability wasn’t just valuable — it was a miracle in this hell.
“Man, it’s been ages since I felt sleepy.”
Still, Seungryong showed no signs of actually going to sleep. Once Yohan was completely out, he shifted closer. The purification that leaked from Yohan while awake flowed even more freely in sleep, drawing him in. The area around Yohan felt freshly scrubbed and comfortable.
“Should’ve come here sooner...”
Expressionless, he slid his fingers between Yohan’s back and the mattress. He wanted to just pull him into his arms, but Hyunmook’s hawk-like gaze kept him in check. Grumbling internally,
It’s not like I’m gonna eat him. I’m not even hungry right now...
Of course, he didn’t say it out loud. Hyunmook, silent until now, replied,
“Better late than never. Though for Yohan, it’s bad luck.”
“Yeah... that’s true.”
Being thrown out into the dead of winter, barely clinging to life, crawling through frozen, filthy snow like an insect — and then finding warmth. Not just any warmth, but one that thawed and straightened twisted, frozen limbs. The mud cave he’d once considered comfortable now felt unbearably disgusting. The human-shaped warmth before him was so precious that losing it, returning to the way things were before, felt like it would kill him.
And Hyunmook, surely, felt the same.
