Chapter 68 – The Price of a Misjudgment
He couldn’t sit comfortably on the sofa. Feeling strangely uneasy, Yoon Ki-hyun paced back and forth aimlessly, clutching a mug in his hand.
“Why are you doing that?”
Jeong Si-jun, who had arrived late to the guiding room, glanced at Yoon Ki-hyun as he circled the room. Only then did the eyes that had been wandering the air like an anxious man turn toward him.
“Ah, you’re here, Team Leader.”
“Yes.”
As he gave a short reply and hung up his coat, Yoon Ki-hyun strode toward him. When Jeong Si-jun looked at him silently, wondering what he was up to, he found the other man staring up at him with a very serious expression.
“……What is it?”
“How is your wavelength?”
“If you’re curious, do you want to check for yourself?”
Jeong Si-jun subtly reached out his hand. In truth, an objective judgment was difficult. [unauthorized copy[Read on Read BL Novels]ft:-9999px;">]The white hand that carefully grasped his scarred hand was warm.
“Hurry up and sit down.”
A hand smelling of soap led him. Jeong Si-jun allowed himself to be guided and sat on the sofa.
The man, who sat beside him as if it were now a given, finally drew in his wavelength. At a speed that showed not a single hint of hesitation, just as he always did.
‘He smells nice.’
Jeong Si-jun blinked slowly at the faint scent of soap emanating from Yoon Ki-hyun. He was a man who looked cold but had a surprisingly warm scent.
As he admired the face of the man guiding him in silence, those pouting eyes turned toward him, perhaps sensing the gaze.
‘Ah, did I stare too intently?’
It was at that moment that Jeong Si-jun hesitated.
“From now on, if your wavelength is bad, contact me over the weekend.”
Mr. Yoon Ki-hyun should rest on the weekends too.”
“What does it matter if it’s the weekend [Read on Read BL Novels]or a [stolen content]weekday? Providing guiding when it’s needed was the condition of the contract.”
“That’s true, but…….”
Jeong Si-jun trailed off. As Yoon Ki-hyun said, he had kept him by his side because he needed guiding, but the problem was that other thoughts kept creeping in.
It was becoming difficult to suppress the desire to do something other than guiding.
He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it started. Whenever he looked at Yoon Ki-hyun, other thoughts would suddenly surge.
He didn’t want to hold hands for the sake of guiding, but simply to feel each other’s body heat. He wanted to hug him for no reason, and he wanted them to be in a relationship where they could express intimacy beyond that whenever they felt like it.
However, he knew this wasn’t something he could just blurt out right now.
So, instead of answering, Jeong Si-jun decided to give a small smile, hoping that the beauty—who was always sharp with everyone else—would be lenient with him.
Whether he had no intention of continuing to argue or not, Yoon Ki-hyun didn’t say more, but suddenly began fidgeting with the joints of his fingers. Then, he said something somewhat abrupt.
“Can’t the scars on your hands be treated?”
“They disappear if you crush the same spot and let it recover, but lately, there haven’t been many occasions where my fingers get crushed.”
He had merely stated a plain fact, but Yoon Ki-hyun glanced Read BL Novels">Read unauthorized copyon Read BL Novelsat him as if he were looking at a barbarian.
“Still, the scar on my index finger disappeared last time.”
“I meant dermatological laser scar treatment, things like that.”
“Ah, I’ve never thought about that. Is it very unsightly?”
It was unsettling that someone who usually never mentioned his scars was suddenly staring at the ones on his fingers. He wanted things to go well with Yoon Ki-hyun, but he had absolutely no clue how to earn points with him.
“It’s not that, but I just thought…… that if I’d had enough guiding in the past, these kinds of scars wouldn’t have formed.”
It was surprising that a man who usually hated talking about the past was saying such things. Wasn’t he the type of person who would have looked at scars on a forearm or wrist with an indifferent expression?
Still, this interest from Yoon Ki-hyun wasn’t bad. Jeong Si-jun chuckled and made a self-deprecating joke.
“I agree. I should have recognized you and brought you in sooner.”
He said it as a joke, but awkwardly, there was no reaction. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Jeong Si-jun changed the subject.
“I saw Team Leader Seo Yi-kyung completely clinging to Kim Sa-on in the hallway today.”
“I saw that too. They seemed to get along well.”
“I also stick around Mr. Yoon Ki-hyun; do you think other people see us as getting along well too?”
At Jeong Si-jun’s question, Yoon Ki-hyun fell into thought for a moment.
In truth, while it was put nicely that he and Jeong Si-jun stuck together, they had hardly ever commuted together, aside from having lunch.
This was due to quite a few gaps in their time. Still, he didn’t want to flatly say no.
“Still, I think many people would see us as doing alright. Probably.”
He didn’t know exactly how the people at the Center viewed him and Jeong Si-jun. There were so many people working at the Center; how could he possibly keep track of all of them?
“Are you still in touch with Team Leader Seo Yi-kyung?”
Jeong Si-jun asked, stroking the back of Yoon Ki-hyun’s hand with his thumb.
“Occasionally. There was no contact for a while, but now he sends messages every now and then, mentioning Mr. Kim Sa-on.
“Like some crazy bastard testing the waters. If he’s moved on, he should just focus on that.”
Jeong Si-jun clicked his tongue and frowned Read on Read BL Novelsdeeply. visit our siteThen, he let out a deep sigh and said something quite sharp.
