Woo-shin deliberately narrowed his eyes while smiling deeply.
“Hae-il, where did you go?”
The expression unable to hide fluster was worth seeing.
Taking that gap, Moon Woo-shin, who narrowed the distance, reached out his arm again.
Pushing the chest area, avoiding the leg that had extended at some point, reversely sweeping a leg, he lightly caught the fist Seo Hae-il thrust out. While tightly constricting the wrist filled fully in his hand without gaps, Moon Woo-shin smiled. He could clearly see sparks rising in the pupils facing him.
If I use my ability, I can make him kneel simply without laying hands, but with just that, I probably can’t make even inside Seo Hae-il’s head completely submit.
‘Rather, it’s better to show with the body without that ability.’
There was a need to clearly imprint who stood in the superior position.
This time Seo Hae-il, who rushed first, swung his leg with the sound of viciously cutting through the air. Moon Woo-shin, who avoided while creating distance, pulled the wrist he was holding and fixed it behind Hae-il’s back. Then he twisted his body more as is and attacked with the opposite elbow. It was quite fierce movement.
Woo-shin, who barely avoided, mercilessly kicked Hae-il’s back of the knee. Even while crashing down to the ground starting from his knees, Seo Hae-il, who used that force and weight to shake off his wrist, rolled across the floor once to create distance.
However, he had no intention of giving any gap to regain center.
Right before Hae-il stood up, Moon Woo-shin, who collided while putting weight as is, instantly gathered both wrists in order into one hand. With the opposite arm, he crossed long across the chest area to subdue, and entangled legs long to press down.
While tying with the body one by one, Hae-il, who’d been roughly resisting, soon became quiet when completely subdued.
Instead, the still unbroken gaze came touching straight on.
From the surface of the pupils where that sharp texture touched, subtle elation bloomed.
Moon Woo-shin, who admired for a moment the sight of Seo Hae-il completely placed beneath him, slowly opened his mouth again.
“I just asked. Where did you go?”
“Answering is my choice.”
“Was the guiding fun?”
He didn’t miss the pupils’ movement wavering briefly. Just as his mood was about to improve at the transparency Seo Hae-il showed, recalling that in reality it originated from another Guide made his mood rapidly worsen again.
“For ‘handling it well on your own,’ your partner was lacking.”
“For me it’s sufficient.”
“The guiding time, wavelength control—nothing was done properly, but sufficient?”
“However I receive guiding is a matter between me and my partner, not something the Director should interfere with.”
At the words directly calling them ‘partner’ and the attitude of drawing a line, heat surged.
Really, that’s a partner? Just that?
‘Why did I give up?’
From inside the jaw where excessive force entered, the sound of teeth grinding leaked out and filled his ears.
Even though their bodies were tightly pressed together without gaps, Seo Hae-il still seemed to be standing far away. Even those firm eyes too.
Moon Woo-shin, who’d been quietly looking down, impulsively released guiding. The wavelength bursting outside for the first time in a very long while rushed toward the only Esper.
Seo Hae-il immediately reacted to the guiding rapidly permeating through the touching bodies.
“Ugh, are you crazy?”
The sound of urgently inhaling breath, eyes momentarily releasing blankly, a body very slightly losing strength.
While observing every single change he’d created in detail without missing anything, he pushed the wavelength a bit deeper inside. To push out all the shitty wavelength of the other Guide still faintly overlaying around Seo Hae-il’s wavelength, and fill it only with his own.
It was when he’d almost completely erased those traces in a short time.
“Stop it.”
Seo Hae-il, who’d been struggling below, cut off the wavelength sharply.
Moon Woo-shin froze solid at the flow suddenly cut off and the wavelength that lost its place as if blocked by a solid wall.
“…What?”
“I said stop.”
While exhaling rough breaths, Seo Hae-il didn’t pull back his glaring eyes. He also didn’t release the guiding he’d blocked.
A scoff burst out.
For an Esper to block a Guide’s wavelength, guiding—it was theoretically possible. But there was no Esper who’d do such crazy thing.
