It had been Lee Haru who first said he would do the Guiding from the sofa in the living room. But judging by how he was acting now, it looked more like Hong Seong-jun had dragged him there and was forcing him to go through with it.
Feeling like some kind of pervert, the soft smile on Hong Seong-jun’s face turned frigid.
“You have been seriously… pissing me off since yesterday.”
He knew Lee Haru had not been in his right mind since the suicide attempt—but that was Haru’s issue.
If his mental state was so shot that he could not even perform a proper Guiding, then he should never have stepped foot in this house.
Now that Haru had become his exclusive Guide, Hong Seong-jun had no way to receive Guiding from anyone else for the next six months.
“Just do your job. Stop making me lose my temper.”
“…Ugh.”
As a hand reached out and grabbed his hair, Lee Haru’s wide eyes filled with helpless indignation. It was almost laughable.
He had finally made up his mind to get the Guiding done—even if it meant forcing himself through it. Just then, Haru grabbed the hand clutching his hair with both of his own.
Please… just let it work!
The truth was, Lee Haru had no idea what Guiding was even supposed to feel like.
Even in the novel, detailed explanations about how a Guide actually guided an Esper were rare, and there was no guarantee those methods would even apply here.
All he had to go on was that Guiding generally required physical contact.
If he just sat there doing nothing, he would end up with that grotesque hunk of flesh shoved into his mouth whether he wanted it or not.
Even if Lee Haru’s body had been through plenty, the mind currently inhabiting it—his—was a complete novice when it came to this kind of thing.
If he failed to guide Hong Seong-jun just by holding hands, he might end up being forced to roll around with Espers whether he liked it or not.
And not just one. Three.
Besides… he really did look like he was in pain.
Rumors painted Lee Haru as completely jaded. And yet, in the memories he had seen, the man had looked absolutely tormented.
Worse still, the piece of flesh looming in front of him had not even been censored. The thing radiated a menacing, uncensored presence.
BL novels were filled with every kind of tag imaginable, and depending on reader preference, those tags were divided into major and minor categories.
Even among the minor tags, I have never seen “tiny top.”
There was no way S-rank Espers were not top candidates. Which meant they were probably all ridiculously well-endowed.
If it were someone he loved, maybe. But the idea of having sex with someone he had no feelings for—and suffering in the process—was not something he could stomach.
Come on, just work already. Please…!
Clutching the hand that looked a whole joint larger than his own, Haru summoned every ounce of focus he had.
His determination to protect both his top and bottom virginity was stronger than he had ever imagined.
“This… is working, right?”
A strange, unfamiliar sensation crept through him, and Haru’s face flushed with heat. So physical contact really was the key.
Something dormant inside him was beginning to flow out, trickling into Hong Seong-jun through the point of contact.
How to describe it?
It was like the euphoric relief of finally taking a proper dump after being constipated for three straight days.
The watch strapped around Hong Seong-jun’s wrist emitted a steady beep, beep—. When Haru glanced at the screen, he saw numbers steadily ticking downward.
“Forty-nine, forty-eight, forty-seven… What number was I supposed to get it down to again? Below thirty, was it?”
He mentally sifted through the conversation Kang Min and Hong Seong-jun had had earlier. He remembered Kang Min clearly telling Seong-jun to get the Rampage Risk Index under thirty—it was a direct order from the Director.
“At this pace, it should take about thirty minutes. Want to sit next to me?”
The sensation was satisfyingly relieving—but oddly, his body felt limp and drained.
Unable to regulate the flow, Haru was basically dumping Guiding energy into Hong Seong-jun.
The efficiency of a Guiding increased with the Guide’s grade and the compatibility rate between Guide and Esper. It also depended heavily on how close the physical contact was.
Guiding while holding hands, Haru could feel the fullness in his belly dissipating at an alarming rate.
Fatigue was pooling behind his eyes like sediment under his curled lashes.
“I am not doing this on purpose… But yeah, actually Guiding someone really wears you out…”
Haru’s body, which had been swaying gently, slowly tipped backward. Hong Seong-jun leaned forward without resistance.
With his body sunk deep into the sofa cushions, Haru continued to cradle Seong-jun’s hand in both of his own.
His drowsy gaze locked onto the watch face. The rate at which the Rampage Risk Index was falling had started to slow.
Still stuck at 41…
He was only aiming to bring it down to exactly 30.
If he had the strength, he would have loved to push it all the way to zero—but the exhaustion was deeper than he expected.
