TTOA Chapter 1
by Volare01. Kwon Jae-jin’s Second Life
A violent hand gripped his neck tightly.
The streetlights illuminating the alleyway shattered one after another, their lights flickering wildly. Kwon Jae-jin was shoved into the dark alley with his neck in a vise. It was a dead end.
“Keuhuk!”
His spine slammed hard against the brick wall. Before he could even register the pain, the man who had ambushed him placed his hand on his chest, pressing down on his heart a few times as if to check something. Firmly, firmly.
Despite the seemingly insignificant action, Jae-jin felt threatened as if he were pinned under the paw of a beast. He felt like his ribs would break.
“It’s you. It really is you.”
“Ugh, keuk… What…”
“My Guide.”
Guide?
Kwon Jae-jin groaned and stared at the dark figure. The dimly flickering streetlight illuminated the silhouette of the assailant.
He was wearing black combat fatigues, an outfit out of place in such a common alleyway. A leather harness with grenades and magazines crossed his thick chest, and a gun holster containing a pistol was strapped to his thick waist and thigh.
He wasn’t an ordinary person.
He was an Esper.
‘Why is an Esper in the 6th Residential District?’
He claimed Kwon Jae-jin was his Guide, but that was impossible. Jae-jin was an ordinary person living in an ordinary residential district, far removed from the affluent 1st Residential District. He was a working-class resident of the 6th Residential District.
And, of course, only non-Espers, those who hadn’t awakened as Espers or Guides, could live in the ordinary residential districts. They would never encounter an Esper, never even exchange words with one.
“E-Esper-nim… I think, you’ve, mistaken… Please, let me go.”
Jae-jin managed to say through the pain. His neck was being crushed as if his spine would break, making it difficult to even breathe. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him on his way home from a late night at work.
“No, I haven’t. No mistake.”
The chilling voice was a whisper in his ear.
At the same time, heated eyes drew closer. As the man approached, Jae-jin could finally see his face.
Surprisingly youthful.
In fact, he looked younger than Jae-jin. His curly hair looked soft, and his thick, dark eyebrows and slightly drooped, long eyes made him look a bit like a dog.
Like a retriever… a large dog?
Whatever he was, his appearance didn’t match the act of squeezing Jae-jin’s neck with one hand.
And Jae-jin knew who this man was.
“Shall we check now? Whether you are the Guide matched to me, or not?”
The first S-rank Esper. Age 20. Seo Eui-woo.
“Just a little.”
After the short muttering, more of a warning than anything else, the man pressed close, and his lips crushed against Jae-jin’s.
Kwon Jae-jin knew that Espers and Guides had a completely different sense of sexual morality than ordinary people because they Guiding through physical contact.
But just because he knew that didn’t mean he was okay with it.
Jae-jin was an ordinary man, and being kissed out of the blue by another man was not pleasant. It was only natural to resist, especially when trapped against a wall with his neck being strangled.
“…Just a little, I said?”
Seo Eui-woo frowned, questioning him after failing to make contact. Suddenly, the air around him grew ominous. S-rank Espers could pressure those around them without even meaning to. That must have been why all the streetlights had shattered earlier.
“Eu, euk.”
The sharp air felt like needles pricking his whole body. Jae-jin clenched his teeth even harder.
“Haa…”
Seo Eui-woo tilted his clear gray eyes upward. He looked at the sky for a moment, then suddenly lowered them.
It seemed he felt further conversation was pointless.
In an instant, Kwon Jae-jin’s jaw was twisted. He didn’t even realize what was happening in that moment. He felt like his jaw joint was being pressed and his mouth was being forced open.
Seo Eui-woo shoved his thick, gloved fingers deep into Kwon Jae-jin’s throat.
“Woo, keuek…!”
As Jae-jin gagged, Seo Eui-woo kissed him again.
This time, their tongues were definitely intertwined. Jae-jin thrashed and kicked Seo Eui-woo hard, but the man didn’t budge, as solid as a boulder.
