#51
Oh-yul waited until the presence of the others had completely left the management complex before effortlessly grabbing the collar of the man sprawled on the floor and lifting him up. Although the man was quite large, he was lighter than a feather before the strength of an Esper who could crush iron bars with one hand.
“Ugh, cough!”
As Oh-yul stared down at the man who was convulsing from being choked even while unconscious, his eyes slowly turned purple. The monster’s eyes narrowed slightly.
***
The sharp noise of the pager filled the quiet office where entry was restricted. Oh-yul pressed the call button without checking who it was.
-He sent three question marks to the question of whether you were in that kind of relationship.
Oh-yul, who had answered casually thinking it was Han Seong-won, slightly furrowed his brow at the unexpected caller.
It was Joo Si-yeo.
She had contacted him via pager and abruptly threw out a statement with the beginning and end cut off. It was a way of speaking that recognized that Oh-yul might have monitors around him. He maintained the pager connection while leisurely leaning back in his chair and stretching his legs onto the desk.
At this movement, the Esper assigned by the minister’s order showed signs of discomfort. Oh-yul gave them a faint smile.
It wasn’t surprising, as he knew there were Espers working as the minister’s pawns within the complex. He sifted through the personal information of the Espers in his head.
The assigned Espers were a B-class mental Esper and a physical Esper from Team 3. They were evenly distributed, one from each field, and were so tense their necks were stiff.
It was quite amusing to see them flinch every time Oh-yul’s pager rang, while still trying to listen for any suspicious content. Even now, they had serious faces as if trying to find something suspicious in the conversation with Joo Si-yeo.
To begin with, Espers were like territorial animals, so he didn’t expect great camaraderie or cooperation. So there was nothing to be disappointed about with them.
Oh-yul simply added their names to the list he would deal with later and responded like a languid predator.
“Of course. Didn’t I say it wasn’t otherwise?”
-Yes, he denied it quite clearly too.
“That’s unexpected.”
The person who had cornered Ho-woo every time he tried to refuse let out a low laugh. Oh-yul missed seeing Ho-woo’s troubled expression.
-…That laugh of yours is a bit chilling. Get ready to thank me later.
Joo Si-yeo didn’t seem to intend to talk for long, as she ended the call first after saying that.
He hadn’t been particularly close with her.
But this time, she was unexpectedly providing a lot of help. Whether it was out of curiosity or a sense of kinship from not being able to fully connect with the person they liked, it was a very advantageous situation for Oh-yul.
Haste is prone to ruining things.
Everything would eventually flow as he wanted, and the only thing he couldn’t control was Lee Ho-woo.
***
“Yul hyung, are you sick today too?”
A child with chubby, round cheeks poked his head through the door. His face, filled with pure affection, showed no trace of fear or discomfort.
Oh-yul struggled to focus his wavering vision while enduring the headache that was shaking his head. Young Espers instinctively knew what they needed. The being before him was of no help to him. But even knowing that, he was the most welcome presence right now.
If only you were a Guide, it would have been good.
In his muddled consciousness, Oh-yul reached out towards the other with regret. A hand carrying the lukewarm warmth of summer grasped his unusually cold hand.
The touch that diligently kneaded his fingertips, as if trying to share its warmth with his icy cold hands, was familiar.
“Should Ho-woo read you a book?”
He wasn’t sure if he nodded or gave a verbal response. Oh-yul thought he had responded somehow. This was because as soon as Ho-woo asked, he let go of the hand he was holding, brought a picture book from the table, and sat down beside the bed.
The face seriously reading the picture book, which had more pictures than words and featured a yellow duck, was flushed red.
Although he was reading earnestly in his own way, occasionally he would encounter words he didn’t know, glance around, mumble, and skip over them hastily.
His physical condition only kept getting worse. There were no days of improvement at all. With each passing day, his body condition deteriorated, pain intensified, and breathing became difficult.
Oh-yul used his ability on himself without hesitation. It was just manipulating his mind to deceive his body about its condition, not actually improving it. In fact, it was worse than maintaining the status quo. It was nothing more than turning a blind eye to stagnant, rotting water.
