Chapter Text
There is many fantasy story about reincarnation, time travel, regression, or things like that. Readers like to read about a full of misery character getting a second chance to live, to revenge, to do whatever they want that they can’t do in their first life. Readers love to see a character gets a transformation, a development, to be a better character, to get a better life.
It must be satisfying to see a lame character gets transformed into a full of a confident, smart, witty, and lovable character.
But now that Leno undergoes this thing, that he gets a second chance to live again, he realized those kinds of stories are bullshit.
The truth is even after he died, he doesn’t magically change.
He still feels the same as the old him before he died.
He didn’t think that he should get revenge on the one who made his life miserable. Well, besides White Star, but he has died, so that’s out of the window.
But anyway, he is still the same old him.
And that is bad.
Because now, he has to live as a proper person.
He chuckles at his own thinking.
Ironically, half living as a pretend-broken-personality was far easier than to really properly live like this. He takes a sip at his own lukewarm coffee, half enjoying the calm morning where he can be alone with peace.
If he ignores the loud shouting outside, it would be perfect.
“Even though the wars have passed, they are still unnecessarily loud…” He groans. Since the curtain of the windows has been opened, probably by Ron at dawn without waking him up, the young man approaches them again to close it.
He takes a peek at the people outside, still busy training in the chilly early morning. Despite the wars had passed, the previous Dragon Lord still trains the young wolves. And there is a mix of some soldiers from Henituse knights.
They are really… lively.
Maybe because in all of his life he is sensitive when people pay attention to him, he notices when some people stare at him. And because it has been ingrained in all of his life to avoid people’s unnecessary attention, he closes the curtains quickly.
Then he notices what he just did then groans then leans on the window before walking back to the chair.
Living is hard, living as a proper person is hard. It has been approximately 3 years since he lives as a person.
Was it this hard before?
The answer, he doesn’t know.
His previous life was… hard, for sure. But it was worth it. In the end, he did it, he managed to do what he needed to do. No one praises him for it, but everyone lives so he is satisfied with that. He could do it better, but… that was probably the limit of what he could do after all.
And probably, he could keep pushing it to the end because he knew that he would eventually die. So he could endure it for so long because it would end.
While for his current life…
It is more peaceful, he has more time in his hands than he knows what he has to do with it, and he is in a different place with different people.
“But this isn’t… really my place…” He mumbles to himself. He sits with a solemn face and sips his now cold coffee.
Like it or not, he has lost a place to live, to exist.
He is no longer Cale Henituse.
Just… Leno. Whoever Leno is, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know himself.
Maybe it is his first task.
To find a new identity.
Then, to find a new place.
But he doesn’t know really know how to do it.
“Ah… that Old Man will be back today… huh? Damn, I bet the first thing he is going to do is scolding me…” He groans then lets himself plop into the long sofa, on top of so many scattered papers and journals.
He doesn’t know if he made any mistakes. But probably he did anyway, and Cale always finds a reason to scold him.
Leno sighs and his eyes wander lazily at the room filled with so many papers, on the floor, on the walls, on the bed, and even on the sofa.
“First I need to tidy up this, sigh.”
Living is really hard.
But Cale will do more than smack his head if Leno ever wonders that if it is better for him to die. So Leno will try his best to live… for now.
0o0o0o0
“You are up early again, human.”
“I can’t sleep more than necessary.” Cale isn’t really a morning person in a peaceful time, his sleeping time might exceed toddlers if he doesn’t need to do anything. But he is only able to sleep for 7 hours a day now, sometimes less.
Obviously, it must be Leno doing.
Even though they aren’t sharing the same body. But in Leno’s words, they are still sharing the “same existence”. Their body is connected with one another by an invisible link. Not only do they share the same injury and body condition, but they can also somewhat feel each other’s emotions. Though for the latter, Leno made sure to build an invisible wall between them so unless it is very intense emotions, the other side won’t feel it. And it also works to save Cale from accessing Leno’s dream power, so that Cale won’t see the future dreams.
But besides that, it seems they share the same hunger, thirst, and sleepiness.
And since Leno has a complex for sleeping because of him being a dream seer, he hates to sleep more than necessary, so Cale can’t sleep in even if he wants to.
But he can still stare into space with an empty mind, so Cale won’t complain.
