“Open your mouth…… wider.”
It was then that Kang Taejun’s low, sunken voice was heard. His words spat out as if crushing them while their lips were pressed together were steeped in thick heat. Because their tongues were complexly entangled, that voice sounded muffled and unclear, but the meaning contained within was clearly imprinted in his mind.
Somehow, Kang Taejun had already lightly broken the restraints that had been constricting his limbs and was raising his upper body. Had the effect of the guiding appeared immediately? The density and temperature of the air touching his skin changed in an instant. He wrapped one arm around Park Shinui’s waist and pulled him close to himself. Then with unhesitating movements, he tilted his upper body and laid Park Shinui’s body down on the floor.
The two people’s positions were reversed in an instant. Kang Taejun, mounting on top of Park Shinui as if covering him, slid his tongue in between the parted lips and let out hot breath.
‘More.’
His large hand constricted Park Shinui’s shrinking shoulders and waist as if to shatter them. The stimulation from the fragile body that seemed like it would crumble with just a little force was surprisingly ecstatic.
Just from matching lips. The waves of contamination that had been tormenting him for so long began to subside like the ebb tide. His mind, which had been turbidly tangled, was organized in an instant. The pressure crushing his brain and the nerve endings that had been tensely on edge all released at once, and the blood that had been boiling was regaining stability.
‘More, I need more.’
In the place where the heat that had risen to a strange degree, the pain that had been scraping at the abyss, and the electric current-like sensation that had been digging into his bones had faded, a new kind of thirst bloomed. He needed more of Park Shinui’s energy, body temperature, that sweet breath. The possessive desire to touch, confirm, and confine him in his arms ferociously eroded his mind.
“Ugh, mmph……”
Kang Taejun dug in deeply enough for Park Shinui’s lips to part tightly. He greedily licked the wet flesh and stole his breath without giving even a moment to breathe. He invaded as if to swallow even his throat and thirstily sucked up the thick saliva. It was clear indulgence, surpassing guiding.
“Ah, ugh, st… stop, hngh.”
‘More.’
The hand that had been gripping his waist dug between the clothes and climbed up along his ribs. The rough entire palm groped his body stickily as if sticking to his bare skin. Kang Taejun’s large hand that had invaded under the light athletic wear moved roughly, then soon pressed hard against the erect nipple.
In that moment, Park Shinui’s eyes opened wide then trembled. When the sensitive spot was caught between thumb and forefinger, he couldn’t hold back and jerked his body.
Kang Taejun’s tongue induced him to open his mouth as much as possible and persistently dug into the inside of the palate, the softest part. He repeated pushing the flesh in deeply then pulling out, crushing Park Shinui’s feeble resistance.
“Stop……”
It was a completely unexpected moment when Kang Taejun’s reason returned.
“Ah, aah…… st……”
He ignored Park Shinui, who was struggling with insignificant strength, and dug between his legs. After pushing his thighs all the way under his buttocks to lift his waist into the air, he firmly covered and gripped the most intimate place between his legs, and was about to move his hand as desire led—just at that moment.
Thwack!
Park Shinui’s knee kicked Kang Taejun’s side. Of course, to him it was an attack that wasn’t even ticklish. But it was also sufficient shock to suppress the rampaging instinct and make him come to his senses.
“Stop……”
Park Shinui’s voice flowed out trembling. With his knee bent ready to attack again at any moment, he glared with eyes wet with heat and clenched both fists tightly.
“I told you…… to…stop.”
His flushed face was filled with bewilderment and shame.
Realization struck suddenly. Kang Taejun slowly raised his upper body that had been covering him. He removed the hand that had been gripping his waist like a restraint, and completely released Park Shinui.
The inside of the bunker became quiet. The commotion seemed to have subsided, but the heat between the two people didn’t easily fade.
What was I just trying to do to Park Shinui?
***
The Shadow Gate closed leaving behind horrific traces befitting its S-rank grade. 42 civilians died, and four espers and guides who had been initially deployed were killed in action. This tragic number was enough to plunge the nation into fear.
