Even if he might never return here again, if he could spend this quiet moment peacefully, that was enough.

Right then.

They said nothing to each other, sipping the second cup of tea together like old, kind animals basking in the sun. The afternoon sun began to set gradually.

The phone rang.

Breaking the silence.

Christoph frowned in displeasure.

He stared at the phone as if the ringing disturbed him greatly.

As if wanting to stay immersed in this atmosphere longer, Christoph didn’t get up but just looked at the phone. Jeong Taeui stood up when the phone rang for the sixth time.

“Ignore it. It’s annoying.”

But before Jeong Taeui could reach it, Christoph grumbled in annoyance, and Jeong Taeui shrugged and sat back down.

The phone kept ringing for a while before stopping.

When the silence returned, Christoph’s fierce expression softened.

But before Christoph could pick up his teacup again, the phone started ringing, and this time it didn’t stop.

“……It seems urgent.”

Jeong Taeui pointed at the phone with a nod, and Christoph stood up with a displeased face.

He walked as if he wanted to throw the phone receiver as soon as he picked it up. He grabbed the receiver roughly. And as soon as he said: “Hello” in an icy tone, a woman’s voice came through.

[“Christoph! What’s going on?! Why did you tell me not to go to Dresden? I’ve prepared everything, just waiting for the departure day! Oh my God…… Christoph! Christoph!! Say something! What’s going on?!”]

The woman’s voice, like a scream, echoed from the phone.

Jeong Taeui saw Christoph’s shoulders stiffen as soon as he picked up the receiver.

As if they had turned into something non-human.

Christoph’s pale face lost all life.

Christoph became cold. The face that had been lit by the sunset now seemed to sink into the darkness of night.

Seeing that scene right in front of him, Jeong Taeui’s heart also turned cold.

Jeong Taeui had never seen anyone change like that.

“Mother” – Christoph’s lips seemed to move. But it might have just been a slight tremble of his lips, like a butterfly trapped in a spider’s web.

[“I have waited a long time to go to Tarten, which I have been waiting for so long……!”]

The voice on the phone sobbed. [“How could you do this? You have to understand my heart. How could you do this?”] – The voice on the phone sobbed painfully, reaching Jeong Taeui as well.

With a face as pale as ash, Christoph struggled to move his lips. But no words came out, only the motion of a weak attempt at an excuse.

[“Christoph! Christoph!”] – The voice sobbed and called his name. Like a ghost from the deep earth calling.

It was Christoph’s mother.

The woman who had created this delicate and beautiful young man and turned him into a lifeless, white-gray statue.

[“Christoph, because of you, I was driven out of that place. Now because of you, I can’t return there. Christoph, if it weren’t for you, if it wasn’t you who were born……!”]

“……―!” – Taeui, unconsciously before he could think, acted on impulse.

After regaining his senses, Jeong Taeui suddenly realized he had snatched the phone receiver from Christoph’s hand and hung up without even noticing. 

However, Christoph remained standing still like a ghost; he didn’t realize the phone had been hung up nor that the receiver was no longer in his hand. Christoph seemed to be dragged away by a ghost underground, becoming a ghost himself.

“Chris……” 

Jeong Taeui called out softly. His voice didn’t seem to reach Christoph’s ears. 

Christoph didn’t respond, didn’t turn around, and didn’t show any sign of understanding. He just stood there, dazed.

“Chris.” 

Jeong Taeui called him again and gently placed his hand on Christoph’s arm. At that moment, Christoph flinched and shook off the hand as if trying to get rid of it.

Just then, the phone rang loudly, like a piercing scream. 

Christoph recoiled and shivered. He wanted to retreat, but his legs seemed frozen; he only managed to step back a little. 

Jeong Taeui unplugged the phone cord. The ringing stopped immediately, and the room returned to silence.

“……Christoph.”

Still no response.

Christoph was clutching his mouth with one hand, huddling his body. Jeong Taeui worried if he was feeling nauseous, but after watching for a while, it didn’t seem like he wanted to vomit. However, not long after, the hand covering his mouth began to tremble, then the trembling spread to his arm, his shoulders, and finally his whole body.

“Chris–Christoph.” 

Jeong Taeui called him again with concern. Even though Christoph’s eyes still seemed unresponsive, after a while, he muttered something unintelligible.

“I hear sounds in my ears…… they keep echoing in my ears……”

“Christoph, I don’t hear anything. It’s very quiet here. There are no sounds at all.” Jeong Taeui said, but Christoph still didn’t turn around. His eyes remained fixed on some empty space.

“So noisy…… don’t shout like that, no need to scream, please be quiet……” 

Christoph muttered softly to someone other than Jeong Taeui, as if someone was continuously yelling in his ear. But the voice from his pale lips was too weak to silence the sound Jeong Taeui couldn’t hear.

