PARADOX 30

Hanseo couldn’t find a reason to refuse.

“Then I’ll leave it to you!”

There was no way he’d pass up an opportunity to boss around the Gu Jeyi. Hanseo sprang up from the sofa and headed toward the bathroom. However, even though Jeyi was the one who had brought it up first, he didn’t hear the sound of footsteps following behind him.

‘So, he hates being put to work after all?’

Hanseo stood before the sink. The man reflected in the mirror was wearing a smile that could only be described as wicked.

Clatter!

“…Mister Yeo Hanseo?”

At the loud noise, Gu Jeyi appeared at the bathroom door in an instant. The first thing he saw was the floor, where toiletries and toothbrushes were rolling around.

“Ah.”

Crouched as if trying to pick the items up, Hanseo looked up at Gu Jeyi with a tearful face.

“I’m sorry. I tried to do it on my own…”

Even as he spoke, Hanseo struggled to clear the rolling items. In reality, he was simply dropping them over and over as if he had no strength in his hands.

He heard Gu Jeyi let out a sigh.

“I’ll do it.”

After quickly clearing the mess, Gu Jeyi turned back to Hanseo.

“What will you start with?”

His resolve to get this over with as quickly as possible, since things had already turned out this way, was clear.

It was exactly as Hanseo had planned.

The bathroom was filled with warm steam.

“Ah, that’s good. A little more there…”

Shhhhh.

A languid groan mixed with the sound of water pouring from the shower head.

“Ah, don’t do it too hard. Gently—ack, that hurts.”

“…”

“Ugh, mmm… Ack!”

Hanseo let out a scream and pulled his head away from Gu Jeyi’s grip. Because of that move, shampoo ran down and got into his eyes.

“Ack! My eyes!”

As Hanseo agonized, Gu Jeyi redirected the shower head and sprayed water directly onto Hanseo’s face.

“…”

Instantly soaked to the bone like a drowned rat, Hanseo couldn’t suppress his flare of temper and glared at Gu Jeyi. Fortunately, his murderous gaze was adequately hidden by his bangs, which hung down like seaweed.

‘This bastard, was he trying to crush my skull just now while pretending to wash my hair?’

An irrational suspicion rose in his mind. It was a paranoid delusion that had developed after the day he almost died at Gu Jeyi’s hands.

However, his anger was short-lived. Hanseo soon reminded himself of his situation.

‘Act like Yeo Hanseo. Like Yeo Hanseo.’

The corners of Hanseo’s mouth trembled as they forced themselves upward.

“Thank you… for the help. I think I can do the rest myself.”

“As you wish.”

Gu Jeyi didn’t even bother to offer again out of politeness; he simply pulled off his wet gloves and left the bathroom. Hanseo stared at his retreating back with a suspicious gaze.

‘Could he have done that on purpose?’

But even if it had been intentional, he couldn’t keep being stubborn. Come to think of it, fully entrusting his body to Gu Jeyi was a difficult task for Hanseo, who had memories of being hunted and nearly killed by the man.

‘Being a boss isn’t easy either.’ Hanseo grumbled inwardly as he picked up the shower head with his uninjured hand and rinsed off the remaining shampoo. As he did, he suddenly took notice of his own appearance. The T-shirt he had worn out was soaked and clinging to him, making the fabric practically transparent against his skin.

…Surely the reason Gu Jeyi left without looking back wasn’t because of this?

Even to himself, he looked like a bit of a mess, so he felt a little embarrassed. Hanseo clicked his tongue and struggled to pull off his wet clothes.

After wrestling with them for a long time, Hanseo finally succeeded in undressing and turned the shower water back on, feeling drained. Only when the warm water hit him did his body relax a little. It was then that Hanseo realized he had been incredibly tense.

Then again, it was only natural to be tense when Gu Jeyi was holding onto his head. With the physical strength of an S-class Esper, he could crush a skull like a soft fruit with just a bit of pressure…

The mere thought was bone-chilling. Hanseo shuddered, then quickly pivoted to another thought.

‘More importantly, that Gu Jeyi… I’m sure his condition really isn’t good.’

He had let it slide because he was surprised when Gu Jeyi burst the snack bag, but looking back, it was a strange occurrence.

