By Zephyria 
“Guide Park Hae-jun, how about me?”
An Esper spun around and spoke to Hae-jun. Hae-jun looked at the Esper as if to say, ‘What are you talking about?’ and ignored him, walking past.
“Guide-nim, I’m free today.”
There was even an Esper who rudely bumped his shoulder. So what? Hae-jun ignored him again and walked past.
“Hello, Guide-nim. I’m really good, would you like to try me out?”
“Guide-nim, I’m free in the afternoon.”
“What style do you like? I can do anything.”
The flirting became more and more intense. Some Espers winked, and others pretended to pout.
By this point, Hae-jun couldn’t help but realize. Yesterday’s rumor had grown overnight and spread uncontrollably.
Hae-jun looked around. The Espers were looking at him with faces full of interest. How easy would a Guide be to approach, one who had already been labeled as having sex with an Esper after only being enlisted for a short time?
‘Okay. Just ignore them. It’ll pass anyway.’
Hae-jun, who had been contemplating whether to confront them, decided to just ignore them. There was no need to mix words with them. Rumors would eventually die down.
He took a tray and sat down at a table, where Heo Seon-woo, Jo Eun-gyu, and Kim Joo-chan, who was currently seeing Jo Eun-gyu, were already seated.
“This is my favorite.”
Today’s soup was beef seaweed soup. Jo Eun-gyu seemed to really like it, as he swallowed hard, and Kim Joo-chan watched him with a pleased expression. It was sickening.
As he lowered his head over the warm soup, Jo Eun-gyu’s glasses fogged up. Jo Eun-gyu had no choice but to take off his glasses and place them next to him.
“Eun-gyu, I told you not to do that.”
At that moment, Kim Joo-chan spoke in a stern voice. Jo Eun-gyu was startled and raised his head. His eyes, which looked like rice grains whether he wore glasses or not, widened to the size of beans.
“I told you not to take off your glasses anywhere, it’s dangerous.”
“S-Sorry.”
Jo Eun-gyu quickly put on his glasses. Meanwhile, Kim Joo-chan was shielding Jo Eun-gyu’s face with his hand, as if worried that someone might fall in love with Jo Eun-gyu’s bare face.
Shit.
Hae-jun put down his spoon. Watching the couple’s sickening display made him lose his appetite.
Couples in love were truly unsightly. They served as a great cautionary tale. Hae-jun wondered if he and Lee A-gon had been like that too. Did they look that disgusting to others?
No, he and Lee A-gon weren’t like that. Hae-jun was a rational man who maintained a cold objectivity even when he was in a relationship.
He was so level-headed that even the saying that love makes you blind didn’t apply to him. Lee A-gon was ugly, and no matter how much he was blinded by love, that was an unchanging fact.
“Hyung, aren’t you going to eat more?”
“No. I don’t feel like it.”
Hae-jun picked up his tray and stood up. Thinking of Lee A-gon made him lose his appetite for real.
“There’s a Guide who went to a secret sex room on his third day of enlistment?”
“Yeah, they say his name is Park Hae-jun.”
Hae-jun, who was loitering near the cafeteria to kill time until the others finished eating, stopped in his tracks when he heard his name.
“Who did he go in with?”
“Who was it? You know, that tall, quiet, introverted virgin.”
“Jeong Han-sol? That awkward Jeong Han-sol seduced a Guide?”
“Hard to believe, right? But a lot of people saw them coming out of the sex room.”
After a moment of silence, someone spoke in a voice filled with desire.
“……If Jeong Han-sol could seduce him, then I could probably do it too?”
Hae-jun scoffed as he listened. Ah, so that’s how it was. They thought that if the shy Jeong Han-sol could seduce him enough to have sex, then they could do it too.
“Still, Jeong Han-sol is good-looking.”
“What’s the point of being good-looking? He can’t even say a word to a Guide.”
“How did he seduce him?”
“If Jeong Han-sol did it, then we could too…….”
The Espers, who were chatting and walking towards the entrance of the cafeteria, flinched when they saw Hae-jun. Hae-jun looked at them as if they were bugs and coldly brushed past them. He still didn’t feel the need to refute. It was a rumor that would eventually die down if he didn’t respond to it.
And then came the fifth day of enlistment. Today was the first resonance rate test.
“Forcibly trying to look at the Guide’s face is prohibited. Espers who engage in such behavior will be sent to military prison. It’s the punishment that Espers fear the most, so it’s usually well-observed, so you can rest assured.”
