He ravaged me as if to exorcise something—used me completely—then had the audacity to ask me to consider his situation.
It went beyond shameless—it was downright bizarre.
Of course, I could guess what he was after. He wanted to stir up some sort of non-negative feeling in me. Even a shred of sympathy, perhaps.
That Joo Cheong-gyeong desired even my emotions had been obvious from the moment the guiding began. It had already been proven through Shim Tae-seong, who had been a complete stranger to me, so it wasn’t anything unexpected on my part.
“It’s stable.”
Joo Cheong-gyeong mumbled as he hugged me from behind, my body standing by the window. After those frenzied bouts of sex that lasted day and night, he now stopped at gestures like this—as if giving me a moment to breathe.
“No more noise, no more stabbing pain all over my body.”
“……”
“To exaggerate a little… I feel like I’ve become an idiot.”
…Could that be what led to Shim Tae-seong’s downfall?
Once his condition stabilized through guiding, maybe his senses dulled…
But when I recalled the way Shim Tae-seong had unlocked his abilities in a new direction, I couldn’t help but think—if he ever entered a fight again, he wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
Teleportation without the limitation of physical contact. A skill that was already overpowered had now become even more absurd.
I’d thought it was just a temporary burst of strength, but after checking this morning, it turned out Shim Tae-seong had been honing that power while tracking my trail. He’d pushed himself so hard that he’d noticeably grown thinner—it was enough to stir a bit of pity in me.
“Eun-soo.”
The soft call broke through my thoughts. As I turned my head from the desolate view outside the window, Joo Cheong-gyeong’s face came into view, looking down at me. Unlike a certain someone, this Esper who had his Guide firmly in hand was practically glowing.
“Don’t worry. You won’t be trapped here for the rest of your life.”
“……!”
I flinched.
He was directly denying the words I’d once said to a dead Esper.
…Did he read my memories?
“Just give it a little time. You’ll be able to live wherever you want.”
He spoke in a tone that suggested he fully believed that outcome. Joo Cheong-gyeong’s plan didn’t involve taking any further action.
He’d already set things in motion. All that was left was to wait for his brother and Jang Hee-gang to destroy each other—or for Jang Hee-gang’s side to fall. After that, he would move to take full control of the government.
It sent a chill down my spine, realizing he truly intended to dominate an entire nation. I wondered what sort of plan he had devised to ensure the success of the grand scheme he’d mapped out in his mind.
“As long as you’re by my side.”
Joo Cheong-gyeong leaned in and lightly touched his nose to mine.
“Just stay by my side. Watch what I do.”
“…When someone dies…”
My lips parted slightly.
“I don’t like seeing blood.”
“……”
“You won’t hesitate to harm those who oppose you, will you?”
“If they’re worthless.”
A curt reply.
He was referring to ordinary people. I’d heard his ideology during the terror incident, but hearing it again—it was still utterly deranged.
“Esper or Guide, it doesn’t matter. They’re still people.”
I countered him in a subdued voice.
“Why do you measure human worth by Esper abilities or guiding capacity?”
Right? Just because someone lacks some supernatural, unscientific power doesn’t mean they’re obligated to submit. They’re still sentient beings, and it’s through each of their contributions that society functions. If not, then the me from my past life—a regular office worker working diligently every day—has every reason to feel wronged.
And everyone has their own story. Connections they’ve built. A future they’ve imagined. But whether it’s Jang Hee-gang or Joo Cheong-gyeong, these deranged Esper supremacists hold them in contempt, shedding their blood without remorse, all in an effort to transform democracy into authoritarianism.
“The moment I awakened as an Esper…”
Suddenly, Joo Cheong-gyeong’s eyes, which had been staring off into space, lowered.
“It was to kill my father.”
“What do you mean—”
“It was a mess back then. My mother, who had been drowning in gambling, suddenly disappeared, and from that day on, my father used me as his punching bag.”
“……”
“I learned exactly how to inflict the worst kind of pain with violence—got beaten so badly it’s a miracle I didn’t end up disabled.”
His miserable past spilled out in a calm, quiet tone.
I stayed silent.
“One day, he came at me with a kitchen knife… and I really thought I was going to die.”
The arms wrapped around me tightened.
“At the time, all I could think was that I didn’t want to die. No matter how fucked up my life was, I wanted to live.”
“……”
“Then suddenly, I saw myself collapsed on the floor. It was from my father’s perspective. I’d taken over his body.”
Joo Cheong-gyeong looked directly into my face, watching my expression grow darker as he continued.
“To stab yourself to death with the same knife you were going to use to kill your own son…”
“……”
“I regret not being able to feel what that was like.”
Fuck.
My hands trembled with horror.
