Chapter 183: Interlude - For a Better Yesterday than Tomorrow (2)

The low, heavy rumble of the motorcycle echoed.

Vroom.

With Song Ha-Eun riding behind him, Kwon Oh-Jin sped down the road. It was his first time riding a motorcycle, but he had no trouble keeping balance thanks to his superhuman senses as an Awakener.

Song Ha-Eun gently wrapped her arms around his waist, silently resting her forehead against his broad back.

Thump, thump.

Her heartbeat filled her mind so completely that she could barely even hear the motorcycle. Her head felt hot like someone had wrapped a steaming towel around it.

W-What is this? What’s going on?

After absorbing the Living Armor with the Black Heaven, Kwon Oh-Jin had suddenly changed. He devoured her lips like a completely different person. Just a kiss would have been fine, but then he suddenly insisted they go home. He forcefully yanked her away, unlike how he usually calmly handled her obvious flirting.

Is it because of Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories or whatever?

She hadn’t heard all the details. Supposedly, more memories of that Regressor flowed into Kwon Oh-Jin as the Black Heaven evolved. Were his actions now being influenced by those memories?

“

Hmph.

”

Still resting her head against his back, Song Ha-Eun murmured, “There’s no need to worry about that.”

Who cared what her past self did, or what happened if she couldn’t even remember it?

Right now, she was here by Kwon Oh-Jin’s side, hugging him from behind. Yesterday, today, tomorrow... she would always be with him.

I mean, not that I’m complaining or anything...

She recalled how he had pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Sure, they had kissed a few times before, but never that fiercely like he was eating her alive.

She tightened her grip around his waist as she blushed. Her heart pounded even more as if she were in a dream because he rarely acted this forward.

W-When we get home...

The thought of what would happen made her head heat up.

As she gulped nervously and kept licking her dry lips, the motorcycle came to a stop in front of a familiar apartment building.

Screech.

“We’re here.”

She had gifted him this house, scraping together loans and money. Of course, it was small and modest compared to the luxurious apartment Isabella had given him. However, this place meant a lot to the two of them, who had only ever lived in a shack-like house that could barely stand.

Song Ha-Eun nervously nodded as she got off the motorcycle. “

H-Huh?

W-We’re here already?”

Kwon Oh-Jin walked ahead as she shyly followed.

Ahhh! I’m going crazy!

Normally, she would crack a joke to ease the mood, but it didn’t seem like the right time for that because of Kwon Oh-Jin’s seriousness.

She bit her lip and anxiously walked forward.

The elevator ride to the seventh floor took forever like they were going up to the seventieth floor.

With a soft chime, the elevator doors opened.

Ring.

As they opened the door and stepped inside, the small twenty-pyeong apartment came into view. Though the apartment looked exactly the same as always, it somehow felt strangely unfamiliar.

“O-Oh-Jin.”

Her voice trembled as she gently tugged on his sleeve.

He turned to look at her and stepped closer until he was so close that she could hear his breath.

“

Ah!

”

Song Ha-Eun squeezed her eyes shut and trembled. She felt something cool on her cheek like a bottle of lukewarm soda being pressed against her skin.

“

Huh?

”

She opened her eyes wide and saw a clear glass bottle in his hand.

“What’s this?”

Inside was a glowing, blue liquid.

He popped open the lid and held it out to her.

“It’s an elixir.”

“What?”

Her mind went blank as the word “elixir” spiraled through her brain.

“W-Wait. What did you say? An elixir?”

The legendary potion could even revive the most critically injured person as long as they were still breathing. It was incredibly expensive because even high-ranking Aquarius Awakeners couldn’t buy the rare materials needed to make it.

Actually, calling it expensive didn’t do it justice. An elixir wasn’t something one could buy no matter how much money one had.

Kwon Oh-Jin brought the bottle to her lips.

“Drink it.”

Song Ha-Eun shot him a piercing look with a stiff expression.

“Where did you even get this?”

He couldn’t have obtained an elixir through normal means.

“I won it in a bet with Deneb.”

Her jaw dropped. “Deneb? You’re not talking about

that

Deneb, are you?”

He nodded and began explaining what had happened with Deneb’s apostles and the proxy battles at the Sanctum.

The more he talked, the more her eyes began to tremble.

“You fought Deneb’s apostles? And four of them in a row?”

Her head burned with fury.

She grabbed him by the collar and shouted in disbelief, “Why! Why would you do something so crazy?!”

It would’ve been one thing if he had stuck to the original plan and only fought three of them, but going up against a fourth apostle was downright reckless.

“If you were doing it for Vega, then there was no reason to go that far—”

“I could’ve received Deneb’s divinity after the third one, but then I wouldn’t have a reason to demand the elixir, would I?”

