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If given the chance, Yoo Jonghyuk would avoid the Demon Realm as much as possible. Ever since Kim Dokja became his companion, those chances were never in his sight.
After the confrontation with Asmodeus, an encounter that literally began fracturing Yoo Jonghyuk’s body, it took a while to recover and search for Kim Dokja.
That rat bastard was all the way over in the other Industrial Complex, a place using his name much to the annoyance of Yoo Jonghyuk. Then to top it off, Kim Dokja wasn’t even awake when he finally found him.
In the back room of a clock workshop, Kim Dokja is lying in a spare bed covered in story packs. The sight almost makes Yoo Jonghyuk wince. He is not an expert at story packs but he knows it will be disastrous if a story or more are not compatible with the patient.
The woman treating him, Aileen Makerfield, was hesitant and wary about letting Yoo Jonghyuk see the patient while she injects the day’s dose of story.
“Kim Dokja told me to let him die for an hour,” she grumbled. Her steady hands carefully wrapped new bandages around an arm. Story fragments, sentences really, had spilled out from an open gash. “Now he needs sleep for days.”
It’s not often Yoo Jonghyuk stays by someone’s side when they’re recovering. It almost feels like a clique to be sitting by a sleeping Kim Dokja.
Actually, it feels utterly strange to see Kim Dokja with his eyes closed for more than two seconds.
The last time he watched Kim Dokja close his eyes is when he first became the Demon King of Salvation and died in Yoo Jonghyuk’s arms.
Yoo Jonghyuk is not sure if he feels relief to see Kim Dokja’s current state. The sickly paleness, the various tubes injected into his veins, the heartbeat monitory is louder than the little breaths Kim Dokja takes in. He can barely see the slow rise and fall of his chest, the only movement of the sleeping man.
It’s eerily to see his eyes shut when Yoo Jonghyuk expects those long eyelashes to flutter and see the vast emotions play out in Kim Dokja’s dark eyes.
So far, nothing in his three regression rounds compare to Kim Dokja’s eyes. It’s filled with something Yoo Jonghyuk cannot describe.
“At first I thought he was a smart man, a hero even.”
He nearly forgot Aileen was still here. She’s adjusting the placements of story pack but her attention flickers to him.
“Then he begins to do crazy, risky plans,” Aileen said in a tone of a disapproving mother. “Kim Dokja did it all with cool composure.”
“That is Kim Dokja,” Yoo Jonghyuk confirmed.
Aileen shook her head, “He wasn’t like that when the other Demon King entered the realm.”
Yoo Jonghyuk excused, “It was Asmodeus.”
She raised an eyebrow and in that moment, Aileen looked too similar to Han Sooyoung as she continued, “He was frantic, desperately needed to get to the Gilobat Industrial Complex. I think he even tried to bargain with the constellations too before he decided on this plan.”
He refuses to break eye contact and defiantly says, “All his plans involve him dying.”
That gets Aileen gob smacked, squinting at him and then to her patient. She’s acting as if they’re both madmen and honestly that cannot be blamed.
While the story expert is caught off guard, Yoo Jonghyuk returns to staring at Kim Dokja, remembering all the times he sacrificed himself for the party.
It’s frustratingly a occurring pattern. This man does the same thing over and over again and expects the results to be the same.
Kim Dokja expects his friends to be alive and yes, he’s accurate on that part but it is Yoo Jonghyuk who has to deal with the aftermath.
Those individuals have all soften their emotions for this one man who has left them behind with the measly promise of his return. Annoyingly, they wait.
Yoo Jonghyuk, on the other hand, is impatient.
And so he finds himself reaching the 73rd Demon Realm with an archangel, a terrible idea; taking ownership of an industrial complex in Kim Dokja’s name, because Kim Dokja is not the only one who steals names; and confronting Asmodeus, the reason Yoo Jonghyuk regressed into the third round.
Yoo Jonghyuk could not see himself ever doing this for anyone, mostly because no one else would get in this much trouble. But for some reason he did this all.
All to see Kim Dokja again.
And that rat bastard is sleeping.
This is all exhausting to think. Thankfully, there’s a chair nearby.
“He’s not waking up soon,” Aileen has gather up her tools and prepares to leave, “Are you sure you want to stay?”
Without hesitation, Yoo Jonghyuk nods.
“I’ll get you some tea,” she offers with a smile. “Keep an eye on him.”
As she leaves, Yoo Jonghyuk feels impulsive.
The stillness and paleness in Kim Dokja’s face has been bothering him since he entered the room. Now with no audience, aside from the constellations unfortunately, Yoo Jonghyuk hovers a hand over Kim Dokja.
He ignores the slight shake in his hand right before his fingers touch the softness of Kim Dokja’s cheeks. Yoo Jonghyuk expected the skin to feel clammy or cold, instead the unconscious man is warm.
A tiny part of Yoo Jonghyuk relaxes, more so when he begins to trace shapeless figures between the edge of Kim Dokja’s closed eyes and his chin. He carefully pinches a stray eyelash and Yoo Jonghyuk freezes when the eye moves underneath its lid.
Then awkwardly, Yoo Jonghyuk retracts his hand when the sleeping eyes flutter open. For a moment, his heart stops beating as Kim Dokja tilts his head, slowly blinking as the corner of his pink lips form a small smile.
“My protagonist,” Kim Dokja breathes softly, as if painting on silk.
Yoo Jonghyuk ignores the weird noise his throat makes and quickly examines Kim Dokja. He spots the story pack Aileen was securing into the canteen.
