* * *
“PFFT!!!”
Ben nearly spat out the lukewarm coffee in his mouth right into Elgran’s face.
He managed to swallow it down just in time, only to choke and start coughing uncontrollably.
Cough! Cough!
“What the hell? You okay?”
“Y-you can’t just say something like that out of nowhere!”
Ben snapped as he tried to catch his breath, his voice sharp from surprise.
But Elgran, looking genuinely confused, raised an eyebrow.
“What? That’s not even weird. I said I wanna have sex. What’s so shocking about that?”
“L-Lower your voice! Seriously!”
“Why?! I wanna have sex, so I said I wanna have sex! I WANNA HAVE SEX!”
‘Oh god, this guy…!’
He was the one saying it, so why was Ben the one turning red with shame?
In the end, Ben shot to his feet and clamped his hand over Elgran’s mouth, finally halting the ridiculously loud declaration echoing across the crowded café.
Elgran’s eyes twinkled mischievously behind the muffling hand, clearly enjoying the chaos.
Ben scanned the onlookers and, mortified, offered them apologetic bows before slowly letting go.
“You’re fun to tease, you know that?”
“That’s not a compliment. It’s an insult.”
Ben replied, sitting back down and sipping some water to soothe his scratchy throat.
“If not sex, I at least want it to snow. Like, a full-on blizzard.”
“You two still haven’t made up?”
A soft layer of snow started collecting inside Elgran’s empty mug.
His previously bright expression turned somber in an instant.
Ben regretted asking, but Elgran didn’t seem to mind.
“We could’ve made up yesterday while we were having sex, but we ended up fighting again.”
“What did you fight about?”
“What do you think?! I want to do the imprinting, but they won’t agree!!”
‘THUD—!’
A moment of silence fell as the table shook violently from Elgran slamming his fist down.
Ben glanced at the mug, worried it had spilled, and then at the table, half expecting to see it split like firewood.
Luckily, Elgran had held back enough not to cause actual damage.
But the surrounding patio-goers were now all staring.
en bowed again, trying to convey please pretend nothing happened with every nod.
“I wish Lus were like you. If Lus were my Irregular guide, I wouldn’t have to walk on eggshells all the time. I love him so much, but he’s afraid that if things don’t work out, it’ll register as incompatibility. But if it were an Irregular match, we wouldn’t have to worry like this.”
Usually, an Esper and a guide could separate and find new partners before imprinting.
But once the imprinting happened, they became each other’s one and only—physically and mentally bonded for life.
However, with Irregular pairs, even before imprinting, their compatibility was so off-the-charts that it might as well have already happened.
Ben understood why Elgran was envious.
“Being Irregular doesn’t automatically make it better. Regular pairs can have great compatibility too, right?”
He’d heard that if Irregular pairs didn’t match mentally, it was even worse—since they couldn’t just separate and try again.
At least with regular pairs, that was still an option.
Ben tried to reason with him, hoping to offer some comfort.
“You wouldn’t understand. You’re a guide. I’m an Esper, so it feels different. If I had an Irregular guide, they’d be the only one for me.”
But Elgran didn’t seem very comforted.
Maybe because he was right—Ben was a guide.
There were ways of thinking that only an Esper could understand.
Words of sympathy wouldn’t do much when they came from someone who simply wasn’t the same.
“Am I that untrustworthy?! Why won’t he just say yes?! I’m doing everything I can to make this imprinting happen!!”
Gone was the smug, confident Elgran.
He now sat there, running his fingers through his neatly braided hair, messing it up in frustration.
“Please calm down. I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t trust you.”
“I know. That’s what makes it worse. I know, and it still pisses me off. I love him so much!”
Ben didn’t know the real reason Elgran’s guide was hesitating on the imprinting, but it couldn’t be because of something as simple as mistrust—not with how much Elgran obviously cared.
And from the way Elgran was reacting, Ben felt pretty sure he was right.
Trying to change the mood, Ben offered a new suggestion.
