# Chapter 105
“Esper Suhyun!”
As soon as they exited the dungeon, Jiwon’s urgent voice was heard.
“Did something happen?”
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Suhyun and Jungyeom asked simultaneously at his pale face. But Jiwon, as if his own condition didn’t matter at all, was busy examining Suhyun.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? No wounds, scratches, or anything else, right? You’re not injured, right?”
As Jiwon rambled, Suhyun took his hands. His bewildered face was drenched in fear.
“I’m not hurt at all. No scratches or punctures. Not a single wound.”
Suhyun squeezed his hands reassuringly as he answered calmly. Thanks to this, Jiwon’s wildly shaking eyes seemed to gradually find stability.
“Really?”
“Yes. You can check for yourself.”
“…Okay.”
Though he could have said it wasn’t necessary, Jiwon nodded immediately without refusal. He even looked like he wanted to check right away.
“I doubt you’ve become such an overprotective Guide that you can’t stand letting him into a dungeon… What happened?”
Jungyeom, who had been quietly watching the two, abruptly asked.
Only then did Jiwon take his eyes off Suhyun, biting his lower lip before letting out a sigh.
“It’s not that something happened.”
But the deep wrinkles between his brows suggested otherwise.
“I heard something unsettling from Chief Jo Wooyeon.”
“What kind of thing? He didn’t say anything to me.”
“It’s about Esper Choi Young.”
Jiwon relayed exactly what he had heard from Wooyeon to the two.
It was about the question of how Choi Young had possessed the reddish-black ore and suspicions about the small wound that remained on his body.
“…Hmm.”
After hearing the story in general, Jungyeom frowned and murmured.
“It does sound strange when you hear it. Small wounds shouldn’t remain on an Esper’s body.”
As much as they face monsters in dungeons, Espers’ bodies are different from ordinary people’s.
They hardly get hurt, and even if they do, they recover quickly.
The kind of minor scratch that Jiwon was talking about didn’t even need medicine. It would disappear within a day at most.
But Choi Young was different. Wooyeon had said his wound hadn’t healed for a long time.
—”At the time, I didn’t even think it was strange.”
Normally, Wooyeon would have questioned it, but…
—”I was too preoccupied with the thought that I could no longer provide proper Guiding.”
At that time, Wooyeon’s body was damaged from excessive Guiding. He didn’t have the composure to carefully examine the small wound on Choi Young’s body.
“For now, I’ll go to Chief Wooyeon and get more details.”
“Yes… Oh, right. What about Esper Jungyeom? Are there any wounds…?”
Realizing his embarrassingly late concern, Jiwon stammered without finishing his sentence.
“You ask pretty quickly, don’t you?”
Jungyeom narrowed his eyes as if he had been waiting for this.
“I was just flustered…”
“It’s fine, I’m joking. I’m okay, so Guide Jiwon, just calm down. Nothing happened.”
“Still…”
“I have my own Guide too.”
Jiwon’s rigid face relaxed slightly thanks to Jungyeom. Jungyeom raised his hand to pat Jiwon’s shoulder, but after glancing at Suhyun, he withdrew it.
“Well, I’m feeling left out, so I should go.”
Jungyeom waved his hand and turned around.
“Keep in touch.”
“I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”
His grumbling tone made Jiwon smile briefly, but it didn’t last long.
As Jungyeom disappeared from view, Jiwon’s heart began to pound louder and louder. Ever since hearing the unexpected story from Wooyeon, his heart had been beating irregularly like this.
“Let’s go home for now.”
Suhyun pulled Jiwon’s hand. Only then did Jiwon nod and move with Suhyun to where his car was parked.
“Ah…”
After walking for a while, a familiar car came into view. As if reflecting Jiwon’s anxiety, it was parked haphazardly.
“I was in a hurry…”
Suhyun raised an eyebrow, seemingly able to imagine how Jiwon had driven here, and Jiwon immediately made an excuse.
What came back was Suhyun’s brief sigh.
“What if you had gotten into an accident?”
“…I won’t do it again.”
Though it was because he was so worried, the words seemed to blame Suhyun, so Jiwon promptly apologized.
“Never do this again.”
Of course, Suhyun would have done the same. But unlike Suhyun, who was an Esper, Jiwon was physically weaker, and an accident would be disastrous.
“Yes.”
Only after hearing his simple answer did Suhyun open the passenger door and usher Jiwon in.