“Christoph!” 

Jeong Taeui grabbed his hand again. This time, Christoph flinched and tried to shake Jeong Taeui off. But this time, Jeong Taeui was determined not to let go. He tightened his grip on Christoph’s hand, refusing to release him even when shaken off.

Christoph shook his hand vigorously two or three times, but seeing that Jeong Taeui wouldn’t let go, he finally looked directly at Jeong Taeui. His blue eyes widened, staring at Jeong Taeui.

“Let go.”

“Christoph, it’s okay.”

“Let go……!”

Christoph swung a punch at Jeong Taeui. But his arm, still weak from the previous night’s injury, was only strong enough to knock Jeong Taeui’s hand away.

While trying to hold onto Christoph, Jeong Taeui lost his balance, stumbled back a few steps, and fell. The tea cup and teapot on the table also fell to the ground, shattering with a clattering sound. 

The thin tea cup and teapot broke into pieces around Jeong Taeui, who was sitting on the floor, looking at Christoph.

The noise startled Christoph, and finally, he looked at Jeong Taeui. Not anyone else, but Jeong Taeui.

His lips trembled as if he wanted to call Taeui’s name, but instead of Taeui’s name, only faint groans escaped.

“It’s so cold…… my ears hurt…… feels like they’re going to explode. So noisy.”

Like a child who only knew a few words, Christoph kept repeating those phrases and hugged himself. Blood from his wound began to seep, staining his waist area.

“So noisy, so noisy” – Christoph cried out, clutching his ears. Suddenly, he stopped and looked around as if searching for something. His eyes landed on a fountain pen with a sharp nib on the table by the bed.

As Christoph stepped toward it, Jeong Taeui realized something instantly.

“Chris, don’t do it!!”

Jeong Taeui jumped up from his chair. His hand brushed against the broken tea cup on the floor, cutting him and causing it to bleed, but he didn’t have time to feel the pain. 

In a split second, before Christoph could insert the sharp pen nib into his ear, Jeong Taeui grabbed Chris’s wrist.

“STOP!!”

Jeong Taeui snatched the pen away and threw it aside. Then he punched Christoph.

Christoph staggered back a few steps with a heavy thud and stopped when he hit the wall. He wrapped his arm around himself and looked down at the floor with a pale face.

“Chris, don’t do this. It’s okay. No one will say anything to you. I’m talking to you right now.”

Jeong Taeui approached Christoph.

The distance between them was only three steps.

But Taeui couldn’t move any closer. That was the closest Christoph could allow at this moment.

“There are sounds.”

Christoph whispered. Like a talking statue, only his lips moved.

“There are sounds. They keep talking to me. Continuously. Even when I cover my ears, they don’t stop. I……”

Christoph’s lips trembled as if hesitating, then closed. Looking at those dry, pale lips, Jeong Taeui asked.

“What sounds……?”

Immediately, Christoph’s trembling stopped. He raised his head. His deep, clear blue eyes looked directly at Jeong Taeui. Like a mechanical puppet playing a recording, he uttered words unconsciously.

“I am incomplete.”

The whole room seemed to hold its breath. In the silence, only Christoph’s low, small voice echoed.

“I am empty somewhere. From birth…… No, maybe even before that, from the root of existence, something has been missing. Here? Or here……? ……No, it’s empty and unfillable.”

Christoph moved his hand from his chest, then up to his head, touching his temple, and shook his head.

As he spoke, Christoph’s voice gradually regained warmth. When he finished, he was no longer listless and didn’t speak like a machine anymore. Chris just seemed quieter than usual and a bit paler.

“Chris……”

“That’s why this is natural.”

Christoph spoke softly. Then he leaned against the wall, his eyes looking down at an undefined space.

This is natural. That he is like this. That he has to leave. That he lives this way. That he exists in this manner.

It’s not resignation or accepting fate. Those emotions only arise when there’s something to desire.

It’s simply that this has been determined from the start as if everything had been pre-arranged.

“Christoph. You……—”

Jeong Taeui wanted to say something but hesitated for a few seconds and then closed his mouth.

Taeui didn’t know what to say. Even if there was something to say, it wasn’t his responsibility. Any part of Christoph wasn’t Taeui’s responsibility and could never be.

Chris……. Taeui simply called his name again quietly.

Christoph didn’t respond. He quietly looked down.

But as if the storm had passed, the agitation and abnormal convulsions had disappeared. Christoph just stood there silently.

Then after a while, as if talking to himself, Christoph spoke up.