Overall gate management was handled by the Disaster Surveillance Bureau under the Ability Center. The Surveillance Bureau measured in real-time the gate’s opening time, grade, size, coordinates, wave patterns, etc., and classified response codes by categorizing them by type into predictable gates, unpredictable gates, and spatial collision gates.
However, this Shadow Gate was a completely invisible gate that wasn’t caught by any of the Surveillance Bureau’s prediction networks. Through this incident, the nation once again painfully realized that Kang Taejun’s absence meant a gap in military power.
That aftermath also reached Park Shinui intact. Though not openly revealed, the Center began to secretly pressure Park Shinui.
The first thing demanded was a detailed report on the guiding numbers and contact status with Kang Taejun. Although Kang Taejun had flatly refused citing invasion of privacy as his reason, it seemed the nation was beginning to view him not as one guide, but as a ‘key component’ to operate Kang Taejun.
“Ugh.”
“Are you coming to?”
“……Seonsaengnim?”
“Yes, it’s Lee Suchan.”
At the calm, low voice heard from his bedside, Park Shinui lifted his heavy eyelids. White light seeping through the gap pierced his vision, and his blurry focus slowly formed toward the man before his eyes.
“Don’t tell me…… I again……”
“……Yes, you fainted.”
Lee Suchan’s blunt answer as he looked down at him with an expressionless face stuck like a dagger. Damn, I fainted again.
This was already the fourth day. Park Shinui’s guiding ability was growing explosively day by day, but his physical ability was conspicuously marking time. Even after repeated training, the results are always the same.
Park Shinui forcibly raised his upper body that had been slumped in the chair and wiped his forehead. What did I even do that my hair is soaking wet with cold sweat?
Park Shinui had thought of himself as a fairly healthy person. He did catch colds every change of season when very young, but that was all, and he’d never been seriously ill or indebted to hospitals. As he grew, even colds passed him by. After starting taekwondo, he swept national competitions and won so many medals that even using all ten fingers and toes wouldn’t be enough to count them.
He was confident enough in his athletic skills to hold his head high anywhere, so he’d only thought of collapsing due to physical limits as something that happened to others. Even after becoming an adult, he lived without issue sleeping only three or four hours a day, and even if he ate spoiled food or slept in air conditioning in sub-zero weather, he’d wake up even more refreshed the next day—he had a resilient body.
But. Here, Park Shinui had become the weakest of the weak, losing consciousness at the drop of a hat and immediately fainting if he overdid it even a little. Usually when a guide’s grade is high, physical ability is also proportionally strengthened, but Park Shinui had manifested as ‘F-rank,’ which was inferior even to ordinary people, so it was truly absurd.
“What stage?”
“Stage 1.”
Lee Suchan’s answer was dry as if asking what’s the point of asking that. Well, even though four days had passed since training started, Park Shinui still couldn’t get past even Stage 1 of D-rank gate waves.
“Hah……”
In front of Park Shinui, who let out a frustrated sigh, Lee Suchan lightly burned the pill capsule he’d been holding in his hand. The flame that disappeared with a tssss sound was an ability that was wondrous no matter when he saw it. Park Shinui blankly watched the ash powder scattering in the air, then belatedly came to his senses and opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry. Because of me, another precious Mendorin……”
After spending several days in the world inside the novel, Park Shinui had also come to grasp the information of this place to some degree. One of those things was the fact that the pill Lee Suchan fed him whenever he fainted was an incredibly expensive recovery medicine.
The medicine’s name was Mendorin. It was the highest-grade guiding recovery medicine that the protagonist Kang Taejun took during every battle in the novel. Like its name containing the meaning of ‘healing,’ it was a specialized drug developed especially for Kang Taejun, who had no guide. Beyond a simple supplement, it was classified as a complex-action healing agent that simultaneously induced mental stability and physical recovery, purifying contamination immediately upon administration.
In fact, there were almost no guides or espers who actually used Mendorin. Espers deployed in actual combat generally recovered through contact with guides, and guides, who were non-combat personnel, had no reason to depend on such expensive medication. For that reason, production volume itself was small and distribution was extremely limited, so the market price was dozens of times that of ordinary recovery medicine. Yet Park Shinui was steadily consuming that precious medicine every single training session. All while in a state where he couldn’t even get past Stage 1 of D-rank waves.
