* * *
Kwoargh—
Suhyeon opened his eyes when he heard the faint cry of something.
Nothing was visible around him.
Darkness lay everywhere. He struggled to sit up.
It didn’t take long for his mind, which had been staring at the space filled only with darkness, to begin turning again.
The enormous Gate that had waited for him, mouth wide open, as he was swept away by the fierce wind.
Suhyeon’s face began to turn pale, little by little, as he recalled his last memory before losing consciousness.
The moment he was sucked into the Gate, Do Yejun and Lee Jaeram brazenly pressed their lips together right in front of him, and the fact that Do Yejun, who had known about the Gate opening one beat earlier than Jaeram and Suhyeon, had chosen to save Jaeram.
Everything was jumbled together, recalled all at once.
However, Suhyeon was not given the time to dwell on it and fully process it.
BANG!!
Because a thunderous sound, as if something huge was slamming into the ground nearby, rang deafeningly in his ears.
The vibration of the floor reverberated to where Suhyeon was sitting foolishly.
Along with the sound of things like stones rolling around due to the vibration.
Only then did he fully snap back to reality.
Suhyeon’s face, which had been lost in the suddenly reversed view and the unreal memories filling his mind, now turned pale for a different reason.
That is, the place he was in right now was inside the Gate.
Chae Suhyeon was a person who was dull to his senses, not easily surprised, not easily excited, and not easily swept away by any urgent situation.
But the moment he realized this, his body went rigid.
The Gate.
The giant hole that had begun appearing all over the Earth decades ago.
The most basic of common knowledge flashed through Suhyeon’s mind.
They appear without any warning, like a rift in the air, and monsters that look like something out of a movie’s CGI come pouring out of them in droves.
Monsters. When he thought of that terrifying word,
KWAANG!!!!!!!!
Beeeeep—
Along with the intense roar that burst out right beside him, a ringing in his ears consumed his mind.
His hearing was paralyzed, and only the ringing took over his ears like a warning signal.
A bead of cold sweat rolled down his spine.
Suhyeon forcefully twisted his head, which didn’t want to turn.
Not even a few steps from where he stood, a gigantic tentacle was wriggling, stuck into the now dusty ground.
Yes, a tentacle.
Something that looked like it would have easily crushed his light body if he had landed just a little to the side.
Even though he had an Esper as a lover, Suhyeon’s daily life was that of a non-ability user.
Gate, Monster, Association.
These things were too far removed from his daily life.
Even if he knew what they were as general knowledge, he, as an ordinary person, had never had to directly encounter them.
Suhyeon had only seen such a sight in movies, or occasionally when the news covered monsters or Gates.
He had even heard that the Association didn’t show much of it to avoid creating fear among the public.
But now, it was right before Suhyeon’s eyes.
“Kuuuaaaaargh!!!!”
‘What is that sound?’
The tentacle, which had been stuck in the ground and only twitching intermittently, slowly rose, and the rough roar of something pierced his ears mercilessly.
Suhyeon’s lips trembled.
His paralyzed mind couldn’t even pull up the thought that he needed to escape this place immediately.
His normally dull senses were all awakened, and a fear he had never felt in his entire life crept up his body in an instant.
The monster slowly revealed its form in the darkness.
A monster with dozens of gigantic tentacles, which had been plunged right beside Suhyeon and were now wandering through the air with a fierce whooshing sound.
The overwhelming fear made his body immobile and made him lose all will to fight.
‘I’m going to die.’
The moment he realized this, Suhyeon bit his lips so hard they felt like they would burst.
He felt something warm on his lips.
His body wouldn’t move, and even if he ran away from that thing, there was no way he could escape.
The tentacle descended toward Suhyeon’s head with a sound closer to a roar, as if there would be no more chances.
To be sucked into a Gate and die.
Could anyone end their life like this?
Suddenly, he felt sorry for himself.
He came on a date with his lover, saw his lover locking lips and tongues with someone else, was abandoned by his lover, and finally, was about to die.
Suhyeon looked at the approaching death and squeezed his eyes shut.
A single tear rolled down.
KWAAANG!!!!!!!!!
Blackout.
*
To put it simply, Suhyeon did not die.
BANG! BANG, BANG, BANG!!!
This entire situation did not turn out to be a miracle where it was all just a nightmare and he woke up in his cozy bed.
Suhyeon was still lost inside the Gate, but somehow, he did not die.
BANG!!!
Suhyeon’s thin shoulders, which had been tightly shut because he didn’t want to look ahead, trembled with the shock transmitted along with the roar.
When the ceaseless roar stopped for just a moment, Suhyeon, still in a huddled position, slightly raised his head.
