Kang Mingyu rolled his eyes toward the door. Someone had knocked on the Guide -only trailer, which meant it wasn’t another guide. Then it had to be a supporter or an Esper… Why now of all times? He had only just received word that the meeting was running long, so he didn’t think anyone would be looking for him.

When someone cautiously asked Kang Mingyu, who was glaring at the door with a sharp look, if they should open it, he didn’t answer. The atmosphere was so sour that no one dared ask again, and then the person waiting outside knocked once more.

Knock, knock.

“Excuse me, is Guide Kang Mingyu here?”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Kang Mingyu. He clicked his tongue inwardly and answered, “…Yes, I’m here. Who is this?”

“This is Esper Lee Jaeun. Our center director requested that you attend the meeting. You need to come right away.”

Naturally, the Esper was in charge of the field command. No matter that they were Guides, they had to follow the Espers’ orders on site. And this was an attack on the rebels’ hideout. For safety’s sake and for the mission’s success, Kang Mingyu, who had come as the Guide team’s representative, had to comply.

“I’ll be out right away.”

He spoke while taking in every expression on Seoh’s face. Seoh looked truly pitiful, enduring the pain while keeping his mouth shut. But with a face as ordinary as his, when he frowned he somehow looked indecently sexy. How should he put it… it was quite to his liking. And the way that smaller, weaker body trembled in front of him felt like watching prey. That pleased him too.

Only then did Kang Mingyu smile and slowly rise from his seat. Once the hand that had been pressing him down lifted away, Seoh bent forward, breathing hard and ragged.

“Haa… hngh.”

Looking down at him quietly, Kang Mingyu said to the person beside him, “Put some medicine on his shoulder.”

“…Understood.”

“Good. Then… see you later, male prostitute?”

Mingyu bent at the waist and lightly tapped Seoh’s shoulder. Each time he did, the hunched body trembled. Satisfied, Kang Mingyu smiled and opened the door before leaving.

When the door closed, silence fell over the interior again. But perhaps because the tension had eased, the atmosphere quickly grew more relaxed.

The man Kang Mingyu had ordered around pulled out the emergency medicine he had been carrying, looking somewhat bitter. If Seoh’s shoulder still wasn’t covered in medicine when Mingyu returned, he might be the one who got targeted.

With no choice, he opened the container and scooped out a generous amount of ointment. The wound looked pretty severe at a glance, so a small amount wouldn’t be enough.

The man approached Yoon Seoh, who was sitting on the floor, huddled up as much as possible. His shoulder and neck were covered with his arms as if to protect them, making it very hard to apply the ointment. And Seoh didn’t even know he was doing someone a favor. Frowning, the man was about to grab Seoh’s arm when Seoh suddenly leapt to his feet.

“Eek!”

The man nearby was so startled he fell flat on his butt. Seoh, not even realizing someone had gone down because of him, hastily opened the door and bolted outside.

“Huh? W-wait, that…!”

Behind the flustered man, people stuck their heads out and murmured among themselves.

“Oh, he runs well. Was that just an act?”

“His shoulder hurts, but his legs are fine, I guess.”

“Are his legs… really fine? He must’ve been hammered all day by Song Taejoon. If his shoulder got wrecked like that, there’s no way the lower half came out unscathed.”

“Now that you mention it, he did seem kind of stiff.”

“But is it okay to let him run off?”

“What, where else would he go except around here?”

“Fair.”

Ignoring the people who took it all so lightly, Seoh ran with all his strength. To others, it might have been nothing special, but for Seoh it was no different from escaping hell.

His shoulder, which had been slowly healing, throbbed and complained of pain. He had thought he would no longer be hurt, but reality showed no such mercy and kept digging into his weak spot.

When would he become numb to it? When would he get used to it?

…Sometimes, very rarely.

There were days when this life felt overwhelming. Today was probably one of those days. He didn’t have the confidence to endure a now-even-more-ferocious Kang Mingyu, so he wanted to hide somewhere, anywhere.

Moving his wavering legs with great effort, Seoh headed for a place where there were no Guides. If it was a place without them, anywhere would be fine.

He was out of breath.

Deep in the forest, the main base set in a wide clearing was wrapped in a shield created by an Esper. This shield, invisible from the outside and able to block attacks, also thoroughly prevented anyone from leaving the interior.

Seoh, realizing he wouldn’t be able to get out of the main base no matter how far he ran, decided to put as much distance as possible between himself and the area where the Guides had gathered.

