DNLYHS Chapter 13 – Afterword.

Afterword.

[Your job is Disciplinary Committee Member.]

[The time remaining until escape is 14 days (2 weeks).]

[Trust the Code of Conduct. It is something you must obey absolutely.]

[Your current chance of escape is 0%. But do not lose hope. Believe in goodwill. Help those you can help. Be kind to those in trouble. It is the goodwill you once received from someone.]

[The rules you are reading now apply to Day 1. The next day’s rules will be revealed right after the end-of-day broadcast.]

[Universal rules for all situations: Reveal your job to others. Move around the school and gather allies. Trust your allies. Trust your luck, your instinct, and your kindness.]

[We believe you will one day be able to leave this school.]

The man who lay dying in the hospital bed had a strange dream one day.

A dream of a school where night never ended, a Code of Conduct that was unfriendly yet somehow gentle, and a lingering sense of piercing loneliness.

Oddly, he had not been afraid. Rather than fear or terror in the unfamiliar school, he felt swallowed by a boundless solitude. The fact that he was alone was unbearable. A sudden instinct washed over him that he could not continue living like that. So he wanted, anyone, to be by his side.

At first, he remembered traveling with a man whose role was the janitor. The way he seemed to know too much, the way he promised to turn back time for him even though they had only just met in the school, at the time, those things were comforting.

But there were things that didn’t quite fit when he stayed with the janitor. As if the man lived decades ago, his common sense often didn’t align. And while it was one thing for him to fumble his answers when asked if they could meet again after escaping the school…

The biggest problem was isolation.

When he stayed with the janitor, talking to anyone else in the school became impossible.

The janitor said the other people in the school were dangerous. The others avoided not only the janitor but also him, with his strange job-title. Even when he wanted to help someone in danger, he couldn’t approach, and sometimes they would even run away from him.

When others struggled against the monsters in the school or the absurd Code of Conduct and met their deaths, the man could only watch. It was far more agonizing than he ever imagined.

Perhaps for that reason? After witnessing countless deaths and repeating the first day over and over with all memories erased, Yeongwon suddenly chose to “go down the stairs” instead of staying on the third floor.

The Code of Conduct clearly warned against it. It said there were monsters downstairs. That if he went to the first floor on the first day, something dangerous would definitely happen at least once.

Even so, he felt it was right to go, if someone down there was waiting for his help.

And he did not regret it. Because the boy was there.

The boy who had not changed, no matter how many years passed, with his clear, gentle face and warm smile, waiting for him.

* * *

After regaining consciousness for the first time in years, the man recovered with surprising speed.

Any physical injuries had healed long ago. Thanks to the devoted care of his family, his body was in good condition. And despite having been bedridden for so long, he was unbelievably healthy and full of energy. It didn’t take long before he was able to be discharged.

But having been unconscious for so long, he showed a bit of confusion during the first few days. He didn’t immediately respond when people called his name, and when his father and sister, who had rushed over as soon as they heard the news, arrived, he looked at them with a bewildered expression.

Fortunately, the confusion didn’t last. Soon he remembered his own name and the names of the people around him, and he recalled both his childhood and the events surrounding the accident without trouble.

He even recognized his high school classmates and teachers who came to visit. While they bowed their heads and apologized through tears, the man calmly patted their shoulders, almost as if he understood that they had done the best they could.

Some time passed as he underwent examinations and monitoring. As long as he continued rehabilitation, there seemed to be no major issues. With that final explanation, the man was safely discharged.

Not long after returning home, he reunited with his family for a long-awaited meal out. The atmosphere at the table was warm, filled with conversation. The main topic was everything that had happened over the past six years.

His sister still lived alone but occasionally visited their father. His father, who had long seemed exhausted and worn down from financial troubles, had finally passed the worst of it and reached a stable point. At the very least, he now had enough room in his life to support his newly awakened son until he found his footing again.

It was clear the two of them wanted to discuss something more, but they didn’t bring it up during the meal. Perhaps they thought there would be time to talk later.

When the meal ended, the man could have gone straight home, but…

“Dad, I need to go somewhere today.”

“I think I know where you mean. …Shall I drive you?”

“It’s fine. I heard it’s not too far from here.”

