A few days later.
The gate energy detectors throughout the Paju area turned a vivid red, their pagers blaring as if they were about to explode.
All nearby residents had been evacuated, but sirens wailed from every corner just in case.
Faced with a Level 9 Gate—one so severe it required both of the nation’s S-class Espers to step forward—ordinary citizens trembled in secret fear, while reporters’ eyes gleamed with anticipation.
“—Esper Jin! This schedule requires taking all the Guides along; may we ask how you plan to handle this alone?!”
“……Guide Jae-ram, as the dedicated Guide for Esper Asher Delveron……!”
“Esper Yu Jin-hwan!”
“……Esper, ……Esper!”
The reporters gathered boisterously at the Association entrance, swarming like a colony of ants.
They were formidable people, capable of sublimating tension into pure energy-draining persistence.
“See you later.”
In Hajin’s office, Suhyeon had finished replenishing his guiding.
From above the building, he watched the Espers depart first, cutting through the tsunami of cameras and reporters.
Suhyeon blinked his somewhat stiff eyes.
He knew the same incident wouldn’t happen again, and he had long ago settled his agitation regarding it.
However, no matter how much it was Suhyeon, he couldn’t completely ward off the nerves.
He hadn’t even set foot near the gate site where he was supposed to standby yet, but his palms were already damp with sweat.
He had consistently received response training, which the Association President had paid special attention to considering his S-class status, but that could never be the same as the real thing.
Suhyeon clenched and unclenched his pale hands.
It was the first time he had felt this kind of nervous tension.
About an hour later.
A crackling static sound came from the pagers distributed to all the gifted individuals mobilized for this gate suppression.
—Gate open confirmed. Everyone to your positions.
—Team 1, confirmed.
—Team 2, confirmed.
—Guide Group, confirmed.
Almost simultaneously with the voice flowing smoothly from the small device in his ear, white sparks ignited in the air.
Suhyeon, who was waiting with a bodyguard, let out a short breath.
The person who appeared along with the light was a man Suhyeon had seen a few times before with Hajin.
He was a movement-type Esper who would transport Suhyeon to the vicinity of the gate site.
Chewing over the information he had received in advance, Suhyeon looked at the man who had suddenly appeared.
As soon as the man turned his head and spotted Suhyeon, he snapped his waist into a 90-degree bow.
“……?”
“HELLO!!!!!”
Suhyeon blinked at the voice that suddenly rang out thunderously.
“My name is Lee Jeonghyeon! You are Mr. Chae Suhyeon, right?”
The man, who had offered an excessively polite greeting, was sweating profusely for some reason and couldn’t meet Suhyeon’s eyes properly.
‘Is the gate site that serious?’
By the time Suhyeon narrowed his eyes, interpreting the situation completely differently from the truth, the man—Esper Lee Jeonghyeon—cautiously grabbed the hem of Suhyeon’s clothes.
Suhyeon tilted his head as the man insisted on the discomfort of grabbing his sleeve rather than his arm or hand.
It looked as if he were using only his fingertips, as if he were afraid to touch him, but Suhyeon figured there must be a reason.
He soon turned his head.
“It might be a bit dizzying!”
At that moment, the scene before his eyes shifted.
The first thing that caught his eye was the extensive security detail.
Men in black suits stood lining the walls of the room, and in the middle of the room, where a comfortable sofa was placed, stood a man dressed in ordinary clothes.
“This is Choi Taewoo, an A-class Esper from Team 1 who will be guarding you. It was an honor to meet you! I’ll be going now!!”
Esper Lee Jeonghyeon, who had introduced the man, vanished as quickly as he had appeared.
“HELLO!!!”
While Suhyeon stood there blankly for a moment, the man who would likely stay by his side until the gate suppression was complete—Esper Choi Taewoo—bowed at a 90-degree angle.
“I heard from the Team Leader! I will do my best to protect you!!”
This one was also stiff with military-like discipline. And “Team Leader” likely referred to Hajin.
‘There are many loud-voiced people around Hajin.’
Suhyeon nodded dazedly and introduced himself, saying, “I’m Chae Suhyeon.”
Grrrrrrr—.
It was then that a vibration and a roar, sounding as if they were spreading from very far away, were heard.
Suhyeon whipped his head around.
Beyond the large window on one wall of the room, a gate larger than any Suhyeon had ever seen through training or news was open in the distance.
Despite appearing to be very far away, it was so massive that it could be seen clearly even from here.
—Kueeeeeeek!!
The moment he saw the tentacles stretching out from within, his stomach churned as old memories surfaced.
However, Suhyeon gripped the windowsill tightly and stared beyond the firmly closed window.
Hajin would be over there.
Even if it was a disaster-class gate with Level 9 energy—something he had never dealt with before—Hajin simply sized up the massive gate tearing through the air and the monsters beginning to emerge from it, then let his arms hang down.
He hadn’t been nervous to begin with, but seeing the gate actually open made it seem even more unnecessary to worry needlessly…
And there was even less reason to call in Team 2.
His cold blue gaze tracked the movements of the unfamiliar Espers.
