“Where do you want to go? My place? Or where hyung lives?”
“I don’t care either way.”
If he was with Jaehwi, a place like that didn’t matter. So Raon answered without thinking deeply and wove his fingers between Jaehwi’s fingers one by one. At the same time, Raon’s energy flowed gently into Jaehwi through their touching palms.
After deciding to accept guiding, Jaehwi neither accepted guiding beyond a certain amount as if drawing a line, nor did he try to do contact guiding.
Holding hands like now or lightly embracing was all the skinship they shared. Even this didn’t necessarily carry the meaning of guiding. When he was with Jaehwi, everything was as natural as flowing water.
He didn’t have to try hard to guide, and the energy flowing little by little like a stream from a small spring wasn’t burdensome anymore. It was a sensation that came and went as naturally as breathing.
“…What do you think I’ll do that you say that?”
“What?”
At Jaehwi’s unexpected answer, Raon stopped his steps without realizing it. And as Raon was thinking about the depth of what he said, he slowly closed his eyes and opened them at the energy being suddenly pulled away. In Raon’s eyes as he walked, pulled by the strength of Jaehwi who hadn’t stopped, he could see Jaehwi’s back.
Because they were heading from a dark place toward a bright place, his figure looked like a shadow. Should I say darkness itself?
He’d once asked why people called him Nox. Someone had started calling him that, and as he became known as Nox to people, everyone naturally called him Nox without having any questions.
‘Why do they call you Nox?’
‘Nox. It means “night” in Latin. Was it when I’d entered dungeons about 50 times? It was an exceptionally dark dungeon, and whenever we brightened even a little light, monsters would swarm and become violent. So there was a time I cleared the dungeon in a dark state. I went in first, and one of the NCSC team members following from behind called me that. It’s not like I could reveal my code name officially anyway, and after that person called me that, everyone called me Nox.’
In the end, you were pushed by adults and cleared that dark dungeon alone when you were young. Just recalling that thought made his chest ache, so Raon squeezed his hand tightly for no reason.
Then Jaehwi, who had been walking ahead, turned around. The light coming in from outside the dungeon was illuminating his face.
Jaehwi’s appearance filled with light rather than darkness looked so brilliant that Raon put a little more strength in his hand and pulled him slightly. He reached out his other hand that wasn’t clasped to Jaehwi, who was coming toward him with an expression asking what was wrong, wrapped it around his nape, and stood on his tiptoes.
Raon, who lightly stole Jaehwi’s lips, walked ahead in place of him who had stopped.
It was Jaehwi, not anyone else. Seeing how he accepted his action that he could have avoided if he wanted to, it was clear he didn’t dislike him.
Walking ahead, weren’t they swinging their clasped hands, lightly brushing each other’s hair? After seeming to act lovey-dovey and whisper, they even kissed brazenly.
The team members who were forced to witness their behavior while following behind didn’t open their mouths first. At first, they were very curious about their relationship. Not only was the relationship between the third-generation chaebol team leader and the world’s strongest Esper unique, but the two wandered around the center looking for each other like playing hide and seek.
Rather than looking for each other, it wasn’t a secret that Team Leader Kang wandered around looking for Nox. And it was also a fact everyone at the center knew that Nox intentionally avoided him. But it didn’t seem like he completely disliked him.
There were many employees who sometimes saw the two together. Above all, the suddenly appeared Gem Kitten Bbobbo only followed those two. It seemed to be with Nox, then appeared with Raon, and acted cute particularly only to those two, as if both of them were Bbobbo’s companion humans.
But what if the reality was that they were an Esper-Guide who had already formed a bond (though this wasn’t certain)? What they were showing right now in front of their eyes seemed like a typical Esper and Guide who had formed a bond. Though they didn’t always go together, the team members could say they’d gone to dungeons with Nox the most. Nox, who was blunt, barely spoke, and acted self-centered, was floundering in Raon’s hands.
In a situation where it showed there were no living beings except the team members, everyone had run inside urgently, flustered by Nox’s fierce attack that suddenly began. The moment they faced Nox destroying a wall where there was nothing, all the team members froze and couldn’t move for a moment.
Nayeon thought she already knew his excellent abilities. But Nox’s attack toward the wall was beyond imagination. No one readily stepped forward at the strong attack that seemed like the dungeon itself would break right away.
