…What?
An Esper on the verge of going berserk?
As I stood there, stunned, Potato grabbed onto my hair and stubbornly insisted that I go that way.
[You have to guide that Esper right now! Immediately! It’s the only way to treat them!]
Then shouldn’t I ask the staff inside the test center for help—
[No! Not them! You can’t!]
Why not?
[Because… the Esper who’s about to go berserk is Hyun Je-ha.]
What?!
Je-ha is here?
[I sensed Hyun Je-ha’s energy. I’m sure of it. He’s right nearby. And there’s no one else who can guide him.]
The moment I heard that, I pulled my foot back from the car door. My legs started moving on their own.
The manager hyung and the members, who were all ready to leave, looked bewildered by my sudden action.
Manager Hyun-soo hyung—who’d been desperate to get us out of here after hearing about a possible intruder—looked the most shocked.
“What is it, Yu-jin?! Where are you going? We’re heading back to the dorm!”
“Just a second, manager hyung! Something urgent came up—please go on ahead! I’ll catch a taxi later or something!”
Even to me, it sounded like a flimsy, half-baked excuse. But there was nothing else I could say.
Hyun Je-ha is a fugitive. Someone who lives in complete secrecy. Showing himself to outsiders would only bring trouble.
And if a Bureau employee were to find him…
Hyun Je-ha’s life would be over that very day. Maybe things had changed, but the government had always been merciless toward deserter ability users. I doubted Hyun Je-ha would be an exception.
I wanted to save him.
This was something only I could do.
“What? What happened?!”
The manager hyung demanded an explanation, but I couldn’t give him one.
“I’m sorry! Please go on without me!”
“Hey, you—! Where do you think you’re going?!”
The Secreti members widened their eyes and tried to stop me as I bolted off—but I dashed straight into the bushes like an arrow.
Where is he? Where?!
If he was on the verge of going berserk, he needed emergency guiding immediately. Every second counted.
Potato helped me search through the forest.
[Over there—near that tall tree!]
“Got it!”
I was grateful for Potato, who pinpointed the location like a GPS.
Huff, huff.
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, my breath ragged. I’d been exercising to build stamina, and all that dance practice had me moving my body constantly—so I thought I’d improved. But apparently not. Just this much, and my heart felt like it was about to burst.
What a weak body.
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
Where are you?!
When I reached the spot, dripping with sweat, Hyun Je-ha was there.
He was slumped beneath a massive tree, leaning against it at an angle, clutching his abdomen as he writhed in pain.
“Ghk….”
The unique aura of an Esper surged around him like mist rising off water.
Has it already reached the point where he can’t control his abilities?
I rushed to his side and carefully checked his condition.
“Hey, can you hear me?”
“Ugh….”
Hyun Je-ha barely lifted his head. His blue eyes wavered unsteadily—one of the telltale signs of an Esper on the brink of going berserk.
His eyes are already gone.
“Do you… recognize me?”
“…Who?”
“Damn it.”
With a faint voice and no sense of caution, Hyun Je-ha leaned into me. He looked painfully fragile.
There are marks on his hands, too—self-inflicted.
They looked less like knife wounds and more like scratches from his own nails. Traces of him resisting the impending berserk state.
Hyun Je-ha didn’t recognize me. He rubbed his head against my shoulder like a cat, whining softly.
“It hurts….”
“Just hold on a little longer.”
“This energy… you’re a Guide… right…?”
Hyun Je-ha suddenly grabbed my hand.
“Huh—”
And then he licked it.
“…!”
Not just a casual lick—it was an act meant to draw out and amplify hidden arousal.
I’ve heard that Espers on the verge of berserk instinctively seduce Guides to survive… but I never thought I’d experience it like this.
Hyun Je-ha had always been a gentleman. He’d consistently received guiding from me to keep his corrosion from crossing the danger threshold.
Flustered by this unfamiliar side of him, I tried to pull my hand away—but he pressed his cheek softly against it and whimpered.
“It hurts… it’s so hot… I wish someone would help me….”
Through our touching hands, I could feel the unresolved energy inside him—thick, sticky, piled up without release.
Like a dam about to burst.
If the corrosion has progressed this far, it’s dangerous.
Holding hands or hugging wouldn’t be enough. He needed guiding through intimate contact.
Did this idiot… neglect getting guided after I was gone?
Because he thought I’d died saving him?
…You fool.
It was reckless—yet at the same time, knowing he’d continued to remember me, to long for me, made my nose sting.
At least it wasn’t a meaningless, pathetic death. At least one person had honored me as their partner to the very end.
When I first reunited with him in the underground vault, I’d been upset—seeing him living hidden away in the shadows for my sake.
After some time passed, I’d felt happy. I wanted to become his partner again and take revenge together.
And now, seeing that he still cherished and missed me…
A twisted sense of relief bloomed inside me, along with a strange satisfaction I couldn’t quite name.