“That’s...”

If it was for her, he couldn’t stop at just the third battle.

“So... y-you fought for me? Against a high-ranking Awakener of Cygnus?”

She looked at him with trembling eyes.

He chuckled as if it was no big deal and casually shrugged.

“

Ah,

” she exclaimed quietly.

He was always like this. The kind of person who would charge through fire and storm for her. Even if it turned him to ashes, even if he was ground to dust... he would burn himself for her sake without hesitation.

“

Ah... umm.

”

Tears welled up in Song Ha-Eun’s eyes. She held the elixir bottle he gave her tightly in both hands, her shoulders trembling.

It felt unfair. Her mind had already been filled with thoughts of Kwon Oh-Jin for so long that she couldn’t imagine life without him anymore. She thought she already loved him as much as she possibly could.

“What am I supposed to do now...”

She loved him even more. She thought her heart was already full to the brim with him, that there was no more room left. Somehow, he filled it even further.

He smiled and took the elixir back from her tightly gripped hands.

“What do you mean? I told you to drink it, but you never listen, do you?”

He took a sip and gently pressed his lips to hers.

“

Mmph...

”

The glowing blue liquid flowed from his mouth to hers along the tip of his tongue. A soft, radiant blue light began to glow from Song Ha-Eun.

The prosthetic leg attached below her right knee fell over onto the ground.

Thud.

In its place appeared a flawless leg.

“

W-Whoa.

”

Her leg, which had been amputated below the knee, had regenerated perfectly.

“M-My leg... O-Oh-Jin, my leg really grew back!” she exclaimed in a trembling voice, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him back and forth.

No matter how comfortable the prosthetic he had given her was, it couldn’t compare to a real leg.

She carefully wiggled her toes like a newborn bird flapping its wings for the first time. Her bare foot responded naturally and exactly as she wanted.

“

Ah...

”

Tears streamed down her cheeks.

People often didn’t realize what they had until they lost it. The same overwhelming joy she had felt when she received the Draconic Eye rushed through her once again.

I thought I’d never get it back.

At least with her eyes, she had hoped that the curse could be lifted. Maybe she could see again, but her leg? It had been gone for so long. She had truly believed it would never return.

She had told herself that she could live without it and that the discomfort was manageable. Now that she had regained it, she could feel just how much that discomfort had weighed on her all this time.

“It moves well, right?”

Kwon Oh-Jin knelt on one knee and held her right foot.

“

Ahh!

”

Perhaps because it had just regenerated, an intense tingling sensation shot up from her overly sensitive foot.

“D-Don’t touch it!”

She turned red and tried to pull her leg away, but Kwon Oh-Jin grabbed her foot and gently kneaded it like dough.

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“I need to make sure it’s restored properly.”

Song Ha-Eun stifled a gasp, flailing back from the overwhelming sensation.

“It looks good to me,” he said.

Kwon Oh-Jin smiled as he watched her squirm every time he touched her new, soft foot.

“Y-You, seriously...”

Song Ha-Eun couldn’t even complain.

“I don’t have to hold back anymore, right?”

He suddenly scooped her up into a bridal carry.

Because she was quite tall, it didn’t look quite as picturesque as he imagined.

“W-What are you trying to do?”

As he gently held her in his arms, she looked up at him with a mix of unease and curiosity. In that moment, she looked more lovely than anything he could’ve ever imagined.

He kicked the bedroom door open.

Their bed was like a bunk bed with a drawer-like section under the main mattress that could be pulled out to form another bed.

We won’t need that tonight.

He gently laid her on the bed and began unbuttoning his shirt.

As if to calm her trembling body, he slowly leaned over her on top of her.

***

“

Haa, haa...

”

As the heat of their passion faded, Song Ha-Eun lay there and caught her breath with a hand over her stomach in disbelief.

“I-I can’t believe it actually fit...”

The overwhelming pleasure felt so intense that she almost regretted not having experienced it until now.

Her cheeks flushed as she recalled how Kwon Oh-Jin had craved her like a beast. She liked it more than she had imagined. It was hard to think of anything else in her life that ever felt that good.

Was it just me who enjoyed it? What if he didn’t enjoy it as much as I did? What if he’s secretly thinking it wasn’t that great?

A seed of anxiety began to sprout in her chest.

She gently poked him on his side. Kwon Oh-Jin, lying next to her and also staring blankly at the ceiling, turned to look at her.

“What is it?”

“Well... um... s-so...”

Struggling with her words, she finally gave up and just blurted it out.

“W-What did it f-feel like?”

“What did what feel like?”

“You know... m-my... down there. What did it feel like?”

“Like meat being tossed in soup.”

“You piece of shit.”

What kind of answer is that, you absolute idiot?