EFME 129

About a week passed, and Sunyul was finally able to go on the long-awaited vacation with Muyoung.

With a highly fluttering heart, Sunyul headed to the airport at dawn, before the sun had even risen. He planned to take a plane to a nearby airport, and from there, transfer between a car and a boat to get to the villa on the island owned by Muyoung.

The journey to the island took surprisingly long. When they said it might be faster to go abroad instead, it was actually true. There was a reason they had moved at the crack of dawn. Even though it was clearly domestic, it was nearly noon by the time they arrived at the island.

“The island is huge!”

He had expected a somewhat cozy size since it was bought by an individual. The island was much larger than Sunyul had anticipated.

Sunyul flew up with his flight skill to check the entire island from a high place. It was an island made up of a sandy beach on the edges and a forest in the center. Following the trail at the mouth of where they stepped off the boat, the villa was situated there.

Instead of looking closely at the villa, Sunyul quickly came down. Looking at it right now felt like a spoiler. Because he wanted to explore the villa together with Muyoung.

“Guild Leader, Guild Leader. Let’s go in quickly.”

Sunyul became impatient and urged Muyoung. Muyoung smiled and nodded his head. He was glad that Sunyul already seemed satisfied even though they were just at the entrance of the island.

“Alright.”

The captain, who unloaded the carriers, greeted Muyoung and then drove the boat away from the island. Watching the captain leave swiftly, Sunyul tilted his head.

“If there’s no boat, how do we get out?”

“He’ll come to match the day we leave.”

“We can’t leave before then?”

“We can’t.”

If worst came to worst, Sunyul could just fly out himself, but… since that wasn’t an easy task either, it could practically be considered being half-confined.

Sunyul smiled, accepting it with an “I see.” Thinking that it might actually be nice to be confined at least once. Muyoung stroked Sunyul’s hair.

“Shall we go?”

“Yes!”

Sunyul stood side-by-side with Muyoung and dragged his share of the carrier. Even though it was said to be maintained to some extent, the wheels rolled over the bumpy forest path with a rattling sound.

Sunyul looked around, finding it fascinating.

Before coming to this island, Muyoung had sent people to trim the forest and the villa. Perhaps because it was an island that had recently received the touch of human hands, the forest was unexpectedly well-organized.

“Are there things like wild animals here too?”

“There’s nothing like that. There might be birds, though.”

“What about bugs?”

“There will be bugs.”

“A dungeon won’t burst open here, right?”

“Let’s pray it doesn’t.”

Sunyul asked this and that as he headed toward the villa with Muyoung. And finally arriving at the villa, Sunyul let out a cheer.

“The villa is really so pretty!”

Muyoung let out a smirk as he saw Sunyul genuinely rejoicing. In truth, it was an ordinary shape with nothing particularly special about it. Since it was just a plain white wall topped with a blue roof.

It wasn’t Muyoung’s taste, as he preferred simple and clean forms. However, it seemed Sunyul liked it very much.

Sunyul admired the exterior appearance and then urged Muyoung to go inside. The interior was well-decorated here and there.

Curtains and rugs with patterns, a ceiling fan rotating slowly overhead, and solid wood furniture and decorations that preserved the natural wood grain in various places.

This was Sunyul’s taste.

Just once, Muyoung had been to Sunyul’s house.

From Muyoung’s perspective, Sunyul’s house was a small house the size of a single room, but it was decorated quite fruitfully in its own way. Sunyul had been embarrassed that the house was too small, but considering an ability user’s salary is just that of a civil servant no matter how high it is, it was natural in a way.

Watching Sunyul pour tea into a teacup that had been safely kept at the upper part of the cupboard, Muyoung had examined the house touched by Sunyul’s hands.

‘The house is pretty.’

‘Th-thank you. I decorated it. There was a limit since it wasn’t my house, but… ah, I made the furniture.’

‘You have good handiwork.’

‘It’s because they helped me with everything at the workshop. I just did exactly as I was told.’

Sunyul had chattered quite excitedly. Since the house Sunyul lived in at the time was not his own property, a major remodeling was impossible, and accordingly, there were parts that couldn’t be touched… he had laid out stories about that too.

Muyoung remembered those one by one… and simply, when building this villa, he thought that kind of house would be pretty too, so he made and decorated it with a similar feeling.

After Sunyul disappeared, it had been neglected because he couldn’t understand why he had done this type of design, but somehow it had been maintained exactly as it was.

“It has a similar feeling to the house you used to live in before.”

“My old house?”

“Though there tend to be a bit more things here than in that house.”

Sunyul opened his eyes wide into circles.

“Is that why? I like it.”

“That’s a relief.”

“It’s fascinating, right? I don’t even have my memories… yet the past me and the current me make the same choice.”

