Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
# Chapter 36
Dowoon wished he was hallucinating. But the world wasn’t that kind. Yoon Minoh, who had pushed the hospital room door open with his foot, looked at Dowoon with admiration.
“Damn…”
Nothing beat the real thing. Minoh wiped his hands with a few tissues, grinning as he said,
“Seeing it in person really does it for you, huh?”
Dowoon didn’t want to know what “it” was. He tried not to look at the body barely covered by the sheet. Minoh chuckled, teasing him.
“Just imagining it was one thing, but seeing it in person… I feel like I’m gonna explode.”
“…”
“But I can’t do that. I worked so hard to get this piercing.”
Dowoon felt sick listening to Minoh’s proud explanation. It was worse than accidentally stumbling upon a gore film. He lost all motivation to respond.
Should he scold Minoh like an adult—take that thing out before you regret it—or should he just tell him to do his own laundry and slip out the door?
No. Maybe he should just leave without saying anything. He didn’t want to get involved with someone like this.
Besides, how someone managed their body was their own business. But Dowoon couldn’t bring himself to move, trapped in a bitter silence.
<You should play hide-and-seek with me, hyung!>
A voice from the TV blared in his head, introducing Dowoon’s exploits. He couldn’t even bear to watch his own highlights, drowning in self-loathing.
Did I debut as an Esper just to endure this humiliation?
Even if Espers had no right to privacy, facing a guy sprawled out on a bed with his legs spread was enough to make his head throb.
“What’s wrong? You’re not that impressed, are you?”
Minoh, completely misreading the situation, grinned as he gripped himself and asked. Dowoon seethed.
“You—you little—”
“Haa… Come closer if you want a better look. I’m giving it all to you anyway.”
“Go to hell and give it to Hades, you fucking bastard.”
Dowoon instantly understood what Minoh had been up to all this time. Without a second thought, he unleashed his ability recklessly.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A glacier shaped like a baseball bat shot out like bullets, striking Minoh’s head three times in rapid succession.
If Dowoon hadn’t felt a shred of guilt for Minoh, he might have pulverized his entire body right then and there, treating this as a declaration of war.
“Ugh…”
Minoh crumpled like the last leaf of autumn. Dowoon, satisfied, turned to leave—but hesitated. Should I just leave him like this?
He didn’t regret knocking Minoh out, but he worried about the trouble it would cause the medical staff. In the end, Dowoon poked his head out the door and called for Shim Woomin.
“Woomin-hyung!”
“Huh? What? You leaving already?”
Woomin, engrossed in a mobile game, didn’t seem particularly thrilled to hear Dowoon call him hyung after so long. He kept tapping at his phone.
Screech! Bang!
But the sports car in his game, swerving to avoid obstacles, crashed into a triple collision at the final hurdle.
Dowoon strode over and snatched Woomin’s phone.
“I’ll clear the last stage for you, so do me one favor.”
“You’ve done this before?”
“The second I got it.”
Alcohol, cigarettes, games—Dowoon had a habit of trying everything he was told not to. He answered confidently. Woomin didn’t doubt his gaming skills, so he asked cautiously,
“What’s the favor?”
Dowoon never asked others for help. If he was using the word favor, the difficulty level must be off the charts.
But Dowoon didn’t explain. He just led Woomin into the hospital room.
Curious, Woomin followed, only to gasp in shock.
“Dowoon, what the hell did you—?!”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Dowoon flicked Woomin’s lip—just hard enough to sting—and explained his request in vague, abrupt terms.
“Can you put his pants on for me?”
“…”
“I can’t touch him.”
“Can you be more specific? I don’t get why I have to put Minoh’s pants—his briefs—on for him.”
The reason was simple.
Dowoon had just knocked Minoh out cold with a glacier. He didn’t feel no guilt, but he definitely didn’t want to touch that part.
A thing that size would require pulling up elastic waistbands, and his hand would inevitably brush against it. Plus, Dowoon was afraid Minoh might wake up the moment he felt his touch.
“Dowoon…”
But Woomin seemed to have misunderstood. He grabbed Dowoon’s shoulder and scolded him,
“If you’re going to play with a kid, you should know how to take responsibility.”
“…Who said I was playing with him? He was enjoying himself and passed out.”
“Even if I like you, this is too much. You should clean up your own mess.”
Now it was clear Woomin wasn’t just misunderstanding—he was looking for any way out of this mess.
Pat, pat. Woomin patted Dowoon’s broad shoulder sympathetically as he took back his phone, his tone almost pitying.
“I know it’s rough having to touch something like that, but… think of it this way. You’ll probably never see something like it again in your life. So cheer up, Dowoon.”
Dowoon’s already pale face turned even greener, like he was about to pass out.
He couldn’t bring himself to press Woomin further and just let him go. Woomin stumbled out, looking utterly flustered.
“…This is insane.”
Dowoon reluctantly shuffled into the room—just in time for a gust of wind to blow through the cracked window, billowing Minoh’s shirt and revealing his deeply chiseled abs.
He looked impossibly mature for a twenty-year-old, his body solid and manly.
“Haa…”
Dowoon sighed heavily. Dragging his feet to the bedside, he forced himself to blur his vision and reached out.
He shaped his hand like a claw to avoid skin contact as much as possible. He couldn’t bring himself to wipe Minoh with tissue, but he could at least pull up his pants and get out of there.
“Fuck—!”
That’s when it happened.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
A Venus flytrap doesn’t reveal its intentions until the bug flies into its mouth. It lures its prey with patience, then spits out only the bones once fully digested.
The moment Dowoon’s hand touched the pants, Minoh grabbed his forearm and flipped their positions in one swift motion.
Dowoon was pinned beneath Minoh’s muscular body, his nose pressed into the mattress. He tried to use his ability, but his palm was pressed over his eyes—he’d lost all sense of direction.
“Hahaha, hyung! I told you! If I caught you, I’d lick you until you begged for mercy! Ah, it feels so good! I’m so happy! Haaaah!”
“You want your guts ripped out again, you fucking dog? Let go!”
“Woof, woof, woof!”
“You might actually die this time!”
Dowoon wasn’t exaggerating. Minoh just groaned in response.
“I must’ve watched your videos a hundred, a thousand times, wondering—why doesn’t Yeo Dowoon have any weaknesses? How did he awaken to be this perfect?”
“…”
“I seriously thought you were a chimera or something. If you could just control fire properly, you’d be a guaranteed S-class. But you can use ice too, and it drives people crazy.”
Dowoon felt something blunt pressing against his lower back. He replied coldly,
“Move your ass right now, or I’ll snap your neck. Get off.”
“But, hyung, no Esper in the world is without a weakness.”
Minoh pressed his lips to Dowoon’s ear and bit down on the fleshy lobe.
“Hyung. You can’t attack if you can’t see, right? That’s why you can never attack backward.”
Minoh’s analysis was spot-on. Dowoon was an Esper who only charged forward.
Close range, long range—none of it mattered.
To use his abilities freely, he needed an unobstructed line of sight.