“Why not pick up something from the city center? Something popular? Maybe the two of you could share it together.”
“…Cake?”
Elgran’s ears perked up immediately.
“I’ve heard the cakes from Saint-Germain—that little place down that alley—are really famous.”
“Well… I guess so. I’ve come all the way here, might as well buy something.”
Ben had never really cared for bread or sweets.
He only remembered Moria mentioning this place in passing.
But maybe the rumors weren’t so baseless—there was a long line stretching out of the alley his finger had pointed to.
Ah, now that he thought about it…
As he watched people walk by holding cake boxes, Ben suddenly recalled what he’d said to Haimar earlier.
That he’d bring something delicious.
If it’s a famous cake, that probably means it’s tasty, right?
So maybe this was the one to get.
Ben fell into thought.
It was probably good, considering the popularity, but the problem was—Ben didn’t know anything about Haimar’s taste.
Not even one percent.
He’d never seen him eat snacks, nor did he get the feeling the guy even enjoyed meals.
He seemed like the type who ate if there was food and skipped it if there wasn’t.
Saying he’d bring him something delicious might have been a mistake from the start.
Big mouth strikes again.
“Um… Elgran.”
“What?”
“Do you happen to know what Haimar likes?”
Asking Elgran, who had known Haimar longer, seemed like the next best option.
But when Ben asked, Elgran made a face like he’d just bitten into something foul.
“What? What he likes? No idea. I only care about what Lus eats. Never seen Haimar eat much, honestly.”
“…Still, he must eat something.”
“I guess. Why don’t you just ask him yourself?”
Oh, sure. Like this isn’t your problem.
Ben had even come up with a plan to reconcile with his Guide, and yet Elgran’s unhelpful attitude left him no choice but to pull out his phone.
He opened the messenger app with determination, but when it came time to actually type, his fingers froze like stone.
He was just holding a smartphone, but his face looked like he’d been handed the world’s hardest puzzle.
Someone else might laugh at how seriously he was taking a simple message, but for Ben, this was a big deal.
He kept typing and deleting slight variations of the same message over and over.
[Is there something you like?]
No, too broad.
[Do you like cake?]
That might be better.
Honestly, he should’ve just asked earlier.
Now he was stuck frozen in place, staring at his screen like an idiot.
After double-checking even the period at the end, Ben finally hit send.
Sent!
He didn’t know it, but that was the moment of his first-ever message being launched into the void.
All that drama for a measly nine characters.
“Wouldn’t it be faster to just call?”
As Ben tucked his phone into his pocket, now that he felt a bit lighter, and stood up with his empty coffee cup, Elgran followed him and commented.
“That’d be a bit… intense, don’t you think?”
“You think everything is intense. I can’t even imagine Haimar checking his phone one message at a time.”
…Was that true?
If so, a heads-up would’ve been nice before he hit send.
What was the point of regretting it now?
That message had already taken off like a bird.
“I’ll just buy a few different kinds. One of them’s bound to be a hit.”
Didn’t someone once say, “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I brought everything”?
Surely one of them would work out.
Ben wasn’t the nitpicky type anyway.
And surely Haimar wouldn’t complain if he considered the effort Ben made.
Even if he didn’t like it—he should still eat it, out of decency.
After handing the tray over to a staff member, Ben and Elgran stepped out of the café and joined the end of the long line down the alley.
Elgran busily tapped away at his phone, sending messages, then started searching for popular items at the shop.
“Looks like the strawberry shortcake is their most famous. Then the matcha roll cake. A bit pricey, but still… Oh?”
As Elgran suddenly paused, Ben peeked over at his phone.
On the screen, the name ‘Lus’ lit up in bold.
Caught off guard, Elgran’s laid-back demeanor vanished, and he started nervously fidgeting like his phone had become a ticking time bomb.
“H-he never calls after a fight… What the hell…?”
It was obvious he couldn’t bring himself to answer, torn between ‘It’s probably just work’ and ‘but what if…?’
All that bold confidence? Apparently it crumbled in front of someone he liked.
* * *
