There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 73 - 72. Original Trinity

Zein thought he would meet Han Joon again sooner or later after the last time they met. He just never thought it would be this soon.

Certainly, he didn’t think he would see the Captain of Mobius railing Radia Mallarc in his office desk.

"Ugh—wha-at?" replied in a daze, Radia lifted his flushed face, finally looking at Zein with a pair of glazed crimson eyes. "Oh..."

Zein had come across too many incidental shows to be fazed by the lewd display in front of him. If anything, he was more intrigued by the fact that it was Han Joon than anything else.

Weren’t they supposed to be enemies or something?

"So? Is he here to join us?" the deep smirk that the black-haired man gave him was unlike the respectable Captain persona he showed a few days ago. The black eyes flashed darkly as he started to move again, disregarding the guide’s presence.

Or rather, welcoming the guide’s presence.

"Mmh—ah, no. Stop for...ugh...a bit..." Radia raised his upper body with a struggle, panting heavily with half-lidded eyes.

"Why? I don’t mind?" grasping the clothed chest of the Guildmaster, Han Joon stared at the impassive blue eyes with a small, low chuckle.

"Don’t make...Bassena cries," Radia took a deep breath before finally addressing Zein, who was in the middle of wondering whether it’d be more fun to just stay there and watch. Perhaps he’d get some sort of explanation for this unlikely relationship then. "Sorry...Zein, wait for fif—ugh—t-thirty?"

"Oh, too bad," the black-haired esper laughed against the Guildmaster’s neck, black eyes curled at the scoffing guide at the door.

"So you can call my name nicely," Zein clicked his tongue and turned around, closing the door just in time with the Guildmaster’s whiny groan and the soldier’s low laugh. "Hmm...what should I do now?"

* * *

When Zein rode back to the twelfth floor with a mocha frappe in hand, Han Shin and Abel were in the executive lounge, conversing.

"What are you doing here?"

"Taking a break, duh," the healer replied with a shrug.

"In the middle of working hours?"

The black eyes narrowed at the iced drink in Zein’s hand while retorting. "What are ’you’ doing here, then?"

"I come to see the Guildmaster," Zein answered while taking a seat between them. "But he’s...preoccupied and told me to come back in thirty minutes."

"Huh? That’s weird," Han Shin raised his brow. "He’s usually very punctual."

That was what Zein heard too. Indeed, he never specified the time, just ’after’ ten, but that should also mean he would be available anywhere between ten and lunch.

But perhaps, it also meant he was available for everyone, including the Captain of Mobius.

Zein wondered though, whether other people knew about it or not. But all the people who ever told him about it, including Han Shin, said that they had a bad relationship.

Were ’bad’ relationships and ’bed’ relationships interchangeable these days?

"Han Joon..." Zein muttered without realizing it, as he stared at Han Shin.

It was kind of weird, as if they had the same ingredients, but one was molded into cuteness and one was sculpted into hotness. They were so different, but he also could instantly tell that they were related to each other.

"Hmm? What about my brother?" the healer perked suddenly, tilting his head at Zein.

"I met him before,"

"Oh?" like a meerkat, the black eyes opened wide, and his neck stretched toward Zein enthusiastically. "Where?"

"The Saturday Anomaly,"

Han Shin clapped his hands then, nodded. "Aaah! Right—Mobius was dispatched there, wasn’t it?"

"Wait—" Abel chimed in suddenly, looking at Zein with narrowed eyes. "When you said you met someone hot, you mean..."

Taking off his mask so he could sip on his drink, Zein replied nonchalantly. "Yeah,"

"Huuuuh?" the one with the biggest reaction, of course, would be the cheeky younger brother. "What—My brother? Hot?" he looked at Zein in disbelief, eyes blown wide. But he calmed down when Zein just stared back impassively while sipping on his iced drink. "I mean, I know he is handsome and whatever, but isn’t he boring as fuck?"

Han Shin stroked his chin in contemplation, before looking at the tall guide keenly. "I think he’s even stricter than you, Zein."

The blue eyes moved up, as if thinking hard. They were recalling the deep smirk and the low laughter, the suggestive low voice that was asking for a threesome, the alluring gaze that never left Zein all the time he was there at the door.

Strict? Boring?

"...is that so?" how much did Han Joon hide from the rest of the world, he wondered.

Zein thought Radia was already dangerous, but what about the man who could make the poisonous flower submit to him while acting like he was just another boring soldier?

"But...is he really in a bad relationship with the Guildmaster?" Zein asked curiously. Could two people who hated each other have office sex in the middle of the day?

And if they weren’t exactly in a bad relationship, why did they pretend as if they did?

"Hmm..." Han Shin sunk his body into the couch and made a sad look, black eyes looking in the distance. "It’s complicated..."