“Ugh….”
His pained moan snapped me back to my senses.
“Wait. I’ll heal you with guiding—right away.”
The most efficient form of intimate guiding involves mucosal contact—pressing mucosa against mucosa, or having the Esper ingest the Guide’s bodily fluids.
Sex works the fastest, but back when we were constantly in combat, if guiding was urgently needed outdoors, we made do with kissing to draw out maximum efficiency.
I seated Hyun Je-ha properly against the tree and gently parted his lips.
I’d performed intimate guiding countless times in my previous life—but my heart was racing uncontrollably. Was it because I’d run here in such a rush? Or because this was the first time I’d seen Je-ha this weakened, right on the edge?
Either way, it didn’t matter right now.
I had to save him.
“…Sorry. It’s an emergency—just bear with me for a moment. It’ll be over soon.”
Without hesitating further, I pressed my lips to his.
The soft texture of his lips registered vividly. During the last dungeon break, I’d been in such a rush, just brushing lips quickly from one person to the next, that I hadn’t felt anything properly. But now, moving slowly and carefully to soothe his raging corrosion through guiding, every sensation of contact came through clearly.
Nngh….
The arousal that surged when an Esper and Guide connected crept up insidiously. It was so sweet it felt like my brain might melt.
I did my best to ignore it.
Damn it. Of all people—our compatibility is high, too.
The higher the compatibility, the faster both the Guide and Esper heat up, their bodies becoming sensitive almost instantly.
Even though my body was different now, my compatibility with Hyun Je-ha seemed unchanged. I could feel my breathing growing rough.
Mine—and his.
A chill ran down my spine.
Quick and precise. End it fast.
As I carefully let guiding energy flow through our joined lips, I gently slipped my tongue into Hyun Je-ha’s mouth.
“Mmhn….”
Perhaps because he was on the brink of berserk, he didn’t resist me at all. Thank god. I softly swept over his moist palate, the insides of his cheeks, the spaces between his gums, and he let out a pained, needy sound.
The deeper the contact grew, the greater the purity and volume of guiding energy flowing into him.
The corrosion piled up inside Hyun Je-ha resisted my guiding at first—but I could feel it gradually melting away under the inward surge of guiding energy.
Like snow collapsing helplessly under the warm spring sun.
Yes. Just a little more like this….
And the corrosion, which had been bubbling and boiling on the verge of explosion, would be completely purified—like it had never existed at all.
Je-ha’s out of it right now anyway. He won’t even remember that I guided him.
Unlike at the test center, there was no need to suppress my strength. I poured guiding energy into him at my full, original capacity for quite some time.
Hyun Je-ha, who had been quietly accepting my intimate guiding with half-lidded eyes, suddenly snapped them wide open.
“…?!”
W-What?!
The corrosion was steadily calming down… wasn’t it?
A strange madness glimmered in Hyun Je-ha’s wide blue eyes. Before I could react, he wrapped both arms tightly around me—pressing our bodies flush, as if to trap me so I couldn’t escape.
The kiss deepened instantly. Our lips meshed together like interlocking gears, stuck fast.
W-Wait, what is this?! What’s wrong with him?!
This never happened when I guided Hyun Je-ha before.
When I tried to pull my lips away in panic, he pushed in even deeper, rough and forceful.
In my fluster, the initiative in guiding shifted—from me, to him.
Unlike my careful, tentative touches, Hyun Je-ha—his reason gone—invaded my mouth fiercely, voraciously.
“Mmph—!”
Guiding energy was sucked into him without resistance. The corrosion that had been slowly falling asleep inside him screamed.
With such a sudden flood of guiding energy, most of the corrosion vanished in an instant.
If it disappears this abruptly, he’s going to suffer severe backlash pain afterward—!
That was why I’d been proceeding so carefully in the first place. And now he was being this violent?
I turned my head, trying desperately to break free—but Hyun Je-ha wouldn’t allow it. Even though the berserk risk had already been resolved with the reduced corrosion, he refused to let me go, continuing the kiss as if he meant to swallow me whole.
“Mmm—!”
With our bodies pressed tightly together, kissing like we were fused into one, my ears burned hot.
Stop, stop!
Guiding after the objective was achieved wasn’t guiding anymore.
T-This bastard. He doesn’t even know I’m Ahn Ga-hyun, and he’s pulling this kind of trashy stunt?
All that gratitude and tenderness from earlier—gone.
I finally managed to shake off his hands, which were laced together as if he’d never let me go. I raised my hand.
With all my strength, I shoved Hyun Je-ha away.
He didn’t resist—he was pushed back easily.
Thud—.
Hyun Je-ha fell backward onto the ground.
Pwah.
Barely managing to break the kiss, I scrambled backward on my butt, shouting at him.
“Y-You shameless bastard!”
