Chapter 69: Why did he save my life?
Would the caller try again? Just then, a notification appeared on Le An’s phone screen.
’Treasure, it’s me. Maxim.’
Maxim? While Le An stared at the message in disbelief, it suddenly vanished, and more messages appeared on the screen one after another.
’You don’t believe me?’
’The night you saved Taras’s life. Did that bring something back in your mind?’
’The line I’m using can’t be traced, don’t worry and pick up the phone. Go into your pheromone room.’
’You said that room was soundproof.’
As Le An stared at the messages flashing and disappearing one after another, he snatched up his phone and stood up. His door was already locked. And at this hour, no one would come to his room to call him anyway.
After Le An entered the code for his pheromone room and went inside, his phone lit up again with the same number.
He remembered the moment he had told Maxim that this room was soundproof. Other than the house staff, no one even knew that Le An had a pheromone room inside his chamber. This was definitely him.
At last, the voice on the other end of the line was heard. "Treasure, it really is me. Did I scare you?"
It was Maxim.
"Ah..." Le An’s heart loosened with a kind of relief, but then when he realized the madness of Maxim calling him on the phone, it started pounding wildly again. "..."
"Hey, do you think I’d put myself in danger like this? Don’t be afraid, just talk."
"You... are you sure this line can’t be tapped?" Le An finally asked, still hesitantly.
Maxim’s voice came from the other end of the phone. "I’m sure. The provider company is the biggest firm in the country. Do you remember the woman who brought you out to the balcony that night?"
"...Yes?" Le An recalled Maleah, and later that she had -after her father’s death- taken over as head of the country’s largest telecommunications company.
Maxim continued. "Thanks to Tar’s deal with that woman, I’m able to call you," Maxim said.
Le An frowned unconsciously as he asked. "But... wasn’t she secretly working with Awakening?"
Maxim’s reply only made things more confusing. "Ah... she was. She still does, actually. But now she’s also with us against Awakening as well... Do you get it?"
"What if... what if she betrays you and records all this?"
Of course, Le An questioned whether Miss Maleah would remain loyal to Taras; since she was playing with fire to such an extent, she was not... trustworthy.
"She can’t do a damn thing," Maxim said, his tone coming out confident and relaxed.
"Because she gave us a very solid guarantee." Finally, as if impatient to move on to the real reason he had called, Maxim spoke with impatience.
"If your interrogation is over, you’d better start talking."
"O-okay." Le An’s hand went to his nape as he remained standing in the room and asked. "But... why did you call?"
"You... do you know where Tar is?"
Le An glanced around the room in confusion, as if Taras could be here. "...He’s not here."
"That much I figured... Hah, didn’t he tell you anything about where he might be?"
"No," said Le An, his answer now the most certain thing that had come out of his mouth so far.
Why would Taras... tell him where he would be? The two of them didn’t even have that kind of relationship. Where could he even be... if even Maxim didn’t know...
"I see." Maxim’s heavy sigh of frustration was heard. This time, Le An asked. "Is he... missing?"
Maxim immediately replied, with a hint of frustration. "I wouldn’t call it missing, it’s just that we can’t hear from him because he fucking insists on doing everything on his own. When was the last time he came over there?"
Le An had been waiting for Taras for three nights. "Three days ago," he said, listening to the silence with nothing else to say.
Maxim dropped the mockery and this time, his voice sounded more serious to Le An.
"Then he disappeared after leaving your side. That night, he left here to go to you, and he’s been gone for three days. Hey, did something happen?"
"W-what..." As the memory of that night with Taras three days ago played in his mind like a film reel, Le An’s face flushed and a nervous reply slipped from between his lips. "No," said Le An. "No, n-nothing happened..."
Nothing happened? They had kissed.
Le An covered his eyes with his hands, desperately trying not to think about that moment and Taras kissing him. That night, Le An had even refrained from showering for a few hours, just to carry Taras’s scent a little longer.
Now his scent was still clouding his mind, even in his absence.
Maxim, finding the answer panicked and suspicious, asked once more, just to be sure. "So then nothing happened that would’ve caused Taras to disappear?"
"No," Le An repeated. "I guided him as... usual and he left."
When Maxim thought of the last possibility that came to mind, he couldn’t help but get angry and muttered to himself. "Hah... if those bastards planned something against him then I swear I’ll..."
"Who?" Le An, after hearing Maxim’s curses, started to walk back and forth, his mind now consumed by the question of where Taras could be since that night. "Was someone threatening him?"
"Who else?" Maxim added with the same fury. "Those Awakening bastards, of course. The ones who tried to kill you at that pompous party—"
Maxim paused for a moment and fell into silence. Then, as he cleared his throat, Le An heard him cursing quietly.
Finally, Maxim asked. "Did Tar... tell you what happened that night?"
