Raon, who had been rolling his upper and lower lips inward, biting and chewing on them firmly, stood up from his seat and approached Jaehwi.
“You mean an appropriately businesslike relationship, right?”
Like Jaehwi had done when they met again, Raon stopped at a distance of about three steps in his stride.
“Don’t talk so casually like this, and let’s keep things formal too.”
For the first time since Jaehwi had woken up, Raon lifted his gaze to look straight into his eyes.
“I will. From the moment we leave here. Just because you’re receiving guiding from Guides in the center who don’t have exclusive contracts… I know I’m very lacking too, but I don’t know how it was for you, but I thought about you quite a lot. So when I saw you looking like you were asleep, it reminded me of the past, so I apologize for touching and guiding you on my own.”
Having blurted out his words without organization, Raon smiled awkwardly in his complicated mood and slightly moistened his dry lips with the tip of his tongue. Even when he approached and when he spoke, Jaehwi stood there like a wooden statue, but he didn’t avoid his gaze.
Since this was the only opportunity to have such a friendly conversation, Raon decided to be a little more greedy.
“We couldn’t say goodbye 10 years ago. We parted too suddenly. So can I hug you just once so I can let go of little Hwi? I absolutely won’t do guiding or anything. Even if I wanted to, I used up all my energy just now so I can’t anyway.”
He could see in real time as Jaehwi’s eyebrows furrowed and his expression grew colder. But Raon approached Jaehwi. Since he didn’t back away, Raon stopped his steps close enough for the tips of their shoes to touch and slowly raised both arms.
He reached his hands between Jaehwi’s loosely hanging arms and waist and leaned his entire body toward him. Raon’s body touched the warm, solid body. Moving both arms to loosely wrap around Jaehwi’s upper body, Raon pressed his ear to Jaehwi’s left chest.
The thumping sound of Jaehwi’s heartbeat could be heard through his entire body. Then he patted his back and waist a few times with both palms. He wanted to pull him into a tight embrace, but if he did that, it seemed he’d be hated even more.
Since there was nothing good about prolonging the awkward moment of hugging and patting someone who showed no reaction, Raon stopped his patting hands first. Contrary to how he’d embraced him, he removed the arm wrapped around his waist first.
The heartbeat he wanted to keep listening to grew distant, and as their touching bodies separated, the warmth disappeared.
“Are you always this willful?”
Firmly pressing down the desire to linger, Raon straightened his body and laughed quietly at the words heard from above his head.
“Just as much as someone I know. Esper Min says he doesn’t like it, but accepts everything. I’ll be careful not to cross the line going forward. I hope my actions and answers don’t negatively affect the contract. As you know, Esper Min is a talent coveted by all centers. It could be done through someone else, but things like complaints or requests will be handled fastest if you tell me.”
Raon’s eyes, which had been fixing his clothing that hadn’t really gotten disheveled, finally discovered the window behind Jaehwi. The window had been there from the beginning. He’d just completely forgotten about it while being with Jaehwi. Thinking that people outside must have seen everything, even him hugging Jaehwi as if he’d snuck in, made his vision spin.
Even without this, he remembered that there had been minor talk within the company about going to the training room in a disheveled state last time, but if today’s incident was added to that…
“Are you concerned about that now?”
At Jaehwi’s words hitting the mark as if he had telepathy, Raon could only smile awkwardly as expected.
“No matter what they say, I’m the employer, right? There will be gossip, but no one will say it openly to my face, so I’ll take comfort in that. What more could they say besides MK Center’s management team leader openly had personal feelings for Nox? Oh, and that he got thoroughly rejected too. Both having personal feelings and getting rejected are true, so it’s not even wrong.”
He’d seen him receive radiative guiding and directly confirmed that Jaehwi’s condition was fine, so there was nothing to worry greatly about. Aiden Jung would definitely accept if he proposed again after finishing the contract with Jaehwi. There wouldn’t be any situation where he stubbornly refused guiding like before and ruined his own body, so it really was right to stop at this point.
Since Jaehwi didn’t seem to have any intention of moving first, Raon carefully passed by his side without touching him and headed for the door.
