Ji Gwan-young asked with a faint smile.
“Then am I a disaster too?”
For a moment, Choi Tae-hoon only blinked instead of answering.
Honestly, Gwan-young’s question had only been meant to lighten the mood. He’d only been able to say it because he’d been certain the answer would immediately be a firm ‘of course not.’
But now, Choi Tae-hoon’s reaction was different from what he’d expected.
“……”
“……”
A deep silence flowed between the Pair with the strongest matching rate—so absolute it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it unrivaled. In truth, at that moment, Guide Choi Tae-hoon had genuinely found himself thinking, Huh… is that what this is?
And honestly, it made sense.
Even when his younger sister used to sing praises about Ji Gwan-young nonstop, Tae-hoon had dismissed him as just some celebrity and never once properly watched one of his dramas. Even when she’d come back from a fan signing event with his name written across her back, he’d mentally erased “actor Ji Gwan-young” immediately. Until they became a Pair, that flawlessly handsome man had occupied absolutely no meaningful weight in Choi Tae-hoon’s life.
Though it already felt like the distant past now, there had definitely been a time like that.
“…..Hey. Choi Tae-hoon.”
“Born in XX, born in XX. I’ll read Ji Gwan-young-ssi’s too.”
“Changing the subject right now?”
At the moment, the Guide was genuinely thankful his Esper wasn’t a Mental-type Esper. If he had been, Tae-hoon might’ve truly avoided him recklessly no matter what happened.
Not that it wasn’t understandable.
Right now, Tae-hoon was deeply troubled.
More precisely, he was thinking, What the hell am I supposed to do now?
For twenty-eight years, Choi Tae-hoon had lived as an unwavering heterosexual. Thanks to Esper-Guide Pairs and the Name phenomenon, seeing same-sex couples wasn’t exactly rare, but he’d always thought of that world as something far removed from himself. Without even the slightest room for doubt, he liked women. His dream had been to marry someone small and lovable, enjoy newlywed life for a while, and once they were settled financially and emotionally, have exactly two kids—a son or daughter, didn’t matter—and raise them well. Though if his future wife didn’t want children, none would’ve been fine too.
He’d wanted to raise them delicately, like the most precious princess or prince in the world.
Yeah.
He really had wanted that.
Tae-hoon shot his Esper a slightly wronged look before quickly turning his head away the moment their eyes met. There was no way that impossibly perfect-looking man understood why he was agonizing like this right now.
At this very moment, the sexual identity Choi Tae-hoon had never once doubted for twenty-eight years was shaking from the roots.
If it were only temporary confusion from physically sleeping with another man, maybe he could somehow gather himself back together eventually. But more and more, he was becoming certain that wasn’t all this was.
Just like now.
The man who never lowered his guard around anyone wore relaxed smiles only in front of him, and tolerated every unpleasant thing Tae-hoon said. Choi Tae-hoon scrolled down through the screen after looking up his Pair’s birth year and read the contents aloud carefully.
“Today’s fortune. A benefactor will open the door and come to you.”
“A benefactor, my ass.”
“Open the lock on your heart and welcome them. This is a time when positive thinking is necessary.”
Ji Gwan-young was practically the textbook definition of someone with heavy, countless locks on his heart. He narrowed his eyes as though thinking about something before leaning his head close to Tae-hoon’s ear. The sudden warm breath brushing against such a sensitive spot made Tae-hoon’s shoulders jerk sharply.
“Yeah. Maybe I should try opening that lock on my heart for once.”
“……You’re still fine right now!”
“I’m actually pretty hurt right now thanks to you, Choi Tae-hoon. They said I need positive thinking.”
“Are you really the same person who spent over a month holding back because you were worried I’d get hurt?”
Completely flushed all the way to his neck, Tae-hoon tightly grabbed the firm hand slowly slipping around his waist. As though he’d been waiting for that response, Ji Gwan-young smiled.
He was handsome. And pretty. Maybe even a little cute.
Tae-hoon got that far in his thoughts before realizing his condition was seriously bad. He’d never known being a Pair could feel this dizzying and confusing. Some Pairs apparently switched partners even with decent matching rates because their personalities clashed, but for him, the issue was his sexual identity. The absurdity of it made a hollow laugh almost escape him.
