Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san lifted his hand from his temple and glanced down at his palm. A dry, humorless chuckle escaped him.
This wasn’t the time to be asking such questions while dealing with these two. He needed to impose severe disciplinary action on Seo Eui-woo and report to his superiors.
Seeing the subtle distortion in Lieutenant Colonel Jang’s expression, Seo Eui-woo and Kwon Jae-jin exchanged glances. Kwon Jae-jin was the first to nod slightly, and Seo Eui-woo, as if resigned, lazily parted his lips.
“Lieutenant Colonel, you already know the answer, don’t you?”
Seo Eui-woo’s voice was calm as he returned the question. After years of serving under Jang Tae-san and deceiving him, there was no longer any reason to keep up the act.
“I’ve been breaking the rules for a long time.”
“…For a long time?”
“The guiding deficiency. Since my trainee days, I had to weave countless lies to conceal my utterly unbalanced body. If I were discovered, I’d be disposed of… So why would I ever have had any intention of following the military’s orders?”
“Ha…”
“By military law, I should be dead. The same goes for Jae-jin.”
Lieutenant Colonel Jang’s jaw tensed.
His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at Seo Eui-woo, who met his gaze with a serene, untroubled smile.
His expression was effortlessly natural, devoid of any falsehood.
Seo Eui-woo was always like that whenever Kwon Jae-jin was by his side.
Despite being someone skilled at masking his true emotions, Seo Eui-woo would become blatantly wary of others, recklessly unleash his abilities, or lash out in fury.
But whenever he looked at Kwon Jae-jin, his gaze softened. At times, he was affectionate, other times anxious. Like a child, his emotions were laid bare for all to see.
“Honestly, I’m disgusted. The military wants to kill Jae-jin just because he’s a mutant.”
“…”
“There were times I wanted to wipe out all the Awakened out of sheer rage… But Jae-jin kept stopping me, saying that wouldn’t solve anything…”
“Eui-woo, let’s not talk about this.”
“No, it’s fine. Keep going.”
“Our real enemy isn’t the Awakened. It’s the creatures. That’s not wrong, is it?”
“…I see. So that’s why you let the entire reconnaissance unit live.”
Lieutenant Colonel Jang shut his eyes in bitter resignation. He rubbed his dry, strained eyelids and let out a heavy sigh.
When the reconnaissance unit’s mission had failed, they had all been certain they were going to die. Every soldier in that unit had faced their own death.
And yet, there were no deaths—only the wounded. That day, Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san owed his life to Kwon Jae-jin.
Jang Tae-san turned his gaze toward Kwon Jae-jin. He stared at him for a long moment before lowering his head in exhaustion. Watching Kwon Jae-jin on the front lines, firing his gun, had given him the final confirmation he needed.
From the very beginning, Kwon Jae-jin’s barrel had always been aimed at the creatures.
“Then, shouldn’t that mean there’s no reason to reject efficiency-focused guiding? If the goal is to fight the creatures, wouldn’t it be more effective to make active use of guiding?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Kwon Jae-jin replied in a subdued voice. His words were spoken with calm precision, and his expression remained composed, but his chest swelled with unease.
“It’s precisely because of that efficiency-obsessed military mindset that so many Awakened, including mutants, have been slaughtered up to now.”
He didn’t need anyone to tell him—he already knew.
This was the moment to make a decision.
Kwon Jae-jin slowly lifted his head and took in his surroundings. The office was neither too large nor too small, neatly arranged with documents and official papers. A few plaques hung modestly on the walls, alongside Lieutenant Colonel Jang’s personal firearm and storage cabinet.
Beyond the window, a transport ship soared into the distance. Committing these mundane sights to memory, Jae-jin took a deep breath and continued.
“The way the Awakened use guiding is inhumane. Erasing the memories of fallen soldiers with mental-type abilities, executing cadets who fail to complete their training—these practices are fundamentally inhumane.”
“I don’t understand why you keep insisting that it’s inhumane.”
“Of course you don’t. No one’s ever told you.”
Seated before Kwon Jae-jin was Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san, and standing beside him was Seo Eui-woo.
Jae-jin’s dark irises flickered as he stole a sidelong glance at Seo Eui-woo. The moment their clear eyes met, he slowly extended his right hand forward.
Like offering a handshake.
Seo Eui-woo flinched, a hint of turmoil surfacing in his expression. In the depths of his gray eyes, a dark fire flickered, and a gaze thick with obsession bore down on Jae-jin.
Steeling himself once more, Kwon Jae-jin accepted Seo Eui-woo’s reaction before turning to Jang Tae-san and offering a proposal.
