The Afterparty

“…”
“…”
A silence fell over the barbecue restaurant.
Yeon Taeseon, who was awkwardly adjusting his neatly slicked-back hair, had veins popping on the back of his hand that even added to his chiseled look.
The makeup, which added a bit of decadence, brought his face to life in a crazy good way, and made him look like a man with a story.
And what about the bouquet of roses in his hand?
It was a bouquet that seemed to be made of exactly a hundred roses, so full that it was the kind you would use to confess your love.
“…”
Let me summarize.
The destructive power was enormous.
It was not good.
For my heart.
My heart, which had been calm, suddenly sped up.
‘Why… why?’
I was flustered.
Why so suddenly?
How did he end up looking like that?
No, it’s very good, but, but… that’s not something Yeon Taeseon could have thought of on his own.
Since Yeon Taeseon’s thinking is not flexible, he would have just come without a plan.
Not in a full set like that.
‘This isn’t the right place for that, is it?’
Although this place was expensive, is it the kind of restaurant where you would come with your hair slicked back, wearing a semi-formal suit, and even makeup?
No, it wasn’t.
And who in the world would bring a bouquet of roses so foolishly?
Of course, my eyes were feasting, but apart from that, I was curious as to why he had come like that…!
A single word cautiously raised its head in my mind.
“Yeon Taeseon…”
“What is it.”
“Are you going to confess?”
“…”
“Or have you already been rejected?”
“…”
Yeon Taeseon, who seemed to have just achieved 0 confessions and 1 rejection, sighed and approached the table.
Everyone slowly made room for him.
There was no good reason to kick him out, saying it was an after-party, since Yeon Taeseon had also taught Lee Won and was a member of the Nate Guild.
Only the sound of meat grilling echoed in the silence.
“S-so, my friend said…”
“Ah, r-right…”
Seoah, who couldn’t stand it, was the first to try to lighten the mood.
The owner, who seemed to have sensed the awkward atmosphere, put on the most cheerful music in the restaurant.
As if that effort had worked, we soon regained our original pace and were able to chatter loudly again.
Except for me, Yeon Taeseon, and Daisy.
“…”
“…”
“…”
Yeon Taeseon had taken a seat as if to separate me and Daisy.
Daisy, who seemed to be in a bad mood, just kept drinking cider.
Yeon Taeseon didn’t say anything.
He didn’t even eat any meat.
‘Then why did he come?’
And he was still holding that bouquet in his hand, without giving it to anyone.
“Sir, the bouquet…”
“It’s fine.”
“Yep.”
The owner, who had been about to ask, ‘Should I hold onto it for you?’ out of courtesy, retreated like a beam of light.
Having been a barbecue restaurant owner for 20 years, it was not uncommon for someone to try to confess at a barbecue restaurant.
And usually, the end was not good, and the owner had the ability not to get involved.
“So! I’m going to take Momo and Coco!”
“Oh!”
As Seoah was talking like an old man, as if she were drunk even though she hadn’t ordered any alcohol, and everyone was eating their fill.
“…”
“…”
Yeon Taeseon slyly took my left hand.
‘What is this?’
As I was desperately trying to ignore it, his calloused, thick-fingered hand slowly caressed my hand.
It wasn’t that he was intertwining his fingers or holding my hand openly.
He just placed his hand over mine, moved his fingers, and…
He gently held my ring finger and then let go.
As if to gauge the size.
“…”
I understood everything.
And the first thought that came to my mind was that this crazy Regressor had finally made up his mind.
And since there was no way Daisy wouldn’t have noticed what I had noticed.
The day’s gathering ended with Daisy ‘accidentally’ pouring water on Yeon Taeseon’s clothes.
On the way home, I decided to ignore the sound of Seoah saying, “My friends will love this story if I tell them.”
Yeon Taeseon, who had appeared in a full set and had exuded a strange aura, had actually done nothing and run away.
I couldn’t understand what he was trying to do.
Actually, I thought I knew, but I didn’t want to know.
That bouquet of flowers also never left his hand.

