Original Chapters (Manhwa): ???~???
23: the Nameless, Binna (5)
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So listless.
Since that afternoon, Dokja watched his sunbae lie on the sofa without lifting a single limb. He resembled a doll, so pretty yet so lifeless. The reader tried everything to get him to move.
Biting his finger.
Squeaking right next to his ear.
Hell, he even sat on his sunbae's face.
However, none of them elicited any reaction. Even when he yelled the most ridiculous things, his sunbae acted as if he didn't hear anything.
His sunbae... was really determined to die here.
"Squeak." What about Binna?
This time, his sunbae's lashes trembled.
"Squeak squeak." Who's going to take care of your sister?
"... what sister?" Ahn Eun-Byeol heard the loud beats of his heart. "Those two? My parents making a sister? You have to be joking. I was an accident. There's no way they would purposely make another one. But, ah," Eun-Byeol hugged himself, falling quiet again. "It would be best that she dies in the womb. Being born to that pair of people... is the unluckiest thing that could happen to her."
Dokja thought that his sunbae would act like a doll again when a pair of brown eyes looking straight at him startled the hamster. "Say, why are you... why do you keep doing that? As if you're trying to convince me to stay alive? I've only taken care of you for four days. Uh, well, it was mostly you taking care of yourself. I just provided you a place to stay."
The teen suddenly laughed. "I'm such a dumbass. Even if you're not a normal hamster, why do I treat you like a human? I must be nuts. I'm definitely nuts. These four days, I've been so talkative that it's so out of character."
A deep breath escaped his lips. "But seriously, there's nothing tying me down here anyway. If I have to live miserably for the rest of my life, why don't I just kill myself to get things over with?"
"Squeak!" No, you can't!
Kim Dokja the Hamster climbed Eun-Byeol's face, grabbed his sunbae's nose with both paws, and squeezed it as best as he could. "Squeak squeak!" There are people out there still waiting for you to come back!
"Squeak? Squeak squeakkkkk?!" What about Binna then? Are you just going to leave her alone?!
"Why do you keep mentioning Binna?!" The last string of his patience snapped at last. Eun-Byeol snatched the hamster, holding it tightly in his fist. Binna this, Binna that. Could it just shut up already?
Dokja struggled in Eun-Byeol's grip, gasping for air. He forgot that his sunbae didn't know him right now, and that if he crossed a line, his life could be in danger. The sunbae he had gotten to know was someone who would hold his temper in, who would do anything but hurt him.
What was he supposed to do now?
"Binna ah,"
Dokja, who almost died of suffocation, greedily gasped for air when his sunbae loosened his grip. Fortunately, Dokja fell on the sofa. Through his blurry vision, he found his sunbae leaning at the back of the sofa, staring at the ceiling yet again.
Silence permeated once more in this dull, monotonous afternoon. The whistling winds disappeared, along with the rustling leaves. The hustle and bustle of the streets were as quiet as it could be, so quiet as if time stood still.
Eun-Byeol's tired and helpless voice spoke through this tranquility. So soft and weak, so tired of his life.
"Binna is such an important name to me. I don't know why, it just is, so stop mentioning that name. Please. Let me just spend the rest of this day in silence."
Dokja stared at his sunbae, unmoving and hurt. He wanted to embrace this frail and lonely version of him, to chase away the gloom invading his heart. The reader was not used to such a Eun-Byeol. He missed his smiles, all versions of it. Whether it was his sunbae's default tenderness to his spine-chilling grin.
Just not... this. Where his lips formed a straight line. Neither sad or happy.
Just... lonely.
Was that why his sunbae acted clingy towards him? Why his sunbae showed such bold familial affections to Binna? Was that the reason why his sunbae pampered Binna, why he accommodated Gilyoung's wants? Because his sunbae didn't want children to experience this loneliness that pushed him to the brink of death?
Why couldn't he have met his sunbae sooner?
That way, Dokja would have chased his loneliness away and his sunbae would have found an excuse to continue living much sooner.
Hurt and bitter, Dokja slowly climbed onto Eun-Byeol's laps. He stood there, looking at his sunbae's face, and stepping forward to bury himself into his sunbae's sweater. This brought another bout of stillness in the living room.
"Say," after a few hours of silence, with the clock slowly ticking to midnight, Eun-Byeol spoke in the dark. "What's your name? That's the least you could do, after annoying me earlier, noh?"
Dokja wiggled in the sweater, holding tightly on the fleece. "Squeak." My name... is Kim Dokja.
"Kim Dokja," Eun-Byeol repeated the hamster's name under his breath. "It's a pretty name." It's familiar. Where have I heard it? When I said it just now, my heart seemed to hurt. Did I know any Kim Dokja in the past? I don't remember.
