The Last Esper [BL]
Chapter 35: What breaks, what heals

Chapter 35: What breaks, what heals

The color drained from Caelan’s face. He turned immediately to Rhys, and seeing the blood still oozing from his shoulder, his hands shook.

"Shit!" Caelan whispered, unbuckling his belt without thinking. "Shit, shit! Jae, give me some room."

Jae nodded silently and stepped back just enough to be out of the way. Eun-woo didn’t move. He still held Rhys’s head in his lap, gently stroking his hair.

Caelan knelt beside Rhys and wrapped the belt around him above the wound, pulling hard to make a makeshift tourniquet. The buckle creaked as it tightened, and the leather stretched taut, stained with blood. Rhys moaned softly, still unconscious.

"Eun-woo, please. Look at me," Jae said. "Don’t listen to Rong Ye. He can say whatever he wants, but that doesn’t mean it’s true."

Eun-woo breathed heavily, his eyes fixed on Rhys’s face. He felt distant, as if his life were unraveling in his grasp. The world around him seemed like a whirlwind, but Jae’s voice kept him afloat.

"You can save him too," Jae continued. "You don’t need a Guide. You just need to focus."

Rong Ye snorted behind them, but Jae ignored him completely.

"Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and don’t think about the pain. Don’t think about the loss or the anger. Help Rhys from what you feel for him... from love."

Eun-woo closed his eyes, trembling.

"Rhys said you weren’t here to destroy... but to rebuild. To repair what the world broke. And I believe him. I believe in you."

Rong Ye snorted mockingly.

"Are you really going to come out with that soap opera speech?"

Everyone ignored him.

Within the darkness of his eyelids, Eun-woo heard Jae’s words repeating themselves. A part of him wanted to believe them, but the other, that cruel voice that haunted him, grew louder.

"You are nothing more than a killing machine. Your nature is to destroy."

But the image of Rhys crossed his mind. His smile. His calm green eyes. His husky voice whispering that he was okay, even in the midst of the chaos. He remembered the way Rhys held him, as if he wasn’t afraid.

He remembered how safe he felt with Rhys.

He smiled.

And then, something happened.

Eun-woo felt a thick heat emerge from his chest, running down his arms to his fingertips. It wasn’t fire, but it burned. It wasn’t light, but it illuminated every cell within him. It was his energy, raw and alive, responding to the deep desire to save Rhys.

The blood oozing from Rhys’s shoulder began to slow, as if an invisible force were squeezing the edges of the wound. A tremor ran down Eun-woo’s spine, and for a moment, the flow of energy synchronized with Rhys’s shallow breathing, as if their bodies were speaking a silent language.

It wasn’t a complete regeneration. The wound was still open, the skin broken, the bone exposed. But the bleeding stopped. The blood, which had previously flowed unchecked, was trapped at the edge, as if time had frozen.

Caelan, his hands still covered in blood, stared at the wound with wide, unblinking eyes. Jae gasped; he didn’t move, as if afraid the slightest movement would distract Eun-woo.

Even Rong Ye raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Did he...? Did Eun-woo do it?" Caelan murmured as he checked Rhys’s pulse. His fingers trembled. "He’s alive..."

Eun-woo slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Rhys’s soaked skin. The second was his trembling hands, covered in someone else’s blood.

His chest tightened. A wave of vertigo rose up his neck as he realized what he’d just done. He could still feel remnants of that energy humming beneath his skin, a warm current that refused to fade.

It wasn’t like other times. There were no screams, no emptiness, no unbridled rage. This time, his power responded to the desire to protect. Not the instinct to destroy.

His throat closed. For a moment, he thought he was going to cry. Not from fear, not from guilt, but from relief.

He had saved Rhys.

"I didn’t heal him completely," he said softly. "But he’s not dying anymore."

Jae nodded, his eyes shining. Then, without thinking, he leaned toward Eun-woo and wrapped him in a hug.

"You stopped the bleeding," he whispered next to his ear. "That’s more than any of us could have done."

Rong Ye said nothing.

***

Caelan sat in the hallway.

