* * *
Jet-black eyes stared at Raon.
But Raon couldn’t tell if Siwoo was really seeing him.
The eyes didn’t move, the pupils were unfocused.
Though everything else was in chaos, the area around Siwoo was oddly calm.
Like the eye of a storm—only the center was eerily still.
Carefully, Raon cupped Siwoo’s cheeks with both hands.
The sensation of skin touching underwater felt strange.
He wasn’t sure if guiding would even work like this.
‘Just focus.’
Shaking off the noise in his head, he activated his guiding energy.
From his hands resting on Siwoo’s pale cheeks, a powerful surge of energy burst forth.
“Ah…”
A faint gasp escaped Siwoo’s parted lips.
The emptiness in his eyes began to fade, clarity returning.
Blinking slowly, Siwoo stared at Raon, dazed.
“…Hyung?”
“…”
Raon didn’t respond—he just smiled.
His gear had broken, and it was hard to even breathe, but oddly, he felt calm.
Siwoo would be fine now. Relieved, Raon closed his eyes.
“Hyung!”
Finally coming to his senses, Siwoo noticed Raon’s condition.
Without a moment’s thought, he urgently reached out and pulled Raon close, pressing their mouths together to share air.
Thanks to that, Raon, who had nearly lost consciousness, barely managed to breathe again.
“What were you thinking—!”
“Haah… Siwoo.”
Soon, with the help of both Siwoo and Hamin’s abilities, Raon was breathing steadily again.
Siwoo scolded him for recklessly diving into the vortex, but Raon couldn’t stop smiling.
“Are you okay, hyung? You’re not hurt?”
“Mm. Even when you were unconscious, you didn’t attack me.”
“That’s…”
Watching nervously from a distance, Hamin rushed over as soon as he sensed Siwoo’s powers stabilizing.
While Siwoo had violently rejected anyone else getting close, he somehow recognized Raon and allowed him through.
Raon had already figured that out—that’s why he told Hamin to throw him.
Raon reached out and gently caressed Siwoo’s cheek.
Unlike earlier, when he was like a lifeless doll, Siwoo now stared at him with anxious eyes, checking him over again and again.
“Don’t use your powers recklessly just because I’m not around. What if you end up losing control?”
“…If you’re not there, I’d rather lose control.”
“Siwoo.”
Raon said his name in a deliberately scolding tone, but Siwoo avoided his gaze and turned his head away.
Sighing at that stubbornness, Raon muttered,
“Really now…”
“Where have you been all this time, hyung?”
“Mm, well…”
Raon explained what happened with Mikhail and the underwater cave.
He left out only the part where Mikhail had lost control and tried to assault him.
He couldn’t bring himself to say that, not when Siwoo had only just come back to his senses.
“I’m sorry, hyung. I should’ve found you sooner.”
“No, it was a weird place from the start.”
The energy concentrated in that spot was way too much, and it was strange how in the original story, that place had no significance.
Maybe it wasn’t the only one like that.
Tensing up again, Raon glanced around at the now-peaceful surroundings.
“Wait, what about the monsters…”
And then he fell silent.
The swarm of monsters that had been the greatest threat of the Blue Gate was now floating around in pieces.
Even the final one that should’ve protected the core had long since been destroyed by Siwoo’s power.
“Uh… I guess we just need to destroy the core now.”
Raon mumbled in disbelief, then quickly turned to Hamin.
“Esper Hamin, go tell the others to regroup. The core is likely hidden inside that seaweed cluster.”
“Yes, Team Leader!”
Hamin nodded and immediately moved.
Watching him vanish into the distance, Raon turned back to Siwoo.
“Let’s guide. Your levels have dropped too much.”
“Okay.”
Siwoo naturally reached out his hand.
But instead of taking it, Raon opened his arms and pulled Siwoo into an embrace.
“H-Hyung?”
“Stay still. It works better this way.”
At those words, Siwoo flinched, but soon went quiet.
After a brief pause, he gently wrapped his arms around Raon’s back.
Thump, thump.
With his ear against Siwoo’s chest, Raon listened to the steady beat of his heart.
Espers usually had high heart rates due to their abilities.
Siwoo was no exception, though his cooler body temperature made his heartbeat a bit slower than most.
But now, that wasn’t the case. If anything, his heart was beating faster by the second.
