* * *
“Aren’t you going to receive guiding? At least tell me why.”
The call came in, and he knew he was about to get nagged.
But knowing it beforehand didn’t make it any easier to listen to.
It was frustrating—how they sided with that Guide without knowing a thing about what he was going through.
“Wonho.”
“…Yeah, I know.”
He knew he needed guiding.
If anyone understood how badly he needed it, it wasn’t Jin Seyoung or that Guide—it was Wonho himself.
And yet, he was avoiding the Guide who wandered around his house.
There was only one reason.
“What’s your excuse this time?”
Jin Seyoung had already asked him this question countless times.
But there was no way Wonho could tell him the truth—not to someone who thought of him like a younger sibling.
How could he explain that every time he received guiding, he got hard?
Wonho wasn’t aware of it, but nearly every Esper experienced pleasure—sexual pleasure—during guiding.
The process of smoothing out tangled waves, dissolving impurities, and restoring their energy naturally triggered a deep, overwhelming pleasure.
There wasn’t a single Esper who remained unaffected.
But Wonho had undergone his Esper training before becoming an adult.
After reaching adulthood, he had never once received proper guiding.
So he had no idea.
“I’m not waiting any longer. Today, you’re getting guided no matter what.”
The words hit like a thunderbolt, and Wonho scowled deeply.
He had been trying to get by without using his abilities too much, so he thought it would be fine.
He never expected Jin Seyoung to be this extreme.
But Jin Seyoung was firm.
If Wonho refused to get guided today, he would escalate the issue and get approval for a forced guiding session.
That, Wonho absolutely couldn’t allow.
Forced or voluntary, either way, the only ones in that room would be himself and the Guide.
And his lower body would absolutely not cooperate.
He couldn’t let anyone see him like that.
In the end, under Jin Seyoung’s unyielding orders, Wonho made his way home, where his Guide was waiting.
He couldn’t remember a time when his footsteps had ever felt heavier.
With a heavy heart, he punched in the door lock code.
And the moment he stepped inside, he froze.
The Guide, who should have been waiting for him, was sprawled out on the cold living room floor.
For a second, he wondered if they had just fallen asleep out of boredom.
But then a sharp, pungent scent brushed past his nose.
Alcohol.
“…Hey.”
Frowning at the smell, Wonho walked over and nudged the Guide’s body with his foot.
Their body swayed slightly, but they didn’t wake up.
How much did they drink to end up like this?
His gaze shifted to the table.
And he let out a deep sigh.
The bottle on the table was one he knew very well.
An Esper-exclusive liquor.
It didn’t have an official name, but that’s what people called it.
He knew it well because he had tried it before.
As soon as he became old enough to drink, Jin Seyoung had brought out this exact bottle.
After that, every time they needed to have a serious conversation, Seyoung would pull out the liquor, saying they needed to talk openly.
Not that those serious conversations ever actually happened, since Seyoung always passed out drunk before they could get anywhere.
It wasn’t hard to figure out how this bottle had ended up here.
Jin Seyoung’s doing, no doubt.
He was probably supposed to drink it.
So why was this idiot the one who drank and passed out instead?
“…Huh? Wait a minute. Did they even drink any?”
Wonho lifted the bottle, peered inside, and was utterly dumbfounded.
The level of alcohol had barely dropped.
This idiot had passed out after just one drink.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Who the hell would ring the bell at an Esper’s house?
Checking the intercom, he saw no one outside.
What the hell?
Stepping outside, he found several plastic bags placed in front of the door.
Wonho brought them inside.
As he placed them on the table and checked the contents, it was all food.
Clearly, the Guide had ordered it to eat with the alcohol.
But the amount…
It looked like it was meant for at least four people, not just two.
Braised spicy chicken, tteokbokki, pork cutlets—more of a full meal than drinking snacks.
But the real problem was…
The person who had ordered all of this was currently passed out, sprawled across the living room floor.
“…Hah.”
Wonho let out a long sigh.
Having to clean up after a drunk was never in his plans, but Wonho pushed through his throbbing headache and stuffed all the delivered food into the refrigerator.
When he first brought that guide into his home, he had been too preoccupied with the shock to think about anything else.
But now, seeing a new fridge and a sofa in the apartment, he realized his mistake.
That’s why he had transferred money into the guide’s account, assuming he would buy whatever was necessary.
Finding out his account number hadn’t been difficult.
Yet, aside from the sofa, refrigerator, and that makeshift table covered in empty bottles, nothing else had changed.
That was odd.
After shoving all the leftover food into the fridge, Wonho looked at the guide, who was sprawled out, sleeping like a dead man.
A sigh escaped him as he pondered what to do.
“Ugh…”
Feeling his body being shaken, Haebom groaned in irritation and squirmed away.
Then, he heard a low voice saying something.
His eyelids, still heavy with sleep, slowly lifted—only to find a face right in front of his own.
A side profile, at that.
“Ah!”
Startled, Haebom instinctively headbutted the face in front of him.
As he clutched his aching forehead and let out a pained cry, he heard a dry chuckle.
It wasn’t hard to guess who it belonged to.
“…Wonho….”
“If you’re sober, get up on your own.”
Wonho gave Haebom a look full of exasperation, then shoved him aside before sitting up.
“Drunk?”
Haebom tilted his head.
Then, reaching out toward Wonho, who was trying to move away, he caught his sleeve.
His body felt heavy, but grabbing hold of Wonho wasn’t difficult.
Blinking rapidly to clear his mind, Haebom latched onto a single thought that now took up every inch of his consciousness—
‘Guiding…!’
His mind, utterly wrecked by a single shot of high-proof esper liquor, clung desperately to the idea that he had to guide Wonho.
His body promptly followed suit.
The hand gripping Wonho’s sleeve grew bolder, sliding down to clasp his hand.
Then, just as he had been taught, he intertwined their fingers, locking them together.
They said that holding hands like this—palm to palm, fingers tightly laced—maximized contact and made guiding more effective.
Before Wonho could even think of pulling away, Haebom was already releasing guiding energy.
It was just their hands touching, but in his drunken haze, Haebom unknowingly activated both contact guiding and radiation guiding at the same time.
Wonho had never seen someone do both at once before.
He tried to pull away, but Haebom, completely drunk, was impossible to shake off.
Worse yet, his own body, craving guidance, instinctively tightened its grip on Haebom’s hand.
“Ugh… Hey…!”
‘My name isn’t ‘Hey’…’
Haebom mumbled groggily, but Wonho couldn’t even respond.
The guiding energy seeping into his body was overwhelming.
His knees buckled, forcing him down onto one knee.
His upper body tipped forward, pressing against Haebom.
* * *