“So, finally we are going home today! You are still rushing things, human!” the little black dragon says beside him while Cale finishes his breakfast.
Cale doesn’t say anything. He is the type who knows how to do things quickly but also takes it easy depending on the situation. Though there is no war and there is no immediate danger and nothings urgently he needs to do, Cale just can’t admit it bluntly.
He just wants to go home and make sure that suicidal punk is still okay.
Just because this body isn’t injured or he doesn’t feel any strong emotions in the past three days, it doesn’t always mean that Leno is okay.
Now that Leno is alive again, Cale knows that it is time to fix whatever goings wrong with his life, which is ruined partially because of Cale himself.
Still, Cale still has some responsibility to do before he can fully dive in to settle Leno’s mountain of problems. He needs to check the aftermath of the war, to check the seal of White Star’s soul which was made by the Dragons, to meet the World Tree, to check the neighboring kingdoms, especially allies, which affected by the wars.
And since Cale knows Leno better than anyone, he knows it is better to leave Leno at the Raon’s Black Castle rather than bring him with him.
They are still somewhat connected, but Cale still worries for him either way.
He is being such a worrywart, he knows. Leno is probably fine, but that punk died just until a few days ago.
“Oh-- human! There is a video call from that Crown Prince, do you want to answer it?”
Cale just finished his breakfast and nods before he sips his coffee. He isn’t that particularly fond of bitter coffee, but he learns to appreciate the caffeine rush. He grimaces from the bitter taste, then mixes quite a lot of sugar and milk into his cup.
Raon connects the video and Cale isn’t happy to get a call from Alberu from this early morning.
‘Don’t give me that face. It isn’t like I’m that eager to call you from this early morning either…’
Cale needs to hold back his sneer. Besides Leno, Alberu can read him better than anyone.
“So, what do you need from me for you to call me this early, Your Highness?” Cale sips coffee again, grimacing again then adding more sugar to his already quite sweet coffee.
‘The nobles have been urging me to throw a celebration banquet for the end of the war. You know that we have been postponing it for a month because you have been unconscious.’
Cale frowns, both at the crown prince and his coffee. “I see.” He has seen it coming, obviously. Even though he doesn’t that fond of banquets, party or anything like that, but he knows all people in the world probably want to throw a celebration for being released from such misery, all because of that bastard White Star.
It is a legitimate reason, even Cale can understand.
But it doesn’t mean he will enjoy the banquet, not when he knows he will be the main spotlight. He knows that he can’t dodge it, he hates it so much.
“Yeay! It will be a really big banquet right!?” Raon looks so excited.
‘Some nobles demand the banquet to last a month, but don’t worry, I only agree to make it for a week only.’ Crown Prince smiles a bit wickedly. ‘I still prefer to use the money to rebuild some part of our kingdom which affected by the wars after all.’
Cale almost spits his coffee when he heard that ‘month’ then ‘week’ words. Thankfully he doesn’t spit anything, but he is still quite shocked. Then his face turns sour.
“I can’t avoid it, can I?” Cale asks, just to make sure.
‘We postponed the banquet for a month to wait for you, please be responsible about it.’ Alberu looks he is enjoying Cale’s reactions.
Cale still isn’t happy about it.
Especially since…
“Is the banquet only for Roan Kingdom citizens or…?”
‘No, our allies will attend too, especially the one who took a part in the wars.’ Alberu glances at Raon. ‘I invite the Dragons too, but it will be up to them whether they want to attend or not or even attend using an alias, it is up to them, including you, Raon-nim.’ Alberu smiles politely toward the little dragon.
“Wow! It is my first time to get invited to a banquet formally!” Raon jumps in joy. Usually, Raon only attends the party invisibly, alongside Cale.
“But he can’t attend it… or can he?”
Alberu blinks, it takes a moment for him to understand who Cale means.
‘You mean, Young Master Leno?’
It is a bit funny to hear Alberu refers to Leno so formally like that, but probably he does it because he isn’t that particularly close with the young dream seer.
Alberu thinks for a moment. ‘If I can invite the Dragons, I think I can find a way to invite him too. We will find a way.’
Cale doesn’t notice the understanding look Alberu gave to him, because he is busy thinking about it. With his resource of skilled people, Cale knows he will find a way to make Leno able to attend the party, somehow.
But the problem is the punk himself.
Then, the Henituse family.
