“You bought the bed yourself, didn’t you? It only arrived yesterday. Going all the way to get it custom-made…. Well, you’re not the only one who does that…. Did you two even work out sharing the bedroom? I mean, you only found out today that you’d be living together….”
Even as the employee chattered on, Shin-yul didn’t respond — he simply and carefully lowered Hee-young onto the bed.
His already pale face had gone even whiter, ghostly and wan as he whimpered softly, and the employees read the room and slipped out without a word of goodbye. Shin-yul’s expression had turned dangerous. The face that had smiled brightly even while getting grabbed by the hair was gone — replaced by something cold and frightening beyond recognition.
Only once the room went quiet did he finally smooth out his own furrowed brow, and he gently settled himself onto the bed beside Hee-young, watching him breathe in soft, even sighs.
The moment a heavy, solid warmth appeared at his side, Hee-young wriggled and burrowed into Shin-yul’s arms. It was a habit that had formed naturally after sharing a bed in secret for several weeks.
Shin-yul pulled the small body nestled against him into a tight embrace. There was a faint squirm — stuffy, perhaps — but Shin-yul didn’t loosen his hold. From the very first moment he’d laid eyes on him until now, he hadn’t let Hee-young out of his sight for even a second, and yet to Shin-yul, Hee-young still shimmered and dazzled him.
He gently brushed the disheveled hair aside and pressed a soft kiss to the round forehead. In the light, with skin so fair it looked like it had never once seen the sun and pigment so faint it was almost translucent, Hee-young looked like he might fade away at any moment. He hated that. The thought that this person, who had appeared like a miracle, might vanish without a trace in the very next moment. That the achingly sweet hope he’d been given a taste of would turn out to be a lie — that Hee-young would leave him, casting him back into an endless void without a second glance.
He hated this too — the way he lay with his eyes closed, sleeping like the dead. Shin-yul, who had only ever shown himself in front of Hee-young’s sleeping face for weeks, had felt a shiver run through him that he couldn’t put into words when he finally met those wide-open eyes staring back at him. It didn’t matter if Hee-young stayed frail and ailing forever, took his frustrations out on him, insisted he was a man in his forties. As long as he stayed by his side, none of it was a problem.
The Center, wary of the dangerous nature of their work, had taken Hee-young’s symptoms seriously and kept Shin-yul tied down with pointless debates about whether it was safe to pair him with such a valuable S-rank — but he had slipped away right under their noses and watched Hee-young’s every move. There was no need to weigh or second-guess or deliberate over the one person who made him whole. Hee-young was his only salvation.
If Hee-young’s body ached, he would scour the world to bring him medicine. If this world didn’t match his sense of reality and he screamed in fury, he would turn the world upside down to make it suit him. As long as Hee-young stayed by his side.
He kept pressing tender kisses to the forehead, and he felt the body that had been lying soft and slack go rigid and flinch. He seemed to have woken up after all — Shin-yul smiled, eyes curving with amusement, and playfully dipped his face down close, whispering low near Hee-young’s lips.
“Can I kiss you on the lips?”
“The fuck you can.”
The round eyes flew open and immediately scrunched into a glare — Shin-yul only smiled wider and pressed a light smooch to Hee-young’s lips. The moment his soft, slightly damp lips made contact, Hee-young’s expression went utterly blank and he froze.
Shin-yul kissed him a few more times, soft little smooches, and Hee-young flailed his arms and legs and started smacking at Shin-yul’s solid body. Shin-yul pinned the flapping arms with one hand and smiled brightly.
“Y-you insane — you’re crazy! You, you…!”
“What if my princess faints again? Hmm? If you collapse again, I’ll be upset.”
“Are you going to let go or not? Hm? You pervert, you—!”
It was the first time in his life anyone had done something like this to him, and Hee-young turned beet red and thrashed with everything he had — but he was no match for Shin-yul’s strength. Shin-yul held both of Hee-young’s wrists in one hand, used his other arm to pull the small, struggling body against his chest, and patted him soothingly — and the sheer absurdity of it all made Hee-young want to die.
