Feeding My Guide
“Captain, are you really certain you’re alright?”
AJ suddenly stopped his report midway and asked Heichi. He was projecting his image on a hologram, and while adjusting his slightly wrinkled shirt collar, answered in a relaxed voice.
“Is there a problem?”
“You keep abusing your abilities without proper guiding. Just like before with Dumor from Jupiter Team 1…”
“So should I have left my Guide to suffer reverse guiding, AJ?”
At the cold question, AJ firmly shut his mouth. In truth, he knew well that if AJ had been in the same situation, he would have unhesitatingly abused his abilities too. AJ, a fire ability user, unusually had a calm and composed temperament, but when it came to his Guide, he would explode like flames.
In fact, seeing Heichi return from meeting the imprisoned Dumor that day, AJ had shown his respect, saying he’d really shown great restraint. If it had been AJ, he wouldn’t have merely scratched one eye of an Esper who coveted his Guide. Emotionally speaking, it would have been natural to burn their limbs so they couldn’t even crawl.
But Dumor was one of the top-tier Espers, and among them, one of the rare physical types at that. While Espers who enhanced their bodies were common, most stopped at lower levels, making top-tier physical enhancement Espers extremely rare. Knowing how much work he did within the First Strategic Fleet, Heichi had shown merciful treatment.
“That’s not… But you seem to have grown weaker recently. Captain.”
Of course, Heichi hadn’t just left Dumor alone out of mercy. Recently, as his visits to see Heewoo had become more frequent, he’d inevitably had to expend much effort suppressing his abilities, which made Heichi desperately need guiding. It wasn’t for nothing that he’d compared himself to a fool drinking salt water when severely thirsty.
Once an Esper enters a weakened state, unless they consistently receive appropriate guiding, they fall into a painful dilemma. To suppress their abilities requires guiding matching their level, and without receiving guiding, they become even weaker and gradually unable to suppress their abilities.
Heichi staying holed up in his quarters in a state of serious lethargy wasn’t just depression, but also to prevent even a bit of physical exhaustion.
“Recently, the Guide seems to view you positively, Captain, so perhaps taking this opportunity to actively request guiding…”
“To someone who pushed me away the moment they learned I was an Esper?”
Heichi spoke while staring intently at the hologram projecting himself. The Heichi in the hologram was dressed in a suit from head to toe—the formal or stylish attire Earth male bodies often wore. He’d been grooming his appearance for quite a while now, but he was already so perfect there was nowhere left to improve.
Nevertheless, Heichi kept searching for any possible flaws. His analysis showed that his Guide wasn’t the type to have romantic interest in male bodies, which meant he needed to dress up his appearance even more. He had to become even a little more attractive to catch his Guide’s eye.
Like a peacock trying to catch even a bit of his Guide’s attention, and yet he should demand more guiding? That was absurd.
“…”
“I can still endure.”
“…Captain.”
“I’ve endured for decades even before meeting him.”
A body that had endured wouldn’t suddenly collapse now just because it had found a way to live. Heichi wanted to give his Guide a bit more time to feel at ease. He wanted to show he wasn’t such a dangerous creature, wanted to make him trust and believe in him a little more.
Heichi still thought every time he saw Heewoo that he wanted to put him in his arms and never let him go, but that’s why he didn’t utter a single word of it aloud. Though he couldn’t stop himself from occasionally grabbing Heewoo’s hand impulsively.
“Understood.”
AJ eventually understood Heichi’s heart. For a sustained future with his Guide, it was certainly better to delay guiding even a little. It was a normal reaction to feel repulsed if someone approached you because they wanted something.
But if Heichi’s physical condition collapsed beyond what he could handle, then at that time…
“I’ll be returning late tonight, so don’t prepare dinner capsules.”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t you hear? I said I’ll be having dinner out.”
“Ah…”
AJ couldn’t hide his reluctant expression. After all, Heichi returning late had become quite normal since meeting Heewoo. Yet there was only one reason Heichi would emphasize this point to AJ.
“My Guide wants to treat me to dinner.”
Because he wanted to brag.
AJ listened silently, his lips twitching, to the circumstances behind tonight’s dinner that Heichi enumerated with an expressionless face. Apparently, with Heewoo’s payday approaching, he wanted to treat Heichi to dinner—that seemed to be the cause of this situation.