“Give me a week.”
‘What?’ Alberu looks surprised.
“Give me time to drag that punk to the party.” Cale talks bluntly.
‘...if he is adamant to be absent from the banquet, shouldn’t you let him be?’ Alberu looks confused.
Raon nods. “Fish Eyes hates a crowded place, doesn’t he? He won’t want to attend it, you shouldn’t force him to, human.”
Yes, Cale has promised himself to stop forcing Leno to do anything against his will. The thing is that punk…
If Cale lets him alone to do whatever he wants, Cale worries it will end up bad.
Like before.
Leno isn’t fully okay, he is far from that. Yes, he is getting better. But he is far from healed.
That intense panic and fear Cale sensed from Leno before he departed, well before Leno put a wall between their link, contrary to how Leno insisted he would be okay even if Cale would be away from him for a few days.
That punk is still far from okay.
That is why Cale wants Leno to attend the banquet.
“Because the banquet is to celebrate the end of the war, to honor the people who took part and sacrifice so many things during the war.” Cale sighs. “He did take part, he did so much, he sacrificed so many things too, he has the right to attend it, no, he has to attend it.”
Alberu and Raon look at him with some kind of emotions Cale can’t identify, so he ignores them.
“If I have to attend it, then he has too, to be fair,” Cale adds, that is also part of the reason. Why does he need to be the only one to suffer at the banquet? That punk should too.
‘You are being petty as usual… But I get it. I don’t think I can postpone the banquet for a week, the preparation is almost complete…’ Alberu pauses for a minute. ‘Three days, I will give you three days.’
“I understand…” Cale nods, he isn’t happy with that. But he will do it in one way or another.
‘I will also try to find a way for him to attend the banquet, though… I think you will find it faster than I will.’ Alberu shakes his head. ‘Good luck for persuading him to attend the banquet.’
Then the video turns off.
Raon looks at Cale, who is in deep thinking. He has drunk all the very sweet coffee and it seems he is very determined with anything he is going to do.
“What will you do, human?”
Cale huffs. “Actually, dragging Leno to the banquet will be so easy.” Cale leans back to the chair. The hard thing is, he doesn’t want Leno to suffer.
He doesn’t want Leno to get hurt.
That is way harder to do, especially for someone who has lost his identity and family. To be in a very crowded place, with unclear existence, with people’s attention directed at him, with his family being there, along with his trauma at handling people.
It will be a very hard thing to do.
But Cale can even revive Leno from the dead.
There is nothing he can do for that punk.
0o0o0o0
Leno takes a look at fogging mirror in the bathroom, a mirror that has his reflection. Those brown eyes don’t look as dead as years ago, but those brown eyes still shine in a different way than Cale’s. Cale’s eyes are usually shining with confidence, slight arrogance, and a bit cold. While Leno’s… they are just… not too far from dead fish’s eyes. Okay, maybe a little more like fresh dead fish eyes.
For people who know the difference between them, it is easy to differentiate them. Especially since Leno prefers short hair, while Cale is too lazy to cut his hair.
But their eyes are really different as well. Not that he can do anything about it.
Leno writes on the fogging mirror. ‘Cale-Not’.
Then draws a circle at ‘le-No’.
He snorts at Raon’s words a while ago. Maybe it is safer to lie that his name originate that way rather than to admit it is a shortened form from his hidden middle name. Since if he gets cursed based on his middle name, Cale will get cursed too.
And if people connect the dots, it will be easy to guess that his middle name is Seleno, which means Moon in the old language. Since he is a dream seer and Child of The Moon. A really obvious middle name.
Does he even have the chance to ever explain it if someone asks about his name?
Does someone even care enough to ask about his name?
Leno just shrugs and dries his wet hair with the towel before exiting the bathroom.
He almost jumps and slips on his wet foot when he sees someone else in the room. Thankfully he didn’t.
“...I see that you are back…”
Cale is sitting on the chair, reading one of the journals, which obviously he took from some tower of journals and papers at the corner of the room.
“You didn’t get passed out or nosebleed in the last three days, right?” Cale looks at him with a frown.
“If I get passed out or a nosebleed, it would happen to you too.” Leno sighs then throw a wet towel on the chair and sit across Cale with an exasperated expression.
“Why did it sound as if it wasn’t because of me, you would do it?” Cale frowns harder, but then he shakes his head. “Anyway, how were you doing the past three days?”
