# Chapter 18
“I find it more chilling that you’re making that kind of disappointed expression. Did you actually expect something? Did you think an A-class would say ‘Thank you’ and come running in socks when you asked to be partners?”
As Sangjun, who had gulped down an ion drink to soothe his upset stomach and crumpled all the empty cans, spoke, Junseo slightly narrowed his fine brow.
“I have a high rank and high matching rate.”
“So what? You’re Yu Junseo. He’s not someone locked up who only works, so how could he not have heard your terrible rumors? You should have behaved better normally. That A-class has probably lived well enough, so why would he want to partner with a Guide like you?”
That made some sense. Junseo did know that his reputation was quite harsh. He hadn’t thought much about it before, but now he felt a bit wronged. Junseo pondered, lightly tapping his lips with his finger. Had Dohyuk heard his rumors? Is that why he refused to be his partner?
But that didn’t seem right because every time Dohyuk faced him…
“He keeps stealing glances at me with eyes that look like he’s dying to have me.”
“What the fuck?”
“Isn’t it cute? He thinks I don’t know he’s peeking.”
It had just happened again. Despite his stiffly frozen face, every time Junseo slightly raised the corners of his mouth, Dohyuk would gaze at him dreamily with eyes completely unguarded. Even if you put a sweet candy in front of a child, they wouldn’t look at it with such an overtly enchanted face.
Junseo’s round eyes drew a gentle line like a famous painter’s work. His long, dense eyelashes fluttered, touching the plump aegyo-sal that rose up. It was a smile that someone who didn’t know Junseo might describe as angelic.
Whenever Junseo made such an expression, Sangjun found it so detestable that goosebumps would rise all over him. Whether aware of Sangjun’s feelings or not, Junseo, who had been casually responding, seemed to feel his mood improving gradually, and eventually turned to look at Sangjun with a face that had cleared up brightly.
“Ah. Then there’s still hope, right? At the very least, my face works.”
“Are you crazy? Do you think your face will last forever?”
“I can maintain it. I have a lot of money. And a lot of time.”
Junseo, who responded indifferently, decided to prepare step by step again. He tapped on his phone while biting into a sweet smile.
Yu Junseo
If you don’t want to be partners… is it okay if I call you hyung?
***
Feeling the vibration, Dohyuk checked his phone.
S-class Guide Yu Junseo
Hyung, have dinner with Junseo today♥
“Are you seeing someone these days?”
As Dohyuk tapped his phone to reply, Seungmin, who was having lunch with him in the headquarters cafeteria, teased as if he’d been waiting for this moment. It made sense because his friend, who would sometimes forget whether he even had a phone or not, had suddenly started checking his phone constantly and continuously messaging someone. Moreover, Dohyuk used to prefer calls over messages, but lately, he had changed.
“No. Junior mentoring.”
“That’s how you end up sleeping with juniors.”
“…If you say such obscene things in front of children…”
“Hey, don’t make me out to be complete trash over one joke! I don’t do that!”
Seungmin, who responded indignantly while waving his spoon, quickly moved to Dohyuk’s side. His constantly smirking expression looked like a devil soaking in happiness after catching someone.
“So who is iiit?”
“Guide Yu Junseo. I was offered to be his partner Esper before, but I refused…”
Clang.
“What?”
“Hey, you’re really being obscene today…”
Dohyuk narrowed his brow as he looked at Seungmin’s spoon that had fallen on his tray. It was fortunate that he had finished eating, otherwise the spoon that had been in Seungmin’s mouth would have landed on his tray.
But as if his own spoon landing on Dohyuk’s tray wasn’t important, Seungmin continued to urge him to speak.
“I heard that psycho recently made a fuss asking some A-class to be his partner, and that was you?”
“Watch your language. Please. And he didn’t make a fuss. He just asked once and that was it.”
“You crazy bastard, is this a situation where you tell me to shut up? Are you really that gullible? Not only headquarters but now Yu Junseo too? Didn’t you almost die after receiving his guiding back then? I thought something was off when he started offering you red ginseng, but are you okay now? Shouldn’t you go to the recovery room?”
Just as Seungmin’s voice, which fired away endlessly, was about to rise, Dohyuk walked to the return counter carrying his tray. Seungmin felt extremely wronged by Dohyuk’s subdued mood.
He’s the one being gullible, so why is he getting upset?
He thought that this must be why loyal subjects die before treacherous ministers. Cursing inwardly, Seungmin quickly cleared his own tray and ran after Dohyuk.
