“Guide Lee Jaeram.”
Lee Jaeram furrowed his brow at the uncharacteristically unfriendly voice uttering his name.
He looked up, startled.
Inside the closed elevator stood Shin Hajin.
“……Esper Shin Hajin?”
Lee Jaeram slowly murmured the man’s name, clicking his tongue inwardly.
It was true that Jaeram wanted to get his hands on Shin Hajin by any means necessary, but facing him right this second hadn’t been part of the plan.
He hadn’t even begun to deliberate on how to scrub Chae Suhyeon from his sight.
There was no reason to move immediately; more importantly, if he acted now, the irritating emotions he hadn’t yet mastered felt as though they would leak right to the surface.
If he had to look at that man—who had popped up as if to block the entirety of Jaeram’s hither-to peaceful life—and the way Shin Hajin and Asher Delveron doted on him, Jaeram felt his rationality would snap.
Lee Jaeram knew better than anyone that acting on emotion was the height of stupidity.
Furthermore, a bit of digging had revealed that Chae Suhyeon’s connections were no joke.
Not only did the fox-like man have Shin Hajin at his back and was on the verge of claiming Asher Delveron too, but he was also well-blessed in the sibling department.
Apparently, his deceased parents had been outstanding Espers whose influence still lingered in the Association.
More importantly, his brother was Chae Yihan—a man who had started at the bottom of the Association’s administrative ladder and achieved a lightning-fast promotion to General Manager in his thirties.
—I almost got grabbed by the collar at my age. His temper is no joke.
That had been the report from Lee Nahyeon, who had tried to feel out Chae Yihan regarding Suhyeon.
Because he had learned that Chae Suhyeon was not someone who could be easily discarded, Lee Jaeram had been extremely, extremely sensitive lately.
Those who circled him sensed this and groveled twice as much, bringing twice as many gifts.
“What is your relationship with Suhyeon?”
So, meeting Shin Hajin—whose blue eyes were so full of murderous intent he looked ready to attack depending on the answer—was very, very, very… unpleasant for Lee Jaeram.
As if to prove it, Lee Jaeram’s pale fingers trembled, something that usually wouldn’t happen no matter how much someone annoyed him.
However, he soon forced a smooth smile.
“Are you speaking of Guide Chae Suhyeon?”
“Don’t play games.”
The man accustomed to giving orders cut off Jaeram’s redirection mid-sentence.
It was the first time they had ever spoken at length, and the first time Hajin had initiated interest, yet the fact that this was the topic made Jaeram’s insides twist violently again.
The pretty smile on his lips deepened.
“We weren’t in such a special relationship. We were merely acquaintances who hadn’t even exchanged many words. Did Suhyeon describe it differently?”
Hajin didn’t answer.
‘I suppose he knows about the Gate incident, then?’
“I can’t tell you how glad I was to reunite in the guiding room. I don’t know what you heard, but I didn’t do anything.”
Lee Jaeram hid his twisted, coiled, and warped inner thoughts and smiled brightly.
Ting.
Just as Hajin’s gaze was becoming razor-sharp, the elevator announced its arrival at the first floor and the doors slid open.
The eyes of the people waiting outside darted toward them.
“And, no matter if it’s you, Hajin, I am still a guide. This kind of behavior feels aggressive.”
Faced with Hajin’s piercing stare, Jaeram replied elegantly, as if it were nothing.
Acting as though such an attitude couldn’t affect him, Jaeram crossed the lobby, leaving behind the chilling gaze of the man in the elevator.
By the time he left the Association building—which he found more loathsome than usual today—and got into his car, the smile that had been plastered on his face melted away instantly.
Lee Jaeram sat in the place of honor in the backseat with his legs crossed, looking coldly out the window.
Eventually, he let out a shallow sigh and closed his eyes.
His pale eyelids shut, and his black lashes settled.
In this situation, there was only one low, base emotion he could take comfort in.
‘If Shin Hajin is acting like that, then Chae Suhyeon must have been quite shaken by my existence.’
That deduction, bordering on certainty, was the only thing satisfying amidst his boiling rage.
Focusing on that fact seemed to slowly settle his mood.
Actually, scratch that. “Settle,” my foot.
Having gone home only to be called back to the Association by an inconsiderate contact, Lee Jaeram took that same elevator back up to the Guides’ wing and threw open the door to his guiding room with brute force.
He took a moment to catch his breath, which had grown short from walking with long, uninterrupted strides.
He then looked up at the tall man waiting inside the room.
“You’re here?”
Asher Delveron, who had been sitting in a chair, stood up upon seeing Jaeram.
His flashy appearance and accessories—which Jaeram usually found pleasing as items for his jewelry box—were eyesores today.
Beep. Beep.
The device chimed, indicating that Asher Delveron’s guiding levels were lower than usual.
