It’s the first time seeing a man around the same age carry around something like that. It should look strange, but the excessively fastidious appearance didn’t feel awkward at all.
Kim Jin-ho, whose face had become completely red, approached Moon Woo-shin threateningly.
“Does being team leader mean everything? It’s true that everything is only your way, bastard.”
Of course, Kim Jin-ho with an average adult male height didn’t look threatening at all to Moon Woo-shin who seemed to be about 192cm.
Moon Woo-shin, who gave a small snicker, looked down at him.
“Did I show too much courtesy? Now you’re totally looking down on me? Huh?”
Then, as if he didn’t even want to touch him with his hands, he lifted his foot and kicked Kim Jin-ho’s shoe a few times.
“According to your words, I’m a precious person. So I got quite a lot of authority. They said to try doing everything I want to during practicum, and I just thought of one. Get out.”
“What?”
“How can I entrust my back to a guy who has no trust and only seems full of complaints? Who knows what accident you’ll cause inside the Gate. So get out. I don’t need you on my team.”
Moon Woo-shin, who turned around just like that, gave instructions to the other team members in a leisurely tone.
“Prepare for the next set. We’re going in right away in 3 minutes.”
It was an attitude without even a trace of interest in Kim Jin-ho anymore.
The team members who had been quietly just reading the room began to move one by one with creaking sounds. Kim Jin-ho, left alone awkwardly, fumed for a bit and soon headed toward the door.
“Fuck.”
Unable to suppress his anger, he spat a pointless curse into the air, and kicking the door hard was a bonus. With a loud noise, he completely disappeared outside the door.
Hae-il, who watched that entire process unfold before his eyes, quietly sighed only internally.
‘Should I be sad that the atmosphere got ruined even before Gate entry, or should I be happy that the person who ruined the atmosphere dropped out early?’
As Moon Woo-shin said, it was fortunate that conflict didn’t arise inside the Gate.
While belatedly picking up the water bottles scattered on the floor, shoes suddenly intruded into his field of vision. Hae-il, who raised his head, confirmed that the person standing in front was Moon Woo-shin and quickly straightened his waist to stand properly.
As soon as they stood facing each other properly, chilly words stabbed.
“If you have complaints too, say it now.”
“Yes?”
Why are the sparks suddenly flying this way? I was just standing in front of Kim Jin-ho, but did it look like I cursed along?
He felt very wronged. Before he could make excuses, Moon Woo-shin turned around, so Hae-il, holding the empty bottles full in both hands, quickly followed.
“I have none at all. Rather, I want to be on the same team as senior next semester too. Earlier that was that senior unilaterally….”
“If you don’t have any, hurry and help prepare for training. Don’t make me say it twice.”
Only a resolute and cold gaze and answer came back. It felt like adding more words now would only have the opposite effect.
“…Yes.”
Hae-il, who answered obediently, bowed his head once and moved briskly.
Even while mixed among other team members helping set up equipment for the next training, he glanced at Moon Woo-shin, but his gaze never returned.
It’s not easy, he thought, yet he felt strangely defiant. Hae-il firmly shut his lips.
‘I’ll definitely become close somehow.’
It seemed he’d have to go for a long-term battle.
***
Throughout the mock training for the first Gate entry, Hae-il diligently hovered around Moon Woo-shin.
However, it was consistently not very successful.
“Senior! I’ll help you.”
“If you’re free, go to Professor Im Eun-myeong and get the Gate N9011-11 strategy records.”
“Yes, I’ll do this together and go get…”
“Now.”
“Yes….”
Whenever Moon Woo-shin was doing something, he’d rush over eagerly and fuss around, but he’d only end up getting other tasks instead.
“Senior, what are you doing after training?”
“I told you I don’t do private guiding.”
“Not guiding, would you like to have dinner with me? I also have things I want to talk about regarding today’s training.”
“Do it here. I don’t do private meals either.”
Even when he tried to squeeze into time outside of training, he was repeatedly bounced back.
‘He doesn’t do private guiding, doesn’t eat meals, doesn’t seem to have close classmates or seniors and juniors. What the hell does that person do with his life?’
