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“What on earth happened?”

“Nothing happened…”

“I’m not just talking about two days ago. You’ve been acting strange ever since you came back from training.”

Of course, someone like him would notice. Ha-gyeom avoided his eyes and tried to dodge the question. As he kept turning his head away, looking anywhere else, Baek Sa grabbed his chin and held him in place.

“At the very least, tell me why you’re rejecting me.”

Instead of asking why he went to see Assemblyman Tak behind his back or why he sought out Ah-rang alone, Baek Sa asked this.

“……”

“……”

The emotional tone, so different from what Ha-gyeom expected, made him pause. They had shared a room—no, even a bed—and yet he hadn’t once curled into Baek Sa the way he used to, hadn’t said a word. So of course Baek Sa would question it.

“…I’m not rejecting you.”

“You won’t even look at me. You flinch when I touch you. How is that not rejection?”

Ha-gyeom had spent all this time bracing for questions about Tak or Ah-rang, so the directness of this response caught him off guard.

Baek Sa’s hand, which had released his chin, now gently rested at the nape of his neck, and warmth radiated from his touch. Ha-gyeom suddenly remembered—since learning Baek Sa was truly Seung-woo, he hadn’t once pushed away his hand.

Because Baek Sa had saved him. Because he liked him, he had allowed everything. Even after watching him shoot someone in the head without hesitation, even without knowing exactly what he had done in this place, Ha-gyeom had accepted him—and even pitied him.

Ha-gyeom brought a hand to his chest, where his heart pounded so violently it felt like it might break free. He shifted his unfocused gaze back to Baek Sa. Meeting his calm eyes—eyes barely hiding their tremor—he could feel that warmth bleeding into him.

“……”

“……”

The face he could draw with his eyes closed, the one so familiar—and yet now strange, because he was no longer the boy he had once been. Ha-gyeom’s gaze lingered on Baek Sa’s striking features, features that no one else could compare to. And even after all that had happened, his love for him remained unwavering.

But…

The chill that came with Ah-rang’s memories—slipping through the smallest cracks—still hadn’t faded.

As Baek Sa gently stroked his damp skin, he noticed the goosebumps. His expression turned cold.

“You really hate it, don’t you? When I touch you.”

Normally, Ha-gyeom would have rushed to explain. But this time, he kept his lips tightly shut. As a fellow guide, he couldn’t pretend not to understand Ah-rang’s pain. He had felt her emotions so vividly that accepting Baek Sa’s touch now felt unbearable.

Not knowing any of that, Baek Sa looked stunned. His gaze was soft, but the stiff line of his mouth reminded Ha-gyeom of the coldness he had once shown.

Only then did Ha-gyeom push Baek Sa’s hand away. He slowly sat up on the edge of the bed, but the world spun dizzyingly around him. With Baek Sa’s touch gone, part of him felt parched—but another part felt relief.

“It’s not that.”

His shirt, damp from recurring nightmares, clung to his skin. He hadn’t eaten properly, hadn’t rested, and when he touched his own cheek, it felt sunken.

He rose with difficulty and spoke with his back turned.

“I have to get checked by Dr. Cha… I’m going to wash up now.”

Since Baek Sa said nothing, the sound of rain outside the window filled the silence.

As he walked toward the bathroom, Ha-gyeom clenched both fists tightly, fighting through the dizziness.

---

“Hmmm…”

Dr. Cha’s face, usually relaxed, was unusually serious as he stared at the monitor. Ha-gyeom, watching him tilt his head again and again, fidgeted with his hands.

“Definitely…”

Dr. Cha murmured and turned the monitor toward him. Ha-gyeom squinted at the incomprehensible diagnostic data on the screen, which looked more like weather radar than anything else.

“This cloud-like formation in blue—this is your energy reading right after training.”

Even so, he couldn’t tell what was good or bad.

“There was some damage, but by S-rank guide standards, nothing significant. So I had concluded you were fine.”

“…But?”

Not knowing what he was getting at, Ha-gyeom just stared. Dr. Cha clicked the keyboard, bringing up the next set of data.

“This one’s from today.”

