# Chapter 21
So everyone looked at Jaehee. At Jaehee, who was revealing his body for the first time.
“…Ah!”
Suddenly, as if one of the Guides had just come to his senses, he approached Geonwoo and placed his hand on his clothes. For contact Guiding, Geonwoo would also need to remove his clothes just the same.
Geonwoo showed no reaction to the Guide’s touch. He didn’t even pay attention. His gaze was fixed solely on Jaehee.
But then.
“I’ll do it.”
Jaehee, who hadn’t been paying attention to the others’ gazes, suddenly stopped the Guide who was approaching to remove Geonwoo’s clothes.
At those words, the Guide realized his mistake and paused. Since both one-sided marks and Guiding rejection were uncommon, he had forgotten. That physical contact with someone who hadn’t marked him would further provoke the rejection response.
So the Guide immediately hid his hands behind his back and stepped away. As he moved positions, he glanced down at Geonwoo’s face, which unlike before, now looked startled.
Jaehee undid his last button and removed his shirt. He placed his clothes beside the machine and approached Geonwoo, touching his clothes. Geonwoo’s body stiffened. It was completely different from when the other Guide had touched him earlier.
Geonwoo felt conflicting emotions. He trembled at his appearance, at his touch. A shy excitement bloomed in his body. And just as much, he hated it. Because he knew that this action wasn’t for any other purpose, but solely to erase the mark.
So Geonwoo looked at Jaehee with tear-filled eyes. But Jaehee didn’t look at Geonwoo’s face.
He just continued unbuttoning Geonwoo’s buttons.
Each button coming undone. Jaehee’s touch brushing against him.
Geonwoo was afraid of what was about to happen. But his heart, on the contrary, pounded wildly at Jaehee’s touch. His body reacted on its own. His face, which had been pale and white, betrayed its owner’s will and flushed bright red.
‘Don’t do this… don’t do this, Guide-nim…’
Despite Geonwoo’s desperate refusal, all the buttons were undone. Under Jaehee’s touch, Geonwoo’s clothes fell open on both sides.
Jaehee then climbed onto the bed. Being careful not to disturb the ailing Geonwoo, he lay down beside him. Between the parted clothes, Geonwoo’s body touched Jaehee’s. Geonwoo flinched. He bit his lower lip, not knowing what to do.
Jaehee observed Geonwoo for a moment, then carefully embraced him. Though he was smaller than the Geonwoo from before the regression because he was still in an undeveloped state, he was still large enough for Jaehee to fit in his arms. Jaehee nestled into the large body, burrowing into Geonwoo’s embrace.
‘Ah… please…’
Geonwoo’s body, already feverish from his poor condition, now heated up to such a degree that it seemed unbearable. His insides were suddenly filled with heat to the point of discomfort. Jaehee was too close.
That wasn’t the only problem. Like before, his senses opened on their own where he was touching Jaehee. His body was accepting the Guiding energy in the room. Geonwoo liked having him in his arms, but the current situation was terrible.
‘I don’t want to accept it… I don’t want to accept it…’
Geonwoo tried desperately to close his senses to avoid absorbing the Guiding.
‘Please, please!’
But it was useless.
‘What should I do… how can I protect the mark…’
Geonwoo was anxious and uneasy. He was scared. These murky emotions overwhelmed him. A frightening future kept forming in his mind.
‘No. If the mark is erased, I’ll be abandoned… I’ll be completely abandoned by him…’
Even now, he was cold towards him. But if the mark was erased? Probably, he would never want to see him again.
‘No… no… no!’
This fear unconsciously made him touch something he shouldn’t have. The Esper energy still deeply submerged within Geonwoo began to boil, resonating with his emotions. An unimaginably vast wave of energy surged from the deepest depths.
It engulfed Geonwoo’s body in an instant. Terrible pain dominated his entire body. The pain was so severe he felt like he might die at any moment.
“What… what are you doing right now?”
Seeing Geonwoo like this, Jaehee was startled and urgently met his gaze. Through their touching skin, he examined what was inside him. But energies that shouldn’t be felt right now were gradually spreading throughout Geonwoo’s body.
His body had not yet manifested. The power of an S-class Esper was too vast for someone like him to handle.
At this rate, Geonwoo would… die.
‘I don’t want to accept it… I don’t want to accept someone else’s Guiding… I don’t want to erase the mark. I won’t erase it… absolutely won’t erase it. I won’t let you go… Guide-nim, I absolutely won’t let you go…!’