It would be appropriate for Jiwon to drive since Suhyun had just returned from the dungeon, but Jiwon didn’t insist. It would be foolish to try to drive when his fingertips were still trembling.
Soon Suhyun settled into the driver’s seat.
“…What do you think, Esper-nim?”
Jiwon asked as soon as the car door closed.
Whether Choi Young’s wound seemed related to Riska, or if he was overreacting.
He wanted to hear Suhyun’s opinion.
“I think it’s related to Riska.”
Suhyun answered without hesitation.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
His attitude raised more questions. How and why was Suhyun so certain?
“…Did something happen in the dungeon?”
After a moment of silence, Jiwon asked in a somewhat husky voice. Suhyun wasn’t the type of person to be certain about something based on just a few words he had heard.
“……”
Suhyun’s eyes turned toward Jiwon. What was felt in those black pupils was clearly hesitation.
“Tell me.”
Jiwon grabbed Suhyun’s hand.
“Don’t hide anything.”
His voice trembled with rising anxiety. Jiwon lowered his gaze and then pulled at Suhyun’s collar. He was ready to check for wounds on his body right then.
“I wasn’t injured.”
“What are you hiding?”
“…I wasn’t trying to hide anything.”
“You weren’t going to tell me.”
Suhyun’s lips moved. He hadn’t been trying to hide it; he just wasn’t sure how to explain it.
Of course, if Jungyeom hadn’t been there, he might have tried to hide it.
Because he didn’t want Jiwon to worry. Despite that, he needed to investigate an unknown danger.
‘Did he have similar thoughts?’
Suddenly, Suhyun thought of Choi Young, whose face he had never seen.
Had he noticed something and wanted to confirm it? Had he risked his life to bring the ore in order to alert them about Riska’s existence?
“I’ll tell you when we get home.”
“……”
“I won’t hide anything. You want to check for wounds yourself anyway, don’t you?”
“……”
“…Should I undress here?”
Jiwon, who had been staring at Suhyun, quickly shook his head at his question. Though he was anxious, it was right to go home first as he suggested.
‘I can’t hide anything.’
Suhyun thought as he started the car.
He imagined Wooyeon, left alone after Choi Young’s death. It was unbearably painful to imagine Jiwon in the same position, holding onto the ore thinking it was a keepsake, unaware of everything.
It must have hurt more because he didn’t know anything. Suhyun couldn’t let Jiwon go through the same situation.
Suhyun had no intention of dying. But not everything goes as planned.
***
As soon as they got home, the first thing Jiwon did was to thoroughly examine Suhyun’s entire body. He felt he could only truly be at ease after confirming that there were no wounds on his body.
“Haah…”
As Jiwon sank down with his strength leaving his legs and let out a long sigh, Suhyun immediately embraced him. In his arms, Jiwon looked up.
Now that the examination was complete, it was time to hear his story.
“…The dungeon was a bit strange.”
Though he had sensed that something was wrong, Jiwon still felt anxious when actually hearing it. Worried that showing this might make Suhyun stop talking, Jiwon tried to respond as calmly as possible.
“In what way was it strange?”
Suhyun gently stroked Jiwon’s hair. It was a comforting gesture for Jiwon, who was far from calm.
“I felt like something was targeting me.”
“…Targeting you?”
“Something other than monsters seemed to be looking for an opening in me.”
Jiwon squirmed. Though he had just thoroughly checked Suhyun’s body, he felt anxious that he might have missed something.
“Don’t you trust me?”
Sensing this, Suhyun asked directly. Fearing that he might stop talking if Jiwon didn’t trust him, Jiwon closed his mouth and shook his head.
“While I was being cautious, I saw something like needles emerging from the dungeon floor. They didn’t seem capable of inflicting fatal wounds, but…”
“…They could create small wounds.”
“Yes.”
His lips became dry and his throat parched. Jiwon couldn’t hide his confusion.
“Why on earth, suddenly…”
Why would they suddenly target Suhyun? He had been frequenting dungeons before, so why try to attack now?
“……”
His chaotic thoughts suddenly stopped. With a sudden realization, Jiwon looked up and met Suhyun’s eyes.
“…The stability level.”
“Yes. Today my stability level was exceptionally high. That’s the only difference from before.”
As if he had already noticed, Suhyun immediately responded to Jiwon’s insight.
Stability level 98.
At the hypothesis that such an unusually high stability level had attracted Riska, Jiwon tightly closed his eyes.
