Just as he was trying to come up with something—anything—to say, Hyun Tae-oh’s face suddenly twisted with irritation. And what came out of his mouth was downright outrageous.
“Are you dating someone?”
“What?! No?!”
The question was so absurd it knocked the wind out of him, and he instantly snapped, his tone sharp with disbelief. Tae-oh’s scowling face, twisted in frustration just moments ago, quickly returned to its usual strikingly handsome state.
Kang Chi-yu forced himself to swallow the retort dancing on the tip of his tongue—Shouldn’t that be me asking you?
The desire to know the truth battled with the fear of hearing it, splitting his mind clean in two, each half tormenting the other.
Amidst the internal chaos, he couldn’t help but dwell on the way Tae-oh’s expression had briefly contorted.
Even with his face screwed up like that, the bastard still looked good—be it frowning or expressionless, it didn’t matter. But truthfully, Tae-oh always looked his best when he smiled. A trivial thought, perhaps, but persistent.
Maybe the real problem was that he rarely smiled in the first place.
“But then you’re out here saying shit like you’ve got someone you’re seeing or whatever—what the fuck kind of bullshit is that?”
And then there was that unnecessarily filthy mouth—another issue in and of itself.
“How the hell is that bullshit? At our age, it’s perfectly normal to start seeing someone….”
“So what, if you meet someone, you’ll just ditch me? That’s it, right? You moved out now so you can shake me off in advance? Is that it, fucker?”
What kind of nonsense was this supposed to be?
Chi-yu frowned and asked,
“How does that mean I’m ditching you? And the move—I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. You know I can’t teleport, so for things like emergency summons, it just makes sense to live closer to the Bureau….”
“Then why the hell did you change your number?”
“…I told you. I lost my phone during that emergency dispatch….”
“Then you should’ve contacted me right away. Why the fuck did I have to hear your new number from Guide Lee Jun-hyung?”
Tae-oh growled, scowling with clear annoyance.
Chi-yu hesitated, wondering if he should’ve reached out immediately after changing his number. But at the time, he’d been hurting too—because of both Hyun Tae-oh and Min Yu-hyun.
After all, hadn’t he brought Min Yu-hyun into this house? The very house where no one else had ever been allowed in.
Others might not have understood, might have thought it meant nothing. But to Kang Chi-yu, it was like the world had shattered.
It had always been just him—no one else had ever been invited into Tae-oh’s space. So of course it felt like betrayal.
Wounded, he’d rushed to move out as if fleeing, and just like fate, he’d lost his phone. Not giving out his new number had been a natural consequence of everything that happened.
“Then what’s your reason?”
Chi-yu, deciding that nothing good would come of letting this conversation spiral further, cut to the chase and brought up the real reason he was here.
“What reason?”
“They said if I appear on PairBorn, you’d be appearing too.”
“Yeah.”
The immediate, almost flippant confirmation caught Chi-yu off guard.
Wasn’t this supposed to be serious? The way Tae-oh accepted it so casually felt completely out of character.
Wasn’t this the same guy who would disappear into thin air at the mention of even a short interview, teleporting away as if fleeing the plague?
“Why…?”
His question came from a place of genuine confusion. But Tae-oh, expression calm and indifferent, simply replied,
“Just because.”
“…Just because?”
Wondering if he’d heard wrong, Chi-yu repeated it. But Tae-oh casually nodded, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
“Yeah. They reached out, so I said I’d do it if they paired me with you.”
“Why.”
“Do I need a reason?”
Of course he did.
Chi-yu had to know—what the hell had gotten into him that he suddenly agreed to do a show he’d always despised? And why not Min Yu-hyun—why him?
If Tae-oh had insisted on pairing with Chi-yu instead of Yu-hyun to shield the latter from more scandal, then sure, that made some sense.
There was already enough gossip swirling. Making Chi-yu the temporary Pair would redirect attention.
But even then, why agree to the show at all? He didn’t have to. No one was forcing him.
“Isn’t it obvious? You used to hate all this—hated being on camera, couldn’t even stand a single interview. And now you’re just… jumping into a broadcast?”
At Chi-yu’s pointed observation, Tae-oh stared at him for a moment before calmly responding with something utterly ridiculous.
“Maybe I wanted to.”
“What the hell… Fine. If you really wanted to, then go do it with another Guide. Why does it have to be me?!”
That answer was so infuriating he couldn’t help but snap. Tae-oh looked at him like he was the one being unreasonable.
“A Pair obviously means full-time Guiding. Who the hell else would I do that with if not you?”
Of course—Tae-oh had always hated Guiding. Even radiation Guiding without physical contact irritated him.
He disliked receiving guidance from almost every Guide he met, even the famous S-rankers in Division One.
But when it came to Kang Chi-yu, Tae-oh was noticeably more at ease.
Though the difference in their ranks was so vast that the Guiding was akin to pouring water into a bottomless pot, Tae-oh had never once voiced dissatisfaction—nor had he ever gone looking for another Guide.
In truth, this too was something that, from Kang Chi-yu’s perspective, was impossible not to misinterpret. Who wouldn’t, when someone treated them as if they were uniquely special?