“Are you telling me you haven’t even heard the rumors, Choi Dohyuk! Are you doing this because you don’t know he’s a psychopath who hates Espers? Bluntly speaking, what if he does something weird in your head while guiding?”
As soon as Seungmin shouted, Dohyuk quietly opened his mouth. When those neat yet sharp eyes stared at him, Seungmin forgot his yelling and momentarily pursed his lips.
“He says he doesn’t know how to guide well because he awakened late.”
But Dohyuk’s words were so absurd that Seungmin couldn’t help but snap his head up again.
“What kind of crazy talk is that? How can a Guide not know how to guide? That’s something instinctively understood upon awakening.”
“He said that at first, he thought his guiding was fine, but he realized later that it wasn’t. After hearing his story, it seems like many things were distorted in the rumors. Aren’t we both the most sympathetic to the idea that we shouldn’t believe rumors unless they come from the person directly involved?”
Seungmin wanted to shout, “Fuck, I’m the person directly involved who fainted because of that bastard!” Moreover, Seungmin remembered the two eyes of Yu Junseo who had calmly observed him without surprise as he fainted. That malicious guiding was supposedly unskilled guiding?
Seungmin looked at Dohyuk. Only his outer shell was sharp, but this dull and overly gentle guy was once again being reasonably suspected of being exploited in the wrong place. Seungmin reached out and grabbed Dohyuk’s shoulder.
“No, Dohyuk.”
But before Seungmin could properly finish his sentence, Dohyuk opened his mouth decisively.
“Park Seungmin. I think you’re misunderstanding, but when I first received his guiding, I… didn’t faint. What I mean is, he’s not someone who intentionally makes Espers faint. He’s only twenty-four, so let’s not be too harsh.”
Listening to Dohyuk’s words, Seungmin just exhaled heavily and blinked. He’s not fourteen, he’s twenty-four. Dohyuk and he had been performing dungeon conquest missions since they were twenty. Frankly speaking, even Minseok, who was twenty this year, was working harder at his job than that guy.
Seungmin couldn’t understand what young age had to do with psychotic guiding. How could an S-class Guide’s guiding of a lower-ranked Esper be accidentally violent? Seungmin thought that such a thing couldn’t happen without malice.
Moreover, until now, no Esper had said anything good after being guided by Yu Junseo. All of them complained of psychological shock and spent at least half a day groaning in the break room before crawling halfway to their missions. Seungmin too vividly recalled his past experience of fainting during Yu Junseo’s guiding and waking up alone in the break room, crawling on the floor while retching, as if it were yesterday.
But Dohyuk’s gaze was so serious that Seungmin was confused about which question to express first. Seungmin repeatedly opened and closed his lips before finally beating his chest heavily.
“Junseo is only in his first year since awakening, so he’s at the level of an ordinary person who doesn’t know much. You know that it’s normal to make frequent mistakes when you’re a newbie.”
To make matters worse, during a period when he hadn’t noticed, that psycho had somehow convinced his friend, and now Dohyuk was casually referring to Guide Yu Junseo. From the sound of it, they seemed to be on a first-name basis already.
“He doesn’t seem to have many friends either. Maybe it’s because he’s introverted. But once you get close, he’s affectionate and kind. He says he’s shy so he can only be good to people he’s close with. That’s probably why you misunderstood.”
Introverted? Affectionate? Kind?
Seungmin lost even the will to point things out.
Could Guide Yu Junseo actually be a mental-type Esper? Had he brainwashed or controlled A-class Choi Dohyuk with S-class abilities?
“…Choi Dohyuk, since when did you have such low standards? It seems you’ve become quite close with that guy while I wasn’t looking?”
At the same time, indignation also came. Seungmin, who had stuck to Dohyuk like a madman since the Esper Training Center and had only acquired the position of a close friend after several years, gritted his teeth.
“Are you jealous?”
“What, you bastard! I’m saying this because you look pitiful for melting so easily for someone who calls himself a Guide! Do you like that kind of guiding? Huh? Do you like it?!”
Anyway, even if Choi Dohyuk had temporarily spun around due to the S-class Guide’s guiding, what on earth was Yu Junseo trying to do, desperately trying to get close to A-class Esper Choi Dohyuk despite being S-class? Is he trying to keep him close and torment him because he did something terribly wrong? Seungmin thought with a frown. But no matter how much he thought about it, the conclusion was similar. Choi Dohyuk might be a frustrating guy, but he wasn’t a bad guy. He was the type to do his job properly. What could S-class Guide Yu Junseo possibly use A-class Esper Choi Dohyuk for, thinking there was value in using him? What could that guy, who lived without envying anyone, want from someone he had no connection with?
