PASSION Chapter 4 Part 25

Chapter 4 Part 25

"What brings you here now? I told you not to come until joint training ends."

"I finished the book and came to return it."

Tae-ui waved the book in his hand. His uncle hung his uniform jacket on the chair back while steadily looking at him. This perceptive uncle seemed to be gauging what business had brought this nephew who likely wouldn't come just for that.

"I said you could take your time. Well, anyway, since you're here, borrow any books you want to read. But even if you finish them, don't bring them back until joint training is over. --Want some green tea?"

His uncle started boiling water in a kettle after throwing off his shirt too. When Tae-ui shook his head, he took out just one teacup for himself. He sighed lightly while cracking his neck left and right as if stiff.

Tae-ui scanned the bookshelf with his eyes while inserting the borrowed book back in its place. Though it had only been a few days since he'd come, there wasn't much different, but there were several unfamiliar books added to the shelf. As he gently ran his fingertips over the bookshelf, his finger stopped on a familiar title.

"This... I heard it was sent by ship, but it seems it's already arrived. Mythology."

"Ah, it arrived yesterday. A very fresh new book, I haven't read it yet either, but read it first if you want. I probably won't have time to read for a while anyway, and I have other books to read."

"Hmm... Then I'll take this. I'll bring it back when I come after joint training ends."

His uncle waved his hand as if saying go ahead. He took a long breath while drinking the green tea steeped in his cup.

Though he never showed signs of fatigue, not being superhuman, his uncle couldn't help but be tired in times like these. However, when his eyes met Tae-ui's staring at him, he tilted his head slightly with a face no different from usual.

"You seem very tired lately. Saying you don't even have time to read. Plus this seemed like a book you really wanted to read."

Tae-ui spoke while lightly tapping his palm with the spine of the new book he had taken out. His uncle went "Hmm" with a smile and shrugged.

"That's right. Originally, I thought if sent by ship it would arrive around next weekend, which would overlap with when joint training ends, so I could read it leisurely right away."

But it came much earlier than expected, his uncle muttered. Tae-ui went "Ah, so that's why" and nodded in understanding.

"I see. Did you deliberately ask for it to be sent by ship so you'd receive it after joint training ended? Since it was coming anyway, you could have received it directly from Ilay, why specifically have it mailed?"

His uncle's hand bringing the teacup to his mouth paused briefly. His uncle looked at Tae-ui for a moment with the teacup stopped near his mouth, then slowly smiled. His face said he now understood why Tae-ui had come. He took a sip of tea then put the cup back down.

"He told you himself? Well... First giving his name to someone he just met was unprecedented. He must quite like you."

I don't think that's quite right... If he liked me, would I have been thinking about treading only in shadows while trembling with anxiety until now?

Tae-ui muttered internally but decided not to say anything since it seemed ridiculous to insist "He doesn't like me."

Besides, even if he did like him, nothing would change. That man's liking someone meant something different from ordinary people liking someone. That man liking someone meant considering them an interesting subject. It was far from the general meaning of considering someone an object of affection or cherishing them preciously.

He was that kind of person. And his uncle couldn't not know that.

Thinking about it left a bitter taste in his mouth. In the end, whoever he was - whether a weapons broker from somewhere in Germany or a mad fighter registered with the European branch - nothing changed. Tae-ui sat on the bed and asked glumly after tasting bitterness in his mouth:

"I have no desire to pry into others' business, Uncle. As someone who needs to carefully preserve his own life for half a year, even small strange things make me anxious."

"I'm sure. And?"

"What kind of relationship do you have with that madman?"

Tae-ui's question was concise. Who he was referring to was also clear. However, his uncle just looked at Tae-ui with a subtle smile without saying anything for a moment. His face seemed lost in thought.

"Well... You could say book friends."

When his uncle slowly spoke, Tae-ui slightly furrowed his brow. Then after silently looking at his uncle, he shrugged. If he didn't want to talk about it, there was no need to draw it out.

"Yes. Well, I'll just take good care of my own life."