Ah... he must have thought he had slipped up, fearing that Taras might not have told Le An that he had saved him.
"Yes," Le An murmured. "He told me... that those who tried to kill me were the Awakenings, and that he was the one who saved me."
"Ah, good," Maxim muttered quietly. "I thought he’d never tell you. Anyway, those bastards might be after him because by saving you, Tar ruined their plan," Maxim said, a trace of concern in his voice.
"Things are a mess here. On top of that, the government is about to start random bombings on our units. To scare the Awakening movement back. It’s all because of those assholes. And Tar finds the time to disappear!"
"..." As Le An thought of how bombs could rain down on them at any moment outside, this cruelty pained him. He wondered if they had enough espers to protect them.
And... Could it be that something had happened to Taras? Le An knew that, at such a time, Taras would never leave his people alone.
As worry sprouted in Le An’s heart, his chest tightened and he began to wonder how he hadn’t realized it until now. Of course... keeping Le An alive must have caused problems for Taras.
"Do you think he’s... okay right now?" When Le An asked in a fragile voice, Maxim, as if faced with the rawest form of worry he hadn’t heard in a long time, furrowed his brows with a strange feeling. Treasure was actually... worried about Tar.
Their relationship had become an unsolvable tangle.
Maxim, since not even his own worry was this heightened, parted his lips and words of reassurance came out, and even—just to soothe Le An’s worry—he actually laughed at that moment.
"Hey, of course! He’s probably just fine. If you guided him, then he’s hundred percent fine... Listen, Treasure, Tar is our leader here and... he is one of the most well-known leaders in the outskirts."
"No one would even dare to think of attacking him, when his power is taken into account... No chance. We are the unit with the widest borders and the most independence. Tar... he must be safe. Wherever he is."
As Le An listened silently, what he heard matched what he already knew. While guiding Taras, he could feel every time, as he grew exhausted before him, just how advanced Taras’s esper abilities were.
Maxim continued. "Most likely... there are just a few things related to the plan that he’s handling on his own. Or if the problem really is the Awakening bastards, then he’s probably tearing them apart right now. By the way,"
Maxim realized that if he told Treasure what he had done yesterday, he could easily change the subject. "That omega Kiet and his sister... I’ve taken them to a safe place. They’re fine now."
"Ah..." Le An let out a relieved breath and murmured, not knowing what to say. "Thank you."
"When everything... is exposed, the two of them will be in a safe place," said Maxim, nodding his head, now squeezing the phone tightly in his hand.
What about Treasure?
He... had saved Tar’s life. Despite everything, he hadn’t betrayed him, he had leaked evidence to them and... truly, he had a heart on their side. As Maxim shook his head in disbelief, he quietly wondered what would happen to Treasure when the time of exposure came.
It was as if Treasure too was silently waiting on the other end of the line to hear the answer to this, but without daring to ask.
Maxim swallowed.
"When?" Le An asked then. He was asking when they would expose all the scandals and everything happening in the outskirts.
"We’re working on the photos taken in your room," said Maxim. "Once we add the last few names to the blacklist..."
Le An froze, his mind stalling as Maxim kept talking.
Photos taken... in my room...
Maxim, unaware that what he had said was new and shocking to Le An, went on indifferently.
"...then we’ll blast all the names at once, they won’t even have time to escape. Hey... I saw in one of the photos, you didn’t look.. Um... you know- Anyway. I think we’ve only got a week left. In a week, the order you know will end, Treasure."
"..." Unable to answer, Le An’s eyes stayed fixed on the bed where Taras had helped him through his heat days.
When Maxim realized what that silence meant, he quickly understood he had slipped. Damn it. Had Taras not told him about those photos? "You... didn’t know..."
Right then, Le An asked him a completely different question. As if, when everything turned to chaos, it wasn’t his own fate that mattered, but this one question would make the difference for him.
"Why... why did he save my life?"
Maxim, as though fearing that whatever answer he gave could lead to the wrong things, tightly shut his eyes.
At the same time, this voice was so desperate, carrying within it a pleading expectation for a hopeful answer.
"...I don’t know," Maxim said at last. "You should ask him yourself."
"...I see." Le An swallowed and nodded his head. "Thank you."
When Maxim hung up, Le An saw that all the messages, the call log, had vanished as if they had never happened.
As the sting in his heart turned into an ache, Le An reached the conviction that he already knew the answer to that question.
Why Taras had saved him... it was obvious. As Le An shook his head unconsciously, a single tear dropped from his eye and landed on the carpet with a faint, solid sound.
Even thinking of an answer was foolish, as if there could be any other reason. "Huff... of course he..."
Taras... He must have pitied him.
"Pity," Le An murmured in between his quiet sobs.
Could any other emotion be even possible?