“Huaaahm…”
A yawn slipped out before he could hold it back. With tears pooling at the corners of his eyes, Haru stole a glance at the unusually silent Hong Seong-jun.
Every time their eyes met, Haru found himself crashing into that inscrutable stare. Seong-jun’s gaze was locked on his face, unreadable and intense.
“Ah, sorry. It has been a while since I did a Guiding through hand holding, so my body is just completely drained.”
Lee Haru lied effortlessly.
It was his first time Guiding in this body, but he played it off like it was no big deal.
“Why are you suddenly acting out of character?”
The intense grip around his hand jolted Lee Haru fully awake, eyes snapping open. He had tried to endure it, but the pale skin of his hand was already flushed red—and judging by the blooming discoloration, it would bruise in the exact shape of Hong Seong-jun’s fingers.
“Okay, first, let go a little. Seriously.”
Hong Seong-jun’s right hand tightened even further, clamping down like a vice. The Rampage Risk Index was still at 35, but if this continued, he would not just be in pain—his hand would fracture.
“Esper Hong Seong-jun—ugh, are you not listening? I said my hand hurts!”
He balled up his free hand into a fist and punched Hong Seong-jun, but it only sent a fresh wave of pain up his own arm. Sweat began to bead across Haru’s forehead.
He was already on the brink of fainting from hunger, and now, with the added pain, it became unbearable. Left with no alternative, Haru rammed his head straight into Hong Seong-jun’s groin.
His current body was much frailer than the one he had originally inhabited, so he had worried whether the blow would even register. But no matter how powerful an S-rank Esper might be, a weak spot was still a weak spot.
The grip crushing his right hand instantly loosened, just for a moment—but it was enough. Haru yanked his hand back without hesitation.
“Ugh, that seriously hurt like hell… What was that about? Who grabs someone’s hand like that out of nowhere? Look at this—it’s already swollen…”
Now that the pressure was gone, his hand swelled visibly, as if in retaliation. Haru raised it awkwardly, not even daring to touch the skin.
“I am going to my room for a bit, so wait here. And let me make this absolutely clear—if you hurt my body again like that, I will not do any more Guiding. If you kick me out over it, I will go straight to the Guide Management Department.”
He had come here prepared—just in case—and had packed a stash of recovery potions. At the very least, he had made the bare minimum preparations before stepping into this place.
This was not the kind of injury that would just go away on its own. The dull, throbbing pain was a clear sign—at best, he had a hairline fracture.
Even as sweat rolled down his temples, Haru did not hold back. He made sure Hong Seong-jun heard every word.
He had chosen to stick with simple hand holding precisely because he hated pain. If every Guiding ended with one of his hands rendered useless, then what was the point?
Tears welled up in his eyes—not from emotion, but from the sheer physiological reaction. He did not want to cry in front of Hong Seong-jun, but the pain was searing.
Sniffling, Haru got to his feet. The moment he moved, the pain flared up again, and each step blurred his vision more.
“What the hell? What is going on with him?”
Just then, Yu Je-hyun appeared, descending from the second floor in full uniform. He caught sight of Haru—face stained with tears and snot, eyes red from pain.
“Esper Yu Je-hyun… I am really in pain. Like, seriously…”
Yu Je-hyun’s attitude was just as cold as ever, but Haru no longer had the luxury of picking and choosing between cold and warm shoulders.
He could not even make it to the beginning of the hallway that led to his room. The further he tried to walk, the sharper the pain grew—until his feet felt bolted to the floor.
“Would you mind grabbing a recovery potion from my room for me…?”
Anyone with a shred of human decency would have a hard time ignoring a hand this swollen. The skin looked unnaturally puffed, stretched too tight.
He could still feel Hong Seong-jun’s gaze locked on him, boring into the back of his head. But he ignored it.
Truthfully, he was afraid. Afraid that Seong-jun might suddenly come after him again, insisting they finish the interrupted Guiding.
It was always the same with the Guides in the novels he had read. Why was a Guide’s life always so cursed? He wanted to hunt down the author and demand an explanation.
“Here. Apply this.”
Yu Je-hyun, after glancing back and forth between Haru and Hong Seong-jun with one raised brow, finally pulled a recovery potion from inside his jacket.
Watching him hand it over without complaint, Haru felt a small flicker of gratitude stir inside him.
But that relief was short-lived. While receiving the potion with his good hand was no problem, what came next was.
Haru extended the bottle back to Yu Je-hyun, hand trembling.
“Could you… just open the cap for me?”
He could not even manage to twist it open with one hand.
