He swallowed the lips first in his thirst.
Though trembling in fear, as soon as they touched, guiding soaked in gently. It was so natural that he’d think it was false modesty if not for Han Seoha’s reaction of being frozen in fear, unable to move.
Baek Uihyeon wished to receive more of this guiding for longer. Even with just lips touching, the kindness that caressed the tangled flow of waves made Baek Uihyeon impatient.
Far from opening up, when he parted Han Seoha’s trembling lips with his tongue, they opened powerlessly, making it easy to invade. Throughout licking every inch of the unresponsive person’s insides and swallowing even wet breaths, the guiding continued endlessly as if to accept all of Baek Uihyeon.
A bit more. More. Much more.
Licking inside the mouth wasn’t enough. The instinct wanting more intimate contact pressed his body against Han Seoha without any gaps.
Only then did Han Seoha’s tongue, which had been powerlessly following along as it was sucked, resist faintly. The movement, too feeble to even call resistance, was closer to floundering to create space to breathe.
Only then did Baek Uihyeon realize that Han Seoha was trapped between the wall and the S-rank esper’s body, unable to breathe. He gave just a very slight gap and apologized while stroking Han Seoha’s flushed cheeks.
“I’m sorry.”
“Haa, haak!”
The breath was short as the compressed lungs urgently swallowed air. The panting fragile body was vividly transmitted through the flesh touching Baek Uihyeon. He wanted to make him pant in a different way, not like this. Though it was a naturally arising desire, he couldn’t rush the guide who was desperate to breathe with even tears welling up. He merely kept fiddling with the wet lips beaded with hot breath.
“Baek, Uihyeo… hup…”
Pushing his finger between the lips that pursed to call his name wasn’t intentional. It merely slid in naturally, following the faint guiding transmitted through the wet lips.
“Seoha-ssi, want to try sucking?”
“Hngh…”
Though faint, when he put his finger deep into Han Seoha’s mouth as he shook his head, unlike freezing up, guiding flowed in. The guiding that flowed as naturally as water, which he’d mistaken for A-rank, was absurdly efficient when tasted again after knowing it was C-rank.
Even if the energy was significantly lower compared to A-rank, the speed and skill of releasing the waves was impressively fast and comfortable.
“Seoha-ssi, you said you’re C-rank.”
Han Seoha’s response of nodding with the finger in his mouth was cute, making Baek Uihyeon laugh.
Guide rank was determined by output value. The amount of guiding energy that could be produced at once didn’t change much over time.
Even with A-ranks, the energy transmitted to Baek Uihyeon was often terrible. Even having met countless guides, he only repeated pain and disappointment each time.
“I suppose it’s rather fortunate.”
Receiving Han Seoha’s guiding, the pain he’d had to forcibly endure to enter gates felt unfair.
A guide who transmitted all the energy they had most gently.
It was so easy to make him his own that he had to resolve not to rush.
‘They say espers are all crazy bastards.’
Han Seoha looked at Baek Uihyeon, whose eyes had gone mad from just a kiss, and busily worked his mind with a frightened face.
Baek Uihyeon. An S-rank esper and one who commanded numerous guides. That was only the official record—the reality was traces of continuously searching for new guides due to extremely poor efficiency. Rather, it was like an overworked laborer suffering from chronic guiding deficiency living on unsuitable fatigue recovery supplements.
Additionally, the information that he felt pain during guiding wasn’t left in official records, so most didn’t know this fact. He knew that, and now having returned to the past, he’d attempted guiding that combined Han Seoha’s disposition with the abilities he originally possessed—and it had entranced Baek Uihyeon all too easily.
“Mmph, hngh…”
“This makes me feel guilty. You’re too much like a baby.”
Crazy bastard. He’s a crazy bastard.
Baek Uihyeon gave a fresh smile while shoving his finger in enough to make breathing difficult.
What hero—he looked like trash wearing a normal mask, but he desperately tried to change his thoughts to be like Han Seoha.
‘This is an opportunity. I was planning to keep at least one S-rank as Han Seoha’s backer anyway.’
He mustn’t let an S-rank put a leash on him, but putting one on them was necessary. As long as he wasn’t dragged along like this, it was entirely possible.
Most of all, he shouldn’t get angry in this situation. He had to adjust so there’d be no sense of incongruity even after Han Seoha returned. Rather, being scared and showing tears was right.
Looking at Baek Uihyeon, even if Han Seoha cried, he didn’t seem like he’d stop. If he was going to stop, it would have already ended when the elevator arrived and opened on the first floor.
The elevator didn’t close, perhaps because of the S-rank esper’s waves. This situation could be useful.
If as expected, he would appear soon. Ryu Jaegeon, who would see the gifts at Yu Haneul’s dormitory and come running in anger.
“Seoha-ssi, you look like you’re struggling—shall we stop?”
At the sudden proposal, he nodded while biting Baek Uihyeon’s finger, but it would be troublesome if it ended like this since the timing wouldn’t match. Fortunately, at Baek Uihyeon’s following question, Han Seoha froze and was able to desperately scrape together tears.
