FLIA 172

The sound of frantic eating was loud. But this time it was not because of Yoon Seungryong’s endless gluttony.

“Eat a lot! There’s food everywhere!”

Yang Yohan shouted in satisfaction. There were piles of food taken from nearby convenience stores and markets, and stacks of bottled water. The team members, who saw proper food and water for the first time in a month, lost their composure. They threw themselves at it without even saying thank you. The ramen boiled in broth, meat, sweet canned fruit, snacks, candy, and drinks were everywhere.

For the team members who had been eating rotten meat or weeds at best, it was a luxurious feast. When Lee Hyunmook only watched the team eat, Yang Yohan asked carefully.

“You’re not eating?”

“I am. You should eat too, Yohan.”

At those words, Yohan smiled prettily and picked up a chocolate bar from the pile of food. He opened one, handed it to Hyunmook, and then put one in his own mouth and chewed. Hyunmook also put the chocolate bar in his mouth. It was sweet.

After the meal, Yohan told everyone who looked happy how they could leave.

“To get out of here, we need to go to the Salt Lake. That is where the Abyss’s core is. We have to destroy it to get out.”

“The Salt Lake? Where is that?”

Seo Yakrin calmly asked. No one asked how or from where Yohan had appeared. Like Hyunmook, they felt that the moment itself was a dream, and they were careful because they didn’t want to break it if it was.

“Ah, right, you don’t know. The Salt Lake is northeast from here. But before we go, can we prepare a few things?”

“What is it? Tell us if you need something.”

Lee Chanha looked at Yohan with eyes full of faith. Hyunmook thought that this sight felt strangely familiar.

They completely cleared out the nearby convenience stores and markets. Everyone cheerfully carried bundles of food and set out. It was fortunate that they were awakeners and strong. Yohan guided those who had never left the Ruined City toward the swamp.

After they arrived at the swamp, they found rice, sauce, and side dishes from the market. They killed a corrupted giant pig and pulled strange weeds from a field, purified them, and Yohan suggested a pork belly party. Of course, no one refused.

After eating as much pork belly as he wanted, Yoon Seungryong completely regained his usual cheerfulness. Seo Yakrin also smiled. Ju Hoyoung brightened, and Lee Chanha regained his usual calm. Lee Hyunmook felt the weight pressing down on his heart lighten as he watched them.

Then Yohan led them to the Japanese zone. There, he searched through eerie buildings and found entertainment for the team. Among them, Ju Hoyoung, who got a game console, was the happiest.

“I wanted to visit the Reed Sea too, but it’s too far. Let’s go straight to the Jungle zone.”

The team still didn’t complain. Since a purifier was with them, the corruption didn’t increase, and they had plenty of food. Their shelter was comfortable and cozy, and monsters became gentle or easy to handle after purification. When they moved to the Jungle zone, they found many curious and delicious fruits, pineapples, mangoes, bananas…. It felt like they were enjoying an adventure. Yohan made another suggestion.

“The Salt Lake is far, so we’ll go across the Black Mountain.”

They all knew what the Black Mountain was. It was a place that moved and absorbed monsters. But they were surprise to see the Black Mountain, purified by Yohan, became unbelievably beautiful.

The entire mountain was filled with glowing pastel colors, a sight that could never exist on Earth. Yohan’s purification field was just as amazing. Within that field, Lee Chanha regained true peace. Yoon Seungryong and Ju Hoyoung ran around joyfully, and Seo Yakrin, who could refine Eternal Stone, lay on it and enjoyed the peace. She murmured softly.

“I never thought I’d see something this beautiful in such a horrible place.”

They rested leisurely as if they were on a picnic, then moved again. Crossing the Black Mountain was easy. They didn’t have to watch for monsters, and they could lie anywhere and look at the shining lights. It really felt like a sightseeing trip. That was how they arrived at the Salt Lake.

In the fog-covered Salt Lake, Yohan spread another purification field. The lake that had smelled of blood and rot turned clear and pure in an instant. They swam in the crystal water that was so clear they could see the bottom. They picked up huge shells, and Seo Yakrin joyfully went fishing. They ate plenty of grilled and boiled seafood.

“I feel alive again…”

Someone murmured happily. And a moment later, calm breathing resounded as everyone fell into a peaceful sleep beside the shimmering blue lake.

While Hyunmook watched the peaceful scene, someone rose silently. It was Yang Yohan.

He gently covered the sleeping team with blankets and walked toward what was no longer the Black Mountain. Hyunmook also got up and followed without a sound.

At the place Yohan reached, there was a cave. He entered the cave that looked like a beautiful crystal mine. Hyunmook followed him inside. The sound of the team’s calm breathing grew distant.

The cave that led to the Abyss’s core went endlessly downward. It was only wide enough for one person to pass through comfortably. Yohan didn’t turn back once to check if Hyunmook was following, and he just walked silently. Finally, the cave ended.

Beyond the cave stood something huge and round. But it was not the core Yohan had mentioned. Yohan stood still and looked silently at the perfected black-and-white eternal etone. Then, for the first time, he turned around. In the quiet silence, Hyunmook murmured.

