# Chapter 86
How much time had passed? The guiding that had seemed like it would never end finally concluded. As if praising Dohyuk for submitting without the slightest resistance, a gentle hand covered his forehead beaded with sweat. The moment a thumb slowly traced over Dohyuk’s eyebrow, damp eyes appeared between his eyelids.
The pretense of composure and the hint of a smile vanished in an instant. Wait. What expression had Junseo been making just before? Although Dohyuk stared endlessly at the figure approaching him, he couldn’t tell what expression was on the face that lowered its lips while backlit by the light hanging from the tent ceiling. He could barely see the smooth jawline shadowed in pitch darkness. Unconsciously, Dohyuk reached out his hand to trace the other’s face, like someone hopelessly chasing after stars.
The gap between his outstretched hand and the approaching face gradually narrowed. When Dohyuk’s hand, which had been following Junseo’s movements, pressed against his own lips—
“Ah… this is driving me crazy.”
Junseo murmured languidly, sighing and slightly pulling back his body, then fidgeted with Dohyuk’s earlobe using his fingers.
“Why aren’t you pushing me away? The guiding is already over.”
“…?”
Dohyuk, who had been blankly watching Junseo’s actions, hurriedly raised his upper body. Crazy bastard. He must have been entranced by something.
“If you keep doing that, I’ll start to have expectations.”
The final tone was uncharacteristically rough for Junseo. It was an awkward manner of speech, as if chewing and swallowing something, but Dohyuk, whose mind was dazed from the feeling of plummeting back to reality, didn’t notice. As he tried to stand up, Dohyuk awkwardly paused his movement again. His broken gaze rattled around, persistently looking only at the darkest, most unreachable places in the tent. Like a stupid wild animal mistakenly believing it won’t be discovered by anyone if it just buries its head in the ground.
Moisture gathered in Junseo’s eyes as he quietly observed Dohyuk’s awkward behavior. The moment his dampened eyes reflected the dim light and shone like glass beads, Dohyuk realized the fact he hadn’t wanted to know.
…It seems his arousal had been noticed.
Each time Junseo slowly closed the distance that had opened between him and Dohyuk, his face was revealed in the light, then swallowed by darkness again. It was similar to Dohyuk’s state of mind, oscillating between heaven and hell with pleasure and shame.
When Junseo’s face, which had been obscured in darkness, was once more faintly revealed under the crude lighting, the desire brimming in his elegant eyes instantly wafted toward Dohyuk. Eyes that clearly showed what they wanted.
Ah, damn it.
Faced with such blatant seduction that even made the current situation feel ambiguous, Dohyuk silently chewed on a curse and gently pushed Junseo away. There was only one driving force that allowed him to get up while exercising all his patience. He couldn’t embrace Junseo on this filthy dirt floor!
Dohyuk’s lips moved incoherently.
“…Ju, Junseo. Give me some time!”
Dohyuk, who didn’t have the capacity to look at Junseo blinking blankly, sprang out beyond the tent with an awkward but nimble gait. A lingering gaze that seemed starved for days followed him, but Dohyuk was already preoccupied with blaming himself for the past when he had almost yielded, halfway giving in to his instincts. Without realizing it, he was steadily accumulating a karmic debt.
***
The brief rest period ended like a fleeting moment.
After the fatal accident that had occurred in the past, the headquarters had tried to minimize dispatching ability users with strong negative energy to the Underground Nation. This was also why Hayeon, Sangjun’s partner Guide, had been placed in the surveillance team rather than the assault team.
Only Sangjun became unfortunate, reluctantly having to receive guiding from Junseo. But it wasn’t possible for him, an S-class Esper, to receive guiding from Jihun, an A-class Guide who was already exhausted from guiding Jaesik and Minseok.
“Esper Ji Sangjun, are you really okay without eating?”
“Can’t… eat… urgh! Fuck, is that bastard determined this time? Ah! I feel nauseous, ugh!”
Despite Dohyuk’s concerned words, Sangjun shook his head slightly, but the movement seemed to make his motion sickness and stomach cramps worse, and he darted back to the corner to dry heave again. He looked so pitiful, impossible to imagine as an S-class ability user symbolizing national power, that finally Jihun approached Sangjun and briefly offered guiding while patting his back. It was like filling a deep well with a spoon, but Sangjun desperately clung to Jihun.