As if punishing Jae-jin, Seo Eui-woo licked, rubbed, and sucked at his soft tongue, drawing out his saliva. Even as Jae-jin drooled, Seo Eui-woo didn’t let go. He sucked at his lips, then licked and rubbed his tongue again to make him drool, and then sucked it all up again.
‘This bastard.’
He must be crazy.
He should have known from the moment he started spouting nonsense about being a Guide to an ordinary person.
Was this the kind of man the media had been praising as the first S-rank Esper? Savior of humanity, a sunlit prince carved from light, all those ridiculous nicknames. Fame really couldn’t be trusted.
“Eukeuk, get off, heok… haa!”
His jaw was starting to tremble. His breath was getting shorter, and his kicks were slowing down.
Jae-jin was actually someone who enjoyed exercising, running every morning without fail and rock climbing on his days off.
Thanks to that, he was in better shape than most people. He had broad shoulders and a reasonably muscular build. He had never been one to back down from a fight.
But even so, he was just a helpless ordinary person in front of Seo Eui-woo, who made fighting his profession.
At some point, he started to feel a chilling fear. It was a terrifying experience to have his ordinary world invaded and to encounter someone to whom his common sense didn’t apply.
“Hmm…”
Seo Eui-woo, who had been sucking and biting at Jae-jin’s tongue for a while, slowly pulled away. A viscous string stretched between their tongues before snapping. Seo Eui-woo licked it up as if even that was too precious to waste.
“See, it works. Guiding…”
Seo Eui-woo murmured, his long eyes curving into a smile.
He seemed to be in a better mood than before. Almost giddy. And the way his monolid eyes crinkled made him look even younger. But Kwon Jae-jin knew it was all an act.
His nape prickled. He felt nauseous and his stomach churned.
It felt like being trapped in a narrow, enclosed box and being tossed around. A line of unpleasantly sticky sweat trickled down his back.
“You’re the Guide for me. To think you were hidden away in a place like this, no wonder I couldn’t find you.”
Of course, Kwon Jae-jin wasn’t a Guide.
He hadn’t been diagnosed as an Esper in the mandatory awakening test that everyone took at birth. Yet, Seo Eui-woo was saying that Kwon Jae-jin was his matched Guide.
His stomach… his stomach was churning even more.
He felt nauseous and dizzy, and now it felt like his outer and inner skin were being turned inside out.
“…Kkeu, ugh.”
Jae-jin slowly shook his head.
It wasn’t because of Seo Eui-woo.
Something was really wrong with him.
Concentric circles were spreading out from his heart, making every part of his body tense. His vision spun counterclockwise, and then everything went black.
His brain throbbed as if a giant gong was being struck in his head, and a high-pitched ringing filled his ears.
“What… What’s wrong? Are you sick? Are you broken?”
His condition was terrible.
It felt like a vast, mysterious, intangible force was stirring up Kwon Jae-jin.
His breathing grew increasingly ragged, and then it stopped completely.
“…Keok!”
For a moment, it felt like his heart had stopped.
No. Should he say he died and came back to life?
At the same time, his mind was flooded with a single thought, like a tide rushing in. Memories flooded back.
It was like watching a reversed death reel.
Death reels were said to be seen only when one was dying, but this was like a death reel seen because he had defied death.
So…
So… what this means is…
Kwon Jae-jin had already died once and was now revived here.
Regression.
This was Kwon Jae-jin’s second life.
Meeting Seo Eui-woo was also the second time, and becoming his Guide was also the second time.
The forced Guiding he had just experienced from Seo Eui-woo became the trigger, and the memories of his past life, his first life, resurfaced. Everything about how Kwon Jae-jin had lived and died in his past life.
“…Seo Eui-woo.”
Kwon Jae-jin widened his eyes and slowly looked up at Seo Eui-woo in disbelief.
“Were you always this young…?”
His vision blurred. Soon, his body lost its balance and collapsed. Seo Eui-woo caught Jae-jin’s unconscious body with ease.