KEG 115

“Come here.”

I had nothing else to say, so I called out to Baek Yejun. Since he came over without hesitation, I pulled his head toward my chest and held him close. As he listened to my heartbeat, I wondered how I could control Baek Yejun.

It would be a problem if he attacked every time I made physical contact with someone.

“Don’t overreact just because someone touches me.”

“But….”

“Even though I asked for help, that was an overreaction.”

“What can I do if it makes me feel bad?”

I’m Baek Yejun’s trigger.

A ridiculous, dangerous weapon is activated by me. I mustn’t act recklessly. From now on, no matter what I do, I have to stay calm and calculated.

I hugged Baek Yejun tighter.

“Don’t do that.”

I wished he wouldn’t attack people without permission. I wished he wouldn’t demand praise through efforts I didn’t want.

Whether he knew what was going through my mind or not, Baek Yejun hugged me back and mumbled,

“You can only hug me.”

What a ridiculous request.

I didn’t even hug Lee Yuksam. I was the one who got picked up. So why was he taking it out on an innocent bystander? His definition of “hugging” was weird.

“It was just a touch with other people.”

I needed to set the record straight.

The biggest problem right now was that people’s lives were hanging in the balance because of Baek Yejun’s ambiguous standards.

“I don’t hug anyone but you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, other than you…”

Wobble–

“You son of a…”

Thud!

I felt pressure from Baek Yejun and before I knew it, I was thrown onto the floor.

He actually slammed someone onto a concrete floor. He must have forgotten because he’d been treating me so roughly, but I was just an ordinary person. If I fell, I could get a concussion or break a bone.

“I caught your head. I did a good job, right?”

Baek Yejun’s hand was cupping my head.

“If you hadn’t knocked me down, you wouldn’t have had to catch it in the first place.”

“But I still did well.”

“Yeah… you did a good job… Damn….”

As I stared at the sky, I absentmindedly ran my fingers through Baek Yejun’s hair.

I could hear him laughing. I was only stroking his hair. Did something like this really make him that happy? It was a sentiment I couldn’t understand.

“Hyung.”

I looked up at Baek Yejun, who was resting his face against my chest.

It felt like a signal that it was time to fill up the three minutes. I rolled over, laid Baek Yejun down, and climbed on top of him. Since his weight was no different from a normal human’s, it wasn’t that difficult.

I was a little surprised by how ordinary Baek Yejun seemed when I looked at him.

A moment ago, he didn’t seem human, but at times like this, he did.

What were these high-class Awakener thinking as they went about their lives?

I couldn’t understand it, so I just looked into his eyes for a while.

Then, I don’t know who closed their eyes first. I just felt like I had to kiss him.

So I pressed my lips against his. We shared our breath and revealed our vulnerable inner selves.

Our mingled breaths grew ragged.

Our body temperatures rose, and the atmosphere intensified.

Before I realized it, Baek Yejun had sat up and was holding me tightly.

He slipped his hand inside my shirt, placed it over my heart, and felt my pulse.

Then his other hand slipped in as well, caressing my body. A chill ran down my exposed back and stomach as the breeze hit my skin.

“Hah… it’s cold.”

He paused the kiss for a moment, and something [stolen content]suddenly slipped into my mouth as I said I was cold. It was my shirt.

I obediently took it and held it, and Baek Yejun kissed the area near my heart. While tracing the burn scar on my abdomen – the one he’d left – he sucked on the very center of my chest, where the medical staples had been embedded.

My body flinched at the pain.

“Does it hurt?”

I nodded.

“I’m sorry.”

Though he said he was sorry, Baek Yejun didn’t stop. On the contrary, he became even more persistent, as though he intended to inspect every scar carved into my body.

My nipples, teased countless times, were now sensitive even to the slightest brush of my clothes.

He’s an Esper; I’m a Guide.

There was no “guiding” in this relationship or these acts. They were just meaningless caresses and kisses.

It felt like three minutes had long since passed, [visit our site]but since no one checked the time, I didn’t know.

Just as the kiss began, it ended when it felt like it should.

This was what “three minutes of hell” was like.

It was a process of realizing just how far I was willing to allow Baek Yejun to go.

It was a process of forcing me to acknowledge how starved I was for human warmth.

The more time I spend with him, the more my weaknesses were exposed.

I wished the hospital ward would be restored soon.

If we kept clinging to each other, it felt like something would eventually happen.

***

The convenience store owner hadn’t returned by morning.

“Waaah! Mom!”

Kim Minjeong, the high school girl who worked at the convenience store, was clinging to Lee Yukchil’s arms. She cried her eyes out first thing in the morning. Lee Yukchil awkwardly tried to comfort her.

