A Gentle Warmth, Interrupted

‘Can Won-gyeong really bear that feeling on his own?’

I took in the violet eyes looking at me for a moment, then lowered my gaze.

I could see his neat hands, still absently toying with my hair.

On the back of his hand, which I examined closely only after he woke up, there was no trace of the red sigil he had carved to save me.

As I stared at his clean hand, I absentmindedly laid my own hand over it.

It truly happened without thinking.

I had no intention of comforting him, and I couldn’t even understand myself why I had taken his hand.

Because of that, I didn’t react at all until Won-gyeong moved and firmly clasped my hand in his.

Perhaps because his body temperature was slightly lower than mine, the cool sensation quickly took on my warmth and became similar to my own.

I hadn’t known him for long.

But when we held hands, our temperatures matched almost immediately.

It was a gentle warmth that cooled my slightly overheated self into something lukewarm.

Yes.
A gentle warmth.

‘…I used to like this kind of warmth.’

While living alone, I had tried hard to forget it, and as much as I tried, I managed to forget this sensation.

Looking back, during the time I spent alone, I forgot a great many sorrows.

Seeing how I had forgotten everything I didn’t want to remember, and how even now I couldn’t recall it, I suspected that somewhere along the way I had unconsciously used my ability on myself.

All I remembered now was the vague fact that there had once been something I desperately wanted to forget.

‘If it were now… would it be okay to remember it again?’

If people like Hyeon Jaeyul, Jeong Iheon, and Won-gyeong were by my side like this…

The impulse rose, then quickly sank.

I had a premonition that something lay sleeping deep in my heart, something their gentleness alone could not overcome.

It would be an emotion that I could only endure if I loved them, not because they loved me.

Lost in my thoughts, I noticed my hand entwined with his long, solid fingers.

‘When did they get this tangled?’

Perhaps because there had been a moment in the fracture where we felt affection toward each other, Won-gyeong often initiated contact with me.

And since I didn’t dislike that contact either, I never really stopped him.

‘Now that we’re free from the curse’s influence, can this feeling be called attraction?’

Without exchanging words, we quietly sank into our own emotions.

I wasn’t trying to comfort him, and Won-gyeong wasn’t seeking comfort from me.

It simply felt like we both needed someone to be with.

That was true for me as well.

As we sat there with our hands entwined, a sudden curiosity bloomed, and I lifted my free left hand to cover my eye.

I found myself wondering how I looked through his gaze.

Sharing vision felt like sharing emotions as well.

Whenever his gaze lingered somewhere for a long time, or when everything else blurred as he focused on a single person, that thought crossed my mind.

To share one’s sight was to say it was fine to look into one’s heart.

It was a rather heavy thing, but there didn’t seem to be a better way to confirm the other person’s feelings.

I shut my right eye tightly and relied solely on Won-gyeong’s vision to see what was reflected in his eyes.

The version of me I saw was completely different from what I saw in a mirror.

My white hair traced a more beautiful curve than it ever did in my own view.

With one eye covered and the other closed, my face seemed to glow with light.

The moment when the lashes of my closed right eye fluttered lasted particularly long.

As if telling me to freely share his gaze, as if inviting me to freely dig into his heart, he slowly moved his eyes.

His gaze traveled from my hair, to my eyes, to the small flare of my nose, and down to my lips.

After lingering on my lips for a long moment, he barely tore his gaze away and lifted it back to my closed eye.

His hand rose and brushed aside the bangs covering my forehead.

After spending a brief stretch of time like that, his gaze suddenly drew closer to me.

“Ah.”

A warm sensation touched my exposed forehead.

Startled by the unexpected kiss, I let out a small sound and pulled away the hand that had been covering my eye.

Won-gyeong, who had kissed my forehead, looked down at me with a boyish smile.

When I rubbed my forehead, still dazed, he spoke in a voice laced with laughter.

“I like it when you close your eyes, but I like seeing your eyes even more.”

“…You surprised me.”

“I’m glad it doesn’t seem like you disliked it. I was worried even as I did it.”

“For someone who was worried, you sure didn’t hesitate.”

“Did you hate it?”

I let the hand that had been rubbing my forehead fall and smiled faintly.

It seemed I did feel some attraction toward Won-gyeong after all.

Sharing his vision, him kissing my forehead, none of it felt unpleasant.

If anything, that careful contact made a strange, ticklish feeling bloom near my chest.

Gratitude toward someone who loved a version of me I could never love myself, mixed with a sensation that felt almost like sweet affection…

Without bottling that feeling up, I let it slip out.

“I don’t hate it. It’s just… kind of ticklish….”

I said it in a small voice, gripping the collar of my clothes near my chest.

It was so quiet that he wouldn’t have heard it if he hadn’t been focused on me.

