Chapter 35
“What about the hospital? Should we go now? Since it’s night there’d only be the emergency room, but they could give you simple treatment.”
“…I’ve already been. And Esper Lee Seungwoo, that’s not what you came to ask about, is it?”
How hard had this bastard squeezed earlier—his whole side was burning. If he was going to go on about the hospital, he shouldn’t have made it hurt like this. His side, which had been kicked by Woo Sihyun a few days ago, was bruised black.
Lee Seungwoo stared intently at that spot, then raised his head at Ko Eungyo’s touch trying to stop him.
“It’s not a more important problem than Professor’s wounds, so don’t worry.”
“……”
Then it’s not an important problem.
As if he’d ghostly sensed that thought, Lee Seungwoo stared at Ko Eungyo. Before long, Ko Eungyo heard a sigh from Lee Seungwoo’s lips.
Before long, Lee Seungwoo withdrew his hands. Then the raised hem of his clothes slid back down.
Lee Seungwoo, who’d been looking down at Ko Eungyo with a complicated face, opened his mouth.
“I know my current state is ridiculous too, but…”
“……”
“I didn’t know before, but now that I know, I can’t just stay still.”
“…It’s not Seungwoo’s business to be concerned about.”
Lee Seungwoo, who’d been about to say something more, closed his mouth. An uncomfortable silence continued. From his lips that twitched several times, a slow voice flowed out.
“Am I doing something shameless?”
“…Why are you doing this when you know?”
Obviously, Ko Eungyo had a lot to say. It was true that he’d given Guiding before because he thought Lee Seungwoo needed it, but that didn’t mean he’d expected their fundamental relationship to change.
No, fine. He’d be honest. Actually, he’d expected just a little bit. What they’d done wasn’t ordinary Guiding but mucous membrane Guiding. However, Lee Seungwoo hadn’t contacted him separately after the Guiding.
That meant Lee Seungwoo had plenty of opportunities to restore his relationship with Ko Eungyo.
There was even deep-seated bad blood between them, wasn’t there?
“You don’t think I have amnesia, do you? Let’s say, giving you one concession, that you didn’t deliberately drop things to hit me that day. But it was definitely you, Seungwoo, who told me to keep acting obedient if I didn’t want my ankle twisted twice.”
“……”
“Stop with the half-hearted worry and just tell me why you flew all the way here.”
When Ko Eungyo acted coldly, Lee Seungwoo’s gaze also darkened a bit. He looked at Lee Seungwoo’s eyes, black like the night sky, and waited for Lee Seungwoo to quickly state his business.
Unexpectedly, what came from Lee Seungwoo’s mouth was something quite different.
“…Does it still hurt?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your ankle.”
“……”
Surely he didn’t really come just to ask that.
“I just got curious.”
When his eyes narrowed, Lee Seungwoo made an excuse. Then he carefully moved his hand to lightly touch his ankle, then looked at Ko Eungyo’s face with a worried gaze.
He wasn’t used to this kind of ticklishness. Not at all.
It was like that before and even more so now. When he was Jang Iju, he’d strictly managed subordinates and worked for his career. When he was Ko Eungyo, everyone he encountered ignored him and disliked him very much.
Therefore, he had no memory whatsoever of being treated preciously in his entire life. He pushed Lee Seungwoo away as his discomfort dictated. And he thought he shouldn’t be swayed by Lee Seungwoo anymore. Fortunately, unlike before, Lee Seungwoo was pushed back docilely.
“My ankle is fine. What’s your real business?”
It was a distance that felt safer than before. Feeling slightly relieved, when he asked Lee Seungwoo in a curt tone, Lee Seungwoo stared at him.
“You gave me Guiding.”
“……”
“You gave… me Guiding. So you have feelings for me, don’t you? That’s what I thought.”
“…Didn’t you see the ‘my’ list? It’s been quite a while since I deleted you.”
“I know. I saw it.”
Lee Seungwoo added.
“That’s why I came to ask, Professor. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t find the answer. Why you did that. Whether it was a mistake, or…”
“……”
“Or, I want to know for what reason you cut me off.”
The latter words were a bit quiet, a voice that seemed to be gritting his teeth.
He was flustered.
