By Zephyria 
I felt a piercing gaze from somewhere.
…What is it?
I tossed and turned before slowly opening my eyes. Spotting a flickering shadow in my vision, I turned my head to see Vasily standing beside the bed.
“Esper Vasily? Why are you standing there?”
“Wake up and get ready to go out. There is a place we need to go.”
“A place we need to…”
Hearing my terribly cracked voice, Vasily fell silent for a moment. His gaze shifted toward my torn lips.
“They’re torn.”
A pale hand reached toward my lips. As soon as his cold fingertips touched the cracked wound, a stinging pain shot through me.
Slap.
A dull sound echoed as I brushed his hand away. It was a clear sign of rejection for anyone to see.
“Tell me where we are going.”
“We’re going to the association. The reporters say they have things they want to ask about the Gate that opened yesterday.”
“Why are you taking me?”
“Because I think Guide Kwon Gi-dam would know more about the Gate than I do.”
As I asked with a sharp edge to my voice, Vasily calmly withdrew the back of the hand I had swatted away and answered. I glared at him with a frown.
“I’ll give you ten minutes, so get ready and come out.”
Leaving those words behind, Vasily left the room. Left alone, I let out a deep sigh and massaged my aching brow.
I had struggled to fall asleep because I spent the entire night checking breaking news. The scenes of hotel guests being rescued were broadcast in real-time, and it wasn’t until dawn that news arrived that the rescue operation was complete. I only managed to close my eyes after confirming that the Gate conquest had begun as soon as the sun rose, and now I was terribly exhausted.
Of course, I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t slept. I had occasionally heard Vasily on the phone beyond the door last night.
Seeing as I could still hear his voice toward dawn, he likely hadn’t slept either. It was somewhat comforting to know that I wasn’t the only one who had spent the night wide awake.
Shaking off the drowsiness, I got out of bed.
I wanted to dig my heels in and refuse to go, but if I did, Vasily might kidnap me in my pajamas again like before. Damn Vasily. Why on earth does he insist on taking me to a meeting he could easily handle alone?
After a quick wash, I opened the wardrobe. Thinking that association executives would likely be present, I reached for the neatly hung suits.
“I’m ready.”
“Then let’s go.”
As we took the elevator down to the parking lot, I stole a glance at him. Naturally, Vasily was wearing different clothes than yesterday.
Unconsciously, my gaze dropped to his lower body, and I grimaced upon discovering a heavy outline that wasn’t hidden by his clothes. My throat still felt sore, so I rubbed my neck.
“This way, Guide Kwon Gi-dam.”
As I started walking toward the association vehicle we had used yesterday, I heard Vasily’s voice from the opposite direction. Turning my head, I saw Vasily calling me from in front of a foreign car I had never seen before.
Approaching him, I asked.
“What is this car?”
“It’s a spare. My cars break down often.”
I nodded, recalling how the steering wheel would often freeze whenever Vasily’s condition worsened.
He had used this one for an unusually long time. Vasily tended to drive violently, so all his cars had short lifespans. Lasting half a year put it in the category of having survived a long time.
I climbed into the car and headed for the association, feeling the unfamiliar ride. Since it was slightly past commuting hours, I thought we would arrive quickly, but we got caught in a severe traffic jam.
“…”
“It must be jammed because it’s near the hotel.”
Perhaps because all surrounding roads were controlled due to the Gate opening, we were stuck at a congested intersection, unable to move.
Vasily tapped the steering wheel with his fingers. Looking at the way he glared at the car in front with a cold, frozen expression, he looked as if he were seriously contemplating freezing the entire road.
Even seeing Vasily on the verge of causing an incident, my eyelids kept drooping heavily. It was because I had lost sleep today.
It would be better to catch some shut-eye now than to doze off in the conference room. Blinking slowly, I gradually closed my eyes.
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam, wake up.”
“Ah… have we arrived already?”
I had only closed my eyes for a moment, but we had already arrived at the association.
