“Ahhh!”
Jiwon thought he was going to be crushed and fall, so he pressed against the wall with force and barely managed to hold on.
“…Excuse me?”
What’s going on? Did someone collapse behind me…?
The person who had fallen against Jiwon’s body as if collapsing should have been able to stand up again by now, but there was no movement. From the parts where they were touching, he could feel an eerily cold chill.
He hadn’t sensed any presence until they came right up behind him—when had they approached?
The body felt devoid of any warmth, and they seemed unconscious, which made Jiwon suddenly afraid. It was hard to keep supporting them, so he tried to slip out first, but the person who had been completely still moved one arm and pulled Jiwon’s body in with strong force.
“Ugh… Excuse me, are you okay? Can you stand up?”
He asked, wondering if they were conscious, but there was no reply.
Jiwon turned his head to check the surroundings. He hadn’t expected much since he rarely ran into people here anyway, but the hallway he examined just in case didn’t even have a single ant.
Before he knew it, the person clinging to his back was making pained groans.
What should I do… Should I call 119? Should I contact the Center’s medical team?
As Jiwon struggled and worried, he noticed that guiding energy was flowing out from his body. Since it hadn’t been long since his manifestation, there were times when energy would leak out if he wasn’t conscious of it, but it would be fine once he gathered it back.
Then the thought suddenly flashed through Jiwon’s mind—could it be that an Esper who needed guiding had come to him because of this energy?
Since everyone at the Center is either a Guide or an Esper.
Jiwon had overlapped his hands with the ones embracing his body and tried guiding, but for a moment he almost hesitated and cut off the guiding. Waves that were tangled up so densely they were completely blocked spread out endlessly, terrifyingly so.
The massive forces were so enormous that their depth couldn’t be known, twisted and clumped together to the point where he didn’t know where to start unraveling them.
On top of that, the lost energies were rampaging through the interior at high speed, wreaking havoc.
“What on earth is this…”
Jiwon was afraid to push his guiding energy in, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t even tell if the guiding was working properly on these hard and heavy energy masses that were on a completely different level from other Espers’ waves.
He looked down at the right arm embracing him to check the gauge, but there was no watch. He struggled to move his hand behind him to find the other person’s left hand and pulled it forward. In the process, Jiwon’s body swayed, unable to bear the weight.
Jiwon sighed as he lifted the hand he’d barely managed to grab and examined the watch. The watch, with only its black screen remaining, was turned off.
The problem was that he had no idea how to turn it back on. He tried touching it here and there, but he couldn’t even find where the button was.
In this sudden emergency situation, Jiwon, a novice Guide who had only been here for a week, was utterly flustered.
He was worried about this Esper, whoever they were. It was definitely a dangerous condition.
“I-I think we need to get inside.”
It didn’t seem like things would improve by staying here like this. Jiwon placed his finger on the fingerprint pad of the private room and opened the door, then firmly grabbed both hands of the Esper leaning on his back and pulled with all his might as he entered.
He worried about what to do if they wouldn’t budge, but fortunately, whether they had the strength to stand or not, the Esper followed along as he was pulled. If not, they would have greeted the floor as soon as they passed through the door.
He reached out to close the door and headed toward the bed inside.
Feeling like if he fell once he’d never get up again, Jiwon moved while maintaining his balance as much as possible. He had to pull hard, but thanks to the Esper following along obediently, he barely managed to arrive in front of the bed.
“Ah!”
As he twisted his body to lay them down on the bed, Jiwon, unable to bear the weight pressing from behind, fell face-first onto the bed. Because of that, the person attached to his back also collapsed on top of Jiwon, and he was crushed under the large body.
“Ngh…”
Jiwon tried to push the heavy body off, but it didn’t budge. He was already exhausted and out of breath just from dragging this huge person to the bed, and he thought he’d suffocate to death at this rate, so Jiwon struggled to escape even if he had to crawl.
Haah… Nothing’s easy. I wish they’d at least regain consciousness.
Perhaps bothered by the continuous squirming and wriggling from underneath, the Esper on top rolled over while holding onto Jiwon’s body.
“Hup! Ahhh~!”
Jiwon screamed at his body being flipped over in an instant. His heart pounded.
For a while, he stayed in that position, clutching his chest.
He wanted to check on the other person, but after moving around squeezing out his insufficient stamina, he didn’t even have the energy to wiggle a finger.
At least he seemed to have avoided being crushed to death. Jiwon blankly stared at the white ceiling before his eyes, conserving his strength.