And the reason was Team Leader Kang who suddenly disappeared, and Nox, who had been using his abilities indiscriminately with a demon-like appearance, changed into a docile lamb the moment he embraced Team Leader Kang in his arms. He melted like wet cotton candy as if asking when he’d ever used such a terrifying energy.
Then, what happened to Aiden Jung, Nox’s official Guide?
Nayeon, who tilted her head at the complicated situation, couldn’t take her eyes off the Esper and Guide who had broken through all differences in grade, background, and age and were immersed in their own world. Whether they were nearby or not, they said everything they wanted to say and acted as they pleased. Should I say it was thoroughly to the extent that only the two of them were visible to the world and everything around them looked like background?
“Just now. Nox was scolding Team Leader Kang hard, right? And Team Leader Kang was like ‘do your worst’ and all.”
“…He did.”
“And Nox also said he’d never see Team Leader Kang again.”
“…So?”
“The kiss just now must have been guiding, right?”
“Jeong Taehyun.”
“Yes.”
“Are you forever alone?”
Nayeon looked at Taehyun whose mouth suddenly snapped shut. Even though he was the youngest on this team, he was a Guide, wasn’t he? It didn’t make sense for Espers and Guides to put great meaning on skinship. There were cases where they did it because they liked it, but there were more cases where survival was at stake.
Because Taehyun, who had been rambling about his curiosities until just now, snapped his mouth shut, Nayeon raised her hand and stroked Taehyun’s round back of the head.
“You saw Nox smashing the wall earlier, right? Have you ever seen Nox give off that kind of atmosphere?”
“No.”
“…Right, then. What do you think his condition would be like right now?”
“The worst.”
“Of course it is. Now, was that just now guiding? Or not?”
“Guiding.”
Nayeon continued to stroke the back of Taehyun’s head as he faithfully followed her lead and answered.
“Is your dilemma resolved now?”
“Yes.”
Only after drawing out the answer she wanted from Taehyun did Nayeon take her hand off his round back of the head.
“Unnie.”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you doing that to Taehyun?”
At Minji’s whisper who approached as soon as she finished talking with Taehyun, Nayeon smiled brightly.
“Who has the loosest lips among our team members?”
“……”
“If what we saw today spreads to people, what will happen to us?”
“……”
“Our team members’ teamwork is so good today. There were some flustering things and dangerous moments, but today’s compensation is double, so doesn’t it all make sense? In that spirit, how about everyone have a drink?”
Though they were covered in dust from head to toe and their condition was barely hanging on to the safety zone after receiving Taehyun’s guiding, the team members only nodded silently at Nayeon’s words. It was a day that definitely needed a drink.
* * *
When the team members were there, he said he’d hand the golem over to Hyukjin, but even after leaving the dungeon and receiving bomb-like nagging from Hyukjin, Raon didn’t even open his mouth about the golem.
Raon brushed over the situation haphazardly by saying he was tired and exhausted, suggesting they talk about the details tomorrow, and saying the team members also worked hard today. The team members also, as if they had the same mind as him, all kept their mouths shut about Bbobbo causing a rampage in the dungeon and the fact that it regenerated in an already cleared dungeon.
Because the only problem was that Raon had entered the dungeon arbitrarily, they could leave the dungeon entrance faster than expected.
Raon, sitting in the passenger seat of the car Jaehwi was driving, took out the golem that had been staying quietly in his pocket all along. Even seeing that the head that had been tilted until he put it in was fortunately attached well in its place, Raon carefully held it with his thumb and index finger and gently turned it around.
‘I’d prefer if you didn’t do that.’
The moment what had been staying like a docile toy moving as his hand went moved and spoke, Raon, who was startled, ended up dropping the golem.
“Did you decide to make collecting dungeon masters your hobby?”
Unlike the startled Raon, Jaehwi’s gaze looking at the golem that had peacefully sat on Raon’s lap before he knew it was extremely peaceful.
“No. I mean… But can you hear him talking?”
“There’s no way I couldn’t hear it.”
“Ppiyong.”
“You knew from the beginning that he was the dungeon master?”
“For an A-grade dungeon, there were many in number but none were strong. And the only one that could try its luck inside the dungeon was the master.”
With one hand on the steering wheel, Jaehwi’s fingertip that reached out touched the golem’s head again, and with a dull sound of “pyeok-,” the golem sitting on Raon’s lap toppled over sideways.
