Unlike the noisy outside situation, Seo Gangwoo and Jiwon’s days were peaceful. Though Jiwon liked going out and sightseeing, he was a homebody who loved lounging around at home even more. Jiwon was quickly adapting to his daily life with Seo Gangwoo.
However, he was still a bit unfamiliar with the enormous house that made one wonder if people actually lived there. It was fine when they were together, but it was scary to be left alone without Seo Gangwoo. That said, he didn’t want to ask the Center to move houses—this was the space Seo Gangwoo had been living in all this time.
Even if it was difficult to adapt, Jiwon decided to grow attached to this house.
Though the overly large house was inconvenient, he believed that as they filled it with the feeling of life, he would quickly become familiar with this chilly house.
Once Jiwon decided to do something, he charged straight ahead.
Small changes in the house had already begun.
Jiwon’s belongings were placed next to Seo Gangwoo’s few possessions, the empty refrigerator was filled to the brim, and cooking tools and various dishes that had increased in proportion to the enthusiasm of the aspiring chef who had recently found joy in cooking occupied their space as if they had always been there.
The air inside the house, which had always been cold when Seo Gangwoo lived alone, had been warmed to maintain a comfortable temperature since Jiwon arrived.
Though there was still a long way to go, the feeling that people were living there could be felt throughout the house.
If Jiwon was growing attached to the unfamiliar house, Seo Gangwoo was also finding stability in their daily life together.
The evening of the first day Jiwon entered the house.
After experiencing unstable wavelengths that seemed about to explode suddenly, Jiwon had been continuously guiding Seo Gangwoo, staying attached to him except for the time needed to recover his energy.
Perhaps because of that, symptoms of sudden explosive episodes no longer appeared. The pain from medication and ability use had almost disappeared, and his sensitive nerves had calmed down.
Of course, the problems hadn’t all vanished. The insomnia that had become chronic still remained.
Fortunately, his sleep time was gradually increasing. It was only about one or two hours more of sleep, but even that was a big change for Seo Gangwoo.
Besides that, his gauge didn’t drop below a certain level. Even though Jiwon was attached to him all day guiding, it stopped in the 60% range and wouldn’t go down further. The energy that had accumulated inside his body for so long seemed to be wriggling and holding on, refusing to leave.
Despite these problems, Seo Gangwoo was truly spending peaceful days for almost the first time in his life.
In any case, Jiwon closed the book after reading to the very last page.
“Ugh… That was good. As expected, I can’t stop reading this author’s novels in the middle.”
Jiwon stretched his body and lay down flat. Seo Gangwoo nodded in agreement. In his opinion too, it was a masterpiece with high literary quality.
Jiwon, who had been quietly resting his eyes that had become a bit tired from reading, placed his hand on Seo Gangwoo’s chest. Though the energy had become incomparably calmer than when they first met, it still had weight to it.
As he concentrated on guiding, he could feel the dense wavelengths smoothly unraveling.
The method of guiding by directly moving energy was efficient but required a lot of concentration, making it difficult to maintain for long periods. That’s why even Guides who had learned to control energy while guiding rarely used it.
There were Guides who couldn’t properly sense an Esper’s wavelengths or move their own energy, and even if they could, it wasn’t easy work, so effort was needed to improve their skills.
However, from the time Jiwon first learned how to guide, he had excelled at grasping an Esper’s energy, and since it was an efficient guiding method, he preferred this approach as long as his concentration held.
About twenty minutes after guiding while moving energy, his concentration scattered and the white hand placed on the firm chest fell away.
Jiwon, who had switched to basic guiding, let out a small sigh.
“As expected, it’s not going down any further.”
Jiwon looked at his watch with a tearful expression.
“It’s fine. This is enough.”
“But it needs to drop to about 50% for the side effects to disappear.”
“This much is as good as nothing to me.”
When Jiwon continued to look upset with a stiff expression, Seo Gangwoo gently stroked Jiwon’s soft cheek with the back of his hand as if to cheer him up.
“Considering what’s been accumulated until now, it’s natural. Even if we don’t rush, it will go down with time.”
“I wish the gauge would drop quickly.”
Though Jiwon agreed with Seo Gangwoo’s words, he found it frustrating that the gauge wasn’t going down when he wanted to guide perfectly.
