“He’s not reading my messages again.”
The day before the death anniversary of Jo Euishin’s family, he failed to check the messages sent by Yellow Tiger.
It’s something that happens often and it doesn’t fail to frustrate Yellow Tiger every time, but this time it was quite different.
“Perhaps this is better.”
“So you plan on just showing up. He could easily turn away Yellow Tiger if he’s alone, but if Jo Euishin sees Shinsoo or the descendants, it would be difficult for him to refuse.”
Yellow Tiger frowned as he took a sip from his teacup, but he reluctantly nodded since Red Tiger was right after all.
“Let’s prepare for it then. First of all, Sinshoo and the descendants will surely come.”
“My son and I will come. What about you, White Tiger? It’s inside Eungwang District so there won’t be any issues.”
“I’ll come.”
Woof woof!
All those staying at the mansion expressed their intention to go and offer flowers.
In addition, Yellow Tiger exhausted his alter egos and invited all those who knew of Jo Euishin, and most of them pledged that they’d go.
“There’s many who want to go. I think we might need to narrow it down. The Rabbit Clan will surely come if we invite them, but we might have to skip them.”
“We shouldn’t be noisy at the memorial. Let’s not tell them.”
It’s obvious that Ok Toyeon and Ok Toyoon would surely jump in anger when they find out later on, but everyone agreed on not inviting them.
They judged that it was better to be bothered by the troublesome rabbits later on than have them make a fuss in their benefactor’s family’s memorial.
If the descendants were here, perhaps they’d want to call the rabbits, but the children were already asleep early to prepare for tomorrow.
“Ah, Blue Tiger’s disciples said they would definitely come. Jo Euishin was the one who found Blue Tiger after all. I think they’ve always held deep gratitude in their hearts for that.”
“Alright. Those four can come.”
Everyone except for White Tiger drank a cup of pear persimmon tea prepared by Kim Shinrok as they finalized the list of people who will come tomorrow.
Kim Shinrok’s face seemed quite down as he looked at his device.
Red Tiger didn’t miss it and he asked his son affectionately.
“What’s wrong, son?”
“…The lights around Jo Euishin’s dormitory room are still on. I don’t think he’s asleep yet.”
Kim Shinrok, the advisor to Jiikhoe, seemed to have checked the status of the freshmen dormitory.
Everyone turned silent at Kim Shinrok’s words.
Yellow Tiger took a few sips of his tea before speaking.
“It’s been a year since his family was gone. There’s no way that anyone, even if it’s Jo Euishin, is okay after all that. Time doesn’t easily ease the pain of losing a family.”
“…Agreed. It’s difficult to just imagine what it’s like to lose a family.”
Yellow Tiger recalled their benefactor.
He doesn’t see him as someone who’s used to being alone, but it’s obvious that when he was left on his own, just like today, he’d spend the rest of his day in his lonely room.
Jo Euishin seemed to be putting up a lot of walls, protecting his mind or body unnecessarily excessively.
Yellow Tiger is amused at Jo Euishin acting cold toward him even though he’s very friendly to others, and he thinks that it’s a wise choice.
But that doesn’t mean he’s inclined to that fact.
‘He’s not someone who would call others to accompany him. That would mean he has to tell whoever he’d invite about his family’s death anniversary. It’s obvious that he’d try to put up with it on his own. Jo Euishin, our benefactor, will not inform us either.’
The next day.
The Tiger Clan gathered in front of the charnel house thirty minutes before Jo Euishin left the dormitory.
Yellow Tiger predicted that he would probably leave the dormitory just as the flower shop would open, and Jo Euishin arrived at the exact time expected.
“We are here to express condolences to our benefactor’s family. I sent you a message in advance, saying that we would come here, but it seems that you didn’t check it. Do you mind?”
Jo Euishin carried an armful of chrysanthemum flowers and stared at the tigers silently.
After a long silence, Jo Euishin finally spoke.
“Thank you all for coming. Let’s go in.”
Yellow Tiger and all the others lost their words when they saw the expression on Jo Euishin’s face.
The 17-year-old boy did not look like his family had died just one year ago.
Beyond the desperately put-up expressionless face, they felt a heavy sadness and a willingness to bear that sadness alone.
“Jo Euishin, you’re…”
Are you really alright?
Those were the words that Yellow Tiger meant to say, but he failed to ask them in the end.
Instead, he expressed his intention to come again next year.
‘There’s not much I can do for our benefactor.’
Jo Euishin took great risks of his own to find out where the Son of God and Blue Tiger were.
He did that for the Tiger Clan who missed the two very much.
That same Jo Euishin did not even ask the Tiger Clan to offer flowers for his own family.
All he ever asked of the Tiger Clan is for the purpose of protecting someone else.
Yellow Tiger recalled the image of Jo Euishin vomiting blood and collapsing in front of the Cheondansu.
And the last question he asked that day.
—…Is Sungheon doing well?
It must be a question that cannot be answered by anything other than the transcendent.
No matter how hard Yellow Tiger and Red Tiger tried, they couldn’t find anything about the person named ‘Sungheon’.
They wanted to find Sungheon and how he was doing to relieve their benefactor’s anxiety, but it wasn’t easy.