Even in the midst of all this, he was proud of himself for concentrating on not letting the guiding break. Though perhaps that was why he was even more exhausted.
Since the Esper kept embracing him, Jiwon had to exert force again to turn his body.
After taking a big breath in and out to steady his breathing, he twisted his body. As expected, it wasn’t easy because of the firm arms wrapped around him. Still, perhaps because it wasn’t a movement to break free, no more force went into the arms.
“Haah…”
Successfully turning his body, he rested his face against somewhere below the Esper’s chest for a brief rest.
Jiwon let out a small sigh and stretched both hands upward to grab the broad shoulders and pull his body up. Each movement was as difficult as doing high-intensity exercise.
“Hngh-cha.”
It was like rock climbing.
“Why are you so biiiig! Ugh… This is hard.”
He couldn’t believe he had dragged this massive body all the way here. Catching his ragged breath, Jiwon lifted his head and was finally able to face the Esper.
The surprisingly handsome face looked somewhat familiar. It wasn’t an Esper he had guided before.
Then he remembered that a few days ago, when he went to the dessert café Ellin and was leaving with Team Leader Lee Juyeon, he had seen from afar an S-rank Esper passing by—Seo Gangwoo.
He was that Esper who was said to be suffering from a low matching rate.
Still, he had a pair Guide… So why is he here in this condition?
Questions arose, but Jiwon continued guiding. However, there was no sign of improvement in his condition. The waves rampaging inside were still the same.
Though he didn’t know what a rampaging Esper was like, he knew for certain that the current state was dangerous.
While receiving Guide training, he had vaguely thought that someday he might do a higher level than basic guiding, but he didn’t know that situation would come this quickly.
Forget dating, I haven’t even had a fling, and now contact guiding…
But thinking that dragging out time like this wasn’t the answer either, Jiwon gently held the Esper’s face with both hands. Seeing him up close, he was even more handsome.
“……”
He had barely steeled his resolve and made his decision, but right in front of him, he hesitated again.
My… first kiss. Huuu.
Jiwon, now on the verge of tears, buried his head toward the Esper’s shoulder and pounded the mattress.
“This shi-… Haah… This is a medical procedure, a medical procedure!”
The energy waves inside Esper Seo Gangwoo’s body, as if about to burst out, urged him toward high-intensity guiding.
Facing each other again, Jiwon took a big breath in, squeezed his eyes shut, and pressed their lips together.
Though it was a cool temperature, the touch was softer than expected, and Jiwon felt strange.
After staying still with their lips pressed together, he gently pushed his tongue through the gap between the lips. Though it was a small area, guiding was sucked in through the touching mucous membrane. It was definitely more effective than hands or hugging.
As he stayed rigid with only his tongue touching, he couldn’t breathe. The moment Jiwon briefly pulled his lips away to catch his lacking breath, suddenly a hand pressed down on the back of his head and he ended up stuck to Esper Seo Gangwoo’s lips again.
A thick tongue entered, cutting through the gap between his lips that had opened to breathe, without hesitation.
“Hhup! Ngh.”
Startled, Jiwon’s neck stiffened as he tensed up and tried to pull his head back, but the hand holding his head didn’t move like a solid wall.
Unlike the cold skin, the inside of his mouth was hot enough to burn.
It was a rough kiss, as if he were being swallowed. At the movements that made him feel like he’d lose his mind, his tongue unconsciously retreated, and the other person caught it and sucked strongly. His already tense body trembled at that movement.
Even when he tried pushing the shoulders with both hands, his utterly insufficient strength couldn’t make them budge. He tried breathing through his nose instead of his tightly blocked mouth, but it was difficult, as if he’d forgotten how to breathe.
Unable to endure any longer, he urgently tapped on Esper Seo Gangwoo’s chest with his hand, asking to be released. Fortunately, whether that signal reached him or not, the hand that had been fixing his head fell away, and he was barely able to pull his lips away and breathe raggedly, gulping in air.
“Haah… haah…”
Jiwon couldn’t collect himself about what had just happened. It was as if he’d been swept up in a storm.
His breathing didn’t calm down easily. Jiwon’s heart pounded at this intense kiss that felt like it would devour him.
As he was catching his rough breathing, he felt a gaze at some point, and Jiwon, who lifted his head, froze like stone. The pitch-black eyes that had been closed all this time were looking only at Jiwon’s lips.
“……”
“……”
A golden light flickered briefly within the black pupils, making them feel like a beast’s eyes. At that persistent gaze with a clear desire, Jiwon’s body began to tremble.
