The Second Chance is a Warm One

“—Ugh, haaa!”

I bolted upright, tearing myself out of a sea of floating thoughts. Cold sweat poured down my skin, and my body, damp beneath the covers, began to chill rapidly.

‘Where am I?’

I scanned my surroundings, desperate to orient myself.

But then….

“Huh?”

The space was familiar. It was my room in my brother’s house—the place I had stormed out of five years ago the moment I became an Awakened.

Startled, I moved to get out of bed when a clattering sound caught my attention. I looked down at the mattress.

There lay a pendant. It had turned entirely black and was half-crumbled; as I watched, it slowly disintegrated into dust and scattered in the air.

‘The pendant…!’

Only after seeing that pendant did I realize the truth: I had returned from death. This was my last chance.

Simultaneously, the memories I had suppressed came rushing back like a tidal wave.

“Baek… Heedo….”

The first thing to surface was my lover, who had met a shocking end. If it hadn’t been for me, he would have lived a fulfilling life as an R-rank warrior. Just thinking about his final moments made me want to retch.

“Ugh….”

And then, Yu Selim.

The one I must kill. The target of my absolute revenge in this lifetime.

Thinking of Yu Selim made my skin crawl, as if the “Pair Brand” he had etched into me was still burning on my neck. I scrambled out of bed and bolted toward the bathroom.

“Huh?”

I froze, my breath catching in my throat.

My brother… Seong-hun was stepping out of the gate.

“…Seong-hun hyung?”

“What are you doing? It’s the middle of the night.”

I stood there speechless, staring intently at his face. To see him again. I knew the pendant must have brought me back to this point in time, but I never imagined I’d be able to face him like this.

Tears began to stream down my face.

“……Eh?”

“Hyung!”

Forgetting all about checking for the Pair Brand in the bathroom, I ran to Seong-hun and sobbed like a child.

My brother looked flustered as he tried to soothe me. But I couldn’t regain my composure; I just wailed, burying my face in his chest and breathing in the scent of him I hadn’t smelled in so long.

“So… you had a nightmare?”

“Yeah….”

“A twenty-one-year-old man?”

“…….”

I’m twenty-one right now. If I’m twenty-one, that means this is before the ‘Monster Invasion’ where Hyung went missing, and….

‘Baek Heedo is nineteen….’

Back then, did he say he had a bob cut? For some reason, a small chuckle escaped me.

“Look at you, now you’re laughing.”

“No… it’s just, because Hyung is here now….”

“You’re a weird kid. I seriously thought something had happened to the house.”

“…….”

“Wailing the second I walk through the door. Honestly.”

Though he grumbled, he didn’t stop patting my back. It was mostly because I was still clinging to his waist, refusing to let go.

Thinking I was still trapped in the lingering aftershocks of a nightmare, Hyung didn’t try to push me away or scold me for the clinginess. Instead, he just let me hang onto his hip as he surveyed the messy house and the neglected chores, letting out a deep sigh.

“I told you to do the dishes.”

“Sorry. I’m really sorry.”

“……You’re acting really strange today.”

Hyung looked back at me, seemingly taken aback by my immediate apology. When our eyes met, the tears started welling up again.

Seeing me wipe my eyes against his side, Seong-hun reached out and ruffled my hair.

“Sigh…. It’s like when you were a little kid.”

He rolled up his sleeves and started on the dishes I had left behind—a chore that was clearly my responsibility.

The funny thing was, I didn’t take over. I just stayed attached to his waist, acting like a spoiled brat while he worked. I had spent five years searching for him; now that I had found him, I didn’t want to do anything except hold onto him. And… Baek Heedo. Thinking of Heedo was still too painful….

“You look exhausted. Just how bad was that nightmare?”

“…….”

“Go back to sleep.”

“Hyung, will you stay by my side?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ll sleep if you stay with me.”

I tugged on his arm. Hyung made a face like he’d just seen something skin-crawling and tried to yank his arm back.

