The S+ Class Omega Takes Over Again [BL]-Chapter 26: A different effect

"Your hands are still so small."

Momentarily distracted by the tiny hand, Cheon Areum shook his head to fend off the cuteness filling his head.

"Yoon Seoyul, did you not see that? There was a blurry but colorful light in his hand."

"I didn’t."

It couldn’t have been the light from the ceiling reflecting on the spoon either. Cheon Areum was sure he saw it, but the hand in his observation was normal now, not shooting any colorful beams. Rian obediently showed him the hand, blinking with a smile. There was definitely something going on with Rian—about to use his energy on him—but his eyes were suddenly covered by Yoon Seoyul.

"Give it a rest. Don’t."

"Fine."

Dropping the matter, Rian continued to eat quickly while Cheon Areum mindlessly opened his mouth for the spoonfuls coming, staring at the wall.

"Hyung, I want to host a sleepover!"

Rian announced it brightly, having cleaned his bowl so thoroughly there wasn’t a single grain of rice or drop of soup left behind. He looked far too energetic for the hour, eyes shining with excitement.

"It’ll be me, Cherry, Poppy, Brownie, and Plum."

Cheon Areum paused.

Cherry? Poppy? Brownie? Plum?

"Do I know them?"

"Yes, they’re all my friends from school."

"You can call them over tomorrow then."

Cheon Areum answered Rian distractedly while Yoon Seoyul cleared the kitchen island, stacking the dishes with slow, tired movements. When Cheon Areum glanced over and caught Yoon Seoyul yawning—eyes watering slightly—he wrapped up the conversation with Rian quickly, walked him back to his room, and personally tucked him into bed, pulling the blanket up just right and making sure he was settled.

Then, without giving Yoon Seoyul any chance to protest, Cheon Areum dragged him to their bedroom as well. He pushed him down onto the mattress, kicked off his shoes, and tucked him in with the same thorough care. Only when Yoon Seoyul was properly trapped under the covers did Cheon Areum finally relax, standing there for a moment and watching him—satisfied.

"Not a single peep. We are sleeping now."

Cheon Areum lay down beside him and pretended to sleep, eyes closed, body still—though the faint twitch of his eyelids betrayed the act. Yoon Seoyul was far too exhausted to notice. He shifted closer on instinct, then suddenly rolled into him and wrapped his arms around Cheon Areum in a tight, almost possessive hug, pulling him flush against his chest. His breathing evened out in a matter of moments.

Just like that, Yoon Seoyul fell asleep with Cheon Areum, who was wide awake for some unknown reason. The thing is, he was supposed to be sleeping because of his low energy levels, but his energy hadn’t dropped down for a while now. It was like this even before he had eaten. In actuality, he felt like it was having a spike instead, as if he were heavily caffeinated. With his dizziness gone too, he could probably clear an S-Class gate by himself right now.

"...."

His only source of entertainment became watching Yoon Seoyul’s sleeping face, the calm, unguarded expression oddly mesmerizing. Time slipped by without him noticing. By the time he finally blinked and looked away, the sun had already risen. Pale rays spilled into the bedroom through the floor-to-ceiling window on the left, layering the sheets and the wall in soft gold. Carefully, with more effort than expected, Cheon Areum slipped out of Yoon Seoyul’s arms. He leaned back down for just a moment, pressed a light kiss to Yoon Seoyul’s lips, and then straightened. Quiet as a shadow, he left the bed and began to walk through the house.

He flopped onto the couch and turned on the TV, letting the remote fall against his stomach. The screen flickered, settling on the first channel without him bothering to change it—the news channel. And then—Choi Giseok’s face filled the screen. Cheon Areum clicked his tongue, irritation instantly souring his mood.

"Following the clear of the first S+ Class gate, the guild master of Voidwalkers—the country’s third-ranking guild—has reportedly resigned from his post after the accusations he leveled against S+-Class hunter Cheon Areum, claiming he was attacked inside the gate. Though the accusations have yet to be confirmed, the sudden resignation has left many skeptics questioning whether there may have been some truth to the incident."

