“I can do things like running or strength training on my own, you know. You don’t really need to watch over me, Kang Taejun-ssi…”
“So what.”
“…That’s because you, Kang Taejun-ssi, think I have no potential… so you’re tormenting me to make me give up somehow.”
Kang Taejun nervously bit and released his lower lip at the surge of irritation. His voice came out ominously.
“Do I look like such a leisurely person in Park Shinui-ssi’s eyes—someone who would waste time just to make one person give up?”
“What? That’s not what I—”
The words hadn’t even finished. Kang Taejun’s eyes narrowed thinly. Explaining, persuading with words—it all suddenly became too bothersome. He approached Park Shinui closely and grabbed him by the collar. Then—whoosh—with a light motion as if handling a paper doll, he lifted Park Shinui into the air.
“What. Why is this… why…”
“Try breaking free.”
“What? Gack…!”
“I’m not using any abilities at all, so if you can break free from my hands, go ahead and try.”
Park Shinui stared at Kang Taejun with shocked eyes. Standing there imposingly, he had a resolute expression showing no intention of letting go. As his throat was compressed and his airway narrowed, Park Shinui desperately tried to grab and tear at his wrist.
His nails caught on Kang Taejun’s skin but couldn’t leave even a single scratch. The more he struggled, the faster the air seemed to escape. His vision began to blur hazily.
“Ugh, Kang Taejun-ssi…”
As his strength gradually drained and Park Shinui’s struggling slowed, his face flushed red and limply tilted to the side—then Kang Taejun suddenly released the force from his hand. Thud, catching the body that was about to crumple to the floor, he immediately pulled him into his arms and poured his ability into him.
“A body that can’t even endure something like this for one minute—do you think it could handle high-intensity training?”
“…”
“If you don’t have even minimum stamina, even if you deploy a shield, Park Shinui-ssi will faint the moment you set foot inside a gate.”
Once Park Shinui’s breathing had stabilized somewhat, Kang Taejun carefully set him down from his embrace. An impulse to capture again the warmth leaving his palm flashed through him, but he forced himself to pull back.
In truth, he hadn’t intended to explain things with such a rough method. But for someone who had lived his entire life among ability users, there was no other educational approach that came to mind. He had never learned how to persuade with words, and even less how to lead gently. The methods he knew were always direct and sometimes brutally simple.
Perhaps the words that Park Shinui likes me, or that he’s jealous of Lee Jisoo, kept echoing in my ears and stirred up strange impulses. After hearing those words, from the moment we were left alone, thoughts of what I wanted to do to him boiled in my head.
Kang Taejun, thanks to his innate abilities, could roughly read others’ inner thoughts. He wasn’t ignorant of what feelings like “liking someone” or “jealousy” were. Everyone lived harboring such emotions. And it wasn’t just once or twice that he had been the object of those emotions. He had heard until he was sick of it that he was someone’s ideal type, and there were plenty of people who, like Park Shinui, openly proclaimed they liked him.
What would be different about Park Shinui.
So what. In the end, it was just attraction to the fame and overwhelming power held by the name Kang Taejun, the world’s only EX-rank Esper.
If he, an object of fear and awe, removed his mask and revealed his true face, would they still be able to say the same thing? Until now, there hadn’t been a single person who could answer that question with certainty. So whether Park Shinui liked him or was jealous, it shouldn’t have mattered. This unfamiliar pain constricting his chest—he shouldn’t be feeling it. And yet. Those words that had only been unpleasant when shouted noisily from beyond the television screen—now, for some reason, didn’t feel unpleasant at all.
“The training, what are you going to do about it.”
Kang Taejun asked through gritted teeth. In his view, Park Shinui was more fragile than any Esper or Guide he had encountered before. Honestly speaking, he knew well that the current level of training itself had little meaning. He had pressed him saying he couldn’t handle the shield due to lack of stamina, but in fact, that wasn’t entirely impossible either. Kang Taejun had the power to share his vast energy with others to support them. It was just that he had never attempted it with anyone until now. If he set his mind to it, protecting someone like Park Shinui would be nothing to him. The real problem was that Park Shinui no longer seemed like merely an unpleasant existence.
“I’ll do it.”
Though his body trembled, Park Shinui answered clearly. He had expected him to scream in terror from the experience of just being choked, but the eyes looking straight at him held unwavering determination.
“Fine, then. Don’t skip anymore from now on.”
Kang Taejun was confused. For who knows how many times, another doubt was raising its head. The Park Shinui he knew should have run away long ago, let alone consistently completing training that was hard to understand.
Even in a situation like this, instead of saying he would continue training, he should have gotten angry or at least slapped him. Yet the person before his eyes repeatedly missed those predictions. According to the investigation, Park Shinui was notorious for being late to every filming and standing people up.
He was also frequently carried to the emergency room for addiction symptoms, soaked in drugs and alcohol. However, the Park Shinui that Kang Taejun observed by his side was far, very far from such rumors. He was excessively diligent, and even when hitting his limits and fainting, he somehow endured and continued training.
He was so hardworking that no traces of his debauched past could be found, and even his relationships with people around him had improved beyond recognition. The Park Shinui from before the bonding, who had come and gone from Kang Taejun’s house as if it were his own, looking down on and treating the servants rudely, no longer existed. Instead, Kang Taejun frequently witnessed the unfamiliar sight of him chatting and laughing amicably with the servants.
The butler, who used to shake his head just at hearing Park Shinui’s name, now added subtle praise, saying “turns out he’s quite a decent person.”
When Kang Taejun heard those words, he didn’t respond. Not because he had nothing to say, but because he couldn’t particularly deny it. He just didn’t like that he had been thinking the same thing without realizing it.
Could he have always been this kind of person?
Or as he claimed, had his very nature changed because he lost his memories? Even so, could a person change so much that their very soul seemed to have been replaced—Kang Taejun couldn’t understand it at all.
“The guiding is…”
Kang Taejun spat out the word and stopped. Even in this situation, he found it ridiculous that thoughts of guiding came to mind. It had been just a few days ago that he had resolved never to be led around by Park Shinui, not to play along with those vulgar tricks. Now he was acting as if he had never made such a resolution.
“Why… are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
At Park Shinui’s voice showing concern even right after being choked, Kang Taejun involuntarily grimaced. Though he didn’t want to admit it, recently he had been helplessly absorbed in Park Shinui’s guiding. Since when did I live relying on guiding? Now, simple contact like holding hands or embracing wasn’t satisfying. When he came to his senses, he was looking for Park Shinui, and even in moments when he wasn’t conscious of it, he was hovering around him.
“I have a headache.”
A clumsy excuse tumbled out of his mouth. A headache. In his life lived in constant pain, had there ever been a day without a headache? He felt utterly pathetic for using as an excuse this chronic symptom that followed him like a shadow. Unless someone was a fool, who would fall for such a flimsy lie?
Kang Taejun knew perfectly well what kind of reaction Park Shinui would show. Mock him, or ignore him. Either way, it didn’t matter. It was just that there would be no one anywhere in the world who would obediently believe such a clumsy lie.
“Then… you need to receive guiding.”
However, genuine concern bloomed on Park Shinui’s face. Without any suspicion, he nodded obediently, then hesitantly approached and pulled Kang Taejun’s hand.
He believes this?
Kang Taejun was dragged along by Park Shinui without resistance, feeling dazed. Until the face with tightly shut eyes pressed its lips firmly against his own and pulled away, he couldn’t even perceive what was happening.
“You said holding hands and hugging wasn’t enough…”
Kang Taejun looked down with a rigid expression at Park Shinui mumbling with a flushed face.
