There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)

"He just does everything, doesn’t he?" Zein glanced at Radia, who was printing the contract he drafted for Darleon so the Iron Shield could peruse them and see if there was something they wanted to change.

"He always does," Bassena shrugged. "The only thing he couldn’t do much about is anything about Joon."

Zein turned to face Bassena with a smirk. "Now that you know, you can’t stop talking about it, huh?"

Bassena groaned slightly, burying his face in his palm. "I can’t believe I couldn’t see it!" he grumbled. "Now that I know, I feel like I should have known, especially back in the day."

Although he knew Radia and Joon spent a lot of time together, often having a sleepover, he didn’t think much about it. Well, there was also the fact that he was only a naive teenager obsessed with getting stronger, but...to think he also couldn’t catch it after becoming an adult.

"Have they been acting that well in public?" Zein asked. "I really couldn’t figure out why they needed to act like they were nemesis in front of others."

"I know, right? It’s weird," Bassena rubbed his chin. "I mean...Radia was angry, so I used to think it was natural for him to act coldly at Joon every time they crossed paths. But..."

"Joon didn’t have to?"

"Yeah," the esper nodded. "You would think someone whose neck was getting sliced would feel angrier, but I saw it, although it was brief," Bassena narrowed his eyes a bit as he tried to look at his memory. "He was smiling."

"...that is...creepy?" Zein grimaced, unconsciously rubbing his neck. His mind wandered to the scar across the soldier’s neck, and then recalling the man’s core. "But for some reason, I feel like it’s so him."

Bassena chuckled in agreement, before sighing. "Anyway, Joon never showed that he was angry or anything, but for some reason, he played into the ploy as if they were an enemy—you know, countering Radia’s banter with coldness," the amber eyes dimmed, and the esper’s tone turning low; sad and regretful. "I thought it was really bad back then, and I believed there was no hope for them to have a good relationship anymore. Radia never talked about making a guild with us again, and I had no courage to even mention it since he turned really scary if I did."