Cheon Areum stared at the screen, expression blank, eyes cold. Was his reputation being tainted by this Choi Giseok? He considered it for exactly one minute. Then he shrugged, reached for the remote, and turned the TV off. The room fell quiet again. Something else surfaced in his mind—more important, more immediate. He sat up, pulled out his phone, and sent a short message to Kim Ryung. When three seconds passed without a reply, his patience ran out. He started calling. Once. Twice. Again. The reply finally came through.

Cheon Areum skimmed it, lips curling slightly in satisfaction. That was all he needed. He tapped the number Kim Ryung had sent and lifted the phone to his ear, dialing immediately.

"Hello?"

"Confirming it was Han Kakta with him on the call, he curtly spoke out.

"I will kill you if you go easy on me next time."

Saying his piece, he cut the call instantly—only then realizing that it sounded like a threat more than a fact.

"..."

Staring hard at the cell phone he had thrown on the couch, he picked it up again and dialed Han Kakta’s number.

"This is your number, right? Cheon Areum."

"Yeah...."

"Okay, I will save it then. Don’t tell Yoon Seoyul or he will just be salty with me too."

"I will tell him later. Also, what I said to you just a moment ago—I really meant it."

"Oh....."

Thinking he had put it out there better now, Cheon Areum cut the call again and habitually threw his phone back in his inventory without looking, then got up from the couch and went back upstairs to the bedroom.

Still unable to fall asleep, Cheon Areum lay there staring at the ceiling, his body restless despite the calm around him. He didn’t want to leave the house—if Yoon Seoyul woke up and noticed he was gone, it would turn into a whole thing. And yet... His fingers twitched. His chest felt tight, energy coiling inside him with nowhere to go. He wanted to use it. He wanted to fight. To tear into something. The thoughts came uninvited—hunting, chasing, cornering someone just to watch them panic. He wanted to terrorize someone. The realization made him go still.

Since when did I think like this?

Frozen by hearing his own thoughts, Cheon Areum was stuck between praising himself for being this lively or abolishing himself for having such wicked thoughts. He lay there caught between the two, energy simmering under his skin, unsure whether to let it out or crush it back down.

Sheep. Think of the sheep... sheep one... sheep two... sheep three...

Surprised by himself again, Cheon Areum’s thoughts seemed to have a mind of their own too. Instead of counting sheep casually, he kept wanting to see how much blood there would be if he killed those sheep...

They didn’t feel emotional—no anger, no excitement—just intrusive, vivid, automatic. Like his mind was defaulting to violence because it didn’t know what else to do with all that leftover energy. Cheon Areum shot upright and without delay discharged as much of his energy outwards into the space as he could. The feeling clawing at his mind dulled slightly, pushed back by sheer force.

He turned toward the floor-to-ceiling window.

His reflection stared back at him. His eyes were no longer their usual radiant lavender color—there was only blackness, deep and swallowing, his energy flooding them until no white showed at all. For a moment, he didn’t recognize himself.

"...Get a grip on yourself."

The energy slowly settled, sinking back under his skin like a tide forced to retreat. His eyes faded, color bleeding back in piece by piece, though the heaviness in his chest lingered. And as expected, he hadn’t detected Rian at all in the house although he was certain he was sleeping in his bedroom currently.

The side effects of using energy boosters were very different this time—perhaps because he had used too many. The negative energy in his body kept wanting to control him, as if he were constantly tearing the spade cards and swallowing the souls full of negative energy. He had to calm down the energy repeatedly, but that only resulted in his having energy doubled, leaving him with a huge tank of energy. If he stopped struggling against that energy, he would probably lose control again.

He turned back and hovered over Yoon Seoyul with a smile playing on his lips, the tension in his chest easing just a little. Watching him sleep—steady breathing, relaxed brow—brought a quiet sense of peace that nothing else seemed able to touch. Just having him there helped more than Cheon Areum wanted to admit. There was another way to tire himself out.