“It’s okay.”
At first, he didn’t understand what Jaehwi said.
“People outside couldn’t see, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
“This is why I wanted to become an Esper. What Guides can do is…”
If it was Jaehwi, he had enough ability to do that. And knowing he wasn’t the type to lie, Raon clicked his tongue and went outside. Laden with the many gazes of those who couldn’t bring themselves to ask what had happened to him, Raon headed to a nearby research lab.
Passing through the researchers who were flustered at his sudden appearance, he sat in the seat next to Hyukjin, who was concentrating on something. Leaving the researchers who tactfully dispersed, Raon leaned back comfortably in his chair and looked at the monitor Hyukjin was viewing.
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
“…Did you know something when you said that?”
Though he couldn’t understand all the complex terminology and graphs, through a few key words he could tell that what Hyukjin was looking at was related to Jaehwi’s stabilizers.
“I didn’t drink this week and didn’t eat anything bad for my body, so my blood condition is good. I’ll let you draw as much as you can generously take, so in exchange, give me some medicine good for muscle pain after the blood draw. My whole body is aching to death.”
“Spill what’s in your head while I’m being nice.”
Raon, who had been gently spinning his chair with his gaze on the constantly changing graphs, gave another awkward smile toward Hyukjin, who was looking at him with a stiff expression. Lately, he’d been continuously smiling to smooth over situations.
“There’s also something about compatibility, right?”
“Choi Hyukjin.”
“Since when were you interested in making Esper stabilizers? You’re not becoming close friends with a guiding coach you’d never have reason to meet normally. A workaholic who was stuck in the office only working suddenly appears and frequently patrols the center. There’s more than one or two strange things. I let it slide because I was busy with my own work, but you shouldn’t think you can fool me too.”
He tried to gloss over it appropriately without stopping spinning the chair, but because Hyukjin grabbed the chair’s armrest, Raon straightened his posture.
“So are you going to draw blood? Or not? The stabilizers are what we can propose as a breakthrough, aren’t they? When it’s obviously certain he’ll contract with us, are we going to lose him right before our eyes?”
“Ha… Really, if you weren’t just data. Why do you need muscle pain medicine?”
“What should I answer? That I went to a club last night and danced like crazy?”
He wanted to keep being cheeky, but at Hyukjin’s fierce gaze, Raon closed his mouth. Just because he pressed didn’t mean he could answer everything.
“Even if I don’t say it, everything reaches your ears anyway. Do I really have to say it all? Even without that, I have plenty of headache-inducing matters too.”
Raon glossed over it appropriately and came out after finishing the blood draw and only receiving painkillers, along with saying they should set a date to talk soon. Like when one thing ends, another waits. As soon as he returned to the office, Raon sighed at the files piled up on his desk.
Whatever his feelings were, he’d concluded not to push further in his relationship with Jaehwi and not to act impulsively. He’d eventually spill everything to Hyukjin over drinks sometime, but that too would pass without much problem.
Raon’s gaze, which had been skimming through just the overall content starting with the file on top, stopped at one place.
“No matter how tired I am, I can’t miss this.”
-Dungeon occurrence expected area: XX City XX District
-Dungeon expected grade: F
At a distance reachable by car in an hour, that no one would give a second glance to. It was content related to an F-grade dungeon that would naturally dissipate even if left alone. For a first time, was there any place more ideal than an F-grade dungeon that had absolutely no danger? There was no need to go to the trouble of finding a tight-lipped Esper either.
He didn’t need protective gear or weapons with special stats, and in other words, it was like climbing a hill behind one’s house—he could just go look around and come back.
-Dungeon dissipation expected time: Within 24 hours
Since it was a dungeon that came up in the report related to occurring dungeons, the field team would also stop by as a courtesy to just check the dissipation status and pass on.
Instead of heavy protective gear weighing down his entire body, getting low-grade functional protective gear and one weapon from the center was nothing. Raon raised his head to look at the clock. The problem was shaking off Jay. Raon tapped the desk with the tip of his pen and meticulously checked the content related to the F-grade dungeon.
