“Esper-nim…!”
“You’re hurting my ears. You don’t need to make such a fuss—I’m not going to drop you.”
The problem was that he picked me up along with my luggage and left the room just like that.
At this rate, everyone in the Guide dormitory would surely see me being held in Do Ganghyun’s arms. I was worried about how this change would come across, and my face turned red because the princess carry position itself was too embarrassing.
“I can walk on my own feet.”
“I have eyes too. I’m not going to match your slow-as-hell pace, so let’s just go like this.”
And then he left the Guide dormitory in an instant.
At this time, no one knew that Do Ganghyun had done this unconsciously, remembering my wavelength that must have been held by someone.
***
Do Ganghyun’s house was neat and tidy enough to tell at a glance who the owner was. It was so sparse that it felt almost desolate, with hardly any furniture filling it. It was located isolated in a place away from both the Center and the city center, and the interior atmosphere was the same.
“First, unpack the luggage you brought in the room next door.”
“The room next door?”
“Then where else would you put it? There aren’t many rooms on the first floor anyway. And even those are being used for office purposes. Just listen and don’t go back and forth between the first and second floors for no reason.”
Do Ganghyun, who said that, gestured with his chin toward the room next to the second-floor stairs. From what he was saying, it seemed to be the room next to his. I thought he’d give me some corner storage room, so this was unexpected.
‘Wasn’t he just bringing me in to create a guiding zone?’
A place where a Guide stays for a long time, like the house where they live, leaves traces of wavelength like residue that accumulates and gradually transforms into a single guiding zone. It’s like creating a zone where a type of radiation guiding is possible.
That’s why Do Ganghyun had persistently visited the Guide dormitory even when I wasn’t there. Because even in moments when he brought in other Guides, he couldn’t receive proper guiding.
So now that we’d imprinted and he couldn’t get help from medication, I thought his intention was to bring me into his house to create a new guiding zone. The Guide dormitory would already have disrupted wavelengths since I’d reduced the time I stayed there and he himself had brought in other Guides.
‘I thought that’s why he told me I had to sleep at home.’
When a guiding zone is created, the time the Guide spends in the space and the sense of daily life are important—it has nothing to do with keeping them close to the Esper. Of course, if you stick with the Esper all around the house, that speed could accelerate, but Do Ganghyun, who hadn’t touched me again after imprinting, didn’t seem like he would touch me now.
‘But why specifically the room next to his?’
Eventually, I couldn’t hold back and opened my mouth.
“You don’t have to push yourself this hard. I know you’re already making enough effort.”
Although things had gotten a little better in the past few days, Do Ganghyun still couldn’t stand my existence. No matter how much he said he’d resigned himself and was trying to improve our relationship, I didn’t understand why he was going this far. When I stared at him blankly with that meaning, he exhaled as if exasperated.
“Did you listen to everything I’ve said with your dick? I’m saying I want to improve our relationship, your imprinted Esper.”
“But you hate me. It’s not like I didn’t know your situation, and I’m really okay with it.”
“I’m not okay. Whether you’re by my side or not, it’s fucking annoying, so I’m going to keep you by my side. And if I want to shorten guiding time even a little, this is right. We’ll have to stick together even while sleeping. We’re both busy.”
What was he saying?
At his words, I climbed the stairs just in case and opened the door to the room. The first things that caught my eye were the open window, desk, and soft rug spread on the floor. The built-in closet next to it had a quite different feel from the cold-toned atmosphere of the house, so it seemed he’d prepared to let someone in beforehand.
This meant Do Ganghyun hadn’t impulsively accepted me, but had made a conclusion after making a rational judgment in his own way.
However, the problem was—
“The bed…”
Wasn’t there. Among the furniture that had been carefully placed to fill the room, the bed that should have taken up a large volume was missing.
Wondering if I was supposed to sleep on the floor, I opened the closet door to check, but only empty hangers greeted me.
“Esper-nim, I’m sorry, but I didn’t manage to pack bedding—do you happen to have spare blankets?”
‘Or may I go out for a moment to buy bedding?’ I turned to look at him with that meaning.
Until now, I’d used bedding like blankets that were provided as standard in the Guide dormitory, so if I needed them, I’d have to buy new ones. My stomach churned at the sudden expense, but recently I’d successfully completed his guiding and my situation had improved enough to manage.
