What Kind of Relationship (5)
Shin Woo-jun, who had been rampaging at the Central Terminal near the Central Center, was in a good mood due to an unexpected harvest. He had spotted Chae Do-min, whom everyone was looking for, at the Central Terminal of all places. Do-min still seemed as unperturbed as when Woo-jun first saw him.
Even though he couldn’t take the bus he was waiting for, his expression didn’t change at all. When they worked together at the Central Center, he was always calm and quiet. Woo-jun had never seen Do-min complain or grumble. That’s why, while it was irritating, it also made him trustworthy.
Unlike others who would gossip no matter what he did, Do-min just quietly did his own work. Compared to his paired Guide who would squeal like a pig when handled roughly in urgent situations, Do-min seemed much more mature despite being much younger.
But to think that Chae Do-min, whom the Central Center people were looking for so desperately, was at the Central Terminal of all places. What wind had blown him there? It made Woo-jun a bit curious. He had heard that Do-min was being overworked as a high-ranking Guide with good efficiency. Had that made him harbor some ill intentions? If so, Woo-jun thought about drawing him to his side before others could make contact.
“Mmm…”
“Ah, stop…”
Shin Woo-jun frowned at the sleep-talking of naked men sprawled around him as he walked. Trash, all of them. Despite being tools that exist for Espers, their matching rate with him was always the worst. Wasn’t this unfair? Woo-jun had constantly regretted letting Jeon Ju-hwan slip away like that.
He was just trying to tame the guy a bit, his paired Guide who had fallen in love with another Esper, so why did he… Thinking about that incident made his anger surge. Especially, he wanted to kill that damn An Jong-hyeok.
His rampage was truly unexpected. Who knew the effects of the illegal wavelength regulator he received in China would come back to bite him in such a shitty way? Of course, thanks to that, he was able to deal with Jeon Ju-hwan without the restrictions of instinct. Anyway, he felt like he needed to wring the neck of that merchant bastard who didn’t properly disclose the side effects, but he failed because he was caught right away.
Anyway, that merchant was also on the list of human trash he had decided to punish, so someday he might be able to strangle that neck with his own hands.
Perhaps because he got too heated thinking about those events.
“Ugh, aaargh!”
“Ah, aaagh!”
Shin Woo-jun squinted at the screams coming from around him. The men who had been sprawled about were screaming and contorting their bodies grotesquely. The sight of bones protruding through skin here and there was extremely disgusting. Eventually, the men stopped their thrashing movements, rolled their eyes back, and stopped breathing with their mouths open.
“Shit.”
It seemed he had used his ability again. Since he started frequently using illegal wavelength regulators when Jeon Ju-hwan wouldn’t cooperate, he sometimes lost control of his ability. Often, like now, he would use it without even realizing his ability was leaking out.
This was all because of Jeon Ju-hwan. From what he heard, it seemed Ju-hwan had immigrated to the United States. Since that guy was also on his human trash list, it might be okay to bring him back and use him as his Guiding tool. He probably wouldn’t cooperate willingly, but you never know. If pressured to the brink of death, he might voluntarily offer to do the Guiding.
As Shin Woo-jun was thinking this while sitting on the bed, the closed front door suddenly burst open and someone barged in.
“Hey!”
“Did you sell your manners? How rude.”
It was Jo Hae-na, a B-rank Esper with the useful ability of teleportation, but annoyingly chatty. Hae-na frowned and got irritated as soon as she saw the state of the room.
“How could you kill all the Guides we managed to find? I thought you were receiving Guiding well, but what is this?”
“We can just find more, what’s the problem? Shut up, you’re making my ears ring.”
“Ha, do you think finding Guides is that easy? Do you know how hard it is to find those who don’t even know they’ve awakened as Guides rolling around in back alleys! You want me to do that again? I can’t. You do it!”
“Shit, I’ll take care of it myself. Just get out.”
“Find them before it’s too late. It’s not just for you to use. This is such a waste, really.”
