# Chapter 19
In short, it was a statement defending them.
How ridiculous. They walked with leisurely steps as if they were out for a stroll. As if they wanted to watch what kind of humiliation Ko Eungyo would suffer.
Nam Seonjae pretended not to see it. Knowing this, Ko Eungyo even doubted that Nam Seonjae had rushed to save him. That would mean Nam Seonjae normally hung out with them, which meant he heard “other students” speaking ill of him.
Nam Seonjae didn’t even tell him who that student was.
At that point, it became unclear whether Nam Seonjae was trying to protect that anonymous student or Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo. He strongly believed that the identity of the “other student” who tried to drop something on him was likely them, or at the very least, they had “ordered” someone else to do it.
Since Nam Seonjae had mentioned the student council, it would be harder for them not to socialize with peers, but Ko Eungyo decided to give up his expectations of Nam Seonjae at that point.
“You’ve been behaving so quietly lately. Without any reward dropping… So I’ve been wondering why you’re acting this way.”
“…What on earth are you talking about?”
Raindrops fell from the tips of his wet hair. He roughly wiped away the water trickling between his eyelashes and brushed his hair back. Still, the damp, fishy raindrops mercilessly poured down, dripping beneath his ears.
“Speak so I can understand.”
Lee Seungwoo stared blankly at Ko Eungyo, who was getting irritated despite having a soaked head and a face pale from cold and fear—Ko Eungyo who was strangely luminous like a jewel hidden in darkness.
“Fine.”
Suddenly, Lee Seungwoo showed his teeth. In this deserted place, in the pitch-black university grounds, he bent closer to Ko Eungyo. Almost as if his lips would touch Ko Eungyo’s ear.
But their skin never made contact.
“Tell me, Eungyo. What do you want to possess this time? You already have Woo Sihyun. Nam Seonjae? Is it Nam Seonjae you want this time?”
“…”
“How long are you going to be so promiscuous?”
His eyelids trembled. It could have been from the cold. When he tried to get up from the ground where water was pooling, a rough hand grasped his shoulder and pushed him back down.
The puddles splashed. He was flustered and tried to remove Lee Seungwoo’s hand, but it only resulted in his hand being gripped on top.
For a moment, Ko Eungyo thought Lee Seungwoo’s expression contorted.
He expected to be hit or at least have his hand flung away as if it were something dirty, but Lee Seungwoo did not do so. It seemed as though he feared Ko Eungyo might escape from beneath him. Or perhaps he enjoyed having Ko Eungyo subdued.
How long was he going to be promiscuous?
“Feeling bad” wasn’t enough to describe it. Anger flowed out through his breath. Trying to suppress his labored breathing, Ko Eungyo sharpened his tone.
“What kind of behavior is this?”
“Someone who should know better shouldn’t try to end the conversation and leave as they please.”
Lee Seungwoo seemed to think they were having quite a pleasant chat.
“Is this a conversation?”
“This kind of conversation seems to suit you.”
He looked up at Lee Seungwoo, not hiding his bewilderment. Even so, he couldn’t read Lee Seungwoo’s expression at all. In the dark rain, only the area under the umbrella would occasionally brighten when lightning flashed. The only warmth in this place came from Lee Seungwoo’s hand.
That fact was spine-chillingly horrifying.
When he removed his hand from Lee Seungwoo’s, Lee Seungwoo also removed his hand from Ko Eungyo’s shoulder as if he’d never placed it there.
“What kind of answer do you want to hear?”
“Well…”
“Would you believe me if I said no?”
“…”
At that, Lee Seungwoo’s eyes curved into half-moons. Ko Eungyo read a clear answer in that smile.
Damn it.
There were too many things he was experiencing for the first time as Ko Eungyo. This seemed to be one of them. The pain in his right ankle was getting worse.
It felt like his heart was beating in his ankle. But even if his ankle truly broke, he didn’t want to show any sign of pain, at least not in front of Lee Seungwoo. He gritted his teeth as he wiped away the raindrops that had splashed onto his chin.
There was nobody else here anyway. It wouldn’t have been strange if Lee Seungwoo had already done something. Even if he tried to harm him now, no one would see. In that case, there was no reason for him to keep holding back either.