“Go.”
Even though we were going in the same direction, he insisted on staying at the barbecue restaurant and told us to go first.
I was dumbfounded.
‘A… a man should have some guts…!’
Of course, if he had confessed on the spot, I would have immediately turned into a jellyfish and run to Sion.
So in many ways, it was a wise choice.
Perhaps too wise.

That night. I lay in bed with a strange, bland feeling.
Am I disappointed? I don’t know.
My chest feels empty, but I can’t pinpoint the exact reason.
And just as I was about to fall asleep after organizing my to-do list for tomorrow in my head, I felt the Administrator pulling me into the starry sky for the first time in a while and got annoyed.
A sensation of my body floating up and being sucked into somewhere.
A strange feeling of my body and soul separating.
I frowned.
‘Ah, why!’

“Because I have a gift.”
‘I’m tired!’

“Calamity… won’t you come just once?”
The Administrator, who was making a pitiful voice like a whining puppy, unlike his usual self, pulled me into the starry sky like a child trying to show me a glow-in-the-dark bracelet from under the covers.
I eventually headed for the starry sky.
“If it’s not a big deal, I’m going to be angry…”
As I came to the starry sky, I couldn’t help but stop in my tracks.
My breath, stops.
‘This isn’t… the Administrator’s nebula, is it?’
A mysterious color of water and air bubbles, a mixture of emerald green and deep blue.
Fish and whales that held stars, and shining jellyfish.
A variety of magic circles that spread and disappeared like waves with each step.
The atmosphere, as if it existed in the deep sea, was mysterious and not at all scary, and occasionally, the star-holding fish would play a prank on me and leave.
The magic circles spreading under my feet were mainly the ones I had improved, created, and revolutionized the world with.
They were things I had made.
“This place is…”
I couldn’t help but know.
“My… nebula?”
The final bastion that can only be obtained by ascending to the starry sky.
The nebula existed at my feet.

A few hours ago.
The Administrator was on the verge of exploding.
He wanted to throw a lightning bolt.
If he were a Constellation who could deliver divine punishment, he would have done so to anyone.

“You’re not the only one who’s behind, Regressor…”
No, the Administrator admitted that his situation was worse.
Although he could play a prank on the Silent Calamity at any time with the system window, that was all.
Unlike Yeon Taeseon or Han Sion, he couldn’t go down to the lower world and touch her directly, and he could only see her face when he secretly took her to the starry sky while she was asleep.
At least the work of shaking the Silent Calamity’s heart with a full set like that was impossible for the Administrator.

“I’m going crazy.”
The Administrator, after his confession had failed spectacularly, was feeling a sense of crisis in many ways.
Yeon Taeseon had held her hand.
And Han Sion had given his heart.
Compared to that, I… but I was also sincere in my own way…!
It was the agony of the Administrator, who had realized that he had no romantic cells in his body.
Although the people of the starry sky have no cells, anyway.

“At this rate, I’ll be the most incompetent and behind…”
And yet, it was he, not Han Sion or Yeon Taeseon, who had met the Silent Calamity first.
‘I should have just kept her by my side instead of sending her down to the lower world.’
He had even started to have such obsessive thoughts.
He had finally admitted that he had to put in much more effort than the creatures of the lower world to put the Silent Calamity by his side.
Therefore.

“What should I do for her? A bouquet of starlight flowers? That overlaps with Yeon Taeseon. I have to give her something that only I can give. Only I…”
The Administrator decided to go on a rampage.
This was something that only he could give.

“Let’s give her a nebula.”
A nebula.
The home of the Constellations, which each of them must have and which is naturally created when they ascend to the starry sky.
A place that symbolizes that Constellation, where they can exert absolute power, and which even helps the Constellation to recover.
Since you can’t have two nebulae, the Administrator decided to complete the nebula first before the Silent Calamity ascended.
Because that alone would be a great help to her, who was confronting The Crow’s Ruins.
Fortunately, that was within the Administrator’s authority, albeit very narrowly.
The Administrator set aside other tasks and began to reinforce the nebula first.
“Isn’t the status window strangely slow today?”
“The gate settlement and things like that are also slow today.”
“The Constellations’ messages are coming a step late.”
“…Does the system get tired too?”
That day, the fact that the system was strangely slow was something that only those who knew knew.