Honestly, in AJ’s judgment, it was nothing special. Treating a close creature to a meal with one’s paycheck was something that happened often even among Espers, wasn’t it? But Heichi’s thinking seemed different.
“Inviting someone specifically to treat them to dinner is something that only happens between lovers, isn’t it? Perhaps he’ll confess to me around today.”
No, I don’t think that’s it.
…He couldn’t dare say that to his superior. AJ calmly organized the report pack he was holding, then composed his expression once more. And instead of saying anything else, he could only carefully tell his superior to take care. It was something that would become naturally clear once he went to dinner anyway, even without him saying it.
* * *
Heichi, waiting for Heewoo in front of Cafe Bonita looking neat and tidy, felt vibrations spread through his chest again upon seeing his Guide appear holding waffles. Though he knew the waffles he offered tasted sickeningly sweet in his mouth, hearing they were made directly by his Guide made even the tooth-rotting waffles taste good, and he ended up eating them all.
In any case, the atmosphere was going smoothly. Until he suddenly ran to the ATM.
Heichi, who had been waiting thinking he was withdrawing cash for dinner, realized something was wrong seeing his Guide’s face changing moment by moment. Then Heewoo took out that flip phone and called someone, and the entire conversation reached Heichi’s excellent hearing.
—There’s a limit to how much you can mooch off me!
The familiar angry voice was one Heichi had heard before. It was the owner of the convenience store where his Guide had previously worked and been unavoidably fired. Knowing how much compensation the owner had received and pocketed from that incident, a crooked smile hung on Heichi’s lips.
Despite that, the owner was using the damage he’d suffered as an excuse to try not to properly pay his Guide’s wages. The moment Heewoo’s call ended, Heichi, positioned in a corner, touched behind his ear to connect a Link to AJ.
“AJ.”
—…Yes? What’s the matter?
Though his superior didn’t use Link often to begin with, when meeting Heewoo he acted completely like an Earthling, so AJ seemed surprised to receive this contact now. Heichi ordered him without preamble.
“The compensation paid to the convenience store—revoke it.”
—Is something wrong?
“There’s a thief trying to steal my Guide’s wages.”
—Ah… Hmm, it’s difficult to revoke compensation already paid, but I’ll retaliate accordingly instead.
Knowing well how threatening the ‘retaliation’ spoken of by AJ, an excellent aide, could be, Heichi cut the Link with a satisfied expression. Just then, Heewoo, who had been standing in front of the ATM looking at the screen with a bewildered face, turned to look at Heichi.
“Um, Heichi…”
Given how the situation was unfolding, it wasn’t difficult to guess what Heewoo was about to say to him now. It would be about how treating him to dinner tonight had become difficult due to the suddenly insufficient money. Heichi didn’t want to ruin the barely arranged dinner appointment over such a reason.
In fact, Heichi wasn’t particularly concerned about the compensation to be paid to Heewoo itself. The reason was simple. If Heewoo chose Heichi, tremendous wealth would roll in accordingly, and by that time, Earth’s currency would depreciate in value to no more than scraps of paper. Earth’s currency, which had no exchange with other planets, was merely a useless relic once you went out into space.
In contrast, what Heichi possessed was Epsilon’s ‘Nova,’ which was even used as a universal currency in space. If only he would become his pair, Heichi intended to transfer Nova incomparable to the $100 million supposedly paid only to Brown Dwarfs and above.
“The compensation payment seems to be taking time. I’ll pay you by tomorrow, so please accept this first for today.”
Still, if his Guide needed Earth money right now. Heichi unhesitatingly pulled out his card and began withdrawing cash. If anything was fortunate, it was fortunate that he’d learned how to use cards and withdraw cash in advance to familiarize himself with Earth’s culture.
“So, what food are you treating me to today?”
“…Samgyeopsal…”
To Heichi, the menu for the dinner commemorating their first date meal was more important than the 6 million won he’d just handed Heewoo or whatever debt his Guide had.
“Do Earth lovers eat samgyeopsal often?”
“What? Sa-samgyeopsal…?”
Samgyeopsal.
Heichi immediately searched through Link whether samgyeopsal was suitable as a typical date menu. Reading that while it wasn’t suitable as food for a first date, it was a frequently adopted menu between lovers who’d been meeting for a long time and grown close, a satisfied smile hung on Heichi’s lips.
Why doesn’t it say how much the chapters are or how to buy everything at once? It just says insufficient funds but not how I buy it or how much.