#65
Ho-woo, who hadn’t caught that beastly expression, wiggled his fingertips in Yul’s grasp and blinked his eyes brightly.
“Did you train here too, Yul?”
“I did. I manifested early, so I stayed here from age nine to twenty.”
While guiding Ho-woo, who was looking around curiously, Yul casually scanned the training center. Though it had been ten years since he left this place, almost nothing had changed.
“Didn’t you miss your family?”
“I had no family to miss me.”
“……”
Ho-woo’s expression sank further at the nonchalant answer that flowed out naturally as if it were nothing. Seeing him clearly blaming himself for asking something unnecessary, Yul actually felt better. It was apparent that Ho-woo cared about him, considered him, and was giving him his heart.
He liked that so much that he didn’t mind becoming a weak, spoiled child in front of him.
“Even if I had family, they probably wouldn’t have missed me much.”
However, contrary to his wish for Ho-woo to worry more about him, Yul wrinkled his nose, suppressing his displeasure. An unpleasant memory surfaced. The memory of mental Espers is useful, but sometimes it can really sour one’s mood.
As memories organized like a well-arranged photo album tried to unfold in his mind, Yul forcibly folded them and pushed them into a corner.
“Still, there must have been someone who missed you, Yul.”
Yul lifted the corners of his mouth habitually at the words offered in an attempt to comfort him. A plausible smile was displayed on his face.
He knows nothing.
“It would have been nice if there were.”
While displaying a bright smile on his face, his eyes scanned Ho-woo. Eyes with a faint wariness blinked slowly and leisurely.
If he made another mistake like in his immature childhood, only a cliff remained behind. Of course, he wouldn’t fall into that abyss alone.
He lifted their joined hands and lightly kissed the back of Ho-woo’s hand. At that moment, a growl was heard from his lover’s stomach, who had skipped breakfast, and Yul’s eyes curved silently.
“Since we’re here, shall we have a meal?”
“Is that okay? I am hungry…”
His bashful appearance, with his nape turning red and eyes darting around, was quite lovable. Yul skillfully led Ho-woo to the cafeteria.
“It’s fine since you’re now a student here too, Ho-woo.”
“…School at twenty-eight years old.”
Ho-woo’s eyebrows drooped into a (八) shape as he smiled with bewilderment and awkwardness. He seemed burdened by the idea of having to attend something like school again with young kids at this point. His gaze, scanning the surroundings, briefly fell on the children who had gathered excitedly at the news of visitors.
Just because they look young doesn’t mean they’re that harmless.
Yul coldly scanned the novice Espers who were sending curious looks towards Ho-woo. When he subtly threatened them, their flinching appearances were quite a sight. Thinking that they might have rushed over to get attention if Yul wasn’t by Ho-woo’s side made his mood even worse.
“It’s a bit harsh to call it a school.”
At those words meant to make him a bit wary, Ho-woo laughed lightly as if deflating.
“But they’re just kids after all.”
Except for early manifesters, most were between fifteen and twenty years old. To Ho-woo, who didn’t feel the pressure of Espers at all, they might indeed look like just a group of young kids. Still, Yul’s eyebrows curved greatly, not pleased with Ho-woo lowering his guard too much.
“Ho-woo, I feel a bit odd saying this as an Esper myself, but…”
After arriving at the food court-style cafeteria and seating Ho-woo, he ordered the pork cutlet meal that Ho-woo liked, brought water, and only then sat down seriously across from him.
Ho-woo looked around curiously before grasping the cup. His gesture of gulping down water was hasty, as if he had been quite thirsty. Watching this for a moment, Yul continued the latter part of his interrupted sentence.
“All Espers are beasts.”
“Pffft!”
Ho-woo ended up spitting out the water he was drinking.
***
What did you say?
Ho-woo stared blankly at Yul sitting across from him. Fortunately, the water he spat out didn’t reach Yul, but water dripped from his mouth.
“Bea… No, they’re just kids.”
He was dumbfounded. How could these kids make all Espers beasts? Isn’t that metaphor too old-fashioned?
Ho-woo tried to suppress his bewilderment. Yul’s expression was so serious that it was hard to distinguish what was a joke and what was sincere.
“Normal kids don’t breathe fire, do they?”
Ho-woo briefly imagined young Espers breathing fire. Certainly, those weren’t ordinary kids. A small sigh escaped between his lips. Still, they’re kids, he thought, and as if reading Ho-woo’s mind, Oh-yul added a firm warning again.
