He tried pondering alone with his head in his hands, but he just couldn’t come to a conclusion. In the end, he simply waited for Seo Gangwoo to come out of the bathroom. He listlessly flopped down, resting his head on the pillow, and stared up at the ceiling.
Just waiting around without doing anything made the shower seem to be taking longer than usual, and he felt bored. He moved his body around, which felt much lighter thanks to the massage Seo Gangwoo had given him.
Even as he rolled around on the wide bed, the robe was tied so securely that aside from a slight dishevelment, it remained fixed to his body. Jiwon glared at the robe’s knot resentfully, finding it somehow annoying.
Just then, with a ‘click,’ the bathroom door opened and Seo Gangwoo came out. Jiwon bolted upright from where he’d been lying down. He stole a glance at Seo Gangwoo’s body as he approached while drying his hair. His eyes caught the movement of muscles forming a perfect inverted triangle that the thin t-shirt couldn’t hide.
Seo Gangwoo stopped two or three steps away from the bed. What would he say? Jiwon’s eyes darted around as he listened attentively.
“How about we eat first and then head home?”
Jiwon flinched at the pleasant low voice, but soon his shoulders drooped downward. All the air went out of him at the plain words suggesting they eat and go home. Jiwon finally gave up on the faint hope he’d been harboring.
“Ahem, yes. What should we order?”
Acting as if nothing was wrong, he brought over a tablet and ordered dinner. Sitting side by side, they chatted about small things, and Seo Gangwoo thoughtfully served him side dishes that weren’t too far away—it was a mealtime not so different from usual.
However, somehow it felt like Seo Gangwoo was trying not to get his body too close. Jiwon tilted his head in puzzlement, but soon dismissed it, thinking he must be imagining things.
The Center cafeteria, which changed its menu daily, paid considerable attention to taste, so unless someone had strong likes and dislikes about the side dishes, it rarely failed. Though it was on the first floor of the same building, Jiwon preferred ordering food to eat in the quiet private room.
After finishing their meal, the two roughly tidied up the private room and returned home after a long time. Since Seo Gangwoo had entered the dungeon gate, Jiwon had also been staying in the private room, so the house that had been empty for a while was chilly, but it was soon filled with warmth.
* * *
After S-rank Esper Seo Gangwoo entered and came out of the double dungeon, the Center reset the mission difficulty assignments as anticipated.
Since it was nothing short of a waste of talent for an S-rank Esper to enter a C-rank dungeon gate, which was lower than the dungeon gate rank he had previously entered, his activities were changed to focus mainly on general gate dispatches and special zones.
Jiwon prayed that a dungeon gate with a high enough rank for Seo Gangwoo to need to enter wouldn’t occur before he obtained his field license.
The two began commuting to the Center together again like before, each carrying out their respective schedules.
As soon as Jiwon arrived at work, he drank a simple cup of coffee while guiding several Espers with high gauge levels, then moved to the training room.
Since he would be training alone until Woojin was discharged from the hospital, Jiwon dripped with sweat as he faithfully conducted his training at the existing intensity.
Jieun, whom he occasionally ran into at the training room, saw Jiwon working hard alone even though no one was supervising or watching over him from the side, and after finishing her own workout, she would separately help assist with his training.
Afterward, he ate lunch and attended theory classes, during which his guiding energy recovered, so he would accept guiding requests again, rest for a bit, and then practice shooting with the special gun.
Of course, he didn’t forget to check Seo Gangwoo’s condition through the pair guide watch in between.
Unlike Jiwon, who rarely left the Center, Seo Gangwoo often went out to carry out missions as they came up.
Recently, the occurrence of double dungeon gates that couldn’t be confirmed in advance had increased, so for safety, the Center had increased the number of personnel entering dungeon gates. Because of this, the number of personnel that could be assigned elsewhere decreased, and Seo Gangwoo, who had been excluded from dungeon gate missions, was filling that gap.
When he returned from missions, he would come back to the Center where Jiwon was, receive guiding, rest, or check his condition in the training room.
Since the two people who were the hottest topic at Center 1 were spending each day so productively, the Center was becoming more and more lively.
Click—!
In Jiwon’s hand was a practice gun similar to a special firearm. His sharply focused eyes glared at the target in front of him. The moment he pulled the trigger, a sharp noise rang out.
“Ugh…”
Jiwon lowered his arm at the disappointing result and tilted his head back. It hadn’t flown off to some random place like when he first shot with the special gun, but it was far from dead center. Even this was an improvement from all his practice up to now.