Leno doesn’t say anything.
“You spent your time holed up in here, didn’t you?” Cale asks.
Since every person in this castle can be Cale’s eyes and ears, there is no use to deny it. Leno just sighs. “I just wanted to rest and sort my dream journals.”
“For three days.” Cale states.
“You spent almost two years doing nothing.” Leno resorts back.
“Good point.” Cale wants to laugh at how Leno can banter with him better than anyone. “But… you didn’t come out because you avoid the other people here right?”
Leno looks at Cale.
And then he sighs.
He doesn’t know how to explain to Cale.
But he knows that people here give him weird stares.
Not that they mistreat him or anything, then again not that he gives them any chance to do that. But the way they look at him as if they are trying to figure it out.
Leno understands it, they can’t help it. In their minds, Cale Henituse always has been Cale.
So for them, to hear Cale suddenly admit that he wasn’t really Cale Henituse and Cale Henituse is someone else, that must be utterly confusing.
It might be easier to just think there is two versions of Cale Henituse.
The ‘trash’ Cale Henituse is Leno.
The ‘hero’ Cale Henituse is Cale.
Maybe the people here have figured that out in the past three days, Leno doesn’t really know. But the way they stare at him makes his stomach twist. Then he has this strange urge to explain why he is here. That he has a reason to stay here. Because he is no one here.
They aren’t really… his people.
They are Cale’s.
And the fact that he shares the same face with Cale must be making everyone uncomfortable too.
Leno understands that but he doesn’t think Cale knows this.
“I’m sorry.” Leno finally says.
“For?” Cale asks him.
“...I should have tried to… you know… talking and interacting with other people…” Leno looks up. At least he should give people some explanation, rather than avoiding them since Cale is really busy. As soon as Cale woke up and talked to Leno, he departed right away to settle some business.
None of them has explained anything to anyone.
Though Cale has given some sort of short explanation when he died, Leno wonders if that is enough.
“Why do you always think everything is your fault?” Cale asks again while massaging his temple.
Leno doesn’t say anything.
Probably because everything he did usually ended up bad or entirely a mistake. He doesn’t have confidence in himself.
That is the reason why Leno mostly accepted Cale’s order without much fuss, no matter how it was against his will. Since Cale is usually right.
“You need to have dinner with me and everyone else at the castle tonight, I need to talk about something.” Cale finally says again with a sigh.
“Why do you want to do it during dinner? Can you just call everyone to have a talk?” Leno doesn’t particularly happy to hear that.
“So you will have an excuse to not talk when you have something inside your mouth.” Cale says.
“Ah, good point.” Leno just realized this fact after 21 years of living. So that’s why people like to have a talk while eating or drinking something.
“So, see you during dinner.” Cale gets up, Leno somewhat glad that they have their own room now. After almost three (one, for Cale) years sharing a body together, it feels good to have some privacy for themselves. Before Cale turns around, he gives Leno a thin smile. “Don’t be too damn nervous about it. Everyone doesn’t hate you.”
Leno just blinks then shrugs.
Like he thought, not like Cale understands this matter.
But at least, Cale himself doesn’t hate Leno, so that means something.
“I will try.”
“If you give us an upset stomach because you are too nervous, I will still eat even if we will both throw up later on.” Cale gives him a warning.
“...I will ask Ron for a tonic for anxiety before dinner…” Leno says quickly.
“Good.” Cale nods then he turns around.
Once the door is closed, Leno lets himself plop back on the long sofa.
He hates living.
0o0o0o0
Cale isn’t that dense. There is some moment he just simply refused to ‘read the air’. But other times, he knows how to read the people around him.
He knows something is weird.
He thought that at least some people will express relief to see Leno come back alive again.
But then somehow, during the time of his absence, Leno just holed up inside the room.
Three days not taking a single step out, since there is a bathroom inside and Ron probably supplied him with water and food, he might didn’t have had any reason to come out at all.
What a déjà vu from what happened in the Henituse Castle a few years ago.
If it is Leno, that punk might be too nervous to meet other people who now know his true identity. That punk might look tough sometimes, but he is very fragile on the other side. Since it might be ingrained inside his mind that everyone hates him, or, everyone should hate him. It is very hard if Leno has to be the one who approaches people first.
