“Excuse me? We’re not anything.”
“You let someone who’s nothing to you into our house while I was asleep?”
What?
This isn’t your house, it’s mine… The words rushed up my throat, but with Cha Gweonwoo standing there scowling like he was ready to snap, I swallowed them back down. No way did I have the guts to clown around in front of that face.
His eye tilted sharp and crooked, waiting for my answer.
“Do you normally guide other espers besides me?”
“Guide… what—”
“You’re not my exclusive guide?”
“I didn’t—”
“Mr. Kim Doweon?”
I didn’t guide her, you bastard…
He cut me off, didn’t even let me finish, and just fixed me with those fire-burn eyes. He clearly thought I had guided Kang Juhui while he was asleep.
Most espers don’t like it when their exclusive guide touches other espers, so yeah, he was pissed.
I was scrambling for how to calm him down when Gweonwoo spoke first, not giving me an inch.
“When it’s just the two of us, don’t bring another esper here.”
“I didn’t bring—”
“And don’t guide anyone else, either. Understood?”
He made a hard face, like he wouldn’t listen to another word from me. I was going insane.
You dumbass, I didn’t call her! I didn’t guide her either!
“And one more thing.”
He stormed toward me, closing the distance fast. I flinched back in step with him, but unlucky me—the wall was right behind.
If it came to it, I was ready to sink through the floor, knees primed to bolt, but Gweonwoo stopped short. He glared at my face from that sharp, knife-blue distance for a long moment, then spoke.
“Cover up that face too.”
Now this was just unfair. He was seriously yelling at me, not even knowing if he was joking or not.
“Look, Mr. Cha Gweonwoo.”
I finally forced myself to say it.
“I really didn’t guide her. It was just… we happened to be holding hands, that’s all—”
Explaining it out loud sounded even worse. Like telling someone “I didn’t steal your wallet, I just happened to be holding it.”
The more I spoke, the darker Gweonwoo’s expression grew. The legendary scowl came out, the one from before his memory loss, and it hit me so hard I groaned inside without meaning to.
Right. That temper wasn’t going anywhere.
The image of yesterday—him wrecking an entire training hall without moving a finger—flashed before me. My vision wavered.
Whoa, whoa. I steadied his crooked stance by pressing my hands against him, trying to placate the sunfish.
“Anyway, whatever you’re thinking, it’s absolutely not that. So please, don’t be mad.”
Without a word, he suddenly lifted a hand. Shit— I squeezed my eyes shut and threw my arms up, guarding on reflex. His huge hand and that furrowed brow, my body moved before thought.
At minimum, I braced to be tossed straight out the door. But nothing followed. Cracking an eye open, I found him watching me strangely, and then he spoke.
“Why are you so tense?”
Like he was carefully rephrasing Why are you such a coward in front of me? so it wouldn’t sting as much.
Embarrassed, I stretched my arms wide, pretending it was just a lazy stretch.
“No, I’m just tired… Do you have more to say?”
He shook his head, rubbed his brows with his fingertips, then suddenly turned his back. In the next breath, he stripped his T-shirt off right in front of me.
“…I should wash up.”
For a moment, I forgot where we were. My eyes went wide like I’d just spotted some grandpa jogging Han River in shorts and a tank top in midwinter.
It was the first time since becoming his partner guide that I’d seen his bare body, and holy hell—he looked like a Hercules statue straight out of an Italian museum, solid and heavy.
I’d guessed his build was good whenever I saw those shoulders under clothes. But this? This was beyond expectation.
So this is what an S-class esper body is supposed to look like? One swing of that arm and I’d be a corpse… Wait, so did that fellow esper even survive?
With those long strides, he vanished into the bathroom and shut the door. Only then did I melt down, sliding to the floor like a mango smoothie spilling off the table.
Terrifying…
***
Inside the bathroom, he either washed endlessly or decided to fill the tub and play. Either way, he didn’t come out for an hour.
“If I’d known, I would’ve ordered food later…”
While he was washing, my legs gave out and I sprawled on the floor. Still, thinking of feeding my esper, I’d crawled over and ordered the food already. Bad idea.
The meal had been cooling for thirty minutes.
I sat in the chair, turned to the food, then to the bathroom door, then back to the food. I must’ve repeated it a dozen times before the door finally opened. I pounced.
“Mr. Cha Gweonwoo, please eat.”
He glanced at me, toweling his hair.
“I’m fine. Not hungry.”
…What?
I stared at him, more shocked than at anything I’d ever heard. Me—the kid who only went to school for cafeteria food—couldn’t even process the statement.
Not hungry? How is that even possible? You slept through an entire day! If it were me, I would’ve woken up every couple hours just to eat three meals in between naps!
Was he still mad?
I studied him, but contrary to my worry, his face looked calm and clear.
“You’re not feeling unwell, are you?”
I asked anxiously. He dropped the towel over his head, pulled out the chair beside me, and plopped down.
There was a perfectly good seat across from me, so why sit right next to me?
Not getting it, I just fussed with the side dishes, shifting them around. Gweonwoo sat in silence, ruffling his hair under the towel. Drops of water fell to the table, so I gestured vaguely toward the bathroom.
“There’s a hair dryer in there.”
He didn’t even glance back, just grunted.
“Too much hassle.”
Drying with a towel looks harder, you asshole.
Awkward, I pointed at the fruit this time.
“If you’re not hungry, at least have some fruit.”
It was a crime to let fruit go to waste. These days the prices were like gold; buying it once took a huge decision.
“If you want it, eat it.”
That got my hackles up. Seriously? He thought I was eyeing his fruit? I’ve got pride, damn it.
“I don’t particularly want it.”
“I don’t really like fruit.”
…What?
First “not hungry,” now this. I was hearing things for the first time in my life.
Fruit had haters? Wasn’t fruit universally loved?
I gave him a grave look, worried he really was mad.
But instead of angry, he looked deep in thought. Concern got the better of me, and I ended up popping a slice of watermelon into my mouth.
“Hyung.”
Then he dropped a bomb. I almost choked, spitting out a seed as I turned to him. I was more shocked than that time some random old lady grabbed my hand at the grocery store.
Wait. Did he just call me hyung? Me?
“Were we really nothing before?”
…What?
I blinked. He rested his chin on his hand, humming low in his throat, gazing at me with a face weighed down by gloom.
“Then why do you act so nervous around me?”
“…”
“Did I maybe pester you by chasing after you?”
“…”
“Or wait… did we date and then break up?”
I wanted to die. Gweonwoo, what the hell are you talking about?
The way he looked so damn sure—like one hundred, no, one thousand percent sure—that he must’ve liked me before losing his memory left me speechless.
Chasing me because he liked me? Breaking up with me?
This guy was deluded.
Our genre was never that, okay? Who in their right mind would think it was? Why the hell did his brain leap straight there?
Before he went any further down that wrong road, I hurried to correct the signpost.
“No. Mr. Cha Gweonwoo, you hated me.”
Sir, wrong direction. This way, please.
I even waved my hand like a traffic controller. But he looked back at me with wounded indignation, like a soccer player who kicked the ball into his own net and then demanded why it counted as an own goal.
“Me? Why?”
…How the fuck would I know?
I was speechless.
It felt like dealing with a little nephew.
Eat your food. Why? Because it’s time. Why? Because if you don’t, you’ll get hungry. Why? Because you need food to live. Why? Why? Why? Why? The endless whys that knocked me out cold when my nephew hit age four and caught the Why disease.