Aftermath
In fact, Tae-jin had been admitted to the hospital after collapsing at the club.
BEEP.BEEP.BEEP.
“Hmm. What on earth is going on…”
The doctor tilted his head, staring at a chart that showed nothing abnormal at all. The patient should have woken up by now, but he kept sinking deeper into sleep and showed no sign of stirring. Even medication failed to rouse him, and the cause remained a mystery.
If we treat this as a rare disease case...
The doctor knew of a rare illness in which a person, once asleep, might not wake for days, and he was planning to run new tests related to it.
Just then, Suji and James came into the room.
Drrrk.
James, who had no idea where Tae-jin was, had contacted Suji. Suji had asked around and learned that Tae-jin had been admitted to this hospital, and since James was with her, the two of them could come here without arousing suspicion.
“Looks like the doctor was making rounds.”
“Seems like it.”
The doctor, seeing the two Asian visitors who had come to see a patient, stepped away. Watching over the patient wouldn’t change anything.
“He was acting strange yesterday, but... seeing him lying there like this makes me even more uneasy.”
“The guy who said he liked you?”
“He’s just someone I know, and he was with us yesterday when Tae-jin oppa ended up like this.”
“He’ll wake up soon enough.”
“Phew... What a mess to end up in abroad.”
As Suji sighed, James was quietly moving mana.
O clear blue flow of mana... wake up!
The moment James cast the spell, Tae-jin’s eyes snapped open.
“Huh!”
He jerked upright, utterly unable to understand why he was here.
“Wh-what? Why am I here...?”
“Tae-jin sunbae... are you okay?”
“...Suji.”
“Honestly. Why did you drink so much?”
“What the hell happened last night...?”
“You picked a fight with our group yesterday, then passed out. And you just woke up.”
“I passed out? There?”
“...Forget it. Your friends are outside, so hear the rest from them.”
Some of the friends who had drunk with Tae-jin yesterday were waiting outside the room. They were the ones who had kept trying to wake him up ever since he collapsed. But Tae-jin would not stir even when they splashed water on him, and once they realized something had gone wrong, they rushed him straight to the hospital. From that point on, they had taken turns watching over him here.
“I saw that you woke up, so I’m leaving.”
“......”
Seeing Suji take James by the hand and head for the door, Tae-jin spoke.
“Y-you...”
“He’s my boyfriend now. You’re not going to speak to me carelessly again, are you?”
“Ha...”
It was a sigh thick with regret.
“Oppa, stop worrying about other things and just finish the rest of the semester. When are you even going to graduate and go back to Korea?”
“......”
James, feeling a little guilty about using magic while drunk, decided to offer one small piece of help. Inside Master Mercia’s spellbook, he had found a spell that would be useful to Tae-jin.
O mana of severance and suppression... Magical Castration. Action.
If James did not release it, the spell would last for years to come.
If the problem is the lower half, then I should remove any possibility of trouble...
When the word chemical is added before castration, it becomes chemical castration. Since James added magical instead, it became magical castration.
...That should help, right?
James had castrated Tae-jin with magic, but it was help Tae-jin’s own will had never asked for.
Who did you think you were trying to hit on?
This was also James’s revenge for not liking the look in the hot-blooded idiot’s eyes when they had fallen on Suji.
“We’re leaving now, oppa.”
“Hey man. Take care.”
After offering a brief farewell, James held Suji’s hand tightly and stepped out of the hospital room.
“......”
Tae-jin’s gaze, fixed on the backs of the two of them, had changed a little. It was not resignation, nor regret, but a detached sort of looking-away from the world.
Why was I so obsessed with that guy...
Because a major purpose called lust had vanished from his consciousness. It was also the beginning of a kind of post-orgasmic depression that would last for years.
* * *
Once they left the hospital, Suji let go of James’s hand and hooked her arm through his.
“Where should we go? We should eat first, right?”
“How about the hotel?”
“What? Men really only think about that, don’t they...”
“...I was just saying the steak at the hotel restaurant I’m staying at is supposed to be good.”
