It was an absurdly inconsiderate possession. At this rate, it was no different from being tossed headfirst into another world without the slightest bit of information.
Thanks to his characteristic shamelessness, he was managing to endure what amounted to a living nightmare—but difficult was still difficult.
Kidnapped twice in a row? Author-nim, how on earth is this supposed to be a coherent plot…?
A sudden thought flashed through his mind, and goosebumps prickled across his entire body.
Wait… Is this happening because I’m the villain? Is this a cycle that will keep repeating until I die?
Tragically, it was a disturbingly plausible theory. After all, villains were often used to bridge the emotional gap between the main character and the love interests.
He had played the role of a proper villain, but instead of hostility, he had adopted an affectionate attitude in hopes of winning over Ji Yeon-woo’s heart.
Just remembering Ji Yeon-woo’s face as he watched him being dragged away by the leader of Black was enough to tell how much the man had grown attached to him.
That small face had turned pale as a sheet, and he had desperately cried out his name over and over again.
So I die, Ji Yeon-woo sinks into grief, and then the love interests swoop in to console him? Is that where the story is heading now?
Lee Haru thudded his forehead against the damp floor with a soft thump.
“This can’t be happening… A bad ending no matter what I do? What kind of story logic is that…?”
Even as he clutched his hair in frustration, the injustice of it all only festered and grew. He had not even resolved the lingering resentment of the original Lee Haru yet.
Just when things had finally started settling down with the love interests, a new villain had shown up to ruin everything.
Honestly, he wanted nothing more than to burst out of the bathroom right now and rip every strand of hair from that bastard’s head until he was bald. But sadly, he lacked the power to do so.
“What are you doing? Are you into performing monologues or something?”
His sorrowful muttering echoed through the bathroom—until it was abruptly cut off by the sudden swing of the door.
Zero stood in the doorway, looking at Lee Haru as if he were some baffling lifeform, and motioned with his hand.
“Come.”
The way he summoned him, like he was calling over a dog, made Haru’s blood boil. Still, he obediently stood up, folded his hands neatly over his abdomen, and trailed after Zero without complaint.
Let’s just go along with him for now. Maybe Yu Je-hyun or Kang Min will come to rescue me.
He was not just an S-rank Guide in name only—he was a full-fledged member of the Association. That meant he was an irreplaceable asset.
Sure, three Spontaneous Dungeons had appeared in Seoul, and the love interests had been dispatched to deal with them, but Kim Hyun-seo would have notified the Association and the others about his situation as quickly as possible.
Even when he had been kidnapped by Black before, Yu Je-hyun had come for him before it was too late.
He hated that his life depended on luck again, but Lee Haru was not the type to waste energy dwelling on things he could not change.
Where even is this place?
They had thrown a rough sack over his head during the trip here, but now they were letting him see freely—so it must have been only the route that was meant to be kept secret.
From what he could tell as he followed behind Zero, the place looked like a regular house. Though it was oddly spacious, the complete absence of windows was unsettling.
“Sit down. You need to guide first.”
…Damn it.
Here it was.
Lee Haru paused beside the sofa Zero had pointed to, his posture as polite and deferential as humanly possible.
The space resembled a living room, with a four-seater sofa and a single armchair arranged around an oval coffee table.
But where there should have been windows, there was only a blank wall of pitch-black. The lighting was dim enough to give the whole place a basement-like atmosphere.
Zero stared at him, one hand gripping the hem of his shirt. Unable to withstand the weight of that gaze, Lee Haru quietly went and sat down in one of the single chairs.
Sitting on the larger sofa gave him an unshakable sense that he might get pushed down the moment he let his guard down.
Zero let out a low, derisive snort—then peeled off his shirt in one smooth motion. Even in the dark room, his upper body radiated presence, and Lee Haru’s lips parted ever so slightly in astonishment.
What the hell is with that body…?
His wide-set shoulders and precisely sculpted muscles were enough to elicit admiration, but what immediately stood out were the veins snaking across his skin.
Zero’s complexion had a warm, bronze tint—but pale blue veins sprawled across his torso like a web, vivid against his skin.
The veins continued upward, disappearing beneath the slowly pulled-off mask.
“…Ah.”
So even the villains in this novel were ridiculously good-looking.