Gu Jeyi, who had awakened at the youngest age and trained at the Center since he was a child, was an Esper who controlled his power better than anyone. Yet, such a man couldn’t even open a bag of snacks properly?

It was the same just now. Unless Gu Jeyi had been intentionally trying to break his head, it was clear he was failing to control his strength. …But didn’t this not happen in the past life?

‘No, of course it’s different from the past life.’

The Gu Jeyi of the past life likely had an unstable wavelength as well, but if it had persisted for a long time, he would have grown accustomed to that state.

But what about a Gu Jeyi who had received proper Guiding for the first time in his life?

Hanseo’s face grew serious as his thoughts reached that point.

‘Is this… going to be okay?’

Through this incident, Hanseo realized for certain: the future he knew had already begun to change, and it would continue to change.

Didn’t that mean the reason for Gu Jeyi’s death might eventually not be suicide caused by a rampage?

For instance, if Gu Jeyi entered a Gate and made a mistake because he couldn’t adapt to his altered state…

Hanseo felt a chill even greater than when he had imagined his head being crushed.

Washing away his troubled thoughts with the water, Hanseo stepped out of the bathroom. He felt as though he had gone through a major ordeal, despite only having washed himself.

“Phew.”

Hanseo let out a sigh as he managed to pull his clothes on with one arm. Thinking about having to live like this for several weeks made the future seem bleak. If he was going to awaken anyway, he really should have been a combat class.

When he went out to the living room, he saw Gu Jeyi sitting on the sofa. He had his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

‘Is he sleeping?’ Hanseo stood on his tiptoes and cautiously approached Gu Jeyi. Until he stood right in front of the sofa, Gu Jeyi remained sitting in that posture.

“…”

For some reason, Hanseo held his breath and gazed at Gu Jeyi silently.

This was the first time since returning to the past that he had looked at him so closely and slowly.

The fair face, free of any blemishes, was perfect without a single flaw, just as people praised. Perhaps because even his breathing was faint, he looked less like a living person and more like a well-crafted sculpture.

The 23-year-old Gu Jeyi in Hanseo’s memory wasn’t much different from the Gu Jeyi now. It had only been two years, and high-ranking Espers aged slowly due to their superior regenerative powers.

However, perhaps because he had just finished washing up, his hair was a bit more curly than usual. It wasn’t particularly funny, but for some reason, he felt like laughing. The moment Hanseo let out an involuntary, stifled snicker—

Gu Jeyi opened his eyes.

“…”

“…”

“I-it might be better if you go into the bedroom and sleep. I think your back will hurt if you sleep here.”

“I wasn’t sleeping.”

Hanseo, feeling suddenly awkward, blurted out the suggestion, and Gu Jeyi replied calmly. There was no lie in his words. Noticing that there wasn’t a trace of sleepiness in Gu Jeyi’s eyes, Hanseo gave an awkward smile. Why pretend to sleep just to make someone feel embarrassed if he wasn’t even sleeping?

At that moment, Gu Jeyi stood up.

“It’s late, so you should go to sleep.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll sleep somewhere else.”

“No—why?”

Hanseo reflexively tried to grab Gu Jeyi’s arm, but Gu Jeyi stepped aside and avoided the touch.

“Do I have to keep reminding you about the contract we made?”

He was referring to the clause about not touching without permission. But right now, a contract like that wasn’t the important thing.

‘Where is he trying to go at this hour? Surely he’s not planning to enter a Gate again?’

He had just come out of a Gate after a week, but Gu Jeyi was the type of person who was more than capable of going right back in.

The problem was that if Gu Jeyi intended to do so, Hanseo couldn’t stop him.

Hanseo clenched his fist. He wanted to knock Gu Jeyi out to stop him if he could, but he didn’t have the strength. Yet, he was anxious about just letting him go.

“Then I’ll give you some Guiding. We stopped in the middle earlier because of the situation.”

He worried Jeyi might refuse, but fortunately, he sat back down on the sofa. Hanseo sat beside Gu Jeyi and began Radiated Guiding. The numbers on the watch slowly decreased, finally reaching 70% at a crawling pace. But from then on, no matter how much he focused and funneled energy, the number wouldn’t drop. It felt as if he were blocked by a giant wall.

The number had definitely reached the 60s before. What happened then?

Hanseo retraced his memories of when Gu Jeyi had rampaged.

And then, he realized what the difference was between now and then.