“Wait a minute.”
I had to calm this wild horse down before the situation got any worse. I shook off Han-gyeol’s hand, which was gripping my wrist, and then turned to Yu-geon.
“Let go of me, too.”
I twisted my wrist, trying to free myself from Yu-geon’s grip, but the more I struggled, the tighter he held on.
“Baek Yu-geon, let go of my hand! It hurts!”
I finally snapped, shouting and jerking my wrist away. He released me, leaving a red mark where his fingers had been. I rubbed my wrist, feeling the intense energy from his heightened emotions lingering on my skin.
“Are you okay, Sa-weol?”
“Yes.”
Han-gyeol frowned as he saw the mark. He began to gently massage my wrist, but Yu-geon interrupted with a sharp tone.
“I’m the problem, aren’t I? You two were having a good time, and I came in and ruined everything.”
He couldn’t calm down, his voice laced with bitterness. While things had been relatively peaceful during dinner, the atmosphere had soured well before he arrived, and I was already starting to lose my temper—largely because of Baek Yu-geon, who was standing right in front of me. In fact, part of me was almost relieved that he had shown up when he did.
“Let’s talk outside.”
I put on my shoes and tried to drag Baek Yu-geon out with me.
“Sa-weol.”
Han-gyeol called out to me, sounding concerned.
“I’ll be fine. I have things to discuss with Baek Yu-geon. We can talk later, okay?”
I pulled Yu-geon along, ignoring Han-gyeol’s worried expression. Yu-geon shot one last glare at Han-gyeol before following me out. The door slammed shut behind us with a loud thud, and after all the noise, my ears were ringing.
“Did you forget our agreement? I told you not to get close to Han-gyeol hyung. I told you—”
“Baek Yu-geon, shut up. This is not the place to talk about that.”
I cut him off with a low, biting voice. Yu-geon opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again, letting out a frustrated breath.
It wasn’t just Yu-geon who was on edge—I was too. Even though I was trying to keep it together, I could feel the anger building up inside me, making it hard to stay calm. I was so furious that a headache was starting to pound at my temples. I briefly considered ending the conversation here and picking it up tomorrow when we were both less emotional, but Yu-geon kept pushing my buttons.
“Did you kiss Han-gyeol hyung?”
He kept prodding at me, testing my patience.
“No. But did you—did you do anything else with him?”
“Hey.”
“Just answer me. If you didn’t, then just say no.”
That was the last straw.
“Baek Yu-geon, you live in this dorm, right? Which unit is yours?”
He looked at me with confusion, clearly thrown off by my sudden change of topic.
“Where is it?”
“…The floor below.”
“Lead the way. Let’s talk inside.”
My voice had softened, and Yu-geon, now somewhat subdued, led the way down the stairs. His dorm was indeed just one floor below Han-gyeol’s.
As soon as he punched in his door code, the door unlocked, and I stepped inside. The motion sensor lights flicked on, illuminating the dark interior. Yu-geon followed me in, and the door clicked shut behind him.
Being inside, away from prying ears in the hallway, felt like a relief. But the real reason I wanted to be here wasn’t just to avoid being overheard—I had a lot to say to Yu-geon.
“What does it matter to you who I’m with or what I do?”
“What?”
His expression was one of disbelief, like he couldn’t fathom the sudden shift in my tone.
“Yeah. What if I did something with Han-gyeol? What are you going to do about it? I’ve told you before that I’m uncomfortable with the way you act like you own me just because we’re paired.”
He hesitated for a moment, taken aback by my outburst.
“And what’s this about you giving Han-gyeol permission to see me?”
“That’s—”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Who do you think you are to give or deny permission for who I see?”
This had been bothering me ever since I heard it from Han-gyeol. Both Han-gyeol and Yu-geon had overstepped their bounds. If Han-gyeol was interested in me, he should have spoken to me directly. Asking for permission from my pair wasn’t a requirement.
It was nothing more than a facade of politeness—an Esper has no right to control who their Guide sees. The only thing they have any say over is guiding, and even that only applies to regular pairs. The fact that they had discussed this behind my back was both infuriating and disrespectful.
“And now what? You say all this, but the moment I’m with someone else, you lose your mind?”
Yu-geon and I didn’t become a pair out of mutual affection. To put it bluntly, I was blackmailed into it because he discovered my secret, and since then, he’s been meddling in my life however he pleased.
Just a moment ago, he was ready to spill something that had me on edge, without a care for how much anxiety it would cause me. Every time Yu-geon acted so recklessly, it felt like my blood was boiling.
“Yeah, I don’t care if you see someone else. But don’t see Han-gyeol hyung. It’s not that hard, is it?”