That’s why Cale half expected some people would drag Leno outside.
The kitten siblings are here, along with Ron. Eruhaben must have come and gone from his lair to this place. Then there are wolf children and Lock himself. There is Sheritt too. This castle is full of people and yet somehow everyone ended ignoring Leno, except probably Ron.
Why? Cale doesn’t understand it. Back then, during the days he didn’t do anything for two years, so many people urged him to come outside to bathe under the sun once a while, at least. People cared.
And, somehow that doesn’t apply for Leno? Because they didn’t care?
No, his people aren’t that cruel.
Probably because they didn’t know how to handle Leno. Maybe they thought Leno wanted to be left alone so they left him alone.
Still, that still means they didn’t really care that much.
And Cale feels somewhat disappointed.
And sad.
Even though Leno has come back to life, but things hardly change.
“People just need to see that he is practically harmless.”
“What is it, Cale-nim?”
“Just this strange air in this castle is bugging me so much, so I will bring down a whirlwind to erase everything off.” Cale snaps out without much thinking.
“Is it about Leno-nim?”
Cale looks at Choi Han, wondering how the swordsman knows. “You only get this emotional 80% of the time is because of Leno-nim, so it isn’t hard to guess.” Choi Han chuckles a little bit. “But I know, the air does feel strange… though, on the other hand, I know how the people are feeling too.”
Cale blinks and looks at him, silently asking him to explain more.
But then the people start to enter the dining room. Cale just huffs and waits for a particular someone to pop out.
And maybe because he is so overprotective, of course, he reserves the seat beside him for Leno using his suit. Just so that the poor punk doesn’t get surrounded by the people who are wary of him.
They might really throw up during dinner for real if that happens.
“Young Master Cale! I’m happy to see you back!” some people say. Cale just smiles thinly.
And his eyebrows lift when he sees Leno enters the dining room.
He looks rather sleepy, which makes Cale realizes that is the reason why his eyelids feel heavy. He motions Leno to sit beside him and the punk complies.
“Just how much did you drink the tonic? Was it sedative, you punk?” Cale asks while sighing.
“Just so you know that I can’t do this sober and it is better to be sleepy than drunk, so here I am.” Leno hates sleeping, but for him to choose this state rather than being aware during the dinner, just shows how much he despises this event.
“Ron, please brink two cups of coffee with double strength, make one extra sweet,” Cale orders Ron quickly. He also has this urge to just sleep and forget about this dinner.
Leno is such a smart ass sometimes.
“Hello Leno-nim,” Choi Han smiles at the sleepy Leno.
“Yeah, hey,” Leno replies with closed eyes.
“Fish Eyes!” Raon flies into the dining room, followed by Sheritt behind him. “Do you know what just happened to me-- why are you looking sleepy? We will eat, not sleep…”
Cale also closes his heavy eyes and leans back to the chair. “This idiot drunk sedative to calm down, what a genius.”
“Did you notice that you used two contradiction words in one sentence to insult me?” Leno huffs.
“Shut up, I’m sleepy, it is hard to think.” Cale sighs.
Both of them are too sleepy to fully aware of how people look at their interaction.
“Pfft—”
“Did someone just laugh?” Cale opens his eyes.
“It was Choi Han. Who else dares to laugh at you, besides Raon, but Dragons makes different kinds of snort.” Leno rubs his sleepy eyes.
“I’m sorry, but you two… sometimes really look like siblings. The same look doesn’t help either.” Choi Han coughs and calms himself down.
Both of them give Choi Han a very similar frown, and it takes all Choi Han’s will to not just laugh there.
Thankfully Ron comes with strong coffees.
– They are really like twins. Are you sure they aren’t related?
Choi Han looks at Raon who just talked inside his head.
Choi Han just shrugs his shoulders and smiles.
0o0o0o0
The coffee did the job and Leno is a bit more awake than before, still sleepy but not until he can hardly think. It is still interesting to see how Cale keeps frowning at the coffee, and here he thought that the old man hates sour things more than bitter things. Then again Cale always has sweet tooth, different than him.
He loves it though, being sleepy. It is much easier to ignore the people around him. So he doesn’t really bother to hide how he eats. He can’t eat as elegantly as Cale. He picks and plays with his food before munching on it in a very slow manner.
He isn’t Cale. People need to see that.