“Then please form a partnership with me. I won’t hope for a pair.”
Partnership was Han Seoha’s reverse scale. After being abandoned by Ryu Jaegeon, he never formed one with anyone—a precious promise he could never make even while being misunderstood among espers and called around here and there. Like a fool, Han Seoha had treasured the existence called partner as such a precious memory.
So Baek Uihyeon’s proposal meant erasing that unique existence and was a matter of reminding him of the abandoned Han Seoha.
When he recalled Han Seoha’s despair, tears fell in drops without needing to fake it. Faster than Baek Uihyeon’s remaining fingers could wipe away tears by tracing his cheeks, they welled up profusely and rolled down.
“It’s troublesome if you cry like this.”
“Hic… sniff…”
Baek Uihyeon, whose full ten fingers cupped both cheeks to make them face each other, had a very gentle expression, but the black pupils visible between his curved eyes were excessively dark.
“I, I…”
“Now, Seoha-ssi. It’s okay, so just look at me.”
“Jaegeon…”
“Shh, don’t think of other people.”
He tried to shake his head saying he couldn’t do that, but his face held in Baek Uihyeon’s hands couldn’t move at all. Naturally, the flustered Han Seoha crying sorrowfully and spitting out the familiar name was a natural flow.
“Jaegeon, ah.”
“Did I scare you, Seoha-ssi?”
“Scary…”
“Oh my, Seoha-ssi.”
“He, lp me. Jaegeon…”
The moment Baek Uihyeon’s body, which had been separated just enough to barely breathe, instantly fell away, wind and heat rushed in.
Along with the sound of air and waves clashing, it seemed like he was rolling out of the elevator, but embraced by Baek Uihyeon, he bounced out safely into the hallway. After checking on Han Seoha, Baek Uihyeon interrogated in the direction the waves had flown from.
“You use force when there’s a guide present? You’ll need to receive training from the beginning again.”
“Since an S-rank can’t understand words, I thought I should do this much.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever exchanged words with you, so why don’t you get a memory and cognitive test first?”
“Jae, Jaegeon… mmph!”
When Han Seoha raised his head at Ryu Jaegeon’s voice, Baek Uihyeon pulled him into his embrace so he couldn’t be seen. However, at Han Seoha’s extremely frightened call, Ryu Jaegeon’s waves struck roughly as if meeting a torrent.
“He keeps calling for me, Han Seoha does.”
“You should get a hearing test too. Since A-rank espers are national assets, how about getting a regular checkup soon?”
While lightly avoiding Ryu Jaegeon’s heat, Baek Uihyeon positioned himself so that Han Seoha in his arms wouldn’t come into view.
“I’ll formally sue through the Guide Committee.”
“On what grounds would you sue when I’m formally requesting partnership? I believe you were a former partner.”
“…Don’t do it, Han Seoha.”
“That’s Seoha-ssi’s decision.”
“Stop it. Only you’re getting hurt!”
For a moment, fierce flames rose enough for Baek Uihyeon to raise his arm to defend, but it was only momentary. Excessive use of force quickly exhausted espers.
When the kneeling Ryu Jaegeon panted due to his roughened waves, Baek Uihyeon felt the guiding that had been spreading faintly from where it touched him cut off unstably.
“Seoha-ssi?”
“Jaegeon, snap out of it!”
Han Seoha’s palm, raising his voice while even cutting off guiding, was covered in blood.
“Seoha-ssi, what have you done?”
“Please, let me go.”
Flustered at what was happening, Baek Uihyeon belatedly realized that the feeling of faintly pulling at his clothes throughout dealing with Ryu Jaegeon was Han Seoha struggling to the point of tearing his palms to escape.
Most of all, what flustered Baek Uihyeon was that even Han Seoha’s blood smelled sweet, so he hadn’t noticed.
“I’ll guide you. So please let me go to Jaegeon.”
When he released Han Seoha, who was still pushing Baek Uihyeon away with bloodied hands, he staggered and ran toward Ryu Jaegeon. Falling once, twice, and at the last even crawling. Han Seoha, who finally reached Ryu Jaegeon, grabbed him with bloodied hands.
It was probably the most gentle and deep guiding possible.
“Jaegeon, it’s okay. You won’t go berserk. I won’t let that happen.”
“Fuck, what are you doing with your hands all torn up?”
“I’m sorry. Guide Yu Haneul will come soon. Your watch will send information to them now. Even if it’s hard, I’ll guide you for just a bit.”
“You… is this the time to worry about that?”
In Ryu Jaegeon’s gruff voice with subsided anger, worry had already seeped in. Han Seoha kept sobbing but didn’t let go of Ryu Jaegeon’s hand. Ryu Jaegeon also didn’t shake off that hand.
“What’s all this commotion?”
“Why is Ryu Jaegeon here… Gasp, Baek Uihyeon is here too?”
“Wow, Ryu Jaegeon really needs to retake the rank assessment.”
Among those admiring the situation, murmurs mixed with sympathy toward Han Seoha could also be heard. It was more than enough to guess what rumors those who’d crowded at the sudden commotion would spread.
