NOVEL WEB Chapter 223
Episode 223
I sat on the terrace, gazing at the stars.
The stars were shining so brightly, it was hard to compare them to the sky I knew in Korea.
Because I had divided my actions by rationality, coordinated my expressions and gazes.
I had never had a moment to just blankly stare at the sky like this.
Well, there wasn’t really any extra value in that action anyway.
However, today, right now, I suddenly wanted to look at those stars.
Two chairs sat at the table, and leaning on one side, I clinked my beer can with the one next to me and took a sip.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
After repeatedly doing that, with just a sip left, I raised my beer can again to clink it.
Cheers.
I looked to the side.
And there was Seon Taeyang, holding his can, clinking it against mine.
“Why are you drinking alone? Leaving your partner hanging here.”
The guy said that, cracked open his can, and chugged it all down.
“Is the balance right now?”
“…”
I stared blankly at his face for a moment, then chuckled and said, “What about the girls?”
“They all fell asleep.”
“…Wow.”
I made a small gasp and said, “You overcame a 3 to 1 situation.”
“No, um, well…”
His face turned hot as he stuttered like a broken robot, then he ran his hand through his hair and subtly changed the subject.
“…Ha, I don’t even know.”
“What’s that?”
“How to resolve this situation itself.”
“What’s there to resolve? This is the resolution right now.”
“…This is the resolution? Isn’t the situation just getting worse?”
I snorted and remarked, looking at the flustered Seon Taeyang.
“Just, enjoy it. It’s not something anyone can do, building a harem with three top-class idols, right? Plus, you voluntarily got into it, so there’s no burden. You don’t even have to feel tired trying to maintain it. Wow, isn’t this perfect?”
“…”
“And since you’ve come this far, Team Leader Seon isn’t the type to run away, right?”
“…I can’t run away. Not after those kids acted like that.”
“So what can you do? Just accept it. The harem.”
Scratching his head while looking at me, Seon Taeyang smirked and turned to stare at the sky.
The star-filled sky.
Instead of looking at the stars above, I focused on the stars reflected in his dark eyes.
And I asked,
“Why didn’t you go back?”
At that, Seon Taeyang looked at me.
“…Didn’t you ever think about erasing all these annoying events and starting over?”
This was also a guess. From the sisters’ words, his usual speech habits, and the existence of the system, I thoroughly analyzed what that reward could be and came to that conclusion.
A speculation derived from a thorough analysis of what a reward is.
However, it was a highly likely speculation.
As I guessed, he easily admitted it.
“Yeah, there was. One of the rewards the system offered was regression. …But I didn’t want to.”
“…Why not?”
“Because I thought, if I went back to the past, could I really follow everything perfectly just like before? Fixing only a few mistakes I didn’t like? …Well, I don’t think I could. Surely, I’d end up messing something up and everything would change.”
“Fixing that wouldn’t change much, would it? Is it really that important?”
“It is.”
Seon Taeyang smiled at me with eyes filled with stars.
“What I love is you guys, in this moment, right now.”
“….”
Yeah, that’s the kind of guy he is.
The kind of man I understood him to be.
Frustrated, foolish, and a soft touch.
And so…
Thoughts filled my world like the setting sun.
In that tidal wave, my mask was decaying and crumbling to the point of barely existing.
A mask… so that Oh Yoori could exist without a single piece of pretense she had maintained her whole life.
For the first time since I was born, I looked at the man before me with an unhidden face.
Because I didn’t want to hide anymore.
Seon Taeyang took a handkerchief from his pocket and silently wiped away the tears streaming down my eyes.
Feeling that gentle touch, I thought.
I was truly lucky to understand, out of all the very few people who could, the broken person that is Seon Taeyang.
“You’re really such a foolish person.”
“Haha…, I already know. But I like living this way. I think it’s a blessing. I like this about myself. I think that’s why I can be here with you.”
“…Really, truly, you are a fool.”
He kept wiping away my endlessly flowing tears.
The tears that had been streaming down my face like a waxen doll, breaking apart, gradually fell into a slumber with his gentle touch.
We looked at the sky together.
Beyond it, a blue light was rising.
The stars glowing as if they were burning themselves were embracing the sunlight that was breaking the night.
Morning was coming.
“…”
Looking at the sky, Seon Taeyang said.
“Yuri.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you here?”
He was looking at me.
“The truth is, I might be wrong in my thinking, but I don’t believe you had any reason to lead this kind of situation. It’s tiring, awkward, and dangerous with no benefits, and you had no motivation for it.”