He was exhausted. Dawn would soon be here, and he’d barely finished patching the gaps in the kitchen. He sighed heavily and leaned his head against the wall. He had nothing else to do, but he wasn’t going to sleep until Rong Ye finished tending to Rhys. He wouldn’t be at ease until he knew his friend was out of danger.

A few minutes later, Jae emerged from one of the rooms, carrying a pile of blood-soaked towels. Seeing Caelan sitting on the floor, he walked over and plopped down beside him, also letting out a weary sigh.

"How is everyone?" Caelan asked.

"Rhys, better. Eun-woo passed out. Rong Ye, I don’t know. I think he’s about to shoot anything or anyone that crosses his path."

"We should be mad at Rong Ye, not him at us," Caelan sighed. "I mean, he lied to us."

Jae shrugged. He was silent for a moment, taking a deep breath, as if gathering his thoughts.

It didn’t matter to him that Rong Ye was a Guide, nor did it bother him that he hadn’t said anything before. If he had kept it to himself, he must have had his reasons. He didn’t excuse Rong Ye, but he didn’t judge him either. There were some things one kept to oneself out of fear, not malice.

"You should talk to him to clear it up," Jae suggested.

"Clear up what?" Caelan snapped. "He’s a Guide... All this time he’s been a Guide and he’s been hiding it from us. What do you expect me to think about that? He’s just been playing with us."

"Does the fact that he’s a Guide change anything?"

Eun-woo’s voice took them by surprise.

Caelan and Jae jumped at the sound of him. They hadn’t noticed him leave the room.

Eun-woo stood in the doorway, looking at Caelan with a serious expression. There was a hint of annoyance on his face, but also genuine curiosity, as if he needed to understand the logic behind what they had just said.

"No," Caelan replied, "but he lied to us."

Eun-woo frowned.

"And you’ve never lied to protect yourself?"

Caelan sighed.

"Eun-woo, what would you think if Rhys had been lying to you all this time? Wouldn’t you be angry with him?"

Jae hit his forehead.

That wasn’t a good example because Rhys had literally lied to Eun-woo.

"Yes, I’d be angry, but I’d also want to understand why he did it." Eun-woo kept his gaze fixed on Caelan for a few more seconds, then looked away and walked leisurely down the hallway.

He walked past without looking at Jae. When he reached the bathroom, he turned the handle and entered without a word. He closed the door softly, but the click of the latch resonated loudly.

"Now you have to talk to Eun-woo too," Jae said as he stood up and took the towels in both arms.

"What?"

"You don’t want things to get even messier, right?"

"That sounds more like a threat than advice..." Caelan shot back, frowning.

Sometimes it was easy to forget that Jae was younger than him. Jae would argue with them over every little thing, complain, and make sarcastic comments whenever he could, but when it came to giving advice or reading other people’s emotional states, Jae was very wise. Much wiser than he looked.

And that, sometimes, made Caelan feel like a complete idiot.

He, who was older, who was supposed to have his head straight, who should know how to talk to others... But no. He pretended he knew how to do that kind of thing, but he found it very difficult.

Jae smiled wryly.

"You think I didn’t notice, but you keep your distance from Eun-woo."

Caelan snorted and looked away.

"Rhys is my friend, if he doesn’t see something wrong, it’s my duty to do it for him. That also applies to Eun-woo. As long as he doesn’t have a Guide, I must keep my guard up so he doesn’t hurt Rhys."

"Then talk to Eun-woo, and you’ll decide if it’s a good idea to keep your guard up or if you can let it down a bit."

Caelan smiled. When it came to giving advice, Jae seemed wiser than any adult he’d ever met.

He stood up and, without warning, ruffled his hair with one hand.

"Hey!" Jae complained, pulling away slightly.

"There’s a reason you have my trust!" Caelan exclaimed, still ruffling his hair. "I’ll do just that," he added, finally pulling away. "Take care of that pair while I’m gone, okay?"

Jae stared at Caelan as he walked down the hall, somewhat surprised by the sudden action.

"Caelan... trust me..." he murmured, and then, realizing what he’d just said out loud, he cleared his throat awkwardly and feigned indifference. "Of course, I’ll look after Rhys and Rong Ye while you’re gone."

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