15 – TDG 15

I ​grinned ​and ​squeezed ​his hand.

“Did you ​wait ​long, ​Hyung?”

“Yeah.”

His ​answer ​was so docile.

“Then shall ​we ​go inside with ​Hyung and have ​a ​delicious ​cup ​of ​coffee?”

Hand ​in hand, we ​made ​our ​way to the ​small cafe located within ​the dormitory. ​After ordering, ​while we ​sat nearby ​waiting ​for ​our drinks, Ji-hyuk ​asked.

“You were ​called away because of ​me, weren’t you?”

Eh. How ​did he know? Did ​someone tell ​him? ​I played dumb and shrugged my ​shoulders.

“No. I just went ​to ​report ​the ​situation ​to the higher-ups.”

I ​thought it ​was ​a decent performance, ​but ​it Read on Read BL Novels[Read on Read BL Novels]seemed unauthorized copyI couldn’t hide ​the momentary ​flicker ​in my expression. ​He ​let ​out ​a ​shallow sigh.

“Hyung ​told ​me not ​to… I’m sorry for acting on my ​own.”

“Ah, no. I ​told you I ​didn’t get in trouble, ​but you ​just can’t believe ​me.”

“…….”

Damn, ​I’m not inspiring ​any confidence at ​all. In ​that ​case, I ​have ​no choice ​but ​to change ​strategies.

“Ahem, ​I ​did hear a ​few ​words. But ​there’s ​nothing ​to ​worry about. Since you disobeyed orders from above, it’s just a formal procedure to ensure the hierarchy doesn’t shake if it’s just overlooked. The higher-ups were just doing their jobs.”

“Is it because I haven’t received national certification yet that I’m not supposed to use my powers?”

“…Y-yeah, that’s right.”

Actually, that’s only the case in Korea; it wouldn’t matter if we went abroad. Korea is just systematically very strict. Thanks to that, the current public safety is maintained.

“Then what happens if I pass this aptitude evaluation? Will Hyung not have to be called away anymore?”

Why did the conversation jump there? I was bewildered, but I quickly nodded.

“Well… yeah. Once you have national certification, everything is up to [visit our site]you from then on. It would actually [stolen content]be an abuse of [stolen content]power for anyone to interfere.”

Though interference would be impossible anyway. Ji-hyuk lowered his eyes and nodded silently as if he understood. Until now, he hadn’t been very proactive about the aptitude evaluation. Did this incident clear things up for him? Right on cue, the vibration bell rang. I patted Ji-hyuk on the shoulder and picked up the bell to go get the drinks.

Beep, beep, beep.

I woke up with a start at the sound of the alarm. Is it already light out… what time is it…?

Letting out a long yawn, I fumbled along the headboard, only to freeze in shock when I discovered a massive object lying next to me.

“…….”

Looking closer, it was a soundly sleeping Han Ji-hyuk. Swimming through a sea of question marks, it took me a long while to remember that I had fallen asleep in Ji-hyuk’s room last night. My heart nearly burst from the shock of seeing something so big just looming beside me.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and traced back my memories of last night. Actually, there wasn’t anything grand enough to trace.

We had spent the evening together, and as we were saying goodbye and promising to see each other tomorrow, this guy whined, asking me to stay just a little longer. I followed him in, pretending to give in.

And then I slept.

I thought I’d just stay for a bit until he calmed down, and then…

I slept.

And I slept like a log, too.

Is Seo Joo-won a crazy person?

I slept all day yesterday, and I’m sleeping again at night?

Do you know how many apology letters I have to submit by this morning? I’ve truly lost it. I really just treat this company however I want….

It was a little past seven, so it was about time to get up.

But I really slept without a care in the world. I think I just passed out without even knowing when I fell asleep… It’s strange, really. Is there some kind of sleeping pill rubbed on this guy’s arm? Why do I lose consciousness and sleep whenever I’m hugged by him?

While suspiciously examining Ji-hyuk’s arm, the watch on his wrist happened to catch my eye. His body temperature was 37.6 degrees. It wasn’t a fever; it’s one of the characteristics of fire-type ability users—their basal body temperature is high. Conversely, I heard that cryokinetic-type Espers have an average body temperature about 1 degree lower.

Hmm. Looking at his temperature, I think I get it. Since he’s warmer than average, it’s only natural that I’d sleep well. I remembered hearing somewhere that babies have higher body temperatures than adults, and a small smile escaped me.

Anyway, waking up to find the beauty of the century sleeping next to me… for an office worker, the moment of waking up is usually nothing short of hell, but this isn’t so bad.

“…Mm.”

Perhaps because I was tossing and turning, Han Ji-hyuk frowned. I quickly held my breath, [unauthorized copy]but it was useless. The pupils revealed visit our sitebeneath his eyelids quickly found focus and recognized me.

“You’re awake?”

Ji-hyuk lifted his arm and rested it over his forehead, letting out a chuckle.

“Mm… I heard Hyung’s laughing voice….”

Normally, when a person wakes up in the morning, their voice should be raspy or crack a bit to be human, but this guy’s husky, just-woke-up voice is so atmospheric and deep that it’s unfair. I feel like recording ‘Han Ji-hyuk’s half-asleep voice’ into a separate file and carrying it around. Since this is the only time I can hear it, doesn’t it have its own rarity?

