Magic on the Dead Chapter 53

While digging a pit with the shovel Eden had given him, Hajin felt like he would die from the itch to speak.

‘Mr. Jung Taegeon, why did you choose me?’

It was a question that felt like it would suffocate him with self-consciousness just by thinking it. Hajin, shuddering, thoughtfully came up with another sentence.

‘Mr. Jung Taegeon, you’re normally reluctant to find companions. But what did you see in me and Miso to choose us?’

Is it too long-winded? This question also seemed to have a hint of being overly grateful.

The more Hajin contemplated the right question, the more he couldn’t help but be engulfed in another query. Is the reason for asking this really just simple curiosity? Is there not a specific answer he wants from him? However, if there was a particular answer he wanted to hear, other curiosities wouldn’t be blooming alongside it.

For instance, questions like whether he learned his survival knowledge about stones and smoke dispersion from Delta Force. The circumstances of his enlistment in the special forces, the process of becoming an executive at Blue Works, and what the difference is between a CTO and a CEO.

The questions, which grew one after another, eventually led back to his childhood. The previous night, when they were talking about Byeol, he had only been able to hear that he had an older brother and about that brother’s immigration to the U.S., but he hadn’t heard anything about Jung Taegeon himself.

The curiosity that was pouring out hastily, like the stream over there spouting water coolly, felt quite awkward. An unnecessary dry cough escaped him before he even opened his mouth.

Hajin put the shovel down to the side at Eden’s gesture to stop digging the hole.

“Do you have a specific standard for choosing companions?”

Then, he casually let slip the sentence he thought was the most innocuous. Eden, who was examining the dryness of the vines, raised his eyebrows as if puzzled.

“Are you asking me?”

“Yes. It’s just the two of us here.”

He, who had skillfully sorted out the usable dry grass and branches, shifted his gaze back to Hajin.

“What is the intent of your question?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, as if trying to grasp his counterpart’s intention.

Trickle— The sound of the flowing stream, the chirping of birds, and the voices of people gathered amicably, discussing their food supplies, faintly filled the silence. Hajin consciously inhaled the phytoncide scent of the leaves, heated by the day’s sun, over the fishy smell of water that pricked his nose.

“Well… does a question have to have an intent? I just asked what came to mind.”

As if squinting to adjust to the dark, Eden was watching Hajin with a cautious gaze. Soon, he let out a dry laugh.

“Are you trying to blame me because of those women from earlier?”

“Pardon?”

“I believe I’ve told you before. I have no intention of making more companions here.”

Hajin waved his hands in denial, flustered, and retorted in bewilderment.

“That’s not what I was asking. What are you, a pretzel? Why do you just assume things?”

“Then what are you curious about?”

Eden asked as he threw the collected dry branches and thin, water-untouched vines into the pit.

“I just asked because I was suddenly wondering why Mr. Jung Taegeon takes me around with him.”

Even as he conveyed his pure and simple intention, his throat somehow trembled. He had been so curious, but now that he had said it, he felt embarrassed. Jung Taegeon, who had actually heard the question, opened his mouth with a serious face, devoid of any laughter.

“Hmm, the reason….”

As if deconstructing a forgotten memory, he stared with a persistent gaze at the dry firewood piled up inside the pit.

“Well. I suppose I thought I could save you this time.”

At the cryptic answer, the space between Hajin’s eyebrows narrowed. Eden was acting strangely, as if death were a matter he could pick and choose.

“What kind of answer is that?”

Eden, taking a lighter out of his pocket, smiled, the corners of his mouth turning up. He corrected his words.

“I brought you along because I didn’t think there would be anything to lose.”

Hajin couldn’t decide on a clear attitude—whether he should be happy, feel overly grateful, or have his pride hurt—and his eyes darted around. His answer was somewhat difficult to fully understand, but in any case, it seemed Jung Taegeon had judged the situation entirely from his own perspective and made a choice after gauging this side’s usefulness.

Somehow, he felt drained.

Eden, with his back to the direction the wind was blowing, nurtured the embers and blew on them—whoo. Crackle, crackle… They had to build a fire and have dinner before the sun set completely. Hajin broke out in a sweat under his sideburns from the heat flaring up close to his face.

As he blankly watched the blazing flames, he felt restless. As he stealthily started to get up to leave, an unexpected question flew at him.

“Mr. Do Hajin, how old are you this year?”

Hajin looked back at Eden in a half-standing posture. After a moment of thought, he squatted back down on his knees on the dirt floor.

“How old do you think I am?”

The tone of Hajin’s question was somehow a little higher than usual. Even with the draining conversation pattern he would normally despise, Eden didn’t frown. His heart softened by the strange sense of relief that came from having safely ended the day, he decided to play along with Hajin’s meaningless banter for a moment.

