“You’ve managed not to get caught pulling stunts like this. You won’t get caught going forward either.”
“Yes, that’s a compliment.”
“Barely got any guiding and you’re feeling better already?”
“I’m rambling because I feel like I’ll pass out if I don’t say something.”
His gaze seemed to flicker toward Hae-il for a moment.
The car turned once more and pulled into a shaded alley. Moon Woo-shin parked somewhere inconspicuous and picked up the bag he’d placed by the passenger seat footwell.
“Get out.”
Hae-il got out quickly at that and took in his surroundings. It was a quiet side street with not a single person passing through. Along both sides of the road, bathed in the evening glow, cars were parked in sparse rows. They all looked to be in poor condition — like they were waiting to be scrapped.
Before he could take a proper look around, Moon Woo-shin took Hae-il’s hand and pulled him along. A faint trickle of guiding flowed through. The density was far too low for the state Hae-il was in.
Walking hand in hand, Hae-il asked quietly.
“Are we ditching the car?”
“Keep riding around in that thing and we’ll end up delivered to the Special Abilities Agency by tomorrow.”
“So we just walk the rest of the way?”
“I was planning to switch to another car, but….”
Moon Woo-shin looked Hae-il’s face over and continued.
“We’re going to rest first. Bear with it a little longer.”
Guess it’s obvious I’m about to pass out. It was only thanks to the faint guiding flowing through their joined hands that he was managing to walk at all.
Despite saying just a little longer, Moon Woo-shin took a considerably complex route. Just as he had while driving there, he changed direction countless times, cutting through alley after alley, and slipping through places that weren’t paths to avoid CCTV cameras. At one point he ducked into a dark corner, shed his outer layer and hat, and pulled new ones from the bag to put on.
“Do you know this area?”
“Roughly.”
He moved through it too naturally for Hae-il not to wonder. As always, it seemed he did have a plan.
“Where are we going?”
“A hideout.”
And a destination too, it seemed.
Hae-il nodded and fell silent after that. He followed without a word, conserving even the energy it took to speak — but his condition was deteriorating rapidly. He could feel his body steadily reaching its limit.
Focused entirely on just keeping pace as Moon Woo-shin led him along, he had none of his usual awareness of what was around him or which direction they were heading.
“Ha….”
Hae-il exhaled a ragged breath and tightened his grip on the hand holding his. The painkiller’s effect had long since faded. The pain in his right shoulder from the injury and the pain in his chest from guiding depletion — it was hard to tell which was worse, his whole body aching to the point where he couldn’t distinguish one from the other.
Not even sure he was looking properly at what was in front of him as he walked, he moved forward trusting nothing but the hand in his.
It was around the time when even his sense of how long they’d been walking grew hazy.
All at once, Moon Woo-shin loosened his grip and pulled his hand back.
“No — no, don’t.”
Hae-il grabbed it urgently, planting himself against Moon Woo-shin’s arm as if clinging to it. With the crisis-level feeling that losing even this small warmth would kill him on the spot, he laid his right hand on top and gripped harder.
Moon Woo-shin stilled and stood like that for a moment, then slowly wrapped his other arm around him. Hae-il pressed himself immediately into his hold. A hand carrying guiding stroked gently down his back.
“We’re here.”
He barely registered the meaning of the voice grazing his ear, and for a moment his senses returned.
When he came back to himself, they were in the mountains.
The sun had already set and it was dim all around, with not a single light in sight. Between large trees standing in irregular rows, a small house sat tucked away without looking out of place. It had the appearance of an ordinary detached home — a green roof, brown brick walls.
Hae-il and Woo-shin were standing right in front of its gate.
“…This is it?”
“Yeah.”
Moon Woo-shin’s hand slowly slipped away again. An impulse to grab it flashed through him, but he endured it, pouring his focus into the guiding still touching his back.
Moon Woo-shin freed his right hand and reached out toward the gate’s lock, pressing his finger to it. A fingerprint scan — a brief mechanical sound, and the gate opened.
They gripped each other’s hands tightly again and stepped inside. Moving quickly across the small yard, they opened the front door the same way and entered the dark interior.
After kicking their shoes off carelessly, Moon Woo-shin kept walking without stopping. He headed deep inside to the kitchen, set the bag down, and retrieved a bottle of water from the refrigerator — handing it over along with medicine he’d found somewhere.
“Take the painkiller first.”
Only once he had the water bottle in hand did he feel a burning thirst. He obediently drained both the medicine and the full bottle of water, and was immediately led by Moon Woo-shin’s hand again.
They stopped in front of the bathroom.
Hae-il had been following along in a daze and nearly walked straight in — then caught himself.
Oh, right, I need to wash up…. But I can’t let go…. Can’t he do a little more guiding first and then I wash….
Should I just hold on. Would he even let me.
He was standing at the doorway locked in serious internal conflict when his arm was pulled forward.
“What are you doing? Come on.”
“Sorry?”
Moon Woo-shin sat Hae-il on the edge of the bathtub and turned on the showerhead first. Warm water came rushing out and heat rose up against his back.
Is he telling me to wash first. Getting warm is making me dizzy.
He sat there limply, eyes just trailing after Moon Woo-shin — and then Moon Woo-shin began taking off his clothes.
“…Why are you taking your clothes off?”
“You wash with your clothes on?”
“Oh — should I step out?”
“If you fall right now, even through a wall, it’s dangerous.”
“…So you’re going to watch me wash?”
“What are you on about. You wash too.”
“……Together, you mean? We wash — together?”
Am I just not processing this because I’m not in my right mind.
He was trying to follow the thread of the thought in his foggy head when Moon Woo-shin, who had tossed his shirt into a corner of the floor, stepped directly in front of him.
A large hand reached out and stroked softly down the back of his neck, then tilted his chin upward. Guiding seeped richly through the point of contact. The eyes meeting his straight on carried an unreadable darkness.
“Let’s do guiding — while we wash.”
He was aware that in the state his body had reached, simple contact guiding alone would take an extremely long time. He knew it might not work at all. And that deeper contact would therefore be necessary.
But knowing something and being ready for it were two different things.
Even with instinct overriding reason, an old thought surfaced first.
“……Is it really just guiding?”
As Hae-il sat there looking up quietly, Moon Woo-shin slowly bent down. His face drew closer, and the dark irises came into sharper view.
“I don’t think this is the time to be picking that apart.”
There was no reason why those words should feel warm when they ought to feel cold. Whether it was the guiding circling the area around his neck, deepening in intensity with every passing moment — or something else entirely —
Without realizing it, Hae-il reached out and touched the corner of Moon Woo-shin’s eye.
As his fingertips swept across his skin, a guiding Wavelength sparked through like a static shock.
