Chapter 183
Chapter 183
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 183
Chapter Title: Interlude - For a Better Yesterday Than Tomorrow (2)
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*Vroooom.*
The heavy roar of a motorcycle's exhaust.
With Ha-eun on the back, Oh-jin sped down the road.
It was his first time riding a motorcycle, but thanks to an Awakened's superhuman senses, he had no trouble keeping his balance.
“……”
Ha-eun gently wrapped her arms around Oh-jin's waist, resting her forehead against his broad back.
*Thump, thump.*
The sound of her heartbeat filled her mind, drowning out the motorcycle's exhaust.
Her head felt hot, as if a warm towel was wrapped around her neck.
‘Wh-what? What is this?’
After absorbing the living armor using that Black Heaven thing, Oh-jin had suddenly changed, roughly devouring her lips.
If it had just been a kiss, that would have been one thing.
But he had suddenly insisted they go home, even pulling her arm somewhat forcefully.
It was a bold move, so different from how he had always responded so placidly to her blatant advances.
‘Is it because of… that Lee Shin-hyeok guy’s memories?’
She hadn’t heard the details.
But he’d said that as Black Heaven grew, the Regressor’s memories flowed into him.
Was his current behavior related to those memories?
“…Hmph.”
Ha-eun muttered in a small voice, her forehead still against his back.
“You don’t need to worry about things like that.”
What did it matter what her past self, whom she couldn't even remember, had done or had done to her?
She was here now.
By Oh-jin's side. Hugging his waist from behind.
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
She would be with him.
‘W-well, I mean, I like it, but…’
Ha-eun recalled how he had roughly pulled her waist and devoured her lips earlier.
She had kissed him quite a few times before.
But she had never experienced him devouring her lips so fiercely, as if trying to eat her.
“Ooh.”
She tightened her arms around his waist, her cheeks flushing.
Her heart pounded as if she were in a dream.
It was rare for Oh-jin to be this proactive, so her racing heart wouldn't calm down.
‘Wh-when we get home.’
Her head grew hot just thinking about what might be waiting for her.
As she swallowed nervously and kept licking her dry lips.
*Screech.*
“We’re here.”
The motorcycle stopped, and a familiar apartment building came into view.
The home she had bought for Oh-jin after scraping together all sorts of loans and money.
Of course, compared to the luxurious apartment Isabella had given him, its exterior and interior were shabby.
But for the two of them, who had lived in what was practically a run-down shack, it was a meaningful home.
“Oh? O-oh, yeah. W-we’re already here.”
Ha-eun nodded with a tense expression and got off the back of the motorcycle.
Oh-jin led the way, and she followed hesitantly behind him.
‘Aaaah! This is driving me crazy!’
If the atmosphere were normal, she would have joked around to ease the tension.
But seeing Oh-jin’s stiff expression, it wasn’t the right situation for that.
Ha-eun bit her lip, following him with anxious steps.
The elevator ride to the 7th floor felt as long as going up to the 70th.
*Ding.*
With a clear chime, the elevator doors opened.
Opening the front door revealed the interior of their modest apartment.
It should have been a familiar scene, but for some reason, the atmosphere inside felt strange.
“O-Oh-jin.”
Ha-eun gently gripped Oh-jin’s sleeve with trembling eyes.
Oh-jin’s gaze turned to her, and the distance between them gradually closed.
When they were so close she could hear him breathe.
“Eek!”
Ha-eun squeezed her eyes shut and trembled.
She felt a cool sensation on her cheek.
Like a glass bottle filled with a lukewarm drink pressed against her skin—
“Huh?”
Ha-eun’s eyes widened as she looked at the transparent glass bottle Oh-jin was holding to her cheek.
“What’s this?”
Inside was a liquid that emitted a mystical blue light.
Oh-jin uncapped the bottle and held it out to her.
“It’s an Elixir.”
“…What?”
The sensation of her mind going blank.
The word ‘Elixir’ that came from Oh-jin’s lips swam through her mind.
“W-wait. What did you say? An Elixir?”
The miracle potion said to be able to revive any patient, no matter how critical, as long as they were still breathing.
It was a priceless potion, rumored to be craftable only by a high-ranking Aquarius Awakened after years of refining precious ingredients that money couldn’t buy.
No, ‘priceless’ wasn’t the right word for an Elixir.
Because something like an Elixir couldn’t be obtained with money in the first place.
“Drink.”
Oh-jin brought the bottle to her lips.
Ha-eun stared at him, her expression hardening.
“Where on earth did you get this?”
There was no normal way to obtain an Elixir.
“I won it in a bet with Deneb.”
“Deneb? You don’t mean *the* Deneb?”
Ha-eun’s jaw dropped.
Oh-jin nodded and told her about the proxy battles with Deneb’s Apostles in the Sanctuary.
As he continued, Ha-eun’s eyes began to tremble.
“You fought Deneb’s Apostles…? Four of them in a row?”
Her head grew hot.
Ha-eun grabbed Oh-jin by the collar and cried out.
“Why! Why would you do something so crazy!”
Right.
If he had at least stuck to the original agreement and only fought three proxy battles, that would have been one thing.
But fighting the fourth Apostle was an incredibly reckless act.
