#057
I held onto Shin Haejun’s hand tightly like a lifeline and tried my best to unravel the tangled mess. He twisted his body as if trying to shake me off, but as I started guiding, his body slowly sank into the bed.
‘What should I do… I can’t unravel all of this with just 5% efficient guiding.’
I tried to use the end of the tangled power as a clue to somehow pour in strength and unravel it, but it wasn’t working well. I needed to find a way to relieve it more somehow.
‘If only… I were a higher-ranked guide…!’
I bit my lip and kept looking into Shin Haejun’s insides. Then suddenly, I noticed that the tangled power was taking a certain shape.
‘A child?’
This was a phenomenon I had never seen when guiding Hyun Dowoon. But no matter how I looked at it, the tightly bundled and tangled mass looked like a curled-up child. I thought it might be my imagination, but once I perceived it that way, it really looked just like that.
‘Why?’
Even if what I saw was real, I never expected to associate a child with Shin Haejun.
“Brother, let’s sleep together.”
As I was trying to focus on guiding, thinking it was just something strange, I faintly heard a clear voice from somewhere.
It was the crisp voice of a young child.
‘What’s going on?’
I haven’t done much guiding, but this was truly a first. Hearing a person’s voice during guiding?
“No, no!”
The sound of the child throwing a tantrum soon changed to Shin Haejun’s voice.
“I’m scared of myself too, Mom.”
After those words, I no longer heard any voices, and somehow the guiding started to go smoothly. It was good that the guiding was going well, but something still bothered me.
Could that young child’s voice have been Shin Haejun’s? Given that it came from inside his body, the probability was high, but…
‘He always seemed so confident.’
They say people don’t have just one side to them, but I never expected Shin Haejun to have this kind of aspect. I was more used to seeing him angry or shouting loud enough to make my ears ring.
Anyway, the guiding really went smoothly. After unraveling the tangled power to the level I had seen when guiding Shin Haejun before, his face became a bit more relaxed.
‘Haa…’
Perhaps because I had used too much mental energy, unlike the now comfortable Shin Haejun, I was exhausted. Still, seeing his previously furrowed face relax and fall into a peaceful sleep made me feel satisfied.
I hesitated for a moment before flopping down on Shin Haejun’s bed. I thought no one would say anything about lying on my lover’s bed.
After lying down, I blinked for a moment, looking around cautiously, then slowly relaxed as I realized only the sleeping Shin Haejun was here. As soon as I relaxed, a question came to mind.
‘Kim Sehyun guided Shin Haejun not long ago, so why did his insides get so tangled up?’
After returning from that dungeon we went to together, as far as I knew, Shin Haejun hadn’t entered any dungeons. That means he hadn’t used his power.
Which means it didn’t get tangled up like this from using his power…
I entered an awakened person community on my phone. It’s not a particularly pleasant place, but… I wanted to investigate if anyone had experienced something similar to Shin Haejun’s condition.
Question | Cases where guiding is needed without using power
Author
As the title says, are there any espers who need guiding even though they haven’t used their power?
-Anonymous 1: Don’t you need guiding even if you just breathe for a long time? Isn’t this too basic of a question
└Author: No, I’m talking about cases where it suddenly happens like this; of course I know that
-Anonymous 2: Don’t know
-Anonymous 3: There’s no such thing lolololol
-Anonymous 4: idk
-Anonymous 5: You might not see this since I’m commenting so late, but to answer simply, it’s in cases of trauma related to power. It’s a very rare case of being afraid of one’s own power.
After thoroughly searching the community, I found only one relevant post.
I searched even very old posts, but only this one came up. It seemed Shin Haejun’s condition was quite uncommon.
‘Afraid of his own power?’
Shin Haejun never hesitated to use his power in dungeons. And he didn’t seem to dislike being S-class.
As an S-class esper, Shin Haejun had wealth, fame, and praise. I couldn’t understand why he would be afraid of such power.
‘Could it be a different case than this?’
Human affairs are rarely just one thing, after all.
For some reason, maybe Shin Haejun has a constitution that accumulates power residue very well…
‘But why did he say it’s been a very long time since he had a fever like this?’
If this was his constitution, he must have experienced it at least once since awakening.
And it’s unlikely that his family or employees never used a wet towel on him even once.
‘I feel like I’m missing something.’
But… if Shin Haejun really has some kind of trauma causing this…
‘I hope that’s not the case.’
I hope Shin Haejun doesn’t have some great sadness that I don’t know about. I fiddled with the sleeping Shin Haejun’s hand as I lay on my side.
‘Oh right, I need to check the quest reward.’
Suddenly remembering something I had forgotten, I reached for the phone I had tossed aside, when suddenly an alarm rang from the phone, startling me.
