FETCH 27

It didn’t matter either way. Rubbing their groins together like this was something they had done many times before, and each time, hadn’t they stopped just before they both became fully naked?

Panicking and rolling his eyes was a routine that was getting old. He wanted to stop feeling miserable while watching Han Kang, who refused to cross the line only because Jaechan hadn’t been a Guide.

Instead of answering, Jaechan stared up at him fixedly. Han Kang’s eyes, upturned threateningly as if he were thinking of something, were pressing him, silently demanding, “Tell me it’s not true.”

But there was no way it wasn’t true. Jaechan nodded his head with a “Yeah.”

“There’s nothing we can’t do. We’ve done this much even before.”

As if playing along with Han Kang’s actions, Jaechan thrust his hips, prompting Han Kang to brush his hair back roughly.

Then, in an instant, Han Kang crushed his lips against Jaechan’s.

“Mmph…!”

A startled groan erupted, but only for a moment.

His breath was completely cut off by the thick tongue that pushed inside without giving him a second to breathe. It was their first kiss since he had become a Guide. Rather than the thrill of it, his breath grew increasingly ragged from the lack of consideration in the kiss.

The tongue scouring the inside of his mouth was by no means kind. Nevertheless, a thrill akin to a tremor settled everywhere that wet lump of flesh touched. Both the shrill moans scraping his vocal cords and his body, which twisted on its own, felt as if they didn’t belong to him.

Feeling suffocated, Jaechan hammered on Han Kang’s shoulders, yet he felt a sense of regret the moment those lips pulled away. Han Kang suddenly bolted upright. Whether he had realized what he’d done, he looked at Jaechan with a shocked expression, his pupils trembling with confusion.

Jaechan didn’t understand what the problem was now that he was a Guide. The act that always ended abruptly was the same again today; Jaechan shakily pulled himself up and faced him.

“Haa, ha…”

As Jaechan exhaled shallow breaths, his chest heaving, Han Kang spat out a curse, “Fuck.” Forgetting who it was that had been kissing him like a madman just a second ago, Han Kang gritted his teeth so hard they creaked and eventually directed a look full of resentment at him.

“Even like this… you say you like this.”

“Do you want me to hate it? Would you prefer if I said I didn’t like it?”

“Yeah. I’d prefer if you said you hated it. Instead of saying you like this kind of… slutty behavior.”

“Slutty behavior?”

He doubted his ears for a moment at the outrageous words.

A slut?

He felt a wave of disappointment, wondering if Han Kang had seen him that way all along. When Jaechan’s expression completely crumpled in offense, Han Kang let out a groan, “Ah,” and buried his face in his palms.

“Is that how you usually talk? Seriously?”

He never knew Han Kang was the kind of guy who lived with such thoughts and words.

He had prided himself on knowing Han Kang better than anyone, but he finally felt angry at this disappointing display.

“Do you just want to press our bodies together like animals with nothing but instinct? Does it really not matter to you to kiss and have sex like this between people with no feelings? Are you really okay with it?”

Jaechan didn’t know what Han Kang was trying to confirm by asking that.

In Jaechan’s mind, which part of what he and Han Kang did was like an animal? Even if it was dismissed as mere guiding, his actions were not such a light matter that they could be disparaged in that way.

Naturally, a surge of hot emotion welled up. His cock had already gone cold, and the air that had been heated and thick settled into a chill.

“Yeah, I’m okay with it. I came to the Center to do this kind of slutty stuff with you. Happy now?”

“No. What if I say I hate it?”

There was no need to listen to any more of Han Kang’s words. Jaechan simply looked up at Han Kang while wearing a deep scowl.

The expectation that Han Kang might see him differently once he became a Guide had come crashing down. Watching Han Kang refuse guiding all this time, he had endured it, thinking that Han Kang would eventually do what needed to be done when the time came.

But what? Slutty behavior?

Even thinking about it again, it was an unforgivable remark. Jaechan, his eyes wide and voice thick with simmering anger, retorted.

“What are you going to do even if you hate it? I’m a Guide, and you’re an Esper who has to receive guiding.”

“I don’t know about anything else, but I’m not doing guiding with you.”

Jaechan didn’t want to face Han Kang, who was talking nonsense, any longer. Jaechan instantly pushed away Han Kang, who was pinning him down, and stormed out of the room.

The guy was perfectly fine talking about being a husband or getting married, so what was the reason for only refusing guiding?

Ultimately, it sounded like Han Kang was saying they could play at their pathetic house-playing game, but nothing more, which sent Jaechan’s mood into the gutter.

It was fucking annoying, really.

Why was something everyone else did so difficult for him?

Through the gap of the door as it slammed shut with a bang, he heard a voice full of regret say, “It was much better before,” but he had no desire to open that door again.

.✦ ݁˖

Jaechan spent the entire week in a power struggle with Han Kang. Every evening, they had to argue over guiding; he would get angry seeing Han Kang push him away, then manage his anger while watching Han Kang eventually back down and receive guiding.

Living like that was quite exhausting for both mind and body. After having gone as far as kissing, Han Kang went back to demanding only contact guiding and wouldn’t permit even a light peck.

