* * *
Suhyeon eventually fell into a deep sleep.
His thin eyelids covered his round, brown pupils, and his thick, light-brown eyelashes cast shadows on his cheeks.
“Let’s move him. Mr. Chae Yihan, please come this way. I will explain everything to you.”
Normally, Hajin wouldn’t have listened to a word Yihan said, but Suhyeon was the subject.
Hajin placed Suhyeon inside the device on the second floor, which had essentially become Suhyeon’s bed, and then turned his head.
The blue eyes that had been soft while looking at Suhyeon instantly turned cold and annoyed as they glared at the interloper listening to the explanation about Suhyeon.
Hajin did not like this situation. At all.
He realized now that he could no longer control his mind, which had begun to revolve entirely around Suhyeon from the very first moment he saw him.
Even when he had run wild at the Association for days without sleep, he couldn’t push Suhyeon out of his head.
When he finally returned home, driven by longing, the sight of Suhyeon looking at him and calling his name sent a sparking heat spreading from his heart.
Just like their first meeting, this was a sensation he had never experienced before.
Since he had never dated anyone, it was only natural that Hajin was clumsy at handling such emotions.
The words “clumsy” or “defeat” never existed in Hajin’s life, yet he had no choice but to surrender before Suhyeon.
In the end, he had asked to “meet” (date).
The atmosphere had clearly been good, but that damn man had shattered it into pieces.
To make matters worse, Suhyeon had suffered chest pain again.
He hadn’t collapsed, perhaps because he was slowly recovering, but in this mess, Hajin wondered if Suhyeon would even remember the question and give him an answer.
Hajin looked at Yihan with a freezing gaze.
Chae Yihan, one of the Association’s new executives.
Since he was one of the people bringing a “new wind” to the current Association, Hajin recognized his face.
He had the same last name as Suhyeon, and Suhyeon called him “Hyung.”
They were clearly family. Hajin should have realized it when the man tried to break into the mansion dozens of times recently.
No, the problem was that Hajin had been so distracted by Suhyeon that he simply ignored the nuisance.
Before realizing he was related to Suhyeon, Hajin should have beaten him half to death to break his spirit. Hajin felt a sharp, belated regret.
During the days Suhyeon wasn’t there, the usual Hajin would have crushed anyone who annoyed him.
But if he did that now, Suhyeon would be sad.
Hajin recalled the depressed face Suhyeon had unconsciously made upon seeing Yihan.
If only he had done it before knowing they were related, he could have made a plausible excuse—like saying he didn’t know, or that he thought he was a house intruder.
Regretting it once more, Hajin looked at the sleeping Suhyeon and then stared at Yihan, who was approaching him, with his head tilted.
Two men, both over 190cm tall, stood in a standoff.
“…I’ve heard the whole story, Esper Shin Hajin. I sincerely apologize for acting rashly and attacking you.”
Yihan’s tone had returned to a professional one.
“Thank you for looking after Suhyeon until now. I don’t know what you and Suhyeon have discussed, but I will take responsibility from here on.”
Hajin’s eyebrow twitched.
“Responsibility?”
“I’ll have him admitted to a hospital, and as his guardian, I should stay by his side now.”
Hajin’s blue eyes, already cold, began to leak a freezing aura, but Yihan continued as if he didn’t even see it.
“I am very grateful that you provided Doctor Ryu Yihan, so I will compensate you. I’ll overlook the fact that you didn’t get my consent as a family member, since things can be like that with Special Ability Users. I’ve already finished talking to the hospital. Suhyeon—”
“It seems Suhyeon looks like a three-year-old child in your eyes, Mr. Chae Yihan.”
Yihan’s tired, dry brown eyes narrowed. Hajin tilted his head sideways.
“…What?”
“The hospital already suggested admission once, and Suhyeon chose to receive treatment from Doctor Ryu Yihan at my mansion instead. I believe I told you earlier that we have the hospital’s permit.”
“The whims of a Special Trait user happen all the time, and the hospital might have judged it as such, but Suhyeon is a kid who knows nothing about the world of Special Traits. He doesn’t know how dangerous this kind of illness is—”
“Even so, Suhyeon is a full-grown adult. He likely chose this side because he felt it was more trustworthy than the hospital.”
Hajin countered, his head still half-tilted.
This time, it was Yihan’s turn for his eyebrow to twitch.
“…Mr. Shin Hajin, I do not trust you enough to leave Suhyeon with you. I know you are an outstanding Esper, but regardless of that, Suhyeon is…”
“I don’t know why the topic of my ‘trustworthiness’ is coming up. The one treating Suhyeon is Doctor Ryu Yihan.”
“Everyone in the Association knows that you and Ryu Yihan are very close. Stop playing with words.”
Finally, Yihan growled.
