Chapter 19
“What’s wrong?”
Wright noticed Mu Chen’s unusual gaze. His fingers instinctively touched the corner of his mouth, and only then did he realize what was going on. “One of the base’s scanners malfunctioned today. The lens suddenly shattered...”
Mu Chen’s gaze traced the other man’s lips, inch by inch. “Is it serious?”
Wright said, “It’s already been taken care of. Just a minor injury. I’m fine.”
He took the initiative to change the subject. “...How’s the university application coming along?”
Mu Chen’s grades were excellent across the board, and the research institute had designated him an SSS-rank rare protected species. When he’d interviewed at the top-ranked comprehensive university, the administration had already made it clear that they eagerly anticipated his arrival. Now, the application was basically just a formality.
Wright thought attending a comprehensive university would be a good choice. Once there, Mu Chen could continue exploring the fields that interested him.
In fact, as long as Mu Chen didn’t apply to a military academy, Wright would support whatever he chose to do.
Mu Chen refocused on the screen. “I’ve finished the application materials. They still need some polishing, but I shouldn’t have any trouble getting in... Big Brother, instead of worrying about my application, why don’t you think about how you’ll explain this to the Emperor when you get back?”
As he spoke, his silver lashes lowered slightly, revealing a hint of mischief in his eyes.
Wright asked, “How did he take it?”
Mu Chen said, “He was furious.”
Wright smiled. “Just as I expected.”
When he smiled like that, Mu Chen’s attention wandered again, settling unconsciously on the other man’s parting lips.
As Wright spoke, his lips parted, the seam between them slowly opening to reveal a glimpse of pink...
That steamy scene suddenly resurfaced in Mu Chen’s mind, bringing back the bitter taste of hard liquor between his teeth. In the dim light, there was dazzling golden hair and a sharply defined jaw—but the hazy outlines in his fantasy began to blur and shift. One of the people became Wright, while the one holding him down and kissing him became Mu Chen himself.
He imagined sharp teeth scraping over the other man’s lips. He could almost taste blood spreading through his mouth. Once the wound healed, it would scab over, just like the small cut at the corner of Wright’s mouth now—only that mark would belong to him, a mark that was uniquely his...
“Mu Chen?”
A muffled voice seemed to come from somewhere far away.
“...Mu Chen?”
When the other man still sat staring blankly beneath his lowered lashes, Wright called his name again.
Mu Chen suddenly came back to himself. The hard liquor’s delayed kick was in full force now. He blinked hard, and his gaze collided with those amber eyes...
Then,
“Crash!” A tremendous bang rang out as he knocked over the glass of milk on the table. Milky-white liquid flowed over his palm and spilled across the floor.
For a moment, it was as if someone had pressed the mute button on the world.
Mu Chen stared in a daze at the glass shards scattered across the floor. “Thump... thump...” His heartbeat pounded in his ears, each beat making his temples throb. It was so fierce, it felt as if his heart might leap right out of his chest.
Seeing how often the other man’s attention wandered, Wright grew concerned. His brows drew together. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Big Brother. It’s just the glass.” Mu Chen pressed his lips together and picked up a tissue to wipe his hand clean.
Once he’d tidied everything up, he leaned forward slightly, propping his chin on one hand. “Sorry, I’m a little tired. I’d like to go to bed early tonight, Big Brother.”
“I’ll call you again next time, okay?”
As Mu Chen made this gesture, half his long hair fell forward, partly obscuring his face. His voice even had a hint of a whine.
Wright fell silent for a moment. In the end, he swallowed the words he’d wanted to say and simply told Mu Chen, “Get some rest. Good night.”
“Good night, Big Brother.”
Mu Chen ended the video call.
On the other end, Wright gazed at the screen displaying “Call ended” and fell into thought. For the past six months, he’d often been away on missions, so the two of them hadn’t had a proper conversation in a long time. He’d assumed Mu Chen would be happy now that he was about to return, but the other man hadn’t seemed particularly enthusiastic. If anything, he’d seemed to be deliberately avoiding him.
Mu Chen’s distracted manner and the way he’d hurriedly ended the call came to mind.
It felt like Mu Chen had grown more distant...
“General...” Just then, Deputy General Levi came in to report on the mission.
Levi glanced at the screen—[Call duration: 5:21, Call ended]—and immediately understood. “Did you just finish talking to your little brother?”
Everyone at the base knew Wright thought of that little merman as his younger brother. Mu Chen had visited the military camp once when he was little. Back then, the merman’s eyes were round, and he’d been so adorable. He’d followed Wright around every day, calling, “Big Brother! Big Brother!” The soldiers here had all adored him.
Deputy General Levi also knew Wright and Mu Chen were close. Whenever they had free time, they’d call each other.
Wright folded his hands in front of his lips, looking deep in thought. “Mm.”