Listening to it, Raon closed his eyes.
‘Siwoo’s so calm…’
Still holding Siwoo, Raon silently murmured to himself.
The memory of what happened with Mikhail was already fading.
Surrounded by the quiet of the deep sea, he felt a deep sense of peace and let his lips curve into a smile.
He had always found physical contact uncomfortable—except with Siwoo.
In fact, holding him like this, he wanted to feel him even closer.
Thinking back, it had always been like that from the start.
When he first possessed this body and saw the characters he had only known from text, it was Siwoo’s pitch-black eyes that had seared themselves into his vision.
He hadn’t been able to look away.
Remembering that moment, Raon thought to himself:
‘As I thought… I really…’
But before he could finish the thought, a voice above startled him.
“Isn’t there a more effective way to guide than this?”
“…What?”
“Am I the only one who wants it?”
Siwoo grumbled under his breath, not meeting Raon’s eyes, his ears burning red.
Raon burst into laughter.
“In the middle of a gate, seriously?”
“Well, is there some rule that says you can only hold hands inside a gate?”
“There isn’t.”
Raon deliberately avoided giving him the answer he wanted, circling around it instead.
Siwoo’s face twisted in frustration.
Who knew whether it was guiding he needed… or just an excuse to be close.
Raon eventually gave up teasing any further and wrapped his arm around Siwoo’s neck.
Then he pulled him down.
“Mm.”
Something soft touched his lips.
As expected, being underwater made everything feel a little strange.
His senses were duller than usual, but not in an unpleasant way.
Unlike Raon, who was worried whether the guiding energy would transfer properly, Siwoo was already too worked up to care.
He wrapped his arms tightly around Raon’s waist, fully immersed in the act of kissing.
Whatever concern Raon had clearly didn’t matter to him.
“Ha, Siwoo…”
“Raon… Hyung.”
The two kissed passionately, completely forgetting they were still inside a gate.
The other team members had stayed well away from Siwoo, who was on the verge of going berserk, so they likely couldn’t see them clearly.
But some of the S-rank Espers might notice—thanks to their sharper perception.
Still, it didn’t matter.
Even though they were inside an active gate, no one here could say anything about an S-rank Guide performing high-intensity guiding on their paired Esper.
“…Hmm?”
Just as Raon tried to deepen the kiss, their tongues entangling, a sudden shift in the surrounding currents made him pause.
Eyes opening in confusion, Raon looked around.
In the distance, someone had emerged from a patch of seaweed, having just destroyed the gate core hidden there.
The team seemed to have regrouped and finally managed to break the core.
“Ahem… Shall we head back?”
“…Yes.”
Siwoo responded obediently, but his expression wasn’t great—perhaps annoyed they were interrupted again.
Raon gently soothed him as they made their way back toward the rest of the team.
“Team Leader!”
“Are you okay, sir?”
“Siwoo, are you alright too?”
The team members gathered around them with worried expressions.
It was clear they’d been very concerned.
Raon wanted to catch up with his team after all they’d been through, but unfortunately, there was no time.
From now on, things would get truly chaotic.
“Everyone listen up. We’ll be entering the Red Gate soon. It’s sudden, but stay calm and follow my instructions—”
Raon couldn’t finish.
Tremors echoed from all sides, and the currents shifted dramatically.
“Espers, secure your Guides!”
“Yes, sir!”
But the team, by now used to chaos, moved quickly.
Each Esper protected their Guide using their own abilities, and Raon was pulled tightly into Siwoo’s firm embrace.
The combat team also rallied closely under Inho’s command.
“Urgh!”
The Blue Gate’s area was vanishing—and they were now entering the Red Gate.
Raon widened his eyes.
There was no telling what new variables might arise.
“Guh—cough! What the hell?!”
“Cough, cough!”
The water around them suddenly vanished, as if it had evaporated in an instant.
Even for veteran Guide teams used to all kinds of field conditions, the abrupt change left them momentarily disoriented.
Yeojoon, who spotted flames rising where the water had been, gasped in shock.
“…Phew.”
Raon let out a breath as he looked around at the intense heat radiating from all sides.
In the distance, an active volcano writhed as if about to spew lava.
This was the Red Gate—once humanity’s greatest threat before the appearance of Irregular Gates.
* * *
