Chapter 54. Avoid (2)

My heart sank. As I exhaled with my face buried in my hands, I couldn’t move and only blinked my eyes. Just breathe in slowly. I tried to ask again in a carefree voice.

“What do you mean?”

“Hyung is my constellation.”

I could only hear the sound of the clock’s second hand moving. The clerks moving outside were bustling. I looked around with my eyes, but I couldn’t say anything. As I lowered my hand slowly, Baek Tae-beom stood there as he looked down at me, smiling.

On the other hand, it may be strange not to notice. He must have felt my absence and the absence of his constellation at the same time. Considering the messages and sponsorships of the constellation that have disappeared after my death, it might have been natural to infer my identity.

He would have suspected why I helped him as well. Because it was simple to think it was because I was his constellation. And lastly, he saw my reaction, which would confirm as much to finally complete the puzzle.

But the creepiest thing was Baek Tae-beom’s overly natural attitude. It was like he had been waiting for this for years, as if he had always wanted a day like this, everything felt natural. I looked at Baek Tae-beom foolishly.

He bowed slowly toward me. For a moment, it felt like a huge mountain was bending over for a single human being.

“I’ve been waiting, for so long.”

“You were waiting for me?”

“I knew that hyung… would come back again. Because the contract that I signed with my constellation still existed. Because I kept believing that the constellation who signed with me was hyung. And I was right, wasn’t I?

[The constellation, ‘One Who Seeks To Avoid The Fall’ is synchronized with the body.]

“I’m really good at waiting. That was the only thing I was ever good at. Waiting for someone who won’t wake up, waiting for someone who won’t come… I’ve been waiting for so long….”

Baek Tae-beom carefully grasped my hand. Surprisingly, even though I was nervous, my hands were incredibly cold. Come to think of it, my hands seemed cold the entire time he held me. I was so flustered that I didn’t notice.

“But hyung saved me, you know?”

“That’s too much of an exaggeration.”

I shook my head, but Baek Tae-beom’s hot gaze still did not slacken. Instead, he grabbed my hand and held it so tightly that I couldn’t escape.

“You saved me. You gave everything to me. You took care of me, just for me.”

I frowned at the tingling sensation, but Baek Tae-beom ignored it and continued to lower his head, bringing his face closer. His eyes, which turned gold as soon as he awakened, captivated me. Thinking that our noses would soon touch, I hurriedly turned my head.

“I’m not exaggerating. Without hyung, I would have really died.”

No, you wouldn’t have died even if I wasn’t there. To me, who knew the ending of <The Fall of Another World>, the words he said were like a cloud in the sky, waiting to just disappear.

Because Baek Tae-beom is the villain who survived the novel from start to finish, just to destroy the world and kill the protagonist.

Because he is the villain….

But what could the current Baek Tae-beom be called?

I had no choice but to look at Baek Tae-beom as I frowned at the constantly applied pressure on my hands. Then, Baek Tae-beom smiled with his bright yellow eyes like a beast.

“Don’t disappear in front of me ever again, hyung.”

I couldn’t help but stare at him as if possessed by his fatally beautiful appearance.

“Then I really don’t know what will happen to me.”

My stomach fluttered. Not knowing what to say, I kept my mouth closed. Baek Tae-beom slowly knelt in front of me and took off the ring he was wearing in his hand. I belatedly realized what that ring was.

Wasn’t that the ring that came out of the dungeon where we caught that giant werewolf, and the same ring I wore until the moment I died?

Baek Tae-beom gently slipped the ring on the ring finger of my right hand, which he was holding tenderly. The ring that had stretched slightly to fit Baek Tae-beom’s finger quickly shrunk to fit mine. The red ruby glistened in the light.

“Will you always stay by my side, hyung?”

I nodded my head unconsciously as he stared at me, begging for an answer. My sight was filled with Baek Tae-beom only.

[Your contractor is showing excessive affection.]