Even though he understood with his head that the energy accumulated over ten years couldn’t return to normal in an instant, the situation that wasn’t progressing as if blocked by a wall was suffocating.
Seo Gangwoo gazed at Jiwon, then swept back the hair that had fallen onto his round forehead. Soft chocolate-colored hair slipped between his fingers.
“Don’t you want to go to your family home? You’ve stabilized a lot now, so I think you could apply for an outing.”
“Mmm. I’ll think about it. I miss them, but not unbearably. I contact them every day too… If it’s okay with you, would you like to go together later? I’ll introduce you to my family. Do you have any animal allergies or anything? I also have a cat named Coco.”
Excited about talking about his family, Jiwon chattered on. Before long, Jiwon, who had even explained about Hojun, his one and only friend, looked up at Seo Gangwoo with sparkling eyes.
“Everyone will like you, Esper Seo Gangwoo.”
“Me?”
Seo Gangwoo made a puzzled expression. Would Jiwon’s close acquaintances have any reason to do so?
The pair Guide of an S-rank Esper, of which there were only a few worldwide, could draw everyone’s attention and receive envious gazes.
Even among Guides who could be called nobility, it was a position that stood out more and that no one could treat carelessly—a position that special.
That said, not all Guides wanted to pair with an S-rank Esper like Choi Hyerin had.
Though the honor and benefits were clear, it was because they didn’t want to take risks for greater honor. Just by manifesting as a Guide, they could already enjoy enough benefits and envy to be satisfied.
The avoidance of guiding high-gauge Espers and the decline in the application rate for field Guides could be said to be in the same vein.
Espers always carried the risk of explosive episodes from the moment of manifestation.
And Seo Gangwoo was an Esper at the peak of that risk.
No matter how positively he tried to think about it, it was difficult.
Wasn’t the beginning of their meeting that Jiwon had happened to encounter him when he was about to explode and saved him? If not for that incident, Jiwon could have lived as a Guide safely, unrelated to the risk of explosive episodes.
Unless the people around him were overly greedy. From what he’d overheard when Jiwon contacted his family, judging by the atmosphere, that didn’t seem to be the case.
From their perspective, his existence might as well have been a bolt from the blue. A precious family member or friend who had manifested not long ago happened to encounter an S-rank Esper about to explode and saved him, and it didn’t stop there—they even became pairs.
It would have been somewhat better if the other party had at least been sound, but he was an S-rank Esper who lived with drug resistance and side effects, whose risk of explosive episodes hadn’t disappeared, whose body wasn’t healthy, and who didn’t even have a sub-Guide who could guide him since there was no matching Guide for him.
If he were family, he would have preferred his loved one to pair with a suitable A~B rank Esper and live comfortably and safely as a Guide rather than with an S-rank Esper who was hard to handle and could explode at any moment.
No matter how much he thought about it, there didn’t seem to be any aspect that would make them like him, and his mood sank.
No matter how you looked at it, their relationship was a loss for Jiwon.
Even when he calculated it himself, that was the case, so how much more so for Jiwon’s acquaintances?
Seo Gangwoo’s confidence was gradually drilling down through layers to reach Earth’s inner core.
“I’m actually pretty picky about people. So everyone was surprised when I said I’d formed a pair. Though it might also be because I got a pair so quickly after manifesting as a Guide.”
That momentum stopped at Jiwon’s unexpected words.
Jiwon, who had a face that was both elegant and cute enough for anyone to call him a beauty, had a gentle personality but showed decisive moments when needed, was popular, and seemed like he would quickly become close with anyone—yet he was picky about people?
“They were very curious about you, Esper Seo Gangwoo, so I told them a little. Then everyone said you seemed like a good person.”
Jiwon’s following words were too difficult to believe.
“It must be because Guide Kim Jiwon spoke well of me.”
“No? I told them as it is, though?”
“…May I ask what you said?”
After asking, Seo Gangwoo belatedly realized his mistake and bit the inside of his cheek.
Outwardly, he showed no change in expression as if unconcerned, but inside, worry, anxiety, and a bit of expectation were tangled together, making him dizzy.
How had he described himself to his close acquaintances?
And he was curious and worried about how Jiwon thought of him.