“Where are you going?”

Han Ji-hyuk grabbed me as I tried to get up and pulled me back down onto the bed.

“Where else! To the bathroom. I’m awake, so I have to wash up.”

“No. Do it later….”

See. Whining again. He’s developed a bad habit because he knows I’ll give in to all his spoiled behavior. But not this time. I reached back and pushed Han Ji-hyuk’s face, which was clinging to the nape of my neck, away with all my might.

“What do you mean ‘later,’ Mr. Han Ji-hyuk? It’s past seven. I have to leave.”

Even with one cheek squished, the protagonist—who remained invariably handsome—pouted dissatisfiedly [Read on Read BL Novels]and reluctantly backed away from [Read on Read BL Novels]me slightly. However, the unauthorized copyinterlaced fingers beneath my waist had not yet let go.

“But why were you laughing earlier?”

To catch that I was laughing inwardly… your hearing is something else, too.

I placed my index finger over my lips and whispered meaningfully.

“Se. Cret.”

“…….”

Han Ji-hyuk’s eyes narrowed. Soon after, his fingers rolled toward my armpits.

He’s playing a shallow game.

Do you think this body would succumb to mere tickling?

“Ugh, ah, wait, hehehe, hahahaha! St-stop… ha, hah!”

“I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!” Only after I burst into something between a scream of laughter and a cry did the murderous tickle attack stop.

When I tried to escape, he pinned me down as if to say ‘no way,’ climbed on top of me, and tickled stolen contentme like crazy; there was absolutely no way [Read on Read BL Novels]to resist. He doesn’t have a physique where muscles are prominently highlighted, but beneath Han Ji-hyuk’s skin [Read on Read BL Novels]lies muscle harder than steel. Even a low-rank Esper is stronger and more powerful than an ordinary person, so imagine an S-rank. I don’t know for sure, but Ji-hyuk probably handles me as gently as if he were dealing with a chick. Even so, I can’t budge an inch.

If I could beat that bastard with strength, I’d just be the S-rank myself….

Having discovered that the reason I smiled secretly was because of the correlation between his body temperature and a baby’s, Han Ji-hyuk puffed out his cheeks in great dissatisfaction, as if asking if that was all.

What?

What on earth were you expecting?

Leaving me panting and exhausted from the aftermath of the fierce tickle attack, Han Ji-hyuk confidently got out of bed first and cut in line to head to the bathroom.

Thanks to that, I rolled around freely on the now spacious bed, sprawled out like a starfish, and put on my glasses.

Through the round lenses, I saw the back of Han Ji-hyuk as he strode toward the bathroom with his long, slender legs.

They say the completion of fashion is the face, and that extraordinary beauty turns even ordinary daily actions into art. Such a otherworldly world of art was unfolding within my small lenses.

For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off the simple sight of him grabbing the hem of his shirt and pulling it over his head.

Long, lean muscles, sculpted organically without excess or deficiency, shone white like marble sculptures. The beautiful contours of his body, sloping gently, bewitched the eyes of anyone who looked. While I was staring blankly without realizing it, Ji-hyuk, who was heading to the bathroom, glanced back at me. As if he knew I was peeking, our eyes met naturally.

His pitch-black pupils curved softly like crescent moons.

‘……?’

At the sound of the bathroom door closing, my face flushed for reasons I couldn’t understand.

What was that just now?

“Now, we will begin the rehearsal for the aptitude evaluation. The official name of this test is the Anti-Terror Response Training. It is a mock simulation to wipe out terrorists deployed across a total of four floors.”

There are two categories for the aptitude evaluation.

The monster elimination simulation and the terror prevention simulation.

The category is decided randomly, and Han Ji-hyuk was assigned the latter.

The lead teaching assistant in charge of supervising the exam was also an Esper with a rank.

They were possessors of abilities aimed at monitoring whether the examinee committed any cheating.

“On each floor, several to a dozen terrorists are holding hostages and staging a standoff, and some Espers are mixed in. Since each floor has a different strategy and formation, this test requires the trainee’s improvisation and quick situational judgment. The final goal is the elimination of all terrorists and the safe rescue of all hostages.”

It is said that the first aptitude evaluations only had the kaiju elimination item.

One day, mysterious doors appeared all over the world, and monsters that killed and ate people poured out of them. Countless people died, and the world fell into hellish chaos.

Among humanity, which was on the brink of extinction, those who underwent ultra-rapid evolution emerged. They were the Espers and Guides.

The monsters, which at first seemed like nothing but a terrible nightmare, eventually seeped into our daily lives as time passed. Now, we live in an era where anyone who wants to can use a monster encyclopedia to see what kind of monster appeared in the news, and what their habits and attack patterns are.

As this trend accelerated, from a certain point, the number of Espers dying while dealing with fellow Esper criminals or terrorists began to exceed the number of those dying while fighting monsters.

‘Terror Prevention’ was a training program designed to reduce the number of Espers unfortunately lost to such incidents and to cultivate high crisis-response capabilities in interpersonal combat.