Asher Delveron grumbled outside the door.
“I wish I could just sweep everyone else aside and be the only one getting Suhyeon’s guiding.”
“Are you insane?”
Hajin’s murderous gaze shot toward him, but Asher just muttered under his breath, making sure he was heard.
Truthfully, he was genuinely disappointed.
An Asher with full guiding levels had vastly—waaaaay—higher utility than twenty C-rank Espers with full tanks.
‘But Suhyeon won’t do it for me. That time before was only because it was an emergency.’
It was all because of that damn blue-eyed bastard. Why do those low-rank nobodies get a pass while I don’t?
Asher grew more childish by the minute as he waited.
When the sun began to set and the sound of the guiding room door opening finally reached him, his face lit up.
“Suhyeon?”
But something was wrong.
Without sparing Asher a single glance, Suhyeon practically threw himself into Hajin’s arms.
“…….”
Before Asher could say a word, Suhyeon buried his face in Hajin’s chest, mumbled something, and they were gone.
He didn’t look back at Asher once.
Asher caught a glimpse of Suhyeon’s face—it was deathly pale.
Left alone in an instant, Asher blinked his green eyes blankly and tilted his head.
—……I’ll go.
He had looked so calm this morning when he followed the President inside.
This was a stark contrast.
‘Hmm. I haven’t known Suhyeon long, but he seemed like the type to handle most things with indifference.’
What happened in there?
Asher pulled out his card key and tapped it against the access pad.
Chime.
With the notification that he was authorized, the guiding room entrance slid open.
After passing through the inner doors, Asher closed his eyes.
Since it was a space where guiding had been exchanged for hours, countless “scents” stimulated his nose.
He could sense guiding on a level average Espers couldn’t.
A faint bitter scent, a damp aroma, the smell of earth you’d find in a swamp…….
But finding what he wanted was easy.
Unlike the faint traces of others, Suhyeon’s sweet guiding scent showed the path clearly.
Asher hummed a tune as he moved forward.
Aside from a few staff members wandering around with deep dark circles under their eyes, the corridor was empty.
No one stopped him.
Eventually, Asher stopped in front of the room where the trace was strongest and opened his eyes.
“Hm?”
He was standing in front of a familiar room number.
Room 18.
Since it was Suhyeon’s first time at a mass-guiding site, they must have assigned him a mentor.
‘That makes things easier.’
Asher knocked twice and pushed the door open without waiting for an answer.
Immediately, a fresh, vibrant scent washed over him.
Traces of a familiar person’s thick guiding were also present, but Suhyeon’s guiding wavelength clearly dominated the room as if marking its territory.
Was he just exhausted from the work?
The room looked the same as he remembered.
But Suhyeon had looked genuinely frightened.
Was the person he was with the cause?
Asher watched the back of Lee Jaeram, who was facing the window.
Rattle.
The sound of a window opening was followed by a gust of wind.
Asher felt a reflexive pang of regret as the traces filling the room were diluted.
Then, seeing Lee Jaeram’s expression as he turned halfway around, Asher tilted his head.
It had been nearly two years since they became a pair.
From what he’d observed, Lee Jaeram was a person very much like himself.
Of course, the way Jaeram used that pretty face to seduce Espers like a queen was different, but they were similar in how their insides didn’t match their outsides.
Guide Lee Jaeram, who likely had a decades-old serpent coiled inside him, always wore a smile.
Asher knew well that the smile was Jaeram’s weapon. It was always there.
But not today. Asher watched Jaeram’s unfamiliar blank expression with interest.
Then, in an instant, that standard “pretty smile” bloomed back onto the blank face.
Or rather, it was more of a sticky, murderous grin.
Asher raised an eyebrow.
“……Ah, Asher.”
Only then did Lee Jaeram seem to notice him.
He turned fully and approached Asher slowly, like a predator who had spotted its prey.
He closed the distance until they were practically sharing the same breath, leaning against Asher’s chest.
A pale hand stroked upward from Asher’s stomach to his chest, looking like a white snake slithering up. Then, a whispered question:
“Should we terminate our contract, since things are like this?”
Asher furrowed his brow.
Lee Jaeram was clearly in a foul mood.
“You seem to be forgetting lately, but I’m your partner.”
Lee Jaeram, digging his nails into Asher’s chest, smiled while looking down.
“Sorry, sorry.”
Did Lee Jaeram do something?
Even as he apologized, Asher thought about Suhyeon.
It was clear Jaeram’s mood was ruined because of him.
Asher felt he might be largely responsible.
But he couldn’t just ask directly.
Asher wrapped his arms around Jaeram’s waist and kissed him to soothe him.
