# Chapter 9
While Yeo Dowoon’s specialty was freezing, manipulating ice, his ability to use fire was also excellent enough to draw envy from many other Espers.
Thanks to this, right before completely freezing the dungeon and monsters, he could gather the flames inside his body and release them in one place.
This means he had beautifully painted a severe burn mark—one that could never be healed without Cha Haseong’s guiding—across the broad back of that unregistered Esper.
Even if the Esper tried to cover it with other tattoos or burn marks, it wouldn’t be easy due to the depth difference.
“Do you remember his face?”
“Aren’t you going to search through my memories, Captain?”
At this brazen statement, Kwon Jeonghoo lost even the will to scold him and sighed.
“There’s nothing in that stone head of yours except Cha Haseong, what is there to search?”
After throwing his chewed-up cigarette into the trash can, he berated Dowoon savagely.
“Forget about the mission, you nearly died out there yourself, Yeo Dowoon.”
“……”
“If Cha Haseong is the problem, I’ll help you.”
His gleaming eyes resembled those of a hungry predator. As if facing prey that would help satisfy his hunger, he menacingly emitted a fearsome glint.
“I can just erase him and everything else completely. Right?”
This threat disguised as a proposal carried tremendous destructive power, considering that the person who uttered it was an S-class mental domain Esper.
Dowoon, engulfed in the sensation of his brain being stirred, involuntarily retched.
He quickly raised his palm to cover his mouth, but Jeonghoo merely removed his hand and sneered.
It was no coincidence that Kwon Jeonghoo, of all people, was given the authority to gather and command the elite S-class Espers.
If he wanted to, he was someone who could drive a targeted person to the edge of a cliff and make them fall completely. Jeonghoo whispered in an ominous tone.
“If I remove everything without leaving a single trace, you’ll come to your senses on your own.”
“I’m already completely in my right mind…”
“Would someone in their right mind cause this mess? Huh?”
Had there ever been a time when he displayed such violent anger? It seemed like the first such situation since that day several years ago when Dowoon had volunteered himself as bait.
Back then, too, Jeonghoo had folded his seemingly insensitive eyes horizontally and threatened him, asking if he was doing this because he wanted to become a complete idiot who knew nothing.
The mean face that had sarcastically bitten and pulled at his words was still vivid in his mind. Dowoon’s response against him was consistent, both then and now.
“Try erasing it if you can.”
Befitting an Esper who simultaneously held the titles of ‘the only one in history’ and ‘the youngest,’ he displayed an expression of ease as if he had never yielded to anything.
His neat face, which emitted a green, unripe scent compared to Jeonghoo, curved his eyes fearlessly as if saying ‘let’s see.’
Not diminishing his composure at all despite his superior’s fierce aura, he added as if wanting to provoke Jeonghoo.
“Let’s see who’s faster, you or me. I’ll shatter and destroy one of your arms.”
If they were to face each other with full sincerity, he could easily cut off not just one arm but one leg as well. No matter how skilled a guide Cha Haseong was, restoring a severed limb would be extremely difficult.
If there was something that could be forcibly attached and sewn back, it might be different, but Dowoon intended to completely pulverize his limbs so that not even a fragment could be found.
The gazes of the two men locked intensely.
Since neither backed down and they blamed each other, an oppressive atmosphere inevitably overflowed. Jeonghoo clicked his tongue and said.
“You uneducated bastard.”
“I learned it all from you, Captain.”
Dowoon responded nonchalantly to the insult directed at him. As if unconcerned, he deliberately shrugged his shoulders.
“There’s a limit to shifting responsibility.”
However, when Jeonghoo tried to deny it, the resentment that had been accumulating for a long time burst forth like a broken riverbank. Dowoon countered aggressively.
“When did you care about that when you forcibly brought and raised a person who didn’t want it, and now you’re backing out?”
It was only natural that a dry, scornful laugh erupted from Jeonghoo.
“Raised? Who raised whom? Me, you?”
“No, I’ll correct myself. It wasn’t nurturing but exploitation. Freeze ice whenever you drank beer, light barbecue fires whenever you grilled meat. You told me to act as a boiler when you showered, right?”
“With such good memory, where did you sell your vow to separate public and private matters?”
Dowoon truly wanted to smack the back of the head of this stubborn and intense, high-nosed man.
When he first joined, at barely seventeen, he was sent to the officetel of some superior he didn’t even know, under the pretext of needing a guardian’s supervision.
Having to live as a freeloader in the home of a man who seemed picky to anyone, he wanted to quit being an Esper and everything else, so he ran away almost every day, turning people’s insides out.
