“At first, I couldn’t understand that person at all. He would disappear every night without saying anything, and even though he wasn’t on a mission, his wavelength was always tangled, as if he’d been using his abilities somewhere.”
I thought these were complaints about a difficult Esper, given that I knew Woo Jeonghyun had reluctantly signed an exclusive Guide contract due to their matching rate. But seeing Jeonghyun sigh deeply and cover his face with his hands, I realized that wasn’t it. His entire body radiated a helpless concern.
“But he never requests Guiding. Even when his wavelength is so distorted that my entire body feels prickly. At first, I thought he might be the type who can’t ask others for help. So I approached him. It was my job, after all. I figured it would be better to smile, so I was kind. But he kept saying he was fine. That nothing was wrong. Funny, right? How could an Esper with dangerous surge levels possibly be fine?”
“Are you saying he keeps refusing Guiding?”
I asked Jeonghyun with a stern face. This was an issue where Guiding should be performed forcibly even if the Esper refused. For an Esper, this wasn’t about preferences but survival. My past situation was different—a Guide who wouldn’t perform Guiding caused problems—but the result was similar to mine, so I couldn’t just let it go.
“Well, more or less. But hyung, you know my personality.”
“Yeah, you’re contrary. Doing exactly what you’re told not to do.”
“That’s accurate, but it sounds unpleasant to hear.”
“So, you forced the Guiding?”
“Not forced, exactly. When he fell asleep, I’d go into his bedroom…”
“Wait, you didn’t…”
I looked at Jeonghyun like he was trash and backed away. Jeonghyun looked at me incredulously, gave a hollow laugh, and blurted out:
“I just hugged him while he slept.”
Now I was the one embarrassed.
“I can see what you were imagining without even looking.”
“Hmm.”
“Even so, would I take advantage of someone sleeping? With your level of thinking, it’s like eyes only see what they want to—Hm?”
Jeonghyun, who had been clicking his tongue and looking at me pitifully, suddenly squinted. He turned his head sharply with a shocked expression and touched his forehead.
“Ah shit, I really don’t want to know about your bedroom situation, hyung.”
He muttered in a low voice, but I heard it clearly. For a moment I blinked, wondering what I’d just heard, when Jeonghyun ruffled his hair and glanced at me again. His eyes scanned me from head to toe.
“Well, unlike me, you seem to be getting plenty of love.”
Finally understanding what he meant, I smacked the back of his head with a heated face.
I thought I hadn’t hit him hard, but the drama queen Jeonghyun screamed “Ack!” while holding the back of his head, looking at me with disbelief.
“Wow, look at that temper.”
“Keep looking at me like that. I’ll hit you again.”
“Tch, I’ll let it slide because you’re my hyung.”
I snorted seeing Jeonghyun pretending to hold back after already cursing me with his eyes. But knowing he’d whine about going home if I pushed him further, I quietly lowered my hand and returned to the main topic as if nothing happened.
“So what happened after that? Sleeping together every night must have improved your relationship, I’d think.”
“That’s what I thought too.”
Jeonghyun answered straightforwardly while giving me a blatantly displeased look. His eyes darkened as if recalling those times, and then he straightened his back and draped one arm over the bench.
“So I asked why he kept going out, why he stayed out overnight. I figured as his exclusive Guide and only partner, I deserved to know that much. Naturally, he didn’t tell me anything, and honestly, my pride was hurt. I wondered if I was just a body pillow he used for Guiding. So I crossed a line.”
“A line?”
“I followed him at night.”
My eyes widened.
‘Can an A-class Guide tail an S-class Esper?’
No, absolutely impossible. Especially since Jeonghyun was an exclusive Guide for the Esper. There’s no way an Esper wouldn’t sense his Guide’s wavelength.
“You weren’t caught?”
“I was. The people I paid all came back with amnesia. More precisely, their memories from the time they met me until the day they followed him were completely erased.”
I guess I’d been thinking too honestly.
I made an expression somewhere between smiling and crying as Jeonghyun candidly admitted to hiring people to follow someone. His method was the safest, but I couldn’t condone his illegal actions either.
“So I was going to try just one more person before quitting. But this last person didn’t lose their memory. They came back with information about him and presented it to me, and for a moment I wondered if it was a trap.”
“So, did you find out where he goes every night?”
“Yeah. I’d have to be stupid not to know when there were even photos. He was clearly photographed in front of a hotel.”
Jeonghyun’s face, which had been calm until now, flushed with barely contained anger.
“I was going to end it there. Because if he was at such a place at that time, they must be lovers. But some of the printed photos seemed strange.”