Yu-geon was being unreasonable, contradicting himself because he couldn’t think of a better argument.
“Why? Are you afraid I’ll devour him?”
I sneered at him.
“Afraid I’ll bite him? Because I’m a Cremon who’s more driven by hunger than by any kind of attraction, right?”
“That’s not it… I just don’t want to lose even a part of you….”
Yu-geon muttered something incoherent, and then he added something even more absurd.
“What if you start dating Han-gyeol hyung and then decide you want to guide him too? I can’t stand the thought of that.”
Why was he thinking like this? Did he really believe that just because a Guide went to an Esper’s house, they would automatically start dating and want to guide each other?
I had clearly told him that I wouldn’t guide Han-gyeol. Why was he making such definitive assumptions?
I couldn’t understand where Yu-geon was coming from, so I slowly went over everything that had happened between us. Initially, Yu-geon had demanded that I stay away from Han-gyeol as a condition for keeping my secret if we paired up. He thought I was a threat to Han-gyeol.
After that, he became increasingly possessive, showing jealousy whenever another Esper approached me. Then, when I told him that I might consider dating someone else if I weren’t a Cremon, he had said he didn’t care who I dated.
But now, he was asking me not to see Han-gyeol because he was afraid I might end up guiding him if we started dating.
So, the conclusion was that he didn’t see any potential for me to date anyone else, but he was worried about the possibility with Han-gyeol, so I should be extra careful?
“This is just unbelievable.”
Yu-geon saying he didn’t care who I dated was only because he thought I wouldn’t see anyone else as a potential partner, except for him. What he couldn’t stand was the idea of me guiding someone other than him.
So, after telling Han-gyeol it was okay to meet me, he was now having a meltdown at the thought that our pairing might be affected?
The more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed.
“I’m not going to pair with you anymore.”
“What?”
Yu-geon’s face contorted in disbelief.
“I’m breaking off the pair. You can go ahead and expose my secret or whatever you want. Do what you like.”
“Gu Sa-weol, what are you saying all of a sudden?”
“I’m saying I don’t want to be under your control anymore. I should never have gotten involved with you in the first place.”
“Is it really worth it just to see Han-gyeol hyung?”
“No, it’s not about that. I’m just sick of your nonsense. I’m tired of you inserting yourself into my life like it’s nothing, and I’m sick of you acting like some confused kid who can’t tell the difference between being an Esper and being my lover. I never liked you from the start. I must have been out of my mind for a while.”
“…….”
I was furious. My anger was burning so hot that I was surprised by it myself. No matter how awful people had been to me in the past, I had never been this enraged.
The heat in my head was so intense it felt like it was going to explode. My throat was scratchy and raw, making it difficult to continue speaking. It was like swallowing molten lava.
Yu-geon’s desire for my guiding? I had known that from the beginning.
From the moment he first saw me, he treated me like a battery charger. The way he proposed a pair the moment he saw me and said I was beautiful was telling. In his eyes, I was just a high-performance, luxurious charger that he didn’t want to let slip away.
So why was I so angry at him now? He had been like this from the start.
“But if guiding was your goal from the beginning, why all the fuss? You’ve already paired with me, so your goal should be accomplished. Why did you keep following me around, pretending to care about my safety, acting like you were worried, like you understood me, like you were jealous? Why did you pretend to be so nice while hovering around me?”
That was the thing. If all Yu-geon wanted from me was guiding, why did he go through all that trouble? That was what puzzled me. All the goodwill Yu-geon had shown me suddenly felt repulsive. I felt mocked, like I had been pitied without ever asking for it, only to be tossed aside.
Then, something clicked in my mind.
“Ah. You can’t reveal my secret, can you? You can’t get rid of me, can you? Isn’t that right?”
I saw the uncertainty in Yu-geon’s eyes as he glared at me, his unease palpable. I could tell.
‘I’m the one in control here. This whole thing was a mistake from the start.’
Yu-geon had isolated me from others, especially Espers, because he was sure I wouldn’t be able to resist my thirst.
And then he tried to soften my defenses, making me reliant on him with sweet words, pretending to understand me, to monopolize my guiding for himself.
Now it all made sense why he had been so contradictory—because he was obsessed with my guiding, trying to tie me down emotionally so that I would only see him.
He was the type of Esper who couldn’t let go of his Guide, the first type.
“A possessive, selfish person who wants everything to themselves.”
“Yeah, I can’t let you go.”
Yu-geon admitted it without hesitation. My prediction had been right, and a bitter laugh escaped my lips. At the same time, my mind cleared, turning icy cold.
“Let go of what? You never had me in the first place, so how can you let go?”
But there was something about his expression—oddly defeated, as if he had lost, even though he had been the one scheming.
