KEG 89

“…Please explain the situation.”

I needed information to assess the situation quickly and take action.

Baek Yejun began speaking while holding me in his arms.

“As soon as we came inside the building, Kim Yiseung and Hyung stopped talking.”

I saw Kim Yiseung lying unconscious in the living room outside the bathtub.

“What about Lee Sangwoo?”

“Hyung, you personally handed him your phone and sent him off. Don’t you remember?”

I don’t.

When I realized it, the lights were blazing in Room 803 on the 8th floor where we were now. Had the mind control started the moment we got out of the taxi?

“How are you unharmed?”

“Only A-class skill or higher affect me.”

So he’d been watching all this unfold perfectly fine on his own. I nodded to show I was listening, then brushed my wet hair back to clear my vision.

“After you handed him the phone, Kim Yiseung suddenly tried to jump out the window, and you went into the bathtub.”

Baek Yejun said he had knocked Kim Yiseung unconscious in a hurry and then came to me.

“Why did you let Lee Sangwoo get away?”

“Because I had no reason to catch him?”

Fuck.

This guy wasn’t a true ally from the start. He was just a crazy bastard who stuck around to satisfy his own desires.

“Did I do well? Praise me.”

I stared at Baek Yejun, who was rubbing his head against my chest. I could see his damp, white hair clinging to his face where it touched my wet body.

“You already know how to get more praise.”

I brushed his white hair back.

“I’m afraid if I’m too nice, you’ll take it for granted.”

I grabbed the back of Baek Yejun’s head. His head tilted back, revealing his cheerful face.

I wonder if the world knows just how dark a side lies beneath that innocent smile.

“I praised you, so put me down.”

“Tsk…”

I grabbed a random towel from the rack and roughly wiped the water off. I discarded my heavy jacket and cardigan onto the floor, pulled off my zip-up tie, and walked out of the bathroom.

I had to chase after Lee Sangwoo. If Baek Yejun was right, he couldn’t have gone far.

I moved close to the window and watched the cars and people leaving the parking lot.

“Yejun-hyung.”

“Yeah.”

“Will you survive if you jump from the 8th floor?”

“Probably?”

I turned around and wrapped my arms around Baek Yejun’s neck once more.

“Jump.”

I saw Lee Sangwoo fleeing from the first floor.

I have to catch him.

Baek Yejun rubbed his nose against my neck, then lifted me up and opened the window.

“Don’t catch a cold~”

The late-winter February wind brushed against my wet clothes.

Whoosh–

Crack– Thud!

After falling from the eighth floor, Baek Yejun broke through the branches of a roadside tree and landed.

Even though I was just being held, I felt the impact.

A dull vibration slammed into my body like the resonance of a bell hit with full force.

“Should I carry you, or do you want to run, Seongho?”

“I’ll run.”

I turned my head and locked eyes with Lee Sangwoo. He was pale as a ghost and was clutching my phone.

“Come here, you thieving bastard.”

“Ugh, fuck…!”

Lee Sangwoo turned and ran away at full speed. He was faster than expected.

It was an unfamiliar street where I didn’t know the layout, so one wrong move and I would lose him.

“Yejun-hyung, drive him toward the back of the officetel.”

“Okay~”

Baek Yejun snapped his fingers. A small white bolt of lightning struck the ground right at Lee Sangwoo’s feet.

It wasn’t a direct attack, just a mild warning. That was probably the best attack Baek Yejun could muster against a human.

I wonder if it’s even useful.

“Ugh! Damn it! That stings!”

Lee Sangwoo’s escape slowed slightly. I sprinted at full speed and closed in right behind him.

When he sensed my approach, Lee Sangwoo’s pupils glowed yellow, and I could tell he was about to do something.

Crack!

“Gah!”

I launched a dropkick.

The solution was simple. Beat the shit out of him before he could try anything.

An Esper’s weight is the same as a human’s. If you collide with them when they’re unguarded, they’ll go down just the same.

Thud!

The biggest downside of a dropkick is the landing.

I landed the blow right on his spinal disc, but I crashed to the ground too. The wound from the knife stab completely reopened. I could feel the blood seeping out, then flowing.

“Yejun-hyung…!”

The pain in my hip from hitting the floor was excruciating. But Lee Sangwoo was already getting up and trying to run away.

I mustered all my strength and called out to Baek Yejun. I could see his face looking at me.

I lifted my shirt, exposing my stabbed abdomen, and said,

“Burn this spot a little…!”

Baek Yejun smiled.

Then he snapped his fingers.

The wound flashed brightly, and smoke rose along with the searing pain of burning flesh.

I clenched my teeth to stifle a scream, and after a moment, the bleeding stopped.

“Fuck… You’re dead.”

I grabbed the hem of Lee Sangwoo’s pants as he tried to run away. His pants were half-stripped off, and he fell to the ground in a pitiful heap.

“You’re the one who’s going to die…!”

