Chapter 138

“I’ll contact you as soon as the results are out.”

After exchanging farewells with the attending physician, we stepped out into the corridor.

The exam had ended quickly thanks to the broken machine, yet spending a full hour pressed against Vasily while guiding him had drained me completely. At that point, all I wanted was to collapse somewhere and rest.

“Where are we going now?”

“Well… I don’t have anything scheduled after this.”

Right—he’d said earlier that he had finished clearing all the remaining gates. That meant he would, for once, have some free time.

“Then let’s go home.”

For a brief moment, the bed in his private room flashed temptingly before my eyes, but there was no reason to linger at the Association when we had nothing left to do. I followed Vasily straight to the parking lot.

I slowly opened my eyes. After blinking a few times, the pitch-black ceiling gradually came into focus through the dimness.

Is it still night…?

My hand fumbled around beside the pillow until it found my phone. When the screen lit up, the time showed a little past 3 a.m.

I should sleep a bit more.

I must have woken up because I’d gone to bed early from exhaustion. It was far too early to get up again, so I turned my body, ready to sink back into sleep.

Just then, a faint sound drifted from beyond the door. Rain? No… From the glassy clinking, it sounded more like something bumping against glass.

Was Vasily still in the living room? I closed my eyes again and focused my ears.

As I listened, drowsiness slipped away entirely. My mind sharpened; going back to sleep would be impossible now. And since I’d rested enough anyway… I might as well see what the sound was.

I sat up and stepped outside. The living room lights were bright, revealing Vasily seated on the sofa—and a glass bottle filled with amber liquid on the table before him.

Alcohol?

I walked toward him.

“Are you seriously sitting here drinking alone at this hour instead of sleeping?”

“You know I can’t sleep without you, Gidam.”

Vasily lifted his glass without a single change in expression.

The amber liquid shimmering inside was the whiskey he usually drank. My brief hope at spotting the brown bottle instantly died. Of course Vasily wasn’t the type to drink beer.

I glanced around and asked,

“Do you not have any beer?”

“Unfortunately, only whiskey. Are you planning to drink too, Gidam?”

“I put some beers in the fridge…”

“If you mean the fridge from your old place, that’s gone.”

Tsk, what a waste. I’d been saving those for after work. Had I known we’d move this quickly, I would’ve downed the whole pack the day I bought it. I didn’t know how long we’d stay in this place, but I’d better restock soon.

Vasily rose to his feet and said,

“Sit down. I’ll bring you a glass.”

“All right.”

I nodded and sat on the sofa. Because it was where Vasily had been sitting earlier, the coldness lingering beneath me was still palpable.

I watched him return with a glass.

He had definitely noticed something… yet it was strange how he said nothing about it.

Just how much had he figured out? Vasily, who used to question every little thing. And now he said nothing at all.

As he sat beside me and poured a drink into my empty glass, I spoke.

“Vasily.”

“What?”

“How much have you figured out?”

I chose to ask directly.

Tiptoeing around and probing him wouldn’t get me the answers I wanted. Rather than wasting time fretting, confronting the issue head-on was better. And the mood did suit a serious conversation.

Vasily stared at me for a long moment, then slowly lifted the corner of his mouth.

“So, you’ve decided to stop acting?”

“I wasn’t acting. I really couldn’t remember anything at first. It came back midway. Stop avoiding the question and answer.”

No surprise showed on his face. It seemed he had already realized my memory had returned.

After silently holding my gaze for a moment, Vasily finally spoke.

“Gidam… you returned to the past because you got caught in my rampage inside the gate, didn’t you?”

I had guessed he might suspect something, but I didn’t expect him to hit the exact truth so easily.

It might’ve been a bluff, so I denied it once.

“That kind of thing isn’t possible, is it?”

“I thought the same at first… but nothing else explains the things you showed me.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong. Knowing events that had never happened would naturally make him suspect regression.

I no longer felt the need to hide it.

“You’re right. We were the only two inside the gate, and your rampage blocked every way out. We would have frozen to death there.”

When I described our end, Vasily looked at me with a captivated expression—so focused that he had forgotten the glass entirely.

His attitude—treating my death as though it were nothing more than entertainment—gradually irritated me. Since he’d figured everything out, it was my turn to bring up the things he had done while I’d lost my memory.

“By the way—why did you lie about us being lovers?”

“Because Gidam needs to learn how to doubt things. You believe people way too easily.”

“…There were literal articles saying we were dating. How was I supposed not to believe that?”

I let out a frustrated sigh and downed the drink in one go. The sharp liquor burned down my throat, dragging out the tightness that had been sitting in my chest.

Borrowing strength from the alcohol, I finally unloaded the grievances I’d kept bottled up.

“Do you have any idea how confused I was because of you? You demanded ridiculous things, acting like we were in a relationship, your tone of voice was weird… I seriously thought it was a parallel world.”

“My tone was weird?”

“That’s not how you normally talk. You talk down to literally everyone but me.”

“Then should I just speak comfortably with you too? I’ve been getting tired of holding back.”

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Shame.”

Vasily smirked playfully. Yes—that was what felt wrong. Before the regression, he had always been cold, sharp, and irritable. Now he acted like a completely different person. So unfamiliar that sometimes I wondered if he’d been replaced.

“And why did you take me into the gate?”

“You’re the one who said you wanted to go first.”

“You should’ve stopped me. That was a clear breach of contract.”

“So you want our exclusive contract dissolved?”

His voice suddenly dropped to ice.

I snorted and sipped more whiskey. As if he would listen even if I did bring up the contract—the original copy was gone anyway.

Besides, I’d already decided to stay as his guide. Without me, Vasily would rampage again, and then I would come back anyway. The moment I stepped off that plane from China to return to him, the ending had already been predetermined.

I turned my head sharply and spoke.

“Forget it. I’m just not going into gates anymore. As long as you respect that, I’ll stay as your guide.”

“That’s all it takes?”

“Is there a problem?”

“What about like before—contracts, conditions—”

“There’s only one condition. No need for complicated paperwork. It’s not like we ever followed anything written anyway.”

No more restrictions, no more penalties for breaking contracts.

Everything would simply be a verbal agreement.

Vasily blinked, looking genuinely surprised. Clearly, he hadn’t expected me to agree so easily to staying at his side.

After all, I had always tried to run away from him before.

“The matching results will be released soon. I don’t mind being announced as your exclusive guide. But take down the dating rumors.”

If anything, I wanted one more condition: I wanted those ridiculous dating rumors gone.

I thought Vasily would accept without hesitation—but the moment I finished speaking, his expression soured.

“I don’t want to.”

“What do you mean you don’t want to? If we clear it up when the matching rate is published, it’ll be perfect—”

“You know it too, Gidam.”

Vasily pressed down on my shoulder. My body tipped over and collapsed onto the sofa.

The glass in my hand slipped from my fingers, spilling liquor across the floor as it rolled away.

I tried to get up to see if it had shattered, but Vasily climbed on top of me. I tried to escape, startled, but his hands pinning my shoulders kept me from moving.

“Or… are you pretending not to know, when your memory is completely back?”

His silver-gray eyes stared straight into mine.

They weren’t threatening. They carried no smile. Yet, strangely, I couldn’t look away from him.