TTOA Chapter 7

“How much are you going to pay me?”

“Pardon?”

“I mean, I have something to say about that matter. From what I can see, Seo Eui-woo is very satisfied with the Guiding, and doesn’t seem to have any intention of returning me to the 6th Residential District. From my perspective, that’s just annoying in many ways…”

Kwon Jae-jin popped the beef that Seo Eui-woo hadn’t even looked at into his own mouth and chewed. Delicious. The aroma of the natural matsutake mushrooms was excellent, and the perfectly cooked, juicy, and tender texture was admirable.

“From the perspective of ordinary people, Guiding Espers is no different from expressing affection. An act that should come from the heart can’t be forced.”

“Expressing affection?”

“Something like that. I don’t really want to explain it right now. Anyway, from the perspective of ordinary people, suddenly kidnapping and raping someone is a crime. No matter how different the perceptions and reasons, it’s a serious crime that’s hard to forgive.”

“Is that so? Even so, it can’t be helped. Jae-jin is a Guide now.”

A strange wind blew.

An invisible current, rising from below, pushed Kwon Jae-jin up.

The metal chair Kwon Jae-jin was sitting on defied gravity and slowly floated into the air. Seo Eui-woo was using telekinesis. And he was doing it with a faint smile.

“I know you want to cling to your ordinary life, but you can’t go back. If you tried to go back, you’d be brutally murdered anyway…”

As the chair floated in the air, Kwon Jae-jin’s sitting height also increased.

Seo Eui-woo followed the trajectory of Kwon Jae-jin rising.

Just a moment ago, he had lowered his head deeply to kiss the top of Kwon Jae-jin’s head, but now he raised his head straight and clung to Kwon Jae-jin’s face, which had risen to the same eye level.

“Jae-jin is a Mutant/Late-Blooming Esper/Guide.”

Seo Eui-woo gently curved his eyes and languidly licked his lower lip.

Beyond the gray eyes, which deepened without end, his abyss could be felt.

The exhilaration that had swallowed instinct seethed whitely.

Seo Eui-woo seemed utterly satisfied with every moment of contact with Kwon Jae-jin.

“Do you know what a Mutant/Late-Blooming Esper/Guide is? Espers or Guides who don’t awaken immediately after birth, but awaken later like Kwon Jae-jin, are called that. They’re considered uncontrollable risk factors.”

“……”

“Even Espers who haven’t completed regular education on time are all discarded, so there’s no way the state would keep a Mutant/Late-Blooming Esper/Guide alive. An uncontrollable Esper is just a risk to human society. Immediate execution. All of them.”

The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Seo Eui-woo’s voice, lowered, was calm but cold, and frighteningly threatening. Because he knew from the start that Kwon Jae-jin in front of him had no way to escape.

Like a predator cornering its prey, Seo Eui-woo leisurely sucked on Kwon Jae-jin’s parted lips. He savored it, enjoyed it, lightly detached himself, and whispered.

“How about it? I’ll let you out, so do you want to go out and get shot? Or I’ll hide you, so do you want to live as Seo Eui-woo’s exclusive Guide in my arms?”

At times like this, it’s painfully felt that Seo Eui-woo is a human being who has lived in a different world from Kwon Jae-jin.

The reason Kwon Jae-jin had been able to live in the general residential district, guaranteed safety, and attend university and work normally was because Espers like Seo Eui-woo were shouldering the dangers of crossing the line between life and death in his stead.

This reality is not known in detail to ordinary people.

If it were known, there wouldn’t be a single parent who would send their child to be raised in isolation as an Esper.

To ordinary people, Espers are just a group of professionals living luxurious lives with annual salaries of tens or hundreds of millions in the Special Residential District, celebrities who are more popular and have more buzz than entertainers, heroes of humanity who are born with destiny and are chosen… Roughly that kind of image. The media repeatedly shows only the appearance of suppressing creatures by using their abilities splendidly, as if blocking information.

“Are you asking me to choose between being an ordinary person or a Guide?”

A cruel choice was placed before him.

At first glance, it seems like two paths, but in reality, it’s one path.

“Of course, I have no intention of letting Kwon Jae-jin die as an ordinary person. I can’t send Jae-jin anywhere.”

In an instant, the surrounding air became heavy, as if it had swallowed a lot of water.

An invisible pressure pressed down on Kwon Jae-jin’s shoulders.

The dishes on the table vibrated and collided with each other, and the water in the glass overflowed.

“If you say you’re going to leave, I’ll just tie you up and lock you up here. Handcuffs… are handcuffs okay?”

Even without Seo Eui-woo intending to, the power emanating from him overwhelmed the surroundings.

Thud!

In an instant, the world turned upside down.

“Ugh…!”

