The Last Esper [BL]
Chapter 30: When no one is watching

Chapter 30: When no one is watching

Rong Ye wanted to kill Caelan.

Because Caelan kept banging on the damn bathroom door. Once, twice, three times. Always with that insistent rhythm. The sound was dry, irritating, and each bang made his head pound, worsening the fever already burning behind his eyes.

If it weren’t for his weakness, if it weren’t for that sticky heat pressing him to the ground, Rong Ye would have already opened the door just to cut off his hands. To make sure he never persisted like that again.

But instead, he huddled closer to the toilet, his arms wrapped tightly around his knees, as if he could disappear into his own body.

Caelan didn’t understand his silence or his refusals.

Rong Ye didn’t want to go out.

He didn’t want to talk.

And, of course, he didn’t want to see him.

"You’ll have to leave at some point," Caelan snapped from the other side of the door.

Rong Ye closed his eyes tightly.

"Is it because we left you alone?" Caelan asked.

Rong Ye did not reply.

He just pressed his forehead further into his own knees, wishing the world—and Caelan—would just disappear.

"It was a creature," Caelan continued, without waiting for an answer. "From a Rift. It came down from the sky like a flash of lightning, and... it was worse than we imagined."

Caelan paused. Perhaps waiting for a reaction, but on the other end, there was only silence.

"I’m sure you heard the alarms up here. Maybe you even felt the tremor," he added, more slowly this time.

Yes, Rong Ye had heard them.

He remembered the distant sound of the alarm echoing throughout the city. Even though he was in the woods, the vibration had reached him. He felt it in the ground, like a dull rumble beneath his feet. And for a moment, his mind went straight to Jae.

Will it be okay?

"And yet you’re still locked in there, playing the victim." Caelan banged on the door again. "Stop it, Rong Ye. Stop acting like a spoiled brat."

That did make Rong Ye raise his head.

Part of him wanted to scream at Caelan. Another part... didn’t know how to defend himself.

Because it hurt.

Caelan was right and he didn’t want him to be.

"Are you worried?" Rong Ye let out a sarcastic laugh. "Don’t pretend. You care about everyone else... just not me. Never me."

"I always worry about you," Caelan muttered, knocking on the door again. "I do, I swear I do, but it’s impossible to help someone who doesn’t want to be saved."

"Too late, Caelan," Rong Ye muttered to himself, looking down at the ground. "You’re too late."

In another world, far from pain and cruelty, they could have been the ideal couple.

Not an Esper and Guide pairing—because Caelan wasn’t an Esper and Rong Ye was never quite a Guide—but a pairing of someone who loved and someone who wanted to be loved.

Isn’t that what love is supposed to be about?

In fitting two different pieces together, one with emptiness and the other with something to give.

Or at least that’s how Rong Ye saw it.

Maybe it was different for Caelan.

Probably, yes.

Caelan saw the world differently. He believed in the colors and sweet flavors of life, without being naive. Perhaps that’s why he was friends with Rhys—or at least that’s what Rong Ye assumed. Because where everything was gray and worn, Caelan brought light. He brought warmth. He smiled easily, made jokes, even allowed himself to play, and he didn’t look foolish or pathetic for doing so.

Caelan also knew darkness. He knew cruelty, death, the shadows that dwelled within people. But he also knew affection and the beautiful things that still remained in this world.

But Caelan didn’t know how to approach someone like Rong Ye.

Someone who was never elected.

Someone who didn’t ask for affection, but needed it like a slow poison.

A poisonous snake that no one wanted to cure.

"We have to go," Caelan added after a few minutes of silence. "Get out of there."

What if Caelan found out that Rong Ye was a Guide?

That Rong Ye was a pathetic experiment; most of the things in it weren’t his, but rather modified. There was a chance that the only thing that remained was that pair of cold eyes, his rational brain, and his tiny heart.

"When Eun-woo returns," Rong Ye replied.

"You don’t understand," Caelan growled. "We have to get out of here, now."

