Chapter 5
Railey Kraha had actually lived such a life in his former world. He had prepared a revolution for his own people, who were discriminated against on the continent, and for those who lived under oppression. In the process, he discovered that the revolution itself had actually been manipulated by someone else. But even after learning that his entire life had been used by someone else, he decided to burn up his own life in order to take responsibility for the path he had chosen.
That was the kind of person he was. There was no more sexual contact or intimate affection between us, but I sometimes wondered if the reason he still insisted on taking such good care of me was actually because of something like that.
“Though he still has that pathetic habit of becoming obsessed with people.”
In the end, when I looked at Railey Kraha’s car arriving in front of my apartment at around three in the morning, I could only mutter bitterly.
I didn’t care whether his obsession was with something he had already obtained or with someone he loved. Damn it, I knew that all this was ultimately pointless overthinking.
In short, although it was really unpleasant, irritating, and not to my liking, perhaps what I truly wanted was for Railey Kraha to clearly state where he stood. But I had only managed to hear a proper declaration from him after two whole years even in the novel, so what exactly was I expecting now?
Forget it, forget it. Life becomes about three times happier when you throw away unnecessary expectations and greed, Ajin.
“What are you thinking about so seriously?”
Railey got out of the driver’s seat and personally opened the door for me. His silver eyebrows bent coldly.
Under his neatly arranged silver hair, swept halfway back, his cold, sculpted face looked sharp and flawless. The distinct mole beneath his left lip and his delicate features, like those of a beautifully crafted ball-jointed doll, reflected the neon lights with a cold blue glow. His purple eyes shone clearly, as if they had been made of crystal.
He stood in front of me and tilted his head slightly. He was lowering his gaze to match my height.
But my real height was more than ten centimeters shorter than the body I had used in the novel, so whenever he did that, I felt as if I were being threatened.
He was nearly 190 centimeters tall, more than thirty centimeters taller than me. Even if I wore heels, the difference would be similar. Railey also preferred proper dress shoes with sturdy heels, so the height difference would more or less remain.
Below Railey Kraha’s beautiful face were broad, solid shoulders, a trim waist, long limbs, and large hands and feet. As befitted a man who had once ruled the underground world of a fantasy-like continent, his body was lean yet firmly built, something rarely seen in an ordinary person.
The body I had used in the novel had also been tall and slender, so I had never really felt the difference back then. But when I looked up at him with my real body, his intimidating presence was no joke.
He looked quite slender, but every part of him was made of firm muscle. He always wore suits, so they were usually hidden, but unlike his pretty face, his entire body was probably covered in countless scars.
Even to me, his face looked strange every time I saw it.
Seeing that face in my real world gave me a completely different sense of incongruity from seeing it in the fantasy world.
“No…”
It had started the moment he stepped out of the driver’s seat.
Everyone still on the street was staring blankly at this well-built, handsome foreigner with their mouths hanging open.
No matter how you looked at it, even in the real world, he didn’t look like a real-world human being.
I sighed and lightly pushed his shoulder away with my fingertips.
After moving his shoulder back a little, I slipped past him and opened the passenger-side door instead of getting into the back seat whose door he had opened for me. I sighed once more.
Although I didn’t particularly want to know the details of how it had happened, he had become an extremely wealthy man, so naturally the car he drove was also a luxury model that an ordinary person couldn’t even dream of owning.
“I was thinking it would be nice if Kim Railey Kraha interfered less in my life.”
“That sounds impossible.”
Railey answered calmly. He gently closed the rear door and then the passenger door for me.
Before returning to his own seat, he took a cardigan from the back seat and handed it to me.
It was the white cardigan Railey had given me before. I must have left it at his house.
“What’s this?”
“The night air is cold. Since we are going to the riverside, please wear it.”
He answered as if it were obvious.
“The riverside? Why the riverside?”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to go there last time?”
Railey casually answered as he fastened my seat belt for me.
But after hearing his answer, I had to think for quite a while to remember.
The car smoothly started moving.
“Oh…? I really don’t remember saying that. When did I?”
“You probably meant to say, ‘I want to go somewhere, anywhere!’ because of stress from your deadline, but said it differently. In any case, I heard you say it, so I will take you there.”
“Hmm… That sounds possible.”
“Are you not writing these days? I haven’t seen you write anything.”
Well… Why did he think I had fallen into a slump for the past four years?
My romance with Railey Kraha inside the novel had been so intense, and I had missed it so much, that I spent years unable to properly adjust to my own life.
Even after meeting him again, I hadn’t managed to finish anything worth mentioning during the past six months, for the same reason.
And that wasn’t all.
