“There he goes again.”
Song Youngju clicked his tongue. Before Kwon Dajung could start raising even more hell, he quickly got to his feet and put some distance between himself and Gyujin.
“Nothing happened, so knock it off.”
Even under Kwon Dajung’s vicious glare, Song Youngju held his ground. Anyone would get used to this after putting up with it for five years. In that respect, Song Youngju had developed remarkable durability.
“And why am I some other man? At the very least, I’m close enough to count as one of your own.”
“Shut your mouth, Song Youngju.”
Kwon Dajung snapped at him viciously. He shoved Song Youngju aside and moved up next to Gyujin. Then he settled into the exact spot Song Youngju had occupied and practically tangled himself around Gyujin.
The demonic expression from moments ago had vanished without a trace. Now wearing the face of an innocent lamb, Dajung gazed up at him with shining eyes and asked softly,
“How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”
Gyujin showed no particular reaction to Kwon Dajung’s impossible-to-follow mood swings. Like Song Youngju, he had five years of experience dealing with him. Dajung’s capriciousness barely registered anymore.
“I’m fine. Perfectly—”
“No, you’re not. Why would someone who’s perfectly fine pass out?”
Kwon Dajung cut him off before he could even finish.
He wrapped both arms around Gyujin’s waist and clung to him like a koala. His weight pushed Gyujin backward until he naturally ended up lying against the hospital bed, and Gyujin automatically stroked Dajung’s hair out of habit.
“Dajung, you’re heavy. Could you move?”
Maybe all that talk earlier about the two of them rolling around in bed had been some kind of preview.
Kwon Dajung showed no intention of moving away or letting Gyujin go. And even in the middle of all this, Gyujin couldn’t stop worrying about the pressure on his stomach.
His expression grew awkward.
“Come on. Move now.”
“Mmm.”
It was impossible to tell whether that meant he would or wouldn’t.
Only after Gyujin repeated himself about five times did Kwon Dajung finally start sluggishly sitting up.
Even then, he rubbed his lips against Gyujin’s cheek as though it had happened by accident.
Watching from a short distance away, Song Youngju muttered,
“Fox.”
He clicked his tongue, saying that wasn’t the kind of behavior anyone could learn.
It wasn’t as though Kwon Dajung’s shameless tricks were anything new, but somehow they were still innovative and astonishing every single time.
Whether Song Youngju was appalled or not, Kwon Dajung’s entire field of vision seemed filled with Gyujin alone.
After spending a while longer groping and fussing over Gyujin under the pretense of accidental contact, he finally spoke in a leisurely voice.
“I stopped by the Guide Center earlier and heard something really interesting.”
Kwon Dajung smiled sweetly.
His thumb rubbed over the inside of Gyujin’s wrist as he whispered,
“I heard you have guiding dependency syndrome.”
The words came without brakes.
Gyujin coughed awkwardly.
Kwon Dajung tightened his grip around his wrist and pulled him a little closer.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What does that mean? Team Leader, you have guiding dependency syndrome? Seriously?”
Startled, Song Youngju rushed straight back over.
The two men crowded around Gyujin and started firing questions at him from both sides.
“Is that why you said you were quitting? Because you’re sick?”
“Team Leader, are you really sick? Did you pass out because of it? Huh? Are you actually sick somewhere? No, seriously, what’s wrong with you?”
“Why did you hide the fact that you went to the hospital from me?”
“Oh! So that’s why you kept falling asleep! I knew it! I knew something serious was wrong!”
With both of them going at once, Gyujin couldn’t think straight.
Not only that, his head was starting to spin too.
Maybe it was his imagination, but his stomach kept churning.
Gyujin squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed between his brows.
“Could you both just be quiet for a second…….”
“If you have guiding dependency syndrome, why the hell did you guide me? When I asked, you should’ve slapped me across the face. Why would you actually do it? Gyujin, are you fucking desperate to die?”
“Holy shit, Team Leader! You can’t do that!”
Song Youngju smacked Gyujin repeatedly on the shoulder.
Apparently even that much physical contact annoyed him, because Kwon Dajung’s expression abruptly hardened and he barked at Song Youngju to fuck off.
Gyujin muttered wearily,
“I get it, so could you please just be qui—”
The instant he tried to speak, his stomach suddenly heaved.
Gyujin swallowed a gag and clapped a hand over his mouth.
“Urgh……!”
Once the nausea surged up, there was no controlling it.
His eyes immediately filled with tears.
No matter how hard he tried to calm himself down, it was useless.
Still, driven by the single-minded determination not to throw up right there, he hurriedly tried to sit up.
Kwon Dajung caught his hand at once.
