“Does only your waist hurt? Nowhere else?”
“My bu—, no! Nowhere else hurts.”
Ilkyung, who almost shouted that his butt and there hurt the most, shut his mouth tight.
“Since your waist hurts the most, move your hands quickly without resting.”
“Okay. Sleep a bit.”
Ilkyung turned his head in another direction as if hiding his flushed cheeks and closed his eyes.
No matter how much Daehoon cherished and cared for Ilkyung all weekend like a precious lover, Ilkyung, who had given up his rear for the first time, only found it difficult. Never again will I have sex with a man, absolutely not, if I do it again I’m a dog, a dog! With these thoughts, Ilkyung spent the weekend.
Then he realized it was absurd that he’d only had sex with lovers until now but suddenly had a one-night stand and even had the ridiculous thought of “never again,” so he clutched his head for a long time.
On Monday, the moment Ilkyung saw Daehoon from the far end of the lobby, all the events of the weekend suddenly came to mind and he hid without realizing it. He’d been fine until coming home the day before, but when he actually saw him at the Center on Monday, he became embarrassed.
And so Ilkyung avoided Daehoon all day. But who knew an accident would happen with 19 minutes left until he got off work!
“What is this?”
Ilkyung muttered.
“Right. I thought we’d get off work early, but that’s not going to happen. Do the Espers need to go to the scene first to know?”
“Didn’t they already go with a spatial movement Esper? Everyone’s so impatient, they would have done that and more.”
Ilkyung tried not to run into Director Ha for the time being if possible. Even though the two of them were in a relationship formed according to a contract, it was embarrassing and awkward after impulsively going through with it. That’s why you should absolutely never date within the company. Ilkyung wouldn’t have such an occasion in the future anyway, but he vowed to himself that he would absolutely never date within the company. If you date within the company and then break up, how uncomfortable would it be for each other every time you have to run into each other!
But even though he’d avoided Ha Daehoon like that, he was going to meet him before even a day had passed. The overall person in charge of this Esper Explosion Team was Director Ha Daehoon anyway, and he was also the most needed Guide.
“But Assistant Manager Woo.”
“Yes?”
“Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
“Huh?”
At Section Chief Kang’s question, Ilkyung was startled. No lie, he jumped about 10 centimeters from that spot.
“I’m not sick anywhere!”
Ilkyung, feeling guilty for no reason, raised his voice. Not hurting, my foot. Even now, that place throbbed. How could a person’s dick be that big? What did he eat to make it that big? It wouldn’t happen, but if he got the chance later, he wanted to ask.
“I’m glad if nothing’s wrong, but you look like you’re in poor condition.”
“I’m fine. I just need to go home and rest. I really hope this ends quickly without any issues.”
Ilkyung sighed. Even Section Chief Kang, who knew nothing, thought he looked strange? He just wanted to quickly catch those damn rebel forces and go home early. Was it because he’d overdone it too much on the weekend? He seemed to have a slight fever too. When he touched his forehead himself, there was nothing particularly wrong, but his body felt hot. Every time he exhaled, it felt like hot breath was coming out, which was strange. His forehead definitely seemed fine though.
“If it’s too hard, do you want to go home and rest? I’ll distribute the Guides and secure the Guiding rooms too.”
At Section Chief Kang’s words, Ilkyung shook his head. It wasn’t that bad yet.
“I’m fine. They’ll handle it and come back soon. Anyway, Section Chief, I want to hurry up and pair the Espers with Guides. Let them handle it themselves.”
“If only that could happen. Our work would be cut in half.”
“That’s why we did a round of pair matching rate checks last time, didn’t we?”
“We did do that.”
Of course, he knew it was realistically impossible for all Espers and Guides to form pairs. There weren’t as many Guides as there were Espers, and not all of them had high one-on-one matching rates either. They could just distribute Guides appropriately each time, but forming a pair was difficult as it had to satisfy various conditions.
