By Zephyria 
A face smiling brightly with pale blue lips, and then a body collapsing powerlessly.
“……Guide Kwon Gi-dam?”
That was the first thing Vasily saw as his reason returned. He called out the name while catching the light body leaning into his arms, but no answer came.
It was the first time. The first time he had experienced the world turning stark white before his eyes.
Looking around, he saw that the room, which had been perfectly fine until he entered, was covered in ice. Only then did he realize that a chill was leaking from his body, and he withdrew his power.
But it was already too late. He could feel no warmth from Gi-dam’s body, and his face was as pale as a corpse.
Gi-dam, leaning against him, kept trembling. Vasily soon realized it wasn’t because of the cold. It was his own hands that were shaking.
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam-ssi! Are you alright—”
Breaking through the surrounding ice, Espers rushed in. They froze in place the moment they saw Gi-dam held in Vasily’s arms.
Vasily slowly opened his mouth.
“This…”
As he felt the Guide’s breath slowly fading, his wavelength raged violently. Barely clinging to the last shred of his reason, Vasily gritted his teeth and continued.
“Explain exactly what is going on right now.”
A powerful murderous intent flowed out. While the Espers hesitated, the Captain managed to step forward and explain.
“The Esper went into a rampage, so we had no choice but to seek Guide Kwon Gi-dam’s help.”
“……Guide Kwon Gi-dam should have left Korea.”
“We are told he got off the plane before it departed.”
“…….”
A moment of silence followed. Vasily’s arms tightened further around Gi-dam.
“Esper Vasily, we’ve called a helicopter. It would be best to move the Guide to the hospital first—”
As the Espers approached, Vasily looked up and glared at them.
Ice shards manifested in the air, instantly surrounding them. The sharply honed tips of the ice pointed at the Espers as if they would surge forward at any moment, preventing anyone from getting close to Vasily and Gi-dam.
Soon, the helicopter arrived. As Vasily boarded the helicopter while holding Gi-dam in his arms, the Attending Physician, who had been deployed upon hearing news of a casualty, rushed over.
“Esper Vasily! But Guide Kwon Gi-dam… what on earth happened to him?”
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam stopped my rampage while the suppression chip was frozen and then collapsed.”
“Pardon? I can’t hear you!”
The Attending Physician asked again, unable to hear the voice drowned out by the noise of the helicopter.
Vasily carefully brushed aside the hair covering Gi-dam’s nape. However, the moment the neck was revealed, both Vasily and the Attending Physician flinched.
The area where the suppression chip had been inserted was swollen and red.
There was a possibility that he had frozen parts that shouldn’t have been frozen because he couldn’t properly control his power during the rampage. But this was slightly different. It was swollen dark red, as if it had been torn apart from the inside…
Come to think of it, just before he regained consciousness, he thought he had heard a strange sound. It definitely… sounded like something exploding.
Inside the shaking helicopter, the Attending Physician examining Gi-dam’s condition hardened his expression.
“It seems there was a problem with the suppression chip. The frostbite is also severe, so as soon as we arrive at the hospital, I will take him straight to the operating room to check.”
The Attending Physician continued his explanation, but it didn’t reach Vasily’s ears. He simply looked down at Gi-dam with a blank face.
Following the problematic suppression chip, he had suffered severe frostbite. His breathing had been gradually thinning for a while, yet the trembling of his body did not stop. An anxiety that his breath might stop altogether tightened around Vasily’s throat.
Vasily looked down at his own hands. Even if he wanted to wrap around Gi-dam, who was shivering from the cold, touching him would only steal away his body heat. Had he ever felt his power be such a curse as he did today?
As soon as the helicopter landed on the hospital rooftop, Gi-dam was rushed to the operating room on a transport bed. Vasily tried to follow, but an Esper who had followed him this far blocked his path.
“Do you want to die? Move.”
“……If you enter the operating room emitting that much murderous intent, the doctors will be too terrified to perform the surgery properly.”
Vasily couldn’t answer.
Damn it, the Esper was right. Those humans would tremble and be unable to do anything if they felt even a slight threat. ……Unlike Guide Kwon Gi-dam.
Vasily couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes off Gi-dam as he grew more distant.