He didn’t expect… him to be curious about why he deleted him. He thought Lee Seungwoo would just accept it. He never thought that he, who seemed to have no obsession or desire, would show this kind of reaction to his relationship with Ko Eungyo being cut off.
“I…”
“……”
He didn’t know what to say. Could giving Lee Seungwoo just 30 minutes of Guiding have brought such a big change?
He tried to speak then closed his mouth. And stared at the confused-looking Lee Seungwoo. When he looked at him, Lee Seungwoo also met his eyes.
Vivid, deep black eyes. When he first saw those eyes, and when he heard his voice… he’d felt a brief tremor. At that time, he’d thought Lee Seungwoo was his destiny.
“…I just changed my mind. It’s closer to saying I regretted past events. I canceled student Woo Sihyun together as well, and there won’t be any more occasions for me to be involved with you two. I’m sorry it’s too late. Please tell student Woo Sihyun I’m sorry too.”
He deliberately shook off the afterimage of the past. Not caring about anything except living his own life was something very easy for him. It had to be easy.
Lee Seungwoo stared at Ko Eungyo. Feeling like his breathing might become disturbed by that gaze somehow, Ko Eungyo deliberately looked elsewhere.
Beyond Lee Seungwoo’s shoulder, at something like shadows swaying in the wind. There were relationships in the world that shouldn’t be connected. He hoped Lee Seungwoo would understand that too.
Then Lee Seungwoo asked.
“…Is that all?”
“……”
“Sihyeon… won’t believe that.”
Right. That was right. Just as he said.
“……”
Ko Eungyo frowned slightly and said nothing, but in fact knew that fact better than anyone. That day, the day Woo Sihyun, who had disappeared from the ‘my’ list, returned to his place, Woo Sihyun thought he was being toyed with and, like a natural sequence, summoned Ko Eungyo with a Guiding call and beat him inside the Center until his anger subsided.
That such a trashy Esper had been his. Ko Eungyo would never again do such absurd things.
To cut out Woo Sihyun, Ko Eungyo had to put in quite a lot of legwork. In the process, he’d gotten a promise of a Gate from Ko Eunso and also activated the ‘delete’ button in the deactivated Center application, so it was like losing one and gaining two.
“That doesn’t matter. Student Woo Sihyun will have to accept it. Because I decided, and it’s over.”
When he made a resolute expression, Lee Seungwoo’s face darkened.
“Is it… because of Nam Seonjae?”
What? Nam Seonjae?
“……”
He was dumbfounded by the name he hadn’t predicted would suddenly pop out. Nam Seonjae was a student whose face had now become so blurry that only the impression remained that his brown curly hair was cute like a puppy.
“I guess you really do like another Esper better.”
Impatience was felt in Lee Seungwoo’s tone. Lee Seungwoo was so unable to understand Ko Eungyo’s attitude that he suddenly mentioned an unrelated student’s name. This wasn’t just Lee Seungwoo. Remembering that Ko Eunso’s reaction was the same, Ko Eungyo felt the need to take a somewhat more resolute action.
“Student Lee Seungwoo. Stop it.”
“I can’t stop.”
When Ko Eungyo came out resolutely, Lee Seungwoo retorted as if he’d been waiting for it. At his eyes staring deeply at Ko Eungyo without wavering at all, he lost his words.
Lee Seungwoo was desperate. It was exactly the attitude Ko Eungyo had hoped for from Lee Seungwoo while waiting for his contact after giving him Guiding. No… no. It seemed a bit different from being desperate. Lee Seungwoo’s eyes were staring as if they’d dig into Ko Eungyo.
As if trying to read through every fact he was hiding. Like a researcher trying to decode something incomprehensible.
He hadn’t thought Lee Seungwoo would make such an expression. The moment he backed away with a butt-shuffle in confusion, Lee Seungwoo approached as if he’d been waiting. Propping one arm on the floor.
He flinched at the arm placed beside his waist and the face that approached as if pleading. Lee Seungwoo was too close.
“You never gave me Guiding even once until now, then gave me Guiding like charity the last time we met… and now you’re going to throw me away like trash, so how could I stop?”
“……”
As expected of friends, their word choice is the same.
“Professor, you have no principles.”
It was a voice mixed with loyalty and ferocity. When those two contradictory qualities mixed, the voice sounded very strange.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
