# Chapter 47
“Who did it?”
Geonwoo asked again. His lowered voice filled the examination room. That small sound pierced the examiner’s ears eerily.
“The person who hurt Guide-nim. I’m asking who it was.”
Geonwoo’s hand holding the glass shard moved away from his body. Instead, he gripped the glass fragment tightly as if unable to control his anger.
That’s when it happened. The examination room door opened urgently.
Jaehee, breathing roughly as if he had been running, stood at the doorway. Behind him, the Guide who had slipped out earlier was panting heavily.
“…Guide-nim……”
Geonwoo’s eyes widened.
As if all his nerves were focused on Jaehee, strength drained from his other senses. With a snap, like a tautly stretched string suddenly breaking, the strength left his hand, and his glass-shard-holding hand fell limply onto the bed. Red blood soaked the bed around Geonwoo’s hand.
“What on earth……!”
Seeing the warning alarm signaling abnormal wavelength readings and the bed stained red in places, Jaehee rushed to Geonwoo. After examining where the blood was coming from, Jaehee took Geonwoo’s hand with trembling fingers. When he carefully opened it, there was a glass shard in Geonwoo’s palm.
“……”
Jaehee’s eyes contorted painfully at the sight. Various emotions flashed across his eyes—anger, sadness. Jaehee opened his mouth as if to say something in response to the surge of emotion, then closed it again. His tightly pressed lips trembled uncontrollably.
Jaehee silently removed the glass shard from Geonwoo’s hand with his own. The glass fragment touching his fingertips was shattered into sharp edges all around. Judging by how tightly he must have gripped such a thing, Geonwoo’s hand was deeply cut in several places and bleeding.
But it wasn’t just that hand. The other one was the same.
Jaehee felt his blood turning cold. Seeing Geonwoo injuring himself kept bringing certain scenes to mind. The red blood kept trying to dominate his vision. Jaehee deliberately ignored it. He struggled not to recall those memories and focused on Geonwoo’s wounds in front of him. He urgently looked for something to stop the bleeding.
“Guide Lee Jaehee-nim, here!”
The examiner hurriedly brought medical cloth to Jaehee.
Jaehee wrapped Geonwoo’s wounds with the medical cloth he received. The pure white fabric gradually turned red. With strength in his trembling hands, Jaehee prayed for the bleeding to stop.
With one hand holding Geonwoo’s more severely injured hand, he hastily unbuttoned his shirt with the other. While the wounds were concerning, calming the raging wavelengths was more important.
But the buttons wouldn’t come undone easily. His trembling hands kept slipping. Jaehee pulled at his shirt. The buttons tore off, and the shirt opened. In that state, Jaehee immediately embraced Geonwoo. The Guiding energy from their touching bodies spread and enveloped Geonwoo.
Jaehee immediately examined inside Geonwoo’s body. New wounds were forming over the injuries that had been healing faintly. The wounds were trying to repeat themselves. This was the result of pushing him away. Anxiety had caused Geonwoo to hurt himself.
But now it was time to soothe that anxiety, deceive Geonwoo… and inflict greater pain.
‘Accept everything. Don’t push away, treat him like your Bond partner. That’s how you should treat him.’
As Taeyun had advised, Jaehee now had to do exactly that. Soothe Geonwoo’s anxiety, break his suspicions, and then snatch everything away at his happiest moment. He had to drive him into an even deeper despair than now.
Jaehee’s eyes reddened. His expression contorted as if about to cry.
“……Guide-nim.”
At that moment, Geonwoo burrowed deeper into Jaehee’s arms and called out to him. As if checking whether the person before him was really Jaehee, Geonwoo called his name over and over. After confirming several times this way, Geonwoo suddenly asked in a voice full of sadness.
“…Were you hurt… when you were young…?”
Jaehee silently looked at Geonwoo as if wondering what he meant. In response, Geonwoo asked once more.
“Did an Esper who formed a one-sided Bond… hurt you?”
Jaehee’s eyes widened at those words.
‘How did Geonwoo know that…?’
As Jaehee hurriedly tried to speak, an urgent voice came from the side.
“Th-That… that Esper who died in the Gate! That person did it! I mentioned that story briefly to Esper Choi Geonwoo……”
The examiner standing helplessly behind them spoke up, as if stung by Geonwoo’s question. Whether trying to salvage the situation or not, he put forward a fictional character instead of Dohyun. The examiner looked at Jaehee with a troubled expression and smiled awkwardly.