Jo Hae-na grumbled as she poked at the corpses at her feet with the toe of her shoe. She had hoped there might be a lucky survivor, but they were all goners. Anyway, Shin Woo-jun had nothing likeable about him except for his high rank and somewhat decent face. It was unsettling to be in the same boat as such a guy, but since his ability was decent, it wouldn’t hurt to trust him.
If it seemed like a loss, she could always escape and disappear using teleportation. That’s what her ability was useful for at times like this. Hae-na sighed deeply as she dragged the corpses out, pulling them by their limbs. Cleaning up after high-ranking Espers was the same whether it was at the Center, in a guild, or in an illegal organization.
After confirming that Jo Hae-na had closed the door and left, Shin Woo-jun picked up the lighter on the table. He fiddled with the lighter and glanced under the dining table.
“Why don’t you come out from there? You’re not a rat, it’s disgusting.”
At that, a naked man who had been trembling under the table crawled out. The young-faced man kept glancing nervously at the door Hae-na had left through, rolling his eyes around.
“I heard you play rough despite your looks, seems it’s true.”
Shin Woo-jun’s gaze swept over the man’s thin body. His body, marked with whip scars all over, was trembling pitifully. He had been annoyed at wasting the power he had just replenished through Guiding in such a ridiculous way, but this was perfect. Shin Woo-jun gestured with his chin and ordered the man.
“Come here.”
At Shin Woo-jun’s call, the man hesitated before crawling towards him. Shin Woo-jun roughly grabbed the man’s hair and shoved his face into his crotch, warning in a low voice.
“I might play normally, but sometimes I can’t control my ability like earlier. So you’d better be careful. You want to leave here alive, right?”
The man nodded his head vigorously and fumbled at Shin Woo-jun’s fly with trembling hands. He could feel a thick mass under his palm. He was worried if he could handle this, but he had to do it to leave alive. This Shin Woo-jun in front of him must be better than Jo Hae-na who wielded a whip and treated Guides like animals.
The man brainwashed himself like this as he pulled down the zipper. An object larger than expected filled his vision.
* * *
In the end, I had to finish dinner with just white rice and soy sauce. It was pitiful, but seeing Sa Hae-geon’s face, which looked several times more upset than mine, left me speechless. He had seemed fine until just now, but did he feel wronged when it came to preparing dinner?
I watched Hae-geon while petting Cream, who was rolling around on the sofa. He was knitting with his large hands, his gaze fixed on the TV.
“Hae-geon.”
When I called softly, Hae-geon turned only his eyes to look at me. His eyes were calm and settled.
“About living together.”
Hae-geon nodded at my words, which I had managed to bring up with difficulty.
“Yes.”
“I think it’ll be hard to answer right away.”
“And?”
“So I want to think about it for a while before answering.”
Again, Hae-geon nodded easily and replied.
“Okay. That’s fine.”
“And is it okay if I live in my own house…”
“No. You saw it earlier too. Your house isn’t in a state where people can live right now.”
“What? It’s not that bad…”
“Hyung, if you stay there, you might get sick. Cream too.”
Hae-geon’s words were quite persuasive, but if he really thought so, shouldn’t he have shown discomfort when we were at my house earlier? As I stared at him without answering, Hae-geon quickly added:
“Actually, I saw bugs before we left your house.”
“…Bugs?”
“Yes. Hyung, do you like bugs?”
“Well… I neither like nor dislike them.”
“Do you like living with bugs?”
Despite my vague answer, Hae-geon persisted, as if determined to get an answer.
“I don’t think anyone likes living in the same space as bugs… Even entomologists probably don’t like that.”
“Right. That’s why. Stay at our house. I looked it up, and they’re not bugs that can be easily exterminated.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Hae-geon, who was answering firmly, and nodded halfheartedly. Maybe it was because I had only eaten white rice with soy sauce, but I didn’t have the energy to continue arguing. Surely he didn’t serve just white rice and soy sauce aiming for this? No way.
Hae-geon smiled happily as he watched me yawn with a tired face. It was a bit annoying.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
