There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 74

Chapter 74: [Bonus Chapter] The Flower’s Star (1)

It was like a night sky, those eyes. They were a fascinating black, like an ink stain. Not a dark brown, but a very deep grey like the dead of the night. Once you gaze inside, however, there were flashes of light there.

Hidden desires.

That was my first thought as I looked into his eyes.

We were mere kids then, twelve and thirteen. Mischievous, bored kids. Making chaos at a party. And by chaos, I didn’t mean pouring drinks to a lady’s dress, or setting a wild dog loose inside the venue. By chaos, I mean revealing a scandal or two through the big screen of the ballroom. The drinks were pouring over some people’s heads, yes, but not directly by my hand.

It was fun, a little laugh for my boring little perfect world.

As I laughed at the couples tearing at each other and people who tried to separate them from the second-floor railing, I saw him. Staring at me from the other direction--eyes like midnight, cold and deep.

I knew him, of course. The eldest son of a prominent military family. Perhaps because of his background, he looked so stoic, so firm, standing with perfect posture even while he was observing me from afar.

I casted my gaze upon him then, giving him my best, charming smile. He was handsome, even as a teenager. He would make a very handsome adult, although probably a very boring one too, if the way he stood was any indication.

And then he smiled. No--he smirked. Eyes flashed in amusement. I realized then, that he knew about my deeds, about how I was the one who released the footage on the big screen.

That glint in his seemingly dead eyes, that deep smirk that felt like a sneer, the small blink he did as he turned away and disappeared in the shadow.

Suddenly, my perfect little word didn’t feel as boring anymore.

* * *

The next time I saw him, it was in the academy.

We were in different departments, of course. He was a physical-type, and I was a summoner. I saw him from afar, diligently training his body, which shaped up nicely each time my eyes landed on him. He seemed to always come the earliest, and stayed in the training hall even after everyone had come home.

Truly, a typical model student.

Me? I was just doing whatever I wanted.

Sometimes, our eyes met within the hall, or during school meetings. I caught his brief gaze once when I was fooling around with another student in an empty classroom. I stared at those dark grey eyes while pushing the other student’s head between my legs further. Those eyes just stared back at me quietly before walking away.

I used that classroom a few times more after that, hoping that I’d be caught by those eyes again.

But even after a whole year, even after bumping into him a few times more, I still couldn’t meet that deep smile and twinkling dark eyes I saw the first time.

But life had never disappointed me before--didn’t I say that my world was perfect? An opportunity to observe him closer came to me on its own.

Bassena Vaski.

The Golden Viper’s new weapon. An unruly, wild kid filled with poison. The brat had managed to wound so many of his classmates, even the instructors, acting like a berserker in need of sedative.

Me, the representative of the magic user; Han Joon, the representative of physical espers--the task to tame this mad dog fell upon us.

Ah, it was good days of beating the shit out of the kid five years younger than me, but that wasn’t the important part. What was important was that I got to converse with and observe Han Joon closely.

At first, it was truly disappointing. He really was the mini soldier of the Han household, so strict and firm and reserved. He only spoke when needed, and his face was like a stone. Wasn’t it such a total waste for that handsome face?

The strange thing was he didn’t give off a distant vibe, and he was actually the one who managed to make Bas calmer--rather, he made the boy submit and followed him around like an adorable little brother. Although he didn’t speak a lot, he spoke kindly to the boy, like an actual brother.

Whereas he spoke to me like a colleague.

"I have a little brother," he said, when I ask him about the way he dealt with Bas’s tantrum.

Such a boring answer--it’ll be more interesting if he said he was trying to appeal to the kid’s craving for familial affection. Better yet, if he said he just wanted to manipulate the kid so he became dependent on us.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be interested in him if it wasn’t because of that smirk he gave me during the party a few years ago. What is it? What was this man hiding? What kind of personality he had beneath that stoic, stone face?

I thought that however carefully he hid it, he would slip one way or another. Like when he fought with Bas--which later on became their daily training regime. I observed him keenly, trying to see if he became a manic battle frenzy when things got heated. Wishing I could witness that deep smirk and glinting eyes while he swung his metal wires.

No dice on that smirk, although I still got turned on seeing him overpowering Bassena-genius-of-the-century-Vaski.