Dirty Sweet Baby Chapter 125

“Is it a good thing that it’s like a dream?”

Cha Moogyul pecked a kiss on Heeheon’s head, then brought his lips to Heeheon’s ear, which had turned red from the cold.

“That sounds like it means it’s an unattainable fantasy. Reality is better.”

He whispered, rubbing his lips against the shell of Heeheon’s ear. It tickled, and Heeheon scrunched his nose.

“You always have to say such cold things. I guess since there was nothing you couldn’t achieve in your life, you never needed to use the expression ‘like a dream’… but it’s just nice. If you had a dream like this one day, don’t you think it would feel good?”

“If it’s that, then it’s welcome. But, who’s ‘you’?”

“Ah.”

“Honey. Why do you keep calling me ‘you’? I told you not to, didn’t I?”

“Alright… It’s just because I’m still not used to it.”

“From now on, should I kiss you every time you make a mistake? No, that won’t be enough to fix it.”

Cha Moogyul chuckled, his dark eyes curving beautifully. That sinister gaze was surely concocting another scheme.

“For every mistake, at night…”

Heeheon hurriedly cut in.

“Let’s go with a kiss. A kiss will do. Yes, that’ll be perfect.”

It was of no use.

“One time for now. Since it’s the first, I’ll let you off with just my hand.”

“Huh? No, hey…”

“Hey?”

Cha Moogyul chuckled even louder and whispered in Heeheon’s ear.

“That’s twice, already.”

“…”

“If you keep making mistakes like this, darling, you’re going to be all worn out inside. Be careful.”

Heeheon let out a stunned breath and looked up at Cha Moogyul. His breath plumed white.

“You’re really going to do it? No, uh… honey…”

“Yes, darling. What’s with the fuss over just two times? You just have to not make any more mistakes.”

“If it were that easy, I would have. Hah, really.”

“Our Heeheon, my darling, you’re still so shy.”

“…Ugh.”

“Here, is this red from the cold, or because you’re shy?”

Cha Moogyul held Heeheon’s cheeks in both hands and kneaded them. His hands, molding him like a rice cake, were cold, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Not to be outdone, Heeheon reached out and touched Cha Moogyul’s cheek.

Knowing it wouldn’t stretch well, he still pinched and pulled it once out of annoyance, then just cupped it in his palm. Seeing his gentle, smiling expression, all his irritation melted away.

Heeheon gazed at Cha Moogyul’s face and thought.

“It really is like a dream.”

Thick, white snowflakes kept falling on his black hair. Then they caught on his long, lowered eyelashes. They swayed as if dancing in the winter wind, and when he blinked, they fell and landed on Heeheon’s lips.

The snow tasted cold.

“A very good dream.”

“…”

“I think I should wake up now. It’s that good of a dream…”

Cha Moogyul drew a serene smile. His sculptural eyes folded and the corners of his mouth curled up. That face, which he could look at countless times without tiring of it, was somehow poignant. It was sorrowful.

Heeheon followed him with a slight smile and whispered.

“I’ll come again.”

The time for having nightmares and suffering every night was over.

Heeheon closed his eyes deeply, very slowly, and then opened them. The pure white that had filled his vision gradually faded and turned dark. It felt like the dream world was losing all its light and returning to reality.

Like a movie ending and the credits starting to roll.

It was time to wake up.

Heeheon twitched the tips of his stiff fingers.

There was still work to be done.

Strength flowed into his body, which had been limp as if dead. His heart, which had momentarily stopped due to shock, began to beat again, and hot blood circulated through his limbs.

He had been on the verge of growing cold.

His core, not yet fully recovered, had been forced to synchronize its wavelength for the imprinting, causing his heart to stop from the shock.

Heeheon gasped, pushing himself up from the ground.

‘Cha Moogyul, where is Cha Moogyul?’

The answer came as soon as the question arose.

His core resonated, sensing the same wavelength. The two completely bonded cores functioned as one, despite being bound to different bodies. Because they were completely one, he could feel Cha Moogyul even when they were apart.

‘Ah. It’s exploding.’

His overloaded core couldn’t handle the imbalance and was bursting with energy. Blue lightning lashed out from the blackened Cha Moogyul. A storm of electricity shot up like thorns from where he stood, and the ground was scorched black.