“We probably won’t encounter many since it’s the weekend, but even if we do, don’t get too close to them.”
Drr….
The vibrating bell rang loudly. Glancing at it, he brought the food and placed it in front of Ho-woo with a familiar attitude.
Having received Yul’s full service from ordering to delivery without realizing it, Ho-woo scratched his cheek and then, noticing Yul’s empty space, asked:
“Aren’t you eating, Yul?”
“I’m tired of it.”
At the short, concise refusal, Ho-woo examined Yul’s complexion. Is he in a bad mood? To say he was in a bad mood, Yul had a faint smile on his lips.
But his eyes aren’t smiling. Is it a kind of habitual smile? When he genuinely smiled, it was incredibly pretty.
Ho-woo gauged Yul’s expression as he pushed a piece of pork cutlet into his mouth. The food couldn’t be called delicious, just edible.
“What would I do hanging out with kids? They’d probably find me uncomfortable too.”
He hadn’t thought from the start that a man in his late twenties, not even early twenties, could get along well with young kids.
After eating a few pieces, Ho-woo fiddled with the fried food that he didn’t feel like eating anymore as it had become greasy. Suddenly remembering the purpose of his visit here, he asked casually:
“By the way, am I learning self-defense…?”
Lee Ho-woo, a fitness disaster who thought he was going on a weekend morning date but was suddenly dragged to a training school and now faced with self-defense training, only clearly realized his situation after saying it out loud.
He knew all too well how flimsy the fitness of an ordinary office worker, especially an adult male who had long abandoned exercise, could be. Honestly, before worrying about the kids, he needed to take care of himself first.
The future hardship was clear before his eyes. Ho-woo put down his fork as his mouth turned bitter.
“It’s not much of a self-defense, really. Think of it as light exercise.”
“…Light exercise.”
The casual way he said it was incredibly annoying.
I shouldn’t have been so forgiving earlier.
His eyes blinked as if he was about to cry, and seeing that face, Ho-woo couldn’t bring himself to get angrier. Though now that he thinks about it, he regrets not getting angrier and wants to kick himself.
“That ‘light exercise’ isn’t by Esper standards, is it?”
“It’s been so long since I wasn’t an Esper that I’m not sure about that.”
Yul curved his eyes slightly mischievously.
Ah, his mood seems to have improved a bit. Earlier his eyes weren’t smiling, but now even his eyes held a smile.
“It’s fine if you work hard, or just improve your fitness moderately. Or you can come and go as if you’re just visiting for fun.”
“That last part sounds like it’s okay not to work hard.”
“That’s right. The record of attending here is what’s important. Well, in my personal opinion, I think it’s good to improve your fitness for later…”
“Later?”
Is he suggesting we run a marathon together later or something? To begin with, I don’t think an Esper would even pant if they ran like a normal person. Should I consider it as a date course?
Do you have a lot of physical dates when your partner is an Esper?
Anyway, there was one thing Ho-woo needed to make clear, so he opened his mouth firmly.
“I don’t like hiking.”
“Then do you like climbing other things?”
“Well, that depends on what it is.”
“I’ll remember that.”
He remembers even the smallest things. Ho-woo smiled softly as he cleared away the food he hadn’t even eaten half of. Like the Management Complex, the training center surrounded by high walls was divided into several buildings housing dormitories for young manifesters, various training facilities, and educational facilities.
Ho-woo glanced up at Yul, who was slowly walking hand in hand with him, offering to guide the way. He crossed the space unfamiliar to Ho-woo but seemingly familiar to himself. His strides were confident, and his explanations introducing the buildings were fluent.
Seeing this, Ho-woo had a small realization.
He had spent 11 years here. No wonder he said he was tired of it at the cafeteria earlier.
Yul earnestly advised Ho-woo to remember this place well since he would be coming here every weekend from now on. As Ho-woo entered the building finished with white marble, he slightly opened his mouth at the large photos hanging in the building lobby.
“Wow.”
An exclamation reflexively flowed out between his parted lips.
A much younger Yul was sending a cold gaze from the large photograph. Next to him, Ha Eun-chan, the second S-class Esper, was smiling shyly, and Joo Si-yeon, the third S-class Esper, was also wearing her characteristic mischievous and playful smile.
