“Hey! If you report me, you’re dead! Don’t report it!”
“Mister, are you a criminal?”
“Wow! Villain, die!”
The children grew even more boisterous. The punch from the girl with pigtails looked soft but hit his back with surprising force.
‘This kid definitely isn’t a guide.’
“Freeze.”
“Kyaa!”
“Ooh.”
Yu-geon made a chopping motion toward the girl’s neck in a playful threat. The other kids around him watched with wide eyes, as if they were watching a cartoon.
“Shin Ji-soo. Stop. Don’t you care about this kid’s life?”
Ji-soo only glanced at Yu-geon with a disinterested look.
“Stop the act, Baek Yu-geon.”
She finished typing a message to Sa-weol, then showed the screen to Yu-geon. Her thumb hovered, as if she might press the send button at any moment.
“Whoa, what do you want?”
“Now you’re talking.”
“I can’t pay with my body!”
Yu-geon clutched the front of his shirt as he spoke.
“What are you saying in front of kids? And besides, I’m not interested in your body.”
“Really? Then what is it? I don’t have any cash on me right now.”
Ji-soo walked over to Yu-geon, lifting the child he was holding. The child snuggled into Ji-soo’s arms more comfortably than when they had been with Yu-geon. After patting the child’s head a couple of times, she tapped them gently, and the child hopped up and ran off.
“Why did you fight with Sa-weol?”
“What’s the condition?”
“My condition is simple. The reason you fought.”
Yu-geon thought Ji-soo would ask for something material, since Sa-weol had laid out such terms, but Ji-soo didn’t seem interested in that.
“Is that really all?”
“I’ll decide after I hear your explanation. If it’s interesting, I won’t say anything. If it’s not, I’ll tell her.”
“…….”
Yu-geon hesitated for a moment. Should he just shove her aside and run?
But there were Espers like Ji-soo here in District J, and if he wandered around in broad daylight, he’d be caught soon enough.
He could use his telekinesis, but that might harm the kids, which made him hesitate.
“I can hear your gears turning, Yu-geon.”
Ji-soo waved her phone as if she was about to send the message. Left with no choice, Yu-geon opened his mouth.
“Why else? Sa-weol and I never got along.”
“Aren’t you going to give more details, with some spice?”
“…….”
Why are Ji-han and Ji-soo so into gossip? Are their lives really that boring and miserable? Yu-geon didn’t understand them, but given the situation, he raised the tension a bit.
“She said she doesn’t trust me. Thinks I’m hogging all the guiding for myself.”
“Well, isn’t that true? What’s the problem? Sa-weol knew that too, didn’t she? The whole reason for pairing up is that, right?”
“Yeah….”
Yu-geon’s voice lacked energy. As his expression grew darker, Ji-soo’s eyes lit up in contrast.
“So? Did Sa-weol ask you to see her as more than just a guide?”
“No?”
Yu-geon raised his eyebrows, as if he had heard something utterly absurd.
“She felt wronged. Said she should get something out of it too.”
“What does she want?”
Now, Ji-soo’s eyes gleamed so intensely it made Yu-geon uncomfortable. He struggled to find the right words.
There’s no way he could tell her that Sa-weol had asked for blood, so he needed to find a similar word….
“Her body…?”
“Body?”
“Yeah. Her body.”
“Body? Hand, foot, leg. And… this?”
Ji-soo’s gaze wandered mischievously between Yu-geon’s legs.
“Hey! Where are you looking? It’s not what you’re thinking!”
“Wow… the rumor about rank and size being related was true.”
“It’s not that! Can you stop staring?”
“Mind if I check?”
“Check what? Are you insane?”
Yu-geon squeezed his thighs together, trying to hide himself from Ji-soo’s leering eyes. The more flustered he became, the more Ji-soo smirked, wiggling her fingers in a mock creepy gesture.
“How could her asking for your body not be something strange? That’s insane. So, that’s why you didn’t want to repay her with your body earlier? Sa-weol asked for your body, and you refused? Wow, incredible. Seriously, Yu-geon. You’ve made it.”
“No! I told you, it’s not like that!”
As Ji-soo grew more excited, Yu-geon frantically waved his hands in denial. Ji-soo’s eyes sparkled as if she had just heard something extraordinary, but then she looked back at him.
“It’s not? Then did *you* ask Sa-weol for her body?”
“No!”
“Then what is it?”
The more Yu-geon spoke, the deeper he felt like he was sinking. Why did he even start talking about this?
Even he hadn’t fully processed what had happened with Sa-weol. Why did she kiss him, ask for his blood instead of guiding, and then suggest they stop being a pair?
It didn’t sit right with him, accepting what she said at face value. Sa-weol had always carefully managed herself, hiding the fact that she was a Cremon. She avoided forming deep relationships with people and, though she had the desire to consume living things, she kept it under control to a tolerable level.
Every time Yu-geon had assumed she couldn’t control herself and accused her of wanting to devour Han-gyeol or someone else, Sa-weol had shown clear displeasure.
Those moments didn’t match with the actions she had shown that day. If he didn’t know her secret, maybe he would have believed it, but now, it was impossible to believe Sa-weol had genuinely acted on such impulses.
And the idea that Sa-weol, as a Cremon, might have killed her parents sent chills down his spine—it was horrifying.
