# Chapter 29
“…Did you eat dinner before coming?”
“Hmph.”
This time, at least there was something resembling a response.
Though it was just a snort.
Still, he thought, it’s better than nothing. A Woo Sihyun who snorted was a little less frightening than a Woo Sihyun who kept his mouth shut and said nothing. Just like facing an angry Woo Sihyun was less frightening than imagining how angry he might get.
Anyway, most things were far less intimidating once you faced them directly. No matter how hostile Woo Sihyun was toward Ko Eungyo, as long as he was living as Ko Eungyo, they would have to confront each other at some point.
So avoiding it wasn’t the right choice. He tried hard to think that way.
“…Should we do the Guiding first and then talk about the matter at hand?”
“…”
The reason he suggested doing the Guiding first was simple. It was because Woo Sihyun was an Esper.
Typically, Espers become more mellow after receiving Guiding. It’s similar to how a frustrated smoker feels better after having a cigarette. Following a Guide’s instinct, he thought he should first relax the Esper’s tense mind before attempting conversation.
Silence fell again. Though he had tried to start a conversation, Woo Sihyun didn’t even respond. As a result, the person trying to initiate the conversation gradually ran out of things to say.
As time passed, the uncomfortable feeling grew increasingly overwhelming, eventually becoming almost unbearable. No, even if he was someone you disliked… would you really just stare at each other’s faces intensely for the remaining time?
“…”
“…”
Woo Sihyun seemed to think so. Reluctantly, he endured the most uncomfortable two minutes in the world.
As soon as it turned 7 o’clock sharp, he turned on the timer. Woo Sihyun glared at the hand Ko Eungyo extended as if looking at something filthy, but eventually he grasped Ko Eungyo’s hand anyway.
He took a breath and tried circulating the Guiding energy gently.
‘Ugh… this is too severe.’
He had felt from the beginning that his wavelength would match very well with Lee Seungwoo. And it actually did. The strange thing was, when he checked the Center application, Lee Seungwoo and Ko Eungyo both showed wavelength compatibility of 40-50%. A 40-50% compatibility wasn’t bad, but it couldn’t be considered very good either—it was just an average wavelength measurement.
Woo Sihyun’s wavelength compatibility with Ko Eungyo wasn’t much different from Lee Seungwoo’s.
But in actual feeling, the wavelength between Woo Sihyun and Ko Eungyo seemed to be not even half of 40%. This was at a level that required “rhythm gaming.” That is… it felt similar to providing Guiding to Espers with less than 10% compatibility.
It was a bit better than that, but nevertheless, Guiding with Woo Sihyun was a Guiding that neither Guide nor Esper could enjoy. That much was certain.
Just as Lee Seungwoo had hesitated the moment he took his hand, so did Woo Sihyun. Unlike Lee Seungwoo, it was probably because contact with Ko Eungyo felt unpleasant. Either way, it was obvious that Woo Sihyun didn’t want to lay a finger on him.
But now, having come this far, Guiding had to be done. Although it wasn’t as terrible a state as Lee Seungwoo, who seemed to have never received proper Guiding, Woo Sihyun’s physical condition wasn’t great either. His internal risk index was typical of a high-risk group Esper. This meant he was an Esper who needed to receive at least some rhythm gaming.
As they began the formal Guiding, Ko Eungyo and Woo Sihyun frowned almost simultaneously.
‘Ah, I really feel like throwing up.’
He really didn’t want to do Guiding that was such a poor match. Why did Ko Eungyo like Woo Sihyun anyway? It’s not just about having a handsome face…
‘…Sigh.’
But what could he do? Time kept flowing. Although it was against his will, he had to provide Guiding to an Esper who had entered his ‘my’. As long as he was Ko Eungyo, and as long as Woo Sihyun had called Ko Eungyo for Guiding, he was Woo Sihyun’s Guide with an obligation to provide Guiding to him.
He quickly started the Guiding while enduring the strangely nauseating feeling. Of course, the more Guiding he did, the worse he felt. Woo Sihyun receiving the Guiding probably felt disgusted as well, but there were things in this world that couldn’t be helped.
“Fuck.”
Woo Sihyun cursed.
