‘Today’s Soup’.
Heichi stood in front of the soup restaurant where Lee Heewoo worked every day from lunch until 4 PM, waiting for him while looking through the transparent glass. Heewoo, whose face looked very flustered after receiving a phone call, was bowing repeatedly toward the air.
Knowing that Heewoo rarely received phone calls normally, Heichi unknowingly raised his auditory function and eavesdropped on Heewoo’s call.
—…We are contacting you to confirm transaction details as a deposit of 287,694,520 won into Mr. Lee Heewoo’s account was confirmed at approximately 11:07 AM.
Having heard up to that point, Heichi understood the general circumstances. It seemed the compensation payment he’d ordered AJ to process as soon as he returned yesterday had been resolved.
Heichi recalled AJ, who had frowned at the words to pay Heewoo compensation in Earth’s currency as soon as he returned.
‘Then it will be reduced to half the amount compared to receiving it in Nova later. If you’re going with us anyway, receiving it in Nova rather than won would help the Guide’s future finances…’
‘Pay the compensation in Nova, and what I’m sending now, handle it with my personal funds.’
Thanks to that, the Nova that Heewoo was supposed to receive under the name of compensation didn’t decrease by a single penny. Instead, some taxes and a bit of time were inevitably consumed as Heichi took a very small portion of his assets, exchanged them to won, and sent them.
Of course, even that was smaller than dust in space compared to the fortune Heichi had earned traveling all over the universe until now. But as soon as Heewoo heard that small amount of money had been deposited into his bank account, tears dripped down.
“Hng, Heichi, snff…”
Standing in front of the bank shedding tears with eyes as clear and black as space, Heichi looked at Heewoo for a moment without being able to say anything.
Whether he was shedding tears because he was sad or shedding tears because he was happy was difficult for Heichi to know. However, just one thing—seeing Heewoo crying like that, Heichi learned what ‘breathless’ meant.
Before Heewoo, who was crying incessantly while tears flowed down his face, Heichi couldn’t easily reach out his hand, so he hesitated several times, raising and lowering his hand by his head. If he touched him now, it seemed his very weak Guide would collapse just like this. Heewoo had been particularly small and thin from the first time he saw him, but seeing him cry while trembling all over today, he looked even smaller.
Even in the midst of that, Heichi was going crazy wanting to pull Heewoo into his embrace and hold him. Since his Guide was this small and weak, wouldn’t it be fine if he put him in his embrace and protected him? If it came to pure force, Heichi would be hard-pressed to find an opponent even searching the entire universe. He intuitively realized he was born this uselessly strong to protect Lee Heewoo.
“I, now, they said I can breathe a little…”
Even to Heichi’s eyes, Heewoo, who was crying, seemed to have difficulty breathing. Thinking he might suffocate at this rate, Heichi, who had been hesitating with his hand raised, ultimately placed his hand on Heewoo’s lower back. Then he began to pat his bent lower back very slowly.
The protruding bone joints behind his bent waist made him realize how thin his Guide was. Even so, he was still a Guide who didn’t know how to control his power, so the fact that he guided as soon as they touched despite that thin, small body was funny and cute.
Heichi patted the breathless, crying Heewoo and spoke in a serious voice.
“Who told Mr. Lee Heewoo not to breathe?”
If there was such a bastard, he intended to immediately cut off their head and sever their breath. Each breath Heewoo exhaled was a gas more precious to Heichi than an oasis barely found in the vast universe. Even if universal military law was applied to him and he was dragged away for ability abuse, he would kill whoever interfered with Heewoo’s breathing before going.
But Heewoo himself burst into clear laughter as soon as he heard Heichi’s serious words. As he laughed while bending at the waist with tears still hanging, his face was exposed to stellar light, and when the light reflected off the condensed tears as if light was forming on them, light literally flowed from Heewoo’s face.
The only stars that can naturally emit light are suns. But from the face of Heewoo, who smiled brightly with eyes beautifully folded at the corners, came light brighter than a sun. Heichi suddenly thought he wanted to be buried in that bright star and die.
“In case you’re c-cold…”
Heichi, who had been looking at Heewoo with a blank face, lowered his head and looked at the back of that hand when he suddenly grabbed his hand.