“What was strange?”
“The photos focused on him, so the other person’s face wasn’t visible, and I naturally assumed it was the same person in all of them? But looking again, it wasn’t just one person. So I placed one more request. This time I asked for information on the other men too. It turned out they all had something in common.”
“What was it?”
“They were all Guides. Their ranks varied from A to D, but all of them were Guides.”
“So he wasn’t dating—he was going out to receive Guiding?”
Jeonghyun nodded, looking like admitting it was worse than death.
“It’s humiliating, but what makes me angrier is wondering if Guiding from these non-contracted Guides is proper, and what they’re getting in return for providing it. I’m going crazy thinking they might be approaching him with other intentions.”
I’d be angry too if my contracted Guide was doing this, but Jeonghyun’s emotion seemed less about anger toward the Esper and more about concern.
At this point, I understood why he’d brought up wisdom teeth, why he had that unrecognizable expression, and why he broke his promise to his mother and resorted to violence.
‘He’s completely fallen for him, totally fallen.’
Having pined after Joo Seolhyeon for five years until I lost my life, I wasn’t one to talk, so I kept that thought to myself. But the more I thought about it, the more frustrated I felt with the other person.
‘Is that Esper blind? Why seek out other Guides when he has someone this good right here?’
As I barely managed to control my rising anger, though for different reasons than Jeonghyun’s, I remembered the person my brother had nearly beaten to death today.
“Don’t tell me the person you assaulted was one of the Guides he met?”
Jeonghyun nodded slowly. As his anger receded, I could clearly see his burned-out heart. Perhaps because I knew that feeling better than anyone, I understood his confusion so well that I smiled with narrowed eyes.
‘Why do we have to be similar even in this?’
Especially since, unlike me, he was a Guide and would have difficulty being the first to terminate an exclusive Guide contract, I silently embraced Jeonghyun.
“Stay at my place tonight.”
Though I’d never seen his face, I didn’t want to send Jeonghyun back to that house in this state, so the words came out before I had fully thought them through.
“I think the Guides you live with wouldn’t like that.”
Jeonghyun, who had been leaning quietly against me in my embrace, groaned at my words.
“We’re not strangers. Why worry about what other Guides think?”
“We’re not strangers, but still…”
Jeonghyun rolled his eyes around in thought, glanced at my face, and then sighed deeply. I could see him swallowing several things he wanted to say while rubbing the back of his head where I’d hit him.
“Okay. Let’s go to your place, hyung.”
Jeonghyun must have felt uncomfortable about going home after causing trouble, as he nodded obediently when he would normally express his displeasure clearly if he didn’t like something.
“Just let the Guides know right away. What if they’re surprised to see me?”
I agreed and took out my phone, then remembered my lost wallet again.
After posting “Coming home with my brother later” in our group chat that Yang Garam had created but we rarely used, I pulled Jeonghyun’s arm.
“Jeonghyun. Before going home, let’s go somewhere with me.”
The time was approaching 10 o’clock, much later than I had expected.
When Jeonghyun asked where, I answered “to find my wallet” and hailed a passing taxi. The banquet hall was still busy with cleanup, but fortunately the doors were open so we could check inside the bathroom.
But the sink and floor were clean. When I asked the cleaning staff, they shook their heads, saying they hadn’t seen a wallet.
“Did you find it?”
While I was looking for the wallet in the bathroom, Jeonghyun was outside asking if anyone had found lost items. When I came out empty-handed, his immediate question told me he hadn’t found it either.
“No.”
At my weak answer, Jeonghyun rubbed the back of his neck with an apologetic face.
“Sorry. I called you so suddenly.”
“How is that your fault? I just lost it because I was careless.”
Trying to shake off the gloomy atmosphere, I forced myself to dismiss negative thoughts about the wallet and put my arm around Jeonghyun’s shoulder. Truth be told, I wouldn’t be this depressed if only money was in the wallet, but it contained family photos. Our father passed away when we were young, so we don’t have many pictures with him. Losing one of those few family photos due to a stupid mistake was really upsetting.
“We haven’t seen each other in a while, and we’ve only talked about depressing things. If we haven’t found it by now, there’s nothing we can do. Come on, stand up straight! Should we buy a can of beer on the way? We need to cheer up a bit.”
“Hyung, we should stop by the police station nearby, just in case.”
I hadn’t thought of that, but thinking it was a good idea, I nodded immediately. In the end, we didn’t find anything and just ended up raiding a convenience store, but that was fun in its own way and kept us laughing all the way home.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