“Are you sure you’ll be all right going alone?”

“I’ll be fine. I feel like taking a walk for the first time in a while. I might be a little late.”

Since it was close enough to reach without taking a bus or subway, he decided to walk as part of his rehabilitation. If he felt tired, he planned to rest or call, but ultimately he didn’t need to.

“Why didn’t you call? You just got discharged today!”

When the entrance to the apartment complex he was heading toward came faintly into view, a familiar-looking young man came rushing toward him in a panic. He looked like he had just gotten off work, slightly scattered.

But based on his appearance alone, “just finished work” didn’t quite fit…”just got out of school” seemed more accurate. For someone who called him “kid,” he looked so gentle and youthful that one could believe he was still in high school. Standing side by side, the man felt that he would look like the older one, while the younger man would look like the much younger sibling.

“Don’t make a fuss. I just wanted to walk alone a bit to celebrate being discharged. I was going to call you once I got to your place.”

“You’re so stubborn… Anyway, let’s go in. You said you already ate, right?”

“I ate with my family.”

“Then do you want some coffee? Actually, no…. maybe it’s too late for coffee?”

Talking like that, the two entered the apartment together.

The young man had left home and chosen to live independently right after graduating high school, or so he’d heard. There had been harsh clashes with his family during the process, and in a sense he had been pushed out with nothing but the clothes on his back. At first, he suffered quite a bit…

‘If only I had been there for him back then.’

The man felt a quiet regret but decided not to dwell on it too much. This person was strong. He had endured difficult years in his own way and found his place as a proper adult.

And throughout all those lonely, exhausting years, he had never forgotten him, always waiting.

“Come in.”

It wasn’t very large, but the place was clean and tidy. After guiding him to sit on the living room sofa, the young man went to the kitchen and returned with two steaming cups.

The sweet smell spreading through the room was familiar to him.

“You still like cocoa? It’s been six years since you graduated high school.”

“What does graduating have to do with cocoa? Besides… you like it too. It’s not like your taste has changed.”

Feeling faintly embarrassed, the man only shrugged his shoulders. Truthfully, it was he, not the other, who liked cocoa. More precisely, he had liked the moments of mixing cocoa into warm water from the dispenser and sharing it with him.

He sipped the sweet cocoa slowly, sinking into thought. His memories of being with this person were vivid as if they had happened yesterday. And because the young man’s appearance hadn’t changed much at all, he still couldn’t quite grasp the fact that so many years had passed while he was unconscious.

“Still, it’s strange. Why does your face look exactly the same?”

“W-what are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“You say it’s been six years, but why are you still so baby-faced without a single sign of aging? Did you even go to the army?”

“I did, okay? I even gained like 1kg there…”

“Gaining 1kg is something you can do just by eating a couple of big meals. Seriously, if I dropped you back in high school, people would think you were a student, not a teacher.”

He reached out and lightly pinched that soft cheek. Normally, baby fat fades with age, yet the boy’s face was still smooth and gentle. And as always, now, just like back then, he blushed and squirmed but didn’t brush the hand away or run.

You really haven’t changed at all, he thought absently, remembering suddenly the distant dreamlike world.

Even in the dream, this person hadn’t changed. He was just as clumsy and gentle, easily leaning into touch like a puppy. The memories of the two of them relying on each other in the dim gym storage or the art prep room were still vivid.

‘Ah… I wonder. Do you remember that dream too?’

Time had passed since he woke up, but the man had always wanted to ask about it.

He hadn’t asked right away because of a clumsy fear. If he spoke too soon and the dream was denied, he felt he would lose one of the precious experiences that had helped him stand again.

But now he felt ready to face whatever answer might come. As he gently toyed with that soft cheek, Yeongwon spoke in a quiet, casual voice.

“So, about that, Yeonseo.”

“What is it, Yeongwon… huh? Huh??”

The young man, no, Yeonseo, who had been replying naturally, suddenly widened his eyes and stared at Yeongwon. So it really wasn’t a dream. Murmuring that to himself, Yeongwon wrapped his hand around the back of Yeonseo’s.