This crazy bastard, I should’ve smacked him across the face the moment I woke up!
The feeling of a hand carefully stroking his face and those desperate, longing kisses had felt so strange that without thinking, he’d been sneaking glances and pretending to be asleep. The guy who had been grinning and saying nothing but unhinged things since the moment they met — the trembling hands that touched him so gently had caught him off guard, and he’d found himself thinking, has anyone ever touched me like this before, like I was something precious, in my whole life — and he’d been lost in a rare moment of unexpected sentimentality, hesitating — and now it had come back to bite him in the form of this catastrophe!
Hee-young shook with indignation. Sure, it was a little ridiculous for a man who’d done everything under the sun to be acting like a virgin — but he was, without question, straight, and every time someone from the organization smirked and said hyung, you gotta try it, being held by a man is heaven and offered it up with that slimy grin, he’d curled his lip and whipped his head away.
And now he’d had his lips stolen by a boy who was practically a baby compared to him! And without even being able to put up a proper fight!
The humiliation and the indignation made Hee-young’s face go even redder. He glared more fiercely and let out ragged, furious huffs of breath — Shin-yul gave one last light smooch to his cheek and let out a long, drowsy sigh.
“Hee-young, that expression right now is incredibly sexy. I think I’m getting hard.”
“I’m going to kill you, you little shit. And I told you to call me Ajeossi.”
“Yeah, Ajeossi. Kill me. For real.”
“God, what am I supposed to do with this insane bastard? I’m going to lose my mind.”
They wrestled like that for a few more minutes, bodies pressed flush together — and it was Hee-young’s stamina that gave out first as he strained and struggled to break free from Shin-yul’s arms. He finally went limp and muttered.
“Wow, shit…. This bastard’s just stupidly strong, that’s the only reason I can’t win.”
“No, I give in to everything my princess wants.”
“Give in, my ass…. Ha… okay, fine. Your princess is about to die right now, okay? Will you let go? I won’t be mad.”
“You can be mad. It’s sexy.”
“I absolutely will not be mad.”
Hee-young said it in the voice of a dying man, and only then did Shin-yul release him with a reluctant expression — Hee-young immediately shot a fist straight at him. His small fist thumped against Shin-yul’s chest, but with so little force behind it that it barely felt like anything more than a sulky little tap. Both of them knew it, which meant Hee-young’s face crumpled in humiliation and Shin-yul only smiled wider.
“God, look at him just laughing. Seriously, what a crazy bastard, right here in front of me. From now on, you’re the one going to therapy, not me.”
“Sure, I’m crazy about you. Let’s go to therapy together.”
Dismissing Shin-yul’s words as nonsense, Hee-young lifted his wrists and examined them. Above the watch, the skin was bright red — visibly heading toward a bruise.
Shin-yul had been staring at Hee-young’s wrists, and now he stroked the red marks with a satisfied expression.
“You like it? You’re smiling? After wrecking someone’s arm?”
“It’s a mark I left. It’s pretty.”
“Wow, how did you even end up like that?”
Hee-young clicked his tongue. His body had been through rougher things, so a bruise like this wasn’t exactly shocking — but the way that bastard smiled after leaving marks on someone’s wrists was a little unsettling. The organization had guys like that too. The ones who climbed highest were always the ones with no limits, no common sense, no conscience.
Hee-young shrugged it off and swung himself up off the bed. The employees had kept emphasizing how it was brand new and such a great place — and it really was. Beyond the bedroom’s floor-to-ceiling window, he could see a lawn and a garden, which gave it the look of a detached house in the countryside.
Even accounting for the outskirts of Seoul, a place for just two people that turned out to be a full countryside house — sure, that was worth bragging about. Hee-young acknowledged their effort and ambled out of the room to look around.
What are two grown men going to cook that they need a kitchen this big. Don’t tell me delivery doesn’t come here? What’s this, the bathroom? Three bathrooms? Not bad. Big bathtub too. Ah, shit. I really don’t want to open that wardrobe. Not even a little. Look at these clothes too. Pink? Pink? This crazy bastard goes out to buy clothes and all he gets is stuff like this.