Though not as bad as Sangjun, Junseo also had a pale, sickly face and was burying his forehead against Dohyuk’s shoulder blade. Junseo, who normally couldn’t eat combat rations well, seemed so nauseated by the food smell due to guiding Sangjun that he only gulped down the bottled water Dohyuk offered a couple of times.
Just until a moment ago, Dohyuk had been anxiously avoiding Junseo with an embarrassed face, but now, forgetting all the previous awkwardness at Junseo’s hunger strike, he wore an expression of burning concern.
Whenever public opinion about Junseo’s guiding was poor, Dohyuk always had the same thought. He just couldn’t understand it. How could guiding that was so pleasurable when he received it—even troublingly so—be treated as nauseating garbage by others? Was it because of the matching rate? But even when Dohyuk had received guiding from Guides with less than 10% matching rate, he had felt thirsty at worst, never disgust. Even considering that Junseo wasn’t accustomed to how to guide, it was strange.
“…If it’s that painful, is the guiding still effective?”
“Urgh! *cough* *cough* …Phew, yes. That there’s an effect is… miraculous, but still. It’s this manageable only because it’s me. Uurgh… if I were A-class, I would have fa-fainted. But, you fucking bastard! You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? It’s even more disgusting than usual! Why are you taking out your bad mood on innocent people!”
After stammering a response to Dohyuk’s question, Sangjun suddenly shouted like a truck accelerating abruptly, startling Dohyuk, who wrapped his arms around Junseo, who had been quietly resting his forehead against Dohyuk’s back. Seeing this, Sangjun grumbled for a while, saying, “Does he think I don’t have a Guide?”
Kigigigigik. Kigik.
“Esper Ji Sangjun!”
Along with an unpleasant noise like a rusty machine barely functioning, Jaesik shouted in a voice full of panic. Turning his gaze toward the eerie sound that raised goosebumps, Dohyuk saw Minseok and Jihun who had jumped away from Jaesik’s side in surprise. Jaesik, with his face frozen stiff like a brick about to crack from tension, stared at the wooden doll he had been carrying. The noise continued again with a ‘kirik,’ and the wooden doll’s separated knee joint bent once and then straightened again.
The small movement slowly spread throughout its entire body. The wooden doll, which had been carried by Jaesik with only its blue eyes gleaming, began to rise as if it were a living being. It wasn’t a smooth movement like human joints. It was so bizarre that watching it made the depths of one’s heart feel cold. It felt like something that shouldn’t move was operating. Even when it moved slightly, an unpleasant noise like someone scratching metal against metal continued.
Finally, when Jaesik dropped the box he had been using to carry the wooden doll, the doll, which was halfway out of the box, fell to the floor with a thud.
The moment the wooden doll clattered loudly as it hit the ground, as if all the awkward movements until now had been an illusion, the wooden doll began to move naturally like a small human.
“Ugh…”
The moment something that shouldn’t be natural moved naturally, an inexplicable fear spread helplessly like bright red ink dropped in water. It was enough to make Minseok and Jihun exhale suppressed screams with faces drained of color.
When the wooden doll turned its head quickly to look around as if examining each member of the party one by one, even Jaesik unconsciously stepped back from the doll. Seemingly embarrassed by his own action, he asked as if to dispel his fear:
“Ahem, even though it’s a prepared bait, this really feels unpleasant. Does it normally move like this?”
Meanwhile, Dohyuk and Sangjun were focusing on something else.
“It’s supposed to move eventually, but not even ten hours have passed yet.”
“That’s right. A response already? This is strange.”
Sangjun, who was narrowing his brows as if considering various circumstances before giving instructions, clicked his tongue softly.
Suddenly, Dohyuk thought that Junseo behind him was too quiet. Come to think of it, he was afraid of horror movies, wasn’t he? Worried that he might be terrified, Dohyuk turned his head, only to find Junseo staring intently at something, not even noticing Dohyuk looking at him. His gaze was directed toward the wooden doll, but it was ambiguous exactly what he was looking at.
Then, with one arm around Dohyuk’s waist, Junseo made a slightly displeased expression.
“Is it supposed to be like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“That thing, the bait. Its energy is too irritating. Even monsters don’t emit this kind of energy. It feels like it’s crudely spreading energy, making my stomach queasy. And most importantly, because of that thing, even your ability right now…”
As Junseo’s hand naturally moved from Dohyuk’s side toward his abdomen, Dohyuk hurriedly detached him.