He had never said it aloud, yet he called the forgotten name. And he spoke in formal speech, something he had never once used with him. That alone was enough to be certain. This person, just like him…

“So you remembered too. You kept acting like you didn’t, so I thought you’d forgotten everything.”

The atmosphere between them shifted in an instant. What had been a lighthearted visit to celebrate a friend’s recovery was suddenly weighed down by the long, endless years they had carried, years that repeated endlessly in that world.

“…How could I ever forget?”

“Then why didn’t you say anything until now?”

“Just… well.”

It didn’t feel like something he should say just anywhere. With a faintly puzzled expression, Yeonseo whispered that to him.

It likely wasn’t an excuse. The moment he heard those words, a strange realization washed over Yeongwon, something hard to put into words.

[This ritual is a deception from beginning to end. Because you carried the dead away by a method that should never be allowed, it is best not to speak of this casually anywhere. In truth, you won’t even be able to.]

[But the fact that you performed the ritual will not disappear. You will probably never forget those days for the rest of your lives.]

Perhaps they had all been told those words when they left the “school.” The memory might have simply sunk too deeply into the subconscious to recall easily.

And yet, as always with the Code of Conduct, its advice remained gentle enough to leave gaps, a teacher overlooking a student’s small wrongdoing.

If what happened in that world was real, if they would never forget it, then surely in a private space where no one else could hear, the two of them could share those memories.

They leaned into each other’s warmth just as they had so often on the narrow mat inside the gym storage. And in feather-light voices, they whispered stories heavy with long years.

“…To be honest, I was a little scared you might have forgotten everything.”

“You were scared?”

“I kept remembering you, Yeongwon, but the thought that maybe you had forgotten me… it scared me, and it hurt a little too.”

Yeonseo pouted as he grumbled. Yeongwon let out a small laugh, but he understood exactly how he felt. He had felt the same.

The “Yeongwon” from that school and the person sitting here now were not separate personalities. He’d only lost his memories, fundamentally, he was the same person. In a way, his current self could be considered the more complete one.

But he did not want to forget who he had been back then. Those days when he lost his memories over and over, afraid and confused, yet wandering the halls because the loneliness was unbearable if he was alone. Those days when he wasn’t sure whether to trust or doubt, yet still felt something in his heart settle whenever they leaned on each other.

Because those moments existed, the two of them could now face each other with honest hearts.

“So.”

“Yes?”

“Now that you know I didn’t forget, how does it feel?”

“Is that even a question? Of course… it feels nice.”

Yeonseo whispered with an embarrassed smile as his slender fingers fidgeted with Yeongwon’s hand.

“Ah, but it’s kind of embarrassing. Remembering that time makes me slip into formal speech out of habit. I guess I got used to it from being at the school…”

“Well, you did do it for a very long time. You repeated it nearly three hundred times, after all.”

When he left the school, Yeongwon had remembered everything that had happened there.

Even if he had lost his memories during every cycle, the total amount of time spent in all those loops easily added up to several years. Considering that they’d only spent barely two years together in the real world, it wouldn’t be wrong to say they had spent more time together in that school than in reality…

The feeling was strangely similar to graduating after learning everything the school had to teach. Yeongwon felt oddly unsettled.

Those days would probably never return.

Yeonseo must have been thinking something similar; he fell quiet for a moment but soon gave a small smile.

“So, how about just for today we stay like this? As a way of giving that time a proper ending.”

“…Ending it, huh.”

“You know, like how you have graduation ceremonies when you finish school? We escaped on the last day so frantically that we never had a chance to settle our feelings… So today we call each other all we want and let those names go properly. The names Yeongwon and Yeonseo.”

Yeongwon liked the suggestion. The names the two had given each other were something used only in the underworld, the place between life and death. Now that they had returned to reality and remembered their original names, they would not use them anymore.

But if those names had supported them, guided them all this time, then perhaps it was right to send them off with proper respect. As the living mourn the dead and release their souls.

“Besides, back then there was something I wanted to tell you. But we ran out in such a rush that I never got the chance.”

Yeonseo whispered shyly.

There was something Yeongwon had wanted to say as well. He had shouted it with all his strength when entering the auditorium, but the latter half had surely gotten muffled beyond recognition.