‘What is it?’
: Yeonsoosoo, now’s the time! Quickly receive your reward! This is the optimal opportunity!
Along with Nine’s sudden advice, the door opened.
“Haejun, no matter what, when you’re sick you shouldn’t be alone… Hey, what are you doing?”
Kim Sehyun was standing at the door holding a bowl of porridge.
His careful voice suddenly sharpened as soon as he discovered me.
“Why are you here? Why are you on Haejun’s bed?”
Kim Sehyun, unable to move violently while holding the porridge bowl, asked tremblingly.
Comments (41)
Ui**** : WTF is Lee Jaeha crazy? Why are you on Shin Haejun’s bed??
└Wow, trying to seduce him with your body?
Jj**** : Argh, this is so frustrating
Po**** : Author, how can you end it here…!!!
└Humanely speaking, Sehyun will punish him in the next chapter, right??
└When will he die already ㅠ
It wasn’t just Kim Sehyun who was upset, the readers seemed angry too as the comment section was about to explode.
I hadn’t thought anything of it since Shin Haejun had chased Kim Sehyun away, but I never expected to encounter him in this situation.
‘Did he come back to try to reconcile somehow?’
I was momentarily flustered as I sat up on the bed.
‘Nine’s words are more important for now.’
Since Kim Sehyun was holding a tray of porridge, I didn’t think he would suddenly approach and show violent behavior, so I quickly opened the quest window and pressed to receive the reward.
: *Skilled Guide*
Quest Rank: Sub
You have completed the quest. A reward will be given!
Reward: Mercenary Rest Efficiency 10% UP!
I was surprised by the reward content shown just before the quest window closed. My guiding efficiency increased?
“Hey, are you ignoring me now? Lee Jaeha!”
Kim Sehyun was angrily saying something, but honestly, I couldn’t hear a thing. This was much more important than that.
I hurriedly grabbed Shin Haejun’s hand.
*View Mercenary Status*
*Enhance Mercenary* – Consumes Gold/Love Coins.
*Mercenary Rest* – Currently partially sealed (15% efficiency)
*Hire Mercenary* – (1/2)
*Fire Mercenary*
My guiding efficiency really went up by 10%!
Only then did I understand why the quest title was ‘Skilled Guide’. It seems it literally meant to increase my skill level. Was I not utilizing my efficiency at all before, even for an F-class?
But that didn’t seem right. If my guiding ability had been that low, I wouldn’t have dared to guide Shin Haejun or Hyun Dowoon in the first place.
‘Wait… Does this mean my rank is going up?’
If this goes up to 100%… what happens to my rank?
‘Why did Nine say now was the optimal time to receive the reward?’
I couldn’t understand at all how the situation was unfolding. I felt like I needed to think calmly, but Kim Sehyun kept muttering something.
“Tell me quickly, why are you on that bed!”
The moment Kim Sehyun shouted, Shin Haejun suddenly woke up, clutching his head.
“It’s noisy!”
“Haejun, why on earth is he…!”
“I said it’s noisy! I told you to leave because it’s annoying!”
Shin Haejun seemed upset, having woken up to sudden yelling. He shouted at Kim Sehyun. A cold, almost frosty gaze was directed at Kim Sehyun.
“I… I came back because I was worried since you’re sick! But Lee Jaeha is lying on your bed!”
If I had known it would be this annoying, I shouldn’t have lain down saying I was tired. Of course, Kim Sehyun would be angry just by my presence in Shin Haejun’s room.
“I’ll handle it myself, so be quiet and leave.”
“But…!”
“Can’t you hear me telling you to leave?”
Shin Haejun angrily scolded Kim Sehyun in an irritated voice. Kim Sehyun, being chased out for the second time today, glared at me with a resentful face before turning around.
As the room quieted, Shin Haejun looked at me and spoke in a weak voice.
“Why didn’t you leave?”
“Because you’re sick.”
As I spoke softly and touched his forehead, he muttered quietly.
“It’s not cold this time…”
“Your fever has gone down. I had to do some emergency guiding because it seemed like a critical situation.”
At my words, Shin Haejun’s face became puzzled. Then he closed his eyes for a moment, and marveled that his condition had really improved.
“You don’t have to leave now, right? We fought yesterday, and earlier you were yelling at me.”
At my words, he looked at me with an ‘oh no’ expression. He seemed to feel sorry for shouting at me while rambling.
“Why are you looking at me with such a shrunken face?”
At my question, he looked at me with even brighter eyes. He whispered a small ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’, then suddenly whispered in a strange voice.
“Do I look pitiful?”
“Do you want to look pitiful to me?”
“Then maybe… you could like me more.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
