Fortunately, all the test results were good with no abnormalities. As the Security Bureau’s attending physician had said, the shock sustained from guiding last time seemed to be temporary internal damage.
“Then, Doctor. Does this mean I can guide every day…?”
Yeoul asked with a pounding heart. With both hands placed on his knees earnestly clasped together, he recited a prayer inwardly. Please say yes, please…….
The doctor, who had been contemplating for a moment, readily nodded.
“Mm, it’s possible. Currently, Yeoul-ssi’s condition is very good. I don’t know much about guiding, but at this level, it’s safe to say there’s almost no damage from guiding yet.”
“Yes! Thank you.”
He almost shouted hurray. Yeoul smiled brightly and stood up abruptly, bowing at the waist.
“Then let’s see each other in a month. Yeoul-ssi and Hyeseong-ssi, fighting!”
“Yes! Please stay healthy, Doctor!”
Yeoul came out of the examination room with a light heart. He wanted to skip and run around, but he held back. However, he couldn’t stop the laughter that leaked out while grinning.
Ah, the sunlight was nice and the wind was refreshing. Since he felt good, even the blue sky and tree branches swaying in the wind looked beautiful. While getting medicine from the pharmacy and heading to the parking lot, Yeoul had a continuously bright face.
“Are you that happy?”
Kang Hyeseong chuckled while adjusting Yeoul’s slightly open coat collar. Yeoul, who had been grinning, suddenly showed a prim expression as if asking when he had done that.
“Of course. Remember our contract from yesterday? I’ve fulfilled item 5, so now you have to follow the items I wrote without complaint, right?”
“Yes. I understand, Guide-nim.”
He laughed, saying he really couldn’t beat him. Just wait and see starting tonight. He would measure Kang Hyeseong’s wave levels every single day, hold hands and guide for 1 hour a day, and not let him even get close to wave levels above 60%. Yeoul clenched his fist, burning with fighting spirit and ambition secretly from Kang Hyeseong.
“Where should I drop you off for your appointment?”
“School! I’m meeting Huijun noona.”
“You made an appointment with someone else quickly on your day off instead of asking hyung to hang out. Where did you learn that?”
“Hyung said you were busy…!”
Yeoul grumbled while glaring at Hyeseong. Seeing his chuckling face, it must have been a joke after all. Again, only he was being serious like this….
Actually, if it were up to him, he naturally wanted to spend time with Kang Hyeseong since it was his first day off. However, a few days ago, when he subtly asked Kang Hyeseong what he’d do on his day off, he had said he needed to catch up on work.
He had to run around in the field and also do his work separately. For Kang Hyeseong, combat leave seemed to be nothing more than a day to knock out piled-up paperwork all at once rather than a day to rest.
‘Robot-like Kang Hyeseong…… That’s why fatigue accumulates like that.’
Yeoul let out a deep sigh. His slightly annoyed feelings were pushed back, and his worry for him took precedence.
Of course, lately he’d been living with him and receiving guiding occasionally, so his overall condition had improved much (he said so himself, and above all, the R1 Team members were very surprised when they saw his face), but still, he needed to rest more.
“Have fun. It’s been a while since you’ve met someone from school.”
“Yeah. Oh right, before I get out later, please give me your autograph, hyung. And if possible, please get Esper Seo Giwon’s next time too. Huijun noona’s younger sibling recently became a fan and it’s a huge deal.”
“What embarrassing autograph. I told you. Avoid the atmosphere of worshipping civil servants like that……”
“Ugh, okay, okay-. You old fart.”
“You should speak nicely.”
At the similar repertoire that continued every day, Yeoul waved his hand in disgust. Despite the utterly disrespectful retort, Kang Hyeseong just chuckled as if finding it cute.
“Then have fun. Contact me.”
“Yeah! See you later.”
Kang Hyeseong, who had stopped the car at the school’s main gate, personally unfastened his seatbelt and patted Yeoul’s head once. They made a firm promise to each handle their own schedules during the day, and eat dinner together and guide in the evening.
After the car departed, Yeoul entered a cafe near the school and settled in. While taking a breather drinking warm hot chocolate, Huijun rushed in hurriedly along with the bell sound on the entrance door.
“Sorry, sorry. Our Kim Yeoul. Did noona make you wait long?”
“No. I just got here too.”
Huijun clasped Yeoul’s hands and shook them noisily. Yeoul also smiled brightly while wiggling his shoulders together. Seeing the lively Huijun noona after a long time, it felt like all the stress received at the field every day melted away.