He cupped his own palm and held it directly beneath Gyujin’s mouth.
“If you think you’re going to throw up, just do it here. Don’t hurt yourself trying to run somewhere.”
Gyujin’s face turned even paler.
No matter how urgent it was, how could he possibly throw up into someone else’s hand?
He shook his head, insisting that was out of the question.
Kwon Dajung’s expression only grew colder.
“Want me to catch it with my mouth instead?”
Kwon Dajung looked entirely capable of actually doing it.
A hand was better.
Anything was better than throwing up into another person’s mouth.
Gyujin finally surrendered and dropped his head.
“Ugh……!”
There was nothing in his stomach, so nothing actually came up no matter how violently it turned.
That almost made it worse.
Before long, Gyujin’s face was slick with tears and saliva.
After retching for what felt like forever, the nausea finally subsided enough for him to wipe his mouth.
Dajung patted the panting Gyujin on the back.
Then he sighed and muttered,
“Stop driving me insane and just tell me when you’re sick. Please……”
Song Youngju handed over a fistful of wet wipes and tissues he had somehow found.
Kwon Dajung took them and scrubbed Gyujin’s face clean.
“Since you’re already at the hospital, get every test they can do. Find out properly whether it really is guiding dependency syndrome. And even if it is, don’t worry. I’ll invent a treatment myself if I have to. I’ll fix it. Okay?”
Gyujin nodded weakly.
Looking at the worried faces of Song Youngju and Kwon Dajung, he felt guilty.
It wasn’t nearly as serious as they thought, and strictly speaking, these symptoms weren’t even because of guiding dependency syndrome.
It just seems like morning sickness…….
In front of the two Espers who already thought he was some pitiful Guide dying from guiding dependency syndrome, Gyujin calmly kept his mouth shut.
Sometimes there were things people simply didn’t need to know.
***
“There probably won’t be any problems. Probably. It’s expensive because insurance doesn’t cover it, but the drug itself is definitely considered safe. Still, just in case, let’s only have you take it when you truly can’t tolerate the symptoms anymore. It is safe, but your case is so rare that there’s always a possibility of some unforeseen side effect. You understand what I mean, right?”
The doctor looked considerably more exhausted than he had just a few days ago.
He pushed his glasses up his nose and handed over a white pill bottle.
Gyujin bowed his head as he accepted it.
“Thank you, Doctor. And for keeping it secret too.”
The doctor had rushed over as soon as he heard that Gyujin had collapsed while guiding.
Thanks to him, Gyujin had managed to receive proper treatment without Kwon Dajung discovering the pregnancy.
“Not at all. You’re the one having the hardest time with this already. I should help where I can.”
Behind his glasses, the doctor’s eyes were filled with the kind of sympathy one might show a terminally ill patient.
Faced with this complicated and baffling situation, he was clearly doing everything he could.
“As I already warned you, absolutely no guiding until at least twelve weeks. And under no circumstances are you to guide a high-ranking Esper. Fortunately, there’s nothing wrong with the fetus, but next time this could cause a truly serious problem. It may not end with you simply losing consciousness.”
“I’ll remember. Thank you, Doctor.”
“Then I’ll see you again in two weeks. At that point, we can also assess whether a procedure is possible.”
Gyujin silently bowed his head.
He slipped the pill bottle into his pocket and stood.
The moment he stepped out of the examination room, two men built like doors immediately closed in around him.
Kwon Dajung glanced irritably at the shut door.
“What kind of secret conversation needs soundproofing good enough that even an Esper can’t hear through it? Isn’t that a design flaw?”
Apparently he had already been furious about not being allowed into the examination room, and the discovery that its soundproofing prevented him from eavesdropping had only made him sulk harder.
Gyujin shrugged.
“Who knows. Maybe the doctor takes patient privacy laws especially seriously.”
He started walking first.
Kwon Dajung and Song Youngju followed close behind him like a pair of trailing goldfish.
“Team Leader, what did the doctor say? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. He said it’s nothing serious. I just shouldn’t do any guiding for a while.”
“So it isn’t guiding dependency syndrome?”
Gyujin paused for a beat at Kwon Dajung’s question before nodding.
“Just a temporary health issue. He said I only need to be careful for a while.”
“Thank God. I seriously freaked out because I thought you were sick. But then if you’re not around, I guess our team gets time off too, right?”
Gyujin stopped dead in his tracks.
He glanced sideways.
“You guys still have to work.”
“How are we supposed to work if you can’t guide us?”
Song Youngju stared at him with wide eyes.
His tone made it sound as though Gyujin were the strange one for not understanding something so obvious.
Beside him, Kwon Dajung added,
“We’ll all die without you.”