# Chapter 5
After a moment of silence, Cha Haseong easily removed the lid, just like the day he first met Yeo Dowoon, and flicked it high with his finger.
Those long fingers that would march steeply across piano keys entered Dowoon’s field of vision.
A few years ago, Dowoon had impulsively gifted a grand piano with the sole desire to hear the melody played by those hands. Looking back, it was no different from what a complete idiot would do.
‘This kind of gesture is burdensome.’
Cha Haseong had immediately sent the piano back to him.
As a result, Dowoon had no choice but to keep a piano he couldn’t even play sitting in the middle of his living room, treating it like a white elephant. Throughout all this, of course, he never once thought about returning it.
This was because he had resolved hundreds of times that if there was even the slightest progress in his relationship with Cha Haseong, he would definitely give it back to him as a gift.
“Dowoon-ssi.”
It was while Dowoon was lost in these random thoughts. Cha Haseong, with his eyes curved like a crescent moon, opened his mouth. His pupils had clearly grown colder.
“Do you really dislike sweet things?”
He could answer that more than a hundred times.
“Yes. I dislike them.”
He would eat them if they were available, and occasionally he would seek out sugar on his own, but… in any case, Dowoon didn’t particularly prefer sweet flavors. His favorite drink was also an Americano without syrup.
When ordering Cha Haseong’s drink along with his, he sometimes tried adding hazelnut syrup, wanting to imitate his taste, but it was all futile effort.
However, Cha Haseong muttered as if Dowoon was hiding his true feelings.
“You always look at it so enviously, I thought you were crazy about sweet drinks.”
To be precise, it wasn’t the sweet drink he was crazy about, but your lips. However, Dowoon couldn’t bring himself to retort and instead wandered around looking for somewhere to rest his gaze.
Cha Haseong, who had been staring at him with a smile, gulped down his drink. His prominently rising Adam’s apple moved lightly, creating a mesmerizing atmosphere.
The words formed at the tip of those moistened lips continuously rendered Dowoon powerless.
“Am I going to drink this alone?”
As if interrogating whether he thought he could resist drinking despite Cha Haseong’s offer, he extended his arm again.
It would be a lie to say he didn’t want to accept it. If he had been just one year younger, no—if it had been just before hearing the news that Haseong had gotten a lover, Dowoon would have hurriedly grasped the drink.
‘An indirect kiss is still a kiss.’
He might have thought that while pressing his lips against the same spot.
“……Give it here.”
At Dowoon’s answer, Cha Haseong smiled crookedly as if he had known it all along. But as soon as Dowoon received the drink, he froze it and then shattered it with his hand.
“What are you doing…!”
The solidly frozen fragments jumped in all directions, tearing at Dowoon’s palm. Horrified, Cha Haseong snatched his hand and interlocked their fingers, pulling it toward him.
Even though it was a trivial injury that didn’t require contact guiding, he quietly held Dowoon’s hand. His eyes were blank, as if the shock hadn’t subsided.
“Since it seemed like Guide-nim didn’t want to drink it either, I just helped you out today.”
“……”
“Next time, handle it yourself.”
Dowoon, listlessly watching the process of his wound healing, pronounced.
He tried not to look at Cha Haseong’s face as much as possible. He was afraid of seeing him with a contorted expression. He didn’t want to waste more time fooling himself.
“…Alright, Dowoon-ssi.”
A hand with prominent knuckles gripped Dowoon’s wrist. Cha Haseong, stroking the protruding veins, whispered softly.
“Thank you.”
***
“Yeo Dowoon, easy! Take it easy!”
Despite Ko Ijae’s screams, Dowoon emitted bright red flames without even blinking.
Ko Ijae, who had been trying to extinguish the flames by removing the medium, realized he could never stand against Dowoon with just his power and was frantically trying to avoid getting hit.
Tears welled up as he thought he might get roasted like a steak.
“You crazy bastard…!”
Ko Ijae, whose left arm was slashed by an ice pick flying through the gap in the rising flames, burst out with curses. He was furious beyond reason that this ice wouldn’t melt even within the flames.
Next, Ko Ijae exerted all his strength to lower the density of the air. It was an attack targeting both of Dowoon’s hands, which could be considered his ignition points. Thick drops of blood burst from Ko Ijae’s nose and ears.
Naturally, when oxygen disappears, flames die down as well.
But just before he could perfectly control and drive away the air around Dowoon, a solid ice cord flew in, bound him, and slammed him hard to the floor.
“I give up! Fuck, I said I give up…! You heartless bastard!”
It was an absolute victory for Dowoon.
