“I find you likable.”
Neither his mouth nor eyes were smiling at all. Even his tone of voice was devoid of emotion. The only thing that felt somewhat genuine was that he answered while looking directly into my eyes.
I’m not trying to criticize him, but I definitely felt that there was a flaw somewhere in this person. If it wasn’t a lie, it was strange that even when expressing approval, his words didn’t resonate at all.
“How about you?”
I had been staring intently at his face, trying to determine whether he was deliberately restraining his emotions or genuinely couldn’t feel them, when his unexpected question caught me off guard.
“Pardon?”
I had asked him first, yet I ended up being flustered like someone who never expected to be asked such a question. Fortunately, Jeong Seyeon didn’t seem like a particularly sensitive person. He scanned my face once with indifferent eyes and then slowly asked me again.
What do you think of me?
“I also, feel the same as you, Seyeon.”
Fortunately, when he asked the second time, I was able to answer smoothly. Not more, not less, exactly what I received.
Jeong Seyeon gazed at me with deepened eyes as if to verify the truthfulness of my answer, lightly brushing his chin with his thumb. Then he nodded almost imperceptibly, so slight that it wouldn’t be noticeable unless you looked carefully.
“I see.”
He didn’t seem to have any more questions for me. Even though his lips were just as dry as before, for some reason I thought he seemed somewhat satisfied with my answer.
‘Maybe he’s just not good at expressing himself.’
Though I couldn’t know much about Jeong Seyeon from just this one meeting, he didn’t seem like a person with the kind of personality my brother would worry about. At least, not so far.
“Since we both like each other, shall we proceed with the contract?”
Since it was a temporary guide contract, termination was possible at any time. This was what Yang Garam had been worried about. With a temporary guide contract, you could cancel it right there on the spot due to a simple change of mind, even right after signing it. Of course, the guide couldn’t cancel the contract, only the Esper could.
‘If problems arise, I’ll terminate the contract then.’
At that time, I trusted too much in a contract that was nothing more than a piece of paper. I quickly completed the signing without knowing what consequences that shallow thinking would bring in the future.
The government official quickly disappeared as if his role was over once the contract between us was completed. It was an even faster exit than with Yang Garam.
“I look forward to working with you, Seyeon.”
Alone in the room with just the two of us, I spoke with sincerity, not just out of courtesy.
“I look forward to working with you as well.”
Jeong Seyeon responded politely to my words. I started to want to mention his speech pattern that had been subtly bothering me all along.
“You can speak comfortably with me. You’re older than I am.”
“It’s fine. This is comfortable for me.”
Despite the five-year age difference, Jeong Seyeon maintained formality by consistently using polite speech with me. With the person himself being so rigid, I couldn’t insist on informal speech anymore, so I just smiled awkwardly.
Yang Garam’s case was unusual; normally, you can’t be chummy with all guides from the first meeting. I understood this intellectually, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
Since we’re acquainted now, it would be nice to get closer.
“Then, can I call you hyung?”
Feeling like I should change the way I addressed him if he wouldn’t lower his speech, I brought out my last resort. It would look quite ridiculous to others if a 22-year-old called someone only five years older “Mr. Jeong Seyeon.”
“Go ahead.”
Permission was granted, but it felt like I was receiving it while bowing deeply.
A brief silence fell between us. Jeong Seyeon was taciturn, and I found this stillness uncomfortable.
“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll be going now.”
“Wait a moment, I have something to say.”
Feeling reluctant to part ways like this, I blurted out anything. I didn’t know why I was feeling this reluctance, but it was clear that the guiding he had given me without even knowing my face had a significant effect on me.
He looked at me as he settled back into the sofa after having been about to get up, and I opened my mouth after swallowing once.
“Earlier, thank you for the guiding. Actually, I had to use my abilities before that, so I wasn’t in a good state.”
Jeong Seyeon’s expression changed subtly.
“After receiving your guiding, hyung, I feel much better now.”
I didn’t specifically mention having nightmares, but it wasn’t a lie either.
Even though I sometimes woke up from nightmares while sleeping with my brother at night, it was never this severe. My brother, being a guide himself, probably provided me with guiding unconsciously when I was suffering. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense that I would suffer from such terrible nightmares just from a brief nap.
‘Or it could be related to using my abilities.’
It was true that overloading had become a trauma for me. And since I had used my abilities before meeting Jeong Seyeon, that would have had an influence too. In the end, I received guiding from Jeong Seyeon and fortunately didn’t choose to lose myself in that terrible nightmare, but it would be problematic if I continued having such nightmares.
