NOVEL NEXT 8.
8.
“Don’t tell me your surname is Han…?”
“How did you know?”
The child’s eyes widened, sparkling brightly. He seemed amazed that Jian had guessed his surname correctly.
“Hahaha. So your name is Han Sehun…”
Jian couldn’t help but laugh with a dazed expression. After all, Han Sehun was the name of the main character in the novel Jian had possessed.
‘It can’t be. Han Sehun isn’t a name only he can use.’
To briefly describe the main character in the novel, he was a “madman.” Obsessed with blood, slaughter, combat, and the submissive character.
He had gathered similarly crazed individuals to form an anti-government, anti-state guild that terrorized the entire country of South Korea. He was a vicious villain.
Jian involuntarily swallowed hard as he recalled the numerous things that character had done to the submissive character.
At first, he had started reading the novel without much thought, drawn in by the Hunter genre keywords. How shocked he was when, around the middle, Han Sehun, who he thought was just a villain, suddenly changed, imprisoned the protagonist, and devoured him whole.
He knew what BL novels were, but that was the first time he had read one directly. Of all things, his first experience was with a story where an obsessive top character imprisons and raises the bottom character. He thought he might faint with his eyes open.
Jian calmed his startled heart and recalled the descriptions of Han Sehun from the novel one by one.
‘First of all, Han Sehun had blood-red hair and irises.’
In contrast, the child had eyes as dark as obsidian. They were much darker than the black-brown color most Koreans had.
But this wasn’t reassuring because some people’s hair and eye color changed when they awakened as Hunters. The child was still too young to know if he would awaken as a Hunter or not.
‘It wasn’t described in detail, but his childhood was said to be extremely unfortunate…’
At first, he thought the author had just given the villain a backstory. It was because the kindness the bottom character had carelessly shown to the top character became the trigger for his obsession.
Unlike the top character, the bottom character had grown up surrounded by love from a young age and was kind to everyone.
He had acted out of habit towards the top character, without any particular ulterior motive, but his insignificant words and actions drove the top character mad.
Jian’s trembling gaze swept over the child’s thin arms and legs. Although he had lived quite a difficult life himself, the child’s life seemed no less challenging.
Jian clenched his fist. To equate this angelic child with that madman just because they shared the same name and had an unfortunate childhood was absurd.
‘I don’t know exactly how old the top character is now.’
Unfortunately, the original story began when a massive tower appeared in the middle of Seoul.
At that time, both the top and bottom characters were twenty years old. It wasn’t mentioned in the novel when the top character awakened as a Hunter, and the bottom character awakened shortly after turning twenty.
‘I need to know when the tower appears.’
Jian only knew that the tower would appear, but didn’t know the exact timing. The novel only stated that it appeared without any precursory symptoms.
However, the story’s starting background was set a little over 10 years after Hunters had appeared in the world.
Currently, it had been about 3 years since Hunters and monsters had appeared.
‘So there’s a high chance the original story will start about 10 years from now…’
“How old are you, by the way…?”
Although he looked about five years old on the surface, Jian asked because he couldn’t be sure of the exact age. The child spread all ten fingers in response.
“Ten years old…?”
Nod, nod.
Jian’s face turned pale with shock. He had thought seven at most.
Judging by average size, he looked about five years old, and his pronunciation was close to that of a kindergartener. He tried to enunciate clearly, but his speech was still a bit lisping. Yet he was ten years old. Jian’s eyes shook greatly at this unbelievable age.
If the child was ten now, he would be twenty in 10 years. This roughly coincided with when the tower was supposed to appear.
Jian felt confused as the similarities between the child and the top character seemed to increase. But still. There’s no way he could have picked up a future villain, right…?
“Jian hyung…”
Worried about Jian’s dazed state, the child, no, Sehun, called his name and reached out. A soft touch met Jian’s face.
The small fingertips caressed his cheek. Large eyes began to well up with tears. Surprised by the reddening eyes, Jian grasped the child’s hand that was cupping his cheek.