Sure, Chi-yu was at fault for falling into the illusion and blindly falling for his friend Hyun Tae-oh. But far greater was Tae-oh’s fault, for stringing him along—feeding him scraps of hope every time Chi-yu tried to let go.
“The production team said they originally wanted Guide Min Yu-hyun.”
‘Is it because he wants to protect Min Yu-hyun? Maybe they’re flirting—or already dating—and he doesn’t want anyone to find out… So he put me in as a stand-in?’
The question circled in his mouth but never made it out.
He didn’t dare ask, because if Tae-oh really did say yes—if he admitted it—Chi-yu knew the hurt and devastation would crush him.
But Tae-oh’s reaction to the question was one of total disinterest.
“So what? They picked Min Yu-hyun. Who cares?”
And just like that—those three syllables, Min Yu-hyun, falling from Hyun Tae-oh’s lips—Chi-yu’s heart collapsed again.
Tae-oh was the type who always added proper titles to people’s names. Even in official settings, he addressed his own father, also an Esper, as “Esper Hyun Sun-oh.”
And yet, standing in front of Chi-yu, he dropped the formality and just said “Min Yu-hyun.”
How could Chi-yu’s heart not break?
Maybe Tae-oh didn’t even realize what he was doing. Maybe it was unconscious. Maybe Min Yu-hyun had already crossed some unseen boundary in Tae-oh’s mind.
Maybe… Min Yu-hyun was already more precious to Tae-oh than Chi-yu was.
It wasn’t certain. But the suspicion felt almost like certainty—and that kind of doubt always cut the deepest, built misunderstanding upon misunderstanding, leaving wounds in their wake.
Really, Chi-yu’s personality could be exhausting. But what could he do? He’d been wrapped around Tae-oh’s finger ever since they met at age six.
“I just said it because I thought maybe you should try pairing with Guide Min Yu-hyun this time.”
No one pushed him. No one told him to. But his words came out laced with bitterness, like a child sulking over their own self-inflicted disappointment.
For a moment, Hyun Tae-oh’s expression turned terrifyingly cold.
Chi-yu froze, startled by the shift.
He couldn’t tell which part of what he said had triggered such a reaction.
“You…”
Tae-oh looked like he wanted to say something, but instead just let out a sharp, irritated sigh.
“Whatever. Fine. So? Are you doing it or not?”
“……”
“You probably already heard from the Guide Department Head—I’ll do it if you do. If you don’t, I won’t.”
“Tae-oh.”
“If you don’t want to, then just reject it.”
Tae-oh stood up.
“Hey.”
Chi-yu followed him up, but Tae-oh didn’t look back. He headed straight for the bedroom and muttered,
“Just leave. I was about to go to sleep anyway. I’m fucking exhausted.”
Then he disappeared into his room and slammed the door shut behind him.
The slam had an unmistakable tone of anger to it.
Left sitting there like he’d just been kicked out, Chi-yu blinked in confusion.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. He’d come here for a quick refusal and planned to leave right after. That plan had now gone completely off course.
He sat there, dazed for a few seconds, then slowly rose from the couch.
Suddenly, he remembered Tae-oh’s exhausted face.
He already knew—Tae-oh wasn’t the type to properly receive Guiding. He was always worn out after work.
If not for his aversion to physical contact, he could’ve been getting Guiding more easily. But with his near-obsessive personality, he hardly received it, and his post-work routine always ended in sleep.
Chi-yu sighed deeply, already picturing the near future where he would end up appearing on PairBorn. Then he quietly walked over to Tae-oh’s door.
He gently released his energy, preparing for radiation Guiding, and looked at the firmly closed door.
Opening it would’ve been more effective, but… he didn’t want to see Tae-oh lying in bed.
At some point, seeing Tae-oh asleep had started making him feel weird. His gaze always drifted to Tae-oh’s lips, and his mouth would go dry.
From the moment he realized he’d fallen for Hyun Tae-oh, Chi-yu could no longer see him as just a friend.
He linked his energy to Tae-oh’s wavelength, hoping it would help him rest more peacefully through radiation Guiding.
And at that very moment, the door flung open.
Startled, Chi-yu flinched and looked up, just in time to see Tae-oh’s finely shaped eyebrows twitch.
“Why the hell are you Guiding when I told you to leave?”
“…I figured I’d do it before I go. Since I’m here.”
“…Ha.”
Tae-oh let out a long sigh, dropping his head slightly as he saw the baffled expression on Chi-yu’s face.
Chi-yu looked down at the crown of Tae-oh’s head and asked,
“Did you take a suppressant? You’re still not getting regular Guiding, right?”
At that, Tae-oh’s head shot up instantly.
Their eyes locked at close range, and Chi-yu’s heart thudded painfully.
“If you cared, you shouldn’t have fucking abandoned me.”
“…Why do you keep saying I abandoned you…”
“Food.”
“…Huh?”
“I’m hungry. Did you eat?”
“Ah… let’s eat. I haven’t either.”
Chi-yu quickly turned away.