There was certainly no reason to call his lover anywhere near this filthy mess.
Hajin clicked his tongue at the Association President’s decision, thinking that senility must have arrived early.
“I have returned, Team Leader!”
Hajin turned his head toward Lee Jeonghyeon, who had appeared briskly at his side.
“And Mr. Suhyeon?”
“Uh, he didn’t seem to be having a particularly hard time!”
Lee Jeonghyeon, who had received instructions—which bordered on a threat—from Hajin along with Choi Taewoo about what would happen if they even touched the tip of that fair beauty’s finger, or if he suffered even slightly, replied while sweating profusely.
It wasn’t that Hajin had explicitly made a threat, but Lee Jeonghyeon and Choi Taewoo, who had already rolled with his team for several years, had seen the look in Hajin’s eyes and were terrified that they would die if even the slightest problem occurred.
“……You may go.”
Lee Jeonghyeon, who had been trembling internally until Hajin’s blue eyes narrowed, scrambled happily back into the battlefield as soon as the order was given.
Hajin watched his retreating back with indifference and scanned his team members as they battled the monsters. It wasn’t yet time for him to step in.
Hajin glanced over toward where Suhyeon would be.
Although it had been less than two hours since they parted, Hajin’s mind was already filled with thoughts of his small, fair lover.
—Be careful.
Suhyeon, who had looked up at him while gently pushing in sweet guiding, had been so beautiful that Hajin wanted to go back home regardless of the gate.
He was pleased by the eyes filled with worry over whether the memories related to the gate were still tormenting him.
Did he know the beastly inner thoughts that intentionally withheld more reassuring words?
He would be over there, looking this way with those pretty eyes.
Right now, he wanted to leave this place, bite Suhyeon’s white nape, mingle tongues until tears welled in his eyes, and make him call out his name.
After spending several nights with Suhyeon, he was suffering from a level of sexual frustration that made him marvel at how he had managed to leave Suhyeon alone until now.
He wanted to swallow his lover whole, from his toes to the top of his head.
“Hey, Hajin.”
Just as Hajin’s face, which had been utterly cold, was about to soften at the thought of Suhyeon, a slick voice reached his ears and shattered his reverie into pieces.
Simultaneously, blue flames flared up as an arm, built with muscles just as solid as his own, tried to drape itself over Hajin’s shoulder.
“Oops, how prickly.”
The man who waved his arm around carelessly and lightheartedly to extinguish the flames was a man with flashy blonde hair, Asher Delveron.
He was the leader of Team 2, who had crawled out here today, and an S-class Esper like Hajin who had naturalized to Korea from Canada.
Hajin furrowed his brow coldly at the flamboyant face smiling broadly in front of him.
Ever since the distant past when Asher had challenged Hajin as soon as he naturalized, the two men had been the ultimate opposites.
To think they would be put together, even if it was a Level 9, despite knowing their relationship.
“Hey, it’s been a while for us. Hasn’t it?”
Asher’s earrings made a clear, jingling sound as his green eyes crinkled.
“Kueeeeeeek!!!”
“Get back!”
The screeches of monsters and the rough shouts of Espers pierced their ears, but Hajin and Asher remained facing each other without moving.
Hajin’s blue eyes—a shade of blue that couldn’t possibly come from a Westerner—stared coldly at Asher.
No matter when he saw it, that face was truly unpleasant.
However, Asher decided to be a bit patient today.
This was because he absolutely wanted to see that Guide who had enchanted someone just by the scent of his lingering aura.
Having searched high and low and scraped together every minor rumor, he had discovered that Shin Hajin was cherishing someone who appeared to be his dedicated Guide.
And he suspected that the person he was looking for was the very same individual.
Coincidentally, with this unprecedented gate opening and an Association President who overprotects the gifted in situations where it’s hard to predict what dangers might strike, the reason Asher had volunteered to come to the site where this rude bastard was located was to get his final confirmation.
“I have something I want to ask. I heard you took in a cutie?”
One of Hajin’s eyebrows twitched. Asher kept the smile on his lips.
“Is that cutie good at guiding?”
Kueeeeeeek—!
Purple lightning pierced the neck of a monster that had almost ambushed a member of Team 2 due to a slip-up.
Since the fact that the leaders of Team 1 and Team 2 didn’t get along was a famous story, none of the team members cared that the leaders weren’t moving.
“I want to see your cutie’s face, but aren’t you hiding him away too tightly?”
For a split second, greed flickered in Asher’s slyly crinkled green eyes and smile.
But just as quickly, a chill ran down Asher’s spine.
Almost at the same time he whipped his head aside, Hajin’s blue flames flew past, aiming for his neck.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Hajin put on his gloves and slowly turned his back, stepping up into the combat zone.
As if venting his anger, blue flames fell simultaneously upon the monsters the Espers were struggling with and flared up brilliantly.
Left behind, Asher cracked his neck back and forth without taking his eyes off Hajin’s back.
A brutal bone-cracking sound echoed.
That last shot just now was one meant to kill.
And what that signified was—.
Asher’s green eyes crinkled spectacularly, no longer hiding the greed dripping from them.
