Gu Baekyoung wrapped his arms around Onyul’s waist and pulled him close.
“Hey, you’re hugging me too much.”
“That’s unfair. I haven’t even kissed you. What you said I couldn’t do was skinship like kissing.”
“That’s true, but…”
“We hugged at the convenience store too, didn’t we? What’s the difference between hugging from behind and hugging from the side?”
At Gu Baekyoung’s occasionally logical words, Onyul was at a loss for words.
‘I shouldn’t have laid down on this bed in the first place.’
Even though he had anticipated this would happen, Onyul had laid down on Gu Baekyoung’s bed as if entranced.
It was because, when he was feeling languid from satiety after eating a delightful dinner, Gu Baekyoung made an offer he couldn’t refuse.
<Honey, you remember my bed, right? It was super soft and wide. Let’s sleep together. Okay?>
The other day, Onyul had laid on Gu Baekyoung’s bed together with him. It was such a good mattress that he fell asleep as soon as he lay down.
Since becoming Kang Ian and sleeping curled up in the small room attached to the convenience store, that bed felt even more like heaven.
<And you never know. What if Center Director Park Hanil breaks into our house and kidnaps you… So sleep right next to me.>
It was nonsense.
Not to mention the security, who would invade a house with an S-rank Esper in it?
Unless it was the Alpha Team including Na Geonwoo, no one could kidnap Onyul in front of Gu Baekyoung.
Nevertheless, Onyul pretended he couldn’t win and listened to his words. When he said that much, he couldn’t refuse his proposal.
He had hired a night shift worker, so there were no worries about the convenience store, so there was no problem.
No, just one thing.
<Alright. But you absolutely can’t do anything weird.>
He was worried that Gu Baekyoung might initiate skinship.
But Gu Baekyoung readily agreed. He swore he absolutely wouldn’t do that, so he had no choice but to lie down on his bed together.
Of course, at first they lay down with quite a distance between them, but as time passed, he gradually approached and eventually ended up hugging him.
That sly Gu Baekyoung.
“So what were you thinking about? About me?”
“…No. I was thinking about where to do something like a rehearsal.”
“You really weren’t thinking about me?”
Gu Baekyoung asked again as if to confirm.
“Well, I thought about you a little.”
I did think about your past.
It wasn’t a lie.
But Gu Baekyoung, who didn’t know Onyul’s circumstances, visibly brightened.
“I thought about you a lot too, honey. The parts I can see are this pretty, so how much prettier must the parts I can’t see be… I thought.”
…Hmm. It seemed better not to ask in detail.
When Onyul blatantly ignored him, Gu Baekyoung giggled and changed the subject.
“Honey, but why are you worried about where to rehearse? You have a house with thorough security.”
“You don’t mean here?”
“Yeah. There’s a room where even if you release your energy, it won’t leak outside. I also relieve my body here instead of at the Management Bureau.”
“There was such a place?”
“Yeah, you only stayed in my room so you wouldn’t know.”
As Gu Baekyoung once again created a strange atmosphere, Onyul said coldly.
“If you keep doing that, I might leave right now.”
“…Alright.”
He could feel strength entering the fingertips of the dejected Gu Baekyoung. He seemed to be gripping his waist tightly, worried he might run away.
After a long silence, the words he suddenly brought up were unexpected.
“But honey, why don’t you want to belong to the Management Bureau?”
Gu Baekyoung was only now asking about the most important fact.
‘Because of you.’
Onyul barely held back from answering that way and opened his lips.
“Because I hate being responsible for other people’s lives and deaths.”
“……”
“No, setting aside responsibility… people I was close to, people I only knew by face… anyway, I don’t want to watch people I know die futilely. I don’t want to die that way either.”
“You talk like someone who’s died once.”
“……”
Onyul looked at Gu Baekyoung, momentarily at a loss for words.
He felt like Gu Baekyoung was unusually perceptive today.
Is this guy actually super quick-witted?
Onyul played innocent.
“Hey, if I had died once, I wouldn’t even be in front of you.”
“My favorite hyung also died futilely. If hyung came back to life, wouldn’t he think like you?”
“Ah~ That hyung named Kang Onyul?”
“Yeah. The hyung who fell for me at first sight and pestered me to date.”
Hey, you bastard! When did I pester you to date?
At that shameless lie, Onyul shouted as if making an excuse.
“Hey! When did I…!”
“When did you?”
“When did I say I wanted to know about that hyung… I did say. I’m not Kang Onyul. Don’t talk about that hyung anymore. I’m getting jealous.”