The two people who decided to resolve their late lunch first moved to a restaurant near the school. Huijun ordered salmon rice bowl, Yeoul ordered tempura rice bowl, and they enthusiastically chatted, sharing their recent updates.
Huijun laid out complaints about her part-time job boss and stories about the guy she was currently seeing at a speed like rapping, then threw a fastball at Yeoul.
“That’s the end of noona’s story! Now it’s your turn.”
“Ah, no, you can say more……”
“Hey. Where do you think you’re escaping to? Now, our Kim Yeoul guide. How is guiding progressing with that person of yours? As detailed and thorough as possible, tell me everything.”
Huijun’s eyes sparkled, saying she had set her sights on him today. Yeoul’s earlobes and neck immediately became hot. However, since he also wanted to pour out the pain of unrequited love he’d experienced while living with Kang Hyeseong, Yeoul stammered and explained what had happened.
“So, that person of yours absolutely refuses to receive anything beyond hand guiding?”
“Yeah……”
Yeoul fiddled with his fingers with an embarrassed expression. Since guiding took a form similar to… skinship, it couldn’t help but be a bit embarrassing to openly consult about it.
“Hmm, well, that person is so crazy protective about your condition that it could be that. But today’s checkup results were fine, right? Then there’s no problem, is there?”
“Yeah, yeah. So we decided to guide every day from now on. But… I.”
“But you?”
And Huijun noona was like a bulldozer as always. When she pressed vigorously with her straightforward way of speaking, Yeoul’s face turned bright red.
“…Hand guiding is good too, but… I want to do more than that, ahem, don’t misunderstand. Hyung’s wave levels don’t drop well with just hand guiding.”
Yeoul let out a deep sigh. His wave levels always approached 65-66%. If he rested without using his ability for even half a day, it would drop about 1%, but since he never failed to respond to Gate generation calls that rang from early morning to late at night, it was no different from always being pushed to the limit.
And then he met Yeoul. Although it was only about once every two or three days—that’s how it was for the past week, but from now on he planned to mercilessly increase the frequency to 7 days a week—, after receiving hand guiding, the levels dropped to about 60-61%. Since the results were immediately visible, Yeoul couldn’t help but become increasingly obsessed with guiding.
But he was starting to think he should gradually look for methods other than hand guiding. According to what Woojin and Jihu, who he still contacted frequently whenever there was time, said, Espers who came to the Support Team to receive guiding were generally satisfied only when their wave levels were lowered to at least 40%. Moreover, the guide side also needed to lower it that much so they wouldn’t feel conscious when submitting reports.
40%. It was a dream number, no different from a pie in the sky. If he could lower it to that extent, he’d really have no wishes left. But since hand guiding was the most basic guiding, there were clearly limits to it.
Kang Hyeseong had told him several times that being able to lower his wave levels by 5% with that basic guiding was already amazing, but Yeoul wasn’t satisfied with that. He wanted to make him more comfortable.
“What if you push yourself too hard and something happens to your body? If you do that, that person will prevent you from doing even the basic guiding or whatever you’re doing now, right?”
“But, noona. Unlike that time, I think I’m a bit prepared…? I don’t know if it’s just my feeling, but the sensation is definitely different from the very first time.”
It wasn’t stubbornness driven rashly by eagerness, it was really like that. Was it two days ago? While guiding, the parts without gloves accidentally touched slightly, but he didn’t feel any particular shock. When he subtly asked Guide Lee Bora, she said it was probably because the intimacy between the Esper and guide had increased.
“Bare skin won’t work, but it was okay if clothed parts touched…? Hmm, then.”
Huijun, who had heard the full story, seemed to think hard about something, then tapped the table.
“Then how about trying to hug?”
“Wh-what…?”
“What are you being shy about? Acting like it’s something new. You hug that person often anyway. It was even captured huge in newspaper photos.”
Yeoul bit his lips hard with a reddened face. On the day Hyeseong returned to Korea, there had been a news article of him hugging him in front of all those crowds at Seoul Station. Of course, his face was mosaicked… but thinking about that time made him feel like he’d die of embarrassment.
But, to voluntarily hug Kang Hyeseong…?
‘Well, we’d be doing it with clothes on anyway… As long as bare skin doesn’t touch, right?’
The effect of guiding is proportional to the area of contact. Certainly, using the torso to make contact would be much more effective than just holding hands. The thought that was half-doubtful at first gradually began to take on more certainty.
“Okay, I’ll try it when I go today. Thanks, noona.”
Of course, to do that, he’d have to work hard to persuade Kang Hyeseong… He would somehow overcome that process, which would never be easy, today. Yeoul clenched his fist, his eyes shining with fighting spirit.
