The thumb that had shoved °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° into his mouth grazed along the soft tissue—his tongue, his palate. What the hell is wrong with you?! Uijae couldn’t take it anymore and bit down hard. Crunch. The sickening sensation of sinking into flesh was immediately followed by a sweet taste. Only then did the finger pull away.

A round bite mark on the thumb welled with black blood, dripping freely. Ah, crap. Uijae grabbed the thumb and asked, bitterly,

“…Does it hurt?”

He hadn’t meant to bite that hard. Uijae swept his tongue across the inside of his mouth, trying to get rid of the sweetness. Meanwhile, Sa-young stared intently at the hand now covering the bite on his thumb, and muttered to himself.

“It’s real… It hurts.”

“What kind of nonsense are you babbling now?”

“It might be a bad hallucination, or a dream… or both…”

Sa-young didn’t answer him, just kept mumbling to himself. It scared the crap out of Uijae. He tried to get a look at his expression, but the messy curls that hung over his face made it hard to see anything clearly.

Uijae reached out and brushed the hair aside. The strands felt coarser than he remembered as they slipped between his fingers. Violet eyes followed the motion of his hand.

“Lee Sa-young, are you okay?”

“……”

“Do you recognize me?”

It couldn’t be that he didn’t recognize him because of the mask, right? Or what if he did what he’d done before—like try to choke him. Uijae prodded and tugged at Sa-young’s face, turning his head this way and that. His eyesight seemed fine, and aside from looking a little skinnier, his face was the same. No visible scars. Sa-young passively let him fiddle with his face like it was nothing.

This time, he could touch him. He could see him.

‘There’s no way student Gaeul’s ability leveled up this fast.’

Then maybe Sa-young had done something. Uijae narrowed his eyes and asked suspiciously.

“You can see me, right.”

“Yeah.”

“‘Yeah,’ my ass—what did you do? Last time, I went right through you. You couldn’t even see me.”

“Dunno.”

Uijae grabbed both of Sa-young’s cheeks and held his head in place. Sa-young closed his eyes and rested his face in his palms, then peeked one open.

“This time… it’s real…”

“What?”

“No, never mind… I still don’t know.”

Sa-young clasped Uijae’s hands that were still on his cheeks. His bitten thumb—still marked—dragged gently across the back of Uijae’s hand. He whispered lazily.

“Could you hit me? Just once? Or bite me again. Hmm… maybe choking would be easier…”

Chills rippled down Uijae’s spine. The memory of that nightmare crept in. He quickly pulled his hands away from Sa-young’s cheeks and slapped away the hands clinging to him.

“You’ve seriously lost your mind!”

“Why?”

“You… you… Are you really the Lee Sa-young I know? Or are you that other weirdo?!”

Sa-young let out a short laugh. He propped his chin up with one hand and tossed the question back.

“Then what about you? Are you really Cha Uijae?”

“This isn’t some twenty-questions game.”

“I’m asking because I’m not sure.”

“Not sure?”

“That you’re really Cha Uijae.”

“……”

“I’ve seen too much. It’s hard to tell anymore. But if you’re the one who bit me, maybe you’re real.”

Sa-young tilted his head slightly. They were speaking the same language, but it was like they weren’t communicating at all. Everything felt off. Uijae tried to track the flow of Sa-young’s thoughts. So… he’s saying he’s seen too many illusions like Uijae? Enough to not know what’s real anymore?

‘Fuck, he needs a hospital.’

You can treat a physical wound, but a wound to the mind… there’s no fixing that. Uijae grabbed his shoulders. Sa-young glanced down at the hands, eyes flicking in their direction. Uijae bit down on his lip and said, carefully, firmly:

“…You should’ve just come out with me when I asked, you dumbass!”

WHAM—!!

The sound of his mask clashing against Sa-young’s forehead rang out like a chime.

***

It seemed the headbutt finally snapped Sa-young back to his senses. Well, of course it would. You don’t take a headbutt from an S-rank and come out unscathed unless you’re an S-rank yourself. But now, Uijae was the one growing paranoid. He cupped Sa-young’s cheek again and asked,

“You really okay?”

“How many times are you gonna ask? I said I’m fine.”

