Onyul tried to picture a future living as an ability user again.
Onyul didn’t dislike Gu Baekyoung and other Espers who liked his therapy. Of course, he disliked those who clung to him without tact, but he liked most people.
But…….
<Onyul-ah, save me. It hurts so much.>
<Esper Kang Onyul-nim, my wife is waiting. Please save me first, please……. >
The people dying in the rampaging Gate were still vivid before his eyes. He had been frustrated countless times by the reality that he couldn’t save them who desperately clung to life.
That place was no different from hell. Onyul didn’t want to set foot in that place again.
The wish to live ordinarily remained. He didn’t want to set foot in a bloody scene where he might witness someone’s death or where he himself might die.
At the moment he shuddered at the horrific memories of the past, he felt someone’s gaze. Onyul’s gaze, with his chin propped on the register, reached toward the glass door.
A large man with his face completely covered was pacing in front of the glass door.
He seemed to have tried hard to hide his identity, but Onyul recognized him at once.
That was Gu Baekyoung ‘disguised in his own way’.
Yeah, I wondered why you weren’t coming.
He didn’t think Gu Baekyoung, who had shown strange interest in him, would give up on him at once.
To live quietly, I think I need to resolve Gu Baekyoung first.
When Onyul stared at him intently, he finally opened the glass door and entered.
“Our convenience store doesn’t serve suspicious customers.”
He said it playfully, but Gu Baekyoung seemed to take it seriously and his shoulders flinched.
“No joke.”
Gu Baekyoung’s shoulders dropped. He seemed to have sighed under the mask.
“……You noticed who I am?”
“It would be stranger not to know who you are.”
“That’s strange. When I disguise myself like this, other people don’t recognize me.”
People who didn’t know Gu Baekyoung well might not notice. A tall man in suspicious attire, so they would be too busy avoiding his gaze.
But Onyul had been close friends with Gu Baekyoung. Even if he disguised himself more, he could recognize him.
“And it’s not ‘you’, it’s Gu Baekyoung. Remember it.”
“Uh, Gu Baekyoung-ssi.”
“You’re even talking casually today?”
“Gu Baekyoung-ssi also used casual speech from the start.”
Hey, punk. Come to think of it, I’m the hyung, you know?
Although his body had changed, it was also frustrating for him to use formal speech with someone he had been with as hyung and dongsaeng. It didn’t seem like Gu Baekyoung would make an issue out of just using casual speech.
“But did you come to buy my hand again today? You felt it yesterday. I’m not a Guide.”
“…….”
Gu Baekyoung didn’t answer and just stood blankly in front of the register. After just blinking his eyes, what he brought up was peculiar.
“I had a hyung I liked.”
……Don’t tell me he’s talking about me?
Onyul began to listen to his confession-like words while gulping down the half-finished chocolate milk.
“The first time I met him was when I was in tatters. I had a hard time a lot because I didn’t have a Guide.”
“Ah, really?”
“At that time, a nasty Guide Center Director named Park Hanil introduced me to hyung. He said he’s not a Guide but makes people comfortable.”
What, so the hyung he liked really was me?
The person who introduced Gu Baekyoung to Onyul was precisely the Center Director.
But did Park Hanil treat Gu Baekyoung badly too? His character wasn’t good.
Onyul just nodded while holding his doubts.
“On the day we first met, hyung reached out his hand to me and said.”
“……What did he say?”
What did I say back then?
Onyul recalled the day he first met Gu Baekyoung. Perhaps because Gu Baekyoung’s face at first sight was impressive, he remembered it vividly even though it was quite long ago.
Gu Baekyoung after clearing an S-rank Gate and exhausting all his energy.
He was laid down at the Guide Center and received Guiding from several Guides, but wasn’t recovering easily. Because the matching rate was low.
At that time, Onyul, who happened to be at the Guide Center, said he would meet him once.
Onyul rarely went to high-rank Gates, and his team was different from Gu Baekyoung’s, so he saw him for the first time then.
A deathly pale face, bloodless lips, half-closed eyes…… His body was full of wounds. Yet he was sprawled on the bed as if he couldn’t feel the pain.
That day, in Onyul’s eyes, Gu Baekyoung looked like someone who desired death. A feeling of wanting to escape from a tedious life.
Even though he didn’t know his circumstances, he felt sorry for him.
But the various Guides around Gu Baekyoung were afraid of him.