“So it really was a dream.”

He knew better than anyone how vast the Abyss was. Yet the journey here had felt both long and short. They had walked for months, and still, it felt brief. It was like a fleeting dream.

Yohan, who had always smiled brightly through their journey, asked for the first time with a trembling face.

“Was it a good dream?”

“Yes, really… it was a very good dream. I even wished it were real.”

They no longer had to eat spoiled flesh, and they no longer had to drink the foul liquid from monsters instead of water. They had plenty of food, and the monsters were no longer a threat. Their bodies did not twist, and they no longer endured unbearable pain, and they did not suffer the madness that made it hard to keep their reason.

Above all, there was no cruel ordeal that tore their bodies and minds apart and crushed them into pulp. They had never once encountered the Flood.

Everything had been nothing but a hollow dream, but it was not meaningless. That dream left a deep impression in Lee Hyunmook’s heart.

While Hyunmook reflected on that dream, Yohan slowly came closer and pulled him into his arms. His hot breath trembled and spilled against Hyunmook’s chest. His beloved tried desperately not to cry aloud. The brilliant mountain scenery that had been purified began to blur. The peacefully sleeping team members faded into the distance.

“I thought carefully about the first time I met you, Hyunmook-hyung.”

Yohan spoke with effort even while gasping for breath. In that familiar quiet, Hyunmook focused on his lover’s voice, which sounded especially clear.

“I still remember when you had a human form. I was really scared, but you were still human. And, and… I heard it from Chanha-hyung too.”

“You heard it from Chanha?”

“Yes, hic, Chanha-hyung said that you helped everyone take human form.”

Tears rolled down Yohan’s face and warmed his chest, but Hyunmook pretended not to notice and only gently patted his back. Hearing it from Yohan’s mouth made the memory of forcing the team, who had begged him to kill them, into unwanted forms sound different, almost as if he had done something kind.

“You did that because you wanted to stay human.”

Hyunmook’s chest grew warmer. His body temperature was usually cold like a stone lying by the roadside, but when he was with Yohan, he used to warm himself so they would not feel distant. Yet now, even without that, he felt his body heat rising.

“And you, you never give up.”

Not giving up. The eternal, desperate, and noble will of an existence.

“Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. I’ll save you. Always. No matter what happens. Even if I fall back into the Abyss, I’ll come to save you, just like in the dream. So…”

Hyunmook remembered how Yohan had always been afraid of the team and of him, yet had kept insisting he was human.

“Ah…” Hyunmook let out a small sound. His sweet and peaceful dream was shattering. But instead of familiar darkness, what appeared was a blinding sun.

Inside him, which had been worn down and hollowed out from enduring the Abyss for so long, Yohan’s light now lifted a sun. Yohan had poured that light into him again and again whenever they had been together. The light spread gently even to the places where sunlight could not reach, scattering in the shape of stars. Hyunmook suddenly felt that he was a little unfamiliar to himself.

That was not the only unfamiliar thing. He also sensed the blood and flesh that the team members had shed while fighting the impossible monsters he had created. The things he had once given had now returned to fill a part of what he had lost.

“I…”

He no longer wanted another tragedy to happen. Just as his team suffered from trauma even after escaping the Abyss, Hyunmook had always carried fierce and obsessive emotions.

He knew he would never fall into the Abyss again. But even the smallest threats disturbed him. His memory was blurry after he decided that no matter what he had to do, and no matter what became of him, he would make sure those things could never do such evil again.

“I…”

He breathed slowly. For the first time, he exhaled a human breath. He let out several long breaths. He knew Yohan’s light was not blinding, but he frowned slightly as if it were, and he blinked slowly. Then he finally understood.

Not giving up on being human meant that he was still human.

“Yes. That’s enough.”

He wondered if his savior had any idea how this long yet short spring dream had given him comfort.

“As you said, my negative enhancement is that I don’t give up. Yes, Yohan. I promise I won’t give up on being human.”

The darkness like a night sky vanished as Lee Hyunmook made his declaration.

Yohan lifted his head and looked around in disbelief. It had been evening when they entered, but now the blue sky stretched overhead as time had passed. The team members who had gone in with them lay quietly on the ground, just as they had been asleep beside the Salt Lake in the dream. Their breathing sounded peaceful. Yohan had successfully persuaded Hyunmook.

“Hic… I was, I was really, really scared!”

He could finally let go of the tears he had held back until now. Yohan, overwhelmed with relief vented his sorrow.

“You have no idea, hic, how scared I was!”

He cried loudly, his tears falling like shining beads, just as they had in the Abyss. The sound of Yohan’s crying made the team members wake one by one with confused faces.

“I don’t know, I think I had a really good dream… I dreamed I ate a lot of delicious food…” Yoon Seungryong mumbled lazily, scratching his head while still lying down.

Hyunmook, who held the crying Yohan in his arms, smiled when he saw his team unharmed. It felt as if the stagnant water inside him had finally begun to flow again. With a face that looked a little brighter, Hyunmook murmured gently.

“My crybaby Yanyang.”