“Gyujiiin.”
Kwon Dajung drew out his name as he rubbed his cheek against Gyujin’s hair. With a deeply satisfied expression, he buried his nose against him and took a long breath in. Only after thoroughly indulging himself did Dajung finally pull away, though even then he refused to let go of Gyujin’s sleeve.
“You’re not hurt anywhere, right? What about Ko Hyeguk? He answered the phone earlier.”
“I told him to go on ahead. More importantly, where are the others? Weren’t they coming with you?”
Instead of answering, Dajung looked behind him.
Gyujin spotted Song Youngju, Moon Guk, and Choi Sunwoo approaching from behind and raised a hand in greeting. Dajung watched Gyujin’s hand wave through the air with obvious displeasure, then promptly threaded their fingers together.
“Let them deal with this mess. We should go home. You’re not feeling that great anyway. Why do we need to stay here too?”
Dajung blinked prettily at him as he made the shameless suggestion.
Before Gyujin could scold him for trying to dump everything on everyone else, Yoon Palsik immediately agreed.
“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Don’t worry about things here, Gyujin. Take your Esper and head home. I’ll finish things up with the others.”
Palsik repeatedly emphasized his point while casting sideways glances at Dajung.
The unspoken message was obvious.
Please take him with you.
With no other choice, Gyujin nodded.
“Let’s get out of here first. Where did you park?”
“Over there somewhere.”
Dajung pointed toward the road.
Apparently, because the entrance had been too congested to get through, he had simply left the car on the road.
Gyujin had been wondering why the honking had been so loud for a while now.
Don’t tell me that was because of him.
His face went slightly pale at the sheer scale of the inconvenience radiating in every direction.
“You can’t just leave your car there.”
“Why not?”
Dajung widened his eyes as if genuinely unable to understand what the problem was.
Realizing that explaining it would probably go in one ear and out the other, Gyujin sighed weakly.
“Let’s just go. Director, I’ll head out first. If the others need guiding, could you handle it for them? Please.”
“Sure.”
Palsik gave him a thumbs-up and told him not to worry.
Youngju, Guk, and Sunwoo all looked less than thrilled, but this was hardly the time for them to be picky.
“Youngju, if anything happens, call me immediately. Got it?”
“Yep.”
Youngju copied Palsik and gave him a thumbs-up too.
Even though Gyujin was essentially slipping away while leaving only them behind, none of them openly complained.
Part of him wondered whether it was really okay to leave them like this, but with Palsik there, surely they would manage somehow.
Dajung noticed Gyujin hesitating and urged him to hurry.
Even while being pulled along by the hand, Gyujin kept looking back at Youngju, Guk, Sunwoo, and Palsik.
It really is okay to leave them like this, right?
“Gyujin, I think a tow truck just got here.”
“What?! Where?”
Startled, Gyujin whipped his head around.
Sure enough, a tow truck was approaching Dajung’s car.
Only then did Gyujin hurry his steps too.
Under the tow truck driver’s sharp criticism and the hostile stares of everyone nearby, Gyujin barely managed to save the car from being towed.
While Gyujin repeatedly bowed and apologized, Dajung promptly slid into the driver’s seat.
The atmosphere, which had finally begun to ease, turned prickly again when Dajung impatiently demanded to know why Gyujin wasn’t getting in yet.
He’s not even oblivious, so why the hell does he act like this?
The instant Gyujin sat in the passenger seat, the car shot forward.
As he fastened his seat belt, Dajung kept grumbling.
“I don’t know why they’re making such a huge deal out of it. Sometimes people just have to leave their cars wherever. Right, Gyujin?”
The complete lack of even a pretense of shame made Gyujin sigh again.
Whenever Dajung occasionally—no, frequently—went completely off the rails, Gyujin felt guilt and despair in equal measure.
Was this what Dajung looked like after actually being reformed somewhat?
Or had his personality simply been beyond fixing from the beginning?
There was no way to know.
“Dajung, you can’t just stop your car in the middle of a road where other cars are driving. It’s not a matter of ‘sometimes it happens.’ Parking wherever you want is illegal. Never do that again. Understand?”
“Yeees. I’ll remember.”
At least he always answered obediently.
Gyujin quietly studied Dajung’s profile as he focused on driving.
Unfortunately, the side facing him was the same cheek Gyujin had mercilessly slapped earlier, and the sight left a bitter feeling in his chest.
“…I’m sorry I hit you earlier.”
There was no wound or mark left on Dajung’s pale cheek.
Still, Gyujin could feel the memory of the impact lingering in his fingertips.
