# Chapter 64
“Esper Choi Geonwoo.”
Geonwoo focused at Jaehee’s call. Then, as if unable to hold back anymore, Geonwoo desperately blurted out.
“Did I… do something wrong? If that’s the case…!”
But Jaehee cut off Geonwoo’s words midway.
“Esper Choi Geonwoo hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Jaehee spoke in a flat tone. Like a doll without any emotions. As if simply stating facts, he slowly continued his words.
“Just that there’s no reason to continue like this anymore.”
Feeling Geonwoo’s surging wavelength with his entire body, Jaehee paused briefly. Then, as if telling him to hear every syllable clearly, he slowly spoke again.
“There’s no reason for me to stay by Esper Choi Geonwoo’s side anymore.”
Jaehee’s tone was endlessly dry, as if no emotion remained for Geonwoo.
“What do you… mean?”
It was Geonwoo who reacted intensely to Jaehee’s words. Geonwoo’s pupils dilated at Jaehee’s statement.
“But… Guide-nim…”
Geonwoo couldn’t properly comprehend what Jaehee had said. So he asked.
“You said you would form a bond with me, didn’t you?”
Geonwoo was simply searching for words to deny Jaehee’s statement, again and again.
“When I develop, you said… you’d become my Guide. You said you wouldn’t abandon me this time…”
Every night, Geonwoo would ask Jaehee if this happiness was just a dream. Each time, Jaehee comforted him, telling him to trust him. To trust his Guide. That he would stay by his side.
“You told me… to trust you.”
Geonwoo whimpered.
“You said… I could trust you this time…”
He had clearly heard it. Jaehee had told him so every night. Why was he suddenly acting like this? He didn’t want to have such a nightmare. Please wake him up. Geonwoo conveyed with his entire body.
“At first,”
Jaehee slowly opened his mouth, looking up at Geonwoo.
“It was just responsibility. Regardless of the reason, since a one-way bond was formed because of me, I thought I should be the one to fix it too.”
Jaehee calmly continued.
“And after meeting Esper Choi Geonwoo directly, seeing Esper Choi Geonwoo’s body all battered and bruised, the emotion I felt afterward was guilt.”
He packaged lies with truth so Geonwoo would believe it.
“But even that became tiring.”
Jaehee spoke with a self-deprecating tone.
“Why do I have to go this far?”
Methodically, Jaehee continued.
“Suddenly, that thought occurred to me.”
Though Jaehee knew perfectly well what emotions his words would evoke in Geonwoo, how much they would hurt him, he only told his story as if it had nothing to do with him. He didn’t even show any interest in Geonwoo’s pain.
“Then why…”
Geonwoo tried to deny Jaehee’s words, again and again.
“Why… did you say you would bond with me when I develop? Why did you tell others as if you would accept me as your Esper?”
If I only listen to what you’re saying now, there’s no reason for you to have done that. That’s what Geonwoo meant.
“You heard everything back then. That the Deputy Center Director and Esper Cheon Taeyun were targeting Esper Choi Geonwoo. That’s why I did it.”
At Jaehee’s sudden words, Geonwoo’s body stiffened.
“To provoke them. Nothing was better at drawing them out than saying I would become Esper Choi Geonwoo’s Guide.”
Jaehee whispered softly to Geonwoo as if sharing a fact that only he knew.
“Actually, I’ve known from the beginning. Why they approached me. Do you know why I pretended not to know anything all this time?”
At Jaehee’s question, Geonwoo couldn’t say anything.
“Because I thought they might know a way to break Esper Choi Geonwoo’s bond.”
I’ve been desperately searching for that method, Jaehee added.
“Esper Choi Geonwoo. I told you before, didn’t I?”
Jaehee spoke as if unburdened.
“That I tried to erase the bond not because of anyone else, but because I didn’t want to be entangled with Esper Choi Geonwoo.”
That was one of the things Geonwoo wished he could erase from his memory.
“That feeling remains the same now.”
“If it’s because of what happened when you were young, I…!”
“Getting hurt by an Esper who formed a one-way bond when you were young? Are you saying Esper Choi Geonwoo wouldn’t do that?”
Jaehee spoke with a small, hollow laugh.
“It doesn’t matter whether you would or wouldn’t. Whatever you do, I don’t want to be entangled with Esper Choi Geonwoo through a bond.”
Jaehee recalled the original work. Why didn’t Lee Jaehee, the villainous supporting character, approach Geonwoo, the main character, before the appearance of the main love interest?
“I don’t want to be entangled through a bond with a mere undeveloped Esper.”
It was because of the original Jaehee’s selfish personality and greed. A mere undeveloped Esper. The original villainous supporting character didn’t give the slightest bit of attention to Geonwoo before his development. He probably thought they weren’t compatible.
“We’re not on the same level.”