"Squeak?" What's yours?
"My name, it's—" Eun-Byeol's tone changed all of a sudden. The teen sat straight in abrupt, almost causing the hamster using his sweater as a blanket to fly off him. "—what's my name?" Disbelief was written all over his face.
"I clearly heard my name being cursed by my neighbors when I was out yesterday, so why can't I remember?"
There was something obviously wrong.
"Squeak?" Your name is Ahn Eun-Byeol, isn't it?
"No, no," the anxious Eun-Byeol began biting his lower lip. "That's not it. My name, it's not Ahn Eun-Byeol. What is it then? What's my name? Why can't I remember it?"
Dokja wanted to tell his sunbae to stop biting his lip when the ground began to rumble. An earthquake shook the house, and the sky outside began to crack. The lines crawled across the sky, covering every inch. Fragments of the sky began falling down, revealing a vast expanse of space, millions of stars burning in the wide outer space.
The world conjured by the Hidden Scenario was gone, leaving Eun-Byeol's house the only one intact, floating in this unknown space. Meteoroids of varying sizes flew past them, one of them grazing upon the window ledge.
However, these magical things did not register in Eun-Byeol's mind. Instead, he began repeating the same questions over and over again, until his voice became hoarse.
Dokja did not know what to do.
He clung onto his sunbae's clothes, trying to get his attention, but the words what's my name kept echoing in his ears.
Think about it, Kim Dokja.
Why did Binna even appear in Chronos?
How come his sunbae raised her when in Antinus' story, Binna was already grown up?
Was Binna a Reincarnator?
A Transmigrator?
How does his sunbae fit in all these?
Who was his sunbae in a previous life, if that were the case?
If his name was not Ahn Eun-Byeol, could he be trying to remember his previous life's name?
What did he know about his sunbae?
He was a petty, manipulative guy who used others as if they were his subordinates. He was willing to 'sacrifice' a co-worker and got that person fired with just a few words. Sunbae was not a kind person but had a gentle attitude towards most of his co-workers.
No one but Dokja among them knew what kind of person his sunbae was.
His sunbae loved his sister very much, he was willing to get dirty just to save Dokja, willing to get hurt.
Oh, Dokja just remembered, maybe the reason why his sunbae was so broke was because he was in debt for purchasing the bullet proof glasses?
His sunbae was unlike other children, who felt love when he was born.
And what he was so afraid of was Dokja hating him.
Now that Dokja carefully thinks about it, his sunbae didn't say much about himself, as if he was trying to leave as little information as possible about himself to the world. As if he didn't care whether or not people would remember him or mourn when he leaves.
Those thoughts made Dokja upset.
He was there, wasn't he?
Dokja was willing to listen, to lend his sunbae an ear that would listen to him vent. Dokja was willing to hear all his stories, all his heartaches, all his joys and sorrows.
"— my name?"
"Squeak," Dokja finally spoke up after being silent for the past few minutes. Your name is Ahn Eun-Byeol. "Squeak squeak." Your name is Ahn Eun-Byeol, and you're my sunbae.
As if lightning struck Eun-Byeol. Quickly, he picked up the hamster, raised it until eye level, and urgently asked, "What did you call me?"
"Squeak?" Huh?
"What did you call me just now?" A hint of desperation tainted his voice. "You said that my name is Ahn Eun-Byeol, and that I'm your what?"
"Squeak?" My sunbae?
A bout of silence lingered in the air before Eun-Byeol busted out into uncontrollable laughter.
[The incarnation, Ahn Eun-Byeol, has finally recalled.]
"Dokja-shi, how could you be so cute," Dokja's fur suddenly stood on ends when he heard that familiar honorific to his name. "Dokja-shi. Dokja-shi. Dokja-shi. You make me so happy."
Kim Dokja's ears began to burn up, and he squeaked loudly.
The clock that had been ticking in the background had stopped, just before the second hand pointed towards twelve.
11:59:59
Dokja almost failed his sunbae by a second.
"Dokja-shi, can I kiss you?"
"Squeak?!" What?!
Without even waiting for consent, just because Eun-Byeol overflowed with happiness, he leaned down to give Dokja the Hamster a kiss on the crown of his head.
"I'm your sunbae, that's right. I'm Dokja-shi's. Yours." Eun-Byeol kept whispering those words close to Dokja's twitching ears, causing the reader to ball up in embarrassment but he couldn't bear to squeak again. It was because ever since they met, this was the first time Dokja had seen his sunbae so happy.
Pure, unadulterated joy.
"Let's leave this place now, shall we?"
[The Hidden Scenario - The Tragic Beau has been completed.]