There was still a clear distance between us, different from before.
Was this simply something that was unavoidable between lovers who had once broken up?
Either way, I didn’t want to complain about such things to Railey now.
I didn’t want to become desperate for love.
Just as I had eventually become able to write without him after nearly four years, I would probably be able to write the stories that were difficult to write again as time passed.
“Of course you don’t know. I don’t feel like writing when you’re watching.”
I said it coldly, but Railey didn’t seem to take it to heart.
I glared at him pointedly, took off my shoes in the passenger seat, pulled my knees up, hugged them, and looked out the window.
I was at least half serious.
Whenever I curled up on the bed with my laptop in my arms to write, Railey would often come over and watch me from behind.
Even though I told him not to do that, he didn’t seem to understand.
His logic was always the same.
Sure enough, he said it again this time.
“You will let me read it once it is published anyway. What’s the difference?”
“Watching me write it in real time is different. You really don’t understand a creator’s feelings. Anyway, I really am writing.”
“Hmm.”
“I mean it. I’ve already finished the synopsis for my new novel.”
Since he clearly didn’t believe me, I started rambling about the synopsis until he stopped the car, calmly unfastened my seat belt, walked around to the other side, and opened the door for me.
“The protagonist is a female university student who wears a red university jacket. She’s twenty years old and has a very fiery temper. She’s a freshman.”
“Is it set in modern times?”
“Yeah. I’ve suddenly gotten really into raid stories lately. It’s a team-hero story that starts with the premise that one day, gates suddenly open in the middle of Seoul and start pouring out creatures.”
“‘Team-hero story’?”
Although he had become surprisingly familiar with modern Korea in just six months, Railey still couldn’t properly understand words like this. He bent his eyebrows and asked again.
Since he had almost completely adapted to reality except for his appearance, I sometimes had to think for a while about how to answer questions like this.
This time was no different.
After getting an unexpected question, I lightly adjusted the front of my cardigan with my fingertips and began walking beside him along the riverside path.
Railey quickly made room for me beside him.
There were surprisingly still people occasionally walking along the riverside, where the lights shimmered.
Well, it wasn’t even four in the morning yet. Perhaps it was actually a good time to have a drink and wander around.
“Uh… How do I explain it…?”
“Is it a specific genre?”
“Umm… A group of people… wear uniforms, form a team… and fight villains or monsters… Something like that.”
“Hmm…”
Perhaps he didn’t think there was anything particularly special about that explanation, because Railey gave an ambiguous hum and looked dissatisfied.
I thought for a little longer before deciding to simply tell him the synopsis of my new novel. I figured he would understand once he heard it.
“In my story, people with supernatural abilities form teams and fight creatures that come through the gates. They’re called by colors based on the color of the clothes they were wearing when the first gates opened.”
“Ah.”
Railey made a sound as if he roughly understood.
At that moment, a man passing beside me bumped shoulders with me and began to swear.
But Railey, who had been walking beside me, immediately wrapped an arm around my shoulder that had been hit and lowered his gaze menacingly.
The man hurriedly shut his mouth.
Those weren’t the eyes of someone who had killed only one or two people.
Actually, he probably hadn’t killed only one or two people either.
Ugh. No. Don’t imagine it.
Anyway, the man quickly said, “Oh, I’m sorry,” and disappeared.
I lightly pushed Railey’s chin upward with my fingertips to block his murderous gaze as he continued watching the man’s back.
“Don’t threaten innocent citizens…”
“‘Innocent’? Are you sure he’s innocent?”
“Compared to you, he’s probably a law-abiding citizen…”
When I answered bitterly, Railey narrowed his eyes but calmly returned to the previous topic.
“In any case, you mean those heroes in tights that occasionally appear on television.”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“They wear tights?”
“No, not necessarily. I told you earlier. The protagonist is a girl who wears a red university jacket, so she’s Red. A male student her age from a rival university wears a blue university jacket, so he’s Blue. Black will probably be someone in a suit, like a financier or office worker. White will be a doctor. Purple and Pink will probably be celebrities, and I’ll probably make Green and Yellow different age groups… Hmm, I’m still thinking about that part.”
“In other words…”
Railey had positioned me first in front of the railing, where the night scenery across the river could be seen clearly.
His reply was indifferent.
“You haven’t actually decided anything specific.”
“Shut up.”
I immediately clenched my fists and pounded them against his chest and shoulder.
Railey snorted as if it were ridiculous. He lowered his gaze but didn’t react to my punches at all.
Instead, he simply adjusted my cardigan and collar properly.
His gaze looking down at me was somehow extremely irritating.
It was as if he regarded me as something less than a person.
Like a cat.
