Chapter 72
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 72
Eun-ji, who had entered the house a step ahead of me, had, in that short time, been replaced by Eun-seol.
“You’re back.”
Spotting me, Eun-seol emerged from the dressing room and offered a brief greeting.
“Good work. It couldn’t have been easy looking after a kid all day.”
“No, well…”
Words acknowledging my hardship.
Dokyun scratched his cheek, his mind suddenly replaying the moment he’d lost Eun-ji at the amusement park. He lowered his head slightly and continued.
“I couldn’t even do that right. I’m sorry.”
Though he had found her quickly and things had ended well, the guilt settled in his heart like a stone, still troubling him.
As Dokyun stood there with his head bowed and his expression dark, Eun-seol let out a soft chuckle and offered a word of comfort.
“I wasn’t expecting perfection. Something like this was bound to happen sooner or later, as long as Eun-ji goes outside.”
Flinch.
Bound to happen sooner or later.
Dokyun’s body shuddered at her words. He lifted his head to look at Eun-seol, who was now sinking into the sofa.
Eun-seol met his gaze, and after a moment of silence, she spoke again.
“Why are you acting so surprised? Eun-ji is, in the end, just another one of Go Eun-ah’s alternate personalities. She was created out of necessity. Just like me and Go Eun-chae, Eun-ji and the others each have a role to play.”
Her tone was placid, devoid of any emotion.
But, just as it had before, Dokyun felt an indescribable emptiness in her words.
He had to ask.
“Do you hate it?”
So much had changed since he first met her.
He had come to know little things about her, and he felt they had grown closer than strangers.
He didn’t know what she thought of their relationship, but Dokyun believed they were close enough that he could at least ask such a question.
The question hung in the air. Eun-seol remained silent for a moment.
“How could I possibly like it?”
Her words were chillingly cold.
A frost seemed to emanate from her reply, and Dokyun’s fists clenched tight.
In that instant, a storm of inexpressible emotions churned within him, followed by a torrent of thoughts.
Could it be that Eun-seol is even more dangerous than Go Eun-chae? Just as that thought crossed his mind…
“Get those useless thoughts out of your head.”
Her voice cut in.
Dokyun flinched again. Eun-seol let out a small smirk, finally averting her gaze from him as she added another word.
“It’s not like I particularly want this body. It’s just… it just feels shitty.”
As she said this and closed her eyes, Dokyun had no choice but to swallow the questions that had risen to the tip of his tongue.
Do the other personalities think the same way you do? No, before that, can you even promise that what you’re saying right now is the truth?
Forcing the words down, Dokyun relaxed his body slightly and moved to the sofa, sinking down a person’s-width away from Eun-seol.
Silence followed.
Eun-seol had no intention of speaking, and Dokyun lacked the confidence to start.
There was a fact he had taken for granted.
That if only Go Eun-chae disappeared, everything would be fine.
That if only Go Eun-chae disappeared, Eun-ah could be perfectly happy.
He had thought it was so obvious.
But Eun-seol, Eun-ji, Eun-sam, and the final personality who had yet to appear—they were all, in the end, alternate personalities.
For the sake of Go Eun-ah’s perfect happiness.
‘Personalities that must disappear.’
The thought sent a tremor through his fingertips.
Then, another idea began to form in his mind.
For Eun-ah’s happiness, these personalities had to disappear.
It was an obvious fact, one he had considered several times before.
But facing it head-on now, he felt a suffocating tightness in his chest.
Could he…
‘Could I…’
…do it?
Could he willingly erase Eun-seol, Eun-ji, and Eun-sam from the world?
‘No.’
He didn’t have it in him.
It wasn’t a matter of ability. It was an emotional one.
To eliminate Eun-seol, who seemed so cold yet was full of subtle affection.
To eliminate Eun-ji, who had been laughing and chatting with him just moments ago.
To eliminate Eun-sam, who, despite being infuriating just to look at, still had a bright smile.