On top of that, the current shooting distance was the shortest at 20M. To pass the test, he had to shoot at targets at 20M, 50M, and 100M distances and record above a certain score.
After that, Jiwon shot the practice gun nonstop for 30 minutes. Only after his arm muscles cramped did he stop practicing, and he clutched his head with both hands at the result record displayed on the monitor to the side.
Ahhh~! His heart might be that of an Olympic gold medalist-level marksman, but!
At the unsatisfactory results, Jiwon screamed internally. Shooting the gun was more fun than he’d thought. But he wasn’t shooting as a hobby—it was to obtain his field license.
At this rate, he had no idea when he’d be able to obtain his field license—the future looked bleak. Just then, Seo Gangwoo entered the shooting training range.
“Oh! What brings you here? Are you done training?”
Though it was a face he saw every day, his face brightened immediately, as if he was so happy to see him.
“Yes. I was going to go to Guide Kim Jiwon’s private room, but your location showed up here, so I came.”
The two had the location tracking function turned on for each other on their watches.
It was a function on the pair watch that had been manufactured with all the additional option features added, but they hadn’t been using it. Recently, however, the two had agreed to keep it on all the time for the time being.
Though it wasn’t that serious, Seo Gangwoo had become reluctant to be away from Jiwon for long periods and was feeling anxious while carrying out external schedules.
Though his head knew the fact that Jiwon was safely at the Center, somewhere in a corner of his heart he felt anxious and restless. Whenever that happened, checking Jiwon’s location would calm his mind somewhat, so he was very satisfied with that function.
Seo Gangwoo wasn’t the only one satisfied with the location tracking function. In fact, Jiwon was using this function even better. Though Seo Gangwoo now even sent guiding requests first, since he was someone who could endure pain quite well, Jiwon had to check his gauge status from time to time.
Sometimes during training, he would respond late to guiding calls, so Jiwon would check his location and go find him, or while doing guiding work, he would confirm when Seo Gangwoo was returning from a mission and finish his work early.
Among pairs, quite a few used the location tracking function. Some had Espers sensitive to their Guide’s safety secretly turn on the location tracking function on the pair guide watch, while conversely, there were also Guides who used location tracking to try to restrict the Esper’s range of movement.
Having heard the story from Team Leader Lee Juyeon at some point, Jiwon thought it was better to use it openly and out in the open rather than doing it secretly behind someone’s back.
Some people found it unpleasant as an invasion of privacy or didn’t use it because it seemed too obsessive, but for the two who had nothing to hide from each other, it was simply a convenient and good function.
“Is practice going well?”
“Ugh… no.”
At Seo Gangwoo’s question, Jiwon’s head dropped heavily downward.
“…Is there some problem?”
“I have no talent for shooting. I think I’m doomed.”
As he slumped down looking ready to burrow into the ground, Seo Gangwoo grabbed Jiwon’s shoulders with both hands and lifted him up.
“May I take a look?”
“Mm, showing you is easy. But it’s a bit embarrassing. No laughing!”
Jiwon reset the target, positioned himself at the shooting position, and aimed with the gun gripped in both hands. Thinking that Seo Gangwoo was watching made him concentrate even more as he positioned himself and fired the gun. He worked hard, hoping to hit at least one shot close to dead center.
In reality, Seo Gangwoo wasn’t looking at the target at all and kept his gaze fixed on Jiwon, who was glaring ahead with a rather serious expression. Looking at his slightly furrowed brow, an impulse rose to gently smooth it out with his thumb.
After Jiwon had fired all ten shots and relaxed his arm strength, he turned his head and their eyes met.
“Uh…”
Jiwon’s words briefly caught in his throat at those deepened black eyes. After hesitating a little, he took a step back and asked.
“How was it?”
Even at Jiwon’s question, Seo Gangwoo remained silent for a moment, then opened his mouth without withdrawing his piercing gaze.
“Have you tried one-handed shooting?”
“One-handed?”
At Jiwon’s puzzled question, Seo Gangwoo nodded.
“Yes. It would be different with a regular gun, but this KG-3.2 doesn’t weigh much, and since the recoil when firing is minimal, you don’t necessarily have to use both hands.”
“Hmm… I haven’t tried it. Wouldn’t two hands be better since they’re more stable?”
“Then let’s try it first. Since you’re left-handed, first stand in this direction…”
Seo Gangwoo demonstrated once, then stood next to Jiwon and helped him position himself.