Seeing his behavior, Jaehee figured out what was happening. Fortunately, at least Dohyun’s name wasn’t mentioned.
“Is that… really true?”
Geonwoo asked Jaehee again. Despite the examiner’s words, Geonwoo kept his gaze fixed only on Jaehee and asked repeatedly.
“……”
Jaehee remained silent for a long time. Geonwoo waited anxiously for that time to pass. And then,
“…That’s all in the past.”
The answer flowed from Jaehee’s lips.
In that moment, Geonwoo’s expression twisted. The numerous emotions that had been swirling until just before lost their strength with Jaehee’s single statement. The only thought occupying his mind was how frightened young Jaehee must have been.
Though he didn’t want to imagine it, the situation automatically formed in his mind. Lee Jaehee at 13 years old. Thinking of him involuntarily brought to mind the hyung from his dream. His young hyung at 13. Hyung resembled Jaehee so much.
Perhaps because of that, the image of Jaehee who had nearly died was superimposed on that small hyung. Fear overlaid the young hyung’s face. Tears settled on top of it. As each scene was painted, Geonwoo couldn’t control his emotions.
How scared must he have been? How much pain did he endure?
‘Why wasn’t I… by his side then…….’
Geonwoo’s body trembled. Once formed, the scene wouldn’t easily disappear.
Sensing something wrong with Geonwoo, Jaehee urgently placed his hand on Geonwoo’s cheek and made him meet his eyes. Then tears fell from Geonwoo’s eyes. Seeing this, Jaehee’s pupils shook momentarily, then soon he spoke as if everything was fine.
“It’s something that happened a long time ago. I’m okay now. So don’t make that face.”
After saying that and looking at Geonwoo for a while, Jaehee carefully extended his hand.
“So…, don’t cry. Esper Choi Geonwoo.”
Jaehee raised his hand and wiped away Geonwoo’s tears. He comforted him not to cry because of him.
At this gentle touch, the first he’d received from Jaehee, more tears flowed from Geonwoo’s eyes.
That small warmth made the emotions that had already lost their strength, and the numerous questions he wanted to ask, seem pitiful. It even prevented him from bringing up the questions he had asked the examiner. It only made his heart lean on Jaehee.
“I… won’t do that……”
Geonwoo said tearfully.
“I won’t… hurt Guide-nim……”
He pleaded for Jaehee to believe him.
“I absolutely… won’t hurt you……”
Like a coward, Geonwoo put entreaty into those words. He begged for this to be the reason Jaehee was pushing him away this time. Please don’t push me away like before, but accept me. Tell me it wasn’t because you disliked me, but because of childhood memories that you pushed me away. He begged at the first warmth he received.
It was too painful, so please accept him, he pleaded. He hoped Jaehee would take back his words about not wanting to be bonded. Geonwoo looked at Jaehee with such desperate feelings.
“……”
Since hearing the method from Taeyun, Jaehee had been constantly thinking. How to pull Geonwoo back after pushing him away so much. How to transform their relationship. But Geonwoo had reached out first. Because it was too painful. Because he was hurting too much. He was holding out his hand saying, please, grab this.
All Jaehee had to do was take Geonwoo’s outstretched hand. The relationship reversal could begin more easily than expected. Almost embarrassingly easy compared to his worries.
But that made it even more heartbreaking. It kept making him face Geonwoo, who was blindly devoted to him. It kept making him face a Geonwoo who had become infinitely weak and was only in pain.
Jaehee raised his hands and embraced Geonwoo tightly. Hiding his face, he whispered in Geonwoo’s ear.
“…I’ll believe those words, Esper Choi Geonwoo.”
Taking Geonwoo’s outstretched hand, Jaehee surrendered. Then he released the Guiding ability control device on his wrist. Though it was very slight, the slightly increased Guiding energy transferred to Geonwoo’s body.
Geonwoo’s eyes widened. When Jaehee removed the bracelet, the amount of Guiding energy coming from him changed. Though still small, it was incomparable to when he wore the bracelet.
And Jaehee Guiding with his bracelet removed seemed like permission for Geonwoo to approach. No, it certainly was. In response to his words, Jaehee had clearly told him that he could stay by his side.
Geonwoo’s lips trembled. His Adam’s apple bobbed. Geonwoo cried sorrowfully. That one statement from Jaehee was light to Geonwoo. All the pain he had endured flowed out as tears. Geonwoo’s tears poured onto Jaehee’s shoulder.
However, there was someone who was furious at Jaehee’s actions.
“Guide Lee Jaehee-nim!”