Using the heightened senses unique to Espers, Shin-yul lay on the bed and listened carefully to every little thing Hee-young muttered to himself — and laughed quietly every time he complained. God, I’m so happy, I think I could die like this.
Hee-young made his way through the second floor, going quieter and quieter with each door he opened — and only after opening the last room did he come barreling back into the bedroom, stomping and crashing.
“Hey! What is this? Did you do this? Hm?”
“Hm?”
“Why is there only one bedroom? There are two of us!”
Hee-young demanded furiously, and Shin-yul just smiled, his eyes curving shut.
“Princess, can I have a kiss?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
***
After resting properly for about two days, his body had finally recovered enough to go out. Keeping tabs on the constantly frail body was a job in itself.
Surprisingly, Shin-yul wasn’t a spectacular cook, but he knew how to make a handful of dishes, so they didn’t go hungry. It seemed like a housekeeper had been hired separately as well — he’d sleep and wake up like a sick chicken, limp and lethargic, and find a few banchan that hadn’t been there before, and the house that had gotten cluttered in just one day back to being spotless. Money really does solve everything…. he’d muttered.
Hee-young, dressed in a light blue hoodie with little charms on it and a white fleece vest, slouched around with that disgruntled look on his face again.
Why does this guy buy all these ridiculous clothes? He thought his taste was terrible compared to his clean-cut face — and then Shin-yul appeared in a simple, clean plain tee, and Hee-young immediately threw a fit demanding he hand it over. He stubbornly wrestled the shirt off Shin-yul and put it on himself, then caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and quietly changed back into the light blue hoodie without a word.
“Why, you looked cute in my clothes too.”
“Forget it…. I’m not walking around looking like a little kid wearing their dad’s clothes.”
“It looked like you were wearing your boyfriend’s clothes. I thought it was nice.”
“That’s even worse.”
Even as Hee-young scrunched his face in distaste, Shin-yul laughed out loud and pulled him into a tight hug for whatever reason.
Hee-young grumbled ah, shit under his breath, but didn’t say anything about the hug itself. From what he’d gathered, Shin-yul was clinging to him like this just to survive — and Hee-young wasn’t cruel enough to turn away a kid trying to stay alive.
Well, back in the day he wouldn’t have cared about anyone else’s circumstances — but age had softened him a little, and stepping away from organization work had mellowed him out somewhat. Hee-young kept his expression sour but didn’t resist the large body wrapped around him, and he endured.
Yeah, we’re both struggling to survive in this messed up world.
Over the two days they’d spent bumping around together, Shin-yul had been quiet and gentle — yes, yes, Ajeossi — going along with everything Hee-young said and looking after him sincerely so that he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. Hee-young had come to like him well enough, and seeing him cling so desperately, there was a soft, unexpected pang of sympathy.
Such a handsome face, a great ability — in a normal world, he’d have been making good money as an actor or an entertainer. Instead, born and raised in this strange world, he had to cling to a man like himself and beg for his life. Thinking about it that way made Hee-young feel strangely sorry for him, and he patted that broad back a couple of times.
But how long is this going to go on?
“Alright, enough of that. Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
Of course, Hee-young had no idea what the 90% Guiding level flashing on Shin-yul’s watch meant — this was entirely one-sided sympathy on his part — but Shin-yul, full of entirely different motives, was too busy smiling to care.
Watching him smile so openly with that handsome face, Hee-young clicked his tongue — but thought, well, I can at least do this much. Think of it as raising a kid, it’s not so bad. And with that, he headed off toward The Center.
“Hello, Shin-yul, Hee-young. I’m Guide Jeong Ha-ram, and I’ll be in charge of your Guide training.”
A neatly handsome man walked into the room and smiled warmly at Hee-young.
“To start, we’ll begin with the basics — mucous membrane Guiding through a kiss.”
But I don’t kiss kids I’m raising, you insane world.