No matter what he did wrong, violence isn’t right.
In a way, Gyujin had failed to follow the rules and principles too.
“Did it hurt a lot?”
He slowly reached out and rubbed Dajung’s cheek.
Dajung immediately sensed the weakness in Gyujin’s heart and leaned his face into his palm.
Putting on the most pitiful expression imaginable, he pointed to his chest.
“Not my face. Here. I thought this was going to tear apart.”
He looked at Gyujin and whispered weakly.
His vivid, unfiltered affection poured out and clung to Gyujin like something sticky.
“You’re the only person in my world. If you hate me… I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do. That’s why my chest keeps hurting.”
“Why would I hate you? How could I?”
It wasn’t empty reassurance.
Gyujin had never once hated or disliked Dajung.
Even before he came to love Dajung the way he did now, Gyujin had always been endlessly lenient with him.
No matter what bizarre thing Dajung did, Gyujin could usually understand it if he chalked it up to adolescence in a young Esper.
In Gyujin’s eyes, Dajung had always seemed small and young.
“But… you got really mad at me earlier. I remember all of it.”
“If you’d stop doing awful things to other people, especially Guides, I wouldn’t have any reason to get mad at you. You already know that.”
Gyujin patted Dajung’s cheek a few times, then lowered his hand without hesitation.
Dajung’s thoroughly subdued voice followed immediately.
“…I won’t do it again.”
Gyujin only smiled.
That was obviously a lie.
If the same situation happened again, Dajung would do exactly the same thing as if he had never made such a promise.
Gyujin had heard I won’t do it again too many times to fall for it anymore.
Still, instead of scolding him, Gyujin stroked his hair.
At least Dajung was willing to say the words now.
“Thanks.”
Compared to when they had first met, he really was much better at listening.
Gyujin laughed as he watched Dajung smile brightly.
The only thing that seemed to keep improving was his talent for acting cute, but it was still pleasant to look at.
If the baby is born, I think I’d like it to look like Dajung after all.
Dajung was far prettier and cuter than Gyujin.
The thought of a baby who looked exactly like him made a smile spread across Gyujin’s face without permission.
If it only inherited his looks and not his personality, just how adorable would it be?
“What? Does looking at my face make you smile?”
Dajung tilted his head after noticing Gyujin’s expression.
He didn’t seem to dislike the idea, either, because a smile appeared on his own lips.
Gyujin leaned back against the seat and folded his arms.
“My face? Isn’t that a little narcissistic?”
“No. You were definitely smiling because you were looking at me. Right? You were, weren’t you? You like my face.”
“That’s…”
Gyujin couldn’t exactly deny it.
Dajung’s face was very much his type.
When Gyujin trailed off, Dajung shrugged as if to say See?
“Ever since I met you, I’ve lived my life grateful for my face. If I hadn’t been born pretty, you wouldn’t have liked me.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t like you because of your face.”
“Sure you don’t. You think I don’t know you? Maybe that’s not why anymore, but at the beginning you were definitely nice to me because of my face. You’re especially weak to young, pretty things.”
“When you put it like that, you make me sound like some kind of pervert.”
Being kind only to young, pretty people?
No matter how Gyujin listened to it, that sounded like an insult.
Even when Gyujin gave him a disturbed look, Dajung shamelessly insisted that it was true.
“You like kids, you like animals, and basically you like anything small and weak. I know that. Why do you think I went as far as making you sign a written promise not to have some damn kid? Whenever you see something small, pretty, delicate, and helpless, you completely lose your mind.”
At the mention of a kid, Gyujin’s heart gave a guilty thump.
Whether he liked children or not was beside the point.
He was carrying one right now.
Watching Dajung carefully, Gyujin slowly rested a hand over his stomach.
“I don’t know. I’m not so sure about that…”
“Oh, come on. After everything you’ve done… Don’t you remember back when we’d just met? We went into a gate and you attacked a monster because you thought you were saving me. You’re probably the only civilian in the world who’d draw aggro to protect an SS-rank Esper.”
“That was forever ago…”
Gyujin quietly turned his head and looked out the window.
It wasn’t a memory he particularly wanted to revisit, and no matter how generously he judged himself, it came painfully close to being one of the most embarrassing moments of his life.
His face grew hot.
“It was just… you were so young back then. If that was such a problem, maybe you shouldn’t have kept running around in your school uniform.”
“What was I supposed to do? If I got called in during class, I had to go straight to the gate. Anyway, you definitely liked me because I was young and pretty. That’s why you never got mad at me even when I acted like a complete fucking asshole.”