# Chapter 53
Ko Eungyo unconsciously stole glances at Lee Seungwoo’s wet hair clinging to his pale cheeks. There was something about his face that strangely stirred one’s heart.
Instead of taking off his upper clothes and washing his entire body like Lee Seungwoo, he washed his feet and hands before meticulously wiping off the sand covering his face. Each time his hands entered the lake water, his skin appeared blue. Fascinated by this, he kept moving his hands in the water when Lee Seungwoo approached him.
“Are you going to swim?”
“No.”
This mysterious underwater cave was remarkably quiet. Ko Eungyo answered Lee Seungwoo with a pleasant smile and dipped his hand deeper into the lake.
The lake water barely rippled. Only when Lee Seungwoo moved did waves form.
All his life, he had wanted to visit a gate that looked just like a cave. In fact, there wasn’t a single gate that wasn’t on his bucket list. He wanted to clear every gate on Earth.
Sometimes he had wondered how nice it would have been if he had manifested as an esper rather than a guide.
“Did you know that hundreds of underwater caves in Mexico form a single circle?”
“Are you talking about actual caves, not gates?”
“Yes.”
Ko Eungyo added in a murmur.
“The underwater caves in Mexico are essentially like hundreds of holes in a single rock. Perhaps these gates too are somehow thousands, tens of thousands connected in a single circle.”
“…”
“If that’s the case, then we’re essentially experiencing different worlds through the gates.”
“I see.”
A different world… Lee Seungwoo murmured, as if mulling over Ko Eungyo’s words.
“That’s why I’ve liked gates since long ago. I’ve always… yearned for a new world.”
“…”
The reason he wanted to leave for a new world had always been the same. Because his life was painful and tormenting. Because life for living beings was always designed to avoid pain.
When he was in gates, he felt like he had escaped that tedious reality, if only for a moment. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel pain in gates, but he liked the freedom that those special environments provided. And he gradually became addicted to that freedom.
“What about you, Seungwoo?”
“…”
“Why did you become a field esper?”
There was a splashing sound. It was the sound of Lee Seungwoo moving.
He sensed Lee Seungwoo drawing closer to him. But instead of looking at him, he quietly gazed at the white legs and shadows moving fluidly in the lake water.
Instead of answering Ko Eungyo’s question, Lee Seungwoo brought up something completely different.
“Professor…”
“…”
“Sometimes you seem like a different person.”
Because the content was so unexpected, Ko Eungwoo froze in shock, still in the position of washing his arm in the lake water.
Lee Seungwoo’s low, sunken voice clearly cut through the air.
“The Professor I knew before and how you are now feels so incongruous that at times like this, I wonder if you’re really a different person…”
“…”
“That’s what I think.”
He didn’t know how to respond. Should he deny it, or should he ask what he meant? Perhaps he should laugh and ask why he wasn’t answering his question and saying strange things instead.
Or maybe…
Maybe he should say that he’s not really Ko Eungyo… but someone else.
Ko Eungyo dared not lift his head and stared intently at the lake water below. He wondered how Lee Seungwoo would react if he found out he wasn’t the real Ko Eungyo.
Would he get angry?
That was probably the most likely possibility. No one likes being deceived.
“It’s strange.”
Surprisingly, there was a hint of laughter in Lee Seungwoo’s voice.
“Perhaps I just want to believe that.”
At those words, Ko Eungyo suddenly raised his head. And glanced obliquely to his side. He could see Lee Seungwoo’s face, wet from the water. He felt a strong impulse to just blurt out the secret he was harboring.
It was a disorder he had never experienced in his entire life.
Lee Seungwoo was sitting closer to him than he thought. The terrain of the gate seemed unusual, making the echo of voices different from outside. It was strange how, despite being so close, voices sounded as if they were coming from far away.
Ko Eungyo exhaled through his lips with a “hoo.” He was somewhat relieved to see that there was no particular expression on his face reflected in the lake water. At the same time, it was amusing. This face wasn’t “his” after all.
