Kim Sol had gotten busier. Well, it would be more accurate to say that he had simply returned to his normal, hectic life. Now that Lim Haeyul could guide stably on his own, Kim Sol had done everything he needed to do.
S-Rank Guides were just as rare as Espers. Fortunately, their country boasted two S-Rank Guides, including Kim Sol himself, but Guides in general were still in critically short supply.
Because of that, Kim Sol was constantly swamped with work. Even though gates didn’t open very frequently in their country, and even when they did, the difficulty wasn’t considered particularly high, lower-ranked Guides would be worn out after just guiding one or two Espers. High-ranked Guides had no choice but to run themselves ragged to cover the shortage.
Of course, it wasn’t as if the lower-ranked Guides weren’t doing their best. They too poured their hearts into stabilizing the Espers.
“……”
Well, except for him.
Though Lim Haeyul was now a full-fledged Guide and could perform guiding properly, the only thing he was assigned to do was stay quietly inside Cha Jae-woo’s mansion. His sole responsibility was to guide Cha Jae-woo, and after doing so, he would be left completely drained of mana. Given that, it couldn’t be helped. Still, watching the frantic Kim Sol often made him feel a pang of guilt.
“Um… So… Cha Jae-woo-ssi, when are you planning to head back to the gate?”
“……”
“Oh! Please don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying that because it looks like you’re just lazing around or anything!”
Honestly, claiming it was purely innocent would’ve been a lie. Lim Haeyul genuinely couldn’t understand why Cha Jae-woo wasn’t going out to the gates. Of course, his energy waves were still unstable. But they had definitely improved compared to before. Surely, he could at least make a few appearances at the gates now?
It was said that Cha Jae-woo alone could handle the work of multiple Espers combined. In that case, shouldn’t he step up from time to time instead of just lazing around at home? It only seemed right, at least morally speaking.
“I mean, I’m not trying to pressure you or anything, but… I am here, right? And everyone else seems incredibly busy. If you could just help out once in a while…”
“Did Jang Gijun contact you?”
Without realizing it, Lim Haeyul started rambling recklessly toward the silent Cha Jae-woo, as if he had grown a sudden, misplaced confidence. It wasn’t until he heard Cha Jae-woo’s voice—sharp as a blade—that he realized what he was doing.
“Y-Yes?”
The question itself was simple enough: Had the Guide Association President contacted him? Yet for some reason, Lim Haeyul felt a chilling surge of murderous intent at that moment.
He rolled his eyes awkwardly and shook his head belatedly. After all, Jang Gijun hadn’t reached out even once after tossing him into Cha Jae-woo’s mansion.
“No?”
“N-No, he hasn’t…”
“Then why are you parroting the same crap the Association’s been spouting?”
Ah, so even the Association had been pressuring Cha Jae-woo about this. That explained why he’d asked so suddenly. Relieved to have at least understood that part, Lim Haeyul nodded instinctively.
But the tension in the air thickened, and the back of his neck grew stiff. Cha Jae-woo’s energy waves had abruptly turned savage, tightening around Lim Haeyul like an invisible vice. Logically, he knew Cha Jae-woo couldn’t attack him with just his energy waves—but it still felt suffocating, as if he were under assault.
He immediately regretted bringing it up. He had no right to lecture someone like Cha Jae-woo, yet he’d impulsively spoken out of guilt over how hard Kim Sol was working. And there was another reason, too—he had learned what the other Guides were saying about him.
Kim Sol had tried to shield him from hearing it, but it wasn’t something that could be completely hidden. At first, Kim Sol had personally picked Lim Haeyul up from and dropped him off at the training center to avoid unwanted exposure. But after some time, probably thinking it would be fine by now, Kim Sol had allowed him to commute alone.
Naturally, Lim Haeyul overheard the gossip among the Guides.
They claimed that he was seducing Cha Jae-woo, using their improbably high matching rate as an excuse. They said he had hit the jackpot, as if it were some kind of lottery win.
It was absolutely absurd.
But that wasn’t all. They even whispered that he would soon become obsessed with Cha Jae-woo, tormenting him like some inevitable tragedy. They sounded like complete lunatics. It was exactly as the saying went: You only see what you want to see.
Lately, they had even started spreading rumors that Lim Haeyul had finally seduced Cha Jae-woo and was now happily frolicking around with him. Their logic was simple: they were busy guiding constantly, while he, by contrast, had nothing to do but lounge around Cha Jae-woo’s mansion—how unfair.
But it wasn’t just the Guides. The public and the media alike parroted the same nonsense. Even after Lim Haeyul had become Cha Jae-woo’s exclusive Guide, Cha Jae-woo had yet to participate in any gate subjugations, and that was the crux of their outrage.
