“How do you increase mana?”
He lightly brushed his hand over Lim Haeyul’s face and asked. It wasn’t a question born of genuine curiosity—it was clear he just wanted to hear what kind of nonsense he would spout.
The look on his face was so absurd that Lim Haeyul shrank back without meaning to. He hesitated, then answered.
“…Well. You said you drank monster blood…”
“And?”
“…Wasn’t that to, um, raise your mana…?”
The expression that was already twisted grew even more distorted, as if he’d just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world.
Lim Haeyul briefly thought it was amazing that even when Cha Jae-woo scrunched his face like that, he still looked absurdly handsome. Quickly snapping back to reality, he sensed that he must have said something really strange. Panicking, he hurriedly added,
“Sol-hyung said that before! That there’s a saying about raising mana by drinking monster blood.”
“And what’s he spouting bullshit for now?”
His excuse ended up making even Kim Sol look like an idiot. Flustered, Lim Haeyul waved his hands frantically.
“I mean! I just said it! He also said it wasn’t true!”
“Then why are you making up weird fantasies on your own?”
“No, it’s just… because Cha Jae-woo said he drank the blood of, uh, Feleil? So I thought, ah, maybe Espers can raise their mana by drinking it, and Guides can help through Guiding…”
Cha Jae-woo didn’t even bother responding anymore. He simply stared at Lim Haeyul with a look of pure pity.
Something about that gaze suddenly set Lim Haeyul off, and he raised his voice without thinking.
“Well, what was I supposed to think! Who in their right mind drinks monster blood! Were you starving or something? What’s it even do, make you all pumped up and stuff?”
“…”
“…Well… I mean… probably not, but…?”
His momentum didn’t last long. It wasn’t even what he had intended to say, but somehow, without realizing it, he ended up indirectly describing how Cha Jae-woo had been the night before.
“…”
“…”
This damned mouth. His damned blabbermouth.
Even when he tried to forget, the memories clung stubbornly, and in a brief lapse of sanity, he had blurted out the very thing he had been trying to suppress.
Lost in the awkwardness he had created, Lim Haeyul clammed up, unsure how to recover the situation.
The silence didn’t stretch too long. Perhaps it was only awkward for him, because it was Cha Jae-woo who opened his mouth first.
“And what exactly did I do?”
No, it wasn’t a blessing—it was a curse. He would have preferred if Cha Jae-woo had just kept quiet. Lim Haeyul gaped at him in horror. Was he seriously asking him to describe exactly what had happened yesterday?
“I already told you earlier!”
“Yeah, but you were way too vague.”
“And how the hell am I supposed to go into detail…!”
“Go on. Be specific. Let’s hear exactly what made you think it was all… pumped up and stuff.”
How could he say that with such a straight face? He looked genuinely curious, not the least bit embarrassed. There wasn’t even a shred of shame on his face for what he had done!
“…”
Once again, Lim Haeyul was the only one left to stew in humiliation. The injustice of it all bubbled up inside him, and he couldn’t suppress it any longer.
How loose did you have to be for questions like this not to faze you?
Had he gotten so pent up after not fooling around with anyone for so long that he couldn’t even remember properly, and now he was asking just to confirm? Wild, outrageous theories began forming one after another inside Lim Haeyul’s head.
He wracked his brain, desperate to find something—anything—that might make Cha Jae-woo even a little bit embarrassed.
“The blood of Feleil—”
But Cha Jae-woo didn’t even grant him that small victory.
Though Lim Haeyul felt wronged, he couldn’t resist the lure of Cha Jae-woo’s opening. Resigned to the fact that no matter what he said, he would never win against Cha Jae-woo anyway, he chose to simply nod.
“It makes you crave Guiding.”
“…Guiding?”
“Let’s get this straight first. There’s no way for a Guide to raise their mana.”
Cha Jae-woo spoke with razor-sharp certainty. Lim Haeyul, who had been holding onto some faint hope that maybe someday a method would be discovered, felt that hope cut down without mercy.
“In other words, what you heard was complete nonsense.”
Cha Jae-woo’s expression was full of disdain. From the look of it, Lim Haeyul figured it wasn’t only directed at him and regretted dragging Kim Sol into this in the first place.
“But the blood of Feleil distorts an Esper’s wavelength. It makes them thirst for Guiding.”
Lim Haeyul didn’t have much time to feel guilty toward Kim Sol, either. He focused immediately on Cha Jae-woo’s next words, fascinated by the new information.
So yesterday, Cha Jae-woo had been craving Guiding? That explained a lot. Like why he had clung to him so relentlessly. Of course, the kind of Guiding they usually performed wasn’t like that.
Yesterday, Cha Jae-woo had wrapped himself around Lim Haeyul with a persistence that left no room to breathe, kissing him deeply and desperately. Which meant, for Cha Jae-woo, acts like that were synonymous with Guiding. In the end, that must have been the usual method he employed all along.
