Already weak and aching from his injuries, Huiyeong's mind went completely blank after hearing something so utterly ridiculous.
W-What? Kiss? Sexual intercourse? Have s-sex? With another man?
His eyes went wide in shock as he stared blankly ahead, wondering if he'd really heard correctly or if he'd imagined it.
"Have all of you lost your damn minds...? What the hell are you telling me to do?"
"Guiding..."
"Guiding my ass.... Calling sex 'Guiding'—what the fuck...."
You understood perfectly....
The employees stood there in silence. They couldn't figure out what exactly the problem was, and the hospital room fell quiet once again.
"Hey, kids. Let this old man give you one serious piece of advice."
"Huh? Y-Yes...."
Looking at their awkward expressions, Huiyeong swallowed a sigh.
Fine. I'll let everything slide. Honestly, I'm still not convinced, but whatever. Let's say—for the hundredth time—that I'll make every possible concession. I'll even accept the ridiculous idea that there are people who breathe fire, fly through the sky with superpowers, and others who can heal them just by fondling those bastards. Sure. Let's pretend that's all true.
But this?
What?
Two men doing what?
Sex?
"Every last one of you should go see a psychiatrist. These days, having mental problems isn't something to hide or be ashamed of. If you're sick, you get treatment. Pretending nothing's wrong—or hell, you're not even pretending.... Anyway, leaving it alone isn't gonna magically cure you."
...What was he talking about?
Was this some kind of personal confession?
The employees tilted their heads.
"And don't go around saying shit like that wherever you please. Look, this old man's seen every damn thing there is to see in life, so I don't care. But if you start spewing that nonsense somewhere else, somebody's gonna report your ass and you'll end up in prison. You're still young. Why ruin your lives, huh?"
"We're not sure what you mean...."
"Or what, do you actually believe that crap? Some cult or something? Whatever it is, don't ever go back to the place that taught you that nonsense."
...This is our workplace.
As the employees' expressions grew increasingly strange, Huiyeong finally stopped talking.
Wait...
Seriously?
"For real? All those Esper and Guide people actually do that?"
"Uh...? You mean... Guiding?"
"For fuck's sake, sex! SEX!"
Huiyeong's whole body trembled with anger.
Hell, anyone would lose their mind if somebody suddenly dragged in a woman they'd never met and told them to have sex with her. And now they were telling him... this?
He pressed both hands hard against his temples.
His head was pounding.
Despite his former title as a gangster, Huiyeong was actually fairly conservative when it came to sex.
Granted, that was only by comparison with the people around him. Compared to ordinary folks, he wasn't exactly a saint. Still, unlike the other gang members, he wasn't the type to sleep around recklessly.
More importantly, treating sex like some kind of assigned duty—like it was part of the job—made a deep sense of rejection well up inside him.
"Ah... You're s-surprised because of sexual Guiding. Not every pair goes as far as sexual Guiding."
Maybe... around 0.001%?
Probably.
There were at least a handful of pairs who somehow managed to withstand an Esper's terrifying obsession and maintained nothing more than a friendship.
However...
The employees hesitated as they remembered Han Shinyul, who had just left the room.
Those golden eyes that had stared at Huiyeong had been overflowing with obsession and desire. Judging by how he'd been kneading Huiyeong's unconscious body and secretly stroking the bare skin beneath his clothes...
The moment they officially became a pair, it was painfully obvious he'd strip him naked without a second thought.
"Right? I mean, with birth rates being this low these days, grown men doing that? Seriously?"
"Low birth rates...? Um... homosexuality...."
No one knew what country he was talking about, but Korea had never once experienced a declining birth rate.
Quite the opposite.
The entire world had once struggled with overpopulation. Then dungeons appeared, along with Espers and Guides, throwing the world into chaos. Afterward, the population naturally settled into an ideal balance.
Society became even more open, actively encouraging free relationships, creating the prejudice-free modern world everyone now lived in.
They hadn't lived through those times themselves.
They'd learned it from history books.
Listening to Huiyeong confidently spout bizarre nonsense in place of basic common knowledge, making antiquated remarks that sounded like something someone's ancestors would say, the employees all let out heavy sighs.
What are we supposed to do with this, Han Shinyul?
You've got a very long road ahead of you.
When the employees sighed again as though they still didn't understand him, Huiyeong felt his consciousness drifting away.
Just what the hell kind of insane world was this...?
It felt like his brain had finally reached its limit and was shutting down from overload.
"Hey... first... first.... That's enough. Everybody get out."
"W-Wait just a moment...."
"No. I'll listen tomorrow. Tomorrow.... This old man's exhausted."
His frail body trembled, his face filled with exhaustion.
Seeing someone so unbelievably beautiful—like a fairy made flesh—shivering helplessly, his already pale face drained completely white as he quietly admitted he was tired...