[You have received 10 000 coins as a reward.]
[The incarnation, Ahn Eun-Byeol, will awaken as soon as you return.]
...
A few minutes before Kim Dokja completed the Hidden Scenario...
A loud explosion threw varying sizes of debris into the air. Yoo Junghyuk clenched his jaw and drew his sword to block them, successfully protecting the two persons behind him. More than three hours have passed and the Sub Scenario was about to end. If they couldn't save Binna, she was bound to become a Catastrophe for the next scenario... and most likely die.
But Junghyuk refused such a future.
This kid was someone Eun-Byeol cared for, and even if Junghyuk still didn't know who Eun-Byeol was to him, he couldn't bear to hurt that person even more than his past self already has.
The dust cloud subsided, revealing Sooyoung and Sangah knocked out on the ground. Junghyuk prepared himself, cursing the poison he'd been inflicted with, and met Binna's scythe with a sword.
The force behind their blades clashing caused the wind to pick up.
The two of them parried each other's weapons, and each time, Junghyuk was forced to take a small step back. Binna's strength was almost on par with his original stats, so Junghyuk found it difficult to subdue this girl without hurting her.
What should he do?
What actions must he take?
Junghyuk thought about it but all the plans he came up with required him to be at full strength.
Dammit...!
A pair of bloodshot eyes glared at him. The Binna who loved to antagonize him seemed to have lost her sanity, and her instincts told her to take Eun-Byeol back. Every action she took was for the sake of staying by her brother's side.
Kim Dokja, aren't you done yet?!
A fair hand appeared from the corner of Junghyuk's eyes, reaching for the scythe's pole. It gripped the scythe gently, pushing it away. "Binna ah," a warm breath brushed past Junghyuk's cheek. A certain someone rested his chin on Junghyuk's shoulder. "Brother has come back. Why don't you take a long rest for now? I must have scared you badly, huh?"
The young girl, who had been fighting all this time, angry and afraid, finally found her way back. Her eyes had been filled with fear and lost all this time; they now were filled with relief. "Brother!"
She dropped the scythe and ran towards Eun-Byeol, even pushing Junghyuk to the side so that she could have her brother to herself. Even though Junghyuk got annoyed, he let her be.
Ahn Eun-Byeol picked up his sister, embraced her tightly, and fixed her tangled hair. "Binna ah, did you get hurt?"
"No, brother."
"Did you cry?"
"Of course I did."
"Brother is sorry," the beau kissed his sister's temple. "I'll make it up to you, noh?"
"Promise?"
"Promise."
The young girl who had been on edge for the past four hours rested her eyes at last, falling into a deep slumber in her brother's arms. Behind this pair of siblings, Kim Dokja stretched his arms, relieved that the current crisis was over.
Yoo Junghyuk
You took your sweet time, Kim Dokja.
The reader flinched after being subjected under the protagonist's glare. It wasn't even his fault, alright? Who would have known that Dokja needed to call his sunbae his to easily convince him to leave? The whole time, he had called his sunbae just as usual but he never reacted to it.
But this begs the question; what exactly did Dokja do to become someone so important to his sunbae?
It was a question that he had no answer to.
...
[Sub Scenario - Stop The Catastrophe]
Category: Sub
Difficulty: S-
Clear Conditions: The Catastrophe of Questions has been eliminated from the Five Catastrophes. The Nameless Catastrophe, the Belle, has started to awaken. Stop the Nameless Catastrophe from wreaking havoc.
Time Limit: 4 hours
Reward: 30 000 coins
Penalty For Failure: The destruction of the Seoul District will happen sooner.
*The Nameless Catastrophe's stats have been lowered due to the failure of calibrating her stats into numerical value.
[Main contributors: Han Sooyoung, Yoo Sangah, Yoo Junghyuk, Kim Dokja, Ahn Eun-Byeol]
[You have received 30 000 coins as a reward.]
[An additional reward, Protection of the Nameless Belle, has been given.]
[A new update has arrived!]
[The Nameless Catastrophe is no longer in the world. There are four remaining Catastrophes left.]
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YAY FOR DOKJA
So, lemme give you the main points that weren't deliberately said in the chap.
1.
Eun-Byeol likes Dokja for a reason. But neither Eun-Byeol himself or Dokja knows the reason. The only person who knows is Binna.
2.
Binna has been to countless worlds but Dokja isn't sure if she's a Reincarnator or a Transmigrator.
3.
Byeol responded to 'my sunbae' instead of his name. Dokja isn't sure why and why being 'his' appeared to be more important than his own name.
4.
A past Junghyuk had met a past Byeol, and a past Dokja perhaps met a past Byeol.