He slowly sat up. The unpleasant sensation of his body being pulled downward persisted. His eyes, long since dyed a deep purple, were filled with a struggle different from fatigue.
“Ho-woo.”
At the voice uttered with difficulty, Ho-woo, who had been burying his face in the book, suddenly looked up. Then, discovering Oh-yul sitting up, he smiled the brightest smile in the world.
His round eyes creased downwards and his flushed cheeks pushed upwards. Pure affection, love without expectation of return, sparkled before him.
“Hyung, did you get better because I read you a book?”
If mere book reading had such power, Ho-woo should have already been captured by a laboratory for experiments. Oh-yul didn’t bother to state this cold fact.
Instead, the child just two years older than Ho-woo before him, with a face far more mature than his age, replied, “Yes, thank you.”
“What did you do at kindergarten today?”
In response to the gentle question, the child’s characteristically high and cheerful answer came back. What he learned today, what games he played, who he fought with. Detailed and specific content poured out for quite some time.
Listening to these stories, Oh-yul could feel a vivid sense of presence as if he had been there himself. Even though his body was sprawled on the bed.
“I wish hyung would get better soon and play with me.”
“Huh?”
Ho-woo firmly held Oh-yul’s hand. With an uncharacteristically serious expression, he pressed his lips together and looked up with a resolute face, as if he had seen a TV drama featuring a sick person.
“I’m not that sick.”
Out of unfulfilled desire, Oh-yul gripped Ho-woo’s hand even tighter and instinctively let his energy flow into him. But Ho-woo, who had no channel to receive this energy, just stared at him blankly.
Towards Ho-woo, who couldn’t even detect the energy and innocently asked “Are you in pain again?”, Oh-yul stretched out both arms.
The only one to whom he could show childish behavior, which he never showed to any adult, or rather, could no longer show, obediently snuggled into those arms. The small Esper hugged the body with warm heat overwhelmingly.
Even though rough waves of energy surged and overflowed into Ho-woo’s body, the other didn’t notice at all.
A silent sigh escaped through his lips.
Ho-woo.
Please save me.
***
The sharp noise of the pager broke Oh-yul’s reverie. The nameless call that appeared on the small round screen was from someone he didn’t expect to contact him first. A faint hint of happiness crossed the man’s expression.
She had confidently told him to get ready to thank her.
He leisurely pressed the call button on the pager.
Without any greeting to indicate he had answered the call, Oh-yul listened to the soft breathing. From that small sign of life alone, he could read Ho-woo’s anxiety and concern.
In fact, it wouldn’t have been strange if he had gotten angry at Oh-yul, who had essentially deceived him, and told him never to come back, but people are strange.
From before until now, Ho-woo had always been affectionate, weak, and easily attached to weak things.
That’s why Oh-yul would forever be a pitiful, miserable, and weak man in front of Ho-woo.
He scanned the Espers staring intently at him and spoke in a calm voice devoid of any emotion.
“Do you need work support?”
A small, faint answer came back to that question.
-Yes.
At the voice tinged with slight tension, Oh-yul sighed within his expressionless face.
Lee Ho-woo, Ho-woo-ssi.
My Ho-woo.
You heard about my situation from Joo Si-yeo and came to pity me. Do you know that this gives me confidence that you’ll give me another chance and eventually accept me?
Oh-yul closed his eyes. His long eyelashes, which had been trembling slightly, settled calmly. His words to Ho-woo came out smoothly. There was nothing strange, his voice was calm, and his expression was neutral.
At Ho-woo’s words that he would wait, the man felt an unbearable feeling. It was excited impatience. A base desire to rush over immediately, bite his nape, and leave marks heated his body subtly.
Ah.
A breath like a sigh couldn’t escape and circled inside his lungs.
He instinctively knew how to call Ho-woo to his side. Because Ho-woo, weak to affection, wouldn’t be able to leave him alone when he was hurt and wounded.
And that coincided with the method he needed to resolve things.
The Esper harbored a firm belief and erased his hesitation. It was gradually time to draw a line on this tiresome confrontation.
The Esper slowly released the energy he had been storing. Soon, dark storm clouds began to gather thickly over the city.
