Three Months of Quiet, and the Things I Still Can’t Remember

However, three months had already passed since we reached that conclusion.

We still hadn’t managed to uncover Jeong Iheon’s true intentions.
Time was slipping by uselessly.

The only thing we had learned was that Jeong Iheon was excessively cautious and possessed an almost uncanny talent for avoiding anything that might put him at a disadvantage.

So much time had passed that sometimes, when I woke up in the morning, I found myself wondering if this place might actually be reality.

Then I’d see the system window and realize that we were still inside the simulation.

Another notable point was that we were still moving as a single team.

<B-rank still teaming up with S-ranks?>

<Even if the ability’s rare, isn’t that kind of weird?>

It apparently seemed strange to people that a mere B-rank ability user was part of a team carrying out high-level missions.

I heard people muttering about me with obvious displeasure more than once.

Unlike my memory manipulation ability, the specifics of my hearing weren’t widely known.

To begin with, no one really cared what traits a B-rank ability user might have.

‘Those people talk so much that my memories have come back a bit… but hearing it all the time gets exhausting.’

Today too, I heard the voices of people—hunters or researchers, I couldn’t tell—whispering about me.

Unless something special was happening, I usually stayed close to Hyeon Jaeyul, so I leaned my head against his shoulder and swept my gaze indifferently over the people around us.

When I let my weight rest against him, Hyeon Jaeyul blinked his dark eyes innocently and glanced down at me.

From the fragments of memory that had returned, I knew that whenever my mind felt unsettled, I tended to drift toward him and lean against his shoulder.

Hyeon Jaeyul was aware of that habit, so he was checking my expression.

Perhaps because we’d been together since childhood, my memories of Hyeon Jaeyul were slowly returning.

But my memories of Jeong Iheon still hadn’t.

The memories that had come back seemed to be from around the ages of twelve to fourteen.

Even those were fragmented, so I couldn’t clearly remember how I’d spent my childhood.

I just remembered Hyeon Jaeyul.

The hand that guided me when I stood there blankly. His gentle attitude that always lingered by my side.

And as those memories surfaced, I realized something.

Hyeon Jaeyul had liked me since at least before I turned fourteen.

Whenever he came close to me, his heart always beat faster than usual.

No matter how oblivious someone was, hearing that sound made his feelings impossible to miss.

His heart beat that quickly.

Now that we were adults, he seemed more accustomed to it, so it wasn’t the same trembling rhythm as back then.

Instead, the beat felt heavier and deeper.

When I sat on his left side with my head resting on his shoulder, it felt as if that pounding echoed straight through me.

Compared to when we were kids, it felt… stickier somehow.

As I thought that, meeting Hyeon Jaeyul’s cautious gaze, the corners of my lips lifted slightly.

Seeing my faint smile, Hyeon Jaeyul spoke.

“What are you thinking about?”

What was I thinking about?

I hesitated for a moment at his question.

‘Wouldn’t it be weird to say I was thinking about you?’

If I admitted I’d been thinking about him, he’d probably be delighted.

But there was no need to give him that kind of opening.

I did like Hyeon Jaeyul, but at least right now, it wasn’t a romantic feeling.

Lying felt awkward too, so I just said whatever came to mind.

“When we were doing the simulation, you know the place where we first met?”

“Yeah.”

“It felt like most of the objects connected to your memories there were related to me.”

Once the words took shape, a question surfaced.

The memory artifacts tied to Hyeon Jaeyul back then had been a balloon, a handkerchief, me, and candy.

The handkerchief was something I always carried, so that made sense.

But the balloon and candy were harder to place.

‘Those feel like they’re connected to me too.’

Curious, I asked.

“The balloon and the candy were connected to me too, right?”

“Yeah. You brought a balloon and candy the first day you came to our house.”

Hyeon Jaeyul replied in a gentle voice.

I tilted my head and waited for him to continue. My memories from when I was nine still hadn’t returned.

“You had the balloon tied to your wrist, and the candy was packed into a container as big as you were.”

A container as big as a child?

If there was that much, I must have eaten it for ages, yet I couldn’t remember it at all.

As he described my childhood, Hyeon Jaeyul spoke with a faint smile.

“You weren’t greedy or interested in other things or food, but you never shared that candy with anyone.

You ate it all by yourself.”

“You didn’t even give any to you?”

“You said I wasn’t allowed to eat it.”