He is different from Cale. People need to accept that.
Even if they somehow end up hating him, that is okay. He is used to that. He is used to that kind of treatment anyway.
Maybe there will be some chance for him to explain that if he is allowed, he just wants to go to a small village and live alone there.
“So… you were transmigrated here by force… because of the Gods doing… I see…”
Leno hears Rosalyn talk. He raises his head and wonders just how much the conversation has been going.
“Yes, that’s right,” Cale answers it casually while eating steak.
Leno wonders how the old man can eat such greasy food while he has a hard time finishing his chicken soup.
“So, what is your true name?” Sheritt asks with some curiosity.
Cale looks at Leno.
Leno tilts his head.
“What?”
Cale leans closer to whisper something to Leno. “Is it okay for me to give my full name? You said people can curse people based on their name.”
Leno blinks. It is rare for Cale to be this wary around his people, but who can blame him? Wars can mess up people badly and Leno knows that Cale isn’t as strong as people think him to be.
He is just damn stubborn.
“Nah, they don’t know how it is written, so you will be fine. That’s why Choi Han is safe too.” Leno whispers back. Cale nods.
Once again none of them notices how people look at how they interact.
“My true name is Kim Rok Soo.” Cale answers. Sheritt and everyone nod along.
“So, do we need to call you by that name from now on?” Lock asks with a bit nervous look as if he is afraid that he asks something wrong.
Cale looks at Leno again.
“Don’t give me that look.” Leno huffs.
“It is your name.” Cale retorts back.
“Unless when people refer to the past ‘trash’ Cale Henituse, Cale Henituse isn’t me.” Leno sighs and continues to eat so he has an excuse not to speak and look at people stare at him.
“The trash Cale Henituse wasn’t that bad,” Cale says back.
“You just didn’t know.” Leno huffs.
“Probably what you did is only a speck of tiny dust compared to the mountain of what that bastard White Star did anyway. I don’t need to know.”
“How come you both insulted and complimented me at the same time?” Leno sighs, he doesn’t want to keep endlessly bantering with Cale like this. “Anyway, that name is yours, take it or throw it, I don’t care.”
“You heard that,” Cale says, directed to the other people in the dining room.
“I see, I understand, Young Master Cale, Young Master Leno.” Rosalyn gives them a smile. Everyone else nods along.
“Now that you people understand about us, more or less… I need to talk about something else.” Cale finishes with his dinner and looks at how Ron gives him another strong and sweet coffee. Cale is grateful that Ron knows that he starts to get sleepy again. “All of us are getting invited to attend the banquet at the capital to celebrate the end of wars.” Cale pauses and looks at Leno, who still plays with his food, “including you.”
Leno doesn’t look surprised at all.
Well, damn dream seer.
“How?” Leno asks with a sigh. As if he is tired and dislikes having this conversation, but he needs to do it anyway.
“We will find a way, there are Raon, Eruhabem, Sheritts, Rosalyn, Gashan, we will find a way to make you be able to attend the banquet.” Cale pauses. “The thing is, do you want to?”
Leno sighs and looks up. “If I said I don’t want to?”
“Why? Give me the reasons. Besides you can’t attend because we share the same face, I will deal with that. The other reasons.”
Leno sighs again. “Why should I? I didn’t really do anything to have the privilege to attend the banquet, I’m just no one.”
Leno hears the deafening silence. And he glances Cale beside him.
Cale must have shown some kind of expression because Leno suddenly corrects his pose and talks fast. “You know, I didn’t do that much--- Just some… A little bit?” Leno asks back with an unsure face.
“You need to learn to give yourself some credit. What? So you died to drag the God of Despair to the dream world to get sealed counted as a ‘little bit’?” Cale is still angry. He wants to choke and shake Leno so hard so that the punk can get some sense in his head. But he holds his urge down.
“Uhm… then… 5% credit?” Leno still looks at Cale with some doubts.
Cale only sighs loudly and leans back to his chair. “Anyway, even if people only get 0.005% credit in the war, they can attend the banquet anyway. So your excuse is invalid, next.”
“People don’t know me, so--”
“We know you, next.”
“I hate crowds.”
“Just stand in the corner if you want to. Just come then go, you can go to the library of the Royal Palace like I care, next.”
“Oh, okay I will hold your words on that one. Uhm…” Leno pauses then he sighs. “My family will be there.”