“……”
Vasily silently stared at Gi-dam, who lay on the hospital bed as if dead. Beside him, the doctor spoke cautiously.
“We have removed as many fragments as possible. Since the skin was mostly frozen, removing the fragments was relatively easy, but some debris may remain.”
“Why isn’t he waking up?”
“It is highly likely due to the shock of the device at the back of the neck exploding. As you know, it was inserted close to the nerves…”
It was an excuse he had heard until he was sick of it. The doctor, who repeated the same content every time, pretended to make room and fled the room as Vasily’s expression grew colder.
Left alone, Vasily carefully brushed back Gi-dam’s hair.
The surgical site where the suppression chip had been removed was almost healed, but Gi-dam remained unconscious.
Despite the hospital room being warm like a greenhouse and his body temperature returning to normal levels, Gi-dam’s lips were still pale blue. His breathing was so weak that he was barely breathing, relying on an oxygen respirator.
Traces of frostbite remained throughout his body. Thanks to the rapid treatment, there were no severely necrotic areas, but the scars would likely never disappear.
Vasily repeated the cycle of visiting the room several times a day, staring at Gi-dam with his eyes closed as if dead, before leaving. Only the wavelength and faint warmth felt when he briefly held his hand proved that he was still alive.
A few days later, Vasily stared at the people before him with a cold expression.
Today, another interrogation under the guise of a meeting was held. It was a place to hold him accountable for the rampage.
After listening to meaningless reprimands for two hours, he was reaching his limit. Instead of these disgusting voices, he wanted to lie beside Gi-dam in the hospital room and get some sleep, as usual.
Just as he was barely suppressing his murderous intent, a call came from the Attending Physician.
Esper Vasily! Guide Kwon Gi-dam has woken up!
It was the news that Gi-dam had finally awakened.
Vasily immediately tore through the meeting room and rushed to the hospital. As he flung the door open and entered the room, he saw Gi-dam sitting on the bed, surrounded by doctors.
“Esper Vasily……”
Seeing Gi-dam’s eyes widen in surprise the moment he saw him, Vasily stopped dead in his tracks.
Looking into Gi-dam’s black eyes for the first time in nearly a month, he felt as if he were suffocating. He was overcome by the impulse to pull him into his arms and confirm his warmth right now. Feeling the gazes around him, Vasily spoke.
“Get out.”
As Vasily issued the order to leave, one of the doctors stepped forward cautiously.
“Esper Vasily, the patient has only just woken up and is now in a state where conversation is possible. He will be very confused, so first, the situation—”
“Did you not hear me? Get out if you don’t want to die.”
Chilly air instantly filled the surroundings. Terrified, the doctors could no longer speak and quietly withdrew.
Once the nuisances were gone, Vasily immediately approached the bed and hugged Gi-dam.
A warm heat seeped into his embrace. A powerful guiding, on a completely different level from when Gi-dam lay unconscious, flowed into his body.
Was this what the sunlight of early spring felt like?
He felt as if he would melt away in the warmth. As if he would never let him go, Vasily hugged him even tighter. However…
“Why, why are you doing this……”
Gi-dam’s body trembled.
Vasily felt something was strange for a moment, but he assumed it was because Gi-dam was flustered having just woken up. He could sufficiently feel that confusion through Gi-dam’s Guiding wavelength.
Perhaps because the suppression chip had been removed, the emotions Gi-dam felt were transmitted clearly. If he could feel the other’s emotions this vividly, just how high was the matching rate?
As soon as Gi-dam recovered, he would take him for a matching rate test immediately. Thinking this, Vasily asked.
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam, how is your body?”
“……My neck is a bit stiff, but I’m fine.”
A strangely stiff tone. It seemed he was still angry that his departure from the country had been ruined because of the rampage.
But that anger wouldn’t last long. Many things had happened, but in the end, the suppression chip was removed as Gi-dam had wanted, and there were no longer any figures in the way.
“You jumped into a rampage scene when you could have died. It was a reckless choice.”
“……I had no choice, did I? In that situation.”
An answer even more arrogant than usual. However, a faint smile instead appeared on Vasily’s lips.
He had liked that brazenness—the way he didn’t shrink even in front of him—since a long time ago. Moreover, Gi-dam had eventually returned for his rampaging self. Was any further proof necessary?