It was maybe five meters in radius.
A semi-spherical blue energy enveloped him like a shield.
Suhyeon looked down at the simple necklace he was gripping so tightly it felt like it would break.
When he opened his eyes, he was already inside this blue hemisphere.
In his pocket was this necklace, which was glowing brightly as if it were the source emitting this blue energy.
Suhyeon didn’t know where he had found this.
He certainly didn’t know why something he had never seen was in his pocket, and he didn’t have time to think about it.
Only the fact that it was saving his life was important.
BANG!! BANG, BANG!
When the roar, which had stopped momentarily, started again, Suhyeon dropped his head back between his knees.
The fear that had subsided for a brief moment surged up again.
Just because he was alive and a mysterious necklace was miraculously protecting him, the tentacled monsters had not disappeared.
The monsters continuously attacked the shield, as if they wouldn’t be satisfied until they killed the human who had entered their lair.
How much time passed like that?
An hour? Two hours? A day?
The attack continued even as his senses disappeared and he couldn’t gauge the time, and the shield kept shaking.
Suhyeon soon reached the point of giving up.
As the overwhelming fear continued, it felt like a few screws had come loose in his head.
It prevented him from thinking properly.
He lay curled up on the floor.
He had never even heard of a case of a human being sucked into a Gate, let alone a human surviving and coming out of one.
‘What will change even if I survive these monsters? Won’t I still be unable to return?’
Suhyeon’s light-colored eyes blinked slowly as if falling asleep.
It was similar to a person facing death unable to resist the need to slumber.
As he gradually became numb to the tentacles and the roars, only the last memories before being sucked into the Gate surfaced.
Following his gradually dulling senses, a thin stream of tears landed on his cheek once more.
Do Yejun. The lover Suhyeon had loved so much that he tried to give him anything he wanted.
“I love you, Yejun.”
Although Suhyeon was not rich and struggled to make a living, he poured out his love to Yejun, who had brought such an intense emotion into his tranquil life, almost to the point of devotion.
Even when Yejun seemed bothered by him, and even when he was hurt by Yejun’s complete lack of respect for him as a partner, he always laughed it off.
Because he liked him.
Because he was the person who made Suhyeon, who was naturally slow and unresponsive, feel such a strong emotion.
But the result, in the end, was this.
‘He must have really liked the exclusive Guide. He must have liked him so much.’
It was a cruel thought, but there were many Guides, weren’t there?
There were many people who could save Yejun from low Guiding levels, weren’t there?
Yet, Jaeram must have been more precious than his only lover, more precious than Suhyeon who had been by his side for so long.
Enough to instinctively pull Jaeram away from the Gate before him.
The sight of them focused only on each other, embracing and mixing lips and tongues as if their bodies touching was a routine occurrence, filled his mind as the fear receded.
“Ha….”
BANG!! BANG, BANG, BANG!!!
In the midst of the roars, Suhyeon weakly stretched out his body and let out a self-mocking laugh at the emptiness creeping up his legs.
A long time passed again like that.
Perhaps it was because he had fought with so many emotions, but at some point, Suhyeon felt a painful ache in the area of his heart.
Thirst rose up.
Then, at some point, he realized that he could no longer hear the shock, vibration, or roar.
Suhyeon, who managed to lift his heavy body that felt like water-soaked cotton, flinched.
‘Since when?’
The monsters that had densely surrounded the shield to the point where the surroundings weren’t visible had all disappeared.
The necklace also seemed to have lost its power, as its light was gone.
Suhyeon was sitting alone in the dark space where nothing was visible, just like the first moment he fell into the Gate.
And then.
He saw a massive white light burst and spread out in the distance.
“Run.”
It was as if someone whispered in his ear.
Suhyeon got up as if possessed.
He ran, drawn to the white light as his instincts guided him.
His body, which had been so powerless just moments ago, ran as if squeezing out its last bit of energy.
Finally, when Suhyeon threw himself into that massive and bright light.
“…?”
He was securely held in someone’s arms.
Suhyeon’s light-colored pupils grew in size, capturing the face of the man who held him.
Deep blue eyes that seemed to hold the exact color of the azure sky that was faintly visible far away.
Dark black hair that looked like it would absorb all colors, distinct features, and a defined jawline.
A handsome man, closer to a sculpture meticulously crafted by an artisan than a person, poured into his vision.
Without even realizing that he had escaped the Gate, Suhyeon stared blankly at the man as if he had been imprinted on him.
Then, before he could resist the sudden pain that seemed to burst from his chest, in an instant, another blackout.
* * *