But his feelings of horror weren’t directed at her. It was the tragedy of what she had gone through that was horrifying. How difficult it must have been for her was all he could think of.
He had learned that when a Cremon was first bitten by a creature, they temporarily lost their sanity. Han-gyeol’s birth mother had also failed to recognize him and attacked him. Surely, Sa-weol must have lost control, which led to the tragedy.
That was probably why she had compulsively kept her distance from people. Thinking about it made him want to take care of her, to be there for her. She must have endured all that loneliness alone, unable to confide in anyone. He wanted to be a strong support for her, to help her find some peace.
This wasn’t the first time Yu-geon had felt this way. He had experienced similar feelings toward Han-gyeol, who had a trauma related to Cremon due to a past incident.
Even when Han-gyeol shared warm conversations with family, there were times when he would send a distant gaze, as if he were an outsider. Though his expression would relax when Yu-geon spoke to him, that was only temporary. Like Sa-weol, Han-gyeol never formed deep connections with anyone.
Yu-geon believed that Han-gyeol’s reserved nature stemmed from the tragedy of his childhood. He had wanted to ask him about it in detail several times, but as a child, whenever he tried to bring it up, Han-gyeol’s cold demeanor had made him hesitate.
Now, Han-gyeol no longer made such stern expressions when the topic was mentioned, but he still didn’t openly talk about it. Each time, Yu-geon felt like he had missed his chance.
He often wondered, if he had been more mature back then, could he have been a source of support for Han-gyeol? Or did Han-gyeol still not see him as someone he could talk to? Worse yet, did Han-gyeol not consider him family at all? These thoughts had taken root deep in Yu-geon’s heart.
That was why, when he discovered Sa-weol’s secret, it didn’t feel like someone else’s problem. If he had the chance, he wanted to help her. He wanted her to rely on him. But when he confessed this, Sa-weol had dismissed it as him being overly obsessed with guiding. He felt frustrated and upset.
Above all, even if Sa-weol was a Cremon, he didn’t want to distance himself from her. She insisted that she wasn’t different from other Cremon, but Yu-geon didn’t see it that way at all. His belief in her didn’t waver, even when she had drained enough of his blood to make him delirious.
He hadn’t accepted her deal to give her his blood instead of guiding her because he was obsessed with guiding. It was because, if this was the only way to keep her by his side, he didn’t care.
Yu-geon didn’t understand these emotions. He told himself that his sympathy for her was due to Han-gyeol’s influence, but his fixation on her seemed extreme. He felt like he was losing his mind.
“Baek Yu-geon, are you going to answer me or not? Should I send this message?”
Ji-soo’s hand waved in front of Yu-geon’s eyes, snapping him out of his thoughts. Despite the confusion, one thing was clear—Yu-geon didn’t want to end the pair.
He didn’t fully understand his own feelings, but stopping here felt like it would be the end of everything.
Even when Sa-weol said it would be over if he stopped the kiss, it wasn’t the guiding that frightened him—it was the thought of their entire relationship vanishing that made him freeze.
“Don’t tell anyone about this, okay? Seriously.”
“Obviously. Why would I tell anyone? What, for their entertainment?”
Though Ji-soo loved gossip, she was the type to enjoy the exclusivity of knowing a secret rather than spreading it. That was a small relief.
“Sa-weol asked for my body instead of guiding. If I don’t give it to her, she said she’d end the pair.”
“Uh-huh, uh-huh.”
“So I agreed.”
“Gah! No, wait. Okay. Keep going. Kids, can you leave for a bit? So, what happened next?”
The children weren’t paying attention to their conversation, too busy rolling around and enjoying their free time.
“But when it actually happened… she seemed to get bored. So, she said she wanted to break the pair.”
“Pfft.”
Ji-soo had been listening intently, but then she burst into loud laughter, filling the room with her voice. Yu-geon’s face grew warm with embarrassment.
After rolling around on the bed while laughing, Ji-soo wiped her tear-filled eyes and continued.
“I don’t quite get it, though. How does asking you to be nice to her lead to asking for your body out of frustration?”
“She thinks I’ve only been good to her because of the guiding.”
“Well, isn’t that true?”
“But it’s not just that. I really….”
Yu-geon trailed off, and Ji-soo’s eyes narrowed. In a playful tone, she suddenly asked,
“Do you like Sa-weol?”
“No.”
“Does Sa-weol like you?”
“Not at all.”
“Have you told her you don’t like her?”
“She asked me before, and I told her.”
“Well, from my perspective, it looks like you *do* like Sa-weol.”
“You’re confused because of the matching rate. I heard that from Sa-weol too.”
At one point, even Yu-geon had wondered if he liked Sa-weol. It all started when Sa-weol had asked if he was letting her off the hook, and for a brief moment, he thought she looked cute.
At that time, he had denied it to himself, but what followed was even worse. Every morning, a part of him that had always been fine began to wither away, completely losing its strength. No matter what he did, nothing seemed to change.
Despairing, he traced it back to when the problem had started—it was after his first guiding session with Sa-weol. The moment he imagined her from that time, things started to work again.
“Unbelievable.”
When he first realized this change, his vision went dark. He thought his life was over. He despaired endlessly. Every Esper that approached Sa-weol felt like an enemy, and he was left wondering if he really had fallen for her.