A soft kiss began.
Their tongues didn’t even touch; it was merely lips brushing together, closer to ticklish skinship filled with cautiousness than anything else. Yet at that playful contact, Choi Tae-hoon unknowingly tensed all the way down to his toes and drew up his knees.
The Esper, who missed nothing when it came to his Pair’s reactions, captured every tiny tremor in his eyes as his hand slowly slid lower. The moment he began tracing along that long, lean waist, a tightly suppressed breath burst from between stubbornly sealed lips.
Now it was Ji Gwan-young who felt slightly strange.
Honestly, he hadn’t expected such a strong reaction.
Every time his hand touched him or their lips parted, Tae-hoon struggled to hold back heated breaths, and Gwan-young kept forgetting the relaxed smile he’d worn so casually. All he wanted was to bare his teeth and bite down on that reddened neck that looked faintly stained with color.
Choi Tae-hoon wasn’t the only confused one.
Ji Gwan-young too was becoming aware of the thirst rising from somewhere deep inside him.
At first, simply kissing Tae-hoon and sleeping with him had been enough. More than enough, actually. The first Guide he’d ever had in his life had shown him a proper world he’d long forgotten existed. That was why he’d intended to cherish him dearly and continue their relationship as one where they met and slept together when necessary. Maybe it sounded a little dry, but he’d believed it was the best method for both of them…
At least, that was what he’d once thought.
Ji Gwan-young’s hands became more hurried. When he rolled up Tae-hoon’s T-shirt, a body that was slightly on the lean side but firmly toned through exercise came into view. Even though those faintly trembling abs were unmistakably those of a grown man, simply looking at them sent heat rushing all the way to the top of his head.
The small brown nub, stiffened slightly with arousal, looked cute.
Gwan-young’s mouth headed there immediately.
“……Uht……. Ngh, haa……..”
Rather than crying out loudly with obscene moans, Choi Tae-hoon was the type to endure somehow, suppressing everything while shaky breaths barely slipped out.
Of course, if pushed all the way to his limits and thoroughly tormented, sounds unimaginable from that normally neat, composed face would spill free.
Ji Gwan-young’s tongue flicked out and lightly bit down on the protruding nipple with his teeth. Tae-hoon frowned and slightly shook his head, looking almost innocently spoiled.
A strangely hot fever rose between them. Red marks beginning at the nape of his neck gradually spread blatantly down to his chest.
These were direct traces of sexual desire, something absent from all their sex until now.
Every time stimulation hit him, Tae-hoon inhaled deeply to suppress it. Whenever his abs tightened inward sharply, the solid ribcage outlined beneath looked almost like the greatest display of excitement that conservative, meticulous man could possibly show.
When Gwan-young boldly shoved down the casually hanging pants, the hardened shape of his cock was clearly outlined beneath the thin drawers. Tracing his tongue along warm skin, Ji Gwan-young began rubbing against it directly over the underwear, teasing him slowly.
There had once been a time when Choi Tae-hoon suffered terrible rebound from his aversion toward their relationship. Thinking back to their first time—when he’d refused to come out of the bathroom like someone dragged to a slaughterhouse—made a small laugh rise in him.
Of course, now Tae-hoon was too busy panting with flushed cheeks while looking up at him. The sight of him slowly reaching toward Gwan-young’s still fully buttoned shirt while nervously biting his lips felt almost sly.
Only then did Ji Gwan-young realize something even his sharp mind had overlooked.
The fact that Choi Tae-hoon was initiating things like this first made him insanely happy—completely apart from the fact that he was his Guide.
But with that realization came one inevitable question.
……Is this really something to be that happy about?
And that was when it happened.
The summons bell to the Guide residence—something neither Ji Gwan-young nor Choi Tae-hoon had ever heard before—rang out.
The Guide residence bell didn’t sound for one’s paired Esper.
Which meant this was, in practical terms, their very first visitor.
The loud ringing crashed down over them like cold water. Tae-hoon jolted upright like someone caught doing something he absolutely shouldn’t have been.