“The way I see it…… I think Seo Yi-kyung is intentionally flirting with you just to piss me off. That piece of shit…….”
Lately, Jeong Si-jun’s deductive skills seemed to be improving rapidly. Yoon Ki-hyun didn’t bother to answer.
He didn’t want to get caught up in a fight between Espers. Moreover, he had to focus on the wavelength that was flickering here and there, as if reflecting his own unsettled heart.
“Hmph. Even so, what can Team Leader Seo Yi-kyung even do? I’ve monopolized Mr. Yoon Ki-hyun.
After muttering that, Jeong Si-jun flipped over the hand of Yoon Ki-hyun that was holding his. The thin back of the hand where the IV had been was now white, the bruising having faded in the meantime.
Impulsively, Jeong Si-jun pressed his lips against the back of Yoon Ki-hyun’s hand. Just as the atmosphere began to turn subtle, a loud notification rang out.
Frowning at the notification that broke the mood, Jeong Si-jun signaled with his eyes for the guiding to stop for a moment.
While the speed of the wavelength slowly decreased, Jeong Si-jun checked the notification and tilted his head back, letting out a deep sigh.
“Ha…….”
Yoon Ki-hyun, who had peeked at the notification, saw the expected grade of the gate and asked softly.
“Should I stand by at the site?”
He thought it would be better to be on standby at the site just in case. He was also more worried about the guiding he had missed than he expected. However, sparks flew in Jeong Si-jun’s eyes.
“Who would that benefit?”
“Who would it benefit? Obviously, you, Team Leader…….”
“I don’t want to. No. Just wait right here in the guiding room.”
Jeong Si-jun barked that out and immediately stood up from his seat.
Was there a need to get that angry? While wondering, Yoon Ki-hyun nodded.
“I’ll be back. It’s unlikely, but if Seo Yi-kyung hits on you, write it all down in the log. I’ll check it when I get back.”
The tone was like a teacher saying they would check homework, which was absurd, but he just let it be. Yoon Ki-hyun stood by the door and checked Jeong Si-jun’s wavelength one more time.
It wasn’t as bad as he thought, but it wasn’t exactly great either.
“Can’t you stay for just three more minutes before you go?”
It was the first time Yoon Ki-hyun, who always let him go without a word, had held him back. Jeong Si-jun style="position:absolute;left:-9999px;font-size:0;">[Read on Read BL Novels]looked down at Yoon Ki-hyun and shook his head. Strangely, he felt a mischievous urge to be contrary.
“I have to go quickly. Give me three more minutes when I get back.”
“……Alright.”
Since it was an urgent call, holding onto him now probably wasn’t the right thing to do. Yoon Ki-hyun watched Jeong Si-jun’s back as he left the guiding room.
‘Why do I feel strangely anxious?’
This kind of intuition rarely failed him. Calming his anxious heart, he slowly closed the door to the guiding room.
His breath rose to the top of his throat, making it feel as if his lungs were about to burst. But Jeong Si-jun actually welcomed that painful sensation. Because in the moment he focused on the feeling of muscles throughout his body bursting and regenerating, the absence of his mother, which tormented his heart, grew faint.
“Team Leader!”
“Stop calling me, you brat.”
Perhaps worried by his movements, which were rougher than usual, the team members, including Kim Cha-min, were all shouting. It wasn’t even funny that these bastards, who couldn’t even take care of themselves, were worrying about him.
When Jeong Si-jun ripped off the arm of a demonic beast as large as a house, the beast’s opposite front paw was aiming precisely for his abdomen. The tips of the sharply honed claws looked as if they were always prepared to carve out human flesh and intestines.
‘Goddamn gate. Fuck, just how long do I have to keep doing this shit here?’
In truth, Jeong Si-jun didn’t feel much of the responsibility an Esper should have.
He enjoyed awakening as an Esper and slaughtering demonic beasts inside the gates like a madman, but everything else didn’t fit his personality.
The shitty superiors and humans who acted as if the conquest had been handed to them on a silver platter were simply disgusting. He sometimes wondered why he had to protect humans who filed complaints just because he was covered in blood, even though he had fought and risked his life inside the gate.
Despite that, the only reason he had worked at the Awakened Management Center as an Esper and trudged through gates for conquests was purely because of his mother.
To act as the youngest son working at a respectable and decent workplace, Jeong Si-jun had suppressed his fiery personality while entering and exiting gates.
However, the mother he needed to impress no longer existed in this world. When he arrived after receiving a call from the hospital saying he should be there for her final moments, his mother could barely keep her eyes open.
No matter how much he whispered that he loved her into her ear, there was no answer from his mother, whose breath was already fading. And soon, the doctor pronounced that his mother had passed away.
Just like that, one of the pillars supporting Jeong Si-jun’s crooked life vanished. Even up until the day the funeral preparations for his mother were in full swing, Jeong Si-jun could hardly perceive the fact that his mother was dead.
He had seen her close her eyes before him and clearly remembered the doctor’s pronouncement of death, yet he still felt this way. Rather than not feeling it as real, perhaps it was just too hard to accept.
He felt as if, if he went back up to the hospital room right now, his mother with her gaunt face would be sleeping peacefully in the bed. He moved his body mechanically, but throughout it all, his body wouldn’t listen, as if he were walking through thin air.
It was during that time that Yoon Ki-hyun visited the funeral hall.
Enjoying the story?Support me on Ko-fi
Comments 0
You must be logged in to comment.
No comments yet. Be the first!