‘A combination of numbers created by machines at The Center through analysis of brainwaves and biological signals.’ That was the full extent of the meaning Ji Gwan-young attached to these two- or three-digit numbers. Looking at his Guide’s stiffened face, Gwan-young spoke as lightly as possible.
“Just ignore stuff like this. It’s meaningless.”
“……Haha. Right. You’re right.”
Anyone could tell from the hesitant reply that Tae-hoon hadn’t fully accepted his words. Gwan-young frowned slightly, even thinking once again that this damned Center was the root of all problems.
Seeing Choi Tae-hoon forcing a smile still made him uncomfortable.
Avoiding his Esper, Tae-hoon quickly turned as if trying to flee back into the kitchen in a fluster. But he couldn’t immediately take a step away.
And because of that—Ji Gwan-young ended up witnessing, in full, the rare process of Choi Tae-hoon failing to suppress his true feelings: clenching his fist tightly, staring up at the ceiling once, letting out a long sigh.
A heavy silence settled between the Pair. Tae-hoon spoke first.
“Does it really not bother you at all, Ji Gwan-young-ssi?”
“What?”
“I mean whether the matching rate rises or falls. Does it truly not affect you?”
“Why would I care about something like that?”
Sometimes people wound others unintentionally.
That was exactly what Ji Gwan-young had just done. His voice sounded genuinely unable to understand, yet it was no different from the tone that was always gentle only toward Tae-hoon. Sometimes, that made it hurt even more. Slowly, Choi Tae-hoon turned around. He saw Ji Gwan-young standing there with a faint furrow between his brows.
He truly hadn’t known before. That one day, just a single expression or way of speaking from Ji Gwan-young—a man he once only glanced at on television or movie screens—would make his heart feel like it was dropping.
He felt suffocated. Irritated, too. He hated that he was the only one obsessing over those stupid numbers that rose and fell by one or two percent whenever they pleased.
But now, staring at the man before him, Tae-hoon realized with painful clarity that Ji Gwan-young would never understand that feeling. Maybe because of that, even his hands trembled faintly. Curling them tightly into fists, Tae-hoon barely managed to part his lips.
“If the numbers fall……. the Guide gets replaced. You know that, don’t you?”
The answer he gave himself only hurt more. Ji Gwan-young stood there with an unreadable expression. His silence—saying nothing at all—felt like affirmation of Tae-hoon’s fears, which made it even more unbearable.
Why did I fall for this person?
Swallowing down the surge of emotion, Tae-hoon continued.
“You can just meet another Guide, Ji Gwan-young-ssi…… but what about me?”
“……Choi Tae-hoon.”
“What if the matching rate keeps dropping, and someday they tell me, ‘You’re no longer Ji Gwan-young-ssi’s Guide’?”
Tae-hoon’s voice started growing loud enough to echo through the official residence. His increasingly agitated words eventually cracked apart, but he couldn’t stop himself anymore.
He’d tried not to show it. He really had tried to hold it in.
Some small remnants of reason inside him were still screaming for him to stop even now.
But in the end, Choi Tae-hoon ignored them.
“Then after saying goodbye and turning away, I’ll go back to taking those damned matching tests again looking for another Esper—and no, there won’t be one. There won’t be another compatible Esper! Because for me, the only Esper was you, Ji Gwan-young!”
Too afraid to face the Esper staring at him, Tae-hoon covered his eyes with one hand. But even avoiding his gaze like this, he could still painfully feel the man in front of him watching him.
His throat burned after forcing out words that had swollen to their limit.
“Then what am I supposed to do? Since I won’t be a Guide anymore, should I just date someone normally, marry someone normally…… and live like that?”
In a low, cracked voice, Tae-hoon added quietly,
“That must be nice. Being able to do that.”
Truthfully, standing was difficult for Tae-hoon right now.
After yelling with everything he had, it felt like all the strength had drained from even the tips of his toes. But he didn’t want to stagger around trembling like an idiot, so Choi Tae-hoon stubbornly forced strength into his legs and tried to move out of his Esper’s sight.
But Ji Gwan-young moved first.
Tae-hoon sharply sucked in a breath at the immense force that suddenly yanked him forward. No—more than that overwhelming strength, what truly shocked him was the look in Gwan-young’s eyes.
“Do I look comfortable to you?”
