The Saint Wants to Rest - vanish into fiction

It was a signal that Vermouth was using his power.

I am here.

As if speaking those words, the mark lit up periodically. It was a stroke of luck that Choi Jae-heon was not home at the time; had he been there, he might have asked what it was. What on earth was happening outside? Before long, the peacefulness retreated, and anxiety began to fill its place.

Naturally, the first person to notice that anxiety was Choi Jae-heon. Hong Seo-yun also dropped by the house occasionally to check on Ian’s well-being, but because he was inherently dull, he failed to notice anything strange at all. On the other hand, Yoon Tae-gyeom had been working overtime for the past few days and could not find the time to come see Ian.

“Heuk!”

Ian, who had fallen asleep face-down at the dining table, let out a startled sound as his body jerked. When he lifted his head to look at the clock, it seemed he had been asleep for about an hour. He was wiping away the beads of sweat that had formed on his forehead when a shadow fell right beside him. Looking up, he saw Choi Jae-heon standing there silently.

“Ian.”

“Hyung, you’re home? It must have been hard. Should I make you some coffee?”

He tried to act composed while attempting to stand up, but Choi Jae-heon caught Ian’s hand.

“Ian, why are you so anxious?”

At Choi Jae-heon’s question, Ian’s heart sank.

“I hope that you don’t hide things, at least not from me. We are each other’s only family.”

Choi Jae-heon tried to force a smile, but Ian read the distress behind that expression. If the situation were reversed and Choi Jae-heon had gone through the same thing, would Ian have been able to let it go without asking anything?

He wasn’t confident.

“Tell me.”

Only then did Ian vomit out the emotions he had been suppressing the entire time. Drops of tears began to flow from his eyes. He clung to Choi Jae-heon and poured out his tears until the man’s chest became damp.

No matter how much he had pretended to be resolute in the other world, Ian had not been an adult at the time. He had been nothing more than a kid just beginning to enter adulthood. Even though he had become an adult about a year later, that didn’t mean everything had become okay.

“Actually, the truth is.”

With eyes as swollen as a frog’s, Ian stayed buried in his brother’s arms and confessed everything that had happened. Of course, he did not speak of every single thing graphically. There were parts he toned down as he spoke.

First, there was Vermouth. Among the incidents involving that man, there were many things difficult to explain without sanitizing them. That human would tear people apart as if shredding chicken breasts and carried out all sorts of tortures, claiming he had to extract information from the Demon King’s Army. Furthermore, he would frequently use his power until it hit rock bottom and then cling to Ian to kiss him. There were many times they had slept in the same bed.

Fortunately, as a servant of the Goddess, he had said he would not commit outrageous acts without the other person’s consent, but he had also intentionally created ambiguous situations.

Even though he spoke as indirectly as possible, the corners of Choi Jae-heon’s mouth gradually stiffened into a hard line. The smile he was forcing for Ian’s sake was on the verge of collapsing.

Choi Jae-heon recalled the curses Hong Seo-yun had been spewing earlier.

‘Fuck, that son of a bitch is worse than a dog! I’ll rip his belly open and jump rope with his intestines! That damn bastard laid a hand on our baby?’

Right now, he wanted to spit out those exact same curses.

“I see. So that stalker bastard’s name is Vermouth?”

Ian nodded while sobbing.

“But I think Vermouth followed me here.”

“How do you know that?”

Ian hesitated for a moment before pulling at his shirt to show his chest. Near his heart, there was a circular mark entwined with thorny vines, and right at that moment, the mark flashed with light.

“If Vermouth uses his power, I can tell. It is the same for the reverse.”

Choi Jae-heon ground his teeth with all his might. Dozens of ways to kill Vermouth flashed through his mind. Murderous intent rose up within him instinctively.

“No.”

Sensing his thoughts, Ian’s hand gripped his sleeve. He shook his head slightly.

“You absolutely must not.”

“Why?”

Choi Jae-heon’s voice was frigid. Had physical affection turned into emotional affection, causing Ian to give even a small piece of his heart to Vermouth? However, the reason Ian was stopping him was different from what Choi Jae-heon expected.

“That madman is someone who took the Demon King’s head all by himself.”

“Exactly how strong is the Demon King?”

“Strong enough to destroy the world.”

Ian looked directly at Choi Jae-heon.

“I’m not saying you are weak, Hyung. But I’m scared that you’ll get hurt by clashing with Vermouth.”

Those words made Choi Jae-heon’s insides boil even more. Just what was that guy to make his precious younger brother suffer like this? Even if Ian had brought him home as someone he loved, Choi Jae-heon would have left him half-dead, but hearing about his atrocities made the rage difficult to suppress.

“So, promise me.”

Ian held out his pinky finger to Choi Jae-heon.

“What kind of promise?”

Choi Jae-heon tried to calm his heart somehow.

“If you’re going to fight Vermouth, take the other hyungs with you.”

In other words, he was telling him not to go and hit the man alone, but for the three of them to go and gang up on him. Hearing that made him feel strangely complicated. Ian was clearly saying it out of worry, but it felt like his pride was taking a scratch.