“My mother loved Tarten. She loved everything the name Tarten brought. Both the visible and the invisible. ……That’s why she loved Richard. Like her own son. Because she knew he would become the master of Tarten.”

Each word was like it was spoken piece by piece.

“At first, when I was chosen as the heir, my mother still cared about me. But after realizing that I could hardly inherit Tarten…… I became the biggest obstacle to Richard, the beloved one she cherished.”

That was natural. No matter what others thought of him, it was natural.

But even so. Even if it is like that.

“But I still……—”

“Christoph……”

Christoph fell silent. The remaining words, no matter how long one waited, couldn’t be spoken. Those words dissolved back into Christoph.

“My head hurts. I need to take some medicine.”

Christoph lifted his head. He walked toward the medicine cabinet.

His steps were tired but clear, and his face was no different than usual.

“It’s so noisy, my head hurts!” – He muttered softly and frowned, but at this moment, Chris had returned to normal. As if after crossing the pain threshold, he felt relieved.

Christoph poured a handful of white pills into his palm. Without counting, he swallowed them all at once. He didn’t even need water; he chewed the pills and walked toward the bed.

“I’ll rest, so you should go out.”

“Chris.”

No answer was given.

Christoph turned his back, loosened his tie, and hung it messily on the back of the chair, then continued unbuttoning his sleeves.

Watching him for a while, Jeong Taeui sighed and turned away. Now, he couldn’t say anything more to Christoph, and he knew it wasn’t his responsibility.

When Jeong Taeui dragged his heavy, hesitant feet towards the door, a knock suddenly sounded.

Just as he reached for the door handle, someone seemed to have arrived and knocked.

The knock was gentle and soft.

Jeong Taeui hesitated for a moment. Turning back, he saw Christoph still with his back turned, seemingly not hearing the knock – or not wanting to hear it.

“……”

However, he couldn’t leave the person standing outside the unlocked door, and Jeong Taeui had to go out.

Half responding to the knock, half wanting to leave the room, Jeong Taeui opened the door. And he faced the person outside.

“……!”

“Oh……? Oh, it’s you. Are you with Christoph?”

The man, slightly shorter than Jeong Taeui, stood at the door.

He smiled kindly and recognized Jeong Taeui. Jeong Taeui bowed slightly and stepped back.

It was an old man.

**************

In the hallway, Ilay was standing there.

Once again, he stood by the door in a neatly tailored suit, without a crease.

But when the old man entered the room and the door closed, his perfect posture slightly changed.

To be precise, it wasn’t the posture that changed but the atmosphere.

Just a few seconds earlier, the impression of a decent and reliable young man had disappeared and was replaced with ‘Ilay’.

“Did you have fun earlier?”

When Jeong Taeui closed the door and stepped out, Ilay tilted his head and gave a faint smile. White fangs glimmered behind his lips.

“What fun……”

Jeong Taeui mumbled like a sigh.

Today, he would surely be exhausted. Although he felt tired, it was much more tiring than he perceived. So unless he was a bit crazy, how could he feel at ease seeing this man?

Jeong Taeui silently grabbed Ilay’s vest collar and slipped his hand inside. Ilay raised an eyebrow but let Jeong Taeui rummage freely on his chest, grinning widely.

“Were you disturbed by someone at the climax? Why are you so restless in a hallway with many people coming and going in the first place?”

“Restless for what…… Anyway, there’s no one here.”

Jeong Taeui grumbled irritably while fumbling inside Ilay’s vest. Finally, he found what he wanted. It was a cigarette.

He walked to the end of the hallway, lit the cigarette, and took a deep drag. Ilay strolled after him.

“No need to stand guard? Aren’t you supposed to stand guard until the old man leaves?”

Without looking back at Ilay, Jeong Taeui exhaled smoke out of the window and rested his arm on the window frame, then leaned his chin on his arm.

“The only one who needs to be monitored is you. ‘Anyway, there’s no one here’ in this hallway.”

Ilay leaned against the window next to Jeong Taeui, squinted his eyes, and looked down at him with a curious gaze. Despite feeling that gaze clearly, Jeong Taeui resolutely looked out the window.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you this grumpy.”

Ilay said. His voice had a hint of laughter, like mocking a naughty puppy.

Jeong Taeui flicked the ash. Maybe it was smoking too hard or the cigarette was short, but it burned down quickly after a few drags.

“Did Christoph bother you? Anyway, he wouldn’t be the type to be upset about being expelled from Tarten.”

“……I have to go back to Berlin.”

Ilay silently looked down at Jeong Taeui and raised an eyebrow. The words had no connection, but Jeong Taeui kept smoking and staring at the tree-lined road outside.

“I’m glad to hear that, but I’m curious why you suddenly changed your mind.”