For a moment, Choi Tae-hoon forgot how to breathe as he stared blankly at Ji Gwan-young, who had dragged him right up close. His pitch-black eyes looked like they were flashing.
Those were the eyes of a monster that had never once bared its fangs toward its Guide before.
Every hair on Tae-hoon’s body stood on end, a cold chill racing down his spine.
“It’s not enough that you toy with me in the palm of your hand.”
“…Ugh!”
The arm gripped tightly by Ji Gwan-young hurt. A faint laugh escaped him. But Tae-hoon knew very well that his Esper wasn’t amused at all right now.
How could he not know?
This was his Esper.
The one who had shared his Name.
“It’s true that right now I don’t need your guiding.”
At the low voice that fell from his lips, something lodged painfully into Tae-hoon’s heart. Ji Gwan-young was right. Right now, because he’d spent enough time in contact with Tae-hoon and hadn’t used much of his power, he didn’t need ‘Guide Choi Tae-hoon.’
As the reality settled in again, Tae-hoon unconsciously turned his head slightly away, trying to avoid his Pair.
But Ji Gwan-young wasn’t the kind of monster that would allow that.
He remembered perfectly well how his Guide had avoided his gaze all day. Ji Gwan-young narrowed his eyes after noticing the faint trembling in the weak body he held captive.
Choi Tae-hoon’s brown eyes were filled with nothing but him.
The monster opened his mouth in a voice sunk low—almost seductive, perhaps even a warning.
“But even so… do you think I could still roll around in bed with you?”
Tae-hoon shrank his shoulders slightly at the cold hand tracing the line of his face. The Name engraved across his back twisted as though alive, tightening around his breath. Heat flared through him as though every sensitive point in his body was being dragged toward Ji Gwan-young’s Name.
“Let’s try it. Now I’m curious too.”
***
There was something Choi Tae-hoon had only just realized.
Every single time Ji Gwan-young slept with me, he’d been unbelievably considerate.
Tae-hoon had lived twenty-eight years as a healthy adult man, and he’d rarely ever experienced being overpowered physically. If anything, in that primal ecosystem, he’d usually been the one holding the power—living fairly comfortably and with ease. His tall frame nearing 180 centimeters and the maturity of his late twenties had been more than enough to make him fully grown as a man.
The same had been true in sex.
Choi Tae-hoon had always dated women who, much like his own personality, gave off calm and gentle impressions. Maybe because he loved basketball, his fingers were especially long and large, and the women he held were always far smaller and softer than his own hands. Their relationships had been ones entirely led by him. Sex built slowly atop carefully accumulated emotions had always felt warm and soft, like delicate fuzz.
That was the kind of sex ‘Choi Tae-hoon,’ not ‘the Guide,’ had known.
“Ah, hnngh, ngh, ah, ahh, ah…….!”
It had never been something this rough—something like animals mating—where his entire body burned hot to the tips of his head while he gasped desperately and clung on mindlessly. Leaning against the man relentlessly thrusting deep into his body, Tae-hoon cried out incoherently.
Even though the difference in their builds wasn’t overwhelming, Tae-hoon was still lifted and pinned against the wall as easily as a doll. He was embarrassed by making noise during sex. Receiving another man’s cock while letting out shameless moans was probably something he’d never grow used to.
But right now, Tae-hoon didn’t have the mental room for rational thoughts like that. His hole, drenched and obscenely slick with gel, spread to its limit as it tightened around Gwan-young.
The sound of sweat-soaked bodies slapping wetly together echoed out. The shirt still half hanging from Tae-hoon’s arms interfered with his movements. In a way, it was practically a restraint. Unable either to wrap his arms around the man’s neck or push him away, Tae-hoon helplessly collapsed against the thick shaft plunging deep into him.
The cock driving into him from above struck directly against Choi Tae-hoon’s prostate. White flashes burst repeatedly behind his eyes. His body, which had already learned complete pleasure through sex with this man, desperately craved taking the intruder even deeper.
Unable to move his restrained arms properly, Tae-hoon instead wrapped his trembling legs tightly around Ji Gwan-young’s waist.
And Gwan-young gladly indulged in that obscenity.
At first, Tae-hoon awkwardly pulled his hips back at the unfamiliar position, moving uncertainly. But after Gwan-young generously coated his fingers in gel, spread him open, and scratched against his inner walls with his fingers, heat overtook him almost instantly.