“The owner will be fine… Don’t cry…”

“Yukchil… I can’t live without my mom…”

“She isn’t dead yet. Why are you making such a fuss?”

The atmosphere froze at my words.

No one said anything. Then Kim Minjeong glared at me, and Lee Yukchil glanced at me nervously.

“Don’t you realize someone could die if this keeps up?!”

“What difference does it make if you cry like that?”

“You cold-blooded monster! Psychopath! Devil!”

“Yeah. Well, let’s just get going.”

Even as we argued, time was ticking away.

If they were really worried about the convenience store owner’s safety, we needed to act quickly, but Kim Minjeong eventually collapsed to the ground.

Lee Yukchil could have easily helped her up, but instead he sat down beside her, pulled a tissue from his pocket, and handed it to her.

“Don’t be hard on Minjeong. People don’t always live by doing only what’s strictly necessary.”

Lee Yukchil looked up at me and said.

I knew that too.

I knew that people did things that were hard to understand and frustrating.

But knowing something and actually understanding and accepting it were two different things.

“So, are you not going to go?”

Kim Minjeong raised her head and held up her cell phone as if she were about to throw it at me. But then, ​unauthorized copy​unable to hold back the tears welling up, she lowered her head and covered her face.

She seemed to realize how emotional she was right now.

“I… I’ve only been awakened for half a year…”

Kim Minjeong said in a voice that was on the verge of breaking.

A seventeen-year-old who had awakened as an A-class Guide less than half a year ago.

She was an ordinary civilian who had never experienced a battlefield and grew up normally under the protection of the state.

But so what?

“Since when has the world ever given us time to prepare….”

“Seongho-hyung! Wait a second! I’ll do it! Shh, shh!”

Lee Yukchil urgently cut me off and lifted Kim Minjeong’s face, which was a mess from crying.

“Minjeong, you stay and guard the convenience store. I’ll definitely bring the boss back.”

“But how can I let you go alone? Your wavelength is unstable…”

“I brought my medicine, so I’ll be fine.”

From the context of the conversation, Lee Yukchil was an Esper with unstable wavelengths fluctuations.

Not all Espers could control their wavelengths. There were countless unstable Espers who would die instantly from their heads exploding after using their powers just a few times.

“I won’t use my power. I’ll talk things through and bring the boss back.”

Lee Yukchil wiped away Kim Minjeong’s tears, helped her to her feet, and gave her a hug. The two of them fell silent for a moment.

“Looks like they’re dating~”

Baek Yejun, who had been lazing around at home with nothing to do and had followed me out today, saw the scene and remarked.

It infuriated me to no end how he kept chiming in with his silly comments.

“Should we do it too?”

“Do you want to date?”

“It sounds like fun.”

“Find someone else.”

I’m already struggling just to survive. what am I supposed to do with a relationship?

Besides, if I were going to do anything, I’d rather get married. If possible, I’d like to build a family with children.

“Aren’t I good enough?”

I looked at Baek Yejun for a moment.

Good-looking, overflowing with wealth, and a well-maintained social reputation. If I were to judge solely by objective criteria, he might be a pretty decent match.

But he lacked the single most important thing I was looking for.

“I want someone who’d be able to live well even without me.”

Someone who’ll eat well and live to the very end, even if I were to die tomorrow.

Someone who hates dying just as much as I do and would fight tooth and nail to stay alive.

Someone who, even if everything I’ve built and achieved vanished in an instant, could bravely start over from scratch.

Baek Yejun lacked that desperate longing for such a life.

He was the kind of person who could pretend to be fine and then suddenly disappear one day without anyone batting an eye.

“What you’re asking for is too hard, Hyung.”

Baek Yejun muttered softly in response to my answer.

Come to think of it, hadn’t I said before that I liked things that were “just right”?

A “just right” life and a stable person. Were those really such difficult things to find? In a world like this, maybe they were.

“That’s why I don’t wish for them.”

An ideal type is just an ideal type.

I don’t yearn for them.

I don’t even look for them.

I just live.

“Within my means.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Lee Yukchil, who had calmed Kim Minjeong down, approached us.

We headed for the “deliverymen’s” office.

‎

‎

It wasn’t too far from the convenience store, so we were able to walk there.

“I think that’s it over there. Should I ring the doorbell?”

The place we arrived at was a logistics warehouse converted from a defunct large supermarket located in the heart of the city.

The parking lot, which had been widened at the entrance, made it easy for large trucks to come and go, and the supermarket’s characteristic flashy glass windows had been covered with concrete and sheet metal. On the soot-stained ivory-colored exterior wall, the words “Transport Union” were written in rough paint.