“…”
“So I wanted to ask why you had to go this far.”
“…What did I even do?”
“That whole harem thing, you suggested and created it all, right?”
“…Are you perhaps wanting to talk about who’s responsible? Well… I apologize for that point. It’s true I acted unilaterally, so I messed up. …But what can you do? We’ve come this far. You just have to accept it quietly.”
I spoke playfully, as I usually did with him while pretending to be a friend.
“To be honest, even if you say you’ll cooperate, maintaining a harem with three older sisters will be quite a struggle for you.”
Taeyang shook his head with a sorrowful expression and said,
“I don’t want to blame the situation in front of me. That’s something I have to face and bear alone. And I understand that what you did was all in a way for me, Gyeoul, Gaeul, and Yeoreum. …It’s a bit extreme and shocking, and I know it’s baffling, but that’s the essence of it.”
He was truly a soft-hearted man.
That gentle man looked at me with sadness in his eyes and said,
“…But it feels a little sad that after putting in so much effort for me and everyone, you aren’t getting anything in return.”
“…”
“What do you wish for? If it’s something I can give, I want to fulfill that.”
…Why did I make this choice? Or what was I hoping for?
“…”
On the plane, Gaeul had said as well,
‘…Yuri, why do you do this?’
At that moment, I couldn’t answer.
In that moment, I didn’t know why I made this choice, not even myself.
It was something that should never be done with calculation and reason.
I couldn’t explain my actions logically.
Yeah, I was that kind of person.
A person who could only move when they could explain things.
But when it came to the tangled situation with Seon Taeyang right in front of me, I changed surprisingly easily.
I didn’t know why.
But now I felt like I understood.
Han Eunbyeol, holding a blood-stained fire extinguisher, said,
‘Chunja, you will never be able to □□.’
Noise hit me.
It felt like my mind was preventing me from thinking that word.
I had dismissed it as something unimportant, but in fact, I was just deluding myself into thinking it was trivial.
My inner defense mechanism considered it a stigma, a curse.
And only now was the noise erased, and I accepted those words.
‘Chunja, you will never be able to love.’
That statement was wrong.
“I do have something I wish for. But how about considering that reason as compensation for raising me well all this time?”
“Well, not to the others, but you can’t say I raised you. You actually helped me more, right?”
“Hehe, well, that’s true. …I’ve had my share of struggles being tossed around by my sisters. Attempting suicide off a railing while confessing, or threatening mutual suicide on a light aircraft, and I’ve come this far without going insane. I truly feel proud of myself.”
“Well, I can’t say it drove me crazy to come this far. I feel quite proud, actually.”
“Well, it wasn’t to the point of going crazy. Those kids conveyed their feelings to me, so why would I go mad? It was surprising at the time, but that was something I couldn’t have predicted, so it wasn’t such a big deal. People often call it a confession attack.”
“What do you mean by confession attack? What those girls did can’t be called a cute little confession attack. If anything, it’s more like confession terrorism.”
“No, but still, it was done by the kids, so calling it terrorism is a bit….”
“For real, you’re hopeless. Let me show you.”
I grabbed his head and pulled him in.
And kissed him.
He flinched in surprise, but I absolutely didn’t let go.
After what felt like an eternity yet was so short—it was my first kiss—I couldn’t help but smile at Seon Taeyang, who was staring at me with a dazed expression.
“This is a confession attack.”
With a broken expression like a malfunctioning robot, Seon Taeyang creaked as he tried to process what just happened.
“Wait, what is this… Ugh!”
He was about to say something.
I held his head again and kissed him before he could finish.
This time, our tongues tangled.
Pah!
After kissing him to the point where he couldn’t breathe, I said, “Didn’t I tell you it’s going to be tough for you to maintain a harem with three older sisters?”
His stiff eyes, his cheeks flushed red, and his slightly trembling lips were just way too cute. So, I smiled the biggest smile I’ve ever smiled and said, “Sorry, but the truth is, it’s actually four!”
“So right now….”
“I like you.”
“…”
A broken human who couldn’t harbor feelings of love. I thought that was me, which is why I believed Oh Yoori shouldn’t be by his side.
The person who should be by his side had to love him just as much as the love he was sending, or even more.
And I thought there were already three such people in his life.
But now, I refused to give up with such thoughts.
No matter how immense the love those sisters had, it didn’t matter.
Whether they’ve seen the future, death, or have reincarnated—it’s all irrelevant.
It doesn’t matter that I’m a broken person who feels very little emotionally.
“I love you!”
Because this feeling won’t lose to anyone.
– The End –