← The Resurrected Guide Wants to Live Quietly
In her line of work she saw skinship often, and she’d had her share of heavy skinship during guiding herself — but those two had been… on another level.
Like a great beast swallowing a small herbivore. Yu-geon sucking and licking at Ha-neul’s small red lips and tongue, devouring and ravaging them. Lips clinging and tongues tangling so relentlessly that Ha-neul’s white face flushed red as dyed petals, panting hot breaths.
But Ha-neul hadn’t just taken it, either. He could’ve tried to escape the sadistically clinging Yu-geon, but instead he wrapped both arms around Yu-geon’s neck, leaned his body in, clinging — determined to guide somehow. His small lips worked against Yu-geon’s, and though Yu-geon’s thick tongue filled his mouth past bearing, his jaw moved as he tried to answer.
Again and again their faces tilted, lips overlapped. Lips and tongues rubbed with wet, slick sounds, and as time passed Ha-neul’s long lashes trembled and soft moans slipped from his lips.
His arms and legs trembled pitifully as the pouring desire grew harder to bear — a heartbreaking sight — while Yu-geon, as if telling him to lean on him more if it was hard, pulled him closer by the waist and chased down every moan Ha-neul spilled, claiming each one as his, swallowing them. Relentlessly…
How a guy who’d spent his whole life looking only at the long-dead Seon Yi-yeon had done that to a total stranger, she didn’t know — but after a "kiss" like that, no, a mucous-membrane guiding like that, a mishap wouldn’t be surprising.
It was very rare, but there were cases of imprinting from stage-1 mucous-membrane guiding alone, when feelings ran too strong. Why a guy who’d only ever looked at Seon Yi-yeon had imprinted on some stranger, she didn’t know — but it was the most likely explanation.
Of course, in that case the bond was looser than a "true imprint" through stage-2 mucous-membrane guiding — not permanent, and breakable if you accepted some damage. The problem was… Yu-geon’s condition.
Yesterday’s guiding hadn’t left him "cleanly" stabilized, and something today had frayed his wavelength even further. Forcing the imprint apart now could go badly.
Clutching her throbbing head, Oh Yeon-seo stood.
"Let’s go to the hospital first. First confirm he doesn’t show the rejection response to Guide Ha-neul, then whatever comes— Hiiik!"
In her haste she was babbling, about to head for the car, when Oh Yeon-seo’s phone rang.
Startled, she picked it up with an irritated hand, meaning to wrap it up as "something urgent came up, I’ll call later" — but her face changed when she saw who it was.
"Uh. What is it… what?"
From the flustered voice on, Oh Yeon-seo’s steps toward the parking lot quickened.
"Got it. Keep looking for now. Grab any nearby guild members and search. We’ll head over soon. Talk details on site." From the twisted face, the hurried steps, the anxiously bitten lip and expression. And from Oh Yeon-seo’s words alone, Han Yu-geon could infer what she’d heard.
He just didn’t want to believe it. It was too much the worst case.
"It’s… Guide Ha-neul has disappeared."
But when the call ended, the words he’d anticipated — and desperately hoped weren’t real — came out of Oh Yeon-seo’s mouth after all.
Chapter 4 Missing Each Other, or Meshing Together
Guide or not, his body was as sturdy and healthy as ever. Seon Yi-yeon recovered at an astonishing pace.
He didn’t yet know much about the recovery speed of ordinary people, but after resting for about two hours on an IV drip, he felt so refreshed it was as if he’d never been ill, and the follow-up tests came back with clearance to be discharged right away.
Of course, it wasn’t only because his body was young and healthy — he owed a great deal to the expert who had treated him properly. And not just any expert, but the person said to be the finest in the world.
Jo Min-young.
He had dozed off with Han Yu-geon’s big hand covering his eyes, and when he slowly woke, there was an unfamiliar phone lying beside him. As he fiddled with it, wondering if Yu-geon had left it behind, it rang — the caller ID said unknown, and when he answered, it was Jo Min-young.
—I told you. I’m monitoring how your body changes. As long as you’re in this country, consider yourself in the palm of my hand. No matter which hospital you go to or which doctor you see, your attending physician is me.
When Seon Yi-yeon left Jo Min-young’s lab, they had drawn up a contract and consent forms regarding the freedom and obligations he would be granted. After all, he was the only successful case of the "Esper Resurrection Project" in the world. Honestly, being let out this quickly was itself no small favor.
Given the contract, he’d expected his current physical condition to reach Jo Min-young one way or another, but he hadn’t expected her to step in as his attending physician and personally order every test and prescription.
Still, it wasn’t a bad thing.