“Ah, I was lost in thought for a moment. I’m sorry.”
Jian bit the inside of his cheek to regain his senses. The sharp pain cleared his confused mind.
‘But there’s no way this child could be the same person as that demonic guy.’
His thoughts returned to the starting point.
In the original story, wherever Han Sehun passed, there were always bloodless corpses left behind. It was due to the ability he used.
No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t make sense for such a lovable child to become a murderer.
‘And even if by some chance this child is the top character from the original story…’
Jian was confident he could take care of the child to ensure he wouldn’t live an unfortunate life in the future.
To a child, a guardian is like a mirror and an entire world.
Couldn’t the child’s future change depending on how he acted? Seeing the child’s frightened expression, Jian couldn’t afford to be lost in thought over uncertain facts.
“That’s a really cool name. It suits you well.”
Jian smiled as he stroked the child’s cheek. Only then did the child smile shyly. Unshed tears sparkled in the corners of his eyes.
If his predictions were correct, the start of the original story was still in the distant future. The child might really be Han Sehun, the villain and top character from the original story, or he might just share the same name, but one thing was certain.
He was determined to take care of the child to prevent him from going down a bad path.
“Let’s get along well from now on.”
Jian extended his right hand to Sehun. Sehun, who couldn’t take his eyes off Jian’s smiling face, placed his hand on top of Jian’s white, long-jointed hand.
As their hands shook up and down, Jian’s resolve strengthened.
* * *
“Gasp. Manager, were you married? When on earth did you have a child? Perhaps in middle school…?”
A familiar customer alternately looked at Jian and Sehun with shocked eyes. This was already the fifth time he had heard something similar.
Jian patted Sehun’s head as he sat in the chair, smiling awkwardly.
“He’s my younger brother. There’s quite an age gap, right?”
In reality, there was a ten-year difference, but Sehun’s height and build were so small that the gap appeared even larger.
“Ah, so it was a little sister. Her clothing style is quite funky.”
When he corrected them from child to sibling, nine out of ten assumed it was a younger sister. This was partly because Sehun’s face was quite pretty, and his long hair played a role too.
“He’s my younger brother.”
“Really? But he looks just like a girl… I must have been confused because of the long hair. Sorry, kiddo.”
The customer apologized, making eye contact with Sehun. Sehun stared blankly at the customer for a moment before losing interest and fiddling with the plastic cup he had gotten from Jian a few minutes ago. It was the cup Jian had used to drink coffee.
“Your brother seems quite aloof. He must be quite the character.”
“Hahaha.”
Even though Sehun was just sitting quietly, every customer who visited the cafe showed interest in him.
It wasn’t just Jian who found him cute, after all. He felt a sense of urgency to get used to using his powers quickly.
Living in a world where disturbing news came out almost daily, his anxiety grew like a snowball.
“He didn’t go to kindergarten today, I see?”
This customer was even more nosy than the previous ones. Jian considered telling him that the child was ten years old and should be in elementary school, not kindergarten, but just smiled silently instead.
It wasn’t good for too much information about the child to be known. Conveniently, an alert sound came from the customer’s watch.
“These emergency calls are becoming more frequent lately. Manager, I’m off!”
After the customer left, Jian sighed softly and cracked his neck to the left and right. He felt quite fatigued from dealing with today’s unusually inquisitive customers.
Checking the clock, it was already 1 PM. The cafe usually didn’t have a separate break time, but he needed time off to feed Sehun a delicious meal.
Jian quickly went to the door and changed the sign. In the distance, he saw a customer who had been heading their way tilt their head at the changing sign and turn in another direction.
“Sehun, let’s go eat something delicious.”
Jian said, placing his hand on Sehun’s head, who had somehow already come to stand beside him. He had felt so bad about only feeding him fried eggs in the morning.
Sehun just blinked, holding the plastic cup in one hand.