It was something he couldn’t do.
His fists clenched again, and he gritted his teeth.
Just as a wave of negative emotions began to swell inside him…
“Useless thoughts. I thought I told you to get rid of them.”
Eun-seol’s voice cut through again.
Startled, Dokyun turned his head to look at her. Only then did she turn her gaze back to him and continue.
“I’ve told you before, excessive thinking leads to delusion. Focus on what’s right in front of you.”
Her words were a reprimand, as if she had seen straight through his thoughts.
“What you need to worry about right now is Go Eun-chae. How to get that bitch away from her. Worry about that.”
She was right.
The task he needed to focus on now was separating Go Eun-chae from Go Eun-ah.
His thoughts, expanding without his notice, were, as she said, stepping into the realm of delusion.
Even if it was something he would have to face someday, it wasn’t something he needed to worry about right now.
His chest still felt tight. The suffocating pressure was giving him a slight headache.
But since it wasn’t the problem at hand, Dokyun collected himself and offered an apology to Eun-seol.
“I’m sorry.”
“No need for apologies.”
She accepted his apology nonchalantly. After a moment of silence, Eun-seol spoke again.
“Now that I’ve regained control, Go Eun-chae will be getting desperate. If the hierarchy returns to normal, it’s really over for her.”
She was talking about Go Eun-chae.
“What you have to do won’t change much. However, you need to act with her in mind. I don’t know what that bitch will do when she’s cornered.”
Dokyun felt a wave of tension wash over him.
He already knew how dangerous Go Eun-chae was; Eun-seol had explained it to him several times.
He had always acted with that in mind, and Eun-seol had never said much about it before. For her to warn him now must mean the situation was that serious.
“Is she really that dangerous?”
“You know she is. That bitch is crazy. And that’s not a figure of speech. She’s literally insane.”
Eun-seol’s brow furrowed deeply as she added, “She exists outside the realm of common sense. Even I, who’ve lived my whole life jostling with her, still can’t understand her actions.”
As Eun-seol said, the things Go Eun-chae had done were indeed far removed from common sense.
A question popped into Dokyun’s head, and he voiced it.
“Is there no way to stop her? Like a warning sign before she comes out, or a way to restrain her after she’s already appeared?”
“I don’t know. The situation is too different from how it’s ever been.”
His head was starting to ache for a different reason now.
“Ugh…”
A low groan escaped his lips as he fell deeper into thought. She let out a heavy sigh and continued.
“For now, all you can do is be more careful. The hierarchy has never been this twisted before, so I can’t give you a definite answer.”
“I understand for now.”
Dokyun nodded in response.
He needed to combine what he’d learned from Eun-ji’s behavior today with the warning he’d just received to come up with a viable countermeasure, but it didn’t seem like an answer would come easily.
As he was lost in thought, she, who had gotten up from the sofa at some point, spoke to him.
“Well, I’m not telling you to figure it out right this second. I just thought it was right to give you a heads-up, so take your time thinking about it.”
With that, Eun-seol went to the shelf opposite the sofa, rummaged through it to find a pain-relief patch, and spoke again.
“For now, lie down over there. I’ll at least put a patch on for you.”
“Huh?”
Dokyun looked at her, confused by the sudden offer.
“You have muscle aches, don’t you? You’ve been groaning for a while now.”
Eun-seol replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
Only then did Dokyun become aware of his own condition. He touched his lower back and let out a small sound.
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, his body was in bad shape after moving around all day.
Is she just that observant?
He found it amazing that she had noticed something even he had forgotten while lost in thought. Dokyun stared at her blankly for a moment before lying down and muttering his thanks.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
After their exchange, Dokyun lay down on the sofa. Eun-seol gently lifted his shirt and began applying the patches to his back one by one.
“Guuuh…”
A groan escaped him automatically as the cold patch made contact with his lower back.