‘…Is my Guiding that terrible?’
After briefly glancing up at Woo Sihyun with his eyes, he concluded that he needed to do “rhythm gaming” even faster.
This wasn’t the time to take it slow and put in effort for Guiding. He felt the anxiety of holding a tiger’s hand rather than a human’s. Whenever he provided Guiding to an Esper who didn’t depend on him, he was always gripped by the feeling of being in an unsafe place.
This is why when selecting Espers for one’s ‘my’, one had to observe and verify them over a long period. Even knowing it was useless to regret now since it wasn’t his doing in the first place, he thought several times about wanting to let go of the hand he was using for Guiding.
So, while he was injecting Guiding as quickly and accurately as possible…
“…Ah.”
His hand was pushed away.
It was a very irritable hand movement. Momentarily flustered, he pulled his pushed-away hand toward his upper body, but soon his face became stained with anger like Woo Sihyun’s.
‘As if I’m not feeling disgusted too…’
Woo Sihyun probably thought Ko Eungyo was doing this Guiding because he wanted to, but honestly speaking, unless he’d been shot in the head, their wavelength compatibility was far too low for that. Moreover, in the midst of difficult Guiding, his mood had also soured due to the continued rejection.
To the point where he couldn’t continue the Guiding at all.
The rarely angered Ko Eungyo opened his mouth.
“What is the meaning of—”
“Are you pitying me right now?”
“What?”
It happened in the blink of an eye. A fierce face growling drew very close.
“I asked if you’re pitying me, you fucking bastard Ko Eungyo.”
*
It’s human nature that when one side is tightly wound, the other side is loosened. In other words, when one side starts to loosen, you want to tighten the other side.
It’s true that strange feelings developed toward Ko Eungyo. Of course, that didn’t mean he had come to like Ko Eungyo.
Last September, when Ko Eungyo showed up in the classroom to invade his private space under the pretext of Guiding, Woo Sihyun felt murderous intent toward a person for the first time in a very long while. It wasn’t simply because Ko Eungyo had appeared to meet him when he refused to meet. That alone would have made him feel dirty, but Ko Eungyo had appeared to somehow delay his graduation.
Or perhaps to see him grovel and crawl before him.
Woo Sihyun hated Ko Eungyo. He hated him more than a cockroach crawling on the floor. If only he could just kill Ko Eungyo like stepping on a disgusting insect that appears everywhere with its nauseating antennae wriggling…
The list of vomit-inducing things Ko Eungyo had done to Woo Sihyun would probably number in the thousands, but what Woo Sihyun hated most was Ko Eungyo’s obsession with him.
That bastard always looked at him with gleaming eyes full of madness. Woo Sihyun was, well, sort of accustomed to such gazes. People who made eye contact with him were always less or more intense than Ko Eungyo. They always looked at him with shining eyes as if they wanted to possess him. Or they would glare at him with broken brains and eyes due to jealousy, as if they wanted to kill him.
But Ko Eungyo was the worst among them. He thought his feelings were very special, and he wanted Woo Sihyun to acknowledge that. That was the most disgusting part. A crazy bastard who needed to act on his thoughts to feel satisfied. A guy who would happily lick Woo Sihyun’s feet if asked.
The process of Ko Eungyo, who had accidentally seen Woo Sihyun on the news, desperately trying to get his hands on him was truly boring and terrible. When Woo Sihyun wouldn’t fall for anything he did, Ko Eungyo hired people to try to kidnap him. Of course, no matter how many people he hired, it was impossible to kidnap a high-level Esper like Woo Sihyun.
But to attempt kidnapping? What did he want to do to him while he was unconscious to try such an absurd act? That attempt earned Ko Eungyo definite wariness from Woo Sihyun. Ko Eungyo was completely different from ordinary people. It felt like experiencing the worst scenario that unfolds when power falls into the hands of someone who absolutely should not have it.
At that point, Woo Sihyun completely cut ties with Ko Eungyo.
The fact that such a person was a Guide was truly hard to comprehend. They say that Guides are supposed to be altruistic people. Woo Sihyun definitely thought the machine had malfunctioned. Or that Ko Eungyo had used some trick.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
