FETCH 18

The black pupils that had been staring straight ahead rolled over and landed on me. Tilting his head slightly, he then let out a sigh, “Haah,” and rested his chin on Jaechan’s shoulder.

“Honey, I’m hungry. They said they’re serving cold noodles at the cafeteria today. When are we going to eat?”

Jaechan froze, overcome by immense embarrassment. It wasn’t just a day or two that Han Kang had been calling him “Honey” in front of other people. But this was a workplace, wasn’t it?

Panicked that he was acting like this even here, Jaechan looked at the man, who also had his eyes wide open in shock. People inside the office were busy exchanging glances with one another.

Was it just an illusion that a momentary silence seemed to settle over the surroundings? Somehow, it felt as if every gaze in the office eventually ended up pinned on him. Jaechan swallowed his sense of frustration.

Jaechan realized he shouldn’t have been relieved by Han Kang’s usual behavior, but should have kept him in check much sooner.

He really hadn’t expected that Han Kang would continue this “Honey” business even at the Center. Jaechan tried to laugh awkwardly once more to brush off Han Kang’s words.

“What do you mean, ‘Honey’? What’s wrong with you?”

“Hon…ey? Are you two dating?”

“He’s just my Honey.”

“No, no, he isn’t. Kang is just joking. He’s like this often.”

Jaechan gave the same explanation he always did. Could there be any phrase as strange as saying someone is “just my Honey”? He added another awkward laugh that sounded strained no matter how many times he did it.

Whether he disliked the denial, Han Kang let out a lamenting “Ah.”

“Honey, think of how many times we played house. Even if we’d actually married, we would have done it a hundred times over. If you aren’t my Honey, then who is?”

There was no use responding to Han Kang when he used lack of logic as his logic. Having reached that conclusion, Jaechan gave Ji Sangtaek a bashful goodbye, saying they were going to eat.

He didn’t offer any answer to the dozens of gazes following them out. Those wide eyes clearly said, ‘What did I just hear?’, and it seemed even worse because the subject was Han Kang.

Leaving the office, Jaechan poked Han Kang in the ribs as hard as he could while the latter was grinning foolishly.

“Hey, are you going to call me ‘Honey’ at the Center too? This is a place of work.”

“And?”

“What do you mean, ‘And’?”

“Does a Honey from home stop being a Honey just because he steps outside? Once a Honey, always a Honey.”

“I’m telling you, that ‘Honey’ talk…!”

“Ah, I’m hungry. I wonder if meat comes with the cold noodles? It’s only the real deal if they come together.”

As if he had no intention of listening to the request to stop in the first place, Han Kang kept talking nonsense while stroking his flat stomach.

“Ugh,” Jaechan exhaled a long sigh, staring intensely at the back of the handsome head walking ahead of him. Jaechan was as used to Han Kang’s “Honey” obsession as one could be, but he still wondered if it was really okay to behave like this even at work.

Was it really okay?

While he worried about causing unnecessary misunderstandings among the people at the Center, a part of him felt a little good, thinking it might leave no room for dispute that he and Han Kang were a pair.

Well, whatever, I guess?

Jaechan puffed out his cheeks, thinking he didn’t care, and then made a strange “kururuk” sound with his mouth.

.✦ ݁˖

“Now, this is the guiding room.”

The glass door with the opaque film opened smoothly. Han Kang, who had been dragging Jaechan around here and there, showed him the guiding room with an indifferent expression.

“Oh, do you do guiding here?”

Interest sparkled again in Jaechan’s eyes, which had lost their vitality from walking so much. His eyes were even twinkling as he looked around the guiding room.

It was a space where there was nothing two people couldn’t do while lying down. On one side was a wide bed, and on the other was a small shower stall. Next to the bed stood a small nightstand and some kind of machine; when Jaechan’s eyes went wide because he didn’t know what it was, Han Kang explained quietly in an unenthusiastic voice.

“This is a machine that measures guiding levels. You keep a connected patch attached while guiding, and you can check the levels once the guiding is over.”

“Oh, that’s really amazing.”

Jaechan touched it while giving a reaction that might have sounded somewhat mechanical. The patches that had been attached to his own body when he first manifested as a Guide were connected to the machine.

Drrrk. With a small noise, Han Kang opened the nightstand drawer to show him. Inside, there sat objects that vividly illustrated what kind of guiding mainly took place here.

“Condoms, and this is gel. They’re only used when the Esper and Guide are of the opposite sex.”