Levi said, “Hey, what’s wrong? Did you have a fight?”
Levi had been Wright’s deputy general since the year Wright enlisted at eighteen. He’d followed him all the way to his current position, and after all these years, he knew Wright’s temperament better than anyone.
Wright shook his head. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “Tell me...”
“Does getting older mean you talk less?”
“Oh, that’s perfectly normal.” Deputy General Levi was fifty-five and the father of three. Once he started talking about raising children, he launched into all the advice he’d gathered from experience.
“My daughter used to love sticking to her mother and me when she was little, too. But after she started university, she became much more independent. The main thing is, children grow up, and parents end up with a generation gap between them and the young. Sometimes you just run out of things to talk about...”
“Maybe you could try bringing up things young people are interested in.”
Wright frowned...
Had they run out of things to talk about?
Come to think of it, Mu Chen had always been the one to start their calls. When Wright spoke, he just repeated the same few things. He really could be a little boring.
But he’d never been the sort of person who was good at chatting...
Thinking this, Wright raised his head, a hint of confusion on his face. “So, what are young people in the capital into these days?”
...
In the palace,
Mu Chen tossed and turned restlessly in bed. A sharp ache pulsed at the back of his head, and his temples throbbed nonstop. He touched his burning cheek, his expression gloomy...
He should’ve known better than to drink so much.
He closed his eyes, but still couldn’t escape the dazzling images and the ever-shifting, sensual scenes in his mind.
Mu Chen rolled over again and buried half his face in the pillow, hoping to escape his tangled, exhausting thoughts by falling asleep as quickly as possible.
Then, for the first time in a long while, he had a dream.
In the dream, an icy current swept through the deep sea. All around him were gray rocks and crumbling ruins. He was back in Atlantis, where wails and screams filled his ears. Hideous creatures merged into the crowd like a virus that kept replicating. Beneath their hard carapaces, tentacles writhed, while their curved, blade-like mouthparts opened and closed with a “click-click” sound.
Scalding blood splattered across Mu Chen’s face, staining his silver lashes red. The stench filled his nostrils, but he seemed frozen in place, unable to move a single limb. All he could do was watch as a huge shadow drew closer and closer.
A profound sense of helplessness enveloped him like an icy current.
The next second, daylight burst forth. The roar of engines resounded across the entire sea, and the powerful turbines churned the currents into a swirling vortex. Amid the chaos, Mu Chen saw the wings of a black mecha spread wide, as if a god had descended.
His pupils trembled, reflecting the towering steel giant and the fleeing creatures.
The black mecha drove the aliens from the sea. Amid a brilliant golden light, Mu Chen saw the cockpit slowly open. The man removed his helmet, revealing a handsome face. His dazzling golden hair and amber eyes, gleaming with an unstoppable sharpness, inexplicably brought to mind an eagle spreading its wings.
The man walked toward him step by step, then cupped his face and wiped the blood from it with his thumb. “Come with me.”
The dark, ancient stone statues around them began to crumble, bit by bit. Warm colors gradually seeped into the cold sea.
The scene before Mu Chen shifted as well...
In the palace’s magnificent artificial lake, a merman’s long, dark tail shimmered beneath the water. The pale-skinned man in front of him was pinned against a reef.
Mu Chen kissed him passionately. The man’s golden hair was damp with mist, and his usually stern face showed a restrained, almost pained expression.
Mu Chen felt more fulfilled than ever before.
That’s right...
This was the kind of relationship they were supposed to have.
They were supposed to kiss, to embrace, to do the most intimate things.
Mu Chen’s palm wrapped around the man’s lean waist, while his scaled tail wound around the man’s ankle. Pressing against his last line of defense, Mu Chen whispered in his ear:
“Big Brother, may I?”
And then...
“Ding-ding!” The shrill alarm rang, and the dream ended.
The soft bed beneath him felt nothing like the cold, hard reef. Mu Chen frowned and pressed his fingers to his temples as his thoughts slowly returned...
There was still a slight, dull ache at the back of his head, but compared with the discomfort elsewhere, it was nothing.
Though the dream had vanished, the desire it had stirred in him remained.
Mu Chen lowered his eyes to the thin blanket covering him, his expression turning unpleasant.
He knew this was a normal physiological response. He’d learned about it at school, and the merfolk biology materials Cole had given him mentioned it, too. Mermen’s bodies were somewhat different from humans’; generally, the longer a male’s tail, the longer his developmental cycle.
But Mu Chen hadn’t expected to have a dream like that—and the person in it had been Wright.
Wasn’t that... a little too much?
Mu Chen expressionlessly swept the loose strands from his forehead back over his head. He lifted the blanket to look, then covered himself again, trying to distract himself by reciting mechanical theory.
Afterward, he propped his forehead on one hand and sat gloomily on the bed for half an hour, until that strange feeling finally faded...