“…I was really stingy.”

Why wouldn’t I give even one piece to Hyeon Jaeyul? And yet I couldn’t remember it at all now.

As I criticized my past self, Hyeon Jaeyul let out a small laugh. It was soft and gentle, almost ticklish.

When he was with me, Hyeon Jaeyul laughed like that often.

Despite his cool-looking features, his laughter was warm, so to someone without their memories, it felt unfamiliar.

I listened quietly to that pleasant sound, and before long, after he stopped laughing, he spoke again.

“It didn’t feel like stinginess.”

“Forget it. You don’t have to defend me.”

“No, I mean it.

It wasn’t that you didn’t want to share… it felt like you were eating something you weren’t supposed to share.”

I’d thought he was just trying to defend me, but he seemed sincere.

“You didn’t even try to show that candy to anyone else.

When you came to our house, aside from the balloon, that candy container was the only thing you brought.”

“Doesn’t that sound strange?”

“You were kind of unique as a kid.”

Hyeon Jaeyul nodded without hesitation.

If even someone who liked me described me that way, I must have been very unusual.

“Unique” might have been a kinder word choice.

To others, I probably came off as odd or eccentric.

With a sigh, I shifted my body closer, pressing myself more firmly against Hyeon Jaeyul.

Thanks to his large frame, just leaning against him like this made me feel incredibly safe.

Hyeon Jaeyul had never once pushed me away, and this time too, he angled his body slightly so I could fit comfortably into his arms.

‘So comfortable again today….’

Blinking slowly in that steady embrace, I pondered.

Lately, I often felt like I was forgetting something important.

It felt as though something I needed to remember had been blacked out in my mind.

Like the scorch marks I’d seen in Hyeon Jaeyul’s dream.

Once again, I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to grasp that elusive memory—then let the tension drain away in defeat.

“I can’t remember anything……”

As I groaned, half-cradled in his arms, Hyeon Jaeyul carefully raised a hand and gently rubbed my forehead with his thumb.

He must have mistaken it for a physical issue.

“My condition’s fine, so you don’t have to worry.”

Even after I said that, he didn’t immediately pull his hand away.

Only after checking carefully for a fever did he withdraw, murmuring that it seemed fine.

At that moment, I heard a very familiar set of footsteps approaching from afar.
Long strides, a rhythm tinged with impatience.

Ju Noeul’s footsteps.

Like most high-rank hunters, his steps were very quiet.

Which made them easier to recognize.

Among people who walked that quietly, only Ju Noeul moved with that kind of restless urgency.

Whenever Ju Noeul saw me leaning against someone, he immediately started yelling.

If I stayed like this with Hyeon Jaeyul, my ears wouldn’t be spared again, so I straightened up, combing my fingers through my messy hair.

Not long after, I spotted Ju Noeul standing crookedly beside the table, arms crossed.

“Hey, you two stuck together again?
Seriously sick of it.”

His tone was always aggressively rough.

Whether it was awkward or embarrassing for him to drop my surname, Ju Noeul always called me “hey” or “you.”

And whenever he did use my name, he always attached the surname and called me Go Doya.

What was really sickening wasn’t us being close.

It was Ju Noeul’s stubborn insistence on calling me that.

The brown eyes looking down at us were clear, despite his rotten attitude.

Watching Ju Noeul stomp in place, Hyeon Jaeyul moved his leg and nudged the chair beside him.

As the chair slid out, Ju Noeul squeezed his eyes shut so tightly his clear brown eyes were nearly hidden.

I always thought this, but Ju Noeul was exceptionally good at expressing irritation.

I’d never seen anyone better at it.

Always steeped in annoyance, Ju Noeul roughly yanked the chair over and dropped into it with a heavy thud.

From the moment he kicked the chair, Hyeon Jaeyul had already pulled my head into his chest with one hand, covering my ear.

Thanks to that, I didn’t have to hear the scraping noise too loudly.

After Ju Noeul sat down, Hyeon Jaeyul released me and asked only me.

“Doya, what do you want to drink?”

“Iced Americano today.”

“Okay. I’ll go get it.”

“f*ck, he’s got a mouth and I’ve just got a damn snout.”

As always, Hyeon Jaeyul ignored Ju Noeul’s rant and went to get my drink.

Ju Noeul always got angry, but honestly, it was impressive that Hyeon Jaeyul had never once bought him a drink either.