"I know his brother. To be precise,"

His uncle continued. Tae-ui closed his mouth again. His uncle spoke calmly with a face showing not the slightest trace of falsehood. When their eyes met, his uncle's slight smile indicated this was the complete truth. Just not revealing everything.

"...I see. Though I don't know why such a guy is stuck in a UNHRDO branch, you never know about people."

Or should I say I don't know why someone in the UNHRDO branch has such a family situation?

Tae-ui hunched his shoulders. Actually, nothing would have changed even if his uncle had given him advance notice. Maybe he would just have had more vague preconceptions. Or he might have made a ridiculous misunderstanding and considered that Rigrow only as the Ilay he had seen on screen.

Tae-ui scratched his head.

"Right. I'll be going now. Well... since I probably won't have much time to read either, joint training will have ended long before I finish this."

"Hmm... Right. Since I haven't read that yet, don't take too long with it."

"But you said to take my time."

"I never said that about that book. I just said read it first if you want to."

While grumbling what's that, you said you had plenty of other books to read, Tae-ui headed for the door.

Sighing internally about how tomorrow was precious weekend but they couldn't rest and would have training again, wondering what this endurance training would be like, just as Tae-ui was about to open the door and leave, his uncle suddenly called out:

"Tae-ui."

"Yes?"

Tae-ui turned around while holding the doorknob. His uncle was looking at him with a subtle expression. Not an instructor's face, but purely an 'uncle's' face.

"Whatever that guy does doesn't matter. If you were thinking of Ilay and Rigrow separately, it wasn't Rigrow you misunderstood, but rather Ilay."

Tae-ui silently looked at his uncle. What he meant to say was crystal clear. He was saying that Rigrow whom he had faced in person was closer to the truth than Ilay, the conversation partner he had occasionally called to chat with.

After a pause, Tae-ui smiled slightly and shook his head.

"Not at all, Uncle. I never could really know about Ilay."

Adding that guy was unknowable from when he only showed his hands, Tae-ui spread his hands. At that, his uncle laughed softly.

"Right, well go on then. Don't get caught by people."

"Hmm---isn't avoiding getting caught impossible? With surveillance cameras everywhere here."

"...Right. Those exist. You'll have to copy about ten more Rules and Regulations books later."

Tae-ui's face crumpled sharply. Though his uncle said sympathetically "That's why you shouldn't get caught on camera, be more careful from now on," it was already too late.

Tae-ui knew nothing about Rigrow. He only knew he was extremely dangerous and someone not to get close to. But that didn't mean he knew about Ilay either. They had just talked on the phone a few times. Though he could say he was a bit better than others at figuring out what kind of person someone was after talking a few times, you can't define someone you've only talked to a few times without seeing their face.

However, like most people who've had several conversations with a stranger, Tae-ui did have some impression of Ilay. A vague image of what kind of person he might be. Someone reasonably easy to talk to, whose conversation could be both heavy and pleasant, but with occasional chilling coldness like cold water.

Come to think of it, some of that seemed accurate. Well, how much had he really known about either of them?

Tae-ui rubbed his nape while walking down the corridor, not caring about being caught more on the surveillance cameras he was already caught on. He tasted bitterness with a click of his tongue.

"Damn it. This is fraud, fraud. How can such beautiful hands be attached to that bastard's wrists?"

They were hands beautiful enough to naturally catch the eye. Even seeing those bare hands directly at the beach after removing the gloves, that impression hadn't changed. No, they were incomparably prettier than when moving on screen.

But Tae-ui knew. He could casually swing those fists at Tae-ui too. The fact that he would cut Tae-ui's throat without hesitation if the mood struck him remained unchanged.

Hadn't he felt it in their last call? That even after not just a few but dozens or hundreds of calls, that man would never think of him as anything more or less than a pure stranger.

Yes, thinking about it that way, Ilay and Rigrow were definitely the same person.

"Really fraud, I tell you... Even if he said they wouldn't suit me, should I just ask him to cut off those hands and attach them to mine? They're hands too beautiful to waste on that guy."

Though thinking of that clean and neat white face, his appearance wasn't unsuited to being the owner of those hands. Still, the problem wasn't the hands or face, but the personality, the personality.