Even in the midst of a crisis, Lee Haru’s gaze instinctively swept over Zero’s face.
His muted gray hair and eyes vaguely resembled Yu Je-hyun’s, though the details were different.
Yu Je-hyun had hair like melted silver and eyes the color of near-black steel.
Zero’s hair, on the other hand, was coarse and unkempt, with dry strands sticking out this way and that—yet somehow, it still looked stylish, not ridiculous. That was entirely thanks to his face.
Despite not smiling, his features gave off the impression of a constant smirk.
What people would call a fox-like face. The delicate, sly expression should have clashed with his muscular physique—but instead, it created a striking, balanced contrast.
Seeing Lee Haru staring blankly at him, Zero curved his slender eyes into a crescent.
“No one who has ever seen my face… has lived.”
“…What?”
Spellbound by the smile that curled in Zero’s eyes, Lee Haru had let his guard down completely—until the shock of his next words made him clench his fists tightly against his thighs.
“Just a precaution. I may have never even been given a proper name by my parents, but there could still be people out there who remember what I looked like as a kid. As you can probably tell, my face is not exactly easy to forget, is it?”
“…”
It was an obnoxious thing to say—yet undeniably true. Haru could not bring himself to deny it.
“But now you’ve seen my face. So… what do you think that means?”
What kind of nonsense was this?
It was not like he had asked to see it. The guy had stripped off his shirt like he was performing in some kind of live show, then flung away the mask that had been covering his face. And now he was acting like Haru was the one who crossed a line?
If he was going to make death threats over it, he could have at least asked first. Had he done that, Haru would have immediately shut his eyes and sworn to never look.
Though the situation was growing increasingly ominous, Haru—more aggrieved than afraid—could only bite down on his lip in silence as Zero approached with slow, deliberate steps.
As he closed the distance, he pulled off the black gloves on his hands and let them drop to the floor with a soft thud. The backs of his hands, too, were laced with thick, pulsating blue veins.
“So even an S-rank Guide doesn’t recognize this kind of Esper symptom? You really have no idea what you should be afraid of, do you?”
Though the leader of Black was speaking in plain Korean, Haru could barely make sense of the implications.
“Or maybe… you’re the type who only cares about his own life, no matter who else dies.”
Zero perched himself on the armrest of the sofa beside Haru and dragged the back of his hand down Haru’s stiffened cheek.
“…Hhk.”
The sensation slithered across his skin like a snake, and Haru instinctively shrank back, shoulders flinching. As his head slowly dipped lower, Zero—without warning—grabbed his face in a crushing grip.
His fingers sank in so hard that Haru’s lips puckered like a fish. The pressure on his jaw brought a dull, throbbing pain, and tears welled up in his eyes.
“P-please… let go…”
His jaw felt like it was going to dislocate. But even as Haru’s eyes brimmed with tears, Zero’s smile only deepened—savoring the look of him.
Haru, trembling, lifted his hand and gripped Zero’s wrist.
“Ahh…”
And in that instant, the Guiding energy that had been coiled deep inside him surged through the point of contact—instantly pulled into Zero’s body like a tide breaking free.
Zero’s eyes flickered, the lifelessness vanishing as something vivid flashed through them. His hand slipped from Haru’s face to his neck, wrapping around it in one fluid movement.
“Ghhk—!”
His throat was crushed in an instant. Haru’s face flushed a deep, violent red as air was choked off. It turned crimson, then ghostly white, before flaring red again in waves of strangled panic.
His grip on Zero’s wrist faltered. Stars exploded across his vision.
He had Guided other S-rank Espers before—but never had it felt like this, as though every single cell in his body was being crushed under a monstrous weight.
It was not just the Guiding energy being drained. It felt like Zero was siphoning the blood straight from his veins.
His eyes were open, yet the edges of his vision bled black.
“…Haa. That feels incredible. Guiding while you’re conscious really is different, isn’t it?”
While Haru was drowning in pain, Zero’s gaze glazed over, growing dazed and unfocused. His cheeks flushed like someone drunk on pleasure.
The thick, branching veins that had covered Zero’s body began to shift. The intense blue hue softened—like pigment diluted with water—fading slowly, shade by shade.
Just imagining how much pain Yeonwoo must’ve been through really makes me wanna cut this guy’s dick off