In this situation, my ability to go to Jeong Seyeon’s house every day for training was largely thanks to Jeong Se-eun’s contribution. Of course, it wasn’t free—I worked set hours like a part-time job and received compensation accordingly.
“I’m sorry. I’m a little late.”
Jeong Se-eun and Peter, who had been waiting in an alley without CCTV, nodded at me as I ran up to them, as if wondering why I’d state something so obvious.
“If you’re sorry, then let’s go to that new dessert place together. Of course, oppa will pay.”
“It’s been 60 seconds. I’ll double the training intensity for the amount of time you’re late.”
I gave an embarrassed smile as I looked at the two people trying to catch me over just one minute.
“Seems like you both had something unpleasant happen this morning.”
But because Jeong Se-eun moved away while I was speaking, I couldn’t hear her response and had to be dragged to the training ground by Peter.
“Let’s start with a light ten laps first.”
Watching Peter begin to crack the whip as if he’d been waiting for this, I muttered to myself.
‘He definitely had something unpleasant happen.’
Just yesterday, he seemed happy after talking with his wife, but seeing his sudden low pressure, I wondered if he had fought with his wife since morning.
“Seems like you have the luxury for distraction. Twenty laps now.”
That spark really flew far.
I could already foresee a tiring day, and we hadn’t even started yet.
“Are you alright?”
Training was temporarily suspended when Jeong Seyeon arrived at lunchtime. Peter left through the gate while answering a conveniently timed phone call, and I nodded to Jeong Seyeon, who approached me, trying to look fine.
“Will you be alright at night too?”
Since training began, I hadn’t been receiving guiding at night. I considered nightmares another problem I needed to overcome on my own. In fact, I no longer suffered from nightmares that left me unable to breathe like before. I no longer ran away in fear of my abilities going berserk. It had only been a week, but now nightmares were no longer nightmares. They came and went fleetingly like any dream, disappearing like a mirage.
The memories of my past berserking no longer had any effect on me.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
On the first night I slept without a guide, I realized I was a much lonelier person than I had thought, and on the second night, I realized I liked my guides more than I had thought.
And on the third night, the fourth night…
With each night spent without a guide, I discovered aspects of myself that even I hadn’t known.
“I’ll guide you.”
Peter tried to make me endure training without guiding as much as possible. But when he realized that was too difficult, he allowed me to receive guiding during the short break at lunchtime.
Jeong Seyeon opened his arms, and I familiarly embraced his neck and leaned into him.
“Your muscles are very tense.”
He caressed my back while guiding me. His large, warm hand traced my spine and back muscles, slowly moving down to my waist. Feeling good from his touch combined with the guiding, I nuzzled my forehead against Jeong Seyeon’s nape.
A thirst arose from the impulse to be even closer.
“No matter how much you coax, it won’t work.”
I raised my head wanting to kiss him, but Jeong Seyeon maintained his embrace and just smiled faintly. I knew why he was acting this way. What Peter had allowed was only light guiding for emergency treatment, not the intimate guiding that would undo all the morning’s training. Guiding involving mucosal contact was forbidden.
“That’s all for the guiding.”
Jeong Seyeon stopped guiding while supporting my relaxed body with his firm arms. As I looked down with a dissatisfied expression from the tantalizing but insufficient guiding, Jeong Seyeon carefully traced my eye corner with his thumb. It was where the tear duct was located.
“I’ll guide you to your heart’s content when training is over.”
When I slightly raised my eyes to look at him, I saw his smile had deepened from before. Even with his expressionless face, he was handsome enough to strain my heart, but when he smiled like this, my heart felt like it would not just ache but melt away.
“You shouldn’t smile like that to just anyone.”
The unsatisfactory guiding was no longer an issue. For me, the bigger problem was Jeong Seyeon smiling at others with that face.
“Am I smiling?”
Jeong Seyeon’s expression stiffened unnaturally at my words. He returned to his usual expressionlessness and touched his lips.
“Yes. But why are you reacting that way? Do you have some disease that prevents you from smiling?”
I added quietly, “I don’t mind you smiling at me,” while examining his face, but once his face had returned to being expressionless, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
“Ah, it’s a habit.”
Jeong Seyeon removed his hand from his lips and said.
“I was told not to smile since I was young.”
“By whom?”
“By my mother.”
At first, I was upset at the fact that there was an adult who would tell a child not to smile, and then I was shocked to learn it was his mother. Trying to stay calm, I asked Jeong Seyeon carefully.
“Why did she tell you not to smile?”
“She said she disliked me.”
Besides his mother dying from poisoning when he was young, it seemed there was an even deeper family history. In this awkward situation where I wasn’t sure whether to ask more or change the subject, Peter returned from making his phone call.
“Let’s go eat.”