I’d thought it when he brutally slaughtered his own subordinate before… Even if you’ve possessed someone’s body, the pain still registers, doesn’t it? So how the hell could he plunge a blade deep enough to kill into a body he was currently inhabiting?
Could it really be possible?
Was that level of pain nothing compared to the symptoms brought on by a lack of guiding?
Wait a second.
“Figures. I still can’t tell in this state.”
Didn’t he say that when he’s possessing someone, he can’t feel guiding?
“And at the same time, I realized something. That beings who are helplessly swept away under the power of an Esper… have been living in contradiction to the natural order.”
Joo Cheong-gyeong let out a cold sneer.
“The one who acted like the king of the household turned out to be the one who should’ve been subjugated.”
I looked at him, startled. His near-red black eyes stared back at me without a flicker of emotion.
“How could you…”
I trailed off, a mess of emotions twisting my expression. Despite the fear I felt at Joo Cheong-gyeong’s cruelty once again, there was something else—something reluctant, tangled, rising with it.
A trace of sympathy. As if I hadn’t expected him to carry that kind of wound. It was far too lenient a reaction, considering what he’d endured. And yet, it didn’t change the truth that he was now the leader of an armed group committing heinous acts.
“Even so… that doesn’t…”
“……”
No matter what horrors he went through back then, none of it could justify what he’s done—or what he plans to do. Not everyone would respond to pain the way he had. Not everyone would twist it into this same ideology.
I wanted to say that. I wanted to, but the words caught in my throat. I hesitated—foolishly—because I didn’t want to wound someone already scarred by his past.
Then Joo Cheong-gyeong spoke, his voice low.
“I know. Eun-soo, you’ll never be able to agree with me.”
“……”
“But I…”
Despite his small face, his large hand gently cupped my cheek.
“If your awakening had happened much earlier… if we had met back then… I think things would have turned out very differently.”
He gave a lonely smile, shadows falling across his face as strands of his hair slipped forward.
“No. I’m sure of it.”
He was the type who knew exactly how to wield his looks.
Looking up at Joo Cheong-gyeong, I dropped my gaze, eyelids trembling slightly—as if I didn’t want him to notice how shaken I was.
“……”
“……”
He stared at me for a long moment, then slowly lowered his head.
Soft lips brushed against mine.
I flinched, trying instinctively to pull away. But the hand on my face didn’t budge, and his face—wearing a counterfeit sorrow—filled my vision, leaving me frozen.
There wasn’t any.
What began as a gentle brushing of lips soon deepened into something more. When his tongue pressed in, coaxed by the strange, tingling sensation of friction inside my lips, my mouth parted slightly. Without hesitation, Joo Cheong-gyeong’s tongue slid in. It was soft yet firm—like flesh that wanted to be tasted—sweeping leisurely through every corner of my mouth as if savoring it.
My eyelids quivered.
“Mmm……”
Chuuup. Chup. The slick sound of our tongues entangling filled the air, familiar and wet. His hands slid down, wrapping around my waist as he turned me around. With our bodies now facing each other, he pulled me closer, the motion radiating a heat that was already burning strong beneath his skin.
“Mm—!”
What had started as a tender kiss now felt like he was going to devour me. The bastard, who had pretended to be pitiful, began to rub his hips against me—as if physical comfort was what he needed. His cock, thick and hard even through his pants, pressed against my abdomen, asserting its presence.
“Ha…”
Still locked against my lips, Joo Cheong-gyeong exhaled hotly. Then he effortlessly lifted me and sat me down on the windowsill behind us. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, he gripped my legs and spread them apart, positioning himself between them.
I lowered my arms to grip the window frame and flushed with shame. Cheong-gyeong’s eyes followed me like a slow, indulgent lick, and he peeled off his shirt. His muscles were tight, not overdone but perfectly defined, twitching with arousal, betraying the state of his body’s hunger.
“Eun-soo.”
His lust-filled whisper curled around my ear.
Right now, Cheong-gyeong’s rhythm was flawless. He didn’t need any guidance—he knew it, and so did I.
He was already dead set on fucking me into a mess, and despite myself, the anticipation was starting to bubble up. I pretended otherwise, but the memory of how good it had felt to be with him—so good it made me black out—was impossible to ignore.
Because the body remembers pleasure.
He must’ve drugged me with the intention of making me cling to him in a haze of overwhelming ecstasy, only to later crush me with the humiliation of remembering it all.
But that sex—enhanced by the quest reward that amplified sensitivity, and topped with the effects of the drug—was, frankly, mind-blowing.
Of course, it’s not like I planned to become an addict, so afterward, I cried and begged him never to give me that stuff again. Just like he wanted.