“Take it. My hand.”
“……”
“I’m only trying to show you that guiding can be done this way.”
He had made his decision, solidified his resolve, and yet, his fingertips trembled with unease.
Because Seo Eui-woo, his eyes clouded with jealous possessiveness, was watching.
It wasn’t as if he was committing a crime, but guiding in front of Seo Eui-woo felt even more daunting than that. To be honest, it made him uncomfortable. Even his breathing felt unsteady.
Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san shifted his gaze between the two men, both radiating an unsettling tension, before finally tilting his head back to glance at the ceiling.
“The military does not permit guiding outside of the mandated mucosal contact. You’re aware of that, aren’t you? And this isn’t even a designated guiding facility.”
“Yes, it seems that way.”
“Ha…”
Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san slowly removed his gloves. He discarded one of the black gloves and clasped Kwon Jae-jin’s hand.
The two exchanged a brief handshake, and the guiding took effect through the direct contact of their palms.
“…!”
Jang Tae-san’s rigid expression faltered as a sharp jolt ran through him.
The core in his chest trembled violently, his esper instincts electrified by the overwhelming pull of the guiding.
Kwon Jae-jin’s guiding reached deep—so deep it touched abilities buried in his subconscious, ones he hadn’t even realized existed. The long-accumulated imbalance in the deepest recesses of his being settled into perfect harmony in an instant.
An eternity compressed into a single moment.
Then, Seo Eui-woo forcefully yanked Jang Tae-san’s wrist away, nearly snapping the bone.
Though his wrist had been wrenched with bone-crushing force, Jang Tae-san felt no pain. He was still intoxicated by the aftereffects of the guiding.
“…I see. So this is how an ability…”
Jang Tae-san clenched his empty hand, grasping at the air.
As he stood there, dazed, Kwon Jae-jin spoke the words he needed to say.
“This way, no one gets hurt. No one suffers. No one’s dignity is trampled.”
“…”
“Even if it’s less efficient, isn’t this still better?”
“…Yes. I suppose it is.”
The light of realization flickered in Jang Tae-san’s eyes.
Then, Kwon Jae-jin’s vision was consumed by a blinding flash.
Even as the coordinate transfer activated, he anxiously watched, fearing that Jang Tae-san’s entire arm might be ripped off in the process.
Thankfully, there was no gruesome fountain of blood, no horrific sight awaiting him.
He returned home safely.
***
The bedroom of the new estate.
Beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass windows stretched the vast ocean. A skylight covered the ceiling. The place bore an uncanny resemblance to the beachfront house where they had lived for so long, stirring old memories. Yet everything was brand new, as if marking a fresh start.
‘…Hah.’
The moment he set foot inside, his body lost all strength.
His chest churned, unsteady and unsettled to the point of dizziness.
It felt as if someone had shoved an arm into his chest and was stirring it around.
Jae-jin paused, taking a breath to steady himself, then slowly lifted his head to look at Seo Eui-woo standing beside him.
His emotions were complicated.
It was impossible to put into words.
Seo Eui-woo…
No one else. Seo Eui-woo.
Guiding…
To be honest, he had thought Seo Eui-woo might not be able to hold back.
A part of him had expected it.
Right before their hands touched, he had braced himself for the possibility that Lieutenant Colonel Jang would be flung away by an uncontrolled burst of ability or that he himself would be forcibly coordinate-shifted back home.
It was a method that could shatter the rigid thinking of the controlled Awakened in an instant, something that only S-rank mutant Kwon Jae-jin could do.
And yet, it was just holding hands. A brief moment of skin contact.
But still—guiding was guiding.
There was no way he couldn’t know what Seo Eui-woo had just endured. What he had suppressed as he watched.
He fought so hard against it. He screamed that guiding should never happen…
And yet, for Kwon Jae-jin’s sake, he had endured it.
Seo Eui-woo…
That same Seo Eui-woo… how…?
I can’t even call him a damn brat anymore…
Young, reckless, impulsive, blinded by obsession, consumed by jealousy, taking everything he ever wanted by force—
That was who Seo Eui-woo had always been.
But at some point, he had changed.
This doesn’t make sense.
No, it was impossible.
He had once heard someone say that in a relationship, the one who loves more is the one who loses.
Kwon Jae-jin had always been the one to lose. Whether by choice or by force.
He had bent, surrendered, accepted, resigned himself—always.
But today, Seo Eui-woo… This time, Seo Eui-woo…
Had given in to him. Completely.
And the weight of that realization was enough to drive him insane.