He had not meant it as a tease. He was sincere.
“Ahem.”
“You’re the one with dirty thoughts in your head, aren’t you? We were burning up hot all morning.”
“Tch. Fine, whatever.”
James pulled her arm free, laughed under his breath, then drew her shoulder toward him.
“Come on. You need a proper meal if you want your strength back.”
“Yep!”
But given the place, the date that followed a delicious meal was obvious. The two of them were hot young lovers, burning bright together.
* * *
“Ugh... I’ve got nothing left in me. I’m dead...”
Suji was draped across the bed, limp and exhausted. They had spent the day together after the late-night drinking, and then carried it straight into a fiery night. Add James, who was always overflowing with mana’s blessing, and of course it had become impossible to endure.
“Suji doesn’t get enough exercise.”
James, his upper body bare, was lying beside her on the bed.
“I’ve been busy studying at university, you know.”
“Then now that studying’s done, you can start exercising.”
Suji looked at James’s solid, sculpted body and asked, “James, if you’re a magician, why is your body so good?”
“If my clothes don’t look right on me, the audience won’t even glance my way. Call it a professional accomplishment.”
James struck a grand pose as if he were entering the Olympia contest, but Suji pointed at the scars on his body and asked, “Tch. But... what are those scars on your back?”
Only now, after not being able to see them in the dark before, was Suji noticing the wounds on James’s back and asking about them.
“Ah... gunshot wounds. Korea and America are different, you know.”
He could tell Colt anything and not feel uneasy, but Suji, whom he had only met yesterday, was different. He did not want to blurt out the story connected to his adoptive parents’ deaths.
“Ugh... whatever else America gets wrong, its gun control is truly the worst.”
“...Yeah. The worst.”
“Still, I’m glad you’re alive, James.”
“Glad... huh. I’ll take it.”
Even now, James thought it might have been better if he had died back then with his parents.
“You’re alive, so you met me.”
“Heh. So you’re saying you’re glad you met me?”
“Of course! Do you think it’s easy to meet a young, beautiful woman like me?”
It was such a confident thing to say with such a pretty face that James could only nod.
“Okay. You’re right. You’re young and beautiful.”
“Heehee. In that case, what’s James’s Korean name?”
“Why are we going there all of a sudden? That has nothing to do with anything.”
“I’m curious about you. I want to know more about you.”
Suji had pulled the white blanket up to her neck and was asking with shining eyes.
“Ah, well.”
There was no reason not to tell her. If anything, he would have to tell her if he wanted her help once they got to Korea.
“...Jimin. I was Choi Jimin.”
“James... Jimin... the sounds are kind of similar, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. My parents in America gave me an English name that sounded close to my Korean one.”
“Ooh.”
If they kept talking about his past, he might have to bring up the gun incident too.
“......”
So James quickly changed the subject.
“Where in Korea are you from, Suji?”
“I’d like to tell you about some place you don’t know, but that’s not easy.”
The only Korean place James knew was one city.
“Seoul?”
“Yes. Seoul. I’m just one of the many, many people living there.”
“Like you said, I don’t know anything beyond Seoul. That was the capital of Korea, right?”
Just as Texas and Las Vegas had been the entire range of James’s life in America, it made sense that he would know little about Korea.
“When you come later, I’ll show you everything.”
“Thanks. That makes me feel a lot better.”
“And... if you go on a trip to England and so much as look at another woman...”
“Pfft. Suji’s sense of humor is top-notch too, huh?”
Suji lifted a finger and jabbed James hard in the side. “Does that sound like a joke to you? Huh? Huh?”
“Puhahaha. Okay, okay, I get it. Stop it. Hahaha.”
“I’m confiscating your magic too! No magic in England!”
“Heh-heh. What?”
“Using magic in front of women is cheating.”
“That’s very useful information. I’ll make sure to remember it.”
“I’m not joking!”
“Argh. I said stop it already. Hahaha.”
The naked man and woman rolled around on the bed, spending a happy, lazy stretch of time together.
* * *
Time would not stop, and soon enough, the hour of parting arrived.