Ahem. Onyul awkwardly cleared his throat and pressed his lips tightly together. It felt like the more he talked, the more he lost.
Seeing Onyul’s sulky face, Gu Baekyoung giggled. He said as if making a promise in a voice tinged with laughter.
“Honey. Don’t belong to the Management Bureau, just belong to me.”
“Geez. I’m quite expensive, you know?”
“I have so much money it could rot. You can take it all.”
When you have money, you might not know its value.
If you were reincarnated in a body without money, your thoughts would change, right?
Onyul suddenly felt regretful about the money he had earned when he was an Esper. Once this matter was wrapped up, would he be able to get that money back…
“I’ll never die, so I won’t make you sad either. So you absolutely can’t die either.”
Even in Onyul’s thinking, as long as Gu Baekyoung didn’t rampage, it seemed like he would absolutely never die.
“What do you mean when you rampage all the time?”
“I won’t do it anymore.”
“Huh?”
“…There’s nothing left to do it for.”
That’s strange. It sounds like the reason to rampage has disappeared.
At that moment, he recalled a conversation he had with Gu Baekyoung before.
<Yesterday… why were you about to rampage? Even if guiding was lacking, you wouldn’t have rampaged unless it was a serious matter, being S-rank.>
<…I thought of the hyung I liked being caught up in a rampage… I couldn’t keep my sanity.>
Gu Baekyoung said he rampaged because he remembered the hyung he liked at the gate that was artificially made to rampage.
The hyung he liked was Kang Onyul.
But if that reason has disappeared…
“Baekyoung.”
“Yeah?”
Do you really firmly believe that I’m Kang Onyul?
He wanted to ask that, but his lips wouldn’t part easily. The inside of his mouth, having lost speech, only dried up.
“…Never mind. Let’s just sleep. Show me the room where I can rehearse tomorrow.”
“Okay, let’s sleep.”
Onyul let out a shallow sigh, unable to escape from Gu Baekyoung, who was hugging him tightly.
Why?
Why was he starting to wish this big, cute guy wouldn’t get hurt or suffer?
Because of their past connection? Because he felt sorry for Gu Baekyoung who rampaged due to his death?
Onyul wanted to ask Gu Baekyoung instead.
What kind of existence was Kang Onyul to you?
***
Early in the morning, Onyul opened the convenience store door at the time when the night shift would end.
“Sanghyeon-ssi, good morning!”
Ji Sanghyeon, who had guarded the convenience store in place of Onyul last night, greeted him cheerfully with a wave.
“Manager-nim… I really missed you.”
“Huh, did something happen at the convenience store?”
“Don’t even ask. A drunk Esper came by and caused such a scene.”
It was a situation occasionally encountered when running a convenience store. Especially drunk people were quite a headache.
“Sanghyeon-ssi, you had a hard time on your first day. You can clock out now.”
“I really had a hard time, right?”
Ji Sanghyeon came out from the register with his characteristic eye-smile.
The distance that had closed without him realizing, Ji Sanghyeon’s neat face tilted downward. Onyul unconsciously took a step back.
“…Y-you did have a hard time.”
Can’t you pull your face back a bit?
The moment Onyul hesitated, Ji Sanghyeon’s hand stretched straight forward.
…Is he asking for more money?
“The hourly wage is…”
“No. Please hold my hand as a way of saying I worked hard.”
“What?”
“The drunk Esper who barged in at dawn yesterday said, ‘Where’s the manager? Where’s the manager of the famous hand touch convenience store!'”
“Hand touch… haha.”
“When I asked what he meant, he said there are Espers who feel their condition improve just from lightly touching Manager-nim’s hand. That’s why it even got the nickname ‘Famous Hand Touch Convenience Store.'”
Geez, why would such a weird nickname come about!
Onyul’s brow furrowed, displeased with the ridiculous nickname.
“It’s a coincidence. There won’t be any occasion to hear that kind of thing anymore, right?”
Onyul smiled confidently.
Early this morning, Onyul, who had been suffering from nightmares like in the past, woke up early. It seemed he had dreams of Espers who died together with him in his previous life whenever he drew out his Guide abilities to the maximum.
When he tossed and turned from an inexplicable uneasiness, Gu Baekyoung also woke up and worried about Onyul.
To escape from that discomfort, Onyul headed to the practice room he had asked for last night.
Leaving behind Gu Baekyoung, who said he would prepare breakfast, Onyul focused on drawing out his Esper abilities for several hours.