Who wouldn't feel sorry for him?
"...All right. Please get some rest. We'll come back tomorrow."
"...Haa...."
The employees busied themselves awkwardly helping Huiyeong settle into bed.
Only after they cautiously closed the door behind them did silence finally descend over the room.
Huiyeong shut his eyes, scowling deeply as though he had become thoroughly sick of absolutely everything.
***
The stress that had piled up in his frail body must have been overwhelming.
Not long after everyone left, soft, even breathing filled the room.
Creeak—
The door opened cautiously.
A large man stepped inside, his bright golden eyes blinking slowly.
Despite his long legs carrying him confidently across the room in broad strides, he moved without making the slightest sound.
Han Shinyul quietly watched Huiyeong's sleeping face.
From the exposed forehead to the small rounded tip of his nose, his hand hovered just above him, gently tracing the air as though caressing him without actually touching.
When Huiyeong stirred slightly in his sleep, Shinyul's fingers trembled.
After hesitating for a moment, he finally reached out and carefully clasped Huiyeong's slender hand.
"Haa...."
The instant their hands touched, Huiyeong's Guiding energy flowed into him in gentle waves.
It was unbearably sweet.
They were only holding hands, yet the sensation was overwhelming.
Closing his eyes, Shinyul slowly sank to his knees, curling himself closer beside Huiyeong.
He stared at the slender white fingers twitching softly inside his own hand.
Then he slowly slipped Huiyeong's index finger into his mouth and sucked on it.
The instant it touched the inside of his mouth, Guiding poured into him like a flood.
His entire body shuddered.
Afraid Huiyeong might wake up, he forced himself to steady his ragged breathing.
Han Shinyul hadn't been in his right mind from the moment he arrived at the hospital.
Though, honestly...
When had he ever been sane?
The moment he sensed the unconscious Guiding radiation Huiyeong had accidentally released in his confusion and pain—having never learned how to control his Guiding—
Shinyul's heart had begun racing.
The world itself had started spinning.
Even that faint trace of Guiding entering his body had given him, for the first time in his life, the feeling that he had finally become complete.
It was so intoxicatingly sweet...
He desperately searched for the source from which that Guiding flowed.
The hospital lobby had been packed with people.
Yet all Shinyul could see was that small figure, soaked in sweat.
The instant their eyes met, the exhilaration had been so intense that his mind had gone completely white.
The mere fact that the one who could make him whole...
His own salvation...
Actually existed in this world...
It moved him beyond words.
The one breath that erased every lonely day he'd spent fearing he'd remain incomplete forever.
My own god.
When he slowly withdrew the slender finger he'd been gently rubbing with his tongue...
A thin strand of saliva stretched between the pale finger and his lips before finally snapping.
Even that sight was unbearably stimulating.
Shinyul slowly licked the finger one last time before finally losing the battle against the obsession and desire surging inside him.
He abruptly climbed onto the bed.
For a hospital bed, it was fairly spacious.
But it was still just a single bed.
The moment Shinyul squeezed his door-sized body onto it, the already limited space shrank dramatically.
Huiyeong frowned in his sleep and shifted slightly.
Shinyul didn't miss the opportunity.
He pressed himself even closer, drawing Huiyeong's slender body completely into his embrace.
Pure, cool Guiding energy flowed steadily into him through their tightly pressed bodies.
"Haa...."
Shinyul let out a languid sigh as he rubbed his face against Huiyeong's soft cheek.
The sensation of having his Guide safely within his arms...
It was impossible to describe.
It filled him with overwhelming happiness and indescribable satisfaction.
Had he never known this feeling, things might have been different.
But now that he'd experienced what it was like for his very soul to feel completely full...
He instinctively knew he could never return to the way he'd been before.
"I'm yours....
Even when I die...
I want to die by your hands."
His golden eyes blinked slowly.
The years he'd spent suffering from insomnia born of unbearable emptiness now felt like nothing more than a lie.
Feeling the warm body fidgeting gently in his embrace...
Han Shinyul slowly drifted off to sleep.
***
"Mr. Yu Huiyeong, did you sleep well?"
"..."
"Were you uncomfortable at all during the night?"
"...You seriously don't see what's making me uncomfortable right now?"
Huiyeong pointed toward the mountain of articles about Espers and Guides, this morning's recorded news broadcasts, books, and research papers the employees had spread all over his bed.
He answered the doctor in an exasperated voice.
Even after sleeping for more than ten hours, his body felt strangely stiff.
The employees had begged him to trust them, piling all those materials onto his bed so he couldn't even lie down properly.
He was already in a foul mood, his face twisted with irritation.
The doctor merely flipped through the chart before smiling brightly.
"I heard you spoke with the Center employees until quite late last night. It seems you've started remembering some basic social knowledge. Now that you've awakened as a Guide, it's very encouraging to see you actively trying to accept your new circumstances. That's excellent."