Zein and Abel looked at each other, before scooting closer toward the healer as if they were about to discuss something conspirational. It seemed that Abel too, had never heard about the background of their relationship.

"If you met him...you probably remember that he had a scar here, right?" Han Shin pointed toward his neck, and Zein remembered the long horizontal line across the Captain’s neck, the only thing that seemed to mar his perfect appearance.

"Yeah, what about it?"

If it had something to do with their relationship, could it be that Han Joon got the scar from protecting Radia or something? But that didn’t explain why they had a sour relationship though...

"That scar..." Han Shin scratched his neck with a troubled expression, "It was Radia that gave him that scar."

"...what?" Abel responded with repeated blinking. It was a sentiment shared by Zein, who raised his brow in surprise and intrigue. Well, that was definitely something.

"It wasn’t an accident or anything like that too," Han Shin added with a shrug. "Just genuine, I-will-slice-your-neck slash,"

"W...why?" Abel asked carefully, voice low and quiet, and suddenly they descended into whispering.

"Hmm...how should I say this..." the healer leaned forward, rubbing his chin like a conspirator thinker. "He felt betrayed?"

The guides, who felt shocked before, now tilted their head in confusion. Although there was no one there besides them, they still huddled together, whispering as if they were about to plan a mutiny.

"People who attended the esper academy at the same time as Radia and Bassena would know, that the third person inside Trinity wasn’t me, but—"

"The Night Star," Zein suddenly remembered the guild’s signage; a flower, a snake, and a star. Each symbol was supposed to represent the founding member, but Zein had been wondering why Han Shin was pictured as a star.

"Yep, it’s supposed to be my brother," the healer nodded and continued with his story. "Trinity was something they had planned to establish since their academic days."

Well, that made more sense for Zein. From the little information and impression that he knew, Bassena was acquaintanced first with Radia and Joon, and only after getting calmer that he got to know Shin and Reina. While Han Shin was an excellent healer, he wasn’t exactly as famous as those three, who were once deemed to be the bright future of their respective families.

According to the healer, those three were already called the Trinity since their academy days, and establishing a guild on their own was a dream they often talked about.

"But right after graduating, my brother suddenly said he’d go to the military instead," Han Shin sighed. He was honestly confused too, but it wasn’t like he didn’t understand.

Han family was known for their ties to the military, and there would always be one military man in each generation. Sometimes, the healer thought that his older brother probably did it so he didn’t have to, so Shin could pursue what he actually wanted to do.

And so he’d been walking on eggshells about his brother and Radia’s relationship.

"You know right, that once one entered the military, they can’t join any private guild, ever?" Han Shin said with a palpable sigh and distress. "So Radia saw it as a betrayal. The moment Joon-hyung said he applied to the military, Radia took a fruit knife from the table and just..." he made a slashing motion across his neck that had Abel winced and moved back in reflex.

"But to slice his neck because of that..." Abel responded weakly while clutching his neck.

There must have been something else then, Zein thought. If they were lovers, that promise might contain something more than an establishment of a guild. Whatever the reason, it seemed that the feeling of betrayal ran deeper than anyone could ever guess. But...

"So their relationship became sour since then?" Zein asked with doubt, but the healer nodded weakly.

"Yeah," from how sad he looked, it didn’t seem like he lied about it. "But both of them are Bassena’s friends, and Joon is my brother, so it’s not like we can take a side," he leaned back into the couch with a long regretful sigh. "Well, thankfully, Radia never banned us from contacting him or anything,"

"Before that," Zein looked at Han Shin inquisitively, "...were those two ever in a romantic relationship or something like that? Friends with benefits, perhaps?"

Strangely, the healer raised his brows in surprise. "I...don’t think so?" he tilted his head and frowned in confusion. "At least I never saw them being...that, you know. I think you and Bas are more flirtatious than those two..."

"Hmm..." Zein flicked the grinning face once before leaning back and crossing his arms, feeling even more confused now. "Interesting," he muttered while sipping on his drink again.

So it seemed like no one knew that those two were still in touch, much less that those two were still in an intimate relationship. Was their hostility just a façade, or was there something more about this?

Zein didn’t mean to pry, but it was hard to ignore when he realized that he might be the only one who knew about this, because not even Bassena seemed to realize what was going on between those two.

And when he came back to the Guildmaster’s room, Radia was greeting him with an impeccable appearance and a calm smile like nothing out of ordinary had happened here not too long ago. The desk and the floor also looked perfectly immaculate.

So Zein decided to do what he did best; feigning ignorance.

Or so he had planned, because then, Radia was the one who talked about it first. "Sorry for the delay, he always showed up whenever he likes."

Well...how should he respond to this?