“Hey, th—this is crossing a line!”

“Hyung, let’s sleep together. Please?”

“Forget it, man. This single bed is too small for two.”

“Hyung-ah….”

“Stop acting cute with your voice! You’ve already finished your military service!”

Hyung had zero immunity to my acting cute. His face turned beet-red as he scolded me, but in the end, he climbed into bed with me.

I burrowed into his arms, breathing in his unique scent. And then I smelled it—something I hadn’t noticed in the past, but could recognize now. The scent of blood.

I snapped my eyes open and looked at him.

“Hyung, are you hurt somewhere?”

“Huh? What are you talking about now?”

“The smell of blood….”

Hyung’s expression hardened for a moment before he relaxed and spoke.

“It’s not mine. Is it that strong?”

“No. It’s okay, Hyung….”

I really didn’t know anything about him.

With that thought, I buried myself deeper into his arms, despite the faint metallic scent. Hyung sighed, but he didn’t pull away, letting me stay right there.

“You’re saying your brother is acting weird?”

“Yeah.”

“This sis-con—wait, brother-con? Here he goes again with the brother stories.”

“For real.”

“No, seriously, it’s weird. He’s been a little off lately.”

“Is he any weirder than you?”

Han Seong-hun (R-rank Awakened, 33 years old) looked like he’d lost weight recently from worrying about his younger brother.

However, his party members treated their “great leader’s” concerns like white noise. It was because Han Seong-hun was a notorious “Brother-Fool” who never stopped talking about his sibling.

No matter the topic, it always circled back to “My brother this,” or “Because of my brother…” He treated his fully grown adult brother like a kindergartner.

Chae Chang-yeon, Seong-hun’s right-hand man, finally gave in and asked.

“What is it this time?”

“No, listen….”

As expected, what followed was less of a concern and more of a boast.

“Lately, whenever I come home, he’s like, ‘Hyung, you’re back?’ or ‘Good job today.’ And then, he tells me he’s already cooked dinner!”

“……Dinner?”

“Yeah. Dinner. And he makes side dishes from scratch! Only the stuff I like, too. When I jokingly asked if it was my birthday, he told me he’s going to take responsibility for all my meals from now on. Does that make sense? Don’t you guys think that’s weird?”

“…….”

“My younger sister does that sometimes.”

“……R-really?”

Seong-hun, who had brought it up with half-pride and half-suspicion, lost his words for a moment when another member said their family did the same. But soon, he went right back to describing his brother’s “bizarre” behavior.

“That’s not all. He does all the chores. In the past, he’d barely look at me when I came home because he was too busy gaming, but now he says he waits for me all day. He even asks me what I did today and wants me to tell him stories! Now that is weird, right? Right?”

“…….”

“…….”

In reality, the answer Han Seong-hun wanted was already decided. He was just fishing for compliments.

The other party members shook their heads, but Lee Su-bin, the kindest soul in the group, nodded and spoke up.

“That does sound a bit unusual.”

“Right?!”

Then, the most mischievous member, Yoon Seo-hee, smirked and teased him.

“Just ask him if he needs allowance money.”

“Hey! My brother isn’t like that!”

“There it is again. ‘My brother wouldn’t~’”

“Only his brother is an angel.”

“My brother is an angel!”

Seong-hun bickered with his teammates, sounding like a textbook case of a brother-obsessed lunatic. Of course, Han Sol knew nothing of these conversations.

“Sol-ah, I’m home.”

At some point, because of the “new” Han Sol, Seong-hun had made it a habit to call out his brother’s name the moment he stepped through the front door. If he didn’t, Han Sol would get pouty and ask why he hadn’t greeted him.

“Hyung!”

A moment later, the sound of light footsteps approached, and Han Sol jumped onto his back for a hug.

Seong-hun relaxed his body, letting Han Sol hang off him. With a bright smile, Han Sol began to chatter away about everything that had happened during the day.