And now, at an unexpected moment, Yellow Tiger heard that name again.
“Sungheon-ah…”
Beneath the Research Institute, together with Jo Euishin.
Jo Euishin called for Cheon Dongha’s brother with a similar expression to when they offered flowers to his family just a few hours ago.
* * *
I’m not Stalemateless in this world.
Although I still have records of some matches, it’s only at the minimum level to maintain the background of Jo Euishin, a former chess player.
I don’t have a single game in this world that ended in a stalemate, but that’s not my nickname here.
There’s no case in this world where a commentator or a broadcaster during my chess games called me “Stalemateless”.
Even reports excited about the existence of a chess prodigy in Korea have never used that word.
If Jo Euishin of this world had that nickname, Yeom Junyeol wouldn’t have tried to win the chess tournament by pushing our match to a stalemate.
“Stalemateless? What does that mean?”
“It’s not a word listed in the dictionary. I think it’s a newly coined word, combining stalemate and less.”
Hwang Jiho, who has conducted an extensive investigation on me, and Cheon Dongha, someone who’s really good at chess, have no idea that the word that the boy blinked was referring to me.
It’s obvious why Cheon Dongha’s brother suddenly said that word.
He said a nickname that doesn’t exist in this world so that I wouldn’t doubt his identity.
‘Why is Sungheon here like this…!?’
My last day in the previous world came back to my mind.
The day I cleared the final chapter of PMH, I received a notice that I would receive a reward.
Cheon Sungheon, the secretary of the gosiwon I was staying at, stopped by my room as he heard my nonstop coughing.
At that time, I heard a system message and doubted if I was hallucinating.
<Information modification, dimension synchronization, and transporting of two-dimensional future transform object ‘Jo Euishin’ in progress. Ten seconds left before completion.>
My coughs didn’t allow me to answer Sungheon, and that’s when he opened the door.
Almost as soon as he opened the door, the countdown in the system message was completed, and a white light washed over my vision.
I came up with a terrifying hypothesis.
‘…Don’t tell me Sungheon got caught up while I was being transported here?’
The system message specifically mentioned transferring information of “Jo Euishin”.
If he was caught up accidentally and transported to this world, shouldn’t he have been on the practical test with Group 13 on the first day?
Cheon Sungheon’s information wasn’t transferred, so perhaps he was manipulated to be Cheon Dongha’s hidden brother?
I tried my best to keep my cool and objectively analyze the situation, but I couldn’t think at all because Cheon Sungheon is right in front of my eyes.
“Sungheon-ah…”
When I called his name in a constrained voice, Cheon Sungheon opened his eyes again and looked at me.
His eyes were the only thing he can move, and so his expression remained the same.
“…’Sungheon’?”
“Huh?”
Hwang Jiho and Cheon Dongha looked suspicious of me.
Perhaps Cheon Sungheon’s name in this world is different.
“Cheon Dongha sunbaenim, you mentioned that you only “found out” about your brother. When was that?”
Cheon Dongha seemed confused, perhaps by the name that I mentioned, or the morse code word that his brother blinked.
Perhaps it’s because of my reaction too.
Or maybe everything about this is confusing to him.
Even so, he answered me gently.
“I knew about his existence last December. The exact date was…”
The exact date mentioned by Cheon Dongha sent a bolt of lightning through my body.
It’s the day I came to this world.
“It’s the day you took the entrance exam, Jo Euishin. But why did you call him ‘Sungheon’ just now?”
Hwang Jiho asked me something, but I wasn’t in the right mind to answer.
He didn’t push further.
Instead, I observed Cheon Sungheon and myself.
“…You’ve been here all this time? Ever since that day?”
Cheon Sungheon blinked as soon as I asked.
I tried to ask again as the response was vague, but Cheon Dongha intervened.
“When communicating with the doctors, it’s been a convention that my brother will blink once if he means yes and twice if he means no. I think he just said yes.”
“There are records of him being transferred a few times. He wasn’t here all this time.”
Cheon Dongha and Hwang Jiho added some more things, but it’s clear that Cheon Sungheon said “yes” to me.
Cheon Sungheon has been in this world ever since the entrance exam last year.
He was “discovered” by Cheon Dongha that day.
I have a lot of questions, but I decided to ask the most important thing first.
“Do you know where you are?”
Cheon Sungheon blinked once.
That means he knows that this world is the one in PMH.
I felt suffocated, but I asked him another important question.
“…Did you come here with me?”
Cheon Sungheon blinked twice.
That means we didn’t come to this world together.
I’m out of breath.
It doesn’t matter whether Cheon Sungheon is in this world because of me or not.
It doesn’t change the fact that he has LIS in this world.
But for some twisted reason, I felt a little relief that it wasn’t my fault.
The thought made me feel terrible at the same time.
I asked another question.
“Did you come here on your own will?”
Cheon Sungheon blinked once.
I don’t know what happened and how, but it seems like he came here of his own will.
He didn’t come with me, but there’s a reason why he decided to come to this world on purpose.
“…Why?”
Cheon Sungheon didn’t answer.
Instead, he closed his eyes