“…….Ah. J-Ji Gwan-young-ssi, hold on a second. I think someone’s here.”
“Ignore it.”
“It’s probably people from The Center.”
Before he could even find the answer to the question that had surfaced in his mind, Ji Gwan-young stared blankly at the Guide now pushing him away with startled eyes. Right now, Choi Tae-hoon looked anything but normal. His ears and cheeks were bright red, and there was obvious moisture gathered around his eyes—enough to make anyone hesitate.
Crossing his legs where he sat, the Esper observed the precarious marks he’d left at the back of Tae-hoon’s neck. A sour thought naturally rose in his mind.
Some benefactor. More like a damn nuisance.
Still, Choi Tae-hoon’s fortune had been accurate.
The guests who had arrived were people Ji Gwan-young truly needed to treat with more “positive thinking” than ever before.
***
Caught between arms thick with muscle and sturdy bones that probably wouldn’t crack even if someone rolled down from the third floor, Choi Tae-hoon swallowed a helpless breath.
“Kuheong, huheooong, hyung, why do you always gooo to places like thaaat! I don’t know! I dooon’t knowww!”
“……Choi Woojin, hyung, I’m really okay.”
“You don’t even come home no matter how long we wait every weekend! Is leaving us just one room enough for you?! We don’t need a rooOOom, fuckkk, hyung, huhk, huuuuk.”
“Seungyu, stop swearing and let hyung breathe first……..”
Meanwhile, Esper Ji Gwan-young merely observed the emotional reunion with a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips. As an only child whose ties with blood relatives had long since been severed, that sort of tearful concern was unfamiliar to him. He wondered if people really worried that much even when it wasn’t something like Tae-hoon getting injured again or a large-scale terrorist incident with casualties like before.
What made it even more absurd was the younger siblings starting to tear up too while watching two fully grown adult men bawling loudly. It was complete chaos.
Ji Gwan-young recalled the names of the siblings Tae-hoon had once mentioned in passing. Second son Choi Woojin, third son Choi Seungyu.
“H-huuk, e-excuse meee. Hic.”
And the one sniffling while speaking to him now was probably the fourth sibling, Choi Jihyun—the fan of his. Though she’d just become an adult, traces of her older brother Tae-hoon’s eyes could still be seen in her face, which hadn’t fully lost its youthful look yet. Uncharacteristically, Ji Gwan-young tried to answer in the gentlest voice he could manage.
He was definitely a professional.
“Yes, Jihyun-ssi.”
…..Hic. He called me Jihyun-ssi.
When Choi Jihyun had briefly met Ji Gwan-young before, she’d been so shocked by the fact that he was her older brother’s Esper that she hadn’t even properly appreciated the face of the actor she adored. Now she sniffled tearfully, caught between worrying about the eldest brother who treasured her so dearly and the actor of her dreams standing alive right in front of her. The face she’d only ever seen on TV and movie screens was now breathing just inches away, even calling her “Jihyun-ssi” in that clear voice. Her mind and body kept reacting separately. Her heart burned with worry for her brother, yet her eyes instinctively drifted toward Ji Gwan-young anyway.
Unable to suppress those conflicted feelings between the two men, Choi Jihyun finally spoke through her tears.
“Anywayyy, everyone online already found out our oppa is a Guide, h-hic.”
“……Yeees……?”
“Hic, can you please sign something for me, h-hic, huuhuk. Hiiing, oppaaa!”
Though Choi Tae-hoon somehow felt like he was merely an unwanted bonus attached to the situation, he still didn’t avoid Choi Jihyun when she wrapped him tightly in a hug. He was extremely weak when it came to his younger sister. Technically, the reason he’d first met Ji Gwan-young at all was because Jihyun, being his fan, had asked him to get an autograph.
Once Jihyun buried herself against him, fifth sibling Mina and the youngest, Jungmin, followed immediately after. Before long, Tae-hoon was completely swallowed up among his siblings.
At first, the Esper had wondered if the siblings were joking around.
But before long, he realized those tearful reactions were completely sincere, and his gaze shifted into one of mild fascination.
