“How is it? A bit too salty?”
Hayan had placed a neatly cut piece of salmon steak on Nabin’s plate, trimmed to the perfect bite size. Coated in a soft, pastel cream sauce, the pale crimson steak looked so beautiful it almost felt like a shame to eat it.
Nabin lifted the piece with his fork and slipped it into his mouth. Maybe it was because his heart was at ease, but food made by Hayan always seemed to carry a richer, deeper flavor.
“…It’s delicious.”
The words weren’t spoken out of politeness. Nabin truly meant it. Day after day of meals prepared by Hayan had helped him realize something about himself—he preferred seafood to meat.
He especially enjoyed clean, mild-tasting fish like salmon or sea bream, rather than fish with a heavy, fishy odor.
Today was his first time trying salmon steak. He’d only ever eaten it raw or smoked, but grilled as a steak, it tasted so different it was like eating an entirely new kind of fish.
“That’s a relief. Try this too. You liked it yesterday, so I made it again today.”
Hayan spooned some mushroom-filled cream risotto onto his plate. Just as Nabin was learning what foods he liked, Hayan was gradually memorizing which dishes and ingredients he ate well.
Nabin had always eaten very little—so little that it revealed the kind of life he’d lived until now. He couldn’t even manage a quarter of what a grown man should normally eat.
What was worse than his small appetite was how he never commented on the taste of anything.
Hayan himself wasn’t an experienced cook, so at first his attempts had been clumsy. Even when he checked the seasoning while cooking, the finished dish often turned out far saltier or blander than expected.
Sometimes, when he used tricky ingredients, the dish came out bitter or left behind an unpleasant aftertaste.
Yet Nabin never grimaced. No matter what Hayan handed him, he quietly cleaned his plate.
At first, Hayan thought the taste he sampled mid-cooking was how the final dish would turn out. If he hadn’t tried it again after serving Nabin—if he’d hurried to take away the plate—then Nabin would have swallowed every last bite, regardless of the unpleasant taste that lingered.
After realizing that, Hayan couldn’t help but take more care with each of Nabin’s meals. Watching his expression as he ate became second nature, because knowing Nabin’s personality, he would surely say it was good even when it wasn’t.
Luckily, his words just now—“It’s delicious”—were sincere. The faint tremble of his long lashes, like the flutter of butterfly wings, was proof enough that he truly enjoyed the salmon steak.
“…I still can’t get used to seeing Esper Lee Hayan like this.”
Kim Su-hyun, happily dazed by the meal, raised his water glass as if to wash down the strangeness before him. By now he should have grown accustomed to it, but it still felt foreign. Perhaps the strange one was himself.
From the moment Hayan had walked into the infirmary carrying Nabin, Su-hyun had sensed something unusual in the way he looked at him. He’d even wondered whether Hayan already had a Dedicated Guide contract.
But as days passed, it wasn’t just that first impression. Hayan himself was changing.
The man whose expression had once been frozen like ice now melted the moment his eyes met Nabin’s, softening like the warmest spring breeze.
It wasn’t only his expression. The voice he used with Nabin was different too. So gentle it tickled the ears, that tender tone made Su-hyun feel as if the salmon he’d just eaten had come alive inside him, flapping wildly.
At this rate, he thought he might get indigestion even with delicious food before him. He fixed his gaze on his plate and even wove mana around his ears to block out the sound.
Still, Hayan’s cooking was better than most restaurant dishes. Beyond taste, it was the sincerity infused into every bite that left Su-hyun feeling strangely happy.
“Th-this one’s really good too…”
Ryu Soh-an picked up an avocado roll from in front of him and placed it on Nabin’s plate. Seeing Nabin nearly finished with the risotto, Hayan had been about to serve him the roll himself—and his brows drew sharply together.
Soh-an’s throat tightened under those pitch-black eyes, but he couldn’t stop himself. He too wanted to offer Nabin something to eat.
Even if he couldn’t bring the food to his lips directly like Hayan, he at least wanted to place something on his plate.
“…Thank you.”
Sensing the tense current around the table, Nabin gave a small, polite thanks. When he ate part of the roll Soh-an had given him, Soh-an’s face brightened with a radiant smile—while Hayan’s frown deepened further.
“Hayan-hyung, this one’s really delicious too…”
The mood shifted when Nabin, still chewing the roll, reached out and tugged at Hayan’s sleeve. He gazed carefully into Hayan’s ink-dark eyes, pressing sincerity into each word as he whispered.
For Nabin, meeting someone’s gaze up close wasn’t easy. But with Hayan, looking straight into his eyes wasn’t frightening at all.
If anything, even when fear welled up from other things, staring into those deep black irises would slowly calm the turmoil inside him.
He couldn’t explain why, but he could feel that Hayan was displeased. And just as Hayan had given him the peace he thought he’d never have, Nabin wished the same calm for him.
It wasn’t like the past, when he watched S-rank Espers nervously, terrified they might harm him if they soured.
This time, he truly wanted Hayan’s mood to brighten. Because when Hayan was in good spirits, Nabin’s heart would float high above the clouds too. Selfish, maybe, but honest.
He liked how Hayan cooked for him every day. Thanks to Hayan, who showed him that life could be happy today and worth looking forward to tomorrow, Nabin’s world was slowly expanding.
If not for Hayan, he wouldn’t even be sitting across the table from Ryu Soh-an now. Just seeing Soh-an would have dragged him under with painful memories and emotions until he lost himself.
He could never forget the Center Director’s gaze. Those eyes had sized him up like merchandise, weighing his worth on invisible scales.
But after that day, he hadn’t met the Director again. With his personality, it was strange he hadn’t already forced Nabin into use as a commodity.
Whether by luck or someone’s protection, Nabin wasn’t naïve. It was Hayan shielding him like an umbrella against the downpour.
The staff member who’d measured his Guiding Mana had clearly said his Guide Rank wasn’t D-rank, but Immeasurable.
The highest rank Nabin had ever known was S-rank. “Immeasurable” was a term most at the Center had only heard of as legend.
Hayan had explained patiently what that meant and what might happen in the future.
The reason Nabin could still live a peaceful daily life was because of Hayan, Kim Su-hyun, and Ryu Soh-an. He was slowly opening his heart to Soh-an, who visited the mansion daily to treat him, because he knew Soh-an’s efforts came from genuine care.
Even when memories crashed down, threatening to swallow him whole, he could stand again because they were there.
New green shoots had begun sprouting from the once-dead ground of his heart, enough for him to realize he truly was getting better.
He wanted to give something back—to Hayan, whose eyes shone like a sky full of stars whenever he spoke. To Soh-an, who measured every word and gesture with such care. To Su-hyun, who, just as in his past life, revealed his warm heart without holding back.
“Being able to eat like this, together… I really like it.”
Once, he could never have spoken such words aloud. He would’ve swallowed them down instead. It had always been hard for him to recognize his own emotions, to know what he was feeling.
Under the constant weight of violence, he’d had no choice but to grow numb. Thinking or feeling only brought pain, so he had smothered even the stray thoughts that rose unbidden.
But now, he no longer had to cower. Like a child learning to walk, Nabin was desperately trying to plant his feet firmly and move forward.
Even if he couldn’t walk soon, it didn’t matter. Even if his legs gave out and he fell, he knew warm hands would always be there to lift him up. So long as he kept standing again, one day he would surely run on his own.
Ah, I like this chapter a lot!