BSAR Chapter 23

Before losing consciousness, Seojin had made a firm resolution. As soon as he opened his eyes, he would check his new talent card. He had decided he needed to acquire an ability that could counteract the effects of [Sensory Conversion].

The need for a talent to mitigate the drawbacks of another talent he had drawn to alleviate a penalty felt like surmounting one mountain only to face another. However, Seojin knew that a power he couldn’t control was nothing but a disaster waiting to happen. No matter how confident he was about keeping it a secret from others, Seojin didn’t want to remain a shameful pervert who found pleasure in pain.

But he couldn’t put his plan into action immediately.

[Owned Cards: None]

Partly because he had used up all his cards attempting to escape from being kidnapped,

[Condition: High Fever (Remaining Time: 17 hours 59 minutes)]

“It’s so hot…”

As soon as he regained consciousness, he was overwhelmed by the intense heat of his body. It was a suffocating, sticky heat he hadn’t felt since he had severely suffered from pneumonia around the age of ten.

Fortunately, unlike when he had been hospitalized with acute pneumonia, he didn’t feel any distress. He was only aware of the fact that his “body was very hot” and that “it was difficult to breathe due to the body heat.”

Looking at the listed conditions, he should have been in agony. However, he was instead frighteningly pleased by a sensation that seemed to caress his entire body.

“Ah, uh…”

Without realizing it, Seojin moaned and slowly lifted his heavy eyelids. Subconsciously sticking out his tongue to moisten his dry lips, he realized he was holding someone’s hand.

It was as if holding onto the other person’s hand was his lifeline, so desperately that another hand, very similar to the large one he was gripping, came to touch his forehead. The cool touch made him feel even better.

“This is a new sight. Our young master always has a way of enchanting people.”

As Seojin brought his face closer to that hand unconsciously, the owner of the hand chuckled and lightly tapped Seojin’s feverishly flushed cheek with a large palm.

[Cha Do-beom’s (Compatibility: Excellent) favorability has increased by 1.]

To see who the owner of that low voice was, Seojin lifted his hazy gaze. Then, a colossal fire demon appeared in his dizzy vision.

“…!”

The flames, blazing fiercely, seemed ready to engulf him at any moment. Suddenly, Seojin’s consciousness, blurred by the high fever, was cast away to a point in the past, or rather, a moment in the future.

A truck that collided with the car he was in out of nowhere, the vehicle torn in half by a series of rear-end collisions, followed by a fire and a burning pain so terrifying it was incomparable to any pain he had ever experienced.

Seojin, engulfed in panic, convulsed his body in an attempt to avoid the full-body burns that would torment him for a long time. However, the flames flickering capriciously all around him still did not extinguish.

“Ah, again… Our actor here, really high-maintenance.”

Suddenly, he felt a large hand gripping his shoulder, easily pinning his body down as if subduing a frightened child. The sheer difference in strength meant Seojin’s futile struggle quickly ceased.

“Come to your senses. You’re on my bed. If you keep this up, who knows what I might do in my excitement, is that okay with you?”

Gasping without being able to scream, Seojin blankly looked up at the face hovering before him. The moment he thought the man’s attractively sculpted face looked familiar.

With the headache turning into a faint pleasure, scenes not present in his memory flashed through his mind. The acrid smell of blood, voices screaming his name, black smoke and a building engulfed in flames…

“What… is this?”

Seojin, with wide eyes and halted movements, slowly retraced the confusing scenes that felt like a part of his own memory.

-No, Yeon-woo! Seo Yeon-woo! Stop!

A boy with his face bandaged, as if badly hurt, was calling him by an unfamiliar name.

“Seo… Yeon-woo…?”

Absently murmuring that name, Seojin suddenly shivered as pleasure began to coil around his body, threatening to consume him entirely. It meant that the headache piercing his mind had intensified to an unbearable level. Instinctively ceasing his thoughts for the moment, Seojin’s eyes, now slightly clearer, surveyed his surroundings.

The cause of his mistaken belief in a fire turned out to be the flame effects on a massive LED panel.