A villain closer to a foreign substance than a supporting character. That’s who the original Jaehee was. If it were him, what would he have done in this situation?
As the only S-class Guide in the Center, he was someone who wanted to have many Espers under him. If it were the original Jaehee, how would he have viewed Geonwoo, who wasn’t even confirmed to be S-class yet?
“I’m the only S-class Guide in the Center. Wouldn’t it be too unfair to determine my bonding partner like this?”
To the original Jaehee, Geonwoo would have seemed trivial. That would have been the case even if Geonwoo were S-class. After all, there was only one S-class Guide at the Center. Even S-class Espers would have seemed ridiculous to him.
The reason he showed interest in Geonwoo was after the appearance of the main love interest. An S-class Guide like himself, appearing suddenly. The only S-class Esper who loved that person. He would have been jealous, obviously. Until then, he would have thought himself the best. In the end, his feelings stemmed from a petty jealousy that turned into possessiveness.
“So stop resisting and erase the bond. Stop bothering me.”
So Jaehee decided to do that. Having chased away all the unnecessary supporting characters who were meddling on someone else’s stage, it was now time for Lee Jaehee, the true villain, to step onto the stage. To set the original story straight.
“Ah, but I’m grateful for this.”
Jaehee said, looking at Geonwoo’s wound.
“For getting hurt instead of me.”
And he reached out to carefully touch the bandage.
“Thanks to that, I’ve cleared away everyone I wanted to get rid of.”
Jaehee smiled. A very satisfied smile bloomed on his lips.
“Then…”
Geonwoo, who had been watching that smile with trembling eyes, urgently spoke.
“Can’t you stay by my side even like that?”
Geonwoo asked desperately.
“I’ll do that again! I’ll do everything Guide-nim wants!”
Geonwoo said he could do anything Jaehee wanted.
“Getting hurt is fine too. I’m strong, aren’t I? I’m an Esper. It doesn’t hurt at all!”
Geonwoo wanted to hold onto Jaehee somehow. He said it was okay if there was no warmth. It was okay if Jaehee had no feelings for him. It was okay even if he just used him. Couldn’t he just stay by his side? Geonwoo begged Jaehee. He pleaded to hold onto him.
“You’ll listen to everything I say?”
“Yes! Anything!”
Without even a second’s hesitation, an urgent answer burst from Geonwoo’s lips.
“Anything, huh…”
The smile on Jaehee’s lips deepened. One corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
“Then erase the bond.”
At those words, Geonwoo’s eyes wavered.
“That would make me very happy.”
Jaehee said that with a bright smile. That smile was so bright that, conversely, Geonwoo’s emotions crumbled.
“Ugh!”
Similarly, the wavelength inside his body couldn’t remain still, like surging waves. With continued denial, his breath was slowly constricted.
“Does it hurt?”
Looking at Geonwoo like this, Jaehee brought his face close to Geonwoo’s ear and whispered softly.
“Is it painful enough to make you want to die?”
Gradually, Geonwoo found it harder to breathe. After several such breaths, his body, which wouldn’t easily die, inflicted terrible pain on him. As if to block the wavelength at the very limit, his developed body artificially suppressed the Esper’s power.
Because of this, the terrible pain continued. Death kept waiting in front of Geonwoo.
“Who do you think is responsible for this pain?”
Jaehee placed his hand on Geonwoo’s cheek, making him meet his eyes.
“Because of me? No. It’s all happening because Esper Choi Geonwoo is holding onto the bond.”
Jaehee said with a bright smile. While doing so, Jaehee looked at Dr. Yoon and gave him a signal with his eyes. To start again quickly.
Geonwoo’s senses showed abnormal symptoms due to excitement. The more emotionally agitated Geonwoo became, the stronger his wavelength grew, but at the same time, he also accepted guiding from other Guides more easily.
“This is what happens when you’re greedy for something you can’t have.”
So Jaehee continued to provoke Geonwoo.
“How long do you plan to indulge in this fake emotional play created by a one-way bond?”
Jaehee’s words became sharp blades, wounding Geonwoo.
“This should be enough, right?”
With Jaehee’s continued words, Geonwoo’s emotions fell endlessly. He sank deep into a darkness with no visible bottom. He couldn’t escape. Terrible pain dominated his entire body. Simultaneously, Geonwoo unconsciously released his power.
BANG-!
Suddenly, the fluorescent lights in the examination room burst, and the guiding machine pouring out Guiding Energy shattered. People nearby were pushed back by Geonwoo’s power. Objects broke, and glass shattered. Fragments flew in all directions.
The same was true for where Jaehee was.
“I won’t let go!”
But Jaehee wasn’t hurt by those fragments. Somehow, Geonwoo had broken the safety restraints binding his body and blocked all those fragments with his body. He had trapped Jaehee beneath him.
Geonwoo grasped both of Jaehee’s hands with his large hands.