“Ah, if you do this for a l-little while, I’m sorr…”
As those small hands somehow grasped his large hand and even blew breath on it, Heichi felt an indescribable warmth at that moment. No matter which sun he went to, he couldn’t feel such warm warmth.
His Guide hadn’t grabbed Heichi’s hand for guiding, and the act of blowing breath with his mouth to push in warmth didn’t help at all, but Heichi felt warmth for the first time since he was born. Not temperature felt through surface stimulation, but warmth that pounded his entire heart.
“Yes. I’m cold.”
So Heichi unknowingly told an absurd lie that he felt cold. Even though Heichi could survive approaching within dozens of kilometers of the sun, the single brightest light source in the vicinity, without dying, that didn’t matter at all. Heichi wanted to become weaker than any living being only in front of Lee Heewoo.
“Please hold me, Mr. Lee Heewoo. I am an entity that is very sensitive to cold.”
It was something that, if AJ heard it, he wouldn’t sneer but would suggest conducting an examination. For Heichi to feel cold was no different from saying he was on the verge of death. Or he’d already died and been reborn in another body.
Instead of adding such trivial explanations, Heichi pulled Heewoo’s hand and stuffed it into his coat pocket. Since the only thing he could grasp right now was Heewoo’s hand, he wanted to fully contain even just this in his domain. Of course, if permission was granted, Heichi wanted to walk around with Heewoo embraced and stuffed in his arms like this.
“This weekend, wh-what are you doing?”
At the question that followed, Heichi’s heart soared. Asking if he had free time on the weekend was a conversation prospective couples often had before dating. Especially in Korea, they called this relationship “some,” and Heichi was confident that he and Heewoo were also progressing through such appropriate stages.
“I have no scheduled plans.”
If he took too long, it would look like he was pondering, and if he answered too quickly, he’d look like an idle and useless life form, so he answered after taking a bit of time. Then Heewoo fortunately gave an answer within Heichi’s expected range.
“Tomorrow, would you like to spend it with me…?”
Heichi’s heart greatly contracted, painfully so, then returned to its place. The fact that Heewoo, who had been doing only work until now and hadn’t given him any time at all, wanted to borrow Heichi’s entire tomorrow meant a very meaningful current was passing. Heichi barely maintained his calm exterior and spoke.
“Good. Is there something you want to do or somewhere you want to go?”
If Heewoo told him his preferences even vaguely, Heichi steeled his heart to prepare anything accordingly and confess. Since his Guide was very shy, it would be desirable for him to confess first to solidify this relationship. With that thought, he waited for Heewoo’s answer…
“Um, there’s something I really want to do…”
“What is that?”
Something you really want to do?
Heichi’s shoulders unknowingly lowered toward where Heewoo was and he listened closely to what would follow.
Then Heewoo smiled bashfully like a twinkling star once more and said this.
“I want to sleep.”
It felt like someone had smacked Heichi’s head hard enough to make a sound.
Want to sleep? Want to sleep?
Heichi’s mind spun busily. At the same time, he awakened the link inserted behind his ear to search for the hidden meaning of the Earth expression “want to sleep.” Recently, as the 1st Strategic Unit stayed on Earth for a long time, all kinds of information from Earth’s civilizations were being auto-translated and pouring into the link.
Heichi took Heewoo all the way home and parted ways, but was still captivated by Heewoo’s expression “want to sleep” and couldn’t escape. Even while returning to the battleship and heading to his quarters, Heewoo kept appearing in Heichi’s mind repeatedly saying “I want to sleep” toward him.
He became completely addicted to that ecstasy-like scene right after learning that the expression “I want to sleep” on Earth was substituted with the meaning “I want to have sex,” just like in Epsilon. Heichi couldn’t get rid of his blank expression all that day and ultimately had to be scolded by AJ.
—
⚡Category-‣ Epsilon-‣ 1st Strategic Fleet-‣ Venting・Problem Consultation
✨Epilogue for Sentient Life Forms✨
⦁Discrimination between planets is prohibited.
⦁Networking behavior is prohibited.
⦁Spamming is prohibited.
⦁Please be informed that since an automatic translation function is installed, language structure and interpretation results may be reconstructed according to the relevant civilization for each planetary coordinate where link access occurs.
