His voice felt noticeably softer than usual.
Hae-il wanted to press further — but the guiding flowing slowly in through their joined palms made his mouth fall shut on its own.
A wavelength that felt uniquely soft and rounded seeped in with a pleasant warmth. It was a guiding that drifted lazily through his entire body, as though gently caressing him from the inside.
Had he ever felt guiding like this before? This was definitely a first.
Beyond simply feeling good, his heartbeat began to quicken little by little. His chest felt like it was rising, unmoored. It was so good that he found himself hesitant to open his mouth again, afraid this soft, cushioning wavelength might cut off.
So. It was all because of the guiding.
Hae-il bowed his head and surrendered himself to the sensation flowing in through their joined hands. Maintaining the ability he had spread out required far more concentration than usual.
***
There wasn’t much they could do while trapped inside the rounded space. Observing a phenomenon they couldn’t touch directly or view from another angle would only hold their attention for a few minutes at most. All they could do was wait for the liquid outside to drain away entirely.
Even so, they had managed to gather a few meaningful pieces of information.
“It does seem like it’s only flowing in one direction, right?”
“Yeah. The water level’s dropping too. Should be fine if we wait a few more hours.”
The possibility of being permanently submerged under that liquid had grown very slim — which was at least something to hold onto. It was also a relief to know they didn’t need to find a breakthrough immediately, and just had to hold on until the waves passed.
And that was saying something, because —
“By the way, Hae-il.”
“Yes?”
“Why does this keep getting smaller?”
Moon Woo-shin tapped the barrier wall with his finger.
It had clearly been spacious enough at first for both of them to stand side by side with their arms stretched out, but now they were sitting pressed close together. Just extending an arm was enough to touch the wall.
“…It can’t be helped.”
“We haven’t stopped the guiding, and it still can’t be helped?”
“The consumption rate is faster than the recharge rate, so I have to be conservative.”
It was the result of building the water barrier layer upon layer, with countless sheets of water stacked to leave no gaps. To keep it going as long as possible, shrinking the size was the most efficient method.
“Even so, at this size we should be able to hold out for a few hours… what are you doing?”
Moon Woo-shin, who had been sitting beside him, had at some point shifted to face him directly. The cramped space made the distance between them far too close.
“Then I’ll just have to speed up the recharge rate.”
Is he insane.
“Are you out of your mind?”
The thought bypassed his brain entirely and came straight out of his mouth.
The face in front of him tilted to one side. He was looking at him with clear displeasure — but showed no sign of backing down.
“Can’t you consider that someone in their right mind might do what needs to be done?”
“No — I said we can hold out just fine.”
“And if we’re just trusting that assumption and your guiding levels spike again? If we barely make it through a few hours and you’re completely drained the moment we step out? You want to fumble through dealing with that on the spot? I can’t stand that kind of thing. Cooperate while we can still prepare ahead of time.”
“I’m stable right now, there’s absolutely no sign of that happening. Really, none at all. Do you actually want to press your lips against mine that badly?”
The moment he finished speaking, Moon Woo-shin let out a short, disbelieving laugh. This time there was a faint edge of irritation in it.
“Hae-il, don’t act like a rookie. It’s just guiding. Not physical intimacy.”
“…….”
“Because I’m a guide and you’re an Esper — I do it because it needs to be done.”
Because it needs to be done. In front of those words, even though I don’t want to seemed to go unspoken. His tone, his voice, his expression. Every readable piece of body language seemed to have that unspoken phrase dissolved into it.
Of course Hae-il felt the same way about mucosal guiding — he wanted to avoid it too. But hearing it said outright, that the other side felt exactly the same — it didn’t sit entirely well. It was a strange, inexplicable unpleasantness he couldn’t account for.
A sardonic tone slipped out before he could stop it.
“Your tolerance must have improved a lot since the old days. Considering how unfazed you are about contact guiding or mucosal guiding these days.”
“Sounds like you’re the one who only does that kind of guiding with your partners. Considering how you go straight for lips.”
“……Then what else would you do?”
“Increasing surface contact comes first.”
Before he could react, a hand suddenly pushed in at his waist. It slipped easily beneath his clothes and pressed in deep. The sensation of a somewhat rough palm making friction against his bare skin sent a prickling shiver crawling up his scalp.
At the same time, the other hand passed alongside his face and moved behind him, coming to rest over his nape. The moment it touched, a warmth that felt distinctly hotter than expected transferred there, and heat spread across that entire area. Wrapped completely, the fingertips reached the ends of his hair at the back of his head.
The sensation of guiding seeping into the inner layers of his body, in between every strand of hair, made Hae-il push his knees against the ground and rise. It was an almost entirely unconscious reaction.
And with that, Moon Woo-shin tightened both hands — still against bare skin — and pulled Hae-il toward him.
Hae-il dropped down with a thud and stared in shock.
“What is—”
He was sitting on top of Moon Woo-shin’s thighs, face to face. And closer than before, at that.
Scrambling to recover from nearly touching noses, Hae-il braced both hands against Moon Woo-shin’s shoulders and pulled his head back as far as it would go. But the hand locked firmly around his nape blocked him from pulling away any further.
“Unless you plan on holding out like that for the next few hours, stop wasting energy and just lean in.”
“You want us to stay like this for hours?”
“It’s guiding.”
There was no emotion whatsoever in the voice or expression that answered him — which made him start to wonder if he was the strange one here.
In the brief moment of doubt that made his resistance falter, Moon Woo-shin applied pressure and finally pulled Hae-il flush against him.
He barely managed to turn his head to the side at the last possible second. Their cheeks grazed each other in a ticklish, almost-touching way before they ended up angled apart. Each of their heads came to rest on the other’s shoulder, and their ears pressed together. Then their chests collided and sealed completely against each other.
His entire center of gravity now resting on Moon Woo-shin, Hae-il — arms raised awkwardly — gave a small flinch.
They were so close he felt like he could sense every beat of the other man’s heart. And the way his own earlobes were burning hot.
“Wait — just a moment.”
A considerably denser guiding flowed in than when they’d only been holding hands. It felt so good that his arms wouldn’t cooperate properly. The desire to push him away was draining away entirely — and that was on top of everything else.
It was quite close, sure, but… if he had to describe this position in one word, it was an embrace. And an embrace was the kind of guiding that was common enough even between ordinary teammates.
This should be fine, shouldn’t it. It’s not mucosal guiding after all. The position being like this was unavoidable because of the cramped space.
His wandering hands slowly descended. The place they found naturally, as if it were where they belonged — was the flat of Moon Woo-shin’s back. His hands stopped just before making contact, hovering in hesitation like they’d lost their way.
“Then….”
“Then?”
“…Why did you go straight to lips last time?”
A question he’d kept buried to himself slipped out without warning.
A long breath tickled through his hair. It felt like a sigh, or perhaps a laugh. Without seeing his face, he couldn’t be entirely sure.
After a pause that felt somewhat long, the answer that came was brief.
“Who knows.”
God, I hate him.
His hands finally landed on Moon Woo-shin’s back. They gripped his shirt tight. The previously smooth white shirt crumpled heavily under his fists.
It would have been so much better if what he was gripping was that head right next to him, not his shirt. The frustration was that in reality, he seemed to have no more effect on him than these wrinkles in the fabric.
