Meanwhile, Seo Gangwoo, who had crossed the lobby, taken the elevator, and gotten off on the 7th floor, walked down the corridor where Jiwon’s personal private room, 705, was located.
His senses were still dizzy, but with the presence of people further away than on the first floor, he could examine Jiwon in more detail.
“Mmm….”
Perhaps sensing that gaze, Jiwon, who had been tossing briefly, burrowed deeper into the familiar embrace. Seo Gangwoo paused, then quickly confirmed that he was lying still with his eyes closed and entered the private room after fingerprint recognition.
Along with the door closing behind him, the irritating sensations were reduced by half. It wasn’t as much as the Esper waiting room in the basement, but the Guide’s private room was also quite soundproofed.
Seo Gangwoo’s sharp expression softened now that he was finally alone with Jiwon. Even without receiving guiding, just being together made his heart much more comfortable. It might have been thanks to Jiwon’s scent permeating the interior of the private room.
Seo Gangwoo familiarly found indoor slippers and changed into them, then slowly took off Jiwon’s shoes as well. Then he walked to the bed inside, pulled back the blanket, and gently laid Jiwon down. While doing so, he sat on the floor and matched his height with Jiwon’s face.
“Haah….”
Seo Gangwoo rubbed his face with his hand, thinking contradictorily that he sincerely wanted his body condition to fully recover so that Jiwon wouldn’t pursue a field license and would stay safely at the Center, yet he didn’t want to be apart from him even for a single day.
Since he was in such a wrecked physical state anyway, he couldn’t give such a choice, so the best Seo Gangwoo could do was help and protect Jiwon from the side while doing what he wanted to do.
He brushed back Jiwon’s hair that had fallen over his twitching eyes. He endured wanting to stamp his lips on that smooth forehead without a single blemish, and just watched him for a while without doing anything.
After being there for nearly 30 minutes like that, Seo Gangwoo quietly got up from his seat, gathered the spare clothes he had ordered in advance, and went into the bathroom to wash up.
On the bed, Jiwon, who had been sleeping comfortably even making soft breathing sounds, noticed something had changed in his sunken consciousness the moment he turned over.
He had clearly been talking at Ellin and then… what next? When he reached that point, his eyes flew open. Jiwon raised his head and looked around. Then, realizing it was his personal private room, he let out a sigh of relief and dropped his head back down with a thud.
“Ngh… what. How did I get to my private room?”
Did Minhyeok hyung or Gayeon noona bring me here? He struggled, frustrated by the memory that wouldn’t come back. Each time, the rustling sound of well-dried fabric could be heard.
“Sheesh.”
He stopped struggling after a while. Doing this wouldn’t bring back memories that weren’t there. He just let out a deep sigh at his own complacency and quietly stared at the ceiling.
Then I should ask Minhyeok hyung tomorrow, he was thinking, when he heard the faint sound of water in the quiet private room.
‘Huh? Water?’
Jiwon, who had naturally assumed he was alone in his private room, bolted upright. Who’s using the bathroom? Just in case, frightened Jiwon looked for his phone. It was still in his pants pocket.
Jiwon clutched his pounding chest and unlocked his phone. If necessary, he was thinking of reporting to the Guide Safety Department.
Gripping his phone tightly in one hand and gulping, Jiwon suddenly thought of another possibility.
“…No way?!”
The moment Jiwon’s body stirred, the bathroom door happened to open.
A firm upper body that couldn’t be hidden by the black t-shirt, long straight legs, a face that made one spontaneously admire. Seo Gangwoo, whom Jiwon had been waiting and waiting for, approached while drying his hair with a towel.
Jiwon, who had been staring blankly, rushed at Seo Gangwoo. Seo Gangwoo’s eyes widened for a moment, and he gently stopped the running Jiwon and pulled him into an embrace.
As soon as Jiwon was held by Seo Gangwoo, he started direct guiding. The gauge reading he had last checked at Ellin was 86%. If he had been even one more day late, Jiwon had been planning to request or threaten the Center, license or whatever, and wait at the entrance of the dungeon gate he had entered.
The two silently shared each other’s body heat. Only after some guiding had gone in did Jiwon raise his head to look at Seo Gangwoo.
Whether he was hurt anywhere, that he had worried because he was late, that he had missed him so much—there had been many things he wanted to say when Seo Gangwoo returned, but all those words mixed and condensed into one phrase.
“Um… welcome back.”
And that one phrase was, for Seo Gangwoo, a touching moment that never diminished no matter how many times he heard it.
“…Yes. I’m back.”
He answered in a low voice, suppressing the surge of emotion inside. He was still a bit awkward with greeting someone that he had returned.