His body, which had been sitting in the chair, fell onto the table, and his stomach was pressed down. Seo Eui-woo was lying Kwon Jae-jin down and placing his hand on his lower abdomen. A rough vibration spread in all directions, drawing concentric circles around the place where his hand touched.

“I’m going to gag your mouth and tie you to the bed. I’ll feed you myself. I’ll let you go to the bathroom once a day, right? I’ll put in a catheter for now, so don’t worry.”

Seo Eui-woo muttered savagely. It was a voice that seemed to be suppressing and swallowing the thrill that ran through his whole body.

The face looking down at Kwon Jae-jin from above was chilling. His hair, which defied gravity and fluttered silently, and his white, neat features looked truly beautiful, but his instincts screamed in fear.

Seo Eui-woo slowly pushed the hand that was pressing on Kwon Jae-jin’s stomach upwards. Then, unbelievably, the clothes tore along the places where his five fingers passed.

The white t-shirt was torn to pieces, as if it had been torn by animal claws.

“So… so… Jae-jin has to be a Guide. Living here with me as Seo Eui-woo’s exclusive Guide. I’m really, really, really desperate right now.”

Seo Eui-woo raised the t-shirt that was dangling like a husk. It was like peeling an orange peel.

Seo Eui-woo pressed his cheek against Kwon Jae-jin’s bare lower abdomen. Like a child who doesn’t want to have his favorite toy taken away, he slowly rubbed his cheek against Kwon Jae-jin’s lower abdomen, marking his territory.

“I didn’t really believe what other Espers said about Guiding, and I didn’t believe it at all before I experienced it… But this… it’s kind of good. It feels like I’ve been reborn.”

Seo Eui-woo’s expression twisted slightly.

His thick eyebrows furrowed crookedly, and wrinkles formed on his straight, smooth nose.

As Kwon Jae-jin knew, that was Seo Eui-woo’s sulky expression.

It’s the face he shows when something doesn’t go his way.

“Seo Eui-woo.”

“Like… like I’m addicted at a cellular level… I like it.”

Kwon Jae-jin wasn’t the only one whose common sense of the world he had known had collapsed.

Just as Kwon Jae-jin had his daily life taken away, Seo Eui-woo also had his daily life taken away by Kwon Jae-jin.

Now that he knew the blind devotion to Guiding, the cries of instinct, and the absolute thirst, he would never be able to return to the time when he didn’t know.

“I want you to the very last strand of my hair.”

He had finally found the empty piece he had been craving since birth.

Like a person who had been starving all his life and finally satisfied his appetite for the first time,

Like a person who had been suffering from insomnia all his life and finally satisfied his desire for sleep for the first time.

He’s desperate not to lose what he has in his hands.

“With how I feel right now, I can commit any crime or murder if it means I can just receive Guiding.”

“Seo Eui-woo…”

“It’s not a joke that I’m going to handcuff you and tie you up… Ah, secretly taking out and hiding Kwon Jae-jin, a Mutant/Late-Blooming Esper/Guide, is a first-class crime anyway.”

“……”

“But I don’t care. I won’t hesitate to do worse.”

Seeing Seo Eui-woo baring his white teeth, Kwon Jae-jin raised the corners of his lips and smiled.

For some reason, a slightly bitter smile appeared.

‘Was Seo Eui-woo making such a desperate expression at this time…? In my memory, he was just a terrifying and frightening figure.’

His chest became noisy. His heart fluttered and beat wildly, and his body muscles tightened as if his ribs were closed. The area below his solar plexus was heavy.

Kwon Jae-jin made an effort to swallow his true feelings and smiled. His jet-black eyes shone with a complex and colorful light.

“…Are you, um, done saying everything you wanted to say? Then let me say something too.”

Kwon Jae-jin wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and opened his mouth.

It was hard to even open his eyes properly because he was being crushed by the pressure, but he didn’t care. He gives a sarcastic look with a frown.

“Who said I’m going out to die? I’m going to be Seo Eui-woo’s Guide. It’s just that there are some conditions.”

With each breath he exhales, it feels like his lungs are being flattened. He gasps and barely stretches out his fingertips. Kwon Jae-jin’s trembling fingertips touched Seo Eui-woo’s nose.

Kwon Jae-jin felt around his nose and pressed down on the frowning area. To smooth out the fine wrinkles.

As he lightly rubbed and made contact, Seo Eui-woo folded his eyes horizontally and smiled, as if he felt good at the touch. He looks up at Kwon Jae-jin.

“Conditions?”

“First, money. I have to get paid for my work, right?”

The dry answer pierced Seo Eui-woo’s ears sharply.

Kwon Jae-jin said clearly once again.

“Espers receive annual salaries of billions of won from the state, so I have to receive that too. Seo Eui-woo, please pay me.”