‘I heard you’re physically capable. What class are you?’
The man who succeeded in controlling Dowoon was none other than the homeowner, Kwon Jeonghoo.
Perhaps because he had to engage in unwanted pursuits a couple of times a week, every time he caught Dowoon, he would strongly urge him to open his abilities, as if telling him to eat shit.
It started with nonsensical demands like asking him to make heart-shaped ice in beer glasses.
“Do you think if you wait like that, Cha Haseong will look back and find you endearing?”
Jeonghoo, who had unbuttoned the white buttons near his wrist, asked quietly. The thick-jointed finger that had pulled out the last button from its hole now undid his pitch-black tie.
When Jeonghoo suddenly stood up, Dowoon asked distastefully:
“…What are you doing now?”
In fact, he could tell at a glance that it was a strip show, but he didn’t want to mention it with his own mouth. Creeak, the bed spring sank deeply downward.
When Jeonghoo placed one knee on the mattress, Dowoon reflexively took a defensive posture and slowly retreated his buttocks.
“Hey, Captain?”
“If you really don’t want me touching that stone head of yours, there are a few other methods.”
The mere fact that there were ‘several’ methods was chilling.
When Dowoon shook his head adamantly saying he didn’t want any of them, Jeonghoo chuckled as if he had expected it and then placed his other knee on the bed as well.
As a result, Dowoon had no choice but to flee to the edge of the bed, becoming an unwilling prey. He spoke with a voice drenched in bewilderment.
“Captain, wait a moment. Isn’t this pose a bit strange? What are you… ah, Kwon Jeonghoo!”
His arms, which had been fully embroidered with thick and thin needles, fell limp and powerless.
The situation occurred without any chance for resistance. This was because Jeonghoo had rifled through Dowoon’s mind, erasing all his aggression and rebelliousness.
Thud. Dowoon, who had collapsed onto the mattress, desperately grabbed the bed cover. If he hadn’t been suffering from aftereffects, he could have easily repelled this level of mental manipulation.
But Dowoon could only watch in shock as Jeonghoo climbed on top of him and placed both hands beside his head. Damn it. His pride was hurt.
“Kwon Jeonghoo……”
When he managed to move his lips to form those three syllables, Jeonghoo explained in a polite and gentlemanly tone that didn’t suit him at all:
“You know, Dowoon-ah, human neurons are much simpler and more ignorant than you think. If they receive a larger stimulus, they treat all previous stimuli as garbage.”
A large palm firmly gripped the hospital uniform top, which had a clear blue color. Dowoon, troubled, also grabbed his wrist in response. The bones were so thick that he couldn’t grasp them with one hand.
Jeonghoo smiled bitterly at how ice-cold Dowoon’s skin was. Seeing how much he disliked it made his own stubbornness rise. But he didn’t advance further and only blew his breath.
When the warm breath invaded his ear with a “hoo,” Dowoon got goosebumps and exploded.
“Ah, why are you suddenly doing things you don’t usually do!”
He tried to push the shoulder with his remaining hand, but it didn’t budge. This was because Jeonghoo, who had attempted a much more detailed mental manipulation than before, had already made his entire body soft and disheveled.
With a “shup,” Jeonghoo gave a warning and then blew air toward his exposed nape.
“Hnngh…!”
Dowoon twisted his upper body as if in agony. He tried hitting him with his knee, saying to stop it, but Jeonghoo only frowned and absolutely refused to back down.
His pale toes curled up, and his sides contracted. Dowoon’s waist convulsed tremblingly.
“Hyung, stop…!”
Jeonghoo was continuously dispersing his breath. The meticulously continuing act, like bestowing rain on dry land, made Dowoon feel as if sparks were flying before his eyes and flashes were rising.
The warmth of another person visiting his body, which could be rightfully called a freezer, felt deceptively warm. Jeonghoo’s sharp chin landed on Dowoon’s nape.
Dowoon suddenly jumped up as if he couldn’t bear it and earnestly begged.
“H-hot……”
“You said you were cold earlier. I’m warming you up.”
“Please…! It’s too hot!”
His indignation burst forth.
It was already frustrating enough to be isolated in a private ward and prohibited from going out, but with this guy called the Captain pressing down on him and touching his skin, his entire body felt like it was being scorched in a fire.
Using mental manipulation in such a petty way—this seemed like an abuse of power.
“I said it’s hot……”
“That’s because you’re cold.”
When Dowoon bit his lip as if in pain, Jeonghoo grabbed his head to make him look at him. But Dowoon immediately closed his eyes.
“…Didn’t you say this kind of thing is what worthless trash does?”