An Esper, whose duty was to enter gates and save people, was nowhere to be seen—even after securing a Guide with a remarkably high matching rate, and even after more than a month had passed.
Naturally, dissatisfaction began to bubble up among those who had recently been identified as Guides through a nationwide examination, undertaken in the desperate search for someone compatible with Cha Jae-woo. These new Guides, who were suddenly burdened with guiding Espers, also began voicing their frustrations.
At first, the resentment was directed at Cha Jae-woo for refusing to enter the gates. But before long, and absurdly enough, that resentment shifted to Lim Haeyul.
“A Guide who can’t even stabilize his Esper after more than a month. Shouldn’t he at least be out there helping other Espers instead?” Such criticisms echoed endlessly.
‘If I could go, I would.’
Lim Haeyul genuinely wished he could help. But after guiding Cha Jae-woo, his mana would be completely depleted in under a minute. With no mana left, guiding any other Esper was simply impossible.
Given that, it was only natural for him to hope—just once—that Cha Jae-woo would step up and join a gate subjugation. Of course, the moment he saw the way Cha Jae-woo’s face twisted in response, he bitterly regretted ever voicing the thought aloud.
“…I’ll begin guiding now.”
Hurriedly, Lim Haeyul changed the subject and reached out his hand. Continuing the conversation would only make things worse for him.
Cha Jae-woo’s gaze swept over him from head to toe. Although Cha Jae-woo hadn’t applied anything to his lips, the way they moved slightly, flushed with a faint red hue, filled him with unease. Because no words that ever emerged from that beautiful mouth were anything remotely kind.
“Ghkk…!”
Yet, contrary to his expectations, Cha Jae-woo said nothing. Instead, he unleashed his energy wave—as if he had been holding it back all along—allowing it to crash down without restraint.
The surge was so aggressive it made Lim Haeyul’s body instinctively curl inward. This time, he was convinced: Cha Jae-woo was definitely attacking him with his energy wave.
The savage force pressed against him with such intensity that his hunched body refused to straighten. It was no wonder it felt like an assault.
But Cha Jae-woo didn’t actually harm him. Lim Haeyul could feel the ferocity of the wave, but it wasn’t directed to inflict damage.
Cha Jae-woo was simply showing him. Showing that beneath his composed exterior, his insides were utterly rotten.
“Ah, ngh, I-I’m sorry…!”
It was also a clear message: The guiding Lim Haeyul had been providing so far had done nothing more than keep him from deteriorating further; it had produced no meaningful healing.
Rather than explaining it with a hundred words, Cha Jae-woo had decided to make him feel it directly. Watching Lim Haeyul shrink further and collapse to the floor, Cha Jae-woo finally reined in his energy wave.
“Hahh, khhk!”
Only then was Lim Haeyul freed from the crushing pressure and able to breathe properly again.
His mind swirled in a haze. How deeply corroded must Cha Jae-woo’s spirit be, for him to project an energy wave so potent—so destructive—that most would neither see nor sense?
“You’re pitying the wrong person.”
Even though the wave had calmed back to its usual subdued state, Lim Haeyul still couldn’t rise from where he was kneeling. He could only sit there and listen to Cha Jae-woo’s voice.
“If you’re going to pity someone, pity me. Don’t you think?”
“……”
“A man who’s so broken he has no choice but to cling to something as pathetic as this so-called guiding—and you pity someone else?”
Cha Jae-woo’s lips curled into a crooked, bitter smile.
Lim Haeyul couldn’t say a word. There was nothing to refute. His heart tightened painfully in his chest. Even as Cha Jae-woo sneered at him, Lim Haeyul couldn’t shake the sadness that welled up inside him.
‘So this… this is the emotional bond Kim Sol warned about—the one formed through mana exchange…’
He understood it now, but understanding didn’t make the emotions any less overwhelming.
“…I’ll begin guiding now.”
Forcing himself upright, Lim Haeyul once again stretched his hand toward Cha Jae-woo. Fortunately, Cha Jae-woo seemed to have no interest in continuing the conversation and silently extended his hand as well.
Lim Haeyul tightly shut his eyes and focused all his attention.
‘How can I make him feel even a little more at ease?’
The ugly words and gossip that had been swirling in his mind moments ago vanished without a trace. Now, there was only one thought left:
‘How can I soothe this dreadful, seething wave?’
Kim Sol’s warnings—Don’t pity him. Don’t let your heart get involved—had already been swept far, far away. And there was no helping it.
Mi pobre bebé…