“How’s your physical condition?”
Jiwon immediately raised his arm to check the gauge, but Seo Gangwoo grabbed his wrist. Just looking at the clear brown eyes that met his made Seo Gangwoo’s chest warm.
“Did you wait long?”
“Yes. I missed you a lot while waiting.”
Jiwon really only said pretty words with his pretty mouth.
“So much so that even the strawberry cake lost its taste.”
Seo Gangwoo’s eyes widened. To think that even the strawberry cake he loved so much had no taste…. He knew how much joy Jiwon found in just one bite of that small dessert. It might be empty words, but a touching emotion rose up at the fact that Jiwon had worried about him that much.
He touched the soft hair that had kept coming to mind while they were apart. The texture of the hair slipping through his fingers felt good.
Seo Gangwoo’s black eyes deepened as he quietly looked at Jiwon, who rested his chin on his chest and looked up at him.
“May I kiss you?”
Jiwon’s eyes widened. He stopped breathing at the burning hot gaze.
So urgent about something, he lifted Jiwon up in his arms and swallowed his pink lips before even hearing an answer. When surprised Jiwon flinched, Seo Gangwoo’s hand tightly pulled his shoulder. It was unbelievable behavior considering how careful he always was.
It was a movement that seemed less relaxed than usual.
Despite the rough movements of the moment, the feeling touching his lips was actually soft. When Jiwon, who had been frozen, laughed because the constant nibbling and rubbing tickled, a thick tongue pushed through the small gap.
After exploring the warm inside of his mouth here and there, it entangled with Jiwon’s and checked thoroughly even the deep inside without missing anything. That thirst seemed somehow more parched for kissing Jiwon than for guiding.
When Jiwon tapped his shoulder, out of breath from being suddenly swallowed, the tongue that had been squirming swept across the roof of his mouth and pulled out briefly.
“Haah….”
Even while Jiwon was exhaling rapid breaths, Seo Gangwoo didn’t rest and kept pecking around his lips. Sensing the breathing calming down, Seo Gangwoo deeply explored Jiwon’s lips once more. Before he knew it, Jiwon’s arms were wrapped around Seo Gangwoo’s neck.
Their lips overlapped and separated repeatedly several times.
“Haah. Esper Seo Gangwoo, over there….”
Jiwon pointed inside with his hand. It was because Seo Gangwoo had been standing in the middle of the private room holding Jiwon and kissing him since earlier, and he did it worried he might be struggling.
But Seo Gangwoo squeezed his eyes shut and pretended not to see that gesture. Right now, he didn’t have confidence to stop at just kissing if they settled down on the sofa or bed.
Jiwon’s heated breathing felt through the brief separation, his heaving chest, even the hands clinging to him—nothing was unstimulating to Seo Gangwoo.
Only when puzzled Jiwon tapped Seo Gangwoo’s shoulder did he open his closed eyes, but he merely continued the kiss. The two didn’t separate for a long while. Seo Gangwoo, who pulled his lips away with a smack filled with reluctance, held Jiwon fully in his arms.
After one round of hot passion subsided, they lay side by side on the bed and talked. Seo Gangwoo’s gauge had already dropped to the maximum it could drop.
“Do double dungeons occur frequently?”
“They don’t occur that frequently, but I heard the frequency of occurrence has increased recently compared to before.”
At those words, Jiwon’s expression became serious. If the dungeon gate Seo Gangwoo entered turned out to be a double dungeon again, it wouldn’t be just a serious matter.
I still have a long way to go before getting my field license…. Jiwon let out a deep sigh.
“Will it be okay?”
Seo Gangwoo, noticing such worry, gently touched Jiwon’s cheek and said,
“When they receive the strategy report for this time, the Center will review the mission selection again. I also have no intention of entering recklessly.”
It was dangerous because of his unstable physical condition, but more than that, it was because he hated being separated from Jiwon for a long time.
“They could lower the dungeon grade I deploy to, or I could mainly take normal gates or special zones rather than dungeon gates—there are ways if we look for them.”
“Right?”
Only then did Jiwon’s voice brighten.
“I was busy today too. Oh! I also met Guide Do Yura!”
“Was there some business at the Center?”
Do Yura belonged to Center 2, so unless it was something special, she didn’t come to Center 1 often. And even then, most of the time she was called to come for Seo Gangwoo’s own lack of guiding problem.
“Today a new Esper almost went berserk in the training ground. It was handled well, but Guide Do Yura also came late and we exchanged greetings. Um, and….”
Jiwon talked about how he had performed Noble Guiding on the new Esper who had been on the verge of rampage, and even about Do Yura who was unofficially affiliated with the EED.
