A warning siren blared inside his head, screaming that taking this any further would be a disaster. The resolve he’d clung to so desperately now felt laughable—he just wanted to get out of this. But with Han Ju-oh pinning him down, escape wasn’t an option unless he could convince him to stop.
“Stop. If we keep going like this, something’s seriously going to go wrong—for both of us.”
“There’s nothing bad that can really happen here. What matters is that you keep pushing out energy, and I accept it however I can.”
“Yeah, but the balance is starting to break.”
Seo-ha shouted urgently. Truthfully, he’d had these heated moments plenty of times before. And every single time, he’d tried everything to snap himself out of it—biting his lip, pinching himself, anything to jolt his senses.
‘I can’t go all the way.’
Getting aroused every time things escalated was only natural. The real problem was that he never intended to follow through completely. That’s why it was best to stop things before they went too far.
But the issue was, just because Seo-ha said stop didn’t mean Han Ju-oh was going to listen.
“Why do you keep touching there? Don’t pull on it!”
Seo-ha screamed. Seriously, why did this guy grope someone else’s chest like it belonged to him…? The horrifying thought of Han Ju-oh fondling his own chest flashed through Seo-ha’s mind, and he practically recoiled.
“If you suck the sense right out of me like that, I can’t guide—hngh! Aagh!”
Seo-ha twisted, trying to roll to the side, shouting as he did. But Han Ju-oh’s hand brushed his waist. In that instant, the shock that surged through him turned his vision white. Startled, his whole body tensed up like a struck frog, not even breathing. He trembled violently, and then Han Ju-oh’s hand came back to stroke his waist again.
“If you touch me like that…”
Even the chest stuff was bad enough, but now that he was touching his waist—Seo-ha suddenly felt a surge of fear. That part of his body had always been practically nonexistent, so why did it feel like it was melting under Han Ju-oh’s touch now?
“Baek Seo-ha.”
He writhed beneath Han Ju-oh, having completely forgotten how he even ended up pinned under him in the first place. His chest, his waist—everything was sparking with such ridiculous sensitivity that there was no telling what felt worse.
“Baek Seo-ha!”
He was trying to move in the direction of escape when Han Ju-oh’s voice boomed sharply. Seo-ha froze, then slowly looked up at him. At some point, Han Ju-oh had stopped completely. He was just staring at Seo-ha, motionless.
“Check it.”
“Check what…?”
Seo-ha had been so distracted trying not to get overwhelmed by the sensation that he’d lost sight of the whole reason for this act in the first place.
“Wh-What is this…?”
Seo-ha braced himself on the sofa and pushed his upper body up. Then he checked again—and realized something had changed.
“We didn’t even do proper guiding, so how…?”
He’d already poured out nearly all the energy he could give to Han Ju-oh. It felt like he could manage a bit more, so he’d tried, and during that time their position had shifted. The moment Han Ju-oh took control, Seo-ha’s focus on guiding had vanished. After that, he hadn’t been guiding at all—but the energy that had been building up inside him had decreased. He checked his own readings to be sure.
“Tw-Twenty…?”
The number had almost doubled since before. Alarmed, he looked at Han Ju-oh, but the man didn’t seem the least bit surprised. In fact, he looked… deeply serious, as if caught in thought.
“Isn’t that a good thing? Why do you look like that?”
“I don’t know what caused the bigger effect.”
“So you have a guess? Then tell me. Share it.”
Seo-ha had a few guesses of his own. So he thought it’d be good to talk it through and find something that might be close to the truth.
Han Ju-oh pointed a finger at Seo-ha.
“You.”
“…”
“Or me.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Either you’re the cause, or I am. Or maybe both of us.”
For something said with such dead seriousness, it was almost irritatingly anticlimactic.
“Of course it has to be the two of us.”
Seo-ha shoved Han Ju-oh’s shoulder, thinking he was just messing around. Still, he was secretly grateful. That flat little comment had given him enough time to calm down. A moment ago, he’d been overwhelmed to the point of getting full-body chills.
Seo-ha climbed down from the sofa and grabbed his clothes, throwing them loosely over his shoulders. As he slid his arms through the sleeves, something felt off—roomier than usual. He looked down and noticed something wasn’t quite right.
“Ah.”
Turned out he’d grabbed Han Ju-oh’s shirt by mistake. It was just a plain white tee, so he hadn’t noticed, but the other one on the floor must be his. Seo-ha began pulling his arms out to switch shirts when Han Ju-oh walked over and grabbed his hand.
“What?”
Seo-ha looked up with a puzzled expression. Han Ju-oh just shook his head.