Cale finally looks less angry. “About that.” He looks at Leno. “We will deal about that tomorrow.”
“Wait, what--?” Leno looks shocked but Cale brushes him aside. Cale knows that that kind of conversation should be done privately.
Leno seems to just realize that there are people around him. So he just slumps on his chair.
“Now, do you want to say something to the others?” Cale asks Leno.
Leno blinks and frowns at Cale.
Cale just nods and motions Leno to see the others. People have been observing how he acts and how he interacts with Cale.
Not the best impression, Leno knows, especially since he almost drugged himself to sleep along with Cale.
“Well… I…” Leno pauses and gathers all his courage to speak. “I’m sorry for lying and deceiving all of you, about my identity, about my condition…” Leno remembers how people treat him decently when they thought he was a part of Cale’s broken personality. In a way, he betrayed their kindness. So he needs to apologize about that.
“And… don’t worry… I’m here not to take Cale’s place or anything.” Leno glances at Cale for a second before he looks up. “He is the Cale Henituse now and I… I will just try to find a new identity and my place, I guess…”
That is why people being wary of him, Leno guessed. They might be afraid that he will take Cale’s place because originally it was his. But Leno won’t do something like that, he can’t.
Cale deserves to be Cale Henituse more than him anyway.
No matter how much he tries, he won’t get anywhere near Cale. So it feels stupid to keep comparing himself to Cale.
Leno accepts it and he has given up.
Before he kept trying so hard, so that, at least, he has some meaning for his life when he died. So that, he could be a bit proud of himself if he got to see his mom in the afterlife. But secretly, he wondered if people could like him a tiny bit if he tried harder, just like how people adored Cale.
But he knows that is untrue.
He is happy enough that, somehow, Cale is the one who cares for him that much, more than what he deserved.
Leno raises his head when Cale looks at him with an unreadable expression. Then the old man just sighs softly and turns around.
“Now, does anyone need to say something to Leno?”
There is silence.
Then a paw is raised.
“Raon?” Cale is a bit surprised.
The little black dragon looks hesitant and plays with his own paws for a bit. “You know… when… you died-- uhm… I’m so sorry!!” Raon bows hard, hitting the dining table in the process and almost shattering it. Everyone is too shocked to notice that though.
“It didn’t like… I chose human over you, Fish Eyes! It didn’t mean I wanted you to stay dead! But you see, human--”
Leno raises his hand and Raon stops stuttering.
“It is okay, I understand.” Leno smiles at him, albeit a bit sadly.
Cale looks at him. Right, this punk almost saw everything when he died. He must have seen how people kept trying to stop Cale from saving him.
“But-”
“No, Raon.” Leno is a bit stern.
“Young Master Leno, me too, I-” Rosalyn is about to speak to but Leno raises his hand to her too.
“No, stop! No one needs to apologize to me about this, okay?”
The air grows awkward again. Leno sighs. “I mean, I wouldn’t save myself if I was you, so you didn’t do anything wrong in my opinion.”
“What—” Raon looks speechless.
Cale frowns so hard at Leno, but the punk isn’t looking at him.
“It sounds cruel, but I understand. I mean… it doesn’t like anyone will ever choose me over Cale under that circumstance… that’s so obvious.” Leno nods and glances at Cale. “And I’m okay with that. I won’t choose myself either.”
Leno takes a deep breath. “And more, both of us are here now… so in the end, it worked so it is okay, right?”
Cale closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
“You really haven’t changed,” Cale says with a bitter tone.
“I’m surprised myself after died once I guess I’m still the same.” Leno just shrugs. Then he looks at Cale. “Do you still want to talk about something else?”
“No.”
“Excuse me then… my stomach is… strong coffee with… upset stomach isn’t a good combination.” Leno smiles sheepishly at him.
“I know, I can feel it too.” Cale grimaces then looks at everyone else. “We need to go.”
Leno nods along and walks quickly outside followed by Cale, who burps before he sprints quickly outside while muttering, “really that punk… urgh--”
“Uhm… will they be okay?” Raon looks unsure.
“They need time, especially Leno-nim.” Choi Han sighs. “They will be okay since there are both of them now.”
Raon blinks at him and Choi Han just smiles.
Both of them will heal together eventually.
Since they are together, they will be okay.
To Be Continued