1198 [I want to sleep]
1 Life form εCTC.8871.00366 ✋51
What meaning does ‘I want to sleep’ imply on Earth?
2 Life form εCTC.8871.02298 ✋2
-‣1 : Why? Who told you they want to sleep with you? lol
3 Life form εCTC.8871.02398 ✋33
Looking at this, seems like a low-rank Esper who heard “I want to sleep” from an Earth Guide and is getting all excited while thoroughly searching their link
4 Life form εCTC.8871.02915 ✋12
Hey, hyung is advising as an Esper life senior, don’t be too captivated by a Guide’s words about wanting to sleep. It doesn’t mean much.
5 Life form εCTC.8871.04351 ✋65
-‣4 : You haven’t met a Guide lol
6 Life form εCTC.8871.04469 ✋21
To be serious for a moment, if you heard that from a Guide during the selection period, ignore it. They’re just after your body.
7 Life form εCTC.8871.04829 ✋2
So what if they’re just after my body, fuck, I’d be happy if a Guide even wanted my body
8 Life form εCTC.8871.05121 ✋39
-‣7 : It’s because of bastards like you that Guides these days only look at Esper bodies and wealth
9 Life form εCTC.8871.05553 ✋12
Sleep : [verb] A state where eyes close and consciousness rests for a while according to physiological needs. Okay?
10 Life form εCTC.8871.05621 ✋1
But is Korea similar too? The expression sleep=have sex. My link is old so civilization translation doesn’t work well
11 Life form εCTC.8871.05633 ✋13
-‣10 : To answer seriously, yes. You have a Korean Guide?
12 Life form εCTC.8871.05777 ✋0
-‣11 : Yeah my Guide is Korean why?
13 Life form εCTC.8871.06112 ✋88
-‣12 : No, I heard somewhere that Korea has unusually many Guides. Should I try going to Korea next time too
14 Life form εCTC.8871.06225 ✋18
But isn’t Korea under Jupiter Team 1’s jurisdiction?
15 Life form εCTC.8871.06312 ✋16
-‣14 : Jupiter Team 1’s captain got dragged away and discipline hit rock bottom anyway lol
16 Life form εCTC.8871.06442 ✋121
-‣15 : P.S. Keep in mind that the battleship anchored in Korea belongs to Terra Team 1.
17 Life form εCTC.8871.06442 ✋2
Jupiter Team 1 means Dumor? He got dragged away? Why? When is he coming back?
18 Life form εCTC.8871.07118 ✋21
If Terra Team 1 is in Korea now, I won’t go to Korea no matter how many Guides there are… scary
19 Life form εCTC.8871.07265 ✋13
But why is this such a mess? The venting content is what does “I want to sleep” mean lol
20 Life form εCTC.8871.07654 ✋18
-‣19 : Because the life form who vented hasn’t appeared.
21 Life form εCTC.8871.07777 ✋0
I’m life form 17, why isn’t anyone answering? Why did Dumor get dragged away? When is he coming?
22 Life form εCTC.8871.07893 ✋66
-‣21 : No one’s answering because there’s a good reason for it…
23 Life form εCTC.8871.08123 ✋2
-‣22 : What is it? Please tell me, I’m Saturn Team 3 and I’m alone here with nowhere to ask
24 Life form εCTC.8871.08222 ✋89
-‣23 : Saturn Team 3? You’re new then, just live not knowing, it won’t harm your life
24 Life form εCTC.8871.08651 ✋0
Fuck my pride is hurt, can’t you just tell me? Fine forget the reason, just tell me when Team Captain Dumor is coming. I really need to know
25 Life form εCTC.8871.08662 ✋32
-‣24 : He’s imprisoned and being punished now. It’ll take a few months for him to fully recover and return
26 Life form εCTC.8871.08679 ✋11
-‣25 : But won’t it be a bit faster since he’s a physical enhancement type? His body was always healthy
27 Life form εCTC.8871.08897 ✋44
-‣26 : I think differently. He was already in a weakened state so unless he receives guiding, it’ll take a while
28 Life form εCTC.8871.08934 ✋1
SoaretheremoreGuidesinKoreathanIndianow?Isthatcertain?
29 Life form εCTC.8871.09002 ✋27
-‣28 : What the fuck is this? Is your link malfunctioning?