Heeheon threw himself at him without a second thought.

He didn’t know if the healing factor was still in effect, and he might die being swept away by his power. But none of that mattered. Whether it was into the middle of a lightning storm or a pit of fire, Heeheon would have jumped in.

“Ugh…!”

Heeheon’s hand touched Cha Moogyul’s, which had turned black as a shadow. Touching his face, Heeheon was struck by the pouring energy. His body was seared and pierced by the current that rained down like spears, and blood flowed. But he paid it no mind and gripped Cha Moogyul’s cheeks with both hands.

“Let’s go.”

Let’s go back.

Heeheon pressed his lips to his and guided him.

The contact felt like it had been a very long time.

No, perhaps it felt like the first time.

They had always been touching, but only today did he feel truly and equally one with Cha Moogyul, connected to each other.

Pressing his lips against the stiff ones, Heeheon focused with endless desperation. He delved into the terribly twisted and dwarfed imbalance that had become a field of thorns and found Cha Moogyul.

‘Ah…’

A thought occurred to him that if Moogyul had been as completely whole on his own as Heeheon had thought, so outstanding that he didn’t need the existence of others, he probably wouldn’t have manifested as an Esper.

Espers inevitably need guiding, and only guides can provide it.

Perhaps Cha Moogyul had awakened to realize that he was not alone in the world.

That Baek Heeheon was with him, and that the two would become one and spend their lives together. That he wasn’t alone. It was something they could only realize through each other.

“Let’s live together. Us.”

He had been lonely for a long time.

There was no need for that anymore.

Neither of them.

Residential District 2.

The painful night passed, and the sun rose brightly.

The Awakened, who had barely managed to annihilate the swarms of β-creatures that had scattered in all directions, let out weary breaths and wiped the sweat from their brows.

The sun had been setting when they moved out, but now that the mission was over, the sun was rising.

The dark sky gradually brightened, and the dazzling sunlight shone on the faces of the exhausted members. The members, shielding their eyes with their hands, wore the same expression as if with one mind.

It had been a tough and arduous battle, and though they had lost much, it had been a battle where they had protected something even greater.

Supplying materials, treating wounds, and receiving guiding, each unit moved busily. Today, they had saved people, and they would do so again tomorrow.

While all the members were taking a breather, one blood-soaked member of the special task force continued to communicate with headquarters without rest.

“Yes, this is First Lieutenant Baek Heeheon. First Lieutenant Baek Heeheon! Have you found him?”

Captain Sung Ahwon anxiously awaited a reply from headquarters. He had heard the news late, having been busy chasing β-creatures and defending the second district. The α-creature had split, and one of them had captured First Lieutenant Baek Heeheon and vanished…

—That member is not on the list of survivors. However, the mission to capture the α-creature has been completed. The core from the clone has been extracted by the research and development office…

“What? So you’re saying he’s dead?”

—We will check on the part you have inquired about. Um. No. That member is not on the list of the deceased.

“Are you saying he’s missing? Then give me his coordinates!”

—The detection system is currently being restored. It will take time to reactivate the detection systems in the nearby area.

Captain Sung grit his teeth and cut off the communication. He had to go back right now. His eyes were bloodshot, and his emotions were in turmoil. He had saved the lives of countless civilians today, and he had finally avenged his long-awaited colleagues. The culprit, the α-creature, had been captured, but to think he had lost First Lieutenant Baek Heeheon. His vision seemed to go dark.

He was submerged in the fear of losing someone again.

Barely suppressing and composing his emotions, Captain Sung operated his goggles. Just as he was about to call for a search party, a single message popped up on the screen.

It was a personal call.

His emotions shaken and his eyes seeing red, Captain Sung closed the message without even checking its content and tried to call the search party again.

But…

‘Huh?’

The sender of the message…

[Captain. I can’t get through to headquarters, probably because of the system interference. Could I ask you to relay a message?]

It was from someone who had never contacted him before.

Someone he had waited for, but who had never come.

The Awakened code he had memorized so thoroughly that he would recognize it just by glancing at it…

“Haa… hahaha.”

Captain Sung let out a sigh of relief and sent a reply. He had almost burst into tears.