Behind a warehouse of some sort, somewhere he couldn’t even see the trailers, Seoh found the darkest corner, a place no one would look for, and sat down while clutching his shoulder.

“…Ugh.”

The relief of finally getting away made all the strength drain from his body. He could barely keep his arm from dropping to the ground again and again, and only then did he notice his hands and feet were trembling. At that point, he gave up on holding his shoulder and wrapped both arms around himself instead.

Why had this happened? What had he done wrong?

Dedicated Guides had already existed as a system. And the Guide Center director had been the one to suggest it first. He had only chosen Song Taejoon because he had been told to choose, so what was the problem? No matter how hard he tried to understand why Kang Mingyu had acted that way, the answer was missing in pieces, leaving him only confused.

The moment he learned that Seoh had been hurt by Song Taejoon, it looked like something had snapped in his eyes… but he didn’t understand it. What on earth was going on?

If he hated it that much, couldn’t he just ignore it? No, honestly, he wished they would ignore him. Then he could live quietly, in a world of his own, thinking of nothing at all.

“…”

Come to think of it, that had been the case when he stayed in Song Taejoon’s mansion.

It had been quiet, more than quiet, and if he avoided Song Taejoon’s territory, he could be alone. Aside from the times he was guiding, he didn’t have to run into anyone else.

Besides, that man was not the sort who would do something like this while fully sober. There was a clear reason for his dislike of Seoh, so it made sense. If Seoh just endured for a little while, peace would come afterward.

“…I want to go back.”

He wanted to sit in the backyard chair and spend quiet time watching the clouds drift by. That hobby, that rest, that had lasted only a few days, already felt unbearably precious. The mansion had plenty missing, and it had been a prison for Espers, but even so, it was better than here.

He missed the cold but quiet wind. He missed the hard but warm floor. He wouldn’t ask Song Taejoon for anything more, so he just wanted to be allowed to stay there.

If he went back, he would change where he stayed. Wouldn’t it be better to move to the little corridor behind the kitchen? The bathroom would be close, the pantry would be close, and most of all, it would be somewhere out of Song Taejoon’s sight.

Even when he had been in the big room, the only place he actually used had been a small corner just big enough for his own body. It probably wasn’t even a single pyeong.

A narrow space might feel cozier than an empty room with nothing in it. There was the downside that it didn’t get much sunlight, but that didn’t matter since he would spend most of the day in the backyard chair anyway. He’d only need to go in briefly when it was time to sleep.

Yes, that would be best.

He tried to forget the pain by setting out plans of his own, and it was a pretty excellent choice.

After a little while, the throbbing in his shoulder eased somewhat. Turning his head as far as he could, he examined the wound. The teeth marks and the skin pressed by fingernails looked like they might burst into blood at any moment, but for now, it was holding.

He pulled up his slightly oversized shirt, and the shoulder wound was hidden. The bruising on his neck couldn’t be concealed, but this was better than nothing.

Leaning his head against the wall, he let out a breath of relief. But nothing had actually been resolved yet. The Esper center might still look for Song Taejoon’s dedicated Guide , and when Song Taejoon returned from work, he might need guiding too, so Seoh couldn’t hide forever.

As he rubbed his face at the bleakness of not being able to escape reality, he heard footsteps.

“…”

Scuff, scuff.

Rough steps dragging against the ground. It was the sound of someone deliberately announcing their presence. Seoh already sensed that the person was standing in front of him, and slowly lifted his head.

Then he met a pair of bright yellow eyes. Their pupils were slit like a reptile’s, and Seoh flinched before he could stop himself.

“I knew it. You really are Guide Yoon Seoh.”

“I thought there was no way a Guide would come this far, but if it’s Guide Yoon Seoh, there’s plenty of reason for it.”

But there wasn’t just one person. Someone appeared behind the yellow-eyed man and grinned. Seoh could tell at once who they were, and where he had run to.

Espers. And their territory.

A place Guides never entered carelessly.

But for the Seoh of the past, it had been a place he had to go. Because he needed Espers to lessen the pain. There had been quite a few Espers who had secretly received guiding from him, so there were definitely people here who recognized him. People like these.

“It’s been a while. You remember me, right?”

“Me? Unlike this guy, it hasn’t been that long for us. About… a month, maybe?”

Realizing it belatedly, Seoh let out a silent groan inwardly. From now on, he never wanted to guide anyone except Song Taejoon. It had only been a few days since he had made that decision. But these people had no way of knowing he had changed.

They were Espers he had once guided, weren’t they? He hadn’t been in his right mind then, so there was no way he remembered all of their faces, let alone their tastes.