Normally, Jaeram would have snorted inwardly, knowing that Asher eventually came to him, and would have graciously bestowed guiding.
Instead, he simply stared at him and laughed.
A sharp laugh spread across his pale face.
‘He followed Chae Suhyeon around like a dog looking for its mother, and in the end, I suppose he didn’t get a single lick of guiding from him?’
He could easily picture Asher Delveron coming here as a last, reluctant resort.
Another scratch was carved into Jaeram’s already wounded pride with a nauseating sound.
‘It’s troublesome to make enemies of the only two S-class Espers in Korea along with Shin Hajin. Therefore, I cannot vent this anger on Asher.’
If his rank were even a little lower, the man wouldn’t even be allowed to sit in front of him.
Suppressing his urge to make him kneel and crawl on the floor, Jaeram ground his teeth and slowly approached Asher Delveron.
He set aside his coat and leaned precariously over the seated man, stroking his shoulder.
In front of the man who greedily sucked in guiding energy from the moment their skin touched, Jaeram looked down and whispered with a feigned air of sorrow.
“Asher, you naturalized as a citizen, didn’t you?”
“……I did.”
As if his thirst for guiding remained, Asher’s shimmering green eyes looked at him.
Jaeram continued the guiding, his eyes curving into long arcs.
“Don’t you want to go back to Canada?”
Asher’s eyebrows shot up.
“Taking Guide Chae Suhyeon with you.”
A moment of silence passed.
It was an option the original Lee Jaeram would never have offered.
He never let go of something he had decided was his—unless it no longer had value.
But now… yes.
Saying this was partly because he hated what Asher Delveron was doing, and perhaps because Jaeram’s mind had been made up today.
‘I will have Shin Hajin.’
If he couldn’t have both Asher Delveron and Shin Hajin, he was more attracted to Shin Hajin.
He would drag down an opponent who looked like he would never surrender and force him to kneel at his feet.
Getting rid of Chae Suhyeon would be a bonus.
“……Is there a way to do that?”
Jaeram keenly noticed the greed that momentarily flickered in the green eyes.
As always, he wore a beautiful, smiling mask.
“Even if there isn’t, I’ll make sure he’s handed to you.”
However, Asher’s eyes, which had seemed tempted, narrowed, and the poisonous smile at the corners of Jaeram’s eyes broke in an instant.
“What is your relationship with him, exactly?”
“……Pardon?”
Asher stood up, pulling his hand away from Jaeram, who had been providing ample guiding.
Naturally, Jaeram stumbled back. Asher tilted his head with an unreadable expression.
“That thing from last time—it was a trick, wasn’t it? How do you two know each other?”
The green in his eyes darkened for a moment, carrying a sharp edge.
‘Because of that, I…’
Asher muttered something unintelligible, let out a breath, and then laughed, baring his teeth sharply.
“It’s not like we don’t know what kind of person the other is, Jaeram. Be careful. Don’t touch him.”
For a moment, a savage energy flowed from Asher—he clearly had no intention of restraining it—and then it stopped abruptly.
Lee Jaeram watched him with a blank expression.
His smile had long since vanished.
Two people in a single day were gnawing at his already frayed nerves.
He couldn’t force the corners of his mouth up as he usually did.
Asher Delveron looked at Jaeram, then murmured as if letting out a sigh, “I didn’t want to say this,” before forming a smile.
“You don’t want to get on my bad side, do you? There’s one more thing. He isn’t someone you should touch.”
He spoke with an air of certainty, implying that Jaeram was “below” Chae Suhyeon.
It was one thing for Shin Hajin to protect his personal guide, but this was a man who had been Jaeram’s partner for two years.
A man who, while not completely surrendered, had essentially been Jaeram’s.
Thud.
As the door closed, Jaeram’s body swayed.
The energy an Esper released with intent was a burden for a weak guide’s body; it was a miracle he had endured without his face contorting.
“Ha…….”
Lee Jaeram let out a low sigh and covered half of his face with his hand.
He then dragged his palm down his face.
His obsidian-black eyes shimmered with suppressed rage.
His pride, which had never been trampled like this before, transformed into a furnace of anger.
Jaeram pulled out his phone and flicked through his numerous contacts.
It was safe to say he had the contact information of nearly half the Espers in the Association.
Besides the Espers, there were many among the administrative staff—whom the Lee family had woven into a tight web—that Jaeram could utilize.
“Don’t be too sad, Chae Suhyeon,” Jaeram murmured with a faint laugh.
“If you had been just a little weaker, this wouldn’t have happened. What a waste. It’s a life saved by a miracle, too.”
‘You shouldn’t have provoked me like this.’
Lee Jaeram, smiling beautifully, whispered to himself.
The preparations for a hunt aimed at one person had begun.