These intense feelings toward him were forcibly trying to hasten his manifestation.
“Esper Choi Geonwoo!”
Jaehee urgently called out to Geonwoo. But Geonwoo’s eyes were gradually losing focus.
Seeing this, Jaehee shouted desperately to the Guides.
“Stop the Guiding right now!”
Jaehee grabbed Geonwoo’s face, making him look at him.
“Esper Choi Geonwoo, can you feel my Guiding energy? Focus on that! Don’t think about anything else, just focus on that…”
Geonwoo flinched at Jaehee’s touch. But his eyes were already clouded over. They couldn’t take in anything.
“…Look at me. Look at me please…”
A moist voice echoed in Geonwoo’s ears.
At the same time, Jaehee’s energy that Geonwoo felt gradually became stronger. As the other Guides in the room stopped pouring out energy, Jaehee’s energy began to feel relatively stronger.
Jaehee’s voice reached Geonwoo’s ears again.
“Just me… focus only on me.”
With Jaehee’s Guiding, with Jaehee’s words, Geonwoo’s excitement gradually calmed. The energy that had been darkening his vision began to subside, and his focus slowly returned.
Geonwoo could feel it.
‘At this level… at this current level…’
The mark wouldn’t be erased.
‘It might not become more solid or stronger, but it won’t be erased.’
But,
‘I don’t know when they’ll try to erase the mark again…’
That anxiety slowly melted away with Jaehee’s next words.
“I won’t erase the mark… I won’t try to erase it…”
Geonwoo focused on Jaehee’s words. The urgent voice, as if gasping for breath, repeated like an echo. A desperate voice, to the point of being heartrending, was begging him to stop.
As this continued, Geonwoo’s vision gradually became clearer.
“I promise…”
His vision cleared again. Jaehee filled it completely. Finally, he could see his face properly.
Huh? But it was strange. It was so strange.
‘Why… why are you making that face…?’
Why are you making such a sad face…
Why are you crying so painfully, Geonwoo wanted to ask Jaehee. But at that moment, an irresistible sleepiness washed over him.
Was it because he was relieved by his words that he wouldn’t erase the mark? Or was it because the physical pain had been soothed into drowsiness by the Guiding? No matter how much he resisted, he couldn’t stop his body from falling into slumber.
Geonwoo fell into a deep sleep.
***
When Geonwoo opened his eyes again, it was a dim night.
“Ah…!”
Geonwoo’s eyes flew open. As if he had a nightmare, beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. His breathing was also unstable.
“…Haa… haa…”
Geonwoo looked around with anxious eyes. Dark blackness covered everything. Geonwoo blinked slowly. Before long, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he realized this was the examination room where he had been.
‘Was it, just a dream?’
Geonwoo’s pupils shook, unable to hide his agitation.
A dream? What kind of dream? Even trying to remember, nothing came to mind. Like a blank white paper, he couldn’t remember anything. Only an infinitely deep sadness and despair remained even after waking from the dream. So thick that it was difficult to calm down.
What kind of dream could it have been…
But then, thump.
Geonwoo was startled by a small movement felt in his arms. His gaze, which had been surveying his surroundings, hurriedly looked down. His head also naturally bowed with it. Then his vision was filled with a familiar figure. It was Jaehee. None other than Jaehee. Geonwoo’s eyes widened at once.
‘…G-Guide-nim!’
Only then did Geonwoo begin to vaguely recall what had happened before he fell asleep.
‘Ah…!’
Hup! Geonwoo urgently held his breath. His chest, which had been rising and falling roughly due to the nightmare, changed to an extremely timid movement at its owner’s urgent restraint.
Jaehee was sleeping soundly next to him, nestled in his arms. Geonwoo quickly averted his gaze from Jaehee, feeling heat rise within his body.
Judging by the flushed heat beginning to ignite in his body, it was probably already too late.
Pretending not to notice that, Geonwoo took his eyes off Jaehee. Trying hard to focus on something else, he looked around again.
But as he had seen earlier, there was no one in the room with its thick darkness. No examiners, no other Guides, none of them were visible. Only the two of them. Just the two of them in this room.
Jaehee and… just the two of them.
‘…’
Recognizing this, Geonwoo’s face instantly turned bright red. His tense body became as rigid as a large stone statue.
But his face was different. Was it his reason and instinct fiercely fighting? Unlike his rigidly stiffened body, his head kept wanting to turn downward.
On its own.
