Fairy Trap

out.

-…You’re even coming inside the house now?

A golden butterfly flapped its wings in front of him.
Whenever that happened, beautiful golden powder fell into small pieces and scattered into the air.

-Did you come to pick me up?

It was the golden butterfly that was always waits in front of his house and never came in.
Today, for some reason, it came into the room and stopped in front of him flying.
As if it’s covering his skeleton-like body with its own tiny body, and persuading him to go.

-I don’t want to go….

He muttered sadly.
Sethian’s face came to his mind, but what his family showed him that day was clearer.

-I… I’d rather just stay like this….

Even in the soul state, he’s just a useless person.
He couldn’t hug anyone in his family, and he couldn’t even say a word.
He was an incompetent baggage whose only wish was for them to remain loving him even just a little.

Then, the normally quiet butterfly flapped its wings unusually wild.
It spun around in place and flew in a large circle.
Then it kept pacing, going to the door and coming back again and again.
It was clear that it was persuading him to leave.

Yi-Gyeol, who was quietly watching the scene, had no choice but to head to the door.
Looking at the butterfly, Sethian’s face came to his mind more clearly.
Since he was the only person Yi-Gyeol has helped, it should be okay to at least say goodbye to him, right? Sethian is a strong and great person, so he probably really doesn’t need any help from him, but he thought it might be okay to say that he was also useful sometimes.

-I’ll just… Say goodbye and come back.

After saying that he was glad to meet him, and that he had a great time when he was with him, he’ll leave a short goodbye and come back.
It would only bother him to be with a lump of baggage like himself, and he also doesn’t know how to do anything to help him.

‘What would Seth say?’

He was sharp and scary at first, but when he thought about the time they spent together, he realized that he was a warm person.
Whenever they meet, he makes time for him and listens to all his stories.
He also answered anything he was curious about in his world and spoke freely as if he was actually next to him, whether there were people or not.

Occasionally, even if the knights or servants by his side gave strange glances, he didn’t seem to care at all.
On the contrary, whenever Yi-Gyeol keeps his mouth shut while looking around, he will ask him why he’s keeping quiet just because of people who he couldn’t even have a conversation with and told him to speak comfortably at any time.

He guessed that’s why he keeps thinking about Sethian.
He looks the coldest among the people he met, but he is the sweetest and kindest person to himself.[1]

His father, mother, and younger sister.
No matter how much he looks at their faces, they seem cold, and only Sethian seems to be the only one who feels warm.

Yi-Gyeol followed the golden butterfly outside as he recalled Sethian slightly raising the corners of his mouth or bending the corners of his eyes.

He’s been waking up in the evening and falling asleep at night recently, so it’s dark outside every time he goes out.
But now, it was daytime, so there were more people coming and going than at night.

Seeing a white butterfly flying through the crowd from time to time made Yi-Gyeol feel sad one more time.
The pile of butterflies in the trash can, which had been fading thanks to Sethian, came to mind again.

Even though he was in the soul state, he held back his tears and looked only at the golden butterfly.

It was for the last time he’s meeting him, so he doesn’t want his feelings to be revealed to Sethian for nothing.
Maybe he’ll say goodbye in his usual dry way of speaking and that’s the end of everything, but still, he wanted to smile in front of him.
He doesn’t want to force himself to smile but instead does it because he likes to.

Just as he was thinking about what to say when he met Sethian, the golden butterfly reached the mysterious alley.
He thought he could remember the way because it was broad daylight, but quit in the end.
It was a road that he doesn’t have to memorize since he’ll never pass here again, and maybe this could be the last time that he’ll go out of his body.
He only purposely followed the butterfly today in order to not leave any regrets.

The place where the butterfly stopped was still a dead end.
He originally knew it as a wall covered in darkness, but now he could see that it is just an old stone wall with painted graffiti.
There were long blooms of irises beneath it, which might have been planted by someone.
It was a flower that only bloomed around spring, but strangely, it was blooming brightly until now in mid-November.

Seeing the purple petals reminded him of Sethian again.
If he had known earlier, he would have told him that he saw flowers with the same color as his hair when crossing the dimension.

With such useless thoughts, he followed the butterfly through the wall.
Soon, a familiar landscape appeared in front of his eyes, the same as it had ever been.
 

TL Notes:

Woah, I can feel the ship sailing!  I’m curious as to what is the secret of this butterfly… Is it him in the future since he’s also a golden butterfly??? What do you guys think? Also, who will bet with me that Seth was already going ballistic in his dimension? xD