#55
The sudden, violent energy storm startled the Espers and Guides inside the industrial complex, causing them to rush outside.
When those bewildered gazes fell upon Oh-yul standing on the bluish ice, he smiled, baring his white teeth. It was a bright, cheerful smile, but his eyes gleamed eerily.
A quiet silence filled with fear and tension enveloped the industrial complex. In the space filled only with suppressed breaths, the signal from the pager on Oh-yul’s wrist finally stopped.
The monster purred, waiting for its master’s voice. It suppressed its roar and groaned, hoping that voice would caress its ears.
“Yul…?”
A cautious and worried voice flowed out. Finally hearing the voice he had longed for, he called out to that person.
“…Ho-woo…”
How long had it been since he had called this name so tenderly?
“Are you alright?”
From beyond the pager, Ho-woo’s voice, laden with intense worry, could be heard as he rushed urgently. His rough breathing poured directly into Oh-yul’s hypersensitive eardrums.
The sound of a car engine, Ho-woo anxiously listening to the pager, requesting to be taken here, trying desperately to gauge Oh-yul’s condition. Ho-woo’s light brown eyes, full of concern, vividly appeared before Oh-yul.
Oh-yul swallowed a groan and closed his eyes. His master was coming. He was coming to grab his leash, to become a sacrifice to the raging sea and calm the storm.
“I’ll be there soon.”
The calmly murmuring voice soothed Yul.
It’s okay. It’s okay.
Like Ho-woo from his childhood, he desperately held on, using the voice that comforted and whispered to him as support.
Listening to the voice talking to the taxi driver, he looked at the Espers surrounding him with narrowed eyes, too tense to make a sound.
What if Ho-woo can’t find me because of these guys?
Should I clear them all away?
Murderous intent surged and subsided repeatedly. Should I clear them or not? Each time the energy fluctuated and stretched out, the rain falling on the industrial complex buildings under the midsummer sun instantly froze, increasing the mass of thick ice.
“Just wait a little longer. I’m on my way now.”
Ho-woo was approaching from a much closer place. He was coming to him, struggling through the heavy rain.
“Yul!”
Yul pulled his precious pair, who had rushed in with one step after opening the huge door, into his arms. As the warm heat touched his cold body, which he hadn’t realized was completely frozen, a long breath escaped.
“Ho-woo.”
The beast whispered very softly and weakly. In his pair’s embrace, he became a fragile cub, curling up his entire body and trembling.
He hid his expression full of joy by rubbing it against Ho-woo’s shoulder.
Sorrowfully and pitifully.
Right now, Oh-yul was simultaneously the happiest and the most pitiful being.
The body pressed against him trembled violently. The cold body, as if embracing a living corpse, kept burrowing into the warm embrace.
Even the hot summer sun shining above them succumbed to that coldness. Still, Ho-woo stretched out his arms, desperately hugging his back tightly, and closed his eyes.
Feeling that he shouldn’t push away the desperate man, Lee Ho-woo kept whispering to the glacier left alone in the middle of the sea:
It’s okay, it’s okay.
Encouraged and comforted by those words, the passionate waves crashed over his body. A huge tsunami lasciviously licked and penetrated Lee Ho-woo’s body, selfishly claiming ownership and behaving wickedly.
From head to toe, even his curved fingers holding the massive body were all swept up in the rough currents.
The waves dug deep like the ocean, then retreated, creating white foam. Overwhelmed by that enormous force, the humble ordinary person furrowed his brow deeply and let out a sobbing sound mixed with tears.
“Hng… ugh…”
A short exclamation escaped between Ho-woo’s lips, which had been trapped underwater up to his hair, choking him. The rough voice scratching his tightly constricted throat made the focused Esper even more frenzied.
“Ah!”
Along with the feeling of stirring inside his body more roughly than before, a tingling pain strongly reverberated, tightening his lower abdomen. No, it wasn’t pain, but a strange sensation. At the feeling that awakened his nerves, neither painful nor painless, his tightly embraced body jerked up.
“Does it hurt?”
The voice whispering to sound affectionate while burying his face in Ho-woo’s neck was sinister. Suppressed excitement scratched his throat roughly.
