The Male Lead Is Obsessed With My Health Chapter 316

“How long do you think they’ll keep loving you?”

Arellin’s brow furrowed.

“What?”

Why was this guy suddenly picking a fight?

Cheyen smiled as he slowly examined Arellin, whose expression openly revealed her thoughts.

“You know better than anyone that you’re not an ordinary human.”

“So what?”

Arellin replied as if it were nothing, her expression stubborn. But Cheyen could read the feelings she was trying hard to ignore.

“What are you trying to say to me?”

“Who knows.”

Before she realized it, a pale, damp fog wrapped itself around the two of them.

A dense fog that made it impossible for anyone to see Arellin.

Cheyen suddenly found the situation amusing.

In truth, he didn’t need to go this far to persuade her. If he really wanted to, he could simply take Arellin away—just as he had abducted other mages whenever he pleased.

She would resist, of course, and Halbern’s unique ability to move between the surface world and the other side would make things troublesome—but in the end, she would have no choice but to yield to his will.

And yet.

Why wasn’t he acting that brutally?

Cheyen wanted Arellin to come with him of her own will.

Even recognizing that desire within himself felt unfamiliar. So did realizing that emotions he thought had worn away over a span worthy of being called eternity were still alive.

On top of that, hadn’t Arellin already rejected his generous offer once?

Clinging and obsessing over someone who had already refused him felt pathetic—even to himself.

And yet, giving up was not an option.

“Why do you think I’m saying this to you?”

If he just spoke gently—

“Because I don’t want you to get hurt.”

What had made the child who once fell for things so easily become this strong?

“What?”

Arellin glared at Cheyen as if he were spouting nonsense. But as always, Cheyen was serious.

She might be fine for now. But would that last forever?

“Right now, everyone loves you. You’re not that different from other humans. But what about later? When others grow old, and you remain exactly the same—will the way they look at you still be the same?”

Arellin pretended not to waver, but she could feel her heart shake from the stone Cheyen had thrown.

Cheyen smiled faintly as he erased the presence of her master that she sensed in the distance with his fog.

“Will they still love you then?”

Humans enslaved other races they needed to coexist with, all while shouting about human supremacy.

Cheyen knew it. Even if they loved her now, the longer time passed and the more Arellin’s otherness stood out, the more inevitable it was that she would end up alone.

Who would truly embrace her?

Humans hated responsibility, were ignorant of their limits, greedy, selfish, and arrogant.

Who, exactly?

“……”

As a familiar silence settled in, Cheyen took a breath of air from the present world mixed with the other side—something he hadn’t done in a very long time. His body didn’t need air, but it was a habit left over from when he had been human.

Cool, heavy air, different from dawn mist.

And beyond it—

The strong scent of countless possibilities.

Cheyen’s eyes darkened.

How should he describe this sensation he felt only from Arellin?

Her “singularity” hadn’t fully bloomed yet, and still—it was dazzling.

In this closed world, no singularity had ever bloomed, nor brought change to the world like this.

Did this charming human even realize how extraordinary what she had done was?

Probably not.

“You’re a completely different kind of existence.”

She had known it unconsciously.

“No one can understand you.”

A truth she didn’t want brought into the open.

“And they can’t accept you as you are, either.”

Cheyen smiled coldly as he dug up the anxiety Arellin had tried to bury.

“You’re too alien.”

Cheyen was the only one who had noticed the secret Arellin never spoke aloud. Everyone else was fixated on her being a singularity, failing to see what truly made her unique.

“In the end, the only one who can understand you is me.”

Because the two of us are both rejected by this world.

 

 

****

 

 

 

A chill-laden wind swept past me.

My platinum-blonde hair fluttered lightly, but the black hair of the man before me remained perfectly neat—without a single strand out of place.

As if he didn’t exist in this place at all.

The moment I saw Cheyen, I assumed he’d crawled out here to see my master. But was I his real target?

Cheyen was acting as though he’d grant anything if I just reached out my hand.

Ridiculous.

That arrogant immortal, acting like this toward me.