“Why don’t you behave yourself for once? Stop plotting weird things from behind. If it had been another student instead of Nam Seonjae who was hit, there might have been a serious accident. What were you thinking? Didn’t your parents teach you not to throw things from buildings?”
At those words, Lee Seungwoo looked rather surprised.
“You think I did that?”
“…”
“Ah, so that’s… what you’ve been thinking.”
His slow voice was infused with realization.
It was an honest answer that he hadn’t expected to hear. In this gloomy campus where clearly only the two of them were present, Lee Seungwoo didn’t seem likely to lie.
“…”
“That’s unexpected.”
Had he been thinking wrongly? Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo… wasn’t it them?
Because Woo Sihyun glared at him so much, and because Lee Seungwoo didn’t seem to like Ko Eungyo much either… he had naturally assumed all those things were happening under their direction.
‘No.’
The thought that his Espers might not be as terrible as that was actually born from a wish that “it would be nice if they weren’t.”
Lee Seungwoo was intimidating him for no reason, keeping him pinned to the ground so he couldn’t move. And this was who Lee Seungwoo really was. He shouldn’t have been deluded.
Ko Eungyo, who had been silent, parted his pale lips.
“What you’re doing now doesn’t seem much different.”
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
This bastard, he seemed to be smiling for some reason. And indeed he was. Lee Seungwoo straightened his back. His eyes disappeared under the umbrella. With his face exquisitely half-hidden by the umbrella, a drawn-like smile appeared on the lower half of his face.
What was so amusing that he was smiling? Smiling in this situation.
Wasn’t his personality really too terrible?
Just as he was thinking this, Lee Seungwoo handed over the umbrella handle. With surprising care, Lee Seungwoo made sure Ko Eungyo’s hand gripped the umbrella handle with proper strength. After making sure Ko Eungyo’s hand was holding the umbrella handle, he covered it with his own hand and squeezed it firmly.
Ko Eungyo ended up firmly grasping the umbrella in a daze.
Then Lee Seungwoo’s hand slowly fell away.
“I just… thought I’d see your face one last time since it’s your last day at work. I am your Esper after all, and I think I’ve been too indifferent. Oh, and there were things that could lead to misunderstandings, like what you just mentioned.”
“…”
“Get home safely. Are you… not feeling well somewhere?”
A pale, dry index finger gently rose and tapped Ko Eungyo’s head a couple of times. As if asking if he had hurt his head. Before he could get angry, that white hand went down and precisely grasped his right ankle.
“What are you—!”
As if by magic, the throbbing ankle no longer hurt at all. He seemed to have stiffened from shock.
Strangely, it felt like he had experienced this sensation once before. Simultaneously, his entire body froze.
To Ko Eungyo, who was completely stiff and unable to say anything, Lee Seungwoo whispered affectionately:
“I thought you were fine since you were walking around normally, but be careful not to twist it a second time. Surely you haven’t forgotten this. You cried so much about how much it hurt.”
‘What… is he talking about now?’
Ko Eungyo’s face turned pale. He stared blankly at Lee Seungwoo, unable even to swallow.
Of course… he had thought he was injured when he fell in the bathroom. The reason his right ankle hurt particularly badly was because he had fallen on that side.
Lee Seungwoo was saying that wasn’t the case.
The warning not to twist it a second time meant that he had already personally twisted Ko Eungyo’s leg once before.
“I thought you would know my style… I prefer to do things directly, not secretly or by getting others to do it.”
That was a statement impossible to misinterpret. He thought that maybe it would have been better if he hadn’t known.
“See you next time.”
“…”
“Ah.”
The falling rain couldn’t touch Lee Seungwoo. Walking casually through the rain, Lee Seungwoo turned back with a face not wet at all.
“I’ll call you, for guiding.”
The sound of footsteps, step by step, faded away. Only after Lee Seungwoo was gone did the tension throughout his body slowly release.
The sound of rain that had been completely inaudible when his breath had stopped poured down again with a whoosh.
As if his numbed hearing had been restored.
‘Crazy bastard…’
He could no longer even feel anger. All that remained was the eerie sensation crossing his chest. It was only after a long while that he could force his body to stand up.
Dragging his right foot, wearing the umbrella that Lee Seungwoo had thrown to him like a charity.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
