“……Did you see that?”
When the door to Hajin’s private office clicked shut and the man—whose appearance was entirely out of place in such a workspace—vanished behind it, someone whispered.
From the moment the man, presumed to be the Team Leader’s lover, appeared, the nerves of every Esper in Team 1 had been drawn tight.
The Espers, with their heightened senses, pricked up their ears, but they couldn’t hear a thing.
They had never felt more frustrated by the soundproof door that separated the general office from Hajin’s private sanctum.
Naturally, the fingers that had been pounding away at keyboards came to a halt.
As they stood there, exchanging wary glances and stealing looks at the door, one of them finally reached their limit.
They threw down their report and stood up.
Having been buried in a paperwork hell that had started early that morning, they had been praying to any god who would listen to let them face a monster instead.
They couldn’t miss this sudden influx of dopamine.
Starting with that one Esper, the members of Team 1 rose from their chairs one by one.
They looked at each other before turning their collective gaze toward a single person.
“……W-why are you looking at me like that?”
The target of their attention was Lee Jeonghyeon, who had just exchanged a—dare they say—familiar greeting with the Team Leader’s partner.
In truth, Jeonghyeon had only caught glimpses of Suhyeon’s face while being ordered around by Hajin; the only time he’d seen him for any duration was when he had teleported him near that massive Gate.
But to these “mad” Espers, whose curiosity was piqued by the man who had managed to tame the terrifying Shin Hajin, such details didn’t matter.
There was a risk of losing their lives if they were caught.
However, watching the mysterious lover was infinitely more interesting than processing an endless stream of documents!
Without a word, the Team 1 Espers began to move in perfect, practiced sync.
Only Lee Jeonghyeon stood there, mouth agape, watching his dopamine-crazed colleagues.
One Esper produced a tray—where they found it, no one knew, as guests never came to Team 1.
Another Esper, using their superhuman physical abilities, leaped over desks in a single bound to reach the supply room.
A package of new mugs was torn open instantly, and within the blink of an eye, the mugs were sanitized and placed on the tray with tea bags inside.
As luck would have it, the water purifier had broken that morning.
Another Esper, cursing under their breath, grabbed a nearby colleague by the hair.
The dragged Esper—a water-type ability user—meekly filled the mugs with cold water.
Then, a fire-type user quickly heated it.
The brilliant teamwork they had forged under Gates, monsters, and a tyrannical Team Leader was being put to use in the strangest way possible.
The tray of freshly brewed tea was thrust into the hands of the still-dazed Lee Jeonghyeon.
They had manufactured an excuse to open the door because simply peeking would have been a death sentence.
‘If you got to see him, we want to see him too! Who on earth is this person who managed to soften the literal definition of terror!’
“Now, go!”
“Hurry, hurry!”
No matter how good the soundproofing was, if they were caught, they were dead meat.
The whispered shouts of the Espers pushed against the back of Jeonghyeon, who held the tray in a daze.
Jeonghyeon, who had been tormented by the Team Leader for days as he rearranged, overturned, and re-overturned the office to prepare for his lover’s arrival, had no desire to go.
But if he didn’t, his colleagues would kill him.
The Team Leader was in front, and his crazy colleagues were behind.
Ultimately, he entered the room with a tearful face, only to find…
“Hiiiick!”
The Team Leader, whose mood had been utterly soured by the sight of the team members huddled at the open crack of the door behind Jeonghyeon, fired a direct shot of murderous aura at him.
Jeonghyeon fled in tears, thinking that he would never, ever understand how that soft-looking lover could calmly keep such a person by his side!!
“……He always picks on me.”
Jeonghyeon slumped into a corner, sobbing, but his colleagues didn’t spare him a glance.
Even though the door had closed, the Espers remained glued to it.
One team member with X-ray vision had activated their ability the moment Jeonghyeon entered.
Normally, this door was designed to block all Esper abilities, but this was a Team 1 member.
He could push through, if only for a few minutes!
Under normal circumstances, the Team Leader would have noticed immediately, but today, he was so preoccupied with his lover that he didn’t even look their way. Incredible!
The X-ray Esper let out a breath of relief, which quickly turned into a gasp when he saw how the Leader and his lover were sitting.
The Team Leader sat on the sofa, holding the fair-skinned lover—who looked to be of mixed heritage—securely in his lap, trapping him in his embrace.
He wasn’t even wearing gloves.
This was the man who would tell anyone within a certain radius, “Your perception seems to be lacking,” and throw them into a monster den!
They knew he had a lover, and they knew he acted like a completely different person because of it.
They even remembered him carrying the man when he fell from the Gate.
“What? What are they doing? Hurry up and tell us!”
His colleagues chattered beside him, but the Esper peering inside took a sharp breath, suffering from cognitive dissonance.
That impossible feeling only intensified a moment later.
“U-uh……?”
“What? What is it!!”
“A ring……?”
As the Team Leader’s hand moved away from the lover’s fair hand, which he had been playing with, a ring was visible on the finger.
At the X-ray Esper’s murmur, the other Espers clinging to his back were shocked.
“Is the Team Leader getting married……?”
Well, they couldn’t hear if it was a proposal or not.
But from the honey-dripping gaze he used to look at the lover, everything was so far removed from the Team Leader they knew that he felt a sudden surge of fear.