The difference was immediately clear. Ha-gyeom leaned forward, studying the screen as if to pierce through it. Like storm clouds gathering from far away, the edges of his energy had turned red.

“……”

Just as a sense of dread began creeping in, Dr. Cha hit another arrow key.

“This is data I pulled from Dr. Kim’s computer.”

“Then….”

“That’s right. It’s a record tracking Ah-rang’s energy over time.”

Dr. Cha clicked through quickly, flipping through multiple frames. As Ha-gyeom watched the changes with his own eyes, his face turned pale.

Ah-rang’s energy gradually shifted toward red over time. It had started faint, like his, but by the final frame, there was barely any trace of blue left—only red.

“She seemed to recover once she regained consciousness. I mean Ah-rang. But looking at this morning’s reading, it’s back to red—just like when she was unconscious. Isn’t that strange?”

Ha-gyeom nodded as if he didn’t know, though deep down, he had a feeling why. Dr. Cha had only seen the data—but Ha-gyeom had felt Ah-rang’s energy with his own body.

“It’s driving me nuts. I mean, if we had something to compare it to, at least we could interpret what all this means.”

“……”

“She’s the first case we’ve seen energy behave like this… but now you, too…”

Dr. Cha trailed off, eyeing him meaningfully. He didn’t know the reason, but he clearly sensed something unusual was going on. Even if he was friendly, he was still from the 0 District—Ha-gyeom couldn’t just tell him everything. So he averted his gaze.

“You seemed fine right after training too. Did anything unusual happen when you met Ah-rang?”

To call it merely “unusual” would’ve been laughable—it had been horrific. But the only other person who had entered that vast space with them that day had been Baek Sa. Instead of telling the truth, Ha-gyeom shook his head.

“Nothing happened…”

“Nothing? Then why is your energy turning more and more like Ah-rang’s?”

Turning more like Ah-rang’s.

It sent a chill down his spine. Knowing full well she had been overtaken by some unknown being, Ha-gyeom’s heart began to race. He wiped his sweaty hands on his thigh and blurted out a diversion.

“My injuries…”

“What? You feeling unwell? You were still recovering from the training, but it didn’t seem to get any worse…”

“No, it’s not that… Just feeling kind of off.”

He had felt such overwhelming pain, and yet nothing showed up physically—that, too, was strange. He tried to act casual, but he probably didn’t look well. Dr. Cha rubbed his chin and said,

“If you feel anything strange or notice any changes, tell me right away. We still don’t know what this pattern means, but I want to document it thoroughly for future research. It’d be significant if this was first discovered here in the 0 District, after all.”

Dr. Cha seemed puzzled but also strangely excited. He even shrugged with a motivated look on his face, like he’d been given a new assignment. While he was getting worked up, Ha-gyeom slowly peeled off the sensors attached to his body.

He thought to himself it was a good thing he hadn’t told him anything. As he started to climb down from the bed, someone knocked on the door. The person who entered without waiting was Tae-seong.

“How is he?”

“For now, he’s okay.”

It wasn’t clear whether he was asking for himself or on Baek Sa’s behalf. Fiddling with the grip of his rifle, Tae-seong wore his usual surly expression.

Once Ha-gyeom stepped down from the bed, he instinctively realized he should follow Tae-seong, so he stood by his side. Clearly noticing how slumped and drained he looked, Tae-seong furrowed his brows.

“If you’d rather stay in a private room, Baek Sa said you could.”

It was unexpected, but in some ways, a relief. Ha-gyeom didn’t have the strength or courage to face Baek Sa right now.

Ignoring Dr. Cha, who looked like he was dying to butt in, Ha-gyeom walked straight into the hallway.

As he forced himself to keep moving, he could feel Tae-seong glancing at him from behind.

“You’re really just going to the private room?”

Coming from Tae-seong—who hated unnecessary talk—that was surprising. Normally, just hearing his voice would have made Ha-gyeom think again about returning to Baek Sa’s room. But right now…

Ha-gyeom nodded firmly. As he forced his heavy body toward the hallway that led to the private quarters, Tae-seong gave a sharp, dry cough and finally walked ahead of him.