Naturally, Hajin’s gaze became fierce as well.
The surrounding air grew sharp. Hajin began to stroke the hand wearing a new glove.
With just one hit, he could knock out this man who kept being a nuisance.
Not a coma, not a serious injury, not death—just a clean knockout.
Suhyeon would surely forgive that much—
“Uugh…”
With a faint groan, the fiercely heated atmosphere shattered instantly.
Both tall men whipped their heads around at the same time.
The sleeping Suhyeon was curling his body with a pained frown.
The IV line swayed in the air.
“Hey, you crazy bastards.”
What followed was a rough choice of words that didn’t seem like it would ever come out of Suhyeon’s mouth.
Yihan walked toward them with a murderous expression.
The doctor with dark circles under his eyes, wearing a white coat, radiated a violent aura.
“You’re fighting in front of a patient? In front of a patient who needs absolute rest, huh?”
Yihan pushed the two men—who were built like stone—out of the second-floor entrance, hitting them on their backs.
Since Suhyeon had actually groaned, the two had no choice but to be pushed out like idiots.
“Don’t come back in until the kid wakes up!”
Yihan yelled and slammed the door.
It was a similar situation to when Hajin had kicked Yihan out earlier, though the roles were reversed.
“Um… excuse me…”
Since Suhyeon wasn’t there anyway, Hajin had been thinking of driving the annoying man away again, but he tilted his head at the sound of a thin voice.
In his sight was a burly man, likely a bodyguard brought by Chae Yihan, and Esper Lee Jeonghyeon, who was crouching in a corner, trembling.
“Ha… haha…”
The poor Esper, who had been stuck in the middle of the mess with nowhere to go, smiled awkwardly in front of his direct boss and the Association’s Headquarters Chief while crying inwardly.
It was night when Suhyeon woke up, and Hajin was by his side.
It was a scene that felt like déjà vu.
Blue eyes were quietly looking down at him.
How long had he been watching him like this?
It was a question with no answer, but Suhyeon somehow felt that he had been doing this for a long time.
“Where is Hyung?”
Suhyeon, who had been staring back at him in silence for a while, sat up and asked as he suddenly remembered Yihan.
At that, Hajin’s smooth forehead twitched for a moment.
“He insisted on not leaving and fell asleep on the first floor as he pleased.”
There was a tone that suggested he had more to say.
When Suhyeon waited quietly, Hajin blinked and asked abruptly.
“Is that man the first person you look for as soon as you wake up?”
It was a blunt question.
‘Is it more strange not to look for him after all that chaos?’
Suhyeon thought so, but he shut his mouth when he met Hajin’s eyes, which were filled with displeasure.
Blue eyes and light-brown eyes met again.
A tense yet somehow ticklish silence, unique to the deep of night, flowed between them.
The first to move was Hajin’s finger.
For some reason, his cold hand covered Suhyeon’s hand, which was resting carelessly on the blanket.
His long fingers stroked Suhyeon’s white fingers, joint by joint.
The blue eyes soon looked down, following the movement of the hands.
Suhyeon stared at the sight blankly.
His indifferent expression was the same as usual, but the way Hajin looked at Suhyeon’s fingers while fiddling with them made him look like a cat that wanted something.
A cat that couldn’t say it directly, but clearly wanted something.
Or, he looked like a young boy who was upset.
—…Would you like to start seeing me?
Then, Suhyeon suddenly remembered Hajin’s confession.
When Suhyeon’s finger flinched, Hajin lifted his gaze back to him.
Because of the reunion with Yihan, the chest pain, and the subsequent tests and chaos, the atmosphere had been shattered, and that heart-fluttering confession had naturally been buried.
Once he remembered it, the existence of the confession expanded in his mind as if it had been waiting.
It triggered a chain reaction, reminding him of how Hajin had been looking down at him just now.
‘Could it be that he’s been waiting until now?’
When Suhyeon looked up, the blue eyes blinked as if to say “yes.”
Suhyeon found it quite cute.
In the end, Suhyeon couldn’t help but smile faintly.
“About what you asked today,”
Strength suddenly entered Hajin’s hand that was covering Suhyeon’s.
It was clear the man was nervous.
“Okay.”
Had he thought Suhyeon wouldn’t accept?
Hajin’s eyes shook.
“Then,”
But only for a moment.
With a low voice, Hajin leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Suhyeon’s back.
Suhyeon’s eyes widened at the sudden contact.
He felt a firm chest.
Hajin’s blue eyes curved with a slow sense of satisfaction.
“You’re staying at my house continuously. Got it?”
Those were the first words he spoke to his new partner—words that were either too intense or, depending on the situation, a bit insensitive.
Wrapped in Hajin’s arms, Suhyeon blinked.
‘Wasn’t I supposed to stay here anyway?’
* * *