“Keep it on.”
“Huh? It’s your shirt. That’s why I was trying to take it off.”
“You don’t need to take it off.”
“What are you saying? If I don’t, are you just going to walk around like that?”
He’d already been hyper-aware the moment he realized he wasn’t wearing his own shirt. It was a simple round-neck tee, but because it was looser, one side of his collarbone peeked out, and the shoulder seams didn’t line up properly.
Worst of all, the length was awkward—it barely skimmed over his hips. Sure, he was wearing pants, so it wasn’t indecent, but the fact that it made it obvious he was shorter than Han Ju-oh didn’t sit well with him.
Apparently, Han Ju-oh didn’t intend to walk around shirtless either, as he picked up Seo-ha’s T-shirt from the floor.
“Hey—!”
Seo-ha instinctively reached out to stop him, seeing that he was about to wear that, but Han Ju-oh was faster. In one smooth motion, he pulled it over his head and slipped his arms through. Even if Seo-ha rushed over now, the shirt was already on; there was no stopping it midway. As Seo-ha hesitated, Han Ju-oh tugged the shirt down past his chest.
“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
Han Ju-oh’s absurdly muscular body bulged beneath the tight fabric, and Seo-ha gave a disheartened groan laced with resentment. Because of his job, Seo-ha had never bulked up, and even naturally, he wasn’t built to swell with muscle. One gym trainer, who swore nothing was impossible, eventually gave up after several months of trying.
At least he didn’t gain fat with every bite, but his muscles were light and compact, stitched together more for agility than power—slim, in contrast to Han Ju-oh’s solid, full-bodied physique. He was taller, too.
Which meant that even a shirt that fit Seo-ha perfectly looked like it might rip apart when Han Ju-oh wore it.
“So this is your way of making me feel inadequate? Well, mission accomplished. Get out.”
Seo-ha pushed Han Ju-oh’s back, announcing he was done with him. He just wanted to be alone now. Han Ju-oh, putting up token resistance, let himself be guided toward the door—at least he listened.
“Can I ask you something?”
Han Ju-oh let out a scoff, like he couldn’t believe it—Seo-ha pushed him out and now he was stopping him again? Whatever, if he wanted to laugh, let him.
“You…”
Seo-ha hesitated, then said it.
“Are you really okay with going all the way?”
“……”
“I mean… are you really fine with doing insertion guiding?”
Han Ju-oh’s brow twitched. Seo-ha knew it was on him for not explaining more clearly, but still, he wished the guy would say something.
“These days, there’ve been times things got risky. And every time, I ended up struggling with it. What I want most is a higher match rate, so if insertion guiding helps with that, I figured I’d have to accept it. But at the same time… I find myself hesitating.”
His words began spilling out, and as the sentence dragged, Seo-ha messed up his own hair and rubbed the back of his neck in frustration.
“Back when I was going around trying to find Espers with high compatibility, people kept suggesting how I raise the guiding level.”
It was all in the past now—but it wasn’t something he could forget.
“It was always a gamble—if it worked, great. If not, no big deal. I’ve been in enough situations like that… maybe that’s why I’ve grown a bit detached. But with you… going all the way would definitely boost the match rate. So it’s not like there’s nothing in it for me. Just putting that out there.”
At some point, he realized he’d started rambling. With a weak smile, Seo-ha added:
“I don’t even know what I’m trying to say anymore, but… that’s where I stand. I have no idea what you think.”
Finally, Seo-ha met Han Ju-oh’s eyes and asked what his thoughts were. Han Ju-oh, whose smile had faded during the long monologue, replied in a low, heavy voice.
“I’m against doing that with a coworker.”
“Right? I knew we were on the same page.”
Seo-ha brightened immediately, waving his hand as if giving Han Ju-oh permission to go now. Not just that—he even walked over and opened the front door himself.
“See you.”
He added a little eye gesture to hurry him along. Han Ju-oh looked like he had plenty left to say, but he obediently turned and walked out.
“Hello.”
It happened then. Seo-ha hadn’t noticed the door to Unit 303 was open—and suddenly locked eyes with Secretary Park Joo-hee.
Her gaze swept over both Seo-ha and Han Ju-oh’s torsos in an instant. Han Ju-oh’s physique was a spectacle in itself—undeniably impressive. Seo-ha, on the other hand, was wearing a shirt clearly too big for him. Anyone could see they had switched.
“You two seem to be working hard together. How nice. Well then.”
Thunk. The sound of her door closing echoed through the hallway.
Seo-ha looked at Han Ju-oh and said,
“Why do I feel so uncomfortable around that woman?”
Is it just me?