The entire walls were covered with an interior decoration that doubled as a smart humidifier, creating simulated flames. It was a recent release from Myeongseong Electronics, and Seojin hadn’t expected it to be this realistic…

After all, who wouldn’t be startled by a flame hologram comparable to a movie theater screen, especially in a delirious state from a high fever and in a season that wasn’t even winter?

Now fully regaining his senses, Seojin’s gaze shifted to Do-beom, who was still pinning him down with a gentle yet firm grip. As their eyes met,

“…!”

Seojin instinctively rolled away, feeling an inexplicable, immense threat from Do-beom’s icy expression. But it was futile to try and escape from the king-sized bed with just a turn or two.

Despite his desperate attempt to maintain a safe distance, Do-beom’s large hand snatched his ankle like a hawk seizing its prey, pulling Seojin down into his embrace in an instant.

Pinned beneath the large body, Seojin gasped for air, half-prostrate. Do-beom, gripping his hair, forced him to turn his head, bringing their faces close together.

“You.”

[Favorability of Cha Do-beom (Compatibility: Excellent) has increased by 1.]

The slight pleasure Seojin felt from his scalp being abruptly pulled forced him to tightly clench his hand wrapped in white bandages. Bizarrely, even this reflexive action seemed to fuel the heat swirling within him.

‘I need to find a solution quickly…’

As he fluttered his eyelids, pondering how to acquire a new talent card,

“That name.”

Do-beom’s voice, dangerously low, tickled Seojin’s ear, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand. Seojin felt as if letting his guard down even slightly would result in him emitting a strange moan right away.

“How did you come to know it?”

With every slight movement, just like Seojin, who seemed to be forced into deep patience, Do-beom too appeared to be holding something back, his grip tightening with each word he uttered.

[Favorability of Cha Do-beom (Compatibility: Excellent) has increased by 1.]

[As a reward for achieving a favorability of 70 (Friendly), a Platinum Talent Card is awarded.]

Do-beom had risen from a low-level gang member to the leader of a massive criminal organization. How many enemies must he have faced in that journey? And how many would have tried to exploit his rare story?

But the reason for Do-beom’s display of violence, both in the past and now, didn’t seem to stem solely from hostility towards the other party. It was more akin to a reprimand directed at himself. An action to whip his foolish and naive self into shape, to erase the thoughts that kept surfacing despite his desire to deny them. To remind himself to come to his senses, that the person before him couldn’t possibly be that child.

It was an outburst of dark emotions, a warning to himself for not being able to let go of even the slightest hope despite knowing it could become a fatal weakness, compounded by the guilt of not having protected the child all those years ago.

“Haven’t you promised me? That you’d answer anything honestly.”

The low, grinding voice carried a gloomy emotion, seemingly directionless even to its own bearer, always so sharply, so pitifully aimed at Do-beom himself.

[Would you like to view the Platinum Talent Card? Y/N]

However, Seojin didn’t have the luxury to consider Do-beom’s plight. His attention was entirely focused on the effects of the new talent he was about to acquire as soon as the notification for the new card appeared.

[You have acquired the talent ‘Partner’s Panacea’.]

The system seemed to offer a capability somewhat different from what was expected, as if asking how about this way?

[Talent Name: Partner’s Panacea]

[Grade: A+]

[Category: Relationship, Condition / Passive]

[Effect: The user (Seo Seojin) can alleviate all status abnormalities and fatigue of the person they are managing favorability with, proportional to the duration and extent of voluntary skin contact, significantly reducing the mental and physical pain experienced by the counterpart.]

[Cooldown: None]

[Penalty: The user suffers from frequent coughing up blood, proportional to the level of pain alleviation provided to the favorability management target.]

Upon seeing the effects of the new ability, Seojin felt a shift in perspective. Could he not change the harsh actions of his counterpart into gentler ones, avoiding situations that would cause pain altogether?

With this shift in thought, he relaxed the arms that had been tensing to support himself. His upper body collapsed onto the bed as he lost all strength.

Do-beom reflexively stretched out his hand to steady himself, touching the blanket next to him. Right beside him, Seojin, who had laid his cheek down, placed his hand over the visibly veined back of Do-beom’s hand.

“…!”

Do-beom’s eyes, initially about to express confusion at the unexpected action, slowly widened. It was because a sense of comfort and peace he hadn’t felt in a long time gently enveloped his heart.