After finishing the explanation, the researcher activated the machine. The sound of music indicating that the machine was operating normally could be heard from various places.
“Guides, please put your hands in the testing device.”
The researcher said. Hae-jun put his hand in the hole labeled “Insert.” Soon, he felt the warmth of another person on the other side of the curtain. He flinched for a moment, and the person holding his hand patted Hae-jun’s hand as if to say it was okay.
Ah, there’s an Esper over there. Hae-jun finally understood how the test was conducted.
About 3 minutes after holding hands, a number appeared on the machine. 21 percent. The researcher recorded the number on the board.
“Next.”
In that way, ten people passed. For some people, it took 5 minutes for the number to appear, and for others, it didn’t even take 1 minute. Most of them didn’t exceed 30 percent. The highest number among them was 60.
When the number 60 appeared, the Esper on the other side, whose face could not be seen, gripped Hae-jun’s hand slightly tighter. He seemed excited as well.
Through this test, Guides can receive Guiding in order of the highest number.
Jo Eun-gyu, who was about to take the test, was worried and asked if he had to forcibly kiss or do other strange things, and Kim Joo-chan reassured him and explained.
「Don’t worry. Of course, Espers used to force Guides to engage in intense petting, but after the Guides filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, that culture has disappeared now.」
Jo Eun-gyu was very relieved to hear the explanation. Hae-jun and Heo Seon-woo were also relieved.
Before becoming a Guide, they thought that if they were dragged into the military, they would have to forcibly do such things with men, but fortunately, it wasn’t that bad.
Of course, they had to hold hands or hug, but there were ways to deal with that too.
「If the resonance rate is high or the Guiding energy is strong, just being next to them is enough to stabilize them. You three Guides don’t have to worry. All three of you have strong energy.」
He added that Hae-jun’s energy was particularly strong.
So Hae-jun didn’t worry. Whether the resonance rate was high or low, he had no intention of hugging a man.
“Next.”
Fifteen Espers passed by while he was spacing out. By that point, he was getting bored. Jo Eun-gyu next to him also seemed tired and yawned.
Twenty people. Twenty-one people. And the twenty-second Esper grabbed Hae-jun’s hand. Now, Hae-jun didn’t mind strange men holding his hand.
But this 22nd Esper was a bit different. As soon as he grabbed Hae-jun’s hand, he immediately interlaced his fingers. Hae-jun, who had been yawning, flinched and tried to pull his hand away, but the researcher warned him.
‘What kind of bastard is interlacing fingers on the first meeting without any manners.’
He could understand overlapping hands or holding hands, but interlacing fingers was a bit much. Wasn’t that something that only couples did?
Hae-jun bit his lip. He felt bad, but he would just have to bear with it. It would only be 5 minutes at most anyway. He just had to endure for that time.
“Oh, um?”
At that moment, the researcher who was recording Hae-jun’s information made a strange noise. To make matters worse, the researcher took off his glasses and put them back on, and even wiped his forehead with his tie.
“Did you sleep with another man?”
When Hae-jun’s gaze was drawn to the researcher’s frantic gestures, the Esper spoke from the other side of the curtain. Hae-jun was slightly taken aback because his voice sounded just like Lee A-gon.
“Why aren’t you answering? I’m asking if you slept with another man?”
Then the curtain opened and Lee A-gon appeared. Hae-jun was so surprised that he froze with his eyes wide open.
It wasn’t a mistake. It really was Lee A-gon.
“Lee A-gon? Why are you here…….”
“Why? Of course, I followed you, hyung.”
I’m disappointed. Lee A-gon answered as if talking to himself, then chuckled. He walked towards Hae-jun.
“You can’t do this, hey.”
The researcher tried to stop him, but Lee A-gon didn’t care. He completely entered Hae-jun’s booth and grabbed Hae-jun’s chin, lifting it up. Even then, Hae-jun was just staring at Lee A-gon in a daze.
“Now answer me.”
A smiling face came closer. The kind and gentle smiling face that Hae-jun liked and loved.
But the voice that asked that was cold and fierce, as if he wanted to devour Hae-jun.
The mask of courtesy that Lee A-gon had barely maintained disappeared from his face. He grabbed Hae-jun by the collar and pulled him up. At a distance close enough for their breaths to mingle, he smiled brightly and asked again.
“Tell me which bastards you’ve been sleeping with, Park Hae-jun.”