There wasn’t a single gap to be found, and he was a human type difficult for Hae-il to understand.
Thanks to that, both the time Hae-il spent openly observing Moon Woo-shin and the time his gaze stayed on him without realizing it only grew longer and longer.
Even now, just before their first Gate, Hae-il was only following Moon Woo-shin’s movements with his eyes.
Standing at the very front of the waiting group, he was having some conversation with a teaching assistant. His usually expressionless face momentarily drew a natural curve.
‘…He seems annoyed.’
As a result of earnest observation over several days, he could now distinguish the emotions contained in Moon Woo-shin’s smiling face.
Most were negative signals—about 50% was annoyed, about 20% was pissed off. The remaining 29% or so was meaningless smiles for appropriate social life, and while there probably were times he smiled sincerely about 1% of the time, he hadn’t seen it yet.
Watching intently, he became somewhat curious about what they were talking about. He felt like casually approaching for a moment, but refrained in case the emotion displayed on that face evolved from annoyance to being pissed off.
Instead, it was when he was concentrating only on observation for a while.
“It’s going to bore a hole, bore a hole.”
At the voice suddenly heard from beside him, Hae-il flinched in surprise and stepped back.
Jang Yun-seo was looking up with a subtle face, having paused while putting on protective equipment.
“Stop looking. It’s obvious, you.”
“What’s obvious?”
“That you’re interested in Moon Woo-shin.”
The nuance was strange. Hae-il, who immediately noticed what he meant, smiled slightly. He is interested, but it’s not that direction at all.
“Ah, senior, it’s not like that.”
“What do you mean it’s not like that? A kid entering a Gate for the first time isn’t even thinking about the Gate and is only looking at Moon Woo-shin.”
Come to think of it, while concentrating on only one side, the tension before his first Gate had faded at some point.
But that didn’t mean it was interest in that direction.
“It’s really not. That man isn’t my type.”
If he were an Esper with fussy wavelengths, without the luxury of considering things like gender, whoever matched wavelengths would just become his type, but Hae-il wasn’t like that. Since my wavelength spectrum is broad too, is there a need to do that with another man?
Moon Woo-shin’s guiding that he’d occasionally received during training had been good. He could clearly feel the high matching rate, and even though it was only radiant guiding, it wasn’t lacking at all, plus his wavelength had a unique charm. It seemed sharp at first glance, but when actually approached closely, it melted softly in a way that felt somehow familiar and comfortable.
Still though. He wasn’t so starved for guiding that he’d approach a male Guide in that sense when there were so many Guides around.
“Then why do you keep staring? You’ve been doing it all day.”
“Well… I want to get close to a senior I respect and learn better, so I’m looking.”
When he spoke half-jokingly, half-seriously, Jang Yun-seo laughed hollowly as if absurd.
However, before he could say anything more, a chilly voice interjected between the two people.
“Seo Hae-il.”
It was Moon Woo-shin, who had stood nearby at some point.
“You must be confident enough to chat in front of a Gate?”
“No….”
He normally doesn’t give even a glance no matter how much I fuss around. Why does he only talk to me at moments like this of all times? It wasn’t like they’d chatted for long either, just exchanged a couple words.
Whether Hae-il felt wronged or not, Moon Woo-shin didn’t care as always.
He, who had approached right in front, suddenly reached his hand toward Hae-il’s waist. Without even a gap to flinch, the hand that dug in snatched the waist adjustment strap and pulled it sharply. The defensive vest that had been adjusted to fit just right tightened enough to squeeze his waist tightly, and the distance between the two became very close.
Moon Woo-shin’s eyes, standing at a distance of barely a span, looked down at Hae-il coldly. The sensation of the black eyes that felt endlessly deep sweeping through him as if to pierce was vivid.
Is it because the distance is close? Or is that gaze the problem? Suddenly, the extremely natural act of breathing felt awkward.
“Prepare for entry properly.”
“…Yes.”
As he barely answered, only then did Moon Woo-shin turn around and walk toward the front again. Belatedly, Hae-il slowly exhaled a thin breath.