“Because you’re the same person.”

“But because many things have changed between the me of that time and the current me.”

It was a remark that sounded somewhat bitter. Sunyul spoke like that and then turned his head before Muyoung could even have a moment to reply with something.

“There’s a basement too? What’s down there?”

“The basement is a storage room.”

“Usually, ghosts or killers come out of basements.”

“…Neither of them is there.”

Muyoung was doubtful about what on earth Sunyul had been watching in the meantime.

“I have to check.”

Sunyul approached, took Muyoung’s hand, and went downstairs. In the basement… naturally, there wasn’t much. Having turned on the light to check the inside and let out a sigh of relief, Sunyul came back up.

“Is the second floor the end?”

“There’s an attic too.”

At the words Muyoung threw out without much thought, Sunyul became serious again.

“I watched a horror movie before, and demon worshipers had hidden a corpse in the attic there.”

“…That’s not there either.”

“I have to check.”

He wondered if he should censor what Sunyul watches. But it was also ridiculous to block an adult from watching something that didn’t violate the law.

However, since he seemed to be obtaining strange knowledge in a biased manner, he could at least recommend him to watch moderately for once….

While he was thinking like that, Sunyul climbed up the stairs heading to the attic. And having checked that there was nothing, he came down.

“The sea is really visible from up there too.”

“Because it was built that way. Do you like it?”

“Yes! I like it immensely.”

“That’s good.”

Sunyul glanced around swiftly. He had looked around the house for a turn, but for some reason, he hadn’t encountered a single person other than Muyoung.

“But is there no one here?”

“I sent everyone out. So the two of us can spend it leisurely.”

“Ah.”

In an instant, Sunyul’s face turned red. Muyoung laughed in a low voice.

“What kind of thought did you think to turn this red?”

“J-just….”

Muyoung caught and lifted the chin of Sunyul, who was turning his head away. Their lips met, and Sunyul slowly closed his eyes.

⊹₊｡ꕤ˚₊⊹

“Mmm….”

On top of the fluffy bed, Sunyul opened his eyes.

He seemed to have fallen asleep for a blink, but the evening glow was setting. Sunyul was startled and bolted upright.

He felt certain that he had shed and thrown his clothes like a husk, but there was nothing on the floor. Since he was currently naked, he wandered around in circles before finding his carrier and changing his clothes. And then he went downstairs.

The place where Sunyul found Muyoung was outside, not inside the villa. Muyoung, in comfortable attire, looked back at Sunyul.

“You’re awake. I was actually about to wake you up just now.”

“I slept too long, didn’t I?”

“No, you slept moderately well. It’s about time to eat dinner.”

“What are we eating?”

“I’m going to grill meat.”

Sunyul’s eyes sparkled. Looking at it now, a barbecue grill was perfectly prepared next to Muyoung. Muyoung opened the ice box placed to the side. It was full of ingredients prepared in advance.

“Wow.”

“Shall we eat right away?”

“Yes!”

The meat, seafood, and trimmed vegetables prepared in advance went on top of the lit grill.

Sunyul stared fixedly at the forearms of Muyoung, who was holding the tongs and putting the ingredients onto the grill. Because it felt like he was somehow becoming shameless, Sunyul swallowed his saliva and quietly glared at the meat.

A delicious smell began to vibrate heavily. Watching Muyoung diligently move his hands, Sunyul’s conscience began to prick for some reason.

“Should I grill it?”

“Forget it.”

“I can do it well though.”

“Have you tried it?”

“….”

Sunyul, who failed to snatch the tongs away, eventually busied his chopsticks by putting what was well-grilled into his own mouth once, and into Muyoung’s mouth once.

Muyoung was about to tell him to eat comfortably since it must be a hassle to feed him too, but because Sunyul seemed quite excited, he just quietly accepted and ate.

As the two ate like that, the ingredients brought with a fairly generous margin ran out. By that time, the surroundings began to grow dark.

After stacking firewood and lighting a bonfire at Sunyul’s suggestion, a quite plausible atmosphere was created.

“We ate well. Didn’t we?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s really nice….”

If they kept their mouths shut without saying anything, the sound of waves poured and rushed in from far away. That massive yet calm sound had a corner that broke in the ears and heart, making a person emotional.

Time flowed past without many words being exchanged between the two. The quiet time shared together was as warm as a bonfire, and sparkled like the starlight in the night sky.

Sunyul, who had been staring at the sea for a long time, opened his mouth.

“I think it would be so nice if we could keep living like this.”

“Sunyul-ah.”

“Yes?”

“This.”

Muyoung pulled something out of his inventory. It was a small box. Sunyul opened the box and looked inside. What was contained in there….

Was a pair of rings.