“Fucking idiot. This is why you should’ve paced yourself when you were pounding away.”
Flinch.
Dokyun’s body trembled at the insult. A sense of injustice welled up inside him, and he offered a small protest.
“Hey, why are you bringing that up again?”
“Fucking idiot.”
All he got in return was another insult.
Eun-seol stared at him pitifully for a moment before applying another patch and continuing.
“We’re going out again tomorrow, so be ready.”
“What?”
Startled by the sudden notice, Dokyun turned his head toward Eun-seol.
“It’s the end of the year, so I have a lot of things to take care of.”
An explanation was added.
Dokyun felt annoyance and exhaustion wash over his entire body as he tried to refuse her command.
“C-can’t I just rest at home? I really don’t feel well.”
Eun-seol tilted her head for a moment, then let out a disbelieving scoff.
“If you don’t go, who’s going to drive?”
“What?”
“You have to drive.”
For a moment, Dokyun’s mind went blank.
So.
‘She’s taking me out just to make me her chauffeur?’
He felt a sense of absurdity.
Then, remembering something he had forgotten, Dokyun muttered it aloud.
“That’s right. You can’t drive.”
As Dokyun nodded and said that, the hand applying a patch to his back swung down hard.
Smack—!
A sudden jolt of pain made Dokyun’s back arch like a bow, and a scream tore from his throat.
“Aargh!”
“All done.”
A sharp, stinging pain.
His face a mask of shock, Dokyun turned his head to see Eun-seol looking down at him with a blank expression.
“Hey, you could have just said something…”
Feeling wronged again, Dokyun protested weakly.
“Right. I forgot.”
Her reply was utterly insincere.
Seeing Eun-seol shrug with a deadpan face, Dokyun finally realized she was taking her anger out on him.
What the fuck…!
Dokyun’s jaw dropped. He stared at her, dumbfounded that she would hit his sore spot just to vent her frustration over that one little comment.
“What.”
Her tone was domineering.
“No, it’s nothing.”
His eyes slowly drifted downward.
It was hard to speak up when she stared at him with that kind of intensity in her eyes.
He’d once wondered why he always shrank back whenever she looked at him like that. Then he’d realized something.
‘Geun-tae…’
Her eyes resembled those of the neighborhood delinquent who had tormented him relentlessly as a child.
The bastard who had stolen his number one treasure, his SSR Blue-Eyes Black Dragon card, and had pushed him into a ditch for fun.
Just looking into her eyes reminded him of that guy, making his body instinctively cringe.
In a word, it was PTSD.
‘God, this is so unfair…’
He felt like tears were welling up in his eyes.
He’d worked hard all day, and it was miserable enough being in pain, but instead of offering a word of comfort, she was acting like a tyrant. A deep sense of sorrow began to rise from the bottom of his heart.
He missed Eun-ah.
He missed the warmth of her embrace, how she would hold him tight the moment his expression soured even a little.
As Dokyun’s body went limp with surging sorrow, his gloomy aura thickening around him, Eun-seol let out a deep sigh and spoke softly.
“I don’t plan on dragging you around. We’ll go our separate ways once we’re outside. You can go to a cafe and read all the novels you want.”
Flinch.
Dokyun’s body trembled at her comforting words.
He slowly turned his head, his expression filled with disbelief, and asked for confirmation.
“Really?”
“…Yes.”
Thump. Thump.
His heart began to pound.
“I can really read them?”
“I said you could.”
Her eyes were filled with pity, but that didn’t matter.
How long had it been? It had been two weeks since he’d last allowed himself to read a novel, trying his best to lay low.
This was the first time he’d been given permission since he’d donated ten thousand coins to The Ghost Fleet’s Third-Class Helmsman on the day he first went out with Eun-seol.
His mood soared on an unprecedented upward curve. A grin broke free, escaping his control.
Sex.
Tomorrow was the day. The day I’d finally get my fix.