With a half-asleep face, I got out of the car and followed Vasily. He headed toward the conference room. Because the arrival had been delayed, it seemed he came straight here without stopping by his private room.
Upon opening the door and entering, I saw reporters standing at the back of the conference room. I hurriedly lowered my head upon spotting the cameras, but I felt relieved when I realized they weren’t recording.
“Oh, Esper Vasily! You’ve arrived!”
As soon as Vasily appeared, the association chairman personally stood up to welcome him. His attitude seemed conscious of the fact that the media was treating Vasily as a national hero for preventing casualties, even though he had simply frozen the collapsing hotel and left without engaging in further rescue activities.
I stood in the corner, holding my breath and making no presence known. No one recognized my hard work, but this was enough. I could leave all the spotlight-stealing roles to Vasily and just blend into the background as if I weren’t there.
The chairman guided us to our seats. Fortunately, a chair had been prepared for me as well as for Vasily. I quickly sat down before Vasily could tell me to sit on his lap like last time.
Soon, people took their seats one by one, and the formal questioning began.
“Esper Vasily, we heard you were at the scene yesterday. Could you tell us in detail what happened?”
“I visited the hotel with my Guide and a Gate happened to open. The building was about to collapse, so I simply froze it.”
Vasily emphasized the word ‘happened’ and looked at me with eyes devoid of laughter. I habitually ignored that gaze.
This time, a reporter standing in the back asked a question.
“How did it happen that you were at the scene?”
“I think you should ask Guide Kwon Gi-dam sitting next to me rather than me. I simply followed my Guide.”
As I sat there with my mouth shut as if I had nothing to do with the matter, Vasily intentionally passed the answer to me.
Is he really doing this? I frowned and protested with my eyes, but he just sat there in an arrogant posture, looking as if he had no intention of answering in the slightest.
He really wants me to answer. I let out a deep sigh and finally opened my mouth.
“Do lovers need a reason to go to a hotel?”
A brief silence followed. The expressions of the association people, who knew the dating rumors were false, froze awkwardly.
You should have released a rebuttal article in time. I scoffed inwardly, but then I heard a sound of laughter beside me. Vasily was chuckling.
“Then, are you admitting to the dating rumors?”
“I will not answer that part.”
Although he refused to answer, the words I had spoken earlier were practically an admission. The reporters began to buzz, sensing a scoop.
After that, the reporters’ questions continued for about an hour. Perhaps because I had thrown a bomb, the association answered everything except for the first few questions, so Vasily and I didn’t need to open our mouths.
The meeting concluded with Vasily taking a photo for the articles along with the chairman.
Dragging my terribly exhausted body into my private room, the bed by the window caught my eye. I tossed my suit jacket aside haphazardly, loosened my tie, and headed for the bed.
“I’m going to use the bed.”
With my eyelids closing, I didn’t even care that I was in front of Vasily as I climbed onto the bed and lay down. As I sank into the plush bed, I finally felt like I could breathe.
“Are you going to sleep?”
“I’m tired because I couldn’t sleep.”
I closed my eyes to try and fall asleep immediately, but the bed tilted to one side. What is this? Turning my head, I saw Vasily perched on the edge of the bed.
“Why, why are you getting on?”
“Come to think of it, I haven’t been able to sleep lately either.”
“No… Esper-nim, you must not sleep.”
“Why?”
“Are you really asking because you don’t know? If you fall asleep now, the hotel will collapse.”
When Vasily falls asleep, his ability is released. Of course, the ice wouldn’t melt instantly, but since the sun was still blazing during the day, it would melt quickly. It would only be safe to release the ability after the Gate disappeared and measures were taken to prevent the hotel from collapsing.
“The rescue of the civilians is all finished.”
“The Gate conquest is still ongoing… and if a building of that size collapses, the damage to the surroundings will be significant.”
“So, what does that have to do with me?”
He’s impossible to reason with. My already exhausted head began to throb.