Han Kang was perfectly indifferent while explaining, but Jaechan felt his cheeks burn for no reason.

Does this mean I’ll be doing things like that with Han Kang too?

He pressed his palm against his face as if he were catching a fever, but for some reason, Han Kang only let out a deep sigh.

“They aren’t used when it’s the same sex.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s no chance of getting pregnant.”

At the blunt yet accurate explanation, his mouth went dry again. So… that means Han Kang is aware of it too, right?

Unlike Han Kang, who was clearly showing his dissatisfaction, Jaechan felt a sense of excitement take root in his heart. The anticipation that he could finally move past the line that had always blocked them was lurking within him.

Now, there would be no reason for the physical affection they were so good at to suddenly stop.

Thinking that way made his heart start to race even faster. Perhaps it showed.

“Ah… Honey. Why do you like it so much? It’s annoying.”

“Huh?”

“Do you really have to do this?”

“…”

He thought it was okay, but it wasn’t?

Han Kang, his face twisted into a harsh scowl that broke his usually composed features, turned and left the guiding room as if there were no value or need for further explanation.

“Fuck, how much more are they going to link us together.”

At the words brushing past his ear, Jaechan also quietly bit his lip.

His voice, which had whispered countless times that he hated being linked with a Guide, echoed in his mind.

.✦ ݁˖

Jaechan followed Han Kang around without even knowing how the day was passing. Looking around the various facilities of the Center was quite draining.

Not only did he walk a lot, but there were so many eyes watching him; things he had initially brushed off started to become annoying as time went by. Even in the midst of that, Han Kang kept calling out to Jaechan, “Honey, Honey.” Recalling that, Jaechan let out a lamenting “Ah” and closed his eyes tight.

It had been a very long day. Jaechan tilted his neck, making a crack sound with his bones, and exhaled a long, sluggish sigh.

The gazes that followed every time Han Kang called him “Honey” were generally along the lines of ‘Han Kang actually says things like that?’ There were even subtle whispers.

He heard that most of the people wearing white coats were researchers working within the Center, and it was those very researchers who were giving him those less-than-pleasant looks.

After all, even the Center Director had called him a “specimen,” so it seemed he was known that way among them as well.

The first successful specimen of the clinical drug.

Or the first successful case of the clinical trial.

Well, it didn’t matter. I was the one who volunteered for the experiment to become a Guide, and those looks had no effect on me. Besides, I did end up manifesting as a Guide in the end. Now that I’ve achieved what I wanted, I had no intention of picking apart every single one of those stares.

Jaechan rubbed his stiff eyes and reflected on each of the spaces he had toured today. Han Kang had told him what this and that were in a very indifferent voice, but everywhere his eyes landed, he could infer what Han Kang must have done there, making his heart tickle for no reason.

Needless to say, the anticipation and pride that rushed in when he thought of it as a space where he would now live as well were immense.

When he dropped Han Kang off at the dormitory before leaving work, he reached out his hand saying, “Let’s do well from now on,” but for some reason, Han Kang just stared blankly at that hand. Looking at him with eyes that had sunk coldly as if he were deep in thought, he eventually went into the dormitory without a single word of response.

It seemed his mind was still noisy. Even though he had spent the whole day leading Jaechan around the Center, he occasionally hardened his expression and showed his displeasure as if the act itself wasn’t very enjoyable, and finally, he had let out a deep sigh upon entering the guiding room.

‘Do you really have to do this?’

The words Han Kang had said echoed in his ears once more.

Does he really hate doing it with me that much?

Jaechan’s expression sank into a calm stillness. As the Center Director and the Team Leader had said, he felt a bitter ache wondering if guiding between “friends” was really that distasteful to him.

He already knew Han Kang was the type to comfortably give his body to other Guides. He didn’t have to look far. Even in the Olympic finals just a few days ago, he had gone into a rampage, and it was a publicly known fact—even without trying to find out—that all sorts of guiding from the team Guides would have been mobilized to calm him down.

Just searching “how to guide” on a portal site brought up a mountain of documents uploaded by internet know-it-alls. Guiding methods were known even to civilians to that extent, yet it was so heartless of Han Kang to try and avoid doing that common thing with him.

They had shared kisses hundreds of times, and the days they spent sleeping in one bed holding each other were countless. There were many days when both their bodies were so hot that they rubbed their genitals together, and from that, there were often times they slipped their hands under clothes to grope each other’s bodies.

“…But you never go all the way, every single time.”