Even other guides who had guided him for quite a long time always hesitated and carefully approached when taking control of his wavelength for the first time, tending to poke around at his wavelength this way and that. But only Kihyun was different.
Every time, he took control of his wavelength without hesitation. That bold speed and accuracy was something no one could imitate.
Several guides who’d tried to clumsily follow along came to mind, but every single one of them couldn’t handle Sijun’s wavelength and would spin the wavelength in the reverse direction.
He’d recently learned that it was a guiding method that couldn’t be done easily without the confidence to immediately respond to any wavelength changes in an Esper.
‘I get what Team Leader Jung is saying, but that was only possible because it was Team Leader Yoon. If Espers’ wavelengths jump around randomly, we take damage too. Most guides can’t do that well. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to our team members.’
‘What am I saying to them? I don’t even properly talk with the guides.’
‘Do you have to say it with words? There are non-verbal gestures. Like when you glare with your eyes like this.’
‘What am I supposed to do when my eyes are naturally like this?’
‘Ugh, let’s not talk about it. I’ve known Team Leader Jung for a long time, so I just let it slide, but other kids are prone to misunderstanding.’
After Kihyun resigned, Sijun had become a bit closer with Guide Team 3 Team Leader Seo Jintae.
Starting with first encountering the resigned Kihyun in the city he’d visited to conquer a Gate, Sijun grabbed Seo Jintae and asked various things about guides, growing closer.
However, that was also only a story up until today.
Sijun stealthily opened his eyes while feeling ecstatic at his wavelength that had started to rapidly improve. It was to see the face of Kihyun, who had started to fully concentrate on guiding and had now become his personal guide.
A faint chamomile scent came from the beauty who wore soft knitwear and had his eyes cast downward. Thinking about it, he seemed to have often drunk coffee at the Center. Perhaps he was drinking tea because the medicine he needed to take didn’t go well with caffeine.
Sijun fully savored Kihyun’s face while mulling over Kihyun’s address written on the contract in his mind.
The address and building were definitely like a goshiwon or gositel, but he couldn’t understand what kind of life he was living.
The Center’s annual salary should have been at a level that couldn’t be ignored, so why was he living in a place like that? Perhaps he’d fallen victim to the jeonse fraud or voice phishing his team members had talked about.
“The wavelength is too severe.”
“Does it feel that way to you, Kihyun-ssi? If so, then it must be.”
It wasn’t often that Kihyun spoke while guiding. But for him to speak like this meant his wavelength was quite serious, as he said.
Was my wavelength such trash? It had been quite a while since it became like this, so he couldn’t distinguish well.
Team leader-level guides exhausted from excessive guiding schedules not only didn’t speak during guiding, but even if they spoke to him, Sijun didn’t answer.
It was because he knew that if by any chance a guide wrongly touched his wavelength while Sijun was in the middle of speaking, it wouldn’t end with just coughing up blood.
How precious someone you can comfortably entrust your wavelength to is—he knew that now. He’d learned it painfully from the day Kihyun resigned.
“The Center guides must really be having a hard time.”
“Seems like it. Team Leader Seo ended up taking several days of sick leave.”
“Ah.”
Kihyun clicked his tongue softly. The last time he’d done guiding was on his last day at the Center.
He’d been inwardly nervous since it had been quite a while since guiding, but it was more doable than expected. Sijun’s wavelength was more serious than expected, but fortunately it wasn’t at a level he couldn’t handle.
Sijun’s breathing, which he checked sporadically while purifying the wavelength, was stable.
He didn’t know why, but he could feel a gaze staring intently at his face, but originally Sijun was the type to look at people even while being guided, so he could pass it off as insignificant.
While Kihyun focused on Sijun’s guiding again, Sijun’s gaze became more persistent.
‘…My guide.’
Sijun mulled over the three characters of Kihyun’s name written neatly on the contract. He’d sufficiently, sickeningly tasted the price of neglect brought by familiarity after Kihyun’s resignation.
He looked at Kihyun’s red lips pressed tightly shut while guiding his wavelength. Suddenly, it felt unfair and disappointing that he was the only one who remembered the moment those lips touched his that night.
Around the time Sijun’s breathing stabilized and the pain that had been cutting through his entire body began to fade, the speed at which Kihyun, who was guiding, led the wavelength stumbled.
“…Ah.”
Kihyun let out a small groan and showed a flustered face unlike himself. He didn’t know about usual times, but when guiding, Kihyun only showed a flawlessly neat appearance.