The Esper, who had been fully indulging in his pair, glared coldly at the other Espers hesitantly trying to approach, then gathered up the limp Ho-woo in his arms.
Clear saliva dripped from his half-closed eyes and mouth that couldn’t fully close. Even though it was dirtying his clothes, Oh-yul gladly embraced his body more deeply.
“Strange…”
The words painfully uttered were cut off and covered by a long sigh-like breath. Although it was a very short guiding, that moment felt eternally long to Ho-woo as he slowly blinked his eyes.
Without even realizing what had happened to him, he was completely caught up in the storm and gave everything to the sea.
Waves
Ho-woo slowly blinked his heavy eyelids. The familiar body scent enveloping him stimulated his dulled senses before his blurred vision cleared. Oh-yul’s cool scent.
The soft feeling of the bed against his back and the long black coat covering his body were quite familiar.
This is Yul’s coat, isn’t it.
The figure of the man who had covered him with his own clothes, leaving a perfectly good blanket behind his back, was not visible in the room where darkness had settled, making it impossible to distinguish even an inch ahead.
Ho-woo groaned as he struggled to raise his body, which he could barely control. This feeling was similar to the sensation of all the energy being drained from his body, like when he woke up after drinking last time.
“Ugh.”
A groan escaped involuntarily. When he forced his body to move, fatigue pressed heavily on his shoulders. He had clearly just woken up, or rather, regained consciousness.
Ho-woo turned on the lights in the room, rubbing his nape.
Having been here once before, he skillfully found the switch and turned it on, only to freeze in shock, unable to even scream, when he discovered Oh-yul sitting quietly in the corner.
“―!”
They say you can’t even scream when you’re too surprised, and this was exactly that situation. Ho-woo pressed down on his rapidly beating heart and spoke towards Oh-yul, who was staring at him intently.
“…Are you okay?”
His terribly hoarse voice didn’t sound very good. But he looks fine. Ho-woo asked again with relief.
“What were you doing there without even turning on the lights?”
“I was reflecting.”
What was he reflecting on? Ho-woo’s eyes narrowed as he pondered. There were too many suspicious points. However, only Oh-yul himself knew what he was really reflecting on, so Ho-woo dragged his heavy body to sit next to him.
“Ugh.”
The old man-like groan that escaped involuntarily was embarrassing, but his body was too languid to hold it back.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“I’m fine except for feeling a bit weak.”
Is this what it feels like to have your energy completely drained? Oh-yul let out a low laugh at Ho-woo’s muttering.
“I’m glad.”
Ho-woo read all the emotions conveyed by the eyes looking down at him.
Worry, relief, and joy.
Though his expression was calm, his dark blue eyes whispered many stories. The eyes that had been openly revealing his emotions for a while curved gently, holding back a smile.
“More importantly…”
What exactly happened to me? Ho-woo couldn’t bring himself to ask him, his eyes darting about uneasily. It was certainly a sensation he had felt every time they touched.
Of course, if the previous sensations were like water tickling his fingertips, this time was on a completely different level.
It was rough yet affectionate, painful yet not hurting. Ho-woo fidgeted, bringing his fingertips together.
Was there a problem? Sensing Ho-woo’s unease, Oh-yul gently stroked the ends of his messy hair and carefully chose his words.
“It’s nothing strange.”
Thinking back, there had been more than one or two strange things. The man before him had been peculiar from the moment he saved his life.
Even when they first held hands, he felt the same sensation of being pierced through his body. And when they met again two months later, he felt this strange sensation only from this man.
A tingling sensation, and as he got used to that tingling, he started to feel good, as if water was splashing and soaking his fingertips.
Even just now, though it was rough, it didn’t feel bad. Though he felt weak, a strange languidness soaked Lee Ho-woo.
“…Is it okay if I touch you?”
“As I said before, you can touch me as much as you want if you wish to.”
Yul patiently waited for Ho-woo’s touch. The man who hid his dark blue eyes under long eyelashes and slightly bowed his head, nestled his cheek into Ho-woo’s hesitantly approaching hand.
He was warm. The warmth that had been so freezing cold flowed gently through his palm, as if it had all been a dream. Along with that body heat, Ho-woo felt the energy flowing subtly through his body and his fingertips trembled slightly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