“If you fought the proxy battles for Vega, you didn’t need to go for the fourth one…”
“I would have still received Deneb’s divinity if I’d stopped at the third.”
But.
“Then I wouldn’t have had a reason to squeeze an Elixir out of him, would I?”
“That’s…”
For Ha-eun.
He couldn’t stop at the third match.
“So… you fought for me? Against a high-ranking Awakened of Cygnus?”
Ha-eun looked at Oh-jin with trembling eyes.
Oh-jin chuckled and shrugged nonchalantly, as if it were nothing.
“…Ah.”
A short gasp escaped Ha-eun’s lips.
Right.
He was always like this.
A man who would jump through fire and water for her.
Even if it meant turning to ash, even if it meant turning to dust.
A man who would willingly burn himself for her sake.
“Ah, uh.”
Clear tears welled up in Ha-eun’s eyes.
She clutched the Elixir Oh-jin had given her with both hands, her shoulders trembling.
She thought he was being unfair.
For a long time now, her mind had been so full of Oh-jin that she couldn’t live without him.
She thought she loved him so much it was impossible to love him more.
“If you do this… what am I supposed to do?”
She had fallen for him even more.
She thought it was impossible.
Her heart was already filled to the brim with him; she thought there was no more room left.
“What do you mean, what are you supposed to do?”
Oh-jin chuckled and took the Elixir she was clutching.
“I told you to drink up. You’re being so stubborn.”
After taking a sip.
He gently pressed his lips to hers as she trembled slightly.
“Mmph…”
The blue liquid flowed from his tongue into her mouth.
A faint blue light emanated from Ha-eun’s body.
*Clatter.*
The prosthetic leg attached below her right knee clattered to the floor.
In its place was…
“Woah, woah.”
A pristine, white foot.
Her foot, which had been severed below the knee, had regenerated perfectly.
“M-my leg. Oh-Oh-jin, my leg really regenerated!”
Ha-eun exclaimed in an excited voice, shaking Oh-jin’s shoulders.
No matter how comfortable the prosthetic he had given her was, it couldn’t compare to a real leg.
*Wiggle, wiggle.*
Like a person with newly sprouted wings flapping them for the very first time.
She carefully moved the toes on her right foot.
She could feel her bare white foot moving naturally according to her will.
“Ah…”
Tears streamed down Ha-eun’s cheeks.
They say you only realize the emptiness of what you’ve lost after it’s gone.
The same overwhelming emotion she had felt when she received the Dragon’s Eye resonated through her.
‘I thought I’d never… get it back.’
With her eyes, she had lost her sight due to a curse, so there was at least the hope she could see again if the curse was lifted.
But with her leg, so much time had passed since it was severed that she thought regeneration was impossible.
She had been comforting herself, thinking she could live without her right foot as long as she endured a certain level of inconvenience.
But now that the feeling in her leg had returned, she vividly realized just how much the ‘inconvenience’ she had been enduring had tormented her.
“Moves well?”
Oh-jin knelt on one knee and took her right foot.
“Hic!!”
Was it because it had just regenerated?
A thrilling sensation shot through her sensitive foot.
“D-don’t touch it!”
She tried to pull her foot away, her face turning red.
“I have to check if it regenerated properly.”
Oh-jin held her foot firmly and kneaded it like dough.
Ha-eun let out a whimpering moan and fell backward.
“Seems fine.”
Oh-jin grinned as he watched Ha-eun’s intense reactions every time he squeezed her white foot.
“You, you really…”
Before Ha-eun could voice her complaint.
“Then there’s no need to hold back anymore, right?”
Oh-jin swiftly lifted her into his arms, bridal style.
Because Ha-eun was so tall, the pose wasn’t as picturesque as he had imagined.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
But the sight of Ha-eun looking up at him carefully from his arms was more lovely than any imagined version of her.
Holding Ha-eun, Oh-jin kicked open the bedroom door.
It was a trundle bed, with another mattress that could be pulled out from under the main frame like a drawer.
‘Won’t be needing that today.’
Oh-jin gently placed Ha-eun on the bed and began unbuttoning his shirt.
As if to reassure the trembling Ha-eun.
He laid his body over hers.
* * *
“Hah, hah.”
After the heated moments of passion had ended.
Ha-eun exhaled a hot breath, stroking her stomach in disbelief.
“I can’t believe… it actually fit.”
A time of dizzying pleasure, so intense it made her regret not having experienced it before.
Ha-eun blushed, recalling how Oh-jin had craved her like an animal.
It was good.
Much better than she had imagined.
When she tried to think if anything in her life had ever felt better, nothing came to mind.
But.
“……”
What if I was the only one who enjoyed it?
What if Oh-jin was thinking, ‘That wasn’t as good as I thought’?
Once planted, the seed of anxiety sprouted rapidly.
Ha-eun carefully poked the side of Oh-jin, who was lying next to her.
Oh-jin, who had been staring blankly at the ceiling, turned his head toward her.
“What?”
“Um… well… I-I mean.”
After stuttering frustratingly, Ha-eun finally asked as if giving up.
“H-how d-did it feel?”
“What did?”
“Y-you know… my… th-thing. Down there. How did it feel?”
“Like meat in a soup.”
“You fucking bastard.”
What the hell is this asshole talking about.