Cheyen’s golden eyes shimmered faintly.

“…You said you were going to kill my master.”

Cheyen’s eyes narrowed at the sudden change of topic.

“I heard everything. The reason you want to kill him.”

“Did you? You really are well loved.”

I’d meant to provoke him, but unlike before, Cheyen didn’t waver at all.

“Then do you feel like cooperating with me now?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“There’s something I want to ask you instead.”

Even after hearing my master’s story, there was something that still didn’t sit right with me.

I could accept that Cheyen intended to kill all mages and devour the stars. But it felt like something fundamental was missing.

“Why do you want to kill my master?”

Was it because it was my master’s wish?

But if it were truly for his sake, Cheyen should have stopped the moment my master no longer wanted that.

Yet Cheyen was willing to go against my master’s will, kill mages, and devour all the stars.

I hadn’t expected a straight answer. Like always, I assumed he’d respond with something vague and confusing.

But—

“I have to. So I can die.”

A clear answer came back.

Completely unexpected.

“…What?”

I wanted a deeper explanation, but Cheyen refused to elaborate and changed the subject.

“Do you know why all mortals who tried to be with immortals ended up unhappy?”

“……”

Light poured through the thinning fog, casting shadows.

In the deep shade, I somehow felt that Cheyen looked lonely.

“Because the two can never truly fit together.”

“Why are you saying this all of a sudden?”

“If you insist on living as a human, the people around you will inevitably become unhappy.”

As if it would be my fault.

I’d be lying if I said his words didn’t shake me at all, but—

“Do you know a piece called The Rite of Spring?”

Cheyen raised an eyebrow, clearly unfamiliar.

Of course he didn’t know. I’d asked because I knew he wouldn’t.

“In 1913, when Igor Stravinsky premiered The Rite of Spring in Paris, a riot broke out in the audience.”

With its complex polyrhythms, polytonality, and intentional dissonance, the piece felt radically avant-garde.

It completely broke away from the traditional image of ballet music as ‘elegant’ and ‘beautiful.’ Some praised it as new art, while others were enraged by it.

The premiere descended into chaos, with physical clashes that truly deserved to be called a riot.

“When you try something new, confusion is inevitable.”

But what became of The Rite of Spring afterward?

Condemned and praised at the same time, it became a cornerstone of modernist music and left a deep mark on music history.

“No one understands me?”

So what?

Ever since my memories of my past life returned, my soul had always been an outsider in this world.

My homeland, the roots of my identity, the memories that shaped my personality—all of them belonged to a world I could never return to.

That sense of separation, loneliness, and alienation was inseparable from me.

Even trying to recreate something familiar caused massive ripples in this world.

If I’d possessed someone instead of being reborn, I might not have survived this sense of otherness.

The only reason I can still be myself now is because I’m certain that this is my life.

“Cheyen, don’t use my fear and anxiety however you want.”

Even if “we” became unhappy because of me, the only people who had the right to push me away were the ones I loved.

After all, the reason I want to live here is because of them.

“No matter what the outcome is, I’ll do my best.”

Perhaps it was my resolve, but Cheyen suddenly burst into mad laughter. He doubled over, choking on his laughter.

“I hope you become unhappy.”

He lifted his head and looked at me.

“Truly.”

It was an outright curse—but honestly?

It didn’t really affect me.

“I feel sorry for you.”

I didn’t want to admit it, but Cheyen was right—we were alike.

More precisely, he was like the version of me from before Pession existed.

Back when everything annoyed me, when I hated the world, when all I really wanted was someone’s affection and attention.

No one chooses to be alone.

In the end, people crave other people.

“I hope you’re saved someday.”

Cheyen twisted his face at my words and let out a low, hollow laugh.

“Hah… salvation.”

Clicking his tongue as if it were absurd, Cheyen stared at me.

Even if you look at me like that, I won’t do it.

As that thought crossed my mind, a sudden fierce gust of wind blew, making me shut my eyes reflexively.

When I opened them again, Cheyen was gone.

Only a single rose petal drifted gently through the empty air.