After that, things were easy.
The moment Gwan-young grabbed those long trembling legs whose strength had already given out, pinned him tightly against the wall without room to escape, and thrust deeply inside in one motion, Tae-hoon’s neat voice broke into lewd cries.
Adjusting his grip on the thighs wrapped tightly around his waist, Ji Gwan-young kissed those dazed parted lips deeply.
The brown eyes that were usually so clear and sharp had gone hazy with pleasure, and his flushed cheeks were beautifully red.
And yet, looking like this, Tae-hoon still dared to talk about another Esper.
What should he even do with such insolence?
Deliberately, Ji Gwan-young bit lightly but firmly into Tae-hoon’s lips. Before long, those pretty lips would swell plump and red.
Whenever he thrust his hardened cock deep before slowly rolling his hips on purpose to stir around inside him, Tae-hoon clenched tightly around him and threw his head back.
The sensation of those soft wet inner walls gripping his cock tightly was overwhelmingly pleasurable no matter how many times he experienced it.
Thud, thud—
The sounds of rough piston-like thrusts mixed with Tae-hoon’s voice into an obscene rhythm. Without even trying to hide the heat thickening his own voice with arousal, Ji Gwan-young whispered low into Tae-hoon’s ear.
“Another Esper, huh. Looking like this? That’s funny.”
“Hhk, hngh, ah, h-ahh, slo-slowly……..”
“I’m the one who taught you to spread your legs and take it from behind, haaah… so which bastard are you planning to do this with next?”
Panting hard, Tae-hoon tried lifting his arms over the shirt collar awkwardly trapping them. But Ji Gwan-young wasn’t soft enough to give his Guide that kind of freedom.
Chuckling low, Ji Gwan-young thrust deeply into the spot that made Tae-hoon lose himself. The swollen tip of his cock pressed directly against the prostate over and over, and the shallow grinding thrusts afterward felt less intended to give pleasure and more like deliberate torment.
Stimulated by that relentless pressure, Tae-hoon inhaled sharply and climaxed.
White semen spilled out in pulses, splattering messily across their waistbands and exposed abs.
Overwhelmed by a pleasure intense enough to make his head ring, Ji Gwan-young tightened his grip on Tae-hoon’s sleek thighs. As Tae-hoon climaxed and twisted his hips, the inner walls clinging around his cock tightened sharply, urging his own release.
Normally, he would’ve gladly enjoyed the aftermath together with his Guide.
But today, Ji Gwan-young had already decided long ago that he intended to be cruel.
Supporting the limp, toned body weakened by orgasm, Ji Gwan-young removed the shirt hanging loosely around Tae-hoon’s arms. Tae-hoon lacked even the strength to hold onto his Esper’s neck, only shaking his head weakly while breathless little gasps escaped him every time the cock inside him moved.
“Or maybe this time you’ll be the one doing the fucking, Choi Tae-hoon? Right…….. what was it you said? You’d get married. Some other Esper, marriage…… whatever. That’s your freedom.”
It was a moment where his words and expression completely contradicted each other.
Even through eyes blurred hazily by the heat wrapping around his whole body, Tae-hoon could still clearly see the man sneering unpleasantly with his brows furrowed.
Held weakly in the arms of the Esper lifting him effortlessly, Tae-hoon struggled to force out a voice exhausted almost beyond use.
“Gwan-young-ssi, stop now.”
“Maybe you forgot because you’ve already gotten off twice just from getting fucked, Choi Tae-hoon, but I haven’t. So tighten up a little better. You’re the only one having fun here?”
At the deliberately vulgar words, Tae-hoon’s neck flushed deep red.
Just as Ji Gwan-young said, Choi Tae-hoon had climaxed twice without a single touch to his cock.
Once from being teased by fingers deliberately avoiding the most sensitive spot while tormenting him.
And once from that furious shaft thrusting deep enough for veins to bulge while hammering mercilessly against his prostate.
Stimulated entirely from behind, he’d moaned hard enough for his voice to turn ragged.
Maybe The Center’s training had taught Choi Tae-hoon how to receive another man—but the one who taught him the pleasure hidden inside that act he’d once found so repulsive was Ji Gwan-young.
Truthfully, whether ‘Ji Gwan-young’ and ‘Choi Tae-hoon’ could have sex together was never something that needed to be tested directly in the first place.
