'How did the fire start?' Okay, how did the fire start? It looked like he didn't believe me and didn't plan to believe that I woke up in a burning house.
We haven't known each other for 24 hours and yet it seems like he's already seen through me and my deceit. But he's unsure.
He's too unsure to act on his suspicion. I was like a being he had never come across before. Unreadable, too. So, he was trying to understand me.
He doesn't know why he keeps going ahead with what I do even when we're nothing short of strangers. These feelings... Should I assume he feels some sort of connection because of the line that stretches from our past lives to this one?
Phew.
Let me just catch my breath.
"I told you though. I woke up and my house was already burning." I said to him with a straight face.
"You didn't try to commit suicide a second time?" He asked, and I puckered my lips, trailing my eyes away.
"Don't worry, I still have a lot to live for," I said but he still wasn't convinced.
I sighed.
"Okay. What do you want me to say? What do you want to hear? What sort of crazy fantasy is going through your head that you want justified, Sung-min?" I asked and he stepped closer, towering over me as if he was trying to intimidate me.
"Why do you keep acting like we're close?" He asked.
"What?"
"From the start, you've shamelessly clung on to me as if you've known me for a long time and are trying to rekindle a relationship that was never there. Do you... Do you know me?" He asked but I stayed silent.
He was quite intuitive, this one. He already picked up all the signs. The way I act towards a man I just met for the first time, surely it would be suspicious that I was being so chummy towards him but... I shook my head.
It's not like I can explain anything to him right now.
"If I told you I'm an avid follower of yours, would you believe me?" I asked but he gave no response. "And that's what I did this morning was in order to get your attention." Okay, that's partially true. "And then I set my house on fire, wishing that you'd come save me once again and I'd see you. Would you believe me?"
"I'd call you crazy." He said with a straight face and I laughed. It didn't look like he was doubting me but it didn't look like he believed me either.
"Well, one has to be crazy to have a deep interest in an Esper such as you," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "But lucky for you, crazy is my middle name."
"I thought it was reckless." He said and I laughed.
So, he still had a sense of humor in him despite having such a cold face huh?
"Yeah, it's reckless and crazy," I said. "But don't you get tired?"
"Of what?"
"Same old thing every day of your life? The missions you carry out in cold blood. The loneliness. The same fear you see in the eyes of the civilians. Doesn't it get boring?" I asked but he did not give a response. He simply turned his head to the side, as if giving a silent complaint.
He didn't have a choice to begin with so why would he bother thinking of things like that?
"I want to add some warmth to that icy cold routine of yours," I said, forcing him to turn his head towards me. "I... Want to add some color to your life. Won't you let me?"
It was a cold night on the road leading to the park with no light but the single street light that blinked from lack of power.
The setting was rather odd and no touch of romance but my words... I said them from my heart so I wished he could at least feel my sincerity and think about it.
It's not every day someone walks up to him and makes such an offer, you know.
I looked at Sung-min, and he looked at me. It was as if the puzzle he was trying to arrange, falling apart even more and confusing him.
When he thought he had gotten the right piece, he discovered there were far more pieces to put together for him to make sense of anything.
And because of that, he was lost.
"You really are crazy." He said and I chuckled.
"Haha, that's my name," I said. "So, what do you think? Will you let me color your world?"
"Choi Joon-ho, you seem to have entertained far too many unnecessary thoughts." He said and then started walking ahead. "Maybe it's true that you've been watching me and looking for ways to get close to me out of sheer admiration, but it could also be a lie you came up with just to dig into the holes in my wall."
Come on, don't play hard to get.
"But just because you know me, it doesn't mean I have to let you in." He said. "Because to me, you're nothing but a stranger I need to protect. A civilian who shouldn't be doing reckless things like attempting to jump off a building or setting their house on fire. It's my job to face the danger of this world, and it's your job to live in the peace I create with my blood and sweat."
His words stabbed hard at my heart.
This stubborn jerk... Doesn't he know when to accept when someone offers to help?
This side of him will never change. So stubborn and wanting to carry everything on those broad shoulders of his.
But the world and its problems are bigger than his shoulders so...
I hurried towards him and then caught his hand.
... I definitely won't allow him to turn me down and carry it all by himself.
"I never said 'no' was an option, Mister Mighty Esper," I said, grinning shamelessly. "You're either going to let me color your world or watch me burn it."
That was cool of me, right? He'll give in now that he's seen my determination, I'm sure of it.
Or not.
And that's how I ended up behind bars with Sung-min taking his hand off the case of the burning house.
How cruel, Sung-min. How cruel.