Even after returning to reality, there had been several chances to say it. Before Yeongwon was discharged, Yeonseo had visited him many times. But unlike his dream self, the real Yeonseo was still timid and couldn’t muster the courage.

But now, now that Yeongwon was himself again, now that he had once held the role of protecting others, he might be able to say it.

While he was thinking so, Yeonseo suddenly jumped up.

“Wait here for a second. I, i have something to give you. I’ve actually been preparing it for six years, but things kept getting in the way. Once you see it, you’ll understand what I’ve been thinking…”

He must be planning to say something important. But Yeongwon immediately reached out and grabbed his wrist.

“Wait. Listen to what I have to say first.”

“…What?”

This was something he had to say first. Until now, Yeonseo had always been the one to reach out. Their very first meeting had been like that, and in a sense, even the Soul Recall ritual began because Yeonseo stepped into that school to find him.

So, just this once…

“…I’ve always loved you. When I was alive, and even during the time I was dead.”

With the slightest pull, the delicate body fell easily into his arms. The moment he felt that warm weight leaning against him, Yeongwon knew without a doubt that this choice was the right one.

* * *

Even though he had cut off the other person’s words and suddenly pulled him into an embrace, Yeongwon’s body was trembling, enough for Yeonseo to feel it clearly. Feeling his own nerves shaking as well, Yeonseo fumbled his words.

“I, i was going to show you the letter…”

“……”

“It has everything written in it… all the misunderstandings you had before. I kept it in a drawer. And, um… the graduation story too. I wanted to go through them in order… one by one…”

“It’s fine. All those small things… really, they’re all fine.”

They aren’t small things.
Yeonseo tried to mumble that, but the words never left his mouth.

Because the moment their lips overlapped and his breath was stolen away, his mind went completely blank.

Large hands cupped Yeonseo’s head firmly, just like when they once covered each other’s ears in the broadcasting room. No sound reached him; only the soft breaths they exchanged and the pounding of their hearts echoed endlessly inside his mind.

“Mm… hngh…!”

What began as a cautious press and gentle sucking of lips gradually grew bolder. A warm, soft tongue slipped inside, exploring carefully as it tasted the inner parts of his mouth. Between their trembling breaths came the faint, wet sound of their lips meeting and parting.

Just from that alone, Yeonseo found himself agreeing with what Yeongwon had said earlier.

Maybe those things truly were small matters.

The painful misunderstandings of the past, the sad missteps, those knots could melt away completely with nothing more than a bit of warmth.

So Yeonseo carefully wrapped his arms around Yeongwon’s neck.

As their warmth pressed together more insistently, he felt Yeongwon’s body flinch. Despite his solid, mature-looking exterior, this man was surprisingly sensitive and easily frightened. Maybe… maybe he was afraid of being rejected even now.

But perhaps Yeonseo had been underestimating him. Even if he had been unconscious for years, he was still a man.

“…Is it all right if we use the bedroom?”

At that moment, the man’s lips parted from his and whispered softly beside his ear. In the eyes meeting his, there was a shameless, burning heat.

Yeonseo opened and closed his mouth, face bright red. But even though Yeongwon had asked politely, he didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, without a hint of hesitation, he lifted Yeonseo into his arms and strode straight toward the master bedroom.

“What… wha… suddenly doing this…! I still have so many things I want to say!”

“Then say everything you want now. Go on. We don’t have much time.”

Why don’t we have much time?

Before Yeonseo could ask, Yeongwon pushed open the bedroom door and set him down on the bed. In an instant, the buttons of his shirt came undone, exposing pale skin. While he wavered in embarrassment, his pants slipped down together with his underwear.

Suddenly stripped bare, Yeonseo felt so mortified he thought his entire body might turn red. Was he always this reckless? Couldn’t he at least wait for someone to finish speaking…!

Yet, thinking about it again, this was exactly who he had always been. Fussy and sensitive at times, but when the moment came, he always acted first, doing and saying all the things Yeonseo was too frightened to do.

It was unmistakably the Yeongwon he knew.

And there was something Yeonseo had wanted to tell that Yeongwon for a very, very long time.

So…

“I… I like you too….”

In the end, when all the things he wanted to say were condensed, they all pointed to that single sentence.

Everything he had prepared until now had been step after step leading toward that confession.