They seemed to be just crushed by the intimidation that the person called Gu Baekyoung gave off, afraid that he might rampage.
He’s so injured and looks weak, what rampage? Onyul approached without hesitation and tightly held Gu Baekyoung’s hand.
<I’ll make it not hurt. When you feel better, shall we go eat with hyung?>
At just one word, vitality swirled in Gu Baekyoung’s eyes. He nodded faintly and then tightly gripped Onyul’s hand.
……Yeah, there was such a thing.
But then, a sound different from Onyul’s memory was heard.
“He said it was the first time seeing someone as handsome and pretty as you. He said he fell for me.”
“Pfft―!”
At the absurd words, Onyul spilled a bit of the chocolate milk he was holding in his mouth.
Hey, punk! When did I say such disgusting things!
Onyul felt wronged.
“Want to hear more?”
On the other hand, Gu Baekyoung smiled broadly as if enjoying Onyul’s flustered state.
……What other strange thing is he going to say?
While worried, Onyul’s head, curious on the other hand, moved slowly up and down.
“Hyung……”
Gu Baekyoung’s hand, trailing off his words, extended forward. In the moment of one blink, his fingertips touched Onyul’s lips.
He casually wiped off the chocolate milk on his lips, then brought it to his own lips and flicked his tongue.
“Hyung also spilled easily like you.”
The lips that Gu Baekyoung’s fingertips had touched were burning. Onyul unconsciously crumpled his heated lips.
He wasn’t the kind of kid to do skinship with someone he’s meeting for the first time…… Why is he acting like that?
If he had to argue, Gu Baekyoung was on the side of disliking skinship. He always emitted an ominous energy and prevented people from approaching.
But Onyul was the exception.
Whether he liked his therapy, not long after first meeting Onyul, Gu Baekyoung would knead Onyul’s hand, lean on his shoulder, or sometimes press his body close.
Unlike his pale complexion, Gu Baekyoung’s body was on the hot side, so Onyul also didn’t mind being close to him.
When he stuck to Gu Baekyoung like that, the members of Alpha Team, the team he belonged to, would make envious sounds.
<I want to lean on Onyul hyung too!>
<Um…… I think I’d be okay with just one hand?>
<Onyul-ah, noona’s body would be warmer?>
Yoon Jihyuk, Na Geonwoo, even Cha Hyeran. Espers worthy of note wanted to lean on Onyul.
Onyul acted as if he found their interest bothersome, but in truth he liked them all. Because they approached him while maintaining boundaries.
Onyul’s brow furrowed as he reminisced about the past anew.
All the memories were still vivid, but his mood sank because it seemed he wouldn’t be able to see those scenes again.
Perhaps because of that, the embarrassing feeling disappeared, and he regained the pace that had been swept away by Gu Baekyoung.
“If you have nothing to buy, get out. If you touch me carelessly again, I’ll kick you out.”
“I’ll buy everything in the convenience store. Then can I stay all day?”
……That’s not bad? Onyul couldn’t tell him to leave and changed his words.
“Aren’t you going to the Gate?”
“You’re more important to me right now.”
Saying he had a hyung he liked, that I’m more important…… Why does this kid keep saying things that could be misunderstood?
What are we to each other? As Kang Ian, this is the first time meeting yesterday.
“I don’t understand. We just met for the first time yesterday. What do you know about me to say you treasure me?”
“Do you really think we met for the first time yesterday?”
Onyul nodded.
Gu Baekyoung’s jet-black eyes stared intently at Onyul’s eyes. As if gauging the truth.
It was truly an intense gaze. When facing it, Onyul looked away first, feeling like the thoughts in his head would be read through and through.
“Then I’ll get to know the manager starting today. I have a lot of time.”
“……I don’t really want to get to know you though.”
“Really……?”
At Onyul’s denial, Gu Baekyoung’s spirit deflated for the first time.
He blinked his eyes slowly as if he couldn’t believe it. It was somehow a look of being hurt.
“Why? I’m Gu Baekyoung…… The most successful Esper in South Korea. Our hyung said I was the strongest and the coolest, so why don’t you want to know me?”
“Because I’m not that hyung.”
Even if it was cruel, it couldn’t be helped.
Even if he had gained the ability to stabilize Gu Baekyoung, Onyul’s heart of not wanting to live as an ability user anymore remained.
In his previous life, he lived as if sacrificing himself for others, so in this life, he wanted to live for himself.