‘Is that really our Team Leader? Is it someone else wearing his skin?’
And then, in the next moment…
“K-k-k-kiss…….”
“A KISS??????”
The Esper became too terrified to watch any longer and deactivated his ability.
It was too frightening to realize that what he had seen wasn’t a scene of someone being eaten alive, but a kiss filled with nothing but tenderness and affection.
The other Espers, sharing his sentiment, turned pale and stared at the door.
Shortly after, it opened.
Hajin emerged, sending a chilling gaze their way as if looking at pathetic insects.
It was the man they knew.
Cold sweat poured down the backs of the Espers, who were frozen in their various crouching positions near the door.
“……Ah.”
“Haha, T-Team Leader.”
“Th-that is…….”
“I assume you’ve finished all your reports and are just playing around. You must have plenty of free time.”
Blue flames flickered threateningly over the haphazardly organized documents they had ignored while distracted.
But the Team Leader wasn’t the type to show mercy just because they cried and apologized.
In the end, the Espers—tasked with double their usual workload—returned to their desks, wailing just like Lee Jeonghyeon.
Suhyeon opened his eyes to the glow of the setting sun.
A Gate had opened, so Hajin had left with the other Espers.
Consequently, Suhyeon was alone in the private office.
Commuting with Hajin felt even better than he had expected.
Someone once said that people who work hard at their jobs are sexy, and they were right.
Hajin looked much more impressive when he was wearing his glasses and focusing; seeing that made Suhyeon’s own life—lounging around just like he did at home—feel even more leisurely, but he liked it.
It was a bit embarrassing at times because Espers worked so hard in the office just outside the door and occasionally came in to report.
—”Oh, no, not at all! It’s an honor! Please, make yourself comfortable!”
Fortunately, Hajin’s colleagues didn’t seem to mind his presence.
It was strange how they all tensed up and shouted in loud voices whenever he spoke to them, but then again, every colleague of Hajin’s he’d met—including Esper Lee Jeonghyeon—had been like that. Perhaps that was just the type of person the team attracted.
Since he was at the Association often, he also ran into the President occasionally.
The President always looked satisfied when he saw Suhyeon, saying he was happy that Hajin’s guiding levels were always topped up.
He seemed to feel that Suhyeon was filling them more efficiently than when he stayed at home.
Suhyeon sat up, clutching a soft cushion.
He felt hungry, having eaten nothing since the snack Hajin gave him before leaving that morning.
“Suhyeon!”
Suhyeon had to stop on his way to the convenience store inside the Association building.
It was because of the familiar voice behind him.
“Asher?”
The man—who looked a bit haggard but still boasted his flamboyant looks—came running toward him from the far end of the hallway.
“Ah, wait, I have to go—!”
The person with him seemed to shout something desperately, but Asher ignored them and stopped in front of Suhyeon with a grin.
Suhyeon blinked.
It had been quite a while since he’d seen Asher.
He’d seen him before he started coming to the Association again, but this was the first time since he’d started commuting with Hajin.
Was he going to beg for guiding again?
Asher would have pouted if he’d known, but in Suhyeon’s mind, he was already firmly established as the man who spent all his time whining and flailing on the floor for guiding.
“Asher! We really have to go!”
“Just a second!”
He even looked busy.
Asher shouted at the person calling him and then gave a wide smile, sensing Suhyeon’s gaze.
“Ugh, I’ve been dying to see you, Suhyeon, but I haven’t had a moment’s peace.”
His habitual flirting remained.
When Suhyeon’s expression became unreadable, Asher waved his hands frantically.
“I’m not asking for guiding. I’m really busy right now because I’ve gotten on someone’s bad side. Though I wouldn’t say no if you offered? I have something to ask.”
Suhyeon blinked at the sly remark.
A look of seriousness suddenly washed over Asher’s usually grinning face.
“Has anything happened lately? Any trouble?”
Was it because he’d been exposed to the Espers when he was called to the Association for a guiding request last time?
But that had been a while ago, and the noise seemed to have died down.
Suhyeon had prepared himself for the fallout, but fortunately—or unfortunately—the news about him hadn’t been widely leaked.
Besides that, there wasn’t really anything else.
“Nothing. Why?”
“Really……?”
Asher’s expression turned strange at Suhyeon’s answer.
As if something should have happened.
A sudden, inexplicable sense of dread hung in the air.
“Did I miscalculate? Based on their drive, they should have done something by now…….”
Asher muttered something unintelligible before scratching his head and looking at Suhyeon again.
“Look, I really hate saying this, but stay close to Shin Hajin for a while. Got it? I want to be by your side, but if I do that right now, I feel like I might just explode. Just in case, try to avoid being alone. Okay?”
“We really have to go, Asher!!!”
“I know, I know! Suhyeon, be careful! If you hear any weird rumors, don’t believe them! Don’t be alone!”
Asher left with those words, practically dragged away.
What was he supposed to do if the man just left like that without giving a reason?
Rumors? What did he mean?
Aside from when he was at home, bodyguards followed Suhyeon everywhere, so he couldn’t be alone even if he wanted to.
Feeling uneasy, Suhyeon forgot his original destination and returned to the Team 1 office.
It was still empty.
But Suhyeon had to stop in his tracks.
The door leading to Hajin’s private office—which he had certainly closed when he left—was open.