“Still, wouldn’t it be better to have pairs for big projects like this? It’s more efficient if pairs go out to the field together, right?”
At Ilkyung’s words, Section Chief Kang nodded.
“That’s right. But before that, it would be best if the incident wrapped up.”
“Right. I hope they catch the culprit quickly and wrap it up.”
Ilkyung sighed and took steps to check the condition of the Guiding rooms.
“Yes, Team Leader-nim.”
―Assistant Manager Ilkyung. They’re saying the scale of the accident is too big!
“I’m watching the news on the 11th floor as we speak.”
The Guiding rooms on the 8th and 9th floors were already in use or being cleaned, so Ilkyung had just come up to the 11th floor. There was a break room in the middle of each Center floor, and there was a TV where you could watch the news.
Ilkyung, who had walked around both the 8th and 9th floors, was drinking coffee and watching the news to catch his breath for a moment, and was surprised because the scene was more of a disaster than expected.
Until now, even with bridges and tunnels, fortunately the scale of damage wasn’t large. But this time was different. He thought maybe one car had exploded like last time, but no. The exploded car had crossed the center line and invaded the opposite side. Moreover, this time the fire vehicle was a freight truck loaded with wood, and the car it collided with was a tour bus.
The 45-seat tour bus was packed with people. The accident scene was being reported on the news. It wasn’t filmed explicitly, but the Center’s ability users could be seen from time to time. Henry, who came from England, was at the forefront blocking it.
“Ah, Henry.”
He’d completely forgotten about his existence when he was supposed to ask about him. At that time they seemed close with Henry—how close were they, why didn’t the two of them do a matching rate test, whether the two of them were pairs before, etc.—there was a lot he wanted to know. But on the weekend, he’d fallen for Ha Daehoon and been flipped this way and that way, so he’d completely forgotten.
Suddenly he had such a thought. Did Director Ha and Henry sleep together? What were the two of them doing when they slept together? Drinking? No. Director Ha would absolutely never sleep with someone while drunk or anything like that. Then how did it happen? Like he did with Ilkyung, did he need a contract relationship in England too? So did he ask Henry to date for a few months too?
And after that? Did they go on a farewell trip the same way? Did the two of them sleep there? And yet he flew here from that far place with just one phone call? Wow, at this level, doesn’t Henry have feelings for Director Ha? No, since Director Ha called him, isn’t he the one with feelings?
“They’re totally like a Hollywood couple.”
Ilkyung muttered and glared at the news. Director Ha hadn’t even gone to the scene, but he stared holes through the screen as if the two people were at that scene.
* * *
“Yes, Team Leader-nim.”
When Ilkyung finished checking the condition of the Guiding rooms and made reservations according to the number of Espers, then caught his breath, he got another call from Team Leader Park.
―Assistant Manager Woo, they’re saying the Explosion Team is returning now.
“Yes, understood.”
Ilkyung first plopped down on the break room sofa. He’d walked around both lower floors and now walked around this floor too, so his legs hurt a bit. And above all, his waist felt like it would break. If it were up to him, he wanted to receive Guiding himself.
“How nice would that be?”
Ilkyung said while lying down long on the sofa. There was still spare time. He was thinking he should lie down for just a bit…
“What would be nice?”
At the voice he heard, Ilkyung bolted upright.
“Agh!”
Ilkyung, who was trying not just to raise his upper body but to get up from the sofa entirely, grabbed his waist and plopped back down again.
“Are you okay?”
“Does this look okay? You startled me. Ah, my waist almost went out.”
Ilkyung patted his waist that had suddenly been strained. Meeting Director Ha again, who had wrecked the waist of someone who was a first-timer, heat rose hotly from inside his chest. Really, even if you do it, that was too much. That said, Director Ha hadn’t pounded roughly. Even Ilkyung himself knew that, but it hurt even now a full day later, so he was really going crazy.