Come to think of it, it had been strange even when he’d first heard the news of Kihyun’s resignation from a team member and asked if it was true.
Sijun flipped over the hand he was holding with Kihyun’s and checked the back of Kihyun’s hand. Blood vessels were bulging all over his white hand. This symptom often appeared when guides struggled with guiding.
“If it’s hard, you can stop.”
Sijun’s eyes became serious. Separate from Kihyun’s guiding being ecstatic and skillful, he had no intention of overworking him like before. He had no intention of allowing guiding of other Espers either.
From the beginning, he’d literally structured the contract clauses in the form of employing Kihyun as his own personal guide.
“…No, it’s bearable.”
Despite Sijun’s dissuasion saying he could stop, Kihyun stubbornly continued guiding.
The speed had only slowed for a moment; Kihyun’s wavelength purification was excellent and he flexibly and quickly dealt with Sijun’s wavelength that occasionally showed irregularity. However, his complexion that had become paler than before and his reddened lips were worrying.
“To be honest, I don’t know shit about guides. So if you say you’re okay, that it’s bearable, I just really think it’s like that.”
Espers couldn’t live without guides. However, what was actually required of Espers wasn’t thorough theory and knowledge about guides.
Things like disposal methods for monsters that bred in unpredictable Gates or surviving by avoiding vital points were more important.
It was an unavoidable result since only those who returned alive from Gates could receive guiding, but at times like this, Sijun felt a bit frustrated.
That said, if asked whether he now felt like learning about guides in detail, it was awkward to answer yes to that right away either.
“I’m really okay.”
“Really?”
“…Yes.”
Kihyun’s answer was a beat slow. He clearly didn’t seem okay, but since he didn’t know much about guides, if Kihyun said he was okay, he had no choice but to take it as such.
Sijun couldn’t say more to stop the guiding that was still continuing. It was because the greed to receive even a little more purification of the wavelength tormenting his body was still greater than his concern for Kihyun’s health.
There weren’t many customers coming and going in the café where darkness had fallen. Kihyun finished the guiding by slowing the speed of releasing the wavelength first around the time the yujacha he’d ordered in advance for Sijun had cooled down.
“I think this much should be okay.”
It was the first time he’d done guiding entirely for one person. But compared to Sijun’s initial wavelength, it was in a surprisingly stable state, so it was guiding that even Kihyun himself could accept to some degree.
He wasn’t to the extent of having perfectionist tendencies, but he wasn’t the type to have no pride in his work either. Kihyun wanted to do his best with the work given to him.
“Ah, I feel like I can live now.”
Sijun turned his neck this way and that and smiled brightly with a refreshed expression.
“A thought I had while receiving guiding.”
“Yes.”
“You know you absolutely can’t guide other Espers, right?”
Sijun brought up childish words. Of course, since it was a clause specified in the contract, he’d intended to do that, but the nuance of the asking tone was a bit different. How should he explain this?
It was when Kihyun’s eyes narrowed slightly because an appropriate metaphor didn’t come to mind. In Sijun’s eyes, that seemed like a request for further explanation, so his chattering additional words lengthened.
“Kihyun-ssi is my guide now, so even if by any chance other bastards cling to you and cry asking for help, pretend you don’t know.”
Hearing those words, there were several scenes that came to mind in Kihyun’s head.
‘Ah, it seems kind of similar to that.’
The remarks Sijun was making now had a similar vein to the level of obsessiveness of making one closest friend when young and wanting to do everything together, including commuting to and from school as well as lunch and all other activities.
It was definitely not a nuance that would be said to a guide who’d finished writing a personal guide employment contract and was bound in a legal obligatory relationship.
“I also plan to follow the contract clauses well, so you don’t have to worry.”
“Ah, I’m just saying. If other bastards carefully cling to you, do the same thing you did to me.”
“Like what I did to Team Leader Jung?”
Kihyun blinked while asking back. There should be more than just one or two things he’d done to Sijun after recently meeting him again.
Since it was after guiding for the first time in a while so he was drained and couldn’t quite grasp it, Sijun cleared his throat and said this:
“Anyway, you must have it tough. Team Leader Jung Sijun, fighting with your dick-spinning.”
Those sarcastic words were what Kihyun had clumsily said to Sijun recently. Sijun was reciting it exactly without missing a single particle.
This childish bastard. To think he kept that in his heart all this time.
Out of sheer embarrassment, Kihyun squeezed his eyes shut.
