I Possessed a Promiscuous Guide 58

“These boxes have been bothering me for a while now…”

Yu Je-hyun came to a halt in front of a stack of massive shipping containers piled up like building blocks. Once a hub of constant activity, the area now exuded nothing but a bleak, eerie stillness.

He had already inspected this place once before, heightening his senses to the maximum to check if there were any sounds coming from within. Aside from the faint rustling of insects, he had detected nothing suspicious and moved on.

But just like when he had stepped into Black’s hideout, an inexplicable sense of unease had drawn his steps back here.

Back then, too, he had felt an odd certainty that he had to take the path to the right at a fork in the road. This moment felt the same.

Even though he had clearly sensed something off about this place earlier, he had only given it a perfunctory scan before walking away.

If it had really seemed suspicious, he should have opened every single container, one by one.

That was the reason Yu Je-hyun had returned. Instead of relying solely on his hearing, he chose to investigate with his own hands, checking each container himself.

Most of them were empty inside. A few held decaying, unidentifiable substances.

A rank stench assaulted his nose, making him grimace as he moved on to the next container.

“What the hell? Why won’t this one open?”

That was when he found a container that stood out. Tucked away in a secluded corner, it was one he had made a mental note to check more thoroughly.

The others had opened easily, regardless of whether they had locks. Just a bit of pressure was enough.

But the container now in front of him pushed back with a strange resistance—one he could clearly feel in the palm of his hand.

Yu Je-hyun’s pupils trembled slightly. It meant there was a mechanism installed strong enough to withstand his force.

Worried that using too much strength might harm someone inside, he carefully melted a portion of the container’s wall—just enough to squeeze himself through.

As the interior slowly came into view, Yu Je-hyun clenched his fists. Unlike the others he had casually passed by, this one revealed an entirely different sight.

It was decorated like the inside of someone’s home. Instead of the raw tang of the seaside, the air carried a subtle, clean scent.

He stepped into what looked to be a living room. The space was wide, but sparsely furnished—eerily empty.

His dark gray eyes scanned the interior with urgency. When he noticed an unnatural trace near the kitchen, he moved toward it without a second’s hesitation. Something had been left in the corner.

“Lee Haru…”

The moment he spotted the empty can of ham and a water bottle, Lee Haru’s face inexplicably surfaced in his mind.

The can crumpled like paper in his grasp.

The crushed can, now a quarter its original size, clattered to the floor. Without pause, Yu Je-hyun began ransacking every inch of the container.

“Lee Haru! Where are you?!”

He passed through a room containing nothing but a solitary chair and finally found one with a bed. The sight of the blanket—crumpled as if someone had just been lying there—made Yu Je-hyun’s lips tremble.

He seized the blanket and took a deep breath. Faintly, Lee Haru’s scent still lingered.

But even the adjoining bathroom was empty. As he approached the last remaining room, a wave of dread surged through him, his heart pounding like it was about to burst.

With the pounding in his temples echoing louder than ever, Yu Je-hyun opened the final door. Its doorknob had already been broken.

Creak—the door opened with a groan, revealing something that had no business being there.

“A Gate? Why is there a Gate here…?”

And then he saw it—a small scrap of cloth lying on the floor before the Gate. As if struck down by disbelief, his large frame collapsed to the ground.

The bloodstained fabric matched the color and material of the pants Lee Haru had been wearing before he was taken.

His trembling eyes shifted back and forth between the piece of dried-blood-streaked cloth and the Gate, which was already starting to fade.

***

“What are you saying? That Guide Lee Haru entered the Gate?”

“I wish I were wrong.”

Confronted with a truth too cruel to accept, Yu Je-hyun let out a bitter, hollow laugh—like a man driven mad.

His eyes were devoid of mirth, and only a faint, trembling laugh escaped his lips. Watching him, Kang Min exhaled deeply. His fingertips had grown cold.

It was just a matter of crossing a single Gate, but the world inside a dungeon was completely alien.

It could be a volcanic region, with molten lava churning beneath one’s feet—or a polar wasteland where even a breath of air would freeze mid-exhale.