Moon Woo-shin, who roughly pulled down the wrist of Seo Hae-il he was gripping, twisted to check the watch. 42%.
A voice spitting out as if chewing burst out on its own.
“Can’t you see this? Receive guiding.”
“I don’t want to. When did I ask for guiding? Even if I rampage, I’ll never receive guiding from the Director.”
The eyes looking up defiantly had already become clear again and contained only hostility.
Was it even possible to block guiding at a number not even reaching half? Craving guiding was an Esper’s instinct. The lower the number, the worse that thirst became beyond imagination.
Then this right now… The only conclusion was that Seo Hae-il’s will was strong enough to go against instinct.
“Ha…”
Moon Woo-shin, who let out a long sigh, grabbed Hae-il’s collar and pulled him up.
The faces of the two who grew close in an instant stuck together close enough to touch. It was a distance where each other’s breaths mingled faintly.
An ember burning roughly as if to swallow the opponent dyed the view red.
Should I just lock him up like this? If I tie him obediently under my control until I finish work, there won’t be any acting like this again.
Moon Woo-shin, who was about to surrender his body to the impulse boiling inside, gritted his teeth upon discovering the gaze still shooting at him with the same momentum.
“Yeah, try going all the way to rampage. While you’re here, no other guiding will reach you.”
“That’s uncertain.”
Not bending to the end was like Seo Hae-il, but right now it was just irritating.
Carving the patience hanging precariously again, he forcibly suppressed and swallowed the impulse.
It’s not time yet.
“Just because there’s no camera doesn’t mean I’m not watching you.”
Moon Woo-shin, who warned lastly, put Hae-il down as if throwing him.
After getting up first, he gestured high-handedly.
“We’re leaving in two hours, so stay stuck obediently in bed.”
“…We’re going out that quickly?”
“If you wanted to at least reduce guiding consumption, it would have been wiser to secure sleep time, but that’s regrettable.”
The reaction showing dissatisfaction at the sarcasm was only for a very brief moment. Hae-il, who got up expressionlessly, casually brushed off his clothes and walked into the house.
Moon Woo-shin persistently stared at that retreating figure while following.
***
Only silence flowed in the car.
Seo Hae-il gripping the steering wheel as usual and Moon Woo-shin sitting on the right side of the back seat were each concentrating only on their own tasks in a silence much sharper than the past few days.
Moon Woo-shin leaned his head back at the fatigue he suddenly felt.
It was because sleep time had drastically decreased again from watching Seo Hae-il constantly for days. Just a few hours ago at dawn too, after directly confirming Seo Hae-il had fallen asleep and unable to take his gaze away for a while, he’d barely closed his eyes a bit.
He thought he was already hardened to sleep deprivation and insomnia. He didn’t know he’d feel fatigue anew.
He, who’d been looking out the window briefly, realized the destination was approaching and turned his eyes to the tablet screen again.
[Special Gate Candidate Sites]
A list narrowing down several regions with high occurrence probability according to research results, it was a top-secret research topic the organization had been putting great effort into for a very long time.
Special Gates that appeared randomly and unexpectedly—no institution or organization had figured out the precise mechanism even now, decades after the first occurrence.
However, Ban had recently begun to show some progress after continuing research by mobilizing countless illegal and criminal acts. If they could control the occurrence and disappearance of Special Gates, it could overturn the futures of countless people beyond the organization’s future.
It was that important a project. It was the reason for visiting and confirming each one directly. If they toured for just one or two more days, the first confirmation of this list would all be finished.
“We’ve arrived.”
Just then the car stopped. Seo Hae-il’s voice notifying in an emotionless voice was extremely businesslike.
Moon Woo-shin, who set down the tablet with a thud, first observed the surroundings through the window.
It was one corner of an alley with nothing particularly noticeable. However, within a 1km radius from here was one C-rank General Gate. It was one of the preconditions increasing the possibility of Special Gate occurrence. A position within 1km radius of General Gates that only repeated activation and deactivation in always fixed spots.