By now, he had completely adapted to Ko Eungyo’s body, but at the same time, he hadn’t forgotten that he wasn’t Ko Eungyo. Naturally, he was inevitably vulnerable to such sharp questions.
He pulled his hand out of the lake water. And shaking off the wetness, he said.
“That’s not particularly nice to hear. It means you didn’t like who I was before.”
“…Yes.”
Lee Seungwoo didn’t deny it. Yet, a gentle hand lightly wiped away the water trickling down Ko Eungyo’s chin and then fell away.
His hand felt lukewarm yet cold, and smelled of damp earth. In that moment, Ko Eungyo became unbearably curious about what expression Lee Seungwoo was making. When he turned his head to stare directly at Lee Seungwoo, Lee Seungwoo parted his lips as if about to add something, but then closed them. That expression, seemingly suspicious yet conveying a sense of complete uncertainty.
Suddenly, he became curious about what kind of person the Ko Eungyo that Lee Seungwoo knew was.
“Why didn’t you like me?”
“Well…”
It was a response that implied quite a lot. Ko Eungyo discerned a gentle reproach in Lee Seungwoo’s answer, suggesting that he shouldn’t pretend not to know.
Ko Eungyo waited for Lee Seungwoo to add something more. But what Lee Seungwoo said was completely different.
“Would you guide me?”
When he made an incredulous face, Lee Seungwoo grinned mischievously. It was a smile he hadn’t thought would suit Lee Seungwoo.
Nevertheless, it suited him surprisingly well. It was like catching a glimpse of a handsome boy’s adolescence with a well-groomed impression.
He hadn’t even agreed to the request for guiding, yet Lee Seungwoo bent his waist towards him as if it were a given.
I should have trained this guy’s habits from the beginning.
He immediately raised his hand to stop Lee Seungwoo. And with a displeased face, he said.
“Don’t engage in skinship carelessly while guiding.”
“Yes.”
Lee Seungwoo answered very obediently and immediately. Ko Eungyo felt an indescribably strange emotion from the way Lee Seungwoo firmly believed that he would guide him, even though he hadn’t even said he would.
It reminded him of how, at first, when he tried to guide him, Lee Seungwoo had acted as if he couldn’t believe it.
To think he believed a guide wouldn’t guide him. From now on, he wouldn’t break the trust with Lee Seungwoo. He would maintain their relationship solidly, even if it was just business. Lee Seungwoo was an esper who deserved that. In fact, there wasn’t an esper in the world who should be rejected when they wanted to receive guiding.
If it weren’t for compassion, he might not have formed such a relationship with Lee Seungwoo, but ultimately, he didn’t regret taking his hand. It wasn’t just in a metaphorical sense. In reality, Ko Eungyo was about to take Lee Seungwoo’s hand. But instead of taking Ko Eungyo’s hand, Lee Seungwoo grabbed his extended wrist and pulled Ko Eungyo towards himself.
His body tilted.
And at that moment, that is, right at the moment before guiding had even begun, Lee Seungwoo turned his head and pressed his lips against Ko Eungyo’s, rubbing them together.
Smooch, smooch.
An obscene sound was heard. Like sliding, he attempted kisses several times. Ko Eungyo was so taken aback that he blankly watched what Lee Seungwoo was doing. A slight heat could be felt from Lee Seungwoo’s lips. A moist and soft tongue meticulously licked Ko Eungyo’s lips and the gap between them.
Ko Eungyo refused to open his mouth until the end and pushed Lee Seungwoo away. Lee Seungwoo then obediently removed his lips.
He asked.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Kissing you.”
I don’t know why he’s answering so confidently as if he did something right. Ko Eungyo frowned and glared at Lee Seungwoo.
“What did I just warn you about?”
“Don’t engage in skinship carelessly while guiding.”
“So what are you doing now?”
Lee Seungwoo’s eyes narrowed pleasantly.
“We’re not guiding yet.”
The feeling of disbelief changed in an instant. With a “huh,” he let out an exclamation and found himself laughing without realizing it.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