That he had been unbearably lonely without him.

That he had always missed him.

That he had regretted, endlessly, not having the courage to speak when he watched him run away that day.

After circling around and around, the message he wanted to give was ultimately the same.

I love you.

Even now, in this very moment, I really, truly like you.
There was no need for clumsy explanations on top of that.

“…I knew that from the beginning. Since the very first time we met.”

In an instant, the man, completely naked, was above Yeonseo.

Despite having spent years bedridden, his body was far firmer than Yeonseo had vaguely imagined. Just feeling the weight of him pressed down made heat flare sharply in his lower belly.

Feather-light kisses floated down from his neck to his chest.

Careful, gentle, leaving no pain, yet just enough pressure to leave faint, flushed traces on his pale skin.

When a tongue brushed against his areola and nipple, the small bump tightened little by little.

The sensation of a place that shouldn’t be touched being touched sent a bright, electrifying jolt racing up his spine.

“Ah…!”

“Did you know? Actually… I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time. Ever since we became adults. You feel the same, don’t you?”

His whisper trembled faintly as it brushed against him.

While his chest was being teased from above, Yeongwon’s hardened penis rubbed slowly against Yeonseo’s penis.

Just feeling that heavy pressure made Yeonseo’s throat go dry and his breathing turn shallow on its own.

Only after Yeonseo’s nipples and the surrounding skin had turned completely red did Yeongwon finally lift his mouth from his chest.

And it wasn’t just his chest, slick and wet from saliva, that was heated.

His whole body, burning with impatience and desire, was already damp with a faint sheen of sweat even though nothing had truly begun yet.

Looking down quietly at him, Yeongwon took hold of Yeonseo’s thighs and gently opened them to look inside.

His penis, still tinged a faint pink, had already hardened enough from all the stimulation.

Yeongwon’s gaze traced over the perineum between the soft mounds and the small opening just beneath.

“…I want to do it without hurting you.”

His voice was gentle, but still thick with desire.

Even though he said that, the whisper made it obvious he had no intention of backing away now.

Yeonseo let out a small whimper from a mix of fear and embarrassment.

Fear was natural, this would be his first time.

But the embarrassment came from a slightly different direction.

“Um, so… you know.”

“What is it? If you don’t want to do this…”

“No, not that. It’s just… you know. In the nightstand drawer…”

Yeongwon opened the drawer with a puzzled look…
and burst out laughing.

Yeonseo, wanting to crawl into a hole and disappear, pulled a pillow over his face to hide.

Still chuckling, Yeongwon took out a bottle of unused lubricant and an unopened pack of condoms.

“Just to check… what were you planning to do if things went badly and we never got to use these?”

“A-a refund due to… change of heart…? I might’ve cried a little, but.”

“I can’t believe you, seriously.”

Why would you cry? You’re not a baby.

Yeongwon whispered that as if soothing him and gently patted Yeonseo’s back.

Yeonseo felt embarrassed, worried he might look like someone who thought only about doing indecent things.

He hadn’t bought them intending to use them today.

The man had just been discharged, and even if the doctors said he was healthy, he still wasn’t fully recovered.

His plan was to simply have them ready for later.

…Of course, if he had confessed and been rejected, he really would have cried while marching back to refund the lubricant and everything else…

“…Still, Yeonseo.”

“St-still…?”

“Now that we’ve come this far, there’s no backing out. You know what I mean?”

Was it his imagination, or did that whisper hold a mischievous edge?

While Yeonseo stammered in confusion, Yeongwon tore open the lubricant package and squeezed out a suitable amount.

A moment later, cold gel-coated fingers touched him below.

“Ah… ngh…”

At first, even taking in just two fingers was overwhelming and difficult.

Those long, knobby fingers slowly stirred deep inside him, rubbing around here and there, occasionally curling slightly to press against the most sensitive spots.

Every time Yeonseo gasped and whimpered, the other hand gently stroked his length, caressing him tenderly. The physical stimulation helped ease some of his tension, but he was still a little scared.

Because he remembered the size of what had been rubbing against his own earlier.

And also that dark, thick, and rugged piece of flesh he’d glimpsed when Yeongwon had started undressing.