It’s labeled Vulnerability of a Cursed Dreamer.
A memory pops up in Yoo Jonghyuk’s brain. It’s of Yoo Mia demanding him to read her a bed time story. It was Sleeping Beauty.
“Shut your mouth Kim Dokja.”
Doing the opposite, he continued, “My Supreme King.”
“Kim Dokja,” he warns lowly.
A tiny huff of air exits Kim Dokja, barely qualifying as a laugh as he says, “My Yoo Jonghyuk.”
Those words tug onto something inside Yoo Jonghyuk. The tone of voice alone shakes Yoo Jonghyuk’s core because has never heard his name spoken with so much tenderness.
Still surprising him, Kim Dokja awed, “You’re not dead.”
“Bastard, you don’t get to say that,” Yoo Jonghyuk instantly shot.
A hot boiling frustration always stews inside him, reserved to those deserving of his fury. His rage is snuffed when Kim Dokja’s smile brightens.
The frustration is back when Kim Dokja attempts to sit up.
“Don’t get up,” he orders, placing a hand at Kim Dokja’s collarbone.
Yoo Jonghyuk is too familiar with feeling the skin here, where he can easily slide up to grasp the neck. This is a new body so there is no evidence of times where he gripped Kim Dokja by the neck and tossed him into oblivion.
This time though, Yoo Jonghyuk secures Kim Dokja in place, making sure he won’t die here.
“I’m happy that you didn’t regress.”
“Of course you are.”
The last time he thought about regressing was at the eighth scenario, the Ultimate Sacrifice. It was the ultimatum and it made sense for him to regress up until Kim Dokja convinced him not to. Kim Dokja had said that this world line should be worth protecting.
He once believed early on, if he regresses, there could be a better chance in the next round. Even now after Kim Dokja’s talk, Yoo Jonghyuk had the thought that maybe he could use the knowledge in this round and be better in the fourth round.
Maybe Yoo Jonghyuk can stop Kim Dokja from dying so much in the fourth round.
Kim Dokja interrupts his thoughts, as he always does, and gives off the suspicious that he can actually read Yoo Jonghyuk’s mind.
“I don’t know what will happen to me if you regress.”
He blinks. Remaining calm, Yoo Jonghyuk states, “You were in the next subway car.”
Kim Dokja shakes his head, it jostles a story pack on his shoulder and Yoo Jonghyuk reaches over to secure it back on.
“It’s not that simple, it can’t be. It is never simple for me.” A cloudy gaze goes over his eyes, full of something Yoo Jonghyuk wants to describe but cannot for the life of him. Mirroring that desperation, Kim Dokja frowns, “I want this. I want to reach the end of this story.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“Would you leave me, Yoo Jonghyuk?”
It’s an unexpected question and yet this has been asked before.
Lee Seolhwa, his wife in the previous regression round, worried about his attribute.
Both she and Kim Dokja wondered about his mindset, as if regressing was a drug he’s addicted to and not a necessary last resort.
Previously, he wondered why Lee Seolhwa asked because by the next round she had forgotten who he was. Hell, she poisoned him in this round because he was careless around someone who became important to him.
Now applying that situation with Kim Dokja is a headache.
“…a regression without you sounds tempting.”
“Be honest.”
Again, Yoo Jonghyuk cannot read the emotion in Kim Dokja’ eyes. If he had to guess there is a bit of terror but that should be preposterous. Never before has Kim Dokja ever been scared of him.
Yet, Yoo Jonghyuk has an ache in his chest at the idea of Kim Dokja in fear. Be it fear of Yoo Jonghyuk or for him, it is an uneasy feeling.
It truly means that Kim Dokja puts so much trust into Yoo Jonghyuk.
He’s used to this responsibility, ignores it mostly because it is from the masses and feels its weight in his bones. But it is different coming from Kim Dokja.
Kim Dokja who knows him and his future, who knows the depths of Yoo Jonghyuk and the rest of the party. Kim Dokja who became a constellation, became a Demon King, and became Yoo Jonghyuk’s companion.
In life and death, Yoo Jonghyuk cannot imagine ever leaving Kim Dokja’s side.
With raw honesty, Yoo Jonghyuk says, “If there is a chance that I will lose you, I will not regress Kim Dokja.”
“Yoo Jonghyuk,” he smiles so sweet, “you’re a cool protagonist.”
He sucks in a sharp breath of air, not becomes this is touching but because Yoo Jonghyuk is keeping together his restraint to not throttle Kim Dokja’s neck.
It is very tempting due to how stupid Kim Dokja is.
Yoo Jonghyuk pinches the bridge of his nose, composing himself into civility. It is a tall order when it comes to moments like this. He places his hands on his lap to berate this idiot when something catches his eyes.
The story back on Kim Dokja’ shoulder. It is labeled Loose Cognition of a Bad Luck Charm.
Does that mean…
He blinks a few times, processing and in that silence, Kim Dokja has closed his eyes and breaths slowly.
Sighing, Yoo Jonghyuk strokes hair away from Kim Dokja’s face. “Sleep and forget this conversation.”
For the next two peaceful days, Yoo Jonghyuk waits for his companion to walk up. He is half-worried if Kim Dokja remembers what they discussed. His paranoia is for naught at the end of the week when he meets Kim Dokja’s eyes.
They are wide and shocked and happy and if Yoo Jonghyuk could read his mind, he’d bet Kim Dokja is thinking, ‘You are alive.’
Bastard, Yoo Jonghyuk thinks as they catch up and at the end of it, he tells him, “Let’s go back to Earth, Kim Dokja.”