He simply couldn’t understand why Han Kang was refusing the guiding. Other people supposedly got along so well that they dated and even got married. Far from dating, every single day was like a war because Han Kang would practically have a fit over the slightest skinship.

Yet, when morning came, they stayed close as if the guiding war of the previous night had never happened. Perhaps because of that, every morning the teammates would let out a strange exclamation of “Oooooh.”

The reaction was the same when he and Han Kang walked out with matching bedhead, when they came out scratching their bellies, when they bumped into each other while sleeping and came out with matching lumps on their heads, or even when Jaechan forcibly carried the sleeping Han Kang out on his back.

And today, as Jaechan returned to the dormitory for the final night of resident guiding, he gave an embarrassed smile to the teammates who were still watching him intently.

Including the weekend, a full week had already passed. They had lived face-to-face for seven days, yet he found the gazes that still saw him as a curiosity to be absurd.

Were they perhaps keeping an eye on the fact that his guiding with Han Kang over the past week hadn’t been very smooth?

Was the handshake on the first day of his stay, just as he suspected, an attempt to test his guiding wavelengths? Furthermore, had they set this past week as a skill evaluation period?

He looked at them, feeling internally anxious, but everyone just kept smirking without saying a word.

What if I get kicked out of the Center because I didn’t produce proper results?

When his thoughts reached that point, his head began to ache. As it was, he had poured all his energy into dealing with just Han Kang alone, so the guiding for the other Espers had been handled entirely by Guide Shin Jieun, who had come in with him.

Since he hadn’t even had a chance to prove his abilities, he thought that perhaps they didn’t view him in a positive light at all.

“Why are you just standing there? Sit down. It’s the last night, so we should have a delicious meal.”

Only after hearing the words of the team leader, Kang Bichan, did Jaechan smile awkwardly and sit at the dining table. They had suggested having a grand dinner since it was the last night, and indeed, a massive amount of food that could practically break the table’s legs packed the surface.

Since they all had large appetites, their tastes varied wildly, so the dishes served didn’t harmonize in the slightest. Still, the fact remained that it looked delicious.

“But why are you all looking at me like that?”

When Jaechan awkwardly broached the subject, exclamations of “Oooooh” erupted again from various directions. He was well aware by now that they adored Han Kang in this way, but he was flustered because he hadn’t expected them to treat him the same way.

He scratched his cheek, feeling sheepish. At the same time, he felt nervous that the situation he feared might unfold.

Regardless, Han Kang, who wasn’t fully awake, was forcing his eyes open. Amidst the playful Espers, Kang Bichan waved his hand, saying, “Hey, now.”

Only then did the teammates let out low chuckles. Their laughter was quite mischievous, as if everything they’d done so far had been a prank.

“It’s because the kids find it fascinating,” Kang Bichan added.

Jaechan asked back, “I’m sorry?”

The teammates, who had grown quite close over the past week, had started speaking to him informally. It wasn’t a bad thing that the people who were comfortable with Han Kang felt comfortable with him too, so he had no intention of stopping their casual behavior.

However, the word “fascinating” was a bit strange, wasn’t it? When he tilted his head, Hwang Jinhyung, the second oldest in the team, added a few words with a slight smile.

“No, I mean, originally Kang wouldn’t let anyone into his room.”

What was so special about that?

It wasn’t particularly surprising. Hadn’t Han Kang, who had been whining about hating the dormitory, acted repulsed, saying the teammates didn’t wash and they smelled, and that he felt like even his room was being contaminated?

Besides, they each had their own rooms, so there seemed to be no reason to go into someone else’s room anyway. As he just blinked his eyes, another strange sound of “Hooo” was heard.

“I’m not just talking about not letting people in. That guy’s personality is beyond shitty. It seems like he fights with Jaechan a lot too, but in the end, he loses.”

Starting with those words, the teammates vied with each other to passionately recount the things they had suffered at Han Kang’s hands. At first, Jaechan was so surprised that he just listened to their stories blankly. He knew well that Han Kang’s personality wasn’t great, but he didn’t think it was to the extent that everyone would vent this enthusiastically.

However, later on, even accidents that happened at the dormitory unrelated to Han Kang were dragged in like a tail, so Jaechan lost interest.

It was fine that he didn’t want the teammates coming in; he could understand that. Han Kang, who had two older brothers, had suffered a lot at their hands. Naturally, Jaechan knew that Han Kang’s feelings toward older men weren’t very positive.

Still, they were his hyungs, so Jaechan wondered if he had been acting too defiantly toward them. He gave Han Kang a nudge in the ribs.

“How exactly have you been acting toward your hyung-nims?”

“Is it just a day or two?”

Han Kang replied nonchalantly as if it were no big deal. Pulling a whole box of boneless fried chicken toward himself, he split a piece to check if it was leg meat, then placed the piping hot, steaming piece on Jaechan’s plate first. Then he pulled the pickled radishes over and set them in front of him. It was an attitude that completely ignored the fact that the hyungs would have to stretch their arms out.

“I originally don’t really like sleeping with anyone else.”

At the additional comment, Jaechan turned his head almost 90 degrees to look at Han Kang.

“Then why do you let me sleep there?”