“Sniff.”
“I have something I really have to do.”
Suji was seeing James off at the airport. Two weeks had already passed, and it was time for the flight he had booked.
“Oppa, you have to come to Korea as soon as possible. Okay?”
Over the past two weeks, the two of them had only grown closer. The fact that she was now calling him oppa, and speaking casually, was proof enough.
“I’m not planning to do much sightseeing anyway, so it won’t take long. I may even get to Korea before you do.”
“...And the magic ban still applies in Korea too.”
“If that happens, my skills will go rusty. What am I supposed to live on, then?”
“...Use it by yourself. By yourself! Don’t show it off in front of women!”
“Heh. Okay.”
While the two of them were sharing their bittersweet farewell, another pair was facing a different kind of goodbye.
“Colt...”
“Hojung. Take care of yourself when you go back to Korea.”
“...What a shame. I really enjoyed the time I spent with Colt.”
“So did I. You’re such a lovely, special person.”
“...Goodbye.”
“Yeah. Take care.”
From the start, Colt and Hojung had begun with the understanding that their meeting was temporary, and today was the day that meeting came to its end.
“...Will we be able to see each other again in Korea?”
“Maybe?”
Judging by the long, lingering looks James and Suji exchanged, the odds of Colt and Hojung meeting again were high too.
“But in Korea, we won’t be the same there as we were here, will we?”
“No. You’ll have your own life. I’m not someone who can draw a future with you.”
Colt said he was a free spirit who could not be tied down to one person, and Hojung had no resistance to a light, fleeting romance, so the two of them had been able to share a brief relationship.
“Haah. I understand that with my head, but my heart still feels a little off.”
“Once time passes, we’ll be able to see each other again without feeling awkward.”
“Aren’t you upset, Colt?”
“...I am sad too. But I know myself. Before long, I’d end up giving you a huge wound you could never take back. Then I’d have to say goodbye to your angry face, wouldn’t I? I want to remember you as a lovely, special person.”
It was a cliché line, but when it came from Colt’s sculpted face, it sounded like something out of a movie.
“......”
James, still holding Suji’s hand, approached the two of them.
“Hojung, could you take Suji?”
“...Hiiing.”
At last, Suji let her tears show.
“...Okay. Leave Suji to me.”
“Colt. Let’s go.”
“Okay, James. See you all again.”
With their lips drooping and tears held back, Suji and Hojung saw them off, and James and Colt disappeared into the departure gate.
“...Sob.”
“......”
Hojung stood beside Suji, who was dropping tears one by one, her lips pressed tight.
He wasn’t someone I was meant to end up with. I need to let go of the attachment.
Compared to her own perfectly sealed-off farewell today, Suji was in an enviable position.
“Suji, stop crying. You’re going to see him again in Korea anyway, so why are you crying?”
“Sob. Still...”
“I’ve already broken up for real, okay? Stop it.”
“...Sniff. Okay.”
“What kind of person do you meet right after studying abroad is over? He should’ve shown up a little earlier.”
“...Sniff.”
“You should know you’re lucky. Do you think it’s easy to meet a man that decent in America? And an Asian one at that? It’s a chance that won’t come again in your whole life.”
“I know. I know...”
“You know nothing...”
Suji did not know it, but while meeting Colt, Hojung had seen something.
Colt always had his pockets full of dollars.
Over the past two weeks of dating, Colt had spent money without the slightest concern, and Hojung had wondered just how much cash he carried around. So when Colt fell asleep, she had checked his pockets and seen several tens of thousands of dollars in cash.
There aren’t many people in Korea who can spend money like water.
Colt never seemed to regret spending it at all. There had even been a day when he used up all the money he had and brought even more the very next day. Colt’s money never ran dry, like a spring that poured out fresh water every day.
All that can mean is that the two of them are absurdly wealthy...
It was the only conclusion she could draw, knowing James and Colt’s occupations. James was a magician who performed his own shows, and Colt was an emcee at the venue. If the host of the show had that much money, then it was reasonable to assume the magician, James, had even more wealth.