Sa-young leaned his head into his hand like an animal seeking a rub. His lukewarm forehead and hair filled Uijae’s palm. Uijae rubbed the reddened bump on his head and sighed.

“Yeah, well, seeing hallucinations of me isn’t what I’d call fine. Not knowing what’s real either.”

“…And whose fault do you think that is.”

The sleepiness in his eyes vanished, replaced by a sharp edge. Those violet eyes spun in a slow circle, then locked back onto Uijae. Goosebumps prickled along his neck. It was that look again—the deranged look.

“And you just left like that, huh?”

“…What did I even do?”

“Must’ve felt great, huh? Showing up outta nowhere, flipping my world upside down, then just vanishing.”

“Hey, you’re the one who started talking, like a dumbass. You think I wouldn’t get mad seeing that?”

“Ah… so you saw all of that? Why not say it outright then—say you saw me crawling like a dog.”

“I didn’t mean to see it—wait, hold on, you were crawling? Why?”

Sa-young let out a deep sigh, loud and dramatic.

“Forget it. I didn’t know our noble hero had a voyeurism kink… Then again, who but me would indulge that? Since I know your tastes now, I’ll keep it in mind for next time.”

“What the hell are you keeping in mind?! No, it’s not like that!!”

“Oh? Didn’t you want me to cater to that? My mistake, then…”

The sarcastic jabs flew out of him like breathing, and Uijae was too dazed to respond. He hadn’t expected a heartwarming reunion, but this kind of verbal sparring wasn’t what he’d hoped for either. The little shit! Uijae pinched Sa-young’s cheeks and squished them until he looked like a goldfish.

“You can’t even be happy to see me? Just snarking like always.”

“And who was the one who poked a guy barely hanging on? You appeared like a ghost and disappeared like one too. Like I’m supposed to read your mind or something.”

“Wow. You’ve got some nerve. What the hell did I even do?”

“Oh, you don’t even know what you did. Must be nice to live that obliviously.”

It had been a while since he’d seen this side of Lee Sa-young. All twisted up like a pretzel, all snark and spite. What was it this time? It’s not like he said anything wrong. He tried to recall exactly what he’d done. He’d faked a punch and kissed his forehead. Told him not to wait for a corpse. Said he’d be back.

‘…I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?’

No matter how much he thought about it, nothing stood out. Sa-young jabbed again.

“I don’t even need to hear what you’re thinking. Bet you’re going, ‘What did I do to make him like this?’ right?”

“……”

Damn, he’s sharp. And he can’t even see my face with the mask on.

But there was no time to waste parsing it all out. His time here was limited. One thing was certain: if he disappeared again like last time, Sa-young would snap. For real this time.

Uijae let go of his squished cheeks and opened his arms wide.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“I said I’m sorry.”

“Oh, sure…”

Sa-young let out a mocking scoff. At this point, there was no helping it. Before the little pretzel could keep whining, he had to strike first.

Uijae lunged forward, arms still open, and pulled him into a tight hug. The body in his arms tensed, and a sweet scent wafted into his nose. He stroked the back of Sa-young’s head and whispered like a mantra.

“I’m sorry. But we don’t have time to fight like this, okay?”

“……”

“I’m sorry. You heard that, right? I said I’m sorry.”

“…That’s your idea of an apology?”

Sa-young asked in disbelief. Uijae, buried in hair and warm cheeks, rubbed his mask against the curve of his ear and let out a loud smooch. The neck he was holding flinched. Sa-young groaned softly.

“What the hell are you doing, seriously.”

“I said I’m sorry.”

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t fix everything, you know.”

“I know, I know.”

“You say that, but you don’t know anything.”

That venomous tone gradually softened. Uijae rubbed his cheekpiece against Sa-young’s hair again and muttered.

“I do know. Who else knows you like I do?”

“You don’t know anything.”

“Yeah, well, you never tell me anything. But if you do, I’ll memorize it all. I’ll study.”

“…You idiot.”

Sa-young mumbled with a huff. That was practically just a pout now. And Uijae knew exactly when to strike. He dropped his voice and whispered softly,

“Wanna touch my face?”

The body in his arms tensed again. Uijae whispered once more.

“Should I take the mask off?”