Lim Haeyul had seen it with his own two eyes before, hadn’t he? It shouldn’t have been surprising anymore—yet absurdly, he still felt sullen. Did he even realize it was him he had clung to? Or had he mistaken him for someone else?
Even strange suspicions started creeping in. Whether it was true or not didn’t change the reality, but Lim Haeyul’s heart cared anyway. Still, he didn’t want an answer, so he crushed down the urge to ask.
“It leaves only one thought in the Esper’s mind—that they must find a Guide and get Guided.”
Even as his head bobbed in automatic agreement, there was no soul behind the motion. It didn’t have to be him specifically—any Guide would have sufficed. It wasn’t something he should take personally, but his chest still ached.
“…”
“…”
In the silence that followed, Cha Jae-woo stopped speaking altogether. Was that it? Was the explanation over? Lim Haeyul waited for more, but silence stretched on, and eventually, he felt like he had to say something.
“…I see.”
It wasn’t exactly a meaningful response.
“I understand,” he added, but the atmosphere remained heavy.
Why wasn’t Cha Jae-woo saying anything? Was he expecting a question? But Lim Haeyul had no idea what he was supposed to ask.
Was this the moment he should say “okay, I get it” and get up to leave? The whole point had been to find out why things went the way they did yesterday—technically, that goal had been achieved. Still, the atmosphere felt too weird to just stand up and go.
“Uh… anyway, good thing you came straight home! If you had gone to the Center, uh, yeah. It would’ve been a lot more trouble!”
Unable to endure the strange tension, Lim Haeyul exaggerated his tone and raised his voice. But the moment the words left his mouth, Cha Jae-woo’s expression twisted once more. Clearly, he had said something wrong again.
‘What did I screw up this time?’
Really, Cha Jae-woo was an impossibly difficult man to deal with. He didn’t even talk that much, yet there were still so many things he disliked. Now what had upset him again?
‘It’s not like I said anything wrong, right?’
Honestly, if Cha Jae-woo had gone to the Guide Center, no Guide would have been able to handle that distorted wavelength on their own. Then they would have needed several people, and… no, better not to even imagine it.
“Anyway, the important thing is, no major accidents happened!”
Lim Haeyul shook his head as if to physically brush off the thoughts, ending his words there. He had done his best. If Cha Jae-woo still had complaints, he could say them himself. Lim Haeyul had reached the point where he was ready to throw in the towel.
“Wrong.”
At that moment, Cha Jae-woo gave a slight tilt of his head.
‘What’s wrong?’
Wasn’t it a good thing there had been no incidents? Thanks to Cha Jae-woo coming straight home, Lim Haeyul had been able to stabilize his wavelength properly.
“It was only natural that I came home.”
Lim Haeyul blinked blankly at Cha Jae-woo.
‘Why was that so obvious?’
Wasn’t it possible that, craving Guiding, he could’ve gone anywhere? Just as he opened his mouth to ask, Cha Jae-woo spoke again.
“My Guide was at home. Why would I go to the Center?”
His words echoed in Lim Haeyul’s mind. Or rather, a very specific part did—My Guide.
“My Guide, my Guide, my Guide…”
Those words somehow made his previously sinking mood lift a little.
‘That’s right. I’m Cha Jae-woo’s Guide.’
Hadn’t he had this thought before, once? Either way, it felt good.
“Ah, right. Yeah. Of course you’d come home.”
“Your brain’s only quick in the weirdest ways,” Cha Jae-woo said with a faint, teasing tone.
Lim Haeyul just laughed it off. It was a little embarrassing, but he had been hearing things like that since he was a kid anyway. But the laughter was short-lived.
Once the small knot in his heart had been unraveled, curiosity welled up in its place. It wasn’t something he had to ask—but the urge to know gnawed at him. He hesitated for a long while.
Cha Jae-woo, who had been about to speak, ended up silently observing him instead. Strangely, that silent attention gave Lim Haeyul the courage he needed.
‘Maybe he’s waiting for me to ask if I have something to say?’
Of course, he couldn’t read Cha Jae-woo’s mind—but he decided to think of it in the way most favorable to himself.
“Um, Cha Jae-woo-ssi…”
“Yeah.”
Cha Jae-woo replied immediately, as if he had been waiting.
“Do you, um… prefer that kind of Guiding?”
“…What?”
“I mean, uh… the… the dirty kind… Do you like doing naughty stuff to get Guided…?”
But the very moment the question left his mouth, Lim Haeyul regretted it. Cha Jae-woo’s face contorted like he had just heard something unspeakable.
…Ah, this familiar feeling.
Why was it that every time Lim Haeyul opened his mouth, Cha Jae-woo’s expression ended up like that?