"Let’s go!" Jae shouted from across the hall. "There are still boxes to move."

Caelan hesitated for a moment before stepping away from the door. He hoped Rhys would return with Eun-woo soon, so they wouldn’t leave Rong Ye alone.

The house fell silent after a few minutes, leaving Rong Ye enveloped in a wave of grief. He waited patiently, in agonizing silence, for at least ten minutes until he was completely sure no one was left in the house.

Then, with clumsy movements, his body still trembling from the fever, he forced himself to get up. Everything ached: his joints, his throat, even his eyelids. Rong Ye held onto the wall to keep from losing his balance.

He stumbled out of the bathroom, sweat clinging to his flushed cheeks, his legs about to give out. He walked down the hall and headed toward his room. Upon entering, the first thing he did was search for the most important object at that moment: the portable lab.

When he spotted it, he let out a sigh of relief.

He knelt with difficulty and opened the portable lab. Inside, the vials glowed softly in the blue light from the interior panel. His fingers moved slowly, extracted an injection, and, without hesitation, applied it to his side. The liquid immediately quelled the remnants of fever, the throbbing pain in his temples, and the heaviness in his muscles.

Rong Ye dropped onto the bed, still panting, when a loud crash from downstairs made him lift his head abruptly.

Noise in the kitchen.

Saucepans, the creaking of cupboards, loud bangs and sudden movements.

Someone looking for something.

Rong Ye stood still, listening intently. He expected to hear Jae’s squeaky voice or Caelan’s clumsy footsteps, but he heard nothing else. No laughter, no words.

A malicious smile appeared on his lips.

He stood up more firmly this time and walked down the stairs with slow but determined steps. His expression was that of a predator scenting blood, slow and stealthy.

As he crossed the threshold of the kitchen, he stopped dead in his tracks.

There was blood on the floor.

And...

Arthur was there.

Lying on the floor, surrounded by fallen jars and containers, his body bore deep bite marks on his arms, marks on his legs, his clothing torn, and his chest rising and falling erratically.

Rong Ye stood in the doorway, watching him with calculating eyes. He scanned the wounds one by one: the jagged teeth marks, the tears in the skin, the bites on his arms and legs. The shapes weren’t human, nor were they the result of weapons.

They were poorly distributed, wild, and lacking in technique.

A forest mutant.

Rong Ye narrowed his eyes, slightly disappointed.

Rong Ye had expected something more.

He had imagined that maybe Eun-woo had been the one who did this to Arthur. That something inside him had finally snapped. But no.

"What a pity."

Rong Ye lowered his head slightly, letting out a short exhalation that didn’t quite amount to laughter.

"Such a pathetic way to almost die," he muttered coldly.

Arthur turned his face with difficulty, looking at Rong Ye with fury in his eyes and his teeth clenched in pain.

"Don’t stand there like an idiot," he growled. "Help me."

"And why should I?" Rong Ye didn’t move a step. He just looked down on him, as if he were a piece of junk thrown among rusty cans. "You were attacked by a mutant animal, right? One of those that roam the forest."

Rong Ye leaned over slightly, enough to observe the bites on Arthur’s leg in greater detail, where the blood was already turning thick and dark.

"The marks are deep," Rong Ye continued. "And that coloration on the skin is already necrosis. The venom of those bugs acts in minutes, and you’ve already crossed that threshold."

Rong Ye looked up and met Arthur’s eyes. There was no pity in his expression. Only indifference.

"In your condition, Arthur, there isn’t much to do."

Arthur glared reproachfully, his teeth clenched in rage and despair. His face was drenched in sweat, his hands clutching the ground, trembling.

"Bastard..." Arthur muttered.

Rong Ye tilted his head, amused by the accusation.

"You show up crawling like a poisoned rat and expect me to just save your life? Perhaps you should offer something more interesting than an insult. Convince me, Arthur. Why should I save you?"

"I’m like this because of you... You were the one who sent me the location of this place, remember?"

Rong Ye smiled.

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