“…It was nothing.”
While I was momentarily lost in thought, Jeong Seyeon’s answer came through.
It was unexpected; I thought he would give a formal response that he was just doing his job. Though his face remained the same throughout, I thought on my own that he didn’t seem to dislike my goodwill.
“…”
But the problem was that I had nothing more to say. Sensing the situation, I could just stand up like before, say I needed to leave, and go, but unlike before, he didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving.
“Hyung, if you have something urgent, you can go.”
“There’s nothing urgent.”
After a long time passed, unable to bear the awkwardness, I spoke first. Jeong Seyeon crossed one leg and folded his arms. Looking at his gesture, which seemed to be waiting for me to ask questions, I felt an unspoken pressure.
“Hyung, you look really fit. Do you work out separately?”
Jeong Seyeon was dressed in a suit, but his physique was different from the average person’s. It was the kind of body that would be difficult to achieve without consistent exercise.
‘Come to think of it, when Yang Garam hugged me, his body also felt as solid as a rock.’
Even though guides don’t receive specialized training like Espers, they still need to go on deployments with Espers, so the state mandates that they learn at least basic self-defense. However, both Yang Garam and Jeong Seyeon had bodies that far exceeded that level.
“I do a bit as a hobby.”
This isn’t the kind of body that’s made with just a hobby?
I felt a bit skeptical, but I had no intention of pressing him on his answer.
After that, my one-sided questions continued, and Jeong Seyeon answered each one without showing any signs of annoyance. But a conversation carried by only one side couldn’t last long, and I felt the limitations.
I glanced at the clock. It felt like we’d talked a lot, but not even an hour had passed since I met him. I rolled my eyes back to the front, and my gaze met Jeong Seyeon’s, who had been continuously staring at me.
“…”
“Hyung, what’s your ideal type?”
I felt caught off guard.
I should have first asked if he had a girlfriend.
“Someone neat, calm, honest. And someone with a mole near their eyes.”
I was about to part my lips to change the question, but Jeong Seyeon started speaking faster. His slow but forceful voice was a bit different from what I had heard until now. A deep bass that resonated heavily reached my ears, making me think that this was the first time his voice had been this low.
“You seem like that type of person.”
The gaze directed at me also deepened as much as his voice. From the outside, there might not have been any visible change, so it could have been my imagination, but I was willing to bet everything that I wasn’t seeing things wrong. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for me to suddenly become so tense from his gaze, which had been perfectly normal until just now.
“I’ll be going now.”
Leaving me frozen, he rose from his seat. Before I could say anything, he disappeared as if he had never been there, and I stared blankly at his empty seat for a while before unconsciously touching the corner of my eye.
“It can’t be.”
I murmured, touching the small mole located just below the corner of my eye, which wouldn’t be noticeable unless you looked at my eyes carefully.
Suddenly, I felt pathetic for behaving this way.
“Hah, why am I worrying about this?”
I also felt a sense of self-doubt, wondering if this was why I had been perpetually in one-sided love. How much could someone I just met today be aware of me, yet here I was, attaching meaning to each and every word of his.
“Ah, just one more left now.”
I murmured, looking up at the ceiling in the room where I was left alone.
The third, and now the last remaining guide.
‘This is really draining.’
Or is it because they’re guides?
I stretched my stiff body and got up from my seat. Having not eaten anything since having late breakfast with my brother, a sudden hunger hit me.
“I wonder if Jeonghyun has had dinner? Let’s see, where’s my phone…?”
Zzzing— Zzzing—
As I was looking around for my phone, a vibrating sound rang out from somewhere, as if it had been waiting for me. It was an exquisite timing, almost as if it was sending me a signal, knowing that I was looking for it.
‘I must have left it on the bed.’
The sheets, which hadn’t been tidied up because I had hurriedly gotten out of bed because of Jeong Seyeon, were all disheveled, and the phone was buried among them. If the phone hadn’t rung first, I might have had a hard time finding it.
Thinking that the only person who would call at this hour was Woo Jeonghyun, I was about to press the call button mindlessly when I momentarily paused at the unexpected name displayed on the screen.
[Jo Hail]
His role had ended with recommending temporary guides to me and coordinating schedules to allow me to contract with the guides. In other words, there was no reason for him to contact me first. Despite feeling puzzled, I pressed the call button on my phone.
—Hello? Mr. Woo Jeongjae?
“Yes, please speak.”
—I’ve just been notified that Mr. Do Wonjin has had an accident and been hospitalized. He’s asking if you can still proceed with the contract, so what would you like to do?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