As I my eyes met Lee Sangwoo’s glowing pupils, a noose appeared out of thin air and wrapped itself around my neck.

“Guh.”

Blood rushed to my head, and my windpipe was crushed flat.

I tilted my head back to clear the pressure, and pulled out the monkey wrench I’d stashed at my waist.

The problem with these Esper bastards is that they’re damn tough.

“Huh…? Hey, no, wait! Huh? Put that down…!”

“Hey…”

Clang!

I brought the monkey wrench down with all my might.

***

When I went back into Room 803, Kim Yiseung was hugging a pay-as-you-throw trash bag and crying. She kept repeating “Seolgi-ya” over and over like a madwoman.

“I’ve got Lee Sangwoo.”

I contacted Kang Taesan.

Lee Sangwoo, bleeding from the head, was sprawled out in the entryway of Room 803. His limbs were intact, and he was still breathing.

“Lee Sangwoo…?”

Kim Yiseung looked up at Lee Sangwoo at the sound of my voice.

I focused on the call. Kang Taesan hung up after a brief message that he would arrive within ten minutes.

“Lee Sangwoo…! Lee Sangwoo!!”

Kim Yiseung lunged at Lee Sangwoo. Just like a starving wild beast that [stolen content]had found rotten meat and was tearing into it.

A Guide, physically no different from an ordinary person, cannot kill an Awakener with their bare hands. No matter how much Kim Yiseung clawed and punched Lee Sangwoo, only a little blood would seep out; he wouldn’t die.

So there was no need to stop her.

Inside Room 803, the starving beast let out a long, mournful howl.

The blood and flesh shoved into her stomach will be digested in no time. As long as she lived, she would suffer from hunger once again. So this feast wouldn’t make her life any particularly better.

It would only help soothe the hunger for a brief moment.

A momentary satiety and a long hunger.

The repetition and cycle of it all.

I simply watched.

Because humans are not beings that reign over nature.

We are merely a single link in a vast ecosystem.

All the requests were successfully completed.

2.55 billion won.

The result of two days of working myself to death.

***

The moment I stepped into the front door, I was pushed against the wall. Before I could even take off my shoes, our lips met, and I couldn’t breathe.

All my complaints and resistance were swallowed up by Baek Yejun.

A desperate kiss.

When I felt my lungs constrict, I tried to push him away, but it was useless.

“Ha, fuck, just… go ahead and devour me…!”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

After completing all the administrative procedures and removed the spell from my face with a potion, my appearance was comical.

Stripped of my school uniform and clad only in a thin T-shirt, I was covered in blood and sweat. I looked like someone who had just finished a day of manual labor.

“Does this sight still turn you on?”

Baek Yejun slipped his hand inside my shirt and began to grope me. The sensation of his fingers slowly tracing my spine made my lower back stiffen with tension.

“Why wouldn’t it?”

His intrusive hand impatiently traced the scars on my back with his fingers, then scraped the ridges with his fingernails.

“It’s harder not to get turned on by Ha Seongho.”

“Ugh!”

His fingernails dug into my skin and carved a stinging path. Leaving nail marks on my back? I’d never been scratched like this, even during sex.

Thud!

“Just kiss me, asshole.”

I shoved his chest with my elbow. But the bastard, who’d only been pushed back a little, kept licking my jawline and kissing on my earlobe.

“How far can I go with the kissing?”

Baek Yejun whispered. His voice was lower and hoarser than usual.

“How far are you trying to take it?”

“Blow–”

Smack.

I covered his chattering mouth with my hand.

“Since when did people start calling a blowjob a ‘kiss’?”

As I spoke, Baek Yejun mumbled something against my palm. His hot breath touched my hand. I didn’t want to hear his bullshit, but the [visit our site]warmth tickled me, so I pulled my hand away for a moment.

“It’s okay to touch you, right?”

As if he’d ever asked for permission before, he’s just pretending to be polite. Take that hand off my back before you speak.

“I’m not having sex with you.”

“Haa…”

Baek Yejun let out a long sigh and rubbed his forehead against my shoulder.

“You said you’d stick to me all day…”

Shit, I did write that on his palm in a fit of anger.

Should I just pretend I don’t know about it now?

Unfortunately, since tomorrow was my day off, I couldn’t escape to the ward.

How am I supposed to get out of this situation?

Even as I racked my brain, Baek Yejun slowly pressed his lower body against my thigh. I could feel the heat and hardness beneath the fabric.

“Hyuuung…”

“I said I wouldn’t do it.”

“Then just stroke my hair…”

With the mindset of ‘just take it and get lost,’ I ran my fingers through his thick, lustrous hair.

Even though that was all I did, I was annoyed by the presence of his lower body, which couldn’t contain its excitement and kept pressing against me. I was also annoyed by my limp, exhausted body, which kept bumping against the wall every time he pushed.

Ziiip–

Baek Yejun unfastened his belt with one hand and pulled down his zipper. Then he took out his erect penis and began to stroke it.