After breaking and removing the ice that had bound Ko Ijae, Dowoon strode over.
Ko Ijae’s face was completely covered in red blood, making him look like he was filming a horror movie. Baring his canines, he asked:
“When, haah, did pair training become a kill-your-partner game?”
“Practice more sincerely. Your level isn’t even on par with B-class Espers.”
Ko Ijae, making a tearful face and thinking “that rude bastard,” glared at Dowoon’s palm extended toward him.
Wasn’t it those very hands that had spewed flames, scorching his limbs and leaving hideous burns?
He had been so mercilessly driven that Ko Ijae had to seriously consider whether Dowoon had actually joined this training to assassinate him.
At that, Dowoon snapped irritably, as if Ko Ijae was being too picky.
“Grab it and get up quickly.”
He had thought it was a hand offered in apology, but apparently not. He was still observing Ko Ijae with a menacing, bristling gaze.
Unable to be certain of the reason, Ko Ijae had no choice but to wipe away even the hollow laugh that had appeared on his face. He answered in a voice that was almost dying.
“First, some guiding…”
“Guiding, fuck, what guiding.”
Dowoon responded much more aggressively than when they had met in the locker room, gritting his teeth. Ko Ijae, his burned arm firmly grasped, was forcibly lifted up and groaned. A desperate plea followed.
“Dowoon-ah, I’m really going to end up half-crippled at this rate.”
“If you’re that worried, go get guiding from Shim Woomin-ssi.”
Shim Woomin was the name of the A-class guide who had been in charge of Team Delta until Cha Haseong awakened. He’d heard that Woomin was now dealing with rookie Espers with slower recovery rates, but he couldn’t understand why that name was coming up here.
Thwack! Dowoon, who had harshly slapped Ko Ijae’s back, suddenly rebuked him.
“I know you can easily endure this much. You’re just trying to avoid using your stamina by seeking a guide first.”
“……It’s not that.”
“When I first joined, whether my arm was torn or my leg was torn, I’d just be locked in a room, groaning. That’s how you heal.”
“Man. I joined before you, remember?”
At this rebuttal that clearly pointed out the logical flaw, Dowoon removed all expression from his face. Like a cold wind blowing in, his frosty gaze heavily pressured Ko Ijae.
With an attitude that seemed to threaten “do you really need to hear the reason,” Ko Ijae smoothly changed the subject.
“Well, maybe not…”
He didn’t know why Dowoon was making such a fuss about preventing him from receiving guiding, but an ominous feeling brushed his spine that nothing good would come from getting involved.
Only then did Dowoon release his arm.
“You thought right. If hyung gets guiding, I’d have to go in for inspection too.”
When a partner’s body is judged to have abnormalities after pair training, the other person must also undergo inspection.
Just thinking about having to entrust his entire body to Cha Haseong, who hadn’t exchanged another word with him since refusing the drink, even while warming up in the same space, made Dowoon’s temples throb.
When he showed this unusual behavior—normally, he would have forcibly dragged himself to a guide just to receive an inspection—Ko Ijae grew more suspicious and cleared his throat. Then he casually asked:
“You don’t mean that rumor about Cha Haseong getting a lover… Aaagh!”
But his arm froze midway, causing him to scream.
“Don’t be so noisy. I just stopped the bleeding in advance.”
Dowoon clicked his tongue and added indifferently.
***
-Dowoon, are you approaching?
“How many times do I have to tell you?”
Dowoon was in a seriously bad condition today.
For no special reason, except that regret was flooding in—perhaps he should have properly allowed Ko Ijae to receive guiding earlier.
If he had, he would probably have had various parts of his body examined by Cha Haseong’s palm, but at least he wouldn’t have been in this unavoidable situation of breaking through a dungeon with him.
-Since you’re already in there, try to steal at least one egg on your way out. It’s not a common opportunity.
“Still no contact with Sunbae Ko Ijae?”
-Thanks to someone’s temperament, he’s getting treated by an A-class guide instead of an S-class, so you should just overlook it if his recovery is slow.
“…Yes, Captain, please convey my apologies for me.”
Originally, when dealing with pterosaur-type monsters that use powerful cries and wing flapping as attack sources, it was essential to include Ko Ijae, an Esper who could manipulate air, in the operation.
But unfortunately, he was recovering from injuries sustained during the morning’s pair training, so Dowoon had to be deployed instead to explore the monster’s nest.
In reality, it was more like an escape process than exploration.
What this means is that the pterosaur-type monsters, known for their high intelligence, targeted only the guide who deployed with the Espers, swinging their thick, long talons.