"So as long as you're happy, that's all that matters? 'Cause I'm not."
Behind the doctor, the employees whispered after hearing Huiyeong's irritated reply.
He didn't remember anything at all.
He refused to believe us no matter what we said, so we just asked him to read the materials....
"Ahh...."
The doctor nodded as though he understood.
Seeing him take absolutely no action despite supposedly understanding made Huiyeong tremble with anger.
When he went to sleep, he'd hoped he'd wake up back in his own body.
Nothing had changed.
Instead, all he'd gotten was one impossible explanation after another until he felt like he was losing his mind.
He'd genuinely tried to understand.
But being told that two men were supposed to do... that...
At this point, simply holding hands and hugging was beginning to seem downright angelic.
From then until now, he'd only grown angrier.
He'd claimed he understood, but honestly, he hadn't believed a single word the employees had said.
Superpowers?
Healing someone just by touching them?
He'd laughed it off.
But after seeing the news broadcasts, articles, research papers, interviews, and books they'd shown him...
It felt like someone had smashed him across the back of the head with a brick.
Seriously.
He opened his eyes in the body of some stranger.
He was flat broke.
Apparently he was some damn Guide.
And now people were demanding things he couldn't even begin to understand.
Wasn't it perfectly normal to be furious?
Huiyeong grabbed the scattered papers and hurled them toward the doctor.
"For fuck's sake! Hey! There's a limit to how crazy people can be, isn't there? Huh? You've got a patient lying here injured, and instead of letting him recover, you bastards keep bringing me this bullshit and these stupid papers just to stress me out! And the rest of you assholes just stand there watching without stopping them! Seriously? You've gotta be kidding me."
"Mr. Yu Huiyeong."
"Use your damn common sense! Common sense! Because I'm some Guide or whatever, two grown men are supposed to sleep together. And somehow that cures people who were on the verge of death? That's insane. Completely fucking insane! What? Esper? Superpowers? Give me a break! Keep this shit up and I'll report every last one of you and have you locked in a psychiatric ward!"
"Mr. Yu Huiyeong, please calm down."
"Does it look like I can calm down? There's a limit to treating people like idiots. I got stabbed in the stomach, not the fucking head! Every single one of you just keeps spewing complete nonsense!"
Huff—
Huff—
His frail body panted violently.
His pale face had flushed bright red with anger.
"Um... Mr. Yu Huiyeong."
"For fuck's sake, I told you that's not my name!"
"But you looked in the mirror, didn't you? Was that your face?"
"..."
Huiyeong's mouth snapped shut.
"From what you've told us, it seems your understanding of common sense doesn't match the common sense of this world, which is why you're experiencing such confusion. Why do you think that is?"
"How the hell should I know? You're the doctor. Or maybe one of those damn superpowered freaks ought to know!"
Still breathing heavily from agitation, Huiyeong finally shut his eyes and let out a long, deep sigh.
He rubbed hard at the corners of his eyes with one hand.
Just raising his voice a little had already left him dizzy and exhausted.
The childish, delicate voice finally stopped shouting.
Silence filled the room once more.
Huiyeong released another long breath.
Getting everything off his chest had helped a little.
But nothing had actually changed.
He bit down hard on his lip.
He'd opened his eyes in another world.
Inside another person's body.
Even if he stayed here for now while searching for a way back...
Accepting all this absurdity at nearly fifty years old was far easier said than done.
He roughly scrubbed his face with his hands.
The sting in his tender skin cleared his head a little.
Maybe I'd gone too far.
His shoulders slumped as he spoke quietly.
"Ah... um... Sorry. Since yesterday I've been hearing nothing but impossible stories. Tell me honestly... wouldn't that drive anybody crazy? At this point, I'd rather hear that I'm the one who's lost his mind instead of them. Because whatever this is... it sure as hell doesn't feel normal."
The doctor hesitated.
His condition wasn't exactly stable.
His reactions had been consistently aggressive.
Just then, Huiyeong lowered the hand that had been rubbing his aching forehead and met the doctor's eyes.
Those weren't the timid eyes of Yu Huiyeong.
They were the steady, hardened eyes of Ryu Gwantae, a man who had survived every hardship life could throw at him.
The doctor swallowed a sigh.
He opened and closed his mouth several times, carefully choosing his words before speaking.
"Yes. As your physician, this is my professional opinion. Mr. Yu Huiyeong, you're suffering from extremely severe post-traumatic stress along with temporary confusion. It appears that post-traumatic dissociation or another psychological condition has developed to an intermediate stage, resulting in your current symptoms. Simply put... the confusion you're experiencing right now is a type of mental illness."
"W-Wait... what?"
For fuck's sake...
Was I really the one who'd lost my mind?