The worst-case scenario was a field infested with poisonous monsters. In such places, even a single breath could seal the fate of a non-Esper. Just inhaling could be fatal.

If Yu Je-hyun’s instincts were correct—if Lee Haru had truly entered that dungeon—then there was no certainty he was still alive.

To make matters worse, the Gate he was believed to have entered had already vanished. Lee Haru had disappeared from this world along with the dungeon—just like that.

“…I could not even get in. It was already disappearing. I could not even reach a hand through.”

The instant Yu Je-hyun sensed that Lee Haru had entered the Gate, he had hurled himself at it without hesitation.

But the Gate, already collapsing, had turned into nothing more than a dark outline.

The moment his body slammed against empty ground instead of crossing over, the despair he had felt was so vivid, he could hardly bear to recall it now.

“No… that cannot be it, right? I am just imagining things, right? Lee Haru would never go into a dungeon on his own. Not unless he was… trying to kill himself…”

Yu Je-hyun’s voice quivered as he spoke, then suddenly cut off. His gaze met Kang Min’s in midair.

Someone who had attempted suicide once was far more likely to attempt it again.

In that sense, even if Lee Haru had tried again… it would not have been surprising.

He was already considered a high-risk case.

Craaaack—

Every piece of metal surrounding Yu Je-hyun crumpled inward. The containers shuddered violently, as though a massive earthquake had struck.

Espers who had been inside, combing the area for any remaining traces, flinched and hurried outside in alarm.

“I did this… I was the one who made him that way… I could not protect him, and I was so terrified that I actually thought it might be better if he just died…”

Words spilled from his lips in a chaotic rush, each one wrapping tighter around his throat. His fingernails dug so deeply into his palms that blood streamed down his hands, yet Yu Je-hyun’s pupils remained dilated and unfocused, locked in place.

Lee Haru might be dead.

Those wide, glimmering eyes that used to look up at him… those cheeks puffed out with food whenever he ate something he loved… even those occasional sullen, pouty glares—he might never see them again. The thought alone left him gasping for breath.

Thud—

“Pull yourself together. We still have not caught Black’s leader. And for all we know, Guide Lee Haru might not have even entered that dungeon. It is still just a theory.”

Kang Min’s fist landed squarely on Yu Je-hyun’s face. His own eyes, too, were tinged red with barely restrained emotion.

It was a feeling he had never experienced before.

When he first heard that Lee Haru had attempted suicide, Kang Min had merely thought, So it finally happened, and dismissed it as inevitable.

That was how fragile Lee Haru had always seemed. He would attach special meaning to the smallest gestures of courtesy, and when things did not go the way he hoped, he would visibly wilt with disappointment.

Kang Min had never made any promises to him. And yet Haru would trail after him, muttering vague, cryptic things, his eyes full of hurt.

But then, Haru changed—completely and without warning. At first, the change had felt unfamiliar, even disconcerting. But as time went on, Kang Min found himself liking the new Haru.

The meals Haru cooked carried a sincerity that left a quiet yet undeniable impression on Kang Min’s tightly closed heart.

Unlike before, Haru no longer demanded excessive physical touch during Guiding. It was only then that Kang Min truly realized how compelling his Guiding was—gentle, powerful, and unlike anything else.

Kang Min had wanted to protect him too.

That strange affection he had felt whenever he looked at Ji Yeon-woo—he now understood it had been rooted in his feelings for Haru all along.

He could not forget those eyes—so brilliantly bright, always glowing.

“That is why we cannot waste another second. If we cannot find Guide Lee Haru right away, then we go after Black’s leader. That bastard must have been the last one to see him.”

Kang Min seized Yu Je-hyun by the collar, yanking him forward. The unfocused, lifeless look in Yu Je-hyun’s eyes suddenly sharpened, a strange glint flashing across them.

Even Kang Min felt a chill crawl down his spine.

There was something deadly in that gaze—an intensity so condensed, so lethal, that it practically radiated malice.

“…Right. That bastard. The one behind everything.”

Yu Je-hyun had planned to take his time—to open up slowly, so that Lee Haru would not get scared and run away.

Even though he had stolen that kiss without permission, he had wanted to explain, one step at a time, why he had acted the way he did.

Author: Levia