Their tongues tangled familiarly, mixing saliva.
He wanted Suhyeon, but for now, Lee Jaeram was his partner.
Asher needed guiding, and he couldn’t afford to push Jaeram away just yet.
He also didn’t want the higher-ups breathing down his neck if he dumped Jaeram without a clear reason.
As he kissed Jaeram, who had lazily closed his eyes, Asher’s thoughts drifted to Suhyeon.
“Haa…….”
‘It would be fantastic to kiss Suhyeon like this, with his guiding seeping in.’
Asher continued the kiss as if nothing was wrong, but he almost flinched.
The moment he imagined Suhyeon, he felt a surge of guilt for being with Jaeram.
It felt like he was a man cheating on his lover—even though Suhyeon wasn’t his lover.
Asher, who had many partners but never a real lover, quickly dismissed the strange sensation.
He wanted Suhyeon, and he was willing to be faithful if Suhyeon demanded it, but that was only if Suhyeon became his partner.
There was no way he was feeling some childish, pure-hearted devotion…… right? Probably.
The wet sounds of their kiss echoed in the guiding room.
After a long while, they broke apart. Lee Jaeram panted, his face flushed.
Watching him, Asher suddenly noticed something strange.
He narrowed his eyes.
“Aren’t you tired?”
“Haa, what for?”
Though there was fatigue in Jaeram’s eyes as he caught his breath, he didn’t look like he was about to collapse from overexertion.
Wasn’t the whole reason Suhyeon was called in because Jaeram—the strongest available guide—was struggling?
A sense of mismatch made Asher’s eyes sharpen.
Slap.
Asher brushed away Lee Jaeram’s hand as it began to wander toward his waist.
Did Asher Delveron know his departure looked like a retreat?
Through the narrowing gap of the slowly closing door, Jaeram watched Asher stride quickly down the hallway.
Then the gap vanished, and the door clicked shut.
It didn’t take long for the smile to vanish from Lee Jaeram’s face, leaving behind a twisted mask of rage.
It felt like there was a bug inside him, gnawing at his nerves.
Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw.
The sound seemed to ring in his ears.
“This is irritating…….”
Today’s goal had been investigation. While he did want to drag Chae Suhyeon out from behind Shin Hajin and expose him to the other Espers, the main purpose was to size him up.
He needed to observe before deciding what to do.
But he didn’t like a single thing about it.
Recalling the man with the pale face and delicate features, Lee Jaeram bit a perfectly manicured nail.
He used to be nothing more than Do Yejun’s toy.
Does falling into a Gate and coming back out change everyone like that?
Honestly, he wondered how the man even survived, but he wasn’t particularly curious about the “how.”
The important fact was that Chae Suhyeon hadn’t just survived; he had monopolized the attention of both Shin Hajin and Asher Delveron, and he possessed power far superior to Jaeram’s own.
Lee Jaeram’s pride was as tall and solid as a tower.
He hated admitting his limits more than anything, but unlike himself—who had felt genuine fatigue from the sheer number of Espers—Suhyeon had looked perfectly fine.
As if this amount of work didn’t even phase him.
Seeing Suhyeon fill guiding levels beyond the minimum requirement toward the end—showing he still had power to spare—made Jaeram’s brow twitch.
On top of that, he could sense that faint sweet scent in his own room.
To feel a physical sensation from guiding meant that the wavelength was exceptionally strong and superior.
Even he, a fellow guide, could smell that sweetness.
The Espers must have felt it ten times stronger.
Indeed, every Esper who entered had flinched and blushed with anticipation, even though Chae Suhyeon just sat there with a blank face, not smiling or welcoming them.
Lee Jaeram had to exert every ounce of effort to keep his smile in place.
The only satisfying part was Suhyeon’s reaction—the way his shoulders flinched and his face turned pale whenever Jaeram spoke to him.
Aside from that, everything was unacceptable.
—It seems the Gate brought you an unexpected stroke of luck.
When Jaeram had finally been unable to hold back that mutter, a comment that would have sent a normal guide running, Suhyeon had replied:
—Why didn’t you try going in yourself once?
To think he would snap back like that.
Lee Jaeram had to admit it. Chae Suhyeon was a massive obstacle to his goal of remaining the top guide.
As long as he was around, securing Shin Hajin and Asher Delveron would be incredibly difficult.
“……Haa,”
Lee Jaeram let out a long sigh, trying to push down the irritation.
Then he smiled again.
The mirror in the corner of the room reflected Lee Jaeram wearing a smile full of beautiful, rising poison.
If someone is in the way, you just have to get rid of them.