“Fifty-nine.”

“Ah, that’s not funny.”

“I’m not finding it funny either.”

Hajin scratched his nose awkwardly.

“I’m twenty-nine.”

Although it was within the expected range, hearing the number, which had been the absolute upper limit, with his own ears, Eden couldn’t help but be surprised.

“You certainly don’t look that age.”

“I hear that often.”

At Hajin’s shameless retort, Eden snorted as if in disbelief.

“I thought you were about thirty-nine.”

“That’s a lie. I know you thought I looked younger.”

As if his own brazen confidence was funny to him, Hajin chuckled like a child and then asked a question in return.

“So how old are you, Mr. Jung Taegeon.”

“I’m five years older than you, Mr. Do Hajin.”

Five years? Hajin’s eyes widened so much that the muscles in his eyebrows pushed his forehead up.

“…Thirty-four? Is Jeffrey, by any chance, the same?”

“Yes. We’re the same age.”

His assumption that he was at most one or two years older than him was shattered. It was a considerably young age for someone holding an executive position in a global company, but Hajin somehow felt a sense of cognitive dissonance. If they had met in society, it was an age gap where he would have had to act obediently, saying, “Yes, hyung,” without a peep.

Come to think of it, he had gotten much closer to Jeffrey recently and had been casually mixing informal speech when talking to him. A sense of failure washed over him. It was a matter that would have been ignored in the United States, where there is no distinction between informal and formal speech, but the place they were standing on now was South Korea, was it not?

“Your age is more than I thought….”

“There is no need to be that surprised. It is embarrassing.”

Contrary to his words, Eden’s face showed no signs of embarrassment at all. Hajin, who was quietly reflecting on the insubordination he had committed so far, hurriedly shut his mouth. He decided to put aside the other questions he had been curious about for a while.

Eden was observing Hajin’s reaction of scratching his earlobe, looking somewhat dazed, as if it were nothing. Do Hajin seemed to pride himself on being a man of the world, but except for when he was doing his main job, he was by no means the type to be good at hiding his emotions and feelings.

Even now, his bewilderment was easily read from his expression and fidgety movements. It had reached a point where he was even having the silly thought of whether he should bring up their ages and establish a hierarchy to meet his expectations. Do Hajin’s unguarded honesty, which even extinguished the will to tease, made Eden feel not just dumbfounded but even a sense of pity.

Hajin, perhaps feeling a bit burdened by Eden’s steady gaze, awkwardly pulled up only his lips into a smile. Then, after hesitating and watching his expression, he seemed to think, what the heck, and plopped down from his squatting position to sit on the ground.

“By the way, where did you learn all this stuff? Th-The Delta Force, did you learn it there?”

Eden dusted the dirt off his hands.

“How did you know I was from Delta Force? Did Jeffrey tell you?”

“…I saw it on a current affairs channel.”

“They broadcast all sorts of things.”

Hajin felt embarrassed for some reason and scratched his cheek.

“Then are you an American, Mr. Jung Taegeon? A citizen?”

“Yes.”

“Seeing how well you speak Korean, you probably weren’t born in the U.S.”

“I was born in Korea, and I went over to the U.S. when I was about fifteen.”

“How did you end up going?”

Hajin threw a barrage of questions, pouring out the things he had been secretly curious about. Eden, who was stirring the kindling, suddenly raised his head and looked at Hajin.

“You have a lot of questions today. Mr. Do Hajin, are you interested in me?”

Contrary to his expectation that he would be flustered, Do Hajin instead raised his eyes confidently.

“Is there anyone here who isn’t interested in each other?”

Ha. When he let out a small laugh, he added with a shameless face.

“It’s purely camaraderie. Camaraderie.”

“Ah. Camaraderie.”

“What’s with that reaction.”

“I thought Mr. Do Hajin was making a pass at me, so out of an abundance of caution.”

“A… what?”

Hajin caught the end of Eden’s arrogantly drawled words and wrinkled his nose. A pass? Abundance of caution? The words felt strangely familiar, a sense of déjà vu.

‘I-It’s not particularly like that, but I’m telling you this out of an abundance of caution because it seems like Mr. Jung Taegeon keeps making passes at me.’

Hajin pressed his forehead. The words he had spat out while pointing out Eden’s sexual jokes last time had come back to him like a boomerang. Seriously, this guy has so many ways of teasing people….

As he stood there silently with a flushed face, the corners of Eden’s eyes creased into a narrow smile.

“There’s no particular story. My parents divorced when I was in middle school, so I went to the U.S. with my father, and my brother stayed in Korea with my mother. Are your questions answered now?”

Eden was clearly enjoying himself. That look was so annoying that Hajin didn’t offer any particular reply. He himself had no way of knowing for what reason he had been curious about Eden’s trivial past.