“This room is for storing luggage. I doubt you’ll need to use it, but I’ve put a desk there for now, so use it if you need it. You’ll have to share a room with me.”
While I was trying hard to deny reality and find a way to sleep in this room, Do Ganghyun drove the final nail in.
“Share a room?”
“Just as I said. When you sleep, you have to sleep with me. I’ll make sure to come in every day too, so know that.”
He really meant we’d share a bed. I didn’t hide my shocked face and just dropped my luggage right there.
“Is there a specific reason you want to sleep with me?”
Even as I spoke, I wondered if he was talking about third-level guiding. Whether oblivious me wasn’t picking up on his blatant signals.
I hadn’t noticed the subtle atmosphere, but in the past, he’d also requested guiding through intercourse with a clean face as easily as a snake sliding over a wall.
“If it’s because of guiding, wouldn’t it be better if I did it separately for you every day before bed?”
While saying that, I unconsciously scanned Do Ganghyun’s body up and down. Meaning, was that the meaning I was thinking of?
However, making that thought meaningless, Do Ganghyun immediately frowned and took a step back away from me.
“Better my ass. You were hospitalized until recently, sickly.”
“Then…”
“I meant purely just sleeping. I’ll take care of receiving guiding while sleeping, so you just sleep.”
There’s a limit to stealing wavelengths that become defenseless during sleep. It wasn’t even a request for me to do guiding the entire time he slept, but that he’d take it himself. In other words, it was no different from saying he’d take an amount less than radiation guiding.
When I couldn’t answer clearly and just stared blankly, Do Ganghyun sighed and added a condition.
“Only until a guiding zone is created in the house. After that, live in your room. I’ll also receive guiding here and there apart from that, so put away any foolish thoughts.”
I see. I nodded and began to quietly unpack my luggage.
Since I’d just arrived at his house, it would take quite a while for a guiding zone to be created. My body wasn’t in a state to do third-level guiding right away, and I had no desire to do it, so it seemed he wanted to quickly start creating that zone from his own room.
Once I understood, my actions were swift. Until now, everything had happened suddenly for me, and change and whims were daily life. The way to quickly adapt to such situations was to accept the given situation without questioning it. I’d never been properly given a choice in the first place anyway.
The minimum guarantee, or boundary, that wouldn’t threaten Grandmother and me. I just needed to maintain that much.
I crumpled up my previous resolution to try to put away my feelings for him and tucked it aside. I’d given up on the effort to put away feelings I couldn’t help anyway, now that we’d even imprinted.
“…Come down when you’re done organizing your luggage.”
Somehow, as if reading such thoughts of mine, a lingering gaze remained, but it soon disappeared with a brief remark.
***
The hospital room where I visited Grandmother again was just as quiet as before. It meant that Grandmother remained as she was, only breathing while relying on life support equipment.
“Grandmother, I’m here. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
Of course, it wasn’t that I hadn’t visited Grandmother during that time, but right after imprinting with Do Ganghyun, I was also hospitalized. After that, I’d only briefly glanced at Grandmother’s face because of the series of incidents that occurred due to the imprint.
Grandmother’s face, which I faced properly for the first time in a long while like this, was peaceful as if she’d forgotten all worries. Enough to prick my conscience when I thought about my situation of having to bring up what had happened. Especially because Grandmother’s last words remained noisily in my head.
‘You need to learn how to cut things off appropriately too. Our puppy, you can do it, right?’
It was a statement left so that her grandson, who would be left alone, wouldn’t repeat actions that would leave regrets like herself. Now it was words I couldn’t even promise to keep as a lie, but seeing Grandmother’s face, which looked somewhat relieved, felt bitter because it seemed like a face that came out hoping the advice she’d given me last would be realized.
‘What should I say when Grandmother wakes up?’
Now that we’d even imprinted, there was no way Grandmother wouldn’t notice that change. Grandmother was suffering from guiding depletion, not a decline in her ability as a Guide to sense wavelengths.
Even if she’d lost all her abilities as a Guide, she would surely notice my changed appearance like a ghost. Because she’d been someone who’d read my expressions amazingly well since long ago.
So what I was doing now was an excuse for my cowardly self who couldn’t open my mouth while facing Grandmother, and self-consolation. At least it wasn’t that I hadn’t told Grandmother. It was just that even though I’d spoken, Grandmother couldn’t hear.