I hadn’t meant to speak so softly.

It was just that everything felt ticklish and embarrassing.

Lowering my gaze, still clutching my collar, I tightened my grip on the hand still entwined with Won-gyeong’s.

The hand that would have slipped away easily if he hadn’t been holding it stayed firmly tangled when I applied a bit of force.

So focused on the delicate, ticklish sensation, I noticed that Won-gyeong had stopped breathing.

His heart was pounding so fast it felt like it might burst.

When I glanced up, I saw Won-gyeong holding me in his gaze.

He wore the expression of someone restraining an impulse.

The breath he had been holding resumed with a short sigh the moment our eyes met.

His hand gently touched my cheek as he slowly leaned in, and then—

“f*ck, are you kidding me right now.”

Ju Noeul’s voice rang out.

And it was very intense.

Won-gyeong straightened from where he had leaned toward me and looked to the side.

Ju Noeul stood there, his face flushed red up to his neck, seething.

I’d been focused on Won-gyeong’s breathing and heartbeat, but not to the extent that I shouldn’t have heard someone approaching.

When I looked at Ju Noeul in confusion at his sudden appearance, Won-gyeong pointed toward the corridor several floors above us.

“Ju Noeul jumped down from up there.”

“…Is he insane?”

“You’re the insane ones. You were really having fun down here!”

Of course I hadn’t heard him approaching.

Like a crazed dopamine addict, Ju Noeul had jumped down here from another upper floor without any safety measures at all.

Since the association building had an open central structure, if he had fallen straight down, there would have been screams everywhere.

And after doing something that dangerous, he had the nerve to say we were ‘having fun.’

I let go of Won-gyeong’s hand and walked over to Ju Noeul.

The sound of his landing hadn’t been very loud, so it seemed he had landed properly, but I wanted to check if he was injured.

We were supposed to find the child today, and it would be a problem if he’d gotten hurt.

“You could’ve just come down normally. Why jump? Are you hurt anywhere? Are you really okay?”

“f*ck, would it have been better if I came late?”

“Why are you swearing at someone who’s worried about you. You f*cking asshole.”

“…No, I wasn’t swearing at you, Go Doya. The situation was just weird!”

“I thought you were swearing at me. If you weren’t, sorry. But you did swear, so you apologize too. And don’t use my surname.”

“O-oh… sorry.”

Ju Noeul, who had been practically shouting back, started stammering after hearing me swear.

After giving back what I received and exchanging apologies, Ju Noeul seemed to regain his senses.

His momentum had faded a bit, but he still pointed accusingly at Won-gyeong and shouted.

“You sent me to scout, and what the hell are you doing with her?!”

“Why do I need to explain that to you? This is my private life with Doya.”

“You crazy— shameless bastard.”

Ju Noeul was left speechless by Won-gyeong’s utterly shameless reply.

He kept spewing curses, huffing ‘Huh, huh!’ as he perfectly expressed his disbelief with empty breaths.

Even without words, it was easy to tell just how dumbfounded Ju Noeul was.

Watching him, I thought to myself.

‘He’d lose any argument, no matter who it’s with.’

He’d probably even lose to an elementary schooler.

At first, he had seemed the scariest of them all, but once I got to know him, he turned out to be the easiest one.

Ju Noeul was the type who never bowed to the strong but became extremely weak in front of the weak.

Knowing his own strength, he couldn’t easily use it and instead just endured getting pushed around.

Hyeon Jaeyul was somewhat similar, but he didn’t tolerate unfairness directed at himself.
Ju Noeul did.

Even if he were pelted with stones, if the one throwing them was weaker than him, he’d just seethe alone and swallow his anger.

And by his standards, I was classified as overwhelmingly weak—on par with a child—so Ju Noeul was constantly trying not to come across as threatening toward me.

‘He was the one who untied me when I was bound, too.’

He was always rough in expression, but he was a good person.

No one dislikes a good person.

After observing him closely during our training to develop our abilities, I came to that conclusion.

I didn’t dislike Ju Noeul.

Not disliking someone was one thing, but that didn’t mean he was someone I could wholeheartedly like either.

First of all, Ju Noeul himself was far too loud.

Even now, seeing him yell without any regard for my ears instantly killed any goodwill that might have been forming.

As Ju Noeul stepped closer as if he might grab Won-gyeong by the collar, I grabbed Ju Noeul’s own collar and pulled him back to stop him.

It wasn’t much force, but as expected, Ju Noeul didn’t move any farther forward and stopped in place.

After pressing his fingers hard between his brows and then lowering his hand, Ju Noeul spoke.

“Why.”

“Did you check the building properly?”

“I checked everything. From the basement to the rooftop. While you two were busy having fun.”