Would that thing even fit just because a few fingers had stretched him out?

Even after loosening up a bit down there, Yeonseo couldn’t relax. He instinctively closed his eyes and covered his face with both arms.

“Yeonseo.”

“I… I’m just… a little scared. It’s my first time…”

“First time? Didn’t you say you’re twenty-five?”

Even in this situation, the sudden swell of frustration was entirely Yeongwon’s fault.

Annoyed, Yeonseo forgot all about being nervous or embarrassed and grumbled back at him.

“So what if I’m twenty-five? Am I not allowed to be doing it for the first time? You waited all that time for me to wake up, and now you’re picking on me for this? It’s not like you’ve ever done it properly either, so don’t act like you’re better than me…!”

If he was just going to nitpick like this all the time, maybe I shouldn’t have bothered saving him.

Yeonseo was about to mutter those resentful words when…

“Yeonseo.”

With a low chuckle, Yeongwon pulled Yeonseo tightly into his arms. His careful hand brushed through Yeonseo’s hair and gently patted his back.

Yeonseo let out a small groan and hugged him back.

“…Thanks. For waiting for me.”

“……”

“Like you said, I’m scared too because it’s my first time… but I think I’ll be okay. Yeah?”

“…Yeah.”

When he met those warm eyes looking down at him with such tenderness, a tingling heat rose from deep within Yeonseo’s chest. He gave a small nod and waited a moment longer.

Then once again, Yeongwon’s hands spread his legs apart. The tension that had finally eased left him open once more.

But this time, it wasn’t fingers that touched him.

It was the weighty, firm length of a man.

“Ah… ngh, ahh…!”

At first it seemed to be pushing in slowly, but perhaps Yeongwon thought dragging it out would only make things worse, because in the next instant, he drove it in all at once.

Yeonseo hiccupped, his whole body trembling.

His vision darkened as every nerve in his body surged downward. The pain, something he’d never felt in his life, slammed into him, followed by a strange, overwhelming wave of sensation that seemed to lie just beyond it.

“Haah, ngh… Yeonseo. Yeonseo…”

But gentle hands and soft kisses soothed that pain.

Yeongwon, who had barely managed to push himself into that tight space, was also clearly struggling. He caught his breath, letting out a shaky moan that revealed just how much he was holding back.

“Yeongwon… Yeongwon-ah…”

As Yeonseo clung to him, whimpering, the length buried deep inside him slowly began to move.

Thankfully, the inner walls, carefully stretched and slick with wetness, didn’t tear, accepting the movement instead.

It had been tight at first, but at some point, the sharp edge of pain began to blur, replaced by a strange, spreading heat. Realizing this, Yeongwon’s thrusts gradually gained strength.

“Yeongwon, I… I can’t… ngh, ah…!”

He didn’t even know what he was trying to say, he just kept calling his name, breathlessly.

The warmth of the man holding him close, the sensation of that thick length stirring his insides, everything blurred together in his head, leaving him dazed and undone.

The feeling that had started as pain now exploded into pleasure, bursting in his mind like fireworks.

Yeongwon had been right. Yeonseo had wanted this, too, for a long time.

To do this with the person he loved more than anyone in the world.

“I love you… haah, Yeonseo. I’ve… loved you, for so long.”

With a faint sob, their lips met again.

This man had a strange habit of saying things first, without even giving him a chance to respond. Yeonseo wanted so badly to say it back, i love you too.

But the gaze looking down on him now was already soaked with affection and heat, as if he knew exactly what Yeonseo wanted to say without needing the words.

‘Yeah, we have time now. Even if I’m a little late, I’ll tell him. I’ll tell him everything.’

I love him.

He had known it for a long time, but couldn’t bring himself to say it.

And by the time he realized he needed to, Yeongwon had already gone to a place where his voice could no longer reach.

But now they were back within each other’s reach. Yeonseo had stretched out his hand all the way to the afterlife, and Yeongwon had taken it and come back with him.

And so, there was no reason to ever let go again.

‘I love you. And from now on, every day, I’ll write you a love letter.’

The two of them clung to each other tightly as they reached their climax.

It was the greatest satisfaction they could find, not in the world of the dead, but in the world of the living.

― Afterword, End.