She gave him lavish, expensive tests and treatments without stinting, and her side covered the cost — welcome news for Yi-yeon, who had left the lab with a decent settlement but had been worrying about the bill, since Yu-geon had put him in what looked like a VIP room.
He didn’t want to owe Yu-geon anything involving money. If he owed him, he’d have to repay it separately — and he wanted to avoid meeting him if at all possible. He couldn’t have been more relieved that Jo Min-young had stepped in.
—So, Yi-yeon, how’s your body? The IV should be about done by now.
"Yeah. I’m better. Thank you."
—Of course you are! Do you know how much that IV drip you got today costs? It’s one of our lab’s masterpieces! Guides and espers all over the world are lined up wanting it! Reservations are booked solid for the next ten years, but since you’re our lab’s greatest masterpiece, I gave it to you specially! So no more overdoing it — take care of yourself. You’re an enormously precious body!
"Yeah. I will."
According to Jo Min-young’s diagnosis, Yi-yeon’s collapse today did seem related to yesterday’s guiding.
After all, when Jo Min-young received the chart of the examined Yi-yeon, she sighed hugely.
—Wow, what is this? Did you try guiding a wall or something? If you pour out guiding energy when the other person won’t even receive it, it backflows. You could get seriously hurt, so be careful next time. Honestly, that partner of yours is a funny guy too.
A wall? Yi-yeon could hardly understand her words.
What did she mean, backflow because the other person wouldn’t receive it? If anything, he’d been so aggressive it had made Yi-yeon feel guilty. Compared to ordinary mucous-membrane guiding, the effect had been weak for how long it lasted, but that was probably just his own clumsiness at guiding.
Already unable to go along with her story, and now with "funny guy" added on top, Yi-yeon’s voice dropped.
"I did it because I wanted to. Don’t talk badly about him."
—Huh? …Ohhh. I see. It’s obvious. Hey — this wall-like guiding partner, that’s Han Yu-geon, isn’t it? He’s the only person you’d cling to desperately enough to wreck your body over.
"……"
Clinging desperately enough to wreck his body — for a moment he wanted to snap back in outrage, but it was true that he’d collapsed from the side effects of that guiding.
…If only he’d been a little more skilled at guiding, would this have happened?
His mouth tasted bitter. He clenched his fist to soothe his churning insides.
—Honestly, the more I think about it, the more absurd it is. The kid who swore he’d live quietly runs to a field site on his very first day at the Center, then collapses the next day. I wondered what he’d done, and it turns out the person with him at that site was Han Yu-geon, and he guided Han Yu-geon. And Yu-geon came to the hospital with him?
—You said you’d live quietly! Said you weren’t going to meet Yu-geon either! You marched out making big promises. Good grief, I don’t even have a chin to drop.
"I meant to…"
Hearing it put that way, there was hardly anything he’d said with his own mouth that he’d actually kept. He was mortifyingly embarrassed. It wasn’t even months since he’d left the lab — barely days.
"But I didn’t reveal who I am. And I don’t plan to."
—Fine, whatever. That’s up to you. As long as you don’t do anything rash during the confidentiality period, that’s enough. And I was going to get a report on your body anyway, plus I had something to tell you, so I wanted to call. This worked out well.
"Something to tell me? What?"
—Yeah. Looks like someone’s put watchers on you. Be careful. They’re outside right now.
"Huh…?"
Yi-yeon’s eyes slowly widened, his voice bewildered. After chewing over her words, he asked,
"You… didn’t put them there?"
The moment he finished speaking, a breath of disbelief came through the phone.
—Huh. Why would I do something like that? One phone call from me and every agency and official cooperates, anytime, anywhere. Managing people is work too. Hey, I’m a busy person!
"Ah."
Only after hearing her pour out those incredulous words did Yi-yeon realize how badly he’d misjudged.
In fact, not long after leaving the lab, he’d noticed eyes of surveillance on him.
He’d noticed, but ignored it. He’d assumed Jo Min-young had put them there, of course. The contract had said he’d be "managed," so he’d disregarded it as unavoidable.
But if Jo Min-young hadn’t put them there — then whose people were they?
—I don’t know who’s behind it yet… but there seem to be several of them. Be careful. Sigh. I’d love to just tell you to come back, but I won’t go that far, so just be careful.
"But why… me…?"
—Dunno. Nothing I can say for sure, but if I had to guess — there are people all over who hold a grudge against me. They’ve been waiting with lit eyes for me to leave the lab, and then you suddenly walked out, so they might have switched their target to you.
"A grudge? What did you do to earn one?"
—Right? What would I have done? I just did some experiments. When you do experiments here and there, someone might not like it. But everything I did was for the world in the end! They live off the indirect benefits and don’t even know how to be grateful, honestly.
"The process matters as much as the result…"
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