Peter, who returned with a brightened face as if something had been resolved well, shouted about food and dragged us out. I kept glancing at Jeong Seyeon’s expressionless profile and inwardly resolved to have a conversation with him after training.
“Bragging about going to an idol concert since morning. Even when I said it was dangerous and offered to go instead, she acted as if she didn’t trust me at all.”
While eating, Peter voluntarily explained why he had been in a bad mood since morning, even though no one had asked.
“But now I hear that a dungeon has appeared at the planned venue, so the schedule has been canceled. They say this concert is the last one in the country before they go overseas, so I’m quite relieved.”
It was nice that Peter was eating happily in a good mood, but the content of what he was saying gave me an uneasy feeling. I remembered that the large dome stadium where concerts are often held is near the Center Director’s house.
“Could it be that the place where the concert was supposed to be held is S Stadium?”
“How did you know?”
“I remember that’s near the Center Director’s house.”
“Ah.”
Peter seemed to understand the meaning of my words as he paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth. He put down his spoon and made a serious face.
“Today was the day for the Flower Viewing operation, right?”
When a dungeon appears, Espers are deployed first to destroy the core. So by the evening, which is the execution time, the dungeon’s core will likely be destroyed. The problem was that even after the core is destroyed, many Espers and guides would remain in the area to finish dealing with the remaining Masu. If an Esper who saw the fire tried to put it out, there would be nothing we could do.
“That guy would be perfect if we need an Esper with illusion abilities.”
Peter muttered to himself as if recalling an Esper who could act as a screen for our plan.
“I wonder if that guy is still in Korea.”
Even in the midst of his contemplation, his chopsticks didn’t rest. Peter dipped a tofu pancake in soy sauce and put it in his mouth, chewing with a thoughtful expression.
“What’s this in the soy sauce?”
“It’s bellflower root.”
“Delicious.”
He exclaimed softly as he picked up the thinly sliced bellflower root soaking in the soy sauce and put it in his mouth.
“Peter-ssi, what kind of person is this illusion Esper?”
Peter, who seemed to like the soy sauce Jeong Seyeon had made and was mixing it with rice, took a short pause at my question with a “hmm.”
“I admit their skill is excellent, but their personality is a bit…”
Peter stopped there and rubbed his face as if tired. Then, when our eyes met, he narrowed his eyes.
“Jeongjae-ssi, you especially need to be careful around that person.”
I was taken aback as the focus suddenly shifted to me.
“They’re usually nice, but they have this strange obsession with S-class Espers.”
Peter didn’t explain in what way they were obsessive, and since the meal was almost over, I couldn’t ask further. In the end, Peter agreed to reach out to them, which was a relief, but I could only hope that there would be no more complications to the plan.
However, another unexpected variable arose while I was receiving guiding from Jeong Seyeon after training ended.
“This is crazy.”
The Center Director had contacted us to change the meeting place to his home.
The content was that a C-class dungeon had appeared at the concert hall, the core had been quickly destroyed, and the cleanup of the remaining Masu was already 80% complete. The gist was that if all the Masu were dealt with by the appointment time, there was no need to meet elsewhere since his house was nearby.
So the dungeon that had appeared during the day had ended up being a hindrance in this way.
“We should change the plan.”
Jeong Seyeon, who had been listening to my conversation with the Center Director, took the phone I was holding and put it down beside him. He pulled me back into his arms to resume the guiding that had been interrupted by the phone call.
“How?”
Jeong Seyeon kissed my nape and whispered in my ear.
“If he doesn’t want to leave home, then we need to create a situation where he has no choice but to come outside on his own.”
As Jeong Seyeon, who wasn’t usually talkative, whispered unusually long in my ear, I let out a small moan and curled up, causing his arms to bind me more tightly.
“We’ll release Masu to lure him outside.”
His hands slipped inside my shirt. My whole body responded sensitively to each touch on my skin, making me acutely aware of how plain his touch had been earlier in the day. Jeong Seyeon’s lips descended through my shirt, which was already half unbuttoned.
“But isn’t that too dangerous when we don’t even know what kind of Masu it is?”
As Jeong Seyeon’s guiding intensified, my whole body heated up and my breathing quickened. I asked him while trying to regulate my breath, and after completely removing my clothes, Jeong Seyeon also took off his own clothes and climbed on top of me.
“I’m not saying we should release a real one, but rather show an illusion.”
It felt like a massive predator had settled on top of my body, with both weight and pressure. My entire body shivered from the guiding pouring out from him.
“Now, let’s stop the boring talk and continue what we couldn’t finish earlier.”
The smile he had briefly shown earlier in the day appeared on his face.
It was a